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Issues regarding gameplay mechanics


Losenis

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I've been playing this game for a good while and, while it's fantastic and entertaining, I've found a few problems that sometimes even makes me ragequit a match and restart it. I haven't clocked in the triple digits in hours played in total, but I'm nearing that number, so I feel that this isn't a fault in what I do as a whole. Do mind that I am purely referring to single player, not multiplayer.

 

I'd like to start this with the problem regarding retreating mechanics. Once a unit hits zero morale, it routs. I've been led to believe that it would rout AWAY from the closest unit or the unit it's being fired upon by, but as I kept playing it seemed to not be the case. That in itself isn't that great of an issue, but the actual problem is that, unless a clear line is formed as the game intends it, they'll even rout through your units. The routing unit will still be capable of fighting despite retreating, and since it's already routing, there's absolutely no way to dislodge it and instead you're condemned to see it running through your units. This lowers their condition and stops them completely as they're now stuck in a melee, along with suffering casualties because of it. You'd be lucky if you're not already in combat and need that unit firing.

 

http://i.imgur.com/xs3tv8q.jpg

In this picture you can see a unit of skirmishers routing. As can be seen, it's routing towards my main line on McPherson's ridge. Later it'd run through Davis locking it in melee and dropping its condition a bit, and also lock my cannons in melee. Before that, as it decided to rout towards my units instead of away, my cannons started shooting at them instead of Iron Brigade and Cutler. It overrided the new orders because the skirmisher unit was closer and closer each time.

http://i.imgur.com/rLcHWXT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bAum2A0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sUlSItx.jpg

Should speak for itself. Last picture also shows Archer unable to fire at Biddle and Cutler due to those routing skirmishers. There was another instance with videttes instead, but posting it would be redundant.

 

http://i.imgur.com/QIZMWm7.jpg

Same issue here, but with the AI on the receiving end. Pettigrew once was down there with the rest of 3rd Corps after a flanking maneuver, though it, for some reason, decided to retreat through the union lines that withdrawed to cemetery to defend it. I do not understand why, as there were no enemy units to the south of it to force it to retreat north. What ended up happening? Pettigrew received immense losses, and ended up cut off from 3rd Corps. It not only devastated it, but also left it out of the southern group to return and aid once it recovered morale, so in effect this retreat just costed me a whole unit for that group that isn't able to regroup with its corps.

 

Issue here? The units retreat through other units, despite any sane person, or even the AI itself when it's not retreating, would avoid like the plague. A possible solution I can think of would be to actually have the routing unit's behaviour continuously refresh and change according to the closest units and actively run away from the closest ones instead of deciding for a direction and then ignoring all else, even units that intercept it despite being able to easily avoid them otherwise. I don't know the difficulty of this nor what it'd affect, I'm just a player without knowledge of coding or programming, so I'm just stabbing the dark.

 

 

The second issue is the damage output of units.

 

http://i.imgur.com/7agEdfq.jpg

Here we see Archer shooting at Biddle from higher ground while in cover, while Biddle is out in the open with no cover whatsoever. Logic would say Biddle would suffer massive casualties in comparison to Archer, but what actually ended up happening was that both units suffered the same casualties in volleys. Archer would kill roughly five to twenty men each volley, and Biddle would kill the same. Condition didn't play a factor as both were extremely low after Biddle's retreat after retreat and coming back. I can't see the logic of it at all unless the amount of 'kills' a unit has varies depending on whether it's union or confederate. I know that the Union has a certain bonus on firepower, but if it does, why would it be damage output instead of, say, reload speed? Drilling would certainly affect the person instead of the musket's accuracy or power.

 

This has been happening in other situations too. A two-star confederate unit could be placed on top of a ridge in slight cover firing at another two-star union unit down and in the open, and the confederate one would suffer massive losses. No matter which side I play, it always seems to be the confederates to take the greatest casualties in firepower, though not for logical reasons. In each battle played and won, it's either Union winning with negligible losses in comparison to the confederacy's massive casualties, even sometimes 3k in the first day, or the confederacy winning yet with far more casualties in comparison.

 

 

The issue about damage also spreads to other units, namely groups.

 

http://i.imgur.com/BkibLnq.jpg

Here one can see that the union is completely bunched up, being fired upon by confederate units higher above that are well-placed. In a real situation, all those union units would suffer far more casualties due to the high concentration of units, since a round has far more chances to hit someone. It's only emphasized by the difference in ground level.

