The Soldier
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Posts posted by The Soldier
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19 minutes ago, pandakraut said:
The different bars for the unit stats and the officers affect on the unit are explained in this guide
As nice as that guide is, a lot of that information really should be presented in-game. It doesn't have to be up-front (too much information is a thing), but somewhere accessible.
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This post is about the user interface during Harbor (equivalent to the Camp screen in Ultimate General: Civil War). Some things are good, others could use improvement. The following list is in no particular order of importance, nor is this a complete list, just the things I noticed while playing for the first time.
I apologize if some of these explanations are difficult to understand. Some UI issues are enormously complex and require a thorough explanation to pass along what the problem is and how to cause it, but the user experience is important, and I hope to see these improved before release.
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Selecting Ship Upgrades
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When you select a ship upgrade, that upgrades gets taken off the list, causing the whole list moves when you select an upgrade, then gets moved again if you select something else. This makes finding the item you want more difficult.
- Suggestion: keep the upgrade in the list until you close out of the list.
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Furthermore, all ship upgrades are grouped together in the same list. You can hide any number by deselecting their boxes, but this is a lengthy process with 6 categories available.
- Suggestion: make it a one-selection list like the Admiralty screen. Select one group of upgrades at a time, no need to view two dozen upgrades all at once in a small viewing box.
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When you select a ship upgrade, that upgrades gets taken off the list, causing the whole list moves when you select an upgrade, then gets moved again if you select something else. This makes finding the item you want more difficult.
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Selecting Officers (both Crew and Troops) Screenshot
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Screenshot terms: 1 is the Commanding Officer (officer currently leading the selected unit), 2 is the Officer Reserves, 3 is the Officer Recruits (1 + 2 + 3 makes up the Officer selection screen) , 4 is the unit panel (crew or troops), 5 is the stats page of the select units (crew or troops).
- When you select an Officer and go to the Officer selection screen, the current Commanding Officer resides at the top of the list in a special box. Clicking on an Officer changes the portrait of the officer on the right in the stats page, but does not change the Commanding Officer at the top of the list.
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When you select a Reserve Officer, that officer is removed from the list, causing the whole list to shift. When you select a Recruit Officer, that officer not removed. This is inconsistent and hampers with comparing officers.
- Suggestion: keep all Officers visible in the Officer selection screen until you close out of it.
- Dismissing an Officer (or right-clicking their portrait on the stats screen) sends them to the Reserve, but does not remove their portrait or stats from the Commanding Officer section. This also makes selecting a Reserve Officers not disappear as explained above, but selecting the just-Dismissed Officer will remove them from the list.
- If I right-click an Officer to dismiss them without the Officer select screen open, I cannot open the screen afterwards.
- The Dismiss button is still active on the Commanding Officer after you've dismissed them by right-clicking their portrait with the Officer select screen active.
- When selecting Officers for Troops, there is no way to go back to the Marine Corps screen without selecting a unit.
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Screenshot terms: 1 is the Commanding Officer (officer currently leading the selected unit), 2 is the Officer Reserves, 3 is the Officer Recruits (1 + 2 + 3 makes up the Officer selection screen) , 4 is the unit panel (crew or troops), 5 is the stats page of the select units (crew or troops).
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Troops
- The Reserves function is excellent! Finally, a place I can put troops I don't need at the moment or if I need to reorganize. Extremely frustrating in UGCW, but that's a non-issue for AoS.
- I can reduce crew and troop sizes! Also excellent.
- Wording confusion: Dismissing an Officer puts them into Reserve. Dismissing a Troop deletes that unit.
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Right-clicking a Troop in the unit panel removes them from the ship, but you cannot right or left click a unit from anywhere else to add a unit to a troop ship. The only method is to select a slot, manually select a unit from Reserves, then click the Assign button - lots of clicks and lots of mouse movement.
- Suggestion: make Troops draggable in the Marine Corps selection screen. Drag troops from Reserve into any troop ship. Drag troops between ships to swap them.
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Unit Stats Page Screenshot
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Screenshot terms: 1 the "teal colored bar", 2 is the "blue colored bar", 3 is the "yellow colored bar", 4 is the Efficiency bar.
- None of these are explained anywhere in the game. What does the teal colored bar represent? The blue colored bar? And that yellow bar beneath it? I can make some assumptions based on my UGCW experience, but they don't all line up.
