Haydon Jurai
Recruit
I'm frustrated by sieges. The issues:
* Troops going up a ladder push one another (and me) off the ladder as they all attempt to press forward. Also, movement up a ladder, especially some of them, is extremely slow.
* During a siege, attacking troops LOVE their bows and crossbows. Some of them are so intent on being archers, that they stop and block melee troops from going up the ladders, despite orders to charge. The only way to make them charge is to tell them to use blunt weapons. Of course, that's disastrous for attacking troops in a sieges, because many of them use fists and maces have short range.
* I don't see my polearm troops using their polearm weapons in a siege, which would give my more of my attackers some ability to inflict damage when they are all bottlenecked at the top of a ladder. When they get within 50 feet of an enemy, they switch to their close-range melee weapons, and wait for their turn to get slaughtered at the top of the ladder.
* There's no shield wall at the front of the rush. Shield walls have been used since ancient times. Through a combination of melee rushes and shield-wall+spear attacks, the attackers could make some slow progress.
* I don't have a way to crouch behind my shield or cover to offer full body protection from archers in front of me.
* The way the enemy cluster together on the wall, and swing their weapons, they're slashing right through their own troops, and forming a nearly impenetrable wall (vastly outnumbering the attackers at the entry point, resulting in more swings and blocks than my attackers can achieve). If the enemy really did cluster together that tightly, no one would hardly be able to move their arms. Small, weak thrusts would be all they could achieve. Packed that tightly, the attackers could climb on top of the defenders, and walk along them, kicking heads and freely stabbing down until someone was able to free an arm and stab upwards at them.
* One ladder/siege tower?!?
* No matter how good we're doing in a siege, if I get knocked out, the battle ends, we've got to build a new ladder or siege tower, and we've got another infuriating ladder "rush" to go through.
* If I don't participate in a siege ("Order your troops to attack without you"), my troops do absolutely terrible, no matter how much we outnumber the enemy. Without me, they lose the siege even at 4:1. (When I "participate", I usually don't fight in the siege until it nears the end, because I'm trying to keep myself alive (see above issue). If I get involved, I find myself the center of the enemies' attention, and even the best armor and shield don't protect me from all that lovin'.)
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My suggestions:
* Troops should not push one another -- if troops are stampeding one another, that's called a route, and they'd be moving in the opposite direction!
* AI should know what is the proper weapon for a given situation, and there should be more battle commands, such as "melee only" -- which allows the AI to choose their best melee weapon.
* Weapons usage animation should be more controlled/limited in close quarters, and troops should be able to damage friendlies, on both sides. Characters should attempt to keep enough distance from one another to use their weapons, and pick the proper movements that prevent them from hitting allied characters. Collision detection should be able to resolve this, and I would think the overhead could be kept at a minimum.
* Let me crouch to minimize my exposed body, whether I have a shield or not. This is most effective during a siege, because inevitably if I choose to enter the castle, at some point all the enemy archers decide to snipe me and only me, despite my other troops rushing them.
* Let me set up a chain of command within my ranks, so the battle can continue without me. Likewise, my commanders should be able to split my troops, to go more than one direction (to take out the archers on the right, and the ones on the left, and the new enemy troops rushing up the stairs, instead of everyone rushing in one direction at a time).
* Troops going up a ladder push one another (and me) off the ladder as they all attempt to press forward. Also, movement up a ladder, especially some of them, is extremely slow.
* During a siege, attacking troops LOVE their bows and crossbows. Some of them are so intent on being archers, that they stop and block melee troops from going up the ladders, despite orders to charge. The only way to make them charge is to tell them to use blunt weapons. Of course, that's disastrous for attacking troops in a sieges, because many of them use fists and maces have short range.
* I don't see my polearm troops using their polearm weapons in a siege, which would give my more of my attackers some ability to inflict damage when they are all bottlenecked at the top of a ladder. When they get within 50 feet of an enemy, they switch to their close-range melee weapons, and wait for their turn to get slaughtered at the top of the ladder.
* There's no shield wall at the front of the rush. Shield walls have been used since ancient times. Through a combination of melee rushes and shield-wall+spear attacks, the attackers could make some slow progress.
* I don't have a way to crouch behind my shield or cover to offer full body protection from archers in front of me.
* The way the enemy cluster together on the wall, and swing their weapons, they're slashing right through their own troops, and forming a nearly impenetrable wall (vastly outnumbering the attackers at the entry point, resulting in more swings and blocks than my attackers can achieve). If the enemy really did cluster together that tightly, no one would hardly be able to move their arms. Small, weak thrusts would be all they could achieve. Packed that tightly, the attackers could climb on top of the defenders, and walk along them, kicking heads and freely stabbing down until someone was able to free an arm and stab upwards at them.
* One ladder/siege tower?!?
* No matter how good we're doing in a siege, if I get knocked out, the battle ends, we've got to build a new ladder or siege tower, and we've got another infuriating ladder "rush" to go through.
* If I don't participate in a siege ("Order your troops to attack without you"), my troops do absolutely terrible, no matter how much we outnumber the enemy. Without me, they lose the siege even at 4:1. (When I "participate", I usually don't fight in the siege until it nears the end, because I'm trying to keep myself alive (see above issue). If I get involved, I find myself the center of the enemies' attention, and even the best armor and shield don't protect me from all that lovin'.)
---
My suggestions:
* Troops should not push one another -- if troops are stampeding one another, that's called a route, and they'd be moving in the opposite direction!
* AI should know what is the proper weapon for a given situation, and there should be more battle commands, such as "melee only" -- which allows the AI to choose their best melee weapon.
* Weapons usage animation should be more controlled/limited in close quarters, and troops should be able to damage friendlies, on both sides. Characters should attempt to keep enough distance from one another to use their weapons, and pick the proper movements that prevent them from hitting allied characters. Collision detection should be able to resolve this, and I would think the overhead could be kept at a minimum.
* Let me crouch to minimize my exposed body, whether I have a shield or not. This is most effective during a siege, because inevitably if I choose to enter the castle, at some point all the enemy archers decide to snipe me and only me, despite my other troops rushing them.
* Let me set up a chain of command within my ranks, so the battle can continue without me. Likewise, my commanders should be able to split my troops, to go more than one direction (to take out the archers on the right, and the ones on the left, and the new enemy troops rushing up the stairs, instead of everyone rushing in one direction at a time).
