Quote Originally Posted by Cheexsta
With RTRPE, from my understanding we (by which I mean the balancing team) got around it by using the short_pike attribute. With the 1.5 and 1.6 patches, this attribute allows the unit to run as normal, while maintaining the rigid square blocks like the phalanx formation. I don't know how it would look with overhand animations (due to the rear ranks holding their spears at an angle), but IMHO our current solution works fine so far.

The biggest problem, however, is what we've dubbed the "spear push bug" or the "moshpit effect". If a unit with short_pikes has any secondary weapon, they'll drop their primary weapon and engage the enemy individually with their secondary weapons and will not maintain formation. The two formations, after they clash, would just mix together in one big mess (think of most movies of ancient and medieval battles). While it looked cool, it certainly wasn't realistic. The only way to get around it was to remove the secondary weapon altogether, thus keeping the formations intact. Which is bad news for your Hypaspistai and similar units where the spears are the secondary weapons...

Hope that helps.
It does. Thank you very much for the information. I did not know that in 1.5 the "short_pike" atribute could be used without the phalanx atribute and allow a tight formation still. One less hard-coded impedement to us.

Although the fact of the secondary weapon without phalanx still not working is detrimental to certain of our units, exactly like you mentioned refering to the Hypaspistai. I also noticed the effect you call "spear push bug" or "moshpit effect". It is indeed annoying.

Thanks again for the information.