Idea - Shifting the Focus of a Unit's Attack/Defence

During many battles in the Total War genre I have come across the frustration of having a problem with showing my men exactly what to do. Largely this comes from the Unit spectrum where you can tell a unit what to do but largely the men inside the Unit will follow in a Flock pattern and won't go outside of that scripting to stick with their unit.

I believe that this system is very good, but can be improved upon very easily. This will increase the ability to manipulate your troops in battle and throw us Generals with absurd micro-management needs another bone in terms of tactical control ability.

Let's say you have a unit being attacked and there is a hole about to show in your lines and then on the other side of this unit you have a full block of soldiers simply standing there, waiting. If you want to fill that hole before the enemy gets through you have the option of effectively removing the unit from combat, making them shift over to fill the hole (while being hacked apart by the enemy) or trying to pivot the unit into position (while being hacked apart by the enemy). There has to be a better way to fill holes in the line with units in combat without having to sustain the casualties from units on the front line. Why not impliment something which makes it possible for those soldiers in combat to remain so, and have soldiers which are not fighting shift their focus to better support their mates?

It could be as easy as using the middle-click on the mouse scroll wheel, or alternatively, pressing a certain key on the keyboard while having the unit selected and then right or left click somewhere near the unit. After this is performed the unit does not stop attacking to do the action - those soldiers in combat would remain so, and those soldiers which are not performing an activity would shift their focus over to the area in question.

You could click on an area around the enemy's flank, some place inside your lines, and your soldiers would re-adjust their positioning to fill those areas. It would make it easier if when you click near an enemy unit and your unit is already in combat, the repositioning soldiers will attack automatically. LIkewise, if they are being redistributed to fill a hole in your lines they will plug the gap firstly, and attack secondly.

A lot of rambling, but hopefully CA will take a look and see if it's a plausible solution to losing dozens of soldiers when you wish to relocate your men - kind of an intangible Captain feature.

:balloon2: :bow:

This is a very good idea in theory, however even if the scripting could be writen so that the human player could use this feature their would no doubt be several 'unwanted features' that came along with it. In RTW I believe it it hardcoded so that you cannot seperate a unit in to sub-groups. But even if we could get it to work for the human player nearly bug free, it would be next to impossibe to get the AI to use the new feature. Even if we could get the AI to be able to use it, it would be even more difficult to get it to use it *properly.* This would give yet another added advantage to the human player.

Though if it could be done, it would make for a better multi player experience.

All i'm saying is that this is a good idea, but it is too advanced for RTW. Maybe in the future titles...

I agree with C.

While this concept is good, the coding requirements would add a lot of complexity to the battle program.

A easier to impliment and just as useful feature would be able to pre-hotkey formations. Need your men to turn into a 4 man thick line, Alt + 3. Need your men to Waterloo in a square, Alt + 2. A fast way so you don't have to drag your formations out manually. IMHO for multi so you can do insane crazy things.


I like your idea though. It'd make the AI smarter... or probably dumber. I think a faster way to do this is if when you click on an enemy unit to order it to attack, your units should attack the portion of the enemy unit you clicked on rather than dead center.

Absolutely. Sometimes the enemy's cavalry accidentally runs out the gate in siege assaults when they are redeploying, and the gates then close trapping a whole bunch of them outside. I try to attack those trapped outside with my own cavalry, and all that happens is they butt against the gate, RIGHT NEXT to the enemy's cavalry, who also keep butting against the gate (which won't open because I have a ram right in front of it by now) and nothing gets done, because the cavalry is trying to attack the centre of the unit, which happens to be in the city.

I would really agree with C but indeed it will add complexity. If anyone is brave enough and knows enough to try to code that into the game, I will personally give him/her a hug and a kiss. The realism is worth the complexity and the espressos drunk, IMHO.

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Originally Posted by bubbanator

All i'm saying is that this is a good idea, but it is too advanced for RTW. Maybe in the future titles...

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My ideas never deal with RTW specifically - merely probabilities of adding them to future titles. I'm not a programmer, they're actually just ideas I have every so often. I'll come across the idea, then post it - so usually these posts are pretty rambly <--- that's not a word)