"SortingClasses" and "SortingOrder" syntax?

[krt0143]

It's about unit formations.

I'm looking for a formation which surprisingly doesn't seem to exist: All melee units up front, all archers in the back.
The "Battle Line" formation, which would be a prime candidate for this, has all archers in the middle and melee units on both sides.
I want all my heavily armored melee units up front, and all my unarmored, vulnerable archers in the back, protected by the melee units. Yes, I'm strange like that.

So, I've found \simulation\templates\special\formations, but the files there don't seem to contain anything useful to me: For instance "Close Order" only says "MinColumns"=3 and "WidthDepthRatio"=4! WTF, is this a parade?

Now some formations do have a promising "SortingClasses" and "SortingOrder" setting, but what are my options here?

[real_tabasco_sauce]

close order

[krt0143]

8 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

close order

  Say what?...

 

If you mean "Close Order" is what I'm looking for, no, unfortunately there is almost always at least an archer (or even healer) in the front line, usually somewhere in the middle. And I'm talking about groups with more melee units than archers. But I agree it's the one which (strangely) comes closest to what I'm looking for. Close, but no cigar.

I've tried them all, there aren't that many formations anyway. My formation is usually around 24 melee, 15 archers and 6 healers. And I don't want to see a single archer or healer in the front lines (and conversely no melee unit in the back). Shouldn't be that difficult, AoE did it all on its own.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

close order

[krt0143]

Two can play at this...

Close Order:

Note the red arrows. Archers on the front line, and yet there are melee units in the back.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

1 hour ago, krt0143 said:

Two can play at this...

Close Order:

Note the red arrows. Archers on the front line, and yet there are melee units in the back.

Custom unit? Champion?

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Maybe you made a new unit and didn't update the classes.

[krt0143]

13 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Custom unit? Champion?

Both: Custom, champion level units.

For the archers the "VisibleClasses" datatype is "Ranged Archer"
For the pikemen the "VisibleClasses" datatype is "Melee Pikeman"
For the axemen the "VisibleClasses" datatype is "Melee Axeman"

(Actually, to prevent forgetting/omitting some parts I don't know yet is important, I just copy existing units of similar type and edit them. Often the only change is to change civilization and name...)

[krt0143]

On 25/09/2023 at 8:21 PM, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Champion?

Your question made me wonder, and I've tried it in a quick test scenario: Indeed, while a group of first age units will form a consistent melee/archer formation, a group of champion units (Kushites have both melee and archer champions) will not properly sort melee and archers, just like in my example above. In other words, "Close Order" doesn't work with champions, even standard ones.

So, it's a bug?

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

9 hours ago, krt0143 said:

Your question made me wonder, and I've tried it in a quick test scenario: Indeed, while a group of first age units will form a consistent melee/archer formation, a group of champion units (Kushites have both melee and archer champions) will not properly sort melee and archers, just like in my example above. In other words, "Close Order" doesn't work with champions, even standard ones.

So, it's a bug?

Technically a bug, but caused by an oversight. 

Are you willing to create a Trac ticket for it? https://trac.wildfiregames.com/newticket

[krt0143]

5 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Are you willing to create a Trac ticket for it?

https://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/6873

[gameboy]

@Freagarach