Serious Bug. Idiotic.

[Colovion]

>:(

I wrote a long post and it got erased. So let's try again:

Archers run away through the gates (there should be a "Lock the Gates" function to stop this) some get stuck on some elephants which like to get hit by arrows from the towers and they don't mind the archers being stuck on their legs, keeping the gates opened.

I have pictures:



Then I looked inside because I realized the elephants may want to eventually make their way down there when my Velites get there to ... push the elephants off the stuck archers. I look here and see something really stupid:



Yay - archers stuck in the hoplite formation. I got them out of this by setting the hoplites to loose - but they and the ones outside would've continued this until the timer ran out had I not done something about it. Eventually the elephants which were more than happy to get pelted by the tower archers until they tried to breach the gates - 5 of them were burned up by Burning Oil which was the only good thing about this battle.

This situation deffinately gets the:

WTF??!

[Soulflame]

I can't view the pictures, it needs a password to be viewable. Without the pictures, the story is a bit vague, but I guess the old bug of "tell unit x to do something, then unit y does it" is in effect here, along with some other bugs I've not seen (archers clamping elephants?)

[Colovion]

Fixed.

The thing I wanted to make clear was the following:

- The archers sitting running into the elephants/hoplites are going to do that forever until I move the units they're running into - the archers are routing.

- the elephants stopped moving right next to the gate...

[Thoros of Myr]

Also try attacking enemy seige weapons with yout infantry...oh dear... :(

[Jacque Schtrapp]

I keep having problems with bunched up hoplite formations. I always have to take them out of phalanx and move the units away from each other one at a time. This can be rather tedious and dangerous in the heat of battle.

[Soulflame]

Hmm very weird... usually hoplites make gaps for your own units. I had a cavalry unit who didn't want to go around a hoplite unit in a very dense ally, the hoplites still let them through.
Archers are just weird in Rome. They listen too late, without watching them they might chase fleeing enemies, stopping in the middle of your formation and proceed to kill a whole score of your men... I think I'll just stick to non-archer units, maybe a few javelin cavalry, but that's it.

Sidenote:
I notice this is Syracuse right? And you probably just started the Greeks. Why are you trying to keep the city? it's practically doomed since the Scipii just need that town and will eventually take it over, or it will just drain your resources since they keep sieging the town and thus keep killing a few men constantly. It's better to ship out that army asap and use it on Apolonia or against the Macedonians for a fast grip on Greece. Sell all sellable stuff in the city and move out.
I let only 1 unit of peasants stay in the city. They (along with the stone wall defenses) killed 250 scipii units (of the 600 that were attacking) I lost only 20 peasant before they routed.. could have gotten more if they didn't stop running all of the sudden.

[Morindin]

There are many bugs with pathfinding during sieges.

1. I had the same problem as you Col but in the opposite. My archers, outside a city, would try and run INTO the city every time the gate would open. I had them targetting the archers on the battlements.

2. Also, another seriously annoying bug is trying to move units inside a castle to capture a gate, from the ground.
I was sieging Rome and a huge enemy army was trying to get in from the opposite side. Of course, I wanted to keep them out, so I managed to just get a group of archers to the opposite side of Rome (id like to point out, Rome is MASSIVE). The army is racing towards the gates, my archers are standing inside the castle next to the gate towers, and they WILL NOT MOVE into the towers to capture the gates. At all.
They just stand there as the senate army pours into the castle.

3. Ordering a bunch of units already inside a gate/town to move anywhere already inside, and half of them move outside, blocking all the units coming in. You have to select units one at a time to move them around the streets.

[Colovion]

Sidenote:
I notice this is Syracuse right? And you probably just started the Greeks. Why are you trying to keep the city?

Well I turned aside the Carthage assault, I'm going for dominance in the water and just sitting back and letting the Scipii and Carthage duke it out - the Romans declared war on Carthage a little while ago. Then again I'm at war with Rome as well, but I like Carthage as an ally more than Rome. However, Carthage has yet to accept my Alliance. I'll just sit behind my stone walls and fight to the death, building a few units just to stave off their attacks. I don't plan on keeping it foreover, but if I could it would be much the better of simply giving up and consolidating my losses (though I may change my mind if they work me).

[andrewt]

I have the same problem with siege pathfinding. If I tell my troops inside to move somewhere else inside, they would go outside first before moving back in.

[Basileus]

Ive even thought about not playing sieges anymore, pathfinding is a big problem especilay with cav wich i usualy have alot. I will start to starv provinces out instead heh

[Soulflame]

There are many bugs with pathfinding during sieges.
2. Also, another seriously annoying bug is trying to move units inside a castle to capture a gate, from the ground.
I was sieging Rome and a huge enemy army was trying to get in from the opposite side. Of course, I wanted to keep them out, so I managed to just get a group of archers to the opposite side of Rome (id like to point out, Rome is MASSIVE). The army is racing towards the gates, my archers are standing inside the castle next to the gate towers, and they WILL NOT MOVE into the towers to capture the gates. At all.
They just stand there as the senate army pours into the castle.

