Multiplayer - Simultaneous battles option

[Vinny Vally]

Hey.

So me and my friends had a 3 co-op game and turn 1 took near 15 minutes... Not that I don't enjoy watching their battles, but, if we become more competitive (like we sometimes do) then I don't want to see all of their units.. That's a MASSIVE give-a-way to what they have, and what I should do to counter that (which also massively plays into my style of playing the game as well as against their style of playing). Not saying it's a massive advantage, but, it does sort of ruin it when my friend attacks me with 3 giants and says ''Bet you didn't see that coming!'' - Well, actually...

Plus to the above spoilers, a game of 20 turns can take hours for no real reason. We have jobs and don't want to spend hours on a game were we only play ourselves for minutes.

I have some simple ideas which, imo, are simple enough to think about and I would assume simple ish to implement:

1) When a unit is in combat it has a giant red exclamation mark ( ! ) over the hex to show that unit is in combat.
2) Any units with a ( ! ) over them are untargetable by magic/spells etc, thus removing any exploits/bugs. (When casting over 'busy hexes' a player could be warned if they'd like to continue the casting).
3) Any unit that is engaged with that is owned by a player that is in battle elsewhere, simply returns the message 'This player is busy, please wait'. An option to 'Return to the Map' would be available for human players here, otherwise the battle will remain in 'queue' until the other battle is finished.
4) For the purpose of CPU/RAM usage etc, an option could be available on map creation stating 'Number of simultaneous battles', thus allowing the creator to control if they want simultaneous battles or not (and if so how many). The creators definitely should have this option since it is their PC hosting the battles (I think?).
5) For those concerned with 'units sneaking around' whilst a player is busy in battle - An option should be available on map creation for 'Unit Path Tailing'. Meaning when you move, enemies (with vision of the units of course) can see a 'tail' of their colour showing where their units walked. So if you come out of battle and see a green tail through your throne city.. Well... The sneaking wasn't so sneaky.

A comment on 5 - Some of you say that a player shouldn't 'miss things' simply for being in battle, and so the sneaking isn't fair as a result. I must disagree with this.. If you are in a battle fighting minotaurs and mages hurling all the fireballs at you, when on earth did you have time to notice that single rat thief sneaking by? A battle is a battle, not a moment in time which freezes momentarily. Battles themselves take time, time that others should not loose just because you can click faster than they.

These are just some quick thoughts I've thrown together of course. I love this game! But I cannot be bothered at all for the multiplayer due to the time it takes and I find this very sad. Any thoughts on the above? Developers, it would be nice to hear feedback on this either way so that I at least know whether I should continue playing or not. Sorry to be blunt about it.

Cheers.

Edit: Apologies for the double post. I replied to a similar previous thread from 2014, in turn deciding to make my own more specific thread thereafter. I didn't realise commenting on the old thread would pull it to the top of the list so it looks like I am spamming, but that wasn't my intention.

[BBB]

You should save these ideas for a possible sequel, because the AoW3 engine prohibits all of this!


In the official forums there was a survey about tactical combat and the ensuing discussion was very interesting. You should check it out when you get a chance.


In the meantime, there is an option that disables viewing other people's tactical combats. Your game interface will stop you doing stuff in cities etc until the combat is ended. That at least will stop you knowing what your opponent has up his sleeve.


Also, play without tactical combat on independents. That will mean only Human to Human fights will pause the game.

[Vinny Vally]

Hey BBB,

Thanks for your reply. That's VERY useful to know those options available and it will at least make it more playable for the early part for sure.

I did do some looking around but I wasn't aware that it was the AoW3 engine itself that stopped certain things (such as my suggestions) from being possible. Bit of a shame but it is what it is. Hopefully, should there be a 4th, certain options may be available to change the game more to each specific players preferences for multiplayer.

It is a great game as it is though! Really good work from the devs considering I've never liked a hex based game prior

[sikbok]

Hi,


Thanks for the feedback.

Wish things were as easy as that, because then we'd implement it immediately. Unfortunately they are not, so we haven't.

If you are having trouble finding the time to play against human opponents I suggest giving the PBEM mode a try. You miss out on controlling the player, but asynchronous play allow you to play at a time that suits you.

[BBB]

@ Vinny Vally, here's that discussion I was talking about:

http://aow.triumph.net/combat-survey/