- Efficiency is also poorly explained. There's efficiency for troops, then efficiency for the weapon. How exactly do these work? How do these differ?
- How does the unit's Officer affect a unit's stats?
- However, the accuracy chart is an excellent addition.
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Screenshot terms: 1 the "teal colored bar", 2 is the "blue colored bar", 3 is the "yellow colored bar", 4 is the Efficiency bar.
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Research Screen
- Just one click on a tech means you instantly research it. This came as a bit of an alarm as almost nothing else in the UI requires just one click - most things require selecting something, then hitting a confirm button.
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Selecting Ship Upgrades
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I believe there's a bit of a misunderstanding going on here. What panda is trying to say is that the rewards are semi-randomized, in both vanilla and the mod (nothing got changed, however). What causes the randomization, panda doesn't know.
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17 hours ago, cosmique said:
what's the reasoning behind decreased effectiveness of batteries using over 12 guns?
I can't see a reason behind it. It hasn't gotten fixed yet, so I can only assume it's either intended or too late to do so.
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I should post this here for posterity's sake. Some graphs I made a few months ago on how battery size affects kills. This first one is direct data from my test, using 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24 gun batteries.
This one is from data extrapolated from the original test, going from 4 guns to 24 guns every 1 gun.
As you can see, 24-gun batteries are quite bad. Worse, in fact, than a battery one-sixth the size.
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And so the greatest leaders of the navy and the army are brought together in this glorious game! I daresay these sea slugs are gonna need a few pointers once they figure out ships can't do the job of a proper army.
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And so the folks of Naval Action and Ultimate General are brought together. I look forward to it!
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1 minute ago, TechnoSarge said:
BTW - I'm not seeing a listing for Colt M1855 carbine, available only to Skirmishers.
Infantry brigades can use the weapon, it's listed there.
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The edit button exists, my friend.
As for Cavalry Scouts, I'm not entirely sure how that would be very useful. AFAIK any detached unit that gets killed removes the parent unit's ability to detach more for the rest of that battle. Having a one-shot unit like that doesn't exactly feel too useful, especially if artillery decides to take a shot at it and nuke the unit before it gets anything done.
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11 hours ago, BCH said:
Could be worse, my wife could be playing this game; she has a long history of finding obscure bugs, dating back to Gemstone II and the beta-test of Ultima Online.
She'll have a hard time beating my discovery of an exploit to control enemy units by selecting one of your own units and shift-clicking an enemy one.
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Curious ideas, though not all of it is possible. Stuff like Gallop / Run ability for artillery. Can't just add in new abilities, only modify them.
Coehorn Mortars for Skirmishers is a bit interesting. You wouldn't be able to make it look like artillery though, they'd still have the same sprites. Also not sure if you can make it a crew-served weapon like artillery (which would mean you would need 500 Coehorn mortars for a full unit). Would make an interesting weapon for sure.
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On 8/10/2018 at 12:46 PM, pinsripes3333 said:
Edit: I also did not realize you were the author of the excellent artillery guide (although I probably should have given you name). I''m certainly not claiming to know more than you about artillery. Do you have a solid feel as to why the numbers I have do not match what your in-game and more accurate experience shows at least for the 20pdr? Perhaps playstyles as I did not look at mid to far damages much as I like to wheel my arty just a little behind my infantry and do not do much firing from over 700 range.
It's not all about stats. The 20pdr Parrott Rifle, in my own experience, deals around 25 kills with even an unskilled crew at max range per volley. This is enough to completely remove a gun from an enemy artillery battery in one shot, which alone is worth it's weight in gold. But as you get closer, the gun just keeps on dealing more and more damage, and unusually for a rifled gun, it can absolutely murder enemy units in canister range. Even the 3-Inch Ordnance Rifle can't keep up with the amount of kills at varying targets unless the targets are all at the same sweet spot range, let along actually do anything to an enemy unit in canister range (whatever your stats may say). And artillery doesn't always have the leisure of shooting at targets less than 700m away, look at Malvern Hill for example. Range is always a factor you have to take in, otherwise you may find yourself at the wrong end of a cannon, especially if you're Confederate.
As to why numbers don't translate well into the game, I couldn't tell you. But I can tell you that experience trumps numbers any day.
