Antaeus
Squire
For the most part, I play on a laptop, so to prevent throttling I have to limit battle sizes. 600 is my sweet spot, but as it's summer where I am and it tops 100°F... the sweet spot drops as low as 400 if I really must play on a hot day. There is no aircon strong enough for an XPS in an Australian summer.
I have both questions and discussion points...
The archer dilemma
In a battle where each side has 1000+ units... if I get the upper hand and make slaughter of mine enemies, I will invariably run out of arrows long before my archers are killed (and replaced with fresh reinforcements) and long before the enemy army has been vanquished. So I often run into the situation where I kill so many enemies that I run out of arrows, and their reinforcements come fresh with new arrows for which I now have no answer for. What I end up doing in worst case scenarios is just waiting until I have no arrows left and retreating out of the battle to start fresh - sometimes 3 or 4 times with a large battle. What would solve this would be if we could rotate out our troops - Retreat our exhausted archers and have reinforcement archers spawn.
The drip feed of death
As a general I hand craft my personal party, and the parties in my faction with the finest quality recruits. I come to the field with Legionaries (metaphorically - I'll bring the best I can afford). But as I add other nobles to my army, they bring recruits, militia, peasants and looters. Naturally, if I was to make a battle line, it would be legionaries to the front, recruits in behind so they survive long enough to upgrade. But in a limited battle size, if I bring 100 legionaries to the battle, when the battle loads I'll end up with 98 recruits and 2 legionaries, and my legionary reinforcements will be fed in a small handful at a time - leading to an unacceptable attrition rate amongst both recruits and legionaries. What is the calculation that decides what forces initially spawn? and the order they spawn thereafter in a limited battle?
Where did I leave my horse?
Occasionally find when I bring an army that is 30% horse archers, it will initially spawn with 2 individual horse archers at the start of battle out of maybe 300 units on the field - in no way the right percentage, and my enemy might start with an army of 10% horse archers and start with all their 40 - in this example leading to an Asari death blob circling around my almost cavalry free Khuzait recruits in spite of the initial make up of the armies. So I'm unsure of this spawning ratio. What is the basis for initial armies at the start of a limited battle? Is it percentage of your forces, or percentage of all forces (including enemy)? or is it some other mechanic? Is there some reliable way of ensuring you arrive on the field with adequate variety of forces?
The chaos
I have no other way of describing it. If you gain the upper hand in the opening stages of a battle, enemy reinforcements come thick and fast. But if you're far from their spawn, they tend to all run towards you as individuals. If they're on the offensive, it leads to a scenario where you scan the map in front of you and see hundreds of soldiers scattered across the map with no cohesion. Their infantry all charge your line individually to their doom. On the other hand their archers end up scattered in front of you surprisingly effectively as they're so separated that there's no chance of area of effect catching them and you end up being shot at from all across the map. I'm not sure why this happens, as the enemy units should theoretically be joining existing formations, but when those formations are largely broken up, they just seem to stream across the map.
Defending wins every time.
Battles of limited size can sometimes end up like capture the flag fights. Where there is a distinct advantage to turtling or camping on your spawning point and letting/encouraging your enemy coming to you. Now if only your allied army would do the same thing. If only I could send a messenger to my allied general over there who is running off towards the full strength of the enemy with his 50 recruits. No, one does not communicate with allied armies. No. On the other hand, if an allied commander retreats back up a hill from their spawn, it either leaves you exposed if you don't retreat as well, or your reinforcements exposed in front of your line if you do. Wouldn't it be nice if we could set an initial posture with friendly armies who join the battle, or to know what their initial posture was so we can decline the fight if we think they're idiots. Allied armies should never reposition behind their spawn point. Better yet, respawn points should be at the back of the map.
This thread isn't about whether it is good or bad to have limited battles. It's a great way to allow people who either can't afford (or in my case are not justified in buying) a gaming rig to play the game. Rather, this thread is about how the mechanic works - how it chooses which soldiers to give you and when. And how it affects AI armies. And if possible, to discuss positive solutions to common issues that might be feasible to improve within the current development timeline.
