Having a lieutenant role in your party

[Rush09]

Just an idea but it always felt weird to me that if you get unlucky enough to have a arrow shot in your face at the beginning of a battle and go down, your army just goes berserk and charge all the way even if you have smart companions in the middle. It would be cool to add a role to assign a second in command that given their tactics and leadership ratings would take over. Good ratings in those traits would make them have a decent AI that would make the battle more fun to watch, bad ratings would make them go... as it is now, blind charge.
It just hurts to see your infantry charge at well placed battanian fians...

What do you guys think?

 

[Some Rando]

I like it.

 

[black_bulldog]

There were quite a few mods in Warband that had an option to body slide into a companion or soldier if you went down, but for whatever reason TW doesn't want to do it in this game.

 

[ArturMorhghain]

Formally assigning this role would be nice. Right now I think the game grabs the person immediately below you on the troop sorting menu and draws from their tactical skill. Which for me is a spouse who tends to have a high tactical skill, but not always because some times it’s just the companion leading whatever troops I want to always show up. Be nice if this leveled up their tactics too.

But maybe some of the above already happens, or happens differently? Would be nice for this to be explained in a tutorial or encyclopedia entry, too.

 

[Rush09]

Right now I think the game grabs the person immediately below you on the troop sorting menu and draws from their tactical skill. Which for me is a spouse who tends to have a high tactical skill, but not always because some times it’s just the companion leading whatever troops I want to always show up. Be nice if this leveled up their tactics too.

You sure? I've never seen the AI do anything but charge after going down, independently on who the next person in troop line was.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

You sure? I've never seen the AI do anything but charge after going down, independently on who the next person in troop line was.

It often look like they all charge yes, however you can also see messages on left like "X is skirmishing" "X is ready" and such, they are doing something, it's just not so great.

 

[Antaeus]

It often look like they all charge yes, however you can also see messages on left like "X is skirmishing" "X is ready" and such, they are doing something, it's just not so great.

And depending on who is left in charge, those commands can come thick and fast - seemingly randomly - or slow and deliberate - obviously responding to things.

Occasionally I see masterful withdrawals of archers behind screens of infantry and covered by skirmishing horse archers. More often I see Horse archers flip from skirmish to hit and run to withdraw to screening infantry etc in such quick succession as to be irrelevant as actions because the troops simply can't move fast enough to achieve anything before their orders change and change again.

It's tough though... as the human player will always learn the quirks of both their own and enemy troops, and use them in ways the AI could never do. So the AI will always lose more men than the player in an even fight.

 

[KingEroc1st]

they are doing something, it's just not so great.

pretty sure all the sergeants took command

 

[hruza]

Just an idea but it always felt weird to me that if you get unlucky enough to have a arrow shot in your face at the beginning of a battle and go down, your army just goes berserk and charge all the way

That's false as far as I can tell. If you are downed in a battle, the tactical AI takes over. That is the same AI that AI armies use. And it's not just "everybody charge".

Assigning "lieutenant" would change nothing, as he would use the very same AI anyway.

 

[Rush09]

Yeah, I don't think it's the same AI. Go down while helping an army and see what your party does vs what your allies in the army do.
Very different behaviors, the AI in the army has this wave motion where they advance and retreat in a short amount of time while your party just charges, many times getting completely surrounded and crushed while the AI army retreats to do their cycle.

 

[ArturMorhghain]

Yeah, I don't think it's the same AI. Go down while helping an army and see what your party does vs what your allies in the army do.
Very different behaviors, the AI in the army has this wave motion where they advance and retreat in a short amount of time while your party just charges, many times getting completely surrounded and crushed while the AI army retreats to do their cycle.

There’s levels to the AI used. It’s “unlockable” for the individual NPC based on their tactical skill. I think there are just three levels, that each get a priority set of commands? A dev described it not too long ago. So it’s possible to see those differences play out.