Ambushes and battlefield preparations.

[JuanNieve]

No just they get more favorable positions overlooking the enemy and possibly doing more moral damage because the opposing faction would be caught off guard.

this is how the ambush mechnic worked in VC, and it worked well enough. What Rainbow Dash is saying wouldn’t work at all because there is no stealth mechanics. The battle scene would start with everyone in position for maximum effect. Would be nice to arrange troop types and formations as you see fit before the ambush starts.

Do you mean this?

 

[lolbash]

No just they get more favorable positions overlooking the enemy and possibly doing more moral damage because the opposing faction would be caught off guard.

this is how the ambush mechnic worked in VC, and it worked well enough. What Rainbow Dash is saying wouldn’t work at all because there is no stealth mechanics. The battle scene would start with everyone in position for maximum effect. Would be nice to arrange troop types and formations as you see fit before the ambush starts.

You can already start the battle with predetermined formations and positions.

 

[FBohler]

So what do you guys think about them possibly adding in an ambush mechanics in the game and preparing defenses like wooden stakes and palisades for the Battanians sense they are a more "barbarian" type faction. I think they should have the ability to funnel the enemy troops into possible positions where say the more cavalry focused factions can't make the best use of their strength.

These are very good ideas, but I believe they're very difficult to implement on procedurally generated battlefields.

 

[SenorZorros]

I guess this is as good a time as any to break a lance for a stealth system, or rather the AI being unable to have a laserfocus when in a camouflaged area. The current situation with perfect awareness makes the ai boring and annoying because it can do things the players can't and makes any real ambush impossible.

 

[kalarhan]

These are very good ideas, but I believe they're very difficult to implement on procedurally generated battlefields.

why? The generated map is under a set of rules (based on the worldmap location), like where are the rivers, the forests, the roads/bridges, if it is a hill/valley, and so on. From that you can apply some rules to choose good places for a ambush by using things like trees to hide the ambushing army.

A cool system is the one used by TW (Total War), which you can watch on Youtube if you dont play the series.

 

[FBohler]

why? The generated map is under a set of rules (based on the worldmap location), like where are the rivers, the forests, the roads/bridges, if it is a hill/valley, and so on. From that you can apply some rules to choose good places for a ambush by using things like trees to hide the ambushing army.

A cool system is the one used by TW (Total War), which you can watch on Youtube if you dont play the series.

Ambushes may not be that complicated to implement, the main issue is making the AI make good (believable) decisions.

But battlefield preparation would require to either let the player (and AI for that matter) select where to put such things, or to generate them automatically.
Any of these options would require the game to recognize where is it viable/believable/useful to put traps on the battlefield.

This, along with the fact that almost every scene is procedurally generated, complicates implementing battlefield preparation.

It is already very difficult to make procedurally generated landscapes look natural enough, imagine trying to teach the game how to build useful structures over the procedurally generated terrain. It would be a huge feat if TW managed to implement a feature like this.

 

[NPC99]

why? The generated map is under a set of rules (based on the worldmap location), like where are the rivers, the forests, the roads/bridges, if it is a hill/valley, and so on. From that you can apply some rules to choose good places for a ambush by using things like trees to hide the ambushing army.

A cool system is the one used by TW (Total War), which you can watch on Youtube if you dont play the series.

Ambushes may not be that complicated to implement, the main issue is making the AI make good (believable) decisions.

But battlefield preparation would require to either let the player (and AI for that matter) select where to put such things, or to generate them automatically.
Any of these options would require the game to recognize where is it viable/believable/useful to put traps on the battlefield.

This, along with the fact that almost every scene is procedurally generated, complicates implementing battlefield preparation.

It is already very difficult to make procedurally generated landscapes look natural enough, imagine trying to teach the game how to build useful structures over the procedurally generated terrain. It would be a huge feat if TW managed to implement a feature like this.

An ambush doesn't have to be physical to be effective in game terms. Instead of creating ambush terrain, the game can limit the numbers of the ambushed party that can spawn in the 'trap'. The rest of your party (say 50%) would become a later reinforcement wave once they realised you had stumbled into an ambush with only half your troops.

 

[SenorZorros]

I don't see why this should be that difficult to code. again, you can just roll a dice depending on the quality of the ambush, the distance and the skill of either the commander or the units to determine if troops are detected. it would be a very basic approach but it ought to work.

 

[Bjorn The Broken]

Actually, in Warband Khergit Lcancers charging at the time of spawn seems pretty much ambush to me.