Most confusing part of Spring:1944?

[yuritch]

Units that use ammo system (tanks, guns, etc., but not inf) have little icons that indicate how many ammo they have left. That's about it currently.

[G-man]

I think that infantry should be produced and managed like teams or squads, not as every individual (like in Close Combat series). It would add great tactical value to the gameplay and sanity of the players.

[yuritch]

Have you played the game? Inf is built in squads since forever already...

[FLOZi]

I think he means he wants to control squads as a single entity as well as build them like that.

However I (and Nemo) disagree; we feel that the ability to control individual squad members adds tactical value, not controlling them en bloc.

[G-man]

Sorry, I forgot units are built in squads, I haven't played 1944 for quite a while now . Maybe I didn't try hard enough, but managing hundreds of units can sometimes get very frantic, which results in casualties. Maybe there could be squad controlling added as an option, a Lua script maybe?

[pintle]

Sorry, I forgot units are built in squads, I haven't played 1944 for quite a while now . Maybe I didn't try hard enough, but managing hundreds of units can sometimes get very frantic, which results in casualties. Maybe there could be squad controlling added as an option, a Lua script maybe?

What, specifically, would "squad control" allow that binding a group of units to a control group would not?

[Gota]

Most confusing part for me is why there is still no nazi zombie mode...

[G-man]

Sorry, I forgot units are built in squads, I haven't played 1944 for quite a while now . Maybe I didn't try hard enough, but managing hundreds of units can sometimes get very frantic, which results in casualties. Maybe there could be squad controlling added as an option, a Lua script maybe?

What, specifically, would "squad control" allow that binding a group of units to a control group would not?

When you amass a lot of infantry, it's good to have a more strategic control over units. You are limited to only 10 squads with control grouping and you have to fiddle and waste time with selecting and assigning units to groups. It's easier to handle the units in the heat of the battle too. It worked pretty well in Close Combat - at least for me :)

I think it would be at least worth trying this, do some mockup grouping with Lua or something like that.

[Neddie]

He was asking what this entails - being able to select a squad from a single icon? There are various options we could consider, but I would prefer to be able to control units individually by default, as I already do.

[JohannesH]

Only 10 groups, how many you need?

[Neddie]

Only 10 groups, how many you need?

Well, I know that in some planned missions I would have the AI controlling upwards of forty groups, so it only makes sense to permit people the same amount of control. Valid question, though.

[Das Bruce]

Age of Empires had the option to group units in a generic group or a numbered group, generic groups would be selected completely when you clicked on one unit just like numbered groups, the only difference being the number hotkey. Something like this might be nice for the more specialist teams, mortars etc.

[pintle]

Couldn't you do something with lua, so that alt+ctrl+ any number key would allow you a second set of groups through 1->0?

The engine has some ancient hardcoded stuff allowing you to give a lab orders so that it waits until X number of units are gathered at a waypoint before moving on iirc. Could that be of use?

In Gundam, squads exist where you can only select and order the squad leader, with the other units in the group maintaining coherency with that individual. You obviously cannot micro as well, and focusing fire really suffers. Balance issue? Smoth just made them cheaper, taking into account that the squad is not equivalent to the same units, separately selectable.

In Sins of a Solar Empire, the fleet management works pretty well. You have a whole nested "empire tree" where you can select anything you like, but when zoomed out to a strategic scale, you can see the fleet icon hovering above the capital ship leading the fleet. Click the icon, select the whole fleet; it also appears in the empire tree. Ships which move near to the fleet will auto join, provided it is enabled (I set shipyard's waypoint on the fleet itself).

S44 never gets to the scale where you would need stuff like that to the extent you do in Sins, but it struck me as a nice way to deal with overwhelming numbers of units in play.

I remain not entirely convinced that there is a real need for an enhanced selection scheme, particularly in the context of open source/free time development. I think the team have enough to be doing right now :)