A simple improvement

Loren · #1 January 1st, 2007, 02:48 PM

I'm currently playing LA Ermor. As others have commented, all the units that keep spawning are a pain.

I see what seems to me a simple change to the game that would solve this (and a few related ones) headache.

Have every province have a concept of routing. All spontaneously-created (perhaps even all new) units & commanders move to whatever adjoining province it points to. When they arrive in the new province they retain their new status so if it has orders they'll follow it also.

Presto: No more micromanagement hassles bringing troops forward. They would all walk towards where you wanted them on their own.

Shovah32 · #2 January 1st, 2007, 02:51 PM

But that might make LA Ermor a bit too tough, being easily able to get all their freespawns to a specific place rather quickly.

Meglobob · #3 January 1st, 2007, 03:05 PM

Anyone played warlords?

They had this automove in that game. It was excellent for saving micromangement, basically you could order the troops to repeat build, they would be automatically be sent to the province you choose, arriving in the same number of turns as if you had moved them manually.

Great mircomanagement saving and does not change the game at all.

Gandalf Parker · #4 January 1st, 2007, 03:35 PM

It also would be very "game realistic". Arent most of the units mindless that are being discussed? Routing (or just wandering) to other nations if there are no commanders present might be realistic. Altho on the other hand, there are usually considered to be PD commanders to pick them up.

It would save micromanagment for some nations but would make some overly powerful. Im not sure that the tradeoff is worth it.

Hmmmmm if the controlling factor was PD then it might balance abit. IF units are created or generated in a province and IF there is zero defence THEN they will rout to nearby provinces.

Evil Dave · #5 January 1st, 2007, 05:27 PM

I'd been thinking of something similar, and wondering if it might be less unbalancing/easier to implement to restrict it to "units gather at adjacent forts". This still removes a lot of micromanagement, and better handles what happens to uncommanded units. They just sit in the fort when the province is attacked, and flee if they're uncommanded when the castle is stormed.

PDF · #6 January 1st, 2007, 05:27 PM

I can't see how it can unbalance anything if it works by the rule (ie you need commander to carry the troops).
It'll just save mm so would be great, as would be waypoints for multi-turn moves, "armies" (multi-leader) allowing to better distinguish the groups by mid-late game, and several other things ...

Gandalf Parker · #7 January 1st, 2007, 05:41 PM

It would add quite a layer to the turn processing. Every province would have to be checked (1500 provinces) and then processed if need be.

PDF · #8 January 1st, 2007, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Gandalf Parker said:
It would add quite a layer to the turn processing. Every province would have to be checked (1500 provinces) and then processed if need be.

Why that ? Only provinces producing something plus having "route" orders would have to be processed. Only with Ermor LA you'll have *many*. And only you play 1500+ provinces maps

But I was not talking (like the original poster) of auto-moving the troops, just having "route to" orders working as long as commanders exist to ferry the troops.

Loren · #9 January 1st, 2007, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Meglobob said:
Anyone played warlords?

They had this automove in that game. It was excellent for saving micromangement, basically you could order the troops to repeat build, they would be automatically be sent to the province you choose, arriving in the same number of turns as if you had moved them manually.

Great mircomanagement saving and does not change the game at all.

Yeah, I liked that feature, although I'm not sure about it--it means the troops are invulnerable while going to the rally point. I think my solution accomplishes the same thing without the invulnerability issue.

I also like the autobuild--I would like to be able to assign a province to keep building the same thing until stopped. The queue helps but you still have to peek in now and then and you can't queue commanders.

Loren · #10 January 1st, 2007, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Gandalf Parker said:
It also would be very "game realistic". Arent most of the units mindless that are being discussed? Routing (or just wandering) to other nations if there are no commanders present might be realistic. Altho on the other hand, there are usually considered to be PD commanders to pick them up.

It would save micromanagment for some nations but would make some overly powerful. Im not sure that the tradeoff is worth it.

Hmmmmm if the controlling factor was PD then it might balance abit. IF units are created or generated in a province and IF there is zero defence THEN they will rout to nearby provinces.

What really bugs me is the spontaneously-created stuff. It's mostly mindless, although there's still the militia, fanatics and such. It's quite a micromanagement headache to make use of.

Two more things that have occured to me based on that game:

1) LA Ermor commanders should be able to control more units. You get tons of junk and a screenfull of commanders might not be enough to take a tough target.

2) When you order an army into water that has units that can't go into water, just ask *ONCE* what to do about it, not once per commander.