Community Requested UI Features 0.1

Abstraction and automation have been very extensively discussed in a wide variety of threads.

The PA wiki has a page on OFCE's which needs more development.

I have written a few threads on the subject, including Force Organization, Binding Groups, and Abstract Orders, and I am not the only person to author several threads on the subject. There have in fact been so many of them that they escape me- I just searched for my own thread history to find those.

The ones I was able to find with a very cursory search were syox's thread, rorybecker's thread, and thelambaster's thread. Also, I am sure there was a monster thread created by Pawz that made the name "Orders as First Class Entities" stick, but I can't seem to find it. All I could find was his related post On Being a Commander, which has the principles but not the actual "Orders as First Class Entities" language.

Culverin I realy like your list. It might be nice if there where short discriptions to each point? Because now it looks like they are all sub paragraphs that contain no text or description. However, even with out it it's a quite understandable. Adding descriptions is a lot of work. IMHO you did a great job and you may submit it if you like.

Yeah, list looks fine. Just send the whole lot in. As neutrino said, don't think the worst, think awesome and we will meet in the middle.

I'd be pretty happy with a meeting in the middle of this list.

Edit: Not Mavor's actual quote but was something along those lines.

I just posted this else where on the forum and then I realized this might be an amazing idea for the Chat/Ingame communication.

yea these are a must, see this is why we need people to go over the list, we tend to forget things and can't have evrything stored in memory, thanks.

Wow and dang.
I've been so caught up in the traditional RTS order styles that I totally missed that.
It's sounds like a serious evolution from TA/SupCom.
Like the factory order queuing and ferry commands, but so much smarter.


OFCEs sound outrageously powerful.
If the game doesn't behave like that now, then my assumption it wasn't built ground-up to handle it?
Do you think this the Area Commands that Mavor was referring to?

The big question:
Are we too late in asking for this?

Low level automated micro is something the most of the community want too, see the vote below.
https://forums.uberent.com/threads/smart-combat-unit-ai-why-not.46037/
Perhaps you can add it to the list.

Some ideas like OFCE can be traced back to the pre release community discussion of SupCom. If they can't be implemented in PA, they could still be continue passed down until a game or a mod adopted them, having a list for them will make this process easier.

Even if Uber doesn't implement something along the lines of abstract orders or OFCE's (although I really hope they do), the UI is completely customizable. Someone will probably do it once the game is more stable.

If someone makes a workable system for OFCE's, it would convey such an advantage that I bet it would become widespread rather quickly.

OFCE sounds like it needs to be the #1 top priority.

On the programming level, isn't it a whole different way of adding orders to the game?
Has Uber made any sign that they will pursue this?


I'll stick it right to the top of the request list.
As it sounds like so much unit intelligence will be derived from this.


But what should I put down in the list?
I presume to link to the wiki page as well?

Aa! that makes sense. Righty righty.

But a problem is PA will unlikely support client side UI modifications that involve in orders, and server side UI modifications are quite difficult to spread, unless they are attached to a popular multiplayer mod.

add them to the list?

Is the list already sent?

On the list I can only see line formations. What if I wanted to place my units in a squar with the bots/tanks in front the AA in the middel and artillary in the back? Or would that be 3 lines?

EDIT: This is basicly what I mean, big formations for a large amount of units. Maybe even a way to automaticly let them go in a formation with the use of a button.
I got this from a post by Kalherine:

On Formations:

http://www.whiskytangofoxtrot.org.uk/ron/article2/formations.htm

I'd like to see Chevron/Line/Square formations, with the ability to change density so that they are tight or loose. RON did that really well.

Also an escort behaviour, so that fast units in the same Chevron as slow units automatically escort them. (Fighters with bombers, most units with artillery, etc.)

And a "siege attack".

You can create escorts right now by giving units a support command on other units. A defensive detail for your commander, fighter escorts for bombers/ships/units, dox support for tanks.

The issue I'm having is that seems to make them follow the units around.

Which is fine.

Except for bombers, the fighters let them get too far ahead and so they get taken out anways.

That's basically what it does, yep. It's by no means perfect but it's serviceable.

Yeah I'm hoping for a more sophisticated one later down the line, so you tell the group to escort, and the fighters go to the outside, the bombers to the inside.As it is you have to tell each fighter to queue assist each bomber, or else as soon as one bomber is lost the fighters abandon the group.

I'd love to see an option to link a camera anchor via chat, this would make it way easier to explain to an ally where you want them to attack.

lol another feature supcom had