Features I would like to see modded

[BCH]

Cavalry on the move at 80 to 100% starting condition should never be caught by charging infantry (i.e. resulting in Melee) unless they were starting in close proximity, and I doubt many humans are going to catch a horse in the short term. There is a horse vs. man race in Wales.. over 22 miles it is extremely rare that any of the horses lose.

Limbered Artillery batteries given a 'gallop' button (similar to infantry quick march); with a huge recovery penalty (condition) for subsequent movement  (you might be firing your guns but the horses need time to recover).

Match total number of guns in a battery to movement rate; all other things being equal a 4 gun battery should be able to move faster than an 8 gun battery due to less congestion.

Slight up-tweak to melee values on standard issue firearms; an 1861 Springfield was not inferior to earlier muskets in regards to hand to hand combat.

I am currently cleaning and preserving (not restoring) a CSA Fayetteville Rile/Musket that is an example of beating swords into plowshares, or in this case turning an instrument of war into a shotgun. The barrel all by itself would make an excellent cudgel for braining some poor soul. (Cautionary note here: never assume antique weapons are unloaded; this barrel had in it some sort of gun powder, wadded paper and deteriorated lead shot which had turned to lead oxide; all unbeknownst to the family which had owned it for the last 80-90 years).

Improve the ability of small units (300 or less) to remain hidden if they are in 100% cover and have not moved, up to the point an enemy unit comes within half their firing range.

Introduce Coehorn mortars for skirmisher units. This would reduce movement speed.

Create the ability of Cavalry to detach scouts, 2% of total not to exceed 20.

 

[The Soldier]

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.

[pandakraut]

Cavalry speed and rifle melee values can be changed fairly easily. Though with the cavalry speed that's more of an overall unit speed issue. Just giving cavalry a speed bonus when they are at high condition causes issues because the faster a unit moves the less time it spends in terrain that drops condition. It's very easy to boost their speed to much and then they just zip back and forth across the map until they engage in melee.

My guess is that rifle melee values have more to do with game balance than any actual realism. Anyone with more historical knowledge please correct me here, but unless the rifles in question are different lengths or significantly different weights one will serve as a club or spear just as well as another.

If you want to change the melee values see this link.

4 hours ago, BCH said:

Limbered Artillery batteries given a 'gallop' button (similar to infantry quick march); with a huge recovery penalty (condition) for subsequent movement  (you might be firing your guns but the horses need time to recover).

I can see if it's possible to enable a run button for units other than infantry, but unless the UI automatically adds the button when it's enabled this won't be possible. Might be able to hack something together if you're willing to add functionality or re purpose the hold fire or limbering buttons or something like that.

4 hours ago, BCH said:

Match total number of guns in a battery to movement rate; all other things being equal a 4 gun battery should be able to move faster than an 8 gun battery due to less congestion.

The difficulty here would be getting the movement rate to update as guns are lost, though I think it's still workable.

4 hours ago, BCH said:

Improve the ability of small units (300 or less) to remain hidden if they are in 100% cover and have not moved, up to the point an enemy unit comes within half their firing range.

Increasing stealth for small units in cover is possible. The not moved part I'm not sure how to code. Would need to experiment and see if I could get anything to work. This would really only work for the player, the AI will start firing as soon as a unit enters in range. I also suspect the AI would respond to this very poorly. It does not handle getting shot from hidden units well at all.

4 hours ago, BCH said:

Introduce Coehorn mortars for skirmisher units. This would reduce movement speed.

The big restriction here is available weapons. One of the carbines would have to get re purposed as the mortar. Your options are basically to have skirmishers with very slow reloading cannon stats or to rework an existing cannon into a mortar with a move speed bonus. If you want to have any kind of setup time you'd have to go with the artillery base. How do you see this as differing in terms of gameplay from a faster 6pdr or 12pdr?

4 hours ago, BCH said:

Create the ability of Cavalry to detach scouts, 2% of total not to exceed 20.

This is possible though it's mostly dependent on how many bugs are you willing to put up with or spend a lot of time trying to fix. A unit that size would likely die to anything that fires at it as well.

 

[BCH]

2 hours ago, pandakraut said:

A unit that size would likely die to anything that fires at it as well. 

Yep, discovered scouts had a very short life expectancy; I would want scouts to find the enemy before my main units blunder into them.