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Uhh, no? Are you basing your assumptions on the visuals of the charts only or something? You do realize the 3-Inch Ordnance Rifle has a maximum damage degradation of 0.36 or so while the 20pdr Parrott Rifle sits at 0.5? If you directly compare the graphs number-for-number the 20pdr Parrott wins out at every yard, not to mention the 20pdr Parrott also has nearly quadruple the base damage.
And as far as I know, shell type does affect damage. Otherwise perks wouldn't exist that modify them.
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11 hours ago, pinsripes3333 said:
The 12pdr Howitzer and 20pdr Parrott are terrible. The 10pdr ordnance is the probably the best value arty in the game and between 400 and 500 range, probably the most common range for me to have arty, while still having good damage at 300 to 400, although it falls off comparatively after 500. I do not understand why the 10pdr ordnance has a damage high of 59.8 and the 12pdr Howitzer only has a damage high of 29, feels like those two should be revered. The 24pdr Howitzer is way better than any other arty in the 300 to 600 range, only the James at 600 range and the Napoleon at 300 range does more than half the damage of the 24pdr.
The 12pdr Howitzer is indeed pretty bad. Worse than the 6pdr Field gun if you ask me. But the 20pdr Parrott Rifle terrible? You need to use those again and fix your perception of them. That, or you're not playing an up-to-date version of the game for one reason or another.
That said, the 24pdr Howitzer and 20pdr Parrott Rifles are the best guns in the game. It all comes down to a matter of cost and availability, the latter being the real hindrance to just skipping everything in between.
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In case the OP is still curious - yes, the initial timer is a countdown to when reinforcements arrive. After that there's another timer that, after which the battle will end if you make it that far.
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1 hour ago, LAVA said:
BTW: By the time I get to Antietam my reputation will be 48. If I lose the battle it is -48 to your reputation. That would bring my reputation to 0. Would that end the war for me?
Aye, it would end your game with a sacking from Lincoln.
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34 minutes ago, killjoy1941 said:
Players who don't use the horse artillery perk will likely be much less aware of this since their guns will be firing far less often, but it should still be a thing with 10-12 batteries per corps.
I don't use Horse Artillery, but I definitely notice that ammunition for artillery is pretty scarce. Fire discipline is a thing, yeah.
I've run 2k brigades for nearly my whole time playing the game, albeit with a short dip down to 1,500 as payment for winning at Gaines' Mill - boy did I get a pasting from the dozens of 3k rebel brigades. Not by choice of scaling, but because I'm most comfortable with that brigade size - good firepower and reasonable mobility.
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The game already has troops marching in column when moving over large distances and it consumes less Condition - it's an automatic feature.
The ability to detach skirmishers used around 10% of the mother brigade in vanilla. However that was removed in this mod because you could abuse the feature far, far too much.
Cavalry is actually very ineffective against other brigades in melee. In melee they're only useful for chasing down already Routed units.
I think Cavalry already have some slight spotting bonuses over other units. In any case, you can pick up more spotting at a Vet 2 perk.
Would probably be a good idea. Whatever changes were made to Skirmishers were good in regards to the skirmishing behavior that they share with Cavalry.
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The point of Routing in this game, not the definition, is to get the unit out of danger. If you had it your way then the moment a unit Routs, that unit might as well get deleted because they'll just end up Shattering or Surrendering. Furthermore, real life doesn't particularly apply to this mod, as that is not the goal panda and jonny had when making it. Good gameplay and making it more difficult is the goal, which they have achieved for the most part, and won't really compromise on that, either.
I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about when you say enemy units flee out of pockets. I did that at Antietam and none of the enemy brigades survived, they all Surrendered. I have never experienced such a thing, in this mod or in vanilla for a very, very long time. If that does happen, then it can be no one's fault but your own.
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1 hour ago, limith said:
I've only used napoleons and ordnances and they feel balanced to me when parked behind an infantry. I haven't used artillery to spam enemy outside of my vision since it's a waste of ammo, and I don't do what The Soldier does with canistering only at melee range. If those are problems, they should be fixed, by adjusting the damage curve for example.
You're clearly not understanding my logic. If I've got a pile of ammunition next to me, then yes, I'll happily fire away at all targets (which is most battles). But when ammunition is scarce, like at Shiloh and Malvern Hill, you have to conserve your ammunition and wait for the right moment, otherwise you're going to end up with artillery reloading while a Rebel brigade is slicing up the frontline troops with impunity. While kills are definitely a part of it, it's about saving the guns for when you need them most. And because you save those guns for when you need them most, also end up with getting a large number of kills from canister.