 

What ended up happening? At best ten killed in each volley to a single unit. I'm not entirely sure what could be the correct number, and I'm not going to say something like a hundred kills each volley for all those four units would be sensible, but it was surprising to see that the damage was to a single unit, and so low too as it did the same damage to my units.  Thomas could target Baxter, and it would take most of the damage, with the remaining three barely taking a single casualty at all.

 

This was all happening for a while now. I'm not entirely sure if this patch fixed these things, but after playing around a bit more it seems it hasn't.

 

As of this patch, though, another thing started happening. Namely, this:

http://i.imgur.com/l0hHHjT.jpg

A quick recap is that when one of the skirmisher units was at McPherson's ridge, I ordered to charge. Archer charged, and beat them back to the point it engaged the cannons too. I Corps arrived, so I decided to let the cannons rout out the man due to low numbers, and reposition Archer in the forested area. Part of it followed, but the other part kept chasing the skirmishers that routed to the south-west. Trying to repeatedly order Archer to move did nothing, and the fallback option at that point was grayed out, so nothing I could do. By the time they started answering, Iron Brigade and Cutler were already shooting due to part of Archer's brigade reaching Seminary Ridge.

 

 

These were the issues I wanted to bring to light. I do apologize if this is the wrong forum or if this has been discussed to death already, but I enjoy this game and want to see it become better with each passing patch.

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Thank you for your detailed feedback. I would like to clarify some things related to your questions:

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/7agEdfq.jpg

Here we see Archer shooting at Biddle from higher ground while in cover, while Biddle is out in the open with no cover whatsoever. Logic would say Biddle would suffer massive casualties in comparison to Archer, but what actually ended up happening was that both units suffered the same casualties in volleys. Archer would kill roughly five to twenty men each volley, and Biddle would kill the same. 

 

Elevation and cover give much benefit to a unit but these are not the only factors playing role. Numbers, condition, efficiency of units may override terrain benefits in a given situation. For example Archer here is not defending a large hill but a very slight terrain slope and his adversary is more fresh and has more troops. 

 

About retreating units, there is known issue that has not been fully solved, and cannot be solved without some risky code repairs. In most cases retreat works but sometimes units will be confused when they are 100% blocked by enemies and will attempt to escape map, disregarding nearby enemies.

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/BkibLnq.jpg

Here one can see that the union is completely bunched up, being fired upon by confederate units higher above that are well-placed. In a real situation, all those union units would suffer far more casualties due to the high concentration of units, since a round has far more chances to hit someone. It's only emphasized by the difference in ground level.

 

About damage on multiple units. Collateral damage is effective. You deal more damage to massed troops instead of isolated single units. Cover and other factors, such as distance and flank attacks filter this damage. It is a matter of balance how many casualties are made in each volley. In this image that you share it is hard to understand if there is an issue or not, because generally it is possible to eradicate hundreds of men with well placed attacks, or you can fire for many minutes with minimal effect.  It all depends from cover, distance, angle of attack and of course sometimes, luck.

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I see now, but though that removes some possible causes about it, I'm now left with no idea on what is actually happening. Attempting to play Union against a Determined Confederacy resulted in me steamrolling them to the ground the first day with just Iron Brigade and Cutler in Seminary Ridge and Oak Ridge respectively, and just adding brigades as they appear with the available artillery between them as they fit, with the remaining on the southern portion of Seminary. I keep seeing the confederate units having an awfully low killcount per volley compared to the union in most situations no matter which side I play. The disparity in killcount snowballs after each engagement. This is just an observation though. If it's meant to work that way, then I'll not press the issue any more.

 

That aside, there's another issue with the AI itself that I have begun seeing. It's suicidal at times. I may have a strong fortified position in the ridges, and they send a brigade or two. I defeat it. No issue here. However, they keep sending them on and on and on despite having to walk through open ground while bombarded by most if not all my artillery, despite other attack alternatives existing, and the exact same attacks having failed yet now trying them again with lower manpower, morale, and condition.They don't seem to save their forces for the next round if there is just no way to attack safely either such as in the first day, instead keep pushing as if it was the last remaining chance they had, leaving them with horribly low numbers next round. At certain points it gets ridiculous, too, since a match that I had against a balanced confederate AI resulted in 4800 casualties for him the first battle, 6000+ the second, and 8000+ the third battle where I absolutely surrounded their forces specifically because of how weakened they remained, winning the game. It only gets worse when they leave their brigades out to be continuously bombarded and not having them back off when there isn't any threat that would demand they stay there in such situation.

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