Questions/suggestions for programmers

[Hulaku]

A couple of questions from an avid newbie...

1) What is the order in which reinforcements get sent onto the battlefield when you call for them?

It seems odd that you can't pick which units to call onto the battlefield, and that they seem to come on randomly. I suppose that one might write this off as a result of fog of war, but even medieval generals could communicate with their units using riders and runners. In any case, the inability to pick reinforcements results in some really odd combinations of units on the battlefield sometimes.

I think this would be a great addition to a patch/upgrade -- the Reinforcements button would bring up a screen or popup that shows you all your available units, and you can pick who you want to show up next.

2) When you group a selection of units and ask them to adopt a formation, what is the central point around which they make this formation? And how is their facing determined? I thought this might depend on the location and facing of the general, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

My question is really this: what if -- for instance -- I want my units to form a missile-units forward formation at point X on the map? How do I do that most easily and efficiently?

In other words, it would be great to be able to tell your army: form up here, in this formation, with that facing. Instead of having to click-and-drag the units there one by one.

Is this possible, in the current version?

I notice a white flag on a stake when deploying defensively. Is this the marker for the formation? Is it possible to move this marker, then?

Great game. Thank you.

-- Hulaku

[longjohn2]

If you create a formation by just hitting a number key, ( or clicking an icon) they form up with the centre front of the formation where the centre front of the group of units currently is. The formation should face in the average direction of the units current facing.

The best way to arrange a group of units in a resonable formation, at a specific location, is to drag them out, then while the ghosts are shown, hit the number keys to get the formation you want.
Aluernatively, group the units, select the formation you want from the group formation icons, then drag the formation out where you want it. It should default to the formation you just selected.

[tootee]

and while dragging, tap once on the right mouse buttom once (no need to hold) will redistribute/rearrange the grouped units to equal rows of men throughout the group (something like i think).

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tootee the goldfish,
headmaster of Shogun-Academy (http://shogun-academy.tripod.com)
loyal roach of Clan S.G. (http://thesilvergazwa.tripod.com)
'Pa Si Buay Chao! Si Liao Ka Song!'
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[Puzz3D]

Hulaku,

What I do is make my whole army formation first either by dragging out small groups or using one of the army group formations. If you've made small groups, define them with hot keys. I then CTRL-A and group the entire army. While holding ALT, I position the entire army with left mouse click on the map and then rotate it with right mouse click. This method positions and rotates the army about what looks to me like the center of mass assuming each unit has the same mass. At some point before you actually engage the enemy, you want to ungroup the army and operate with the smaller hotkeyed groups. I'm able to setup and move my army very quickly this way. Also, if you have similar units such as two feudal knight cav on each wing, place the left one using the left unit icon and the right one using the icon to right. That way you know the left most icon is the cav unit on the left flank and the right icon is the one on the right. You can do the same thing with small groups and the hot keyed groups. Positions of units within groups is a much more difficult thing to sort out, but you can visit tootee's Shogun Academy site for an explanation of how the game places units within a group.