1 hour ago, limith said:The only thing I want to avoid is vanilla where my cavalry cannot do their job, which is to chase down routed units, or to run down AI artillery/skirmishers who somehow can rout faster than cav (since my formerly 90 condition cav loses all of it's condition while slowly killing the routed unit on MG). I don't use my infantry to chase after enemies primarily (they do a bad enough job with rout modifier 1 as it is). This largely shouldn't impact me if I have the enemy surrounded with infantry as it is and they have no where to run. The other thing to avoid is making it so that the AI can escape a pocket (completely surrounded) by running through my unit sent to melee them, because that would be very annoying. As long as these are handled, I'm fine with whatever changes are made.
I don't think you understand what the point of Routing is.
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4 hours ago, killjoy1941 said:
I've literally never seen that in 1.12. Canister typically nets me 250 max unless I have 3-star, short-range focused batteries. My rookie 6lb guns at Shiloh were hardly even capable of vanilla casualties, with my best battery netting about 2,600 casualties having been incessantly firing the entire battle, and at canister/shell range the entire time as well. I've had 6lb batteries deal well over 4k in vanilla Shiloh.
20lb Parrots might be a little too effective, especially at range, but they're generally not getting over 2,500 kills per battle, and again, my vanilla 20lbers can and do deal far more damage. Chickamauga was the exception, but then I'd deliberately engaged scaling, so that was a 190,000-man battle. You kind of have to expect massive artillery scorecards in an environment like that.
On battle where ammunition is...limited, to say the least, you don't just do firing at enemy brigades in the distance. This is especially prevalent at Shiloh and Malvern Hill, where you almost always run out of ammunition for your guns before your second corps and arrive. Hold your fire until you can see the whites of their eyes - one battery of 12pdr Napoleons killed 3,000 Rebels at Shiloh, then 4,000 at Malvern Hill. Another battery of 20pdr Parrotts killed 2,000 at Gaines' Mill, and 4,000 at Malvern Hill. Two batteries are responsible for fully a third of casualties I inflicted on the enemy that day.
4 hours ago, limith said:This is abusing the scaling system if I did this with 1k infantry brigades and 6 gun artillery, so definitely not going to do this. Also having such large gun batteries means your cavalry will be useless since the AI artillery will be too large to charge with cavalry or infantry reliably. I never use more than 12 guns to keep AI artillery size low, usually 6 guns.
Not particularly. I'd like my army to be bigger but officer experience is really delaying that thought. I don't have many officers that can command brigades larger than 2500 strong or have batteries of guns larger than 14. Those who can are concentrated and given the best assets. If I really wanted the abuse the scaling system I'd make them all 8k strong, my current Infantry size cap, but I'm not.
Did you really just go out and ask if I'd installed the mod correctly...? I'll remember that in the future.
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6 hours ago, limith said:
I modded my game to have a skirmisher cap at 350 men, so that doesn't work. Also I find my skirmisher brigades lose leaders (KIA) to barely any fire whatsoever so I only ever run snipers (who don't get shot at to not lose leaders). Skirmishers seem to still be bugged in not firing automatically even with hold position off and it's not worth running large amounts of skirmishers in my army having to give them fire orders for every single volley. I can get 100% cover in most areas anyway with the right tactics, and I have +25% speed corps general and +speed 'rearguard/reserve' brigades in every division who moves about as fast as skirmishers. Skirmisher perks don't result in as much fire damage as maneuver infantry, and infantry don't need to be micro'd to fire every single volley. If I needed light infantry to hold the enemy's attention in no cover terrain then I'm doing something wrong, such as approaching from the wrong direction or not lining my units up properly for a charge. If you position units correctly you can have infantry in no cover firing at the enemy in cover without getting shot at (basically take advantage of the way the AI does targeting priority)
Ah, that's a pity then - with the skirmisher size reduction you're missing out on a lot of good opportunities. Just for the record, of the now 8 Light Infantry skirmishers I have, I've only had one commanding officer killed, and none wounded (poor John Sedgwick). +100% does wonderful things, you know.