You can't tell them to go into towers.. rather you need to move them past them. So if you are on ground level, order your unit to go to onto the wall next to the tower you want.
To capture the gateway, order your unit to go to the wall above the gate (this part is more raised then the rest of the wall). Once they have walked through the tower/are onto the high wall, the tower/gateway is yours.

The other pathfinding bugs I also had... the moving out of the city is particuarly annoying.

Well I turned aside the Carthage assault, I'm going for dominance in the water and just sitting back and letting the Scipii and Carthage duke it out - the Romans declared war on Carthage a little while ago. Then again I'm at war with Rome as well, but I like Carthage as an ally more than Rome. However, Carthage has yet to accept my Alliance. I'll just sit behind my stone walls and fight to the death, building a few units just to stave off their attacks. I don't plan on keeping it foreover, but if I could it would be much the better of simply giving up and consolidating my losses (though I may change my mind if they work me).

I allied with the Carthagians on the first or second turn. But the Scipii drove them of Sicily and then came after me. They came with a huge stack, besieged for 2 turns, then left. I rebuilt then after 3 turns they came back for another siege, 3 turns this time. Next I removed everyone from the town, except for a peasant unit I built (just so it wasn't an instantcapture. 1 year of trade is worth more then 1 year of peasant upkeep). They sieged for 3 turns again.. came back the turn after that, then smashed the gate and got it.. loosing 250 men in the process. I couldn't have possibly withold that last assault, as they had around 600 men attacking, and a similar stack in Lilabeaum (saw it with my diplomat, who died on Sicily in the wilderness ).
Maybe your tactic of sitting it out is ok too, but really, the Macedonians are a real pain in the beginning, so every help you can get is nice. And the family member you save from certain death is pretty good too.

[SirGrotius]

i have the same problem during sieges. it s very frustrating. i wonder if it s fixable? is this something that can be altered in a patch, or is pathfinding too large an issue to deal with in that medium?

[Morindin]

You can't tell them to go into towers.. rather you need to move them past them. So if you are on ground level, order your unit to go to onto the wall next to the tower you want.
To capture the gateway, order your unit to go to the wall above the gate (this part is more raised then the rest of the wall). Once they have walked through the tower/are onto the high wall, the tower/gateway is yours.

The other pathfinding bugs I also had... the moving out of the city is particuarly annoying.

I've done plenty of sieges now, so Im aware you cant order men into towers, but rather onto the walls.

------ = wall
xxx = my troops
outside is outside of wall, inside is inside.

outside

wall A.............................wall B
---------| GATEHOUSE | ---------
xxxxxx
inside

Select group X, and only X. Order them onto wall A - they stand there doing nothing. Order them onto wall B, they stand there doing nothing, order them onto the gatehouse, they stand there doing nothing. They run up to the little door at the bottom of the tower and sit there like a bunch of buffons.

[Soulflame]

Then you are right and it is a bug, since I never experienced that.

Perhaps there is just one overall bug which is causing this... since it always comes down to units not following orders, or following the wrong orders. In one battle for example I could not in any case get my group of horsemen to run unless I ticked them individually and said 'run'. Once they were running and I ordered another unit to walk, they would stop running again. After 5 tries I gave upand charged the town square head on with just my legionairres (instead of flaking with my cavalry as well).

There are just so many examples like this, and with everyone its just a tad different, but the basics (unit not follwing orders or the wrong orders) are the same...

[Colovion]

I allied with the Carthagians on the first or second turn. But the Scipii drove them of Sicily and then came after me. They came with a huge stack, besieged for 2 turns, then left. I rebuilt then after 3 turns they came back for another siege, 3 turns this time. Next I removed everyone from the town, except for a peasant unit I built (just so it wasn't an instantcapture. 1 year of trade is worth more then 1 year of peasant upkeep). They sieged for 3 turns again.. came back the turn after that, then smashed the gate and got it.. loosing 250 men in the process. I couldn't have possibly withold that last assault, as they had around 600 men attacking, and a similar stack in Lilabeaum (saw it with my diplomat, who died on Sicily in the wilderness ).
Maybe your tactic of sitting it out is ok too, but really, the Macedonians are a real pain in the beginning, so every help you can get is nice. And the family member you save from certain death is pretty good too.

Yeah the Macedonians have basically a full Cavalry army sitting in Corinth. I'm building my troops up and goign to assault them as they're penned into Corinth. Nowhere to run in a city for those horses