Hello,
Observation:
This situation is particularly visible in sieges but you see it in field battles as well. Sometimes, a large number of units will move around or against a given point and press themselves against each other.
In the case of the siege, they press themselves against the castle door (usually). I once saw several hundred (I think, since I could shoot about 250 before they even broke the door or fled, I don't remember) soldiers pressing themselves in this manner. What would have happened IRL, is the poor guys against the door would have died crushed under the weight of their impatient colleagues. Let me cite Wikipedia:
Curiously enough, this is what you observe IG (the fluid part).
In field battles, something similar happens when a large squad of cavalry goes to rush a couple of units. They all want to hit the poor guy and just press against each other relentlessly for the chance to strike a blow. Other times, there's a rather dense archer (I say archer because they usually have trouble stopping horses, given they often have no spears) squad your cavalry charges into, and then a skirmish breaks out. Oftentimes the horsemen basically walk all over the archers but nobody dies of this, somehow.
Proposed change:
I don't think incorporating crowd crushing damage would necessarily be very fun, unless it could be exploited tactically (i.e. caused on purpose) which seems very convoluted. However it'd be nice if
a) the crowd model didn't just repel on contact, but maybe applied a larger/stronger aura to each unit so that they stay away from each other more. As it stands, it's hard to see the units repel each other but they do (at least periodically), or you wouldn't see the waves in the crowd. If you haven't seen them, they appear when a crowd presses against a castle door, for example, where they'll sometimes pull back in sequence before going back in. I think this goes to show such a change wouldn't be too impossible.
or
b) the force of a colliding unit be applied to the collided unit inducing movement. This exists to some extent, since when even a friendly troop wants to walk where you're at, you move slightly. However, the displacement seems to be computed as though you're a couple of cylinders, making you move sideways instead of in the axis of movement (unless the direction of movement passes perfectly through the central axes of both cylinders, they'll obviously slide against each other sideways). IRL, when someone runs into you, you don't slide sideways, you're pushed in the same direction they were going. This would adress the siege tower situation where dozens of attackers stack a wooden plank without falling...
As for the horses, maybe they could cause damage when walking over a fallen unit, and/or have a probability to make a standing unit fall to the ground when pushing against it even at low speeds (imagine however many kilograms of horse pushing against you in circles, you'd probably trip).
These are ideas I'm not too sure about, it'd be great if you gave yours if this seems like a problem to you too!
Observation:
This situation is particularly visible in sieges but you see it in field battles as well. Sometimes, a large number of units will move around or against a given point and press themselves against each other.
In the case of the siege, they press themselves against the castle door (usually). I once saw several hundred (I think, since I could shoot about 250 before they even broke the door or fled, I don't remember) soldiers pressing themselves in this manner. What would have happened IRL, is the poor guys against the door would have died crushed under the weight of their impatient colleagues. Let me cite Wikipedia:
Curiously enough, this is what you observe IG (the fluid part).
In field battles, something similar happens when a large squad of cavalry goes to rush a couple of units. They all want to hit the poor guy and just press against each other relentlessly for the chance to strike a blow. Other times, there's a rather dense archer (I say archer because they usually have trouble stopping horses, given they often have no spears) squad your cavalry charges into, and then a skirmish breaks out. Oftentimes the horsemen basically walk all over the archers but nobody dies of this, somehow.
Proposed change:
I don't think incorporating crowd crushing damage would necessarily be very fun, unless it could be exploited tactically (i.e. caused on purpose) which seems very convoluted. However it'd be nice if
a) the crowd model didn't just repel on contact, but maybe applied a larger/stronger aura to each unit so that they stay away from each other more. As it stands, it's hard to see the units repel each other but they do (at least periodically), or you wouldn't see the waves in the crowd. If you haven't seen them, they appear when a crowd presses against a castle door, for example, where they'll sometimes pull back in sequence before going back in. I think this goes to show such a change wouldn't be too impossible.
or
b) the force of a colliding unit be applied to the collided unit inducing movement. This exists to some extent, since when even a friendly troop wants to walk where you're at, you move slightly. However, the displacement seems to be computed as though you're a couple of cylinders, making you move sideways instead of in the axis of movement (unless the direction of movement passes perfectly through the central axes of both cylinders, they'll obviously slide against each other sideways). IRL, when someone runs into you, you don't slide sideways, you're pushed in the same direction they were going. This would adress the siege tower situation where dozens of attackers stack a wooden plank without falling...
As for the horses, maybe they could cause damage when walking over a fallen unit, and/or have a probability to make a standing unit fall to the ground when pushing against it even at low speeds (imagine however many kilograms of horse pushing against you in circles, you'd probably trip).
These are ideas I'm not too sure about, it'd be great if you gave yours if this seems like a problem to you too!
