How to corral the MTW2 interface?

I like the concept of MTW2, but I have been playing Civ4 too long.

I cannot find any way to make MTW2, only show me the armies and the cities that need attention, THIS turn.

In Civ, you can put an army to sleep. And otherwise cycle through stacks that need orders.

In MTW2, there is no rhyme or reason... you have dozens of stacks and if you try to cycle through them, it always starts with the king and cycles through every stack you have. wth.

In theory you can use a right click to bring up armies and agents.

But in practice you have to bring it up over and over and over, to make sure you haven't missed anyone. Any time you move anyone, your place in the list is lost, and even - wth - the list rearranges each time. Am I missing something, or is this gamer hell.

Will someone please let me know if there is a way to see only the people that need attention each turn. This is with vanilla MTW2.

Thanks

RedKnight

There's no way of doing what you wish that I know of.

But if you find tedious giving orders turn by turn, know that you can set multiple-turn paths for your armies/agents but run the risk by doing so that they'll be blocked on the map with movement still remaining, something you can go around when doing moves manually...

Ok thanks Tristan, at least now I know I'm not missing anything. It didn't sound like something that a mod could take care of, but maybe a new expansion pack could have.

Apologies for the rant... I guess I'm spoiled by Civ.

Still, I really hope the Total War franchise will institute an orderly way of handling units in the future. Each turn would be SO much faster, at least for me... and I wouldn't miss units that had no orders, in all the shuffling.

I'm often called away from the game, and then can't remember exactly where I was... and wind up going through the agent and army lists again and again, even if I probably already have.

Anyway, thanks for responding. I love the game - I just wish units were ultra easy to review each turn, like they are in Civ.

P.S. You've got a very cool signature!

The only advice I can give you is to use the lists, so you're not going over the same units over and over again. They also tell you which settlements aren't currently building/recruiting, which seems related to your problem.

Um, well, I do use the lists. They're not too bad for armies, although it's annoying that it closes every time I move somebody, then I have to re-open it again, and sort it alphabetically again.

Cities are not so bad, but would be much easier if their list showed the tax level (low to high). Every few turns I go through the list exhaustively to check their tax level and number of troops; otherwise I only check the ones not building anything each turn.

But it's real annoying for agents. I would like to, e.g., see all my assasins, so I can move them all at the same time, usuually. If I sort on Type of Agent, the assasins are not in any order... and their order actually changes any time I then move one, and then bring up the list and sort on Type again.

Same thing for the other types of agents. Merchants and priests are not bad, since most merchants are camping out. Priests don't move a lot and/or move in big obvious groups when they do.

But going through all assasins and spies can be extremely tedious, bringing up the list and re-sorting it by Type, over and over and over again, until I am sure I have moved every single one.

All in all, processing a turn can sometimes take me an hour to make a turn (not counting battles), particularly if I get distracted away a time or three and forget just where I was (as happens often enough). This is at about turn 110 in the main campaign and I own maybe a third of the map.

It would only take a few minutes (not counting battles), regardless of me being distracted away, if it had a Civ-like ability to only cycle through units awaiting orders (and drop them from the cycle once you gave orders). (And some units can be put to sleep so they don't show up in the cycle, like camping merchants and "mayor" generals.)

Anyway. Thanks for the feedback, folks. At least I know I'm not missing anything... and the game is still definitely worth playing!