Jump to content

Why 0 A.D. Units Prefer Buildings Over Enemies!


leopard
 Share

Recommended Posts

In my opinion units should never automatically capture or attack buildings. Its of little use to capture a random house or storehouse, while it can be of catastrophic disadvantage.  Also when you set a gather point and units start walking off to all directions to capture it requires a lot of effort to collect ideling units capturing buildings from everywhere. If they attack a building close to enemy units you might not even realize it bc the attacking animation for the ranged units is there.

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yesterday, I was fighting Shmurda and Triamphathol's army. Whenever I tried to queue my commands using Shift + Ctrl + Attack, the units started attacking houses instead.

I was left with no choice but to constantly monitor every move of my units and bring them back from making foolish decisions. It was too much work, and whenever I had to fight on multiple fronts, I would inevitably lose my units and look like an idiot in front of others—despite having an exceptional plan in mind.

This is a terrible user experience.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I understand it units don't prefer houses but will attack anything in range, and if it's only houses they will attack those; and once they started with a task they want to finish it if they don't receive new orders.

1 hour ago, leopard said:

I was left with no choice but to constantly monitor every move of my units and bring them back from making foolish decisions.

The exact reason why I play on turtle speed. I think queuing was a bad idea, just making an attack-move probably would've been better. With ctrl-groups and area-selections I usually have no problem getting all my units to do what I want.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

I don't think this behavior is much different from A26, except they would try to capture it instead of destroying it.

At least capturing will take less time, and as @MarcusAureliu#s said, the animations for capturing are different, providing a visual clue that the units are not attacking but rather attempting to capture. Currently, we have no idea whether they are attacking organic units or simply throwing javelins at houses. If they were slingers, we could destroy houses faster, but doing so during a fight is pointless.

In Age of Empires (AOE), whenever units attack buildings, they use fire, which is a reasonable distinction with a different animation. This makes it easy for users to understand what is happening. Right now, we think they are attacking units, but in reality, they are attacking houses with javelins.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Gurken Khan said:

As I understand it units don't prefer houses but will attack anything in range, and if it's only houses they will attack those; and once they started with a task they want to finish it if they don't receive new orders.

Yep this is it. 

@Dakara, @leopard

I recommend going to hotkeys and binding "attack-move (unit only)" as a replacement for the existing attack move.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, MarcusAureliu#s said:

In my opinion units should never automatically capture or attack buildings. Its of little use to capture a random house or storehouse, while it can be of catastrophic disadvantage.  Also when you set a gather point and units start walking off to all directions to capture it requires a lot of effort to collect ideling units capturing buildings from everywhere. If they attack a building close to enemy units you might not even realize it bc the attacking animation for the ranged units is there.

Good idea, but would be even better if macemen and siege weapons (other than bolt shooters) would still attack buildings automatically.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

One idea I thought of was to add a check for targets of higher priority than the one currently engaged if the unit is not following an order. I thought of this for bolts, but it could apply to other units too.

I though i read somewhere that you were against autosniping. This would be the most automated form of autosniping that was ever suggested, funnily enough.

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This has nothing to do with sniping.

Sniping is where you task ranged units to shoot other ranged units beyond melee units. It was about getting past the "meatshield meta".

I suppose you could cheat and set a unit's top preference to be ranged units to do this but that would be almost guaranteed to go OOS. Also it would be incredibly lame and uninteresting.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

top preference to be ranged units

We can do this already, but it will apply for all units and even spearman  will walk past to attack ranged units. This will not work out well. 

@leopard 's problem can be resolved by always pressing ctrl+Q when attacking, instead of the normal attack move. This will make your troops attack only enemy soldiers. They will even ignore enemy women. 

You can also press H, although I am not sure exactly what command that is attached to. 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Seleucids said:

We can do this already, but it will apply for all units and even spearman  will walk past to attack ranged units. This will not work out well. 

@leopard 's problem can be resolved by always pressing ctrl+Q when attacking, instead of the normal attack move. This will make your troops attack only enemy soldiers. They will even ignore enemy women. 

You can also press H, although I am not sure exactly what command that is attached to. 

 

H is stop, which halts existing orders. This way the stopped units check for targets anew, and if there are higher priority targets, they will instead attack those ones.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

You seem strangely biased for some reason.

I wish i could resist replying to this but i can't.

Actually I can. :heart: Pointless to try to undo all your built up narration. I'm glad you consider introducing autosniping.

  • Haha 1
  • Confused 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...