[.915] Tactical positioning

from Elemental Forums

Since the days of D&D tabletop, positioning (travel order) has been important for the beginning of tactical combat.  As it is, the AI code for auto-positioning does a poor job of deciding who gets placed on the front line, and who is blocking whom, especially when your armies get larger.  I often find my warrior/defender/assassin champs stuck behind my ranged groups.  Heh, no (sane) ranged unit would volunteer to stand in front of their protection when going into battle (especially when picking a fight with frothing-at-the-mouth beasties with charge).

I realize there are simply too many fights to add a positioning phase on the tactical map where players could set their own units (within a small area equal to the number of units in their army).  But instead of tweaking the AI, perhaps you could let players set their placement order before entering combat, like on that pop up confirmation screen that shows what enemies you are going up against (so the default positioning that the system has to work with--unless changed by players--would cost no extra clicks).  This would be a nice nod to the olden days of the DM asking the players what their travel order is, and the game could simply place the first 3 units on the first row, the second set on the second row, and the remaining ones on the back row, rather than trying to figure out if that champion is a charge-forward guy or a hang-back guy.

4,687 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Even reordering your army isn't really implemented yet. I simply reorder my army by manually moving the first unit in a nearby square and repeat this process until I obtain the order I want. 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top


I recommend just using the multislot icon location at the bottom of the screen. The further down on the list, the further back the unit will be should a fight start. Then you click and drag your formation beforehand and it maintains position should a fight ever start.

 

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

It seems to be different then that. I have 3 heroes in the first 3 slots. 3 groups of Demons in the next 3 slots and 1 group of monks at the end. In battle the heroes are at the back, the monks in the middle and the demons up front?

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree. You should be able to rearrange your army on the fly without having to disassemble and reassemble it in the order you want them. The logical way would be just clicking and dragging the heroes and soldiers into any formation you want in the 9 available slots which appear when you click on an army.