george

@Deicide4u yes, every thing i mentioned can be solved by just having more apm. but then the challenge of the game becomes quickly and accurately clicking instead of making strategic decisions about how to have units behave.

i am consistently disappointed and frustrated by the ai that controls unit behavior. i'll send my units in to attack, look away for a moment to keep up with production, and half my elephants have wandered a screen away chasing a trader that doesn't matter at all, or all the archers are getting slaughtered by three cavalry while they diligently shoot completely ineffective arrows at a barracks that isn't even in use. i'll set some infantry to chop wood and 5 enemy soldiers can take out 40 because apparently they don't notice the guy right next to them getting stabbed to death. the solution i propose is a window like trade or diplomacy windows that allows the player to set standing orders. instead of five clumsy unchangeable preset modes (violent, aggressive, defensive, passive), the player can choose how they want units to respond to or prioritize non-combatants (woman or traders) vs. infantry vs. siege units vs buildings. you can set an interval to re-acquire targets so they don't focus in on a target that isn't working, set awareness for something like a unit nearby being attacked, set chase distance, if you don't want them to run too far, decide they want units to capture building or kill by default. regardless of how much fine tuning, concentrated micro will always be the most effective, but in in the current set up micro managing every attack feels way more important than considering global strategy, and refining preemptive control of the AI would bring that more into balance. if it turned out to be too powerful, you could even gate it behind a building like a training hall and some upgrades to allow access to it's most potent features.