[BCH]

2 hours ago, pandakraut said:

The big restriction here is available weapons. One of the carbines would have to get re purposed as the mortar. Your options are basically to have skirmishers with very slow reloading cannon stats or to rework an existing cannon into a mortar with a move speed bonus. If you want to have any kind of setup time you'd have to go with the artillery base. How do you see this as differing in terms of gameplay from a faster 6pdr or 12pdr?

Perhaps it becomes another artillery battery; it was a true indirect fire piece; the smaller ones carried around by 2-4 men (which is why I was thinking small infantry units such as skirmishers).  It would have zero canister ability, excellent mid-range, and limited extreme range. They were mostly used against true fortifications and breastworks.

[BCH]

3 hours ago, pandakraut said:

It does not handle getting shot from hidden units well at all.

Yep.. true ambush.

[BCH]

3 hours ago, pandakraut said:

My guess is that rifle melee values have more to do with game balance than any actual realism

I was afraid that was the case; and I was only looking for a slight increase in some of the weapons. And perhaps even a slight increase for the 1861 Springfield for example would make it OP.

[BCH]

3 hours ago, pandakraut said:

Just giving cavalry a speed bonus when they are at high condition causes issues because the faster a unit moves the less time it spends in terrain that drops condition.

I see that especially on smaller maps, that would create a problem.

Just annoying to have an Infantry unit catch up to a cavalry unit across an open field at 3 times the Inf. unit's firing range.

[BCH]

3 hours ago, pandakraut said:

unless the rifles in question are different lengths or significantly different weights one will serve as a club or spear just as well as another.

That is pretty much correct, there were some issues with bayonets on certain models that made them less effective in that way, but they all function well as clubs.  Artillery crews used their rammers and handspikes to good effect when defending their guns. (some interesting first hand accounts from both sides on the heroic defense of a battery)

And then there are several documented cases where upon running out of ammunition, the company started throwing rocks to great effect.

[BCH]

Just thinking outside of the box on those suggestions..

[The Soldier]

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.

[pandakraut]

30 minutes ago, BCH said:

Yep.. true ambush.

This sounds like it'd be very easy to exploit the AI and abuse since they will just stand around and ignore fire from an unknown source most of the time.

29 minutes ago, BCH said:

I was afraid that was the case; and I was only looking for a slight increase in some of the weapons. And perhaps even a slight increase for the 1861 Springfield for example would make it OP.

This isn't to say that they shouldn't be changed, just looking to provide an explanation for why stats might be the way they are currently. In the rebalance mod for example we generally have two sets of rifles at every tier. One with good melee values, one with lower melee values. Part of this is based around the AI preferring the melee heavy ones which tends to lead to better AI behavior. But it also provides a trade off for the player in terms of deciding which type of unit needs which weapon. 

40 minutes ago, BCH said:

Just annoying to have an Infantry unit catch up to a cavalry unit across an open field at 3 times the Inf. unit's firing range.

Does this really come up unless the cavalry is tired? I don't recall running into it very often.

58 minutes ago, BCH said:

Perhaps it becomes another artillery battery; it was a true indirect fire piece; the smaller ones carried around by 2-4 men (which is why I was thinking small infantry units such as skirmishers).  It would have zero canister ability, excellent mid-range, and limited extreme range. They were mostly used against true fortifications and breastworks.

There are some interesting possibilities here for both the player and the AI. Will discuss with Jonny.

[JonnyH13]

18 hours ago, BCH said:

Cavalry on the move at 80 to 100% starting condition should never be caught by charging infantry (i.e. resulting in Melee) unless they were starting in close proximity, and I doubt many humans are going to catch a horse in the short term. There is a horse vs. man race in Wales.. over 22 miles it is extremely rare that any of the horses lose.

Limbered Artillery batteries given a 'gallop' button (similar to infantry quick march); with a huge recovery penalty (condition) for subsequent movement  (you might be firing your guns but the horses need time to recover).

Match total number of guns in a battery to movement rate; all other things being equal a 4 gun battery should be able to move faster than an 8 gun battery due to less congestion.

Slight up-tweak to melee values on standard issue firearms; an 1861 Springfield was not inferior to earlier muskets in regards to hand to hand combat.

