New way to auto-calc battles

[Arkinnian]

From what I understand, when a battle occurs without player involvement the game engine simply tallies numbers and bases the outcome off of that.

My proposal is this: assign a point value based on which troop types are involved, then apply an outcome based on the virtual troop count.

Let's say infantry are worth one, spearmen are worth one, archers are worth two and cavalry are worth three. Heroes could be worth five or ten.

So my ten infantry and ten cavalry go against twenty archers. Ten infantry are worth ten points, ten cavalry are worth thirty for a total of forty points on my part. Twenty archers are worth forty points, so the game would calculate the battle as if it were between forty individuals on either side.

You could mix things up by maybe multiplying the point value by a variable based on what assortment of units are mixed in with you: e.g. archers get a .5 point bonus for each spearman in your unit to represent the archers being able to hide behind the spear wall. Cavalry get a .5 bonus for each infantry in your army to represent being able to perform the old "hammer and anvil" move.

You could even go deeper and apply a .1 bonus to archers and a .2 bonus to cavalry if the enemy just has infantry. This could encourage players to mix up their troops a bit.

It definitely need some tweaking, bit I think that this idea has some merit. What do you think?

 

[MountainBlade]

It already does this, sort of. It's not based on number of troops but on their level.

 

[DamienZharkoff]

It already does this, sort of. It's not based on number of troops but on their level.

Not really. I went 42 huscarls vs 8 Looters.... 2 Huscarls died

 

[italiano]

Not really. I went 42 huscarls vs 8 Looters.... 2 Huscarls died

Yes really. It's random within a range, and most times you fight that battle you won't experience any losses.

It definitely need some tweaking, bit I think that this idea has some merit. What do you think?

Troop type should have an influence, but worked in with native's system which already includes quantity and quality.

 

[DamienZharkoff]

I say this could all be solved with the addition of observer mode. Then we could really see if those 2 Huscarls would die.

 

[Arkinnian]

Observer mode actually seems like a great idea, and it would be easy to implement. You could have a free-roaming camera like in edit mode, and maybe even allow the cheat that lets the AI control your character without actually having the cheats.

Now that I think about it, I could just enable cheats and let the computer take over. It's more of a workaround, but then again there isn't a real problem with the way that the game calculates battles; I was just thinking of ways to change it.

If troop quality is taken into effect, would it be possible to factor in the troop type as well, then?

 

[MercuryFMJ]

I say this could all be solved with the addition of observer mode. Then we could really see if those 2 Huscarls would die.

That's a good idea, but the auto-calc still needs some touching-up since it still has to be used for battles on the world map that you aren't a part of.

First and foremost, cavalry need to get a bonus for their horses, cause currently mounts don't make any difference. It would be nice if it could take into account certain units' weaknesses against others too, say, auto-calc could pair up all the soldiers from each side to fight a random soldier from the other side (or more if one side is outnumbered), and e.g if a cavalrymen got matched up with an archer, the cavalrymen would have a stupendous chance of winning, but if he got matched up with a spearman then you get the drift.
I doubt that would be able to be implemented though, and even so there are horrible complications, like calculating an infantryman vs. an archer- since that depends on how far away the infantryman is.

 

[UluEgo]

It is annoying not to have an idea about calculation. It is RANDOM. I won many battles when I reloaded the game. Nobody has an idea about the level of randomness or the effect of troops...

Let's say, do archers have any chance against full-armored mounted units riding full-armored horses? Maybe yes, if the archers are on a top of a hill?
It is too difficult to formulate it... But many conditions must be considered such as,
- Types of troops
- Quality of troops
- Quantity of troops
- Tactic skill
- Morale
- Battlefield conditions and land properties
- Weather
- Little chance (luck or randomness or whatever!)
- Maybe more...

But there must be something important: SOMEBODY MUST TELL US THE EXACT FORMULA....! Then we can decide the structure of our army...

 

[Balrog]

Or just find a way to run the actual battle with both AI controlled sides, but super fast and behind the scenes.

Does anyone who moded Total War know how they do it? That might help.