icefenix

What I meant by splash damage was that in the situation pictured, you don't have to hit what you are aiming for to kill an enemy due to the density (as you mention above). Splash damage is probably a bad term for what I'm trying to describe.... For example in that situation the union shot canister into the formation and it seemed like it only hit one unit. I would imagine in such a tightly packed formation canister would obliterate huge swaths of men on many different regiments. Also it seemed like when units shoot at one another they only score damage against one unit. I gamed this by putting bullet sponges to soak up volleys even though "misses" would probably kill men in the regiment behind the bullet sponge as well. These sponges will retreat but will still be targeted allowing the fresh units to get to hand-to-hand combat unscathed. This is a huge advantage for confed's nullifying Union rifles and artillery. But this seems a moot point since Nick said collateral damage will be in the next patch so I think this blob will be mow'ed down realistically. Your information is also very interesting, do you have sources I could read to learn more? As for trying to setup a historic Napoleonic column... I just had my troops move through the enemy. I believe in marching column they get a speed boost so I wanted to close the gap quickly, and without the collateral damage implemented its not like they were being shot at really. Fun note, even if you try to force column, the units will deploy to line and volley if they have 100% reload. So it takes a little micro to keep them moving.

If you spam fall back you get a morale boost, then just send them back into the line. I just rotate my units like this as the AI does not do a good job of rotating in my opinion. What I don't understand is how morale works in charges/melee battles, sometimes I have units that are engaged but suffer zero morale loss and the other side seems to be wiped out.

The contours are helpful but the contour interval is all over the place, for someone who uses actual topo maps I get a brain fart when I try to use the lines. For example just south of the town you go from 500 to 488 with one contour line and then you drop from 488 to 424 in 3 contour lines. On Herr's ridge it goes from 460 to 468 in 3 contour lines. On Mc Pherson's ridge the high point is listed at 448. If you follow the third contour down to Lutheran seminary, it takes seven contour lines to get to 445. On Oak Ridge and Lutheran Seminary it you go from a table of 456 to a saddle and then what seems to be back up to 445. I'm assuming 445 is marking a high point, and if it is, the contour that 445 is on should actually be higher than 456 since it uses more contour lines to get there. If it is a depression then depression contour lines should be used so we don't put our artillery in a pit. If anyone wants to learn more page 12 is a good place to start. http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/475/PMS475_chap2a.pdf

So I was trying to break the game yesterday and I came up with an old SMA tactic where I used a human wave to overwhelm a small section of the line by using three brigades as the primary bullet sponges for the primary core of my force. Inspired by reading about Napoleon's use of 'Column', note I'm not ACW or Napoleonic tactics historian so I'm just approaching this from a game perspective...... So I tried the column formation again on Day 3 Pickett's charge (see image) On walk speed I was able to have my line contact theirs with only one of the three bullet sponges routing, though I was under artillery and rifle fire the entire time. The AI counter charged with all their forces but I was able to hold my ground and defeat all counter attacks. The battle ended 20k Union dead to 10k Confederates. This is not a post about Confed/Union balance, rather I'd like to bring up the battle mechanics. Having ~15k men charging a small section of a battle line is a pretty daunting sight, I would assume that the sheer mass of this force would break any first line of defense and split an opposing army. Watching volleys, shell, canister, and ball only effect individual units, even though, I had many men overlap was immersion breaking. With that many men tightly packed I assume aiming was hardly needed as guns only needed to point at large, deeply packed mass, to rapidly bring down troops. If someone just saw hundreds of men die feet from them, I would assume they would start being a little scared as well. As it stands even after being shot at for the entire advance I had ~70% fully effective/moral'd units right in the middle of the Union line. On another note I've been the Union and seen this mass charge used by the AI to route my lines even though I had superior position and focused firepower on their overlapping units. So some thoughts... 1. Implement splash damage on artillery and rifles - May be difficult if the bullets we see are cosmetic and do not actually take into account landing point, therefore splash damage would look very very weird. 2. Apply morale de-buffs on surrounding units when a unit hits certain morale conditions - Could throw off game balance because of Union troops being of lesser quality, therefore making it much harder to hold a line with morale de-buffs going off everywhere. 3. Apply negative cover de-buff when moving and when overstacked with troops - could help simulate too many troops in one area, but sometimes the individual unit AI will move on its own causing itself to get in more trouble then just sitting still Just wanted to share.

Stuck movement arrows/UI Crash. So I found variations of this bug surfacing. When I try on Picketts charge on day 3, or any battle with a enough units to get the selection box bug, and select an individual unit, I get some kind of interface bug/crash. Reproduction steps: 1. Go to pickets charge battle, day 3. 2. Draw a huge box to select pretty much the entire center of the confederate army (see attachment), you will see the first post's bug 3. Clt+Left Click one of the 'bugged' units that should be selected and try to move it with the entire group. All user input will not be registered. Movement arrows may or may not follow mouse. HOWEVER, I've tried this on July 2nd Morning, Confeds attack Cemetery hill first thing in the morning and was able to eventually recover after clicking the left mouse button many times. Reproduction steps: 1. Go to confeds attack cementery hill, day 2. 2. Draw a huge box to select pretty much the entire center of the confederate army you will see the first post's bug 3. Clt+Left Click one of the 'bugged' units that should be selected and try to move it with the entire group. All user input will not be registered. Movement arrow follows mouse. 4. Left click like crazy, eventually interface will unfreeze.

Select group Bug CLT+Drag: I selected a huge portion of the army, unfortunately some units decided that they did not want to be grouped. See image. As you can see I selected and moved a lot of units, and can move them on top and bottom. But some of the units in the middle, eg. Scales, Pettigrew, and some of the arty units behind them were not selected. It seems like this bug only occurs when selecting many units far apart and need large boxes. Smaller boxes can reliably select groups of units, even if there are many in the box. Playing around it seems like position of box relative to units determine where the dead-zone exists.

Edited for formatting: (stupid tables) I did some testing and here are my results. I did with new key-bindings on the commands and I got the same results. The most interesting is Hold Case 2 vs. Charge Case 2. Default Key-Binding, No unit selected, Listed by command Hold CASE 1: No units selected, hit hold, interface breaks CASE 2: Select a unit, issue a move command, unselect unit, hit hold, interface breaks ChargeCASE 1: No units selected, hit charge, interface breaks. CASE 2: Select a unit, issue a move command, then unselect unit, hit charge interface is normal. CASE 3: After reset battle, no units selected, hit charge interface breaks Ammo Selection Normal, nothing happens --------- Another interface bug: It seems like binding anything to the numbers on top of the keyboard DOES NOT WORK, but it does show Alpha1 on the bind menu. Also, the keypad does not register at all on the bind menu when trying to bind keys.

When you play a side, Union or Confed, you can rotate opposing units. Steps to reproduce: 1. Start a new game. 2. Left-Click/select on one of your units. 3. Rotate opposing force with the middle mouse button. Obviously not WAD. Good luck, Andrew