I am currently cleaning and preserving (not restoring) a CSA Fayetteville Rile/Musket that is an example of beating swords into plowshares, or in this case turning an instrument of war into a shotgun. The barrel all by itself would make an excellent cudgel for braining some poor soul. (Cautionary note here: never assume antique weapons are unloaded; this barrel had in it some sort of gun powder, wadded paper and deteriorated lead shot which had turned to lead oxide; all unbeknownst to the family which had owned it for the last 80-90 years).

Improve the ability of small units (300 or less) to remain hidden if they are in 100% cover and have not moved, up to the point an enemy unit comes within half their firing range.

Introduce Coehorn mortars for skirmisher units. This would reduce movement speed.

Create the ability of Cavalry to detach scouts, 2% of total not to exceed 20.

 

 

10 hours ago, BCH said:

Perhaps it becomes another artillery battery; it was a true indirect fire piece; the smaller ones carried around by 2-4 men (which is why I was thinking small infantry units such as skirmishers).  It would have zero canister ability, excellent mid-range, and limited extreme range. They were mostly used against true fortifications and breastworks.

 

In regards to Limbered artillery "running" I think you can bypass the button and use the hotkey to get them to run.  Not sure though.  Would be nice if it were added though it might make the horse arty perk redundant.

Speed by unit size would be good if it is possible.  Adding it on top of the Gun Type speed penalty we have in the test bed might make the horse arty perk still viable.

The weapon melee are set as they are due to balancing reasons and to try and emulate the overall performance of either side in regards to melee and general decisive action.  

I am currently working on line of sight overall.  It is taking some time to figure out but I am sure you can eventually ambush the enemy (and they you if you are not careful).

I would rather not have cavalry or any unit in fact be able to detach so long as any critical bugs remain with them.  Also detached units will not get any perks which is not really good.  Just get 3 star cav scouts.

In regards to Coehorn Mortars.  I am interested.  Ill make something up in the near future.  

[jonparkis]

Yeah :) It will be looks like enable "nitro" in da NFS :D 

But Yes. Its good idea btw!

On 8/17/2018 at 3:27 PM, JonnyH13 said:

 

 

In regards to Limbered artillery "running" I think you can bypass the button and use the hotkey to get them to run.  Not sure though.  Would be nice if it were added though it might make the horse arty perk redundant.

Speed by unit size would be good if it is possible.  Adding it on top of the Gun Type speed penalty we have in the test bed might make the horse arty perk still viable.

The weapon melee are set as they are due to balancing reasons and to try and emulate the overall performance of either side in regards to melee and general decisive action.  

I am currently working on line of sight overall.  It is taking some time to figure out but I am sure you can eventually ambush the enemy (and they you if you are not careful).

I would rather not have cavalry or any unit in fact be able to detach so long as any critical bugs remain with them.  Also detached units will not get any perks which is not really good.  Just get 3 star cav scouts.

In regards to Coehorn Mortars.  I am interested.  Ill make something up in the near future.  

 

[GAR_Arapharzon]

What I would like to see: I think that you as a player should be the one deciding on promotions. If you want to keep a great regimental leader a colonel or BG, so be it. OR, you can promote your artillery captain to corps command, with disastrous results. Skill does not equal rank. You can promote anyone you like, but the SKILL of that general should be outside your control. Skill is gained by the officers after fighting battles and should increase after time. Someone could be very skilled as a leader of an artilley bat, but be terrible as a division commander of infantry.

[olddog73153]

Yes I would like to see also faster moving artillery,  mainly the 6 pd artillery,  love to deploy fast moving artillery with my Cavalry Division. I would think it more historical that theses light guns be able to move faster that the other heavier guns 10 pd or greater. 

Infantry: Brigades broken down into regiments of 3 to 5. Starting regiment 1000 men. Finally the ability to fortify (dig-in) based on terrain like woods. based on time not being moved.

[pandakraut]

Different speeds for artillery based on weight is in the rebalance mod currently. Just a light, medium, heavy system though.

[Butch]

Fifes and drums anyone?  

[adishee]

On 8/16/2018 at 7:55 PM, BCH said:

Cavalry on the move at 80 to 100% starting condition should never be caught by charging infantry (i.e. resulting in Melee) unless they were starting in close proximity, and I doubt many humans are going to catch a horse in the short term. There is a horse vs. man race in Wales.. over 22 miles it is extremely rare that any of the horses lose.

I've already implemented a feature in my submod that units being charged get a speed boost, because of this exact complaint.