Picking units is an interesting decision relevant to strategy and tactics. Aside from where to move units, it really is the fundamental decision of gameplay. So, we don't want to automate that.lurker wrote:Why don't we take the opposite reasoning to its 'logical conclusion'. It's too hard and pointless to make people pick which units they want, it should all be done automatically. Same for all army controls; micro is pointless. Why should I have to press a bunch of buttons and click things to play?
See, strawman arguements are pointless and only make you look foolish.
You are, however, asking exactly the right question. We should be questioning everything that isn't automatic in the game and constantly asking ourselves whether or not it's fun. Giving factories the same build and initial move order every 30 seconds isn't fun - so we automate it.
Hiding information from a player who hasn't memorized it is also not fun. Requiring the player to use the interface in a very unsual and nonintuitive way - pretending to build one of his own structures atop the ghosted one and then drawing a circle around the perimeter - is extremely unfun. So, thank you to the devs for automating the chore.
More generally, we should expect a "skilled" player to win more. This is perfectly fine. However we do need to ask ourselves exactly what skills we want to value. Memorization is a skill. So is clicking speed. But those aren't why I'm playing Spring - I'm playing for strategic and tactical thinking, and entirely different kind of skill.
