Another RTW bug...

[TruePraetorian]

I was playing RTW one day on Imperial campaign mode. I was the Brutii, they were the Julii (it was cival war). I set up my army after attacking Patavium from my Greek provinces. I set up my army how i usually do, (some lines fo infantry, cav on flanks, etc.) and pressed start. After about 2 min of us sitting there, i figured he wasnt going to budge, so i advanced. The second i did advance, my army started to move into a straight line. I don't know if it was never noticed befre or what, but i've been noticing it quite a bit now.

Any suggestions?

[Stuperman]

so the problem is that your army isn't moving in formation?

I'm not sure if a lot can be done about it.

if you pause it and hit sapcebar, yellow arrows appear on the ground where your soldiers are suposed to go, I think you need to unpause and repause for the marks to be updated if you issue new orders while paused.

[TruePraetorian]

Well, it is a mixture of both my units not marching to where they are supposed to and they change formation on me...ill explain it best i can:

i could line up say,5 legionary cohorts in a double line, separately placing 2 units of cavalry on the flanks. I press ctrl-a to select all, and click a position for them to move to. the problem occurs when i do this, the units spread themselves into the standard single line, no matter if i place the cavalry in a separate group or not they still line up

hope that was more explanatory

[Aradan]

After placing your troops in the way you want and finished adjusting their formation, just group them all and then move them as a group where you want to go. When you arrive at the target location, un-group them.

...Unless you are already doing that, in which case something is really wrong.

[TruePraetorian]

Yeah i've tried doing that too. i re-installed rome but it still does it, only about every 4-5 battles and i noticed a trend with archer axuillia, whenever i have them it tends to happen.i've tried ungrouping them but of course that is very confusing when trying to move formations..il manage thanks for the help.

Since we are on the subject (the subject i started) i was wondering if there is something wrong with my hoplites, also. whenever i am sieging a city and start advancing through it, my hoplites tend to pull out their swords instead of stay in hoplite formation, any help there? It mostly happens with the rear row of hoplites (in which i mean the rear rows of a column formation, starting at the 2nd one back)

Thanks

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi TruePretorian,
I don't think some of your issues, possibly including the hoplite problem, are technically speaking bugs. There is a line in the EDU file which, I think, effects a unit's ability to stay in any formation when moving around. However, I'm not quite sure if it means it's own formation or it's positioning after being moved. Sadly, you'll need a modders clarification for that. Hope this helps, sorry about my uncertainty, cheers!

[Aradan]

No, the 'training' tag affects the tidiness of the unit formation, not the ability to hold it while excuting tasks. Plus units have it to trained or highly_trained (best).

You haven't messed with descr_formations_ai.txt or descr-formations.txt, have you? Seems very unlikely that they would cause such problems, since it's just one formation that affetc the player's army and only when it's deployed, but just in case... Also, you could consider downloading Sinuhet's or DV's formation packs, apart from making the game much more enjoyable they will perhaps alleviate this issue too.

The secondary weapon issue is a known one, you'll experience it not only during assaults but also on open fields, for example when you order your spearmen (not in phalanx) to charge cavalry; they'll draw their swords (sec) to do it.

[TruePraetorian]

Oh well, guess ill just have to play with it..thanks both of you for the help Ill try that formations mod.

[PapaNasty]

Thats happened to me a few times.

Normally how I avoid it is, at the very start, group units together how I want them to be, then select ALL my units (even if they are not in a group) and use the formation "straight single line" button. After that, i deploy my units how I want them. After the battle has started, I can select all units again and move them as one, and they stay in formation.

Hope this helps, I dunno if its what you or anyone else does, but I normally find my units move into that straight line from the formations I set them to, if i don't use this method.

[TruePraetorian]

Thanks for the tip Papa, it seems to be working