Group movement or commands

[timek28]

Hi all.

Has there been any discussion or decisions regarding group movement or commands that player could give to his units? I surely appreciate the feel of the game that requires careful planning and moving of every unit, be it in air, sea or land. Original game also has some restraints on number of core units. I think there are some 55 max in the east GC.

However in certain mods (GTPG to be exact - which is fabulous mod in many aspects), there are simply too many units in certain missions. This is certainly not the designers fault. He wanted epic battles, and that is what we got. The epic feeling is there, and the scale is great. However by playing some of these battles I start to feel exhausted. In Belgium mission I had to move around 90 units in every move. In AK there are around 25 core units for comparison (and maybe occasional auxiliaries). OK maybe I didn't NEED to move them all, but still every unit is useful in the front.

For these kinds of mods or purposes, it would be great if there was a possibility of group orders, moves or something similar. For example if I had cluster of 10 aircraft, and I just wanted to move them to airport for refilling, why would I need to click and move every single one of them. Surely I could do that, but if I don't have enough time to do that, or that exhausts me, why there wouldn't be an option for that? Same applies for mundane tasks like refilling idle units etc. which can be very tiresome if you have to handle 90 units at a time. Not all of us have 5+ hours to complete every scenario.

Maybe this is just gibberish as I'm probably on PC overload right now (I'm playing it every day for almost year and a half now), and I'm starting to loose my patience for what I had patience before. But i would like to hear other opinions on this

p.s: I know that hardcore PC fans (I am too) would link this option to hated RTS mechanics but what the heck...

[boredatwork]

I'm doubtful such a feature would be very useful in the context of a 1UPT game. Given the rate of movement in the game (~4 hexes on average) and the varying terrain there would be alot of situations where the results would be unpredictable and probably downright undesirable. Suppose for example you had 6 ground units, a big forest, and a single road - would you want the ground units to keep their formation and move 1-2 hexes through the forest, or would you want them to move single file down the road as fast as they can? If the latter which order do you want them to move in? Or in the case of your air units what would happen if 1 of the 10 ran into an undetected enemy plane when flying back to the airfield? Do they all stop? Would you be happy with 9 units running out of fuel because you group moved?

Steel Panthers had a group move function and it's utility was very marginal.

[timek28]

Well... I was thinking about refilling of units mostly (and movements for planes that require that). The other ones such as combat movements I know are hard to implement due to different movement ranges of units, as well as their alternate use, type of the terrain etc. And to be honest if that existed game wouldn't be as much fun, so with little consideration I wasn't thinking about those.

But I guess it wouldn't be hard to implement following things:

1) Planes are able to fly to the nearest airport for refill (now be it all planes or a specific group).
2) Refill units with ammo and fuel. Be it all or a group (for example artillery group).
3) Do elite or regular replacements in a group of units (required prestige would pop up for action confirmation).

I guess this is not too hard to implement and could ease up playing a bit while not destroying the core mechanics of the game.

Also player would have to be willing to risk interceptions of planes trying to fly back to the airfiled for refilling (same as now). Surelly
if such option existed ONLY the plane that was intercepted should stop not the whole group.

[Aloo]

2) Refill units with ammo and fuel. Be it all or a group (for example artillery group).

Im not sure if units left idle for a turn dont replenish by their selves. I would have to check but I had such impression.

Surelly
if such option existed ONLY the plane that was intercepted should stop not the whole group.

But how would the game decide which plane moved first and bumped into the enemy? The one with the lowest fuel? The one with the most? The best fighter?

[timek28]

Im not sure if units left idle for a turn dont replenish by their selves. I would have to check but I had such impression.

I also think I noticed that here and there. But I'm not sure weather this happens all the time. I will also check this out.

But how would the game decide which plane moved first and bumped into the enemy? The one with the lowest fuel? The one with the most? The best fighter?

Well, I believe there is a list of units in code. If a group of of planes is formed and player wants to replenish that group with fuel, then code could go through the list and move one plane after another to the nearest airfield (if there is enough place in it). Of course airfield should be cleared of other aircraft by player before he moves selected group to it. Now whichever plane in list hits the ambush it will stop. Of course no other plane will use the same route if ambush is was placed on it, but will try a different route (albeit not the one that will make plane fall down on low fuel). Ultimatelly all planes in group could fall into ambushes (even by choosing alternative routes), but this is something player should be warned on if first plane hits the ambush (so player could decide if he wants to let AI continue moving group, or should he take control manually.

Bah... I'm not sure weather this is understandable

[Aloo]

I understand but Im sure the amount of people frustrated with this feature would be much larger than the ones happy with it If one falls into ambush the command should cancel and let you change orders. This feature is not really any priority for the game as its usage is marginal.
What would be nicer for bigger maps is waypoints for units so you wouldn't need to babysit all of them all the time. Im sure I forget to move some far away unit in most scenarios