Does anyone think its a bit strange how if you have a group of tanks and the enemy has a similar sized group of tanks and you move yours in, your tanks single file into their death as apposed to moving in an a more squared like formation? Was wondering if formations were gonna be implemented? This was something that sup com tried but kind of failed as the whole group would move as fast as the slowest unit instead of spreading out but keeping formation. I think it would make attacking pushes feel much more controlled. Compared to what it is now when both players keep moving there groups around hoping the other guy will come in and attack so the defender can wipe them all out.. Seems to me like its down to pathfinding.
I'm sure formations will be added. At the moment I find unit bunching through micro is essential to ensure favourable confrontations. If you put more effort into unit placement then you should get those benefits.
I am curious as to how you would like it to work if it didn't work like this. You can't have a unit magically move faster than it normally would if in a formation because then you would just always chuck a Skitter into the formation to get super-fast Levellers. On the other hand if you didn't slow down the faster units then they would break formation. I'm keen to hear your idea for a solution though.
All things considered we only need 4 types of formations. The organized battalion, the drawn line formation (ala Spring Engine), the disorganized conglomeration, and a simple unformed mass of units moving at max speed. Single click = no formation Double click = Blob Triple click = full formation Click+drag = drawn formation But back to the /thread, I have actually encountered less issues with pathfinding as of the update. My Commander has yet to waltz himself into a crater, and my tanks are no longer filling ravines in droves. I will occasionally have a tank or 6 hugging a factory or terrain feature, and I have to drag them out, but it's not a huge issue.
I would make the single click "blob" and have "no formation" at double click (One click = go there togheter, Double click = hurry at every units full speed). Then change triple click into ctrl+click or shift+click for "full formation". Or they could just let us switch the bound key/s for different formation commands to our own preferences. Otherwise im in full agreement, it would be nice to have all of those options.
Hey All, I like the clicks idea but we could eliminate confusion and have the formation keys part of the u/i on the right hand side, be nothing to have a toggle button which dictates selected unit formation. To have the selected units create a "tight" (Minimum unit distance from one another) formation which you could use for ground to ground unit battles. When dealing with artillery/bombers you could set a "loose" (Maximum Unit distance from one another) formation which would help cut back on unit losses when encountering heavy bomber resistance or intense enemy bombardment from units that do splash damage or the damage from your own units explodimatating. *EX-PLOD-I-MA-TATING* Last but certainly not least is the "General" (Mixed Unit formation of Loose and Tight which would create small Clusters,Stragglers, and Fillers of the selected units for general purposing) Formation which could be used just as its name implies and would obviously be the starting formation for any unit/selected units. Im sure there could be a 4th or 5th formation added for what ever kind of purpose but i feel as though this would create better army managment and adaptability for altering battle scenarios. Coining on the same topic, One could also have selected units create a "Battalion" similiar to that of creating fleets like in the SoSE franchise which would allow you to create mixed "Battalions" of units where slow and fast units will stay in a selected formation and move at the slowest units speed that is present in the Battalion. As it sits right now whenever i meet another players army I find selecting your units (which by now are most likely traveling in a straight line) to alter their direction 90 degrees from the players currently attacking army and then just sweep back and forth. I find this creates a loose net that allows more of your units to fire upon theirs. Obviously there are certain scenarios where this wouldnt help but just speaking from experience and placing a general tactic out there thats certainly helped me. :ugeek:
I got same today. or maybe something a little different. Send tanks out to gathering point but some got stuck behind a pile of rubble. Was not able to move them anymore.
Ideally, there should be a small interface in the options menu that would let you set different, customized formations. I would *LOVE* to see that as a mod. Heck, I might actually make that myself if I could get a UImonkey to team up with me. You could have a modifier key (say F) that you could hold, along with pressing a number or a numkey, that would designated a certain type of formation. Tilda key would set "no formation", and keys 1-9 would be player determined formations. You would be able to set spacing, relative unit location according to role, overall shape (battalion, echelon, loose blob, tight blob, etc. etc.), auto-grouping (selecting the formation's strategic icon selects all the units in the formation), and a bunch of other stuff. It's a bit nitty gritty, but I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to see this. SupCom:FA's Mongese would have had such a benefit from being set into an echelon formation.
When in formation fast units should go to the front, medium units in the mid and slow units at the back, If you tell them to move over a large distance the units could stay in formation in a square or rectangle but just spread out as they cover the land. For small pushes the spreading out effect would not be as noticeable and still allow ur tanks to push in as a formation. Fast units can = tanks, medium units aa in the mid, and slow arti at the back, In sup com the units did not spread out due to speed they all moved as fast as the slowest units which made them attack to slow when rushing defence it was just a bad idea.
I think I need to add this to the things I annoy me in RTS, formations where your fastes units which are ment to stay at the back cause they are anti air / weak rush to the front and die... However I do like both the UI formations and the click options, then on top if we could add a way to customise your formation types ( eg what unit is where...) that would make this game even more awesome/uber
I think it would be cool if you could design formations in a GUI in the options menu between matches, like a macro, and then select them in game from the toolbar.