That's about it for now. Feel free to be constructive... advice welcome.
I have both questions and discussion points...
The archer dilemma
In a battle where each side has 1000+ units... if I get the upper hand and make slaughter of mine enemies, I will invariably run out of arrows long before my archers are killed (and replaced with fresh reinforcements) and long before the enemy army has been vanquished. So I often run into the situation where I kill so many enemies that I run out of arrows, and their reinforcements come fresh with new arrows for which I now have no answer for. What I end up doing in worst case scenarios is just waiting until I have no arrows left and retreating out of the battle to start fresh - sometimes 3 or 4 times with a large battle. What would solve this would be if we could rotate out our troops - Retreat our exhausted archers and have reinforcement archers spawn.
The drip feed of death
As a general I hand craft my personal party, and the parties in my faction with the finest quality recruits. I come to the field with Legionaries (metaphorically - I'll bring the best I can afford). But as I add other nobles to my army, they bring recruits, militia, peasants and looters. Naturally, if I was to make a battle line, it would be legionaries to the front, recruits in behind so they survive long enough to upgrade. But in a limited battle size, if I bring 100 legionaries to the battle, when the battle loads I'll end up with 98 recruits and 2 legionaries, and my legionary reinforcements will be fed in a small handful at a time - leading to an unacceptable attrition rate amongst both recruits and legionaries. What is the calculation that decides what forces initially spawn? and the order they spawn thereafter in a limited battle?
Where did I leave my horse?
Occasionally find when I bring an army that is 30% horse archers, it will initially spawn with 2 individual horse archers at the start of battle out of maybe 300 units on the field - in no way the right percentage, and my enemy might start with an army of 10% horse archers and start with all their 40 - in this example leading to an Asari death blob circling around my almost cavalry free Khuzait recruits in spite of the initial make up of the armies. So I'm unsure of this spawning ratio. What is the basis for initial armies at the start of a limited battle? Is it percentage of your forces, or percentage of all forces (including enemy)? or is it some other mechanic? Is there some reliable way of ensuring you arrive on the field with adequate variety of forces?
The chaos
I have no other way of describing it. If you gain the upper hand in the opening stages of a battle, enemy reinforcements come thick and fast. But if you're far from their spawn, they tend to all run towards you as individuals. If they're on the offensive, it leads to a scenario where you scan the map in front of you and see hundreds of soldiers scattered across the map with no cohesion. Their infantry all charge your line individually to their doom. On the other hand their archers end up scattered in front of you surprisingly effectively as they're so separated that there's no chance of area of effect catching them and you end up being shot at from all across the map. I'm not sure why this happens, as the enemy units should theoretically be joining existing formations, but when those formations are largely broken up, they just seem to stream across the map.
Defending wins every time.
Battles of limited size can sometimes end up like capture the flag fights. Where there is a distinct advantage to turtling or camping on your spawning point and letting/encouraging your enemy coming to you. Now if only your allied army would do the same thing. If only I could send a messenger to my allied general over there who is running off towards the full strength of the enemy with his 50 recruits. No, one does not communicate with allied armies. No. On the other hand, if an allied commander retreats back up a hill from their spawn, it either leaves you exposed if you don't retreat as well, or your reinforcements exposed in front of your line if you do. Wouldn't it be nice if we could set an initial posture with friendly armies who join the battle, or to know what their initial posture was so we can decline the fight if we think they're idiots. Allied armies should never reposition behind their spawn point. Better yet, respawn points should be at the back of the map.
This thread isn't about whether it is good or bad to have limited battles. It's a great way to allow people who either can't afford (or in my case are not justified in buying) a gaming rig to play the game. Rather, this thread is about how the mechanic works - how it chooses which soldiers to give you and when. And how it affects AI armies. And if possible, to discuss positive solutions to common issues that might be feasible to improve within the current development timeline.
That's about it for now. Feel free to be constructive... advice welcome.
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