Scatter Area Command

This would be an area command which would make units scatter outward in a circle around the center point of the area command. Useful when you're about to be nuked.

I'd think a "move to edges of this circle area" command would work better as it'd double as a way to put your units in a perimeter formation around, say, a Commander.

How is a circular formation ever going to be useful? No matter what, half of your squad is going to be out of position.

A spread formation has a DEFINITE use. Widely spaced units take minimal damage from AoE attacks.

I like it.

+1
i've been missing a scatter command greatly... would be a fantastic addition.

I would also like to point out that CnC had a hotkey that would cause your units to scatter. This was very useful for avoiding tanks, which had a very nice ability to run over infantry.

Clearly PA also needs tanks that kill infantry by running them over.

Hell yes.

If the CPU could handle it, I would love a game where units were easy to kill like in PA but made up for it by scattering and running around to make themselves harder to hit. Unfortunately that would probably melt the server with the army sizes we get in PA.

Perhaps a "fan out" formation, then, which uses the direction you pull the circle. My main point was that being able to tie in the circle command, rather than C&C's method of mashing "scatter" and hoping for the best, would be a good way to keep things contiguous from a control standpoint.

How about this be automatic behavior? Once a nuke is spotted units try to run away?

good idea. would help to avoid t2 bomb with a group of units

i'm not going to dare get on the micro train (I don't want to, plus I'd be flamed off the board) but I'd be kinda irritated if units scattered automatically every time I launched a nuke at my opponent. just sayin'

edit: although, it would be entertaining to see the units freak out a bit and try to run once the nuke was close and in their line of sight. but i would hope an addition like that would be mostly cosmetic, and their automated reaction wouldn't actually save most of them (perhaps a few on the periphery).

would that be a natural reaction - for machines/robots? the units don't display intelligence other than targeting anywhere else in the game. would that be consistent?

I have thought of this idea too. Especially when 10 bombers in the middle nowhere get approached by a hummingbird. Can be hard to not just look at how quick it can kill them:

Bump.

So you can use area commands for building, patrolling, attacking etc. Do area commands work with the basic move command? I honestly don't know. If not, this is what it should do. Scatter the units around in an area.

You have been asked not to do that. :>

At lleast disguise it! XD

Blasphemer!

I am not sure.

On the one hand it kinda belongs to Strategy games. Even CnC Red Alert 1 had it, and that is from the deep in the last milennium.

On the other hand, this goes heavy into the "micro" area of game design*. And this game tries to avoid micro as far as possible:
Especially low HP units like Dox would benefit from that when under fire be low RoF/AoE units like artillery. It could drastically improove thier effectiveness if microed, going against one of the core game designs.


*In retrospect CnC got micro-heavier the farther it progressed, propably one thing I disliked about the series.

Defending automated micro again: Units scattering on incoming nukes is something that cuts both ways: Armies do not get destroyed by nukes anymore but will find themselves in disarray, easy to clean up or even opening up new vulnerabilities.
But then again, PA's unit roster probably does not offer enough niches right now for subtle maneouvres and trickery to be worth it.

it's possible to scatter, press q( my patrol button) and drag down enough to cover whole map and units scatter, good to avoid bombs etc.