Impressions, ideas, criticism, all in one

[AlexN]

First of all, thank you for an excellent game. I really like it.

The art and music are very, very fine.

Now to the less bright side.

The user interface is not well thought. For example, to give orders to a unit, I use RIGHT mouse button.

Except when I want to garrison, then I have to use LEFT button. Human units responds for selection with

clear voice message, but ships, battering rams and such are producing hardly audible shhhhh.

It is very difficult to select necessary units out of a big mess that usually happens on the screen.

Basically I need to "select all units that can fight" or "select all units that can work", while the ability

to select units of the particular type is also useful, but less frequently needed.

Unit group behaviour is strange. For example, it is possible to build a box (сarré), but it sometimes

is impossible to move it as a whole. While moving, units always form a long line, and what is

even worse, they are forming a horizontal line when attacking. It makes most formations unusable.

The algo for solving "who's first to go" problem is also not very good. I've seen infinite loops.

Another audio-visual feature that I find very bad is that unnecessary units are disbanded by KILLING them.

War is war, it is blood and gore, but killing my own female workers... is disgusting experience.

Now to ideas and possible improvements.

Fighting in formations could be and should be improved. This even can save some computing power

Probably the best rule should be like: while units are in formation, they keep it at any cost until their

number decrease below the certain threshold. Then they start acting by themself.

Controlling the formation should also be easier to do. Maybe "group/ungroup" will do the job.

Destroying building by pushing it with spears and arrows looks funny, but is not good for historical part

of the game. While you have some ideas about changing ownership of buildings, maybe the following

inprovement will look nice:

The enemy building can be conquered and occupied. It also can be destroyed, but only by special means

like battering rams or siege machines. Occupied building becomes neutral and produce no profit to any

side. Neutral buildings within the borders after some time submit to that side, unless they have units inside.

Thus the whole picture could be:

Enemy units come into town, do some hits and kicks on a house and the house turns white (neutral)

After a while it becomes color again (maybe losing some "health")

If enemy leaves their units in the house, some hits and kicks are needed to get rid of them.

Exceptions are civil centers and walls, of course.

Also instead of killing women or other units, it could be fine to just set them in houses.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Call to arms button can be introduce, I don't know when but for now

"Shift" + "." You can select all lid units if you click many times.

You are suggestion a group of soldiers or battalion?

And this from captured buildings it's planned. Thank you for request

Pd: the guys are working in new GUI , welcome to forums.

Soon a developers of official team can ask better.

[greenknight32]

You should read the "Known problems" thread at the beginning of the "Help and Feedback" forum. Some of these, like the fact that formations don't work, are known issues - a result of the game being not yet finished, not because it's "not well thought".

You have some good suggestions there, though. Welcome.

[Nolanjoker]

you never play starcraftt , or that is gore.

[feneur]

The user interface is not well thought. For example, to give orders to a unit, I use RIGHT mouse button.

Except when I want to garrison, then I have to use LEFT button.

You do right-click on a building when garrisoning a unit, when you use the Ctrl+Right mouse button shortcut key, but when you use the GUI button you use the left mouse button. It's following the convention of how things are done in other RTSs.

To just select units which can fight, press the Alt-key while dragging the mouse pointer over the units.

See http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/HotKeys for a list of more hotkeys in the game.

[AlexN]

Some of these, like the fact that formations don't work, are known issues - a result of the game being not yet finished, not because it's "not well thought".

I read that. It says "Units don't fight in formation". Well, not really. I succesfully implemented the "meat-grinder" tactics using formation. It is when enemy attacks with small forces and you have a large army capable of range attacks and some healers inside. So their attacks never reach the target.

I see that formation logic is unfinished. Sometimes the units, standing in box formation suddenly form a line when I tell them to move - and sometimes they are not doing it. I can not tell if it is by design or just a not implemented feature.

But here's another example. There are several "behaviour" buttons, telling the unit to act in agressive or defensive manner. These buttons are in a row. So I, as an average user, expect them to act in a similar way. For example, clicking on a map AND THEN on behaviour button is something like an order to "go there and attack everything at destination". Please note, that the unit will not attack until it will reach the assigned point. I can think reverse, "become angry and go there" with no visible difference. This is for all buttons, except the last one, "stand ground". It tells unit to stop.

So there are several buttons in a row, with similar functionality, but one of them act in a very different way.

Also: unit description appears as a pop-up window after some time. Time is probably the most valuable resource in RTS games. Can I afford to wait for a while just to know the unit cost, etc?

When there are 10 types of units, it is not a problem, but as I can see, there are many mods and improvements planned.

[AlexN]

 

you never play starcraftt , or that is gore.

You guessed right. I played Warcraft (I and II) and Dune II.

[greenknight32]

I read that. It says "Units don't fight in formation". Well, not really. I succesfully implemented the "meat-grinder" tactics using formation. It is when enemy attacks with small forces and you have a large army capable of range attacks and some healers inside. So their attacks never reach the target. -snip-

Yes, it really should say "units don't attack in formation". You can use formations defensively, to some extent. As long as your units are defending in place they remain in formation, though they're fighting as individuals - they may break formation to pursue the enemy.