Alternate Attacks?

[tribalbeat]

One thing that I hate is when my javelin units are getting closed in on by enemy spearmen. They keep moving back to fire, but so do the enemy, making it impossible to fight. Would it be easy to code them to switch to just trying to stab the enemy with their javelins if the enemy is close enough?

Additionally, will cavalry ever have the ability to charge enemy units, knocking them around some instead of just running up, stopping and then attacking?

Thanks, Love the game by the way.

[tinoesroho]

Good idea, but the javelin is poor in h2h combat. Maybe a knife is better?

[Mythos_Ruler]

I'd rather the skirmishers just run away. That's how they worked in Age of Kings and it worked really well. We just need to tweak the low level AI and pathfinding so it works better. Besides, in real life skirmishers and archers RAN and skattered when confronted with an attacking melee force. Perhaps archers can draw knives or short swords, but I'd still like skirmishers to run, like they did in AOK. Or maybe they'll stand up to an enemy melee unit that walks up to them, but run away from a melee enemy that charges at them.

[oshron]

they should have a hand-to-hand attack if that can be programmed, but only if they actually cant move, like they get backed into a corner against some buildings or trees

while on the matter of alternate attacks, it would be cool for RPG-like scenarios if certain unique units, ie special heroes, could switch between infantry and cavalry modes. alternatively, there could be some super units that have two modes of attack depending on if there are obstacles or distance in the way. ill use a random example: suppose the celts have some sort of highlander unit. he's armed with a scottish claymore and uses that in close quarters, but when an enemy unit is too far away, he'll throw a javelin instead

there should also be special attacks and other abilities for some units. for example, maybe one of the war elephant units could occasionally gore enemies as a special attack

[Mythos_Ruler]

Alt attacks are definitely planned for units like Super Units and Heroes.

[SMST]

Is there going to be some "ammunition" for special attacks?

I'd like it if it'd be there, because the ranged attacks should be an extra and not really the defining characteristic of a Super Unit. They should be predominantely melee, with the ranged component as a cool extra feature.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I'm not sure people would want to micro the amount of "ammo" for dozens, if not hundreds, of individual units. It's okay in Rome:Total War, where you have a maximum number of 20 units, but I don't think so in 0 A.D. where you could have 50+ Persian Immortals who use both spears and bows. If we ever do "special attacks" then I could see some recharge time, definitely. But Special Attacks are different from Alt Attacks.

[SMST]

I have to admit, I didn't really think about ammo reloading. Maybe ammo would just regenerate over time if the unit is idle or something.

[oshron]

right, thats how special attacks generally work. the unit performs its special attack, and then has to wait a little while before being able to use it again

[Yihka]

I do agree on the fact that your ranged units should be running away when confronted with a melee attack. They know they suck at melee so it's better for them to run away.

However I do think there should be a button for them to draw a melee weapon in which they can fight with. Their damage would be quite low compared to a melee unit. .

Just because it's possible. xP

[oshron]

alternatively, certain units could be programmed to automatically switch to melee mode when enemies get too close