MP [Captain MP] Limit the amount of times a Captain can die per round to 3

[Aerational]

Captain, First Lieutenant and Second Lieutenant. After you die 3 times you go to spectate and your troops either F1 F3 or perhaps transfer into your teammates parties evenly. I like the idea of them dispersing to ally parties, and think this would be a better solution to early game leavers as well.

IMO this mode should focus mainly on the NPCs fighting each other, and the meta should evolve around who can better command their troops. So far though it seems to be evolving around who can better use their captain to exploit the enemy AI in some wonky way.

The most annoying examples are:

- Enemy archer captain runs out into the middle of the battle field and hides behind something, or maybe he's picked up a shield, or maybe he just dances around like a maniac. Every single range unit you have will focus that captain. This frees up enemy archers to fire away unchallenged.

- Enemy cavalry captain parks his troops in some remote location, rides out 1 at a time, rides circles around a group of archers who can't hit moving targets, and picks them off 1 at a time.

- Enemy infantry captain runs directly behind infantry line and starts hacking the back of your troops heads, even if you have a second row of units who aren't actively fighting...they will just keep looking forward and dying until you go kill the captain yourself.

I know people have developed tricks to deal with these issues, but again I just really don't want this mode to evolve around that style of play. It's so nice when you get a rare lobby of people who aren't doing annoying **** and are actually making it feel like a real battle. Lines of javelineers facing off without a single captain dancing in the middle of the field or riding around in circles on a horse or flanking behind everyone like Rambo...

I'm sure the AI will improve to a point that troops can better deal with these issues but still. At that point people might be locked into this completely nonsensical (if we are talking in realism terms) strategy of throwing their commanding officer away 1 at a time. Limiting the deaths is something that can be done immediately and will change the way players approach this game mode.

Keeping your captain safe and effectively ordering your troops on the battlefield should be the name of the game.

 

[MP_Erik]

There should definitely something be done about some of those tactics. Hopefully AI will at some point be able to pick worthwhile targets and to effectively use/counter cavalry.
I don't know whether limiting player deaths is the perfect solution as being dead is quite unfun for the affected party. How about limiting the movement commands to Follow and Attack when you respawn as a normal soldier?

 

[Mabons]

This is not the solution for those problems. In fact this would add to the frustration as you, the actual commander type player could get killed by the Rambo type guy 3 times and have to sit out.

The best solution is actually having competent AI, I played captain for the first time in ages last night with a buddy, we just danced circles around entire blobs of AI soldiers swinging wildly and we could take most if not all of them before going down.

 

[Spottswoode]

This is not the solution for those problems. In fact this would add to the frustration as you, the actual commander type player could get killed by the Rambo type guy 3 times and have to sit out.

The best solution is actually having competent AI, I played captain for the first time in ages last night with a buddy, we just danced circles around entire blobs of AI soldiers swinging wildly and we could take most if not all of them before going down.

Absolutely agree with this, as a 250ping captain player, my player character is honestly at most risk all the time from enemy players... if I lost control after 3 deaths it would decimate my game... also this would become the tactic, skirmish masters enter captain, snipe the commanders and end up killing a team who is now just set on f1f4 by default i guess.

I get what the OP means, but like he also mentioned there are ways to counter the issues and that means those tricks described above wont work on a team that are at least on the same page tactically for the fight and execute their tactic without falling for these little tricks and distractions.

Solo cav players are easy to kill (untill the end of the battle when units are thinned out or spears are now few and far between) an archer who leaves his men behind should be easy pickings for a cav player who is wise to this.

Breaking an infantry line to attack from the back is a solid strategy, available to anyone and is what any soldier would do given the opportunity to be behind an enemy's line. I see nothing wrong with this as much as it hurts (and remember i am on crappy ping so its hard for me to even pull this off smoothly) i used to do it in my old medieval fighting club, (shield charge through their lines and slaughter from behind) In saying this sometimes staying in control of your shield troops and cycling through shield wall and line formation as the front line evolves can help your army so much more than grabbing a bunch of kills solo from the rear.

I always choose troop placement and control over quick solo kills (especially with my ping) and have lots of success on captain mode.

I will also add one last thing about competent AI... this game mode is kind of about you controlling your dudes not just flexing your muscles with AI while they run off randomly chasing the closest target. If your guys are chasing a player who is able to chop them down as they blindly follow him around on f1f3 command, then pull them back into formation. bait him in set to charge again and cycle this option till he gets caught and he will. If you leave your guys on F1F3 while your trying to do ot1her things for an extended period of time, then yes you will lose your men eventually for a multitude of reasons.

Don't rely on F1F3 new captain players, people will exploit the basics of the command which is attack nearest enemy. Its up to you to walk your dudes right up into the enemies face, then if you want hit f1f3. Id still recommend if you're shields you probably refrain from f1f3 anyways, your guys survive so much longer without that command and that is sometimes the difference between winning a 1v1 shield fight and not.

 

[Thistle]

Nah that's the beauty of captain mode.