unit formations?

[Red Harvest]

Proper Gander,

"Untrained" is used to make the formation a bit less regular (and "trained" to a lesser degree, with "highly_trained" being very tidy.) The "untrained" stat doesn't work quite like the name would imply--it doesn't make them green and useless. However, it does make pila release a bit slower, because the men don't sync up to throw nearly as rapidly. To get a feel for both effects, compare vanilla Scutarii (who have wide spacing and "untrained") to the "Spanish Mercenaries" sharing the same skin and animation, but trained and with tighter formation.

An untrained, very deep square with a looser barbarian spacing is what CA appears to have used in the screen shots, rather than "horde" which is awful of course.

[Red Harvest]

I just noticed a horde.tga file in a folder. It looks like a set of simple dots used as a template for the horde formation. So you might be able to study it and do something with it that would make a formation of your liking. (Although I suppose that if this is in use, the engine is drawing a circle of a given radius from the center of the pattern. Still one could draw a more or less rectangular, etc. that could be used in place of the horde...I think.) You might try creating a tga with another name copied from this file into that folder, and give a unit that formation name to see if it crashes or works. If it works, then you know how to make a new formation.

[khelvan]

Not all "barbarians" are equal. Many of the "barbarians" were well trained, organized, disciplined warriors. The formations will differ by unit, but at no time would we ever consider a blanket reduction of discipline by virtue of being "barbarian."

[Proper Gander]

I don't think that the barbarians were so dumb that they couldn't even form a line. More likely, their formations would be decent while they are static but, due to lack of discipline, they would turn into a 'horde' as soon as they charge.

its not really a questions of stupidity, more of mentality.

Not all "barbarians" are equal. Many of the "barbarians" were well trained, organized, disciplined warriors. The formations will differ by unit, but at no time would we ever consider a blanket reduction of discipline by virtue of being "barbarian."

well no. you're absolutely right. i'm talking about the lesser troops. like a simple warband thats been drawn in for battle. not professional warriors.


PS, unfortunately i can't edit tga's Harvest.

[Red Harvest]

PS, unfortunately i can't edit tga's Harvest.

Download GIMP, it is free and will let you edit tga's.

I've been experimenting with the formations and it looks like RTW will only allow you to change the horde formation geometry this way. Making a new tga name and trying to call it as a formation did not work, so the formation list appears to be hardcoded just like the units file description says.

However, you can alter horde to your heart's content. I stuck a blank area in the center of the file and that is precisely the formation I saw on the field. I could probably make it spell my name if I wanted to...

[Proper Gander]

thanks harvest! i'll look into it.

[Southern Hunter]

Speaking of formations, is there any chance that EB will implement a Quincunx for the early Romans? As a selectable formation I mean? Or even a chequer formation for a single unit?

Hunter