At Iuka I had 1800 enemies firing Sharps carbines into a single brigade of Light Infantry skirmishers and they did not take a single loss for quite a few volleys. Also, I find that I don't need to do much microing for my light infantry skirmishers. If they need to hold the line while taking direct fire I tell them to Hold Position, and if not, they have a reasonable sense of self-preservation to avoid most threats while keeping fire on them when required. Using P53 Enfields on them also results in them being extremely proficient in melee, so even if they do get caught out they can care for themselves. They usually perform just as well as my infantry brigades do, except they're much more satisfying to use. They reflect Modern Infantry tactics very well...
(if you couldn't tell, of all the changes this mod made, this was my favorite
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As for surrendering - I forced 17 enemy units to surrender at Antietam, 10k Rebels in total (out of 40k total, similar to historical unit sizes). And all of that when my cavalry was out prancing about after supply (which they captured loads of). A unit is vastly more likely to surrender if it is Routed, in melee, and taking rifle fire while not near a unit with higher than Wavering morale. Cavalry can do nothing to force surrenders if no one's there to shoot at them. This is especially prevalent after I've changed Routing speed to 3 (as it will be in the future, currently it's set to 1). Good luck capturing after that change, though there is a silver lining - any units of your own that get Routed get out of danger much faster with the "stickiness" being felt less, which is well worth the trade.
I also don't use Horse Artillery very much. I've got it on my batteries in my mobile corps, but not anywhere else. Extra range and reduced reload is just far too valuable when my guns can just keep up with the infantry, or are static in defense (as they have been in most of the previous Grand Battles). Let me tell you, 12pdr Napoleons with -30% Reload or -15% Reload and +50% Shell / Shot damage is something to fear. They'll get off 2 canister volleys, or 3 with -30% Reload, before an enemy brigade has a change to Rout out of range. Those rebels suffered mighty at the hands of my cannon at Malvern Hill, payback for the whipping I got at Gaines' Mill.
I find having a division of 3k brigades plus a 44 gun battery as the army reserve is a wonderful asset to have. One division-sized battering ram where ever needed, to plug or make one helluva gap in the line. Speaking of, once you get Level 10 Training and Economy, well, you have so much money to throw around that you might as well fuel the men's camp fires with it. So cost is actually a nill issue for me by Fredricksburg, at which point there's not a single smoothbore musket left in circulation.
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21 minutes ago, killjoy1941 said:
Artillery is no longer OP, but counter-battery is still effective and worth dedicated batteries.
When a 14-gun battery of rookie 6pdr Field Guns can get 120 kills in a single canister blast, or when a Vet 1 unit of 18 Napleons gets 500 kills in a single canister volley, something tells me that is a bit overpowered.
22 minutes ago, killjoy1941 said:Skirmishers gradually come into their own, then become quite powerful.
I highly suggest running a set of skirmishers (at either 375 size or 1000 size before the update with reworked size modifiers gets released) with infantry rifles like the P53 Enfield and using what I call the "light infantry" or "Zouaves" route, the mobility branch that grants extra cover and speed. A combination of the new perks, the ability to use infantry rifles, and larger sizes makes mobility focused skirmishers incredibly effective, both in their ability to hold the line and push it forward. Of course a 1000 man skirmisher brigade, even at Vet 2, isn't going to be as powerful as a 2,000 man infantry brigade (even with the monstrous +100% Cover you get from Fieldcraft and Open Order Infantry), they are definitely capable units. The sheer mobility and flexibility the Zouave route grants is definitely worth having 2 or 3 of these units in each of your Corps. I've got 7 of these units in my army currently, and they've proved their combat capabilities very well. Open Order Infantry is the way forward my friend - it is the future.
37 minutes ago, killjoy1941 said:Cavalry is finally balanced between melee and skirmish. You can build for either and viably gain experience.
Eh, I'm not impressed by cavalry currently. The breachloading carbines just don't have enough punch, even on dismounted 1000-man Cavalry brigades. I ran a division of these at Antietam and Iuka and they just haven't been able to do much. Shock cavalry is only useful for chasing down isolated, Routing units, which is a rare occurrence.
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Yes, both the Corps Strategist perk and the Artillery Logistics perk both work now. Was noted in the 1.10 update notes.
J & P Rebalance Mod by JonnyH13 and Pandakraut 05/06/2023 1.28.4
in General Discussions
Posted
Judging from the LeMat still using the old, vanilla icon, I'd say he's more than a couple minor revisions back.