Are there control issues in RTW whch need addressing ?

[Shahed]

Hi

Anyone noticed how the group formations completely make a mess of your army ? How you cannot move your army as one unit but must redraw the formation repeatedly ?

Ok sorry if this has been posted before but I'm finally into my 20th hour of playing RTW, so consider me new here ... but I seriously think that the battlefield control interface has deteriorated dramtically in RTW. I think there are many bugs with how the army reacts under groups. Some things from MTW/STW e.g changing face, moving whole army, controlling groups were MUCH simpler and worked MUCH better IMO.

[anti_strunt]

I've noticed how my little twits, well, skirmishing archers, always take their good time to notice the enemy cavalry bearing down on them from the front before moving out of the way, which counts as a control issue of sorts I suppose.

[Brutal DLX]

It's nothing new, old friend, I think all vets noticed that within the first hour of playing. It's best you don't group your army at all and just select all and move them. (Perhaps som MPers have found a better way by now....) I'm waiting for the patch and haven't played RTW in a month. But the siege battle are nice! ~:p

[Shahed]

Hehe the battles are indeed great.. I just started playing again, I played some few hours about 3 weeks ago and then...... zip.. no time. Hope this gets addressed in the patch, major click fest at the moment. Good to see you still around :)

[soibean]

anyone else have the problem where you tell your men to run, and the arrows show that they're doing run speed but they're walking? It has happened to me often in towns.

[Hetman_Koronny]

Yes, this happens. Try switching fire at will off - might help sometimes.

Indeed, battle controls are much worse in RTW compared to MTW. I recently played a battle and (almost ) suffered a painfull defeat when all my missle troops refused to obey orders. Don't want to get into boring details but e.g. instead of shouting at the enemy they would charge them (yes, they had ammo); or, if left uncontrolled for a second they would start running around the battle field without a reason, etc. It was the most annoying experience in the game for me so far.
Besides, I don't seem to be able to get a grip of using/managing reinforcements at all. It was the same battle as above where the reinforcing units caused total havoc in my lines.

All in all, I managed to win the battle but suffered huge casualties due to the mess...

[Didz]

The GROUP control was a good concept but has either been very badly named or is 'bugged'.

If the GROUP button is actually the MAINTAIN RIGID BATTLEFIELD FORMATION button, then it works fine as troops refuse to do anything which will break that formation even if you tell them too. But, it definitely isn't a GROUP button in the sense that term usually applies to arcade games like C&C.

Basically, it works fine if you use it as a means to get your troops into a standard battlefield formation. If you try and use it as a way to move troops rapidly from A to B you are in for a real dissappointment.

Personally, I use the Group button to get my troops into formation at the start of the battle, and very occassionally to restore order after a particularly chaotic engagement. Other than that I leave all my units ungrouped, especially when attacking cities as the last thing you need when trying to fight in narrow streets is a buch of troops trying to maintain alignment on their neighbours.

The skirmishing control option is a new innovation in RTW and personally I think its brilliant and don't see any problem with it at all. However, the Friendly Fire control is bugged badly and needs to be corrected. Missile troops should not fire into a melee or at routing enemy troops unless specifically told to do so, and when told to stop they should stop immediately not half an hour later.

[Shahed]

This ties in well with the Gates thread.

[HopAlongBunny]

Grouping is a badly implemented (or maybe badly named) feature.

I do use it for much the same reason as MTW; tells me roughly where the units are in the battle (r/l flank centre) but I have given up trying to give orders to the grp. I pause and give orders individually or to smaller grps selected with the ctl feature.

It is odd that in the latest game, they re-introduced a lot of the previous TW annoyances and took something they had done very well on and trashed it.

(deleted: less than flattering musings on CA's reasons for this)

ps. wb Sinan!

[Kanamori]

Yep, I've found these bugs to be by far the most irritating. What was wrong w/ MTW control? The only thing I like that has changed w/ control is the right click rather than left click to move and attack. W/ all the other changes, what were they thinking?

[ivoignob]

it would be nice if they turned the "missile first line" etc. feature on again. i used that very often in M:TW and it was very helpfull. i am still trying ti figure out how all the grouping controls work in R:TW.

[Shahed]

ps. wb Sinan!

Thanks :)

Wonder if CA is going to do something about this ?

[The_678]

I think that mostly the new control scheme is very good (especially after playing "clunky" MTW) discounting all the bugs. The new controls are good when they work and when all the bugs are gone it will be brilliant. I still think the old MTW interface was better though.

Generally the only time I use groups at all is when I'm attacking. I wil set up my battle line, group everyone the walk them to the enemy. Once there I'll ungroup a unit before he fights. Ex. I'm walking there get close, ungroup my missles tell them to attack and everyone else to stop. Once the enemy reacts I'll ungroup my infantry and move them, then when the time is right ungroup my cav to use them. Group does work really well if your using it to keep your battlelines sane durign a long march across the map.

[Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe]

Hi Sinan,

Good to see you around!

Ca is supposedly working on a patch, that, according to The Shogun shall be out no later than January 15th. Hopefully, that'll fix some of the issues raised here. If they can fix grouping, I'll be happy.

I also got to say that some of RTW control are vastly superior to MTW. If anything, right click to give orders is a great improvement over RTW.

Great improvement, great setback. Let's hope the setback will be fixed on the 15th.

Louis,