Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: nijis


I really would like to like this game, with its epic scale and its commitment to realism. I can deal with abstracted graphics. But the command and control is so baffling, and so unpredictable, that I have no way to tell whether things are working as designed or bugged.

The Take Command flagging system is NOT intuitive, nor does the game give much help figuring it out. Whose orders are my units following? Why, sometimes, when I command a unit to move to a spot on the map, does the commander move? Why, at other times, does the entire unit move and the commander go off somewhere else?

I'm currently playing the Waterloo full battle scenario, with courier for all levels of command. I tried to commit the entire Guard Division to a flank attack. The divisional commander moved by himself, so I committed the brigades piecemeal. Well, the brigade went off to the attack, but the brigade commander seems to be following the divisional commander. I'm sure there's a logical explanation, somewhere between toggling the TC flag on or off at one or the other echelon, but I cannot figure it out. And at some point I want to just throw in the towel.

It seems to me that the entire system could be replaced by a somewhat simpler one: at the beginning of the game, all units have a "don't move on their own initiative" tag that changes when you give them an order. Give a commander an order, and he detaches from the larger unit and moves on his own. Reattach him, and he follows the directions of his commander. If you want to have a "Don't deviate from my orders" tag -- ie, the current command system -- make that a separate flag, but don't mix it in with the question of whether or not a unit responds to orders from a higher echelon.

More importantly though, make it transparent whose orders a unit is following. Maybe a little bit of text, like the targeting text. "Unit is moving on army commander's initiative." "Unit is moving on own initiative."

Another idea - when you click on a unit, list any incoming orders by courier. That way you know if a unit hasn't received orders yet, or is just ignoring you.

And finally, it would be great if, when you clicked on a commander, all subordinate units would be a different color on the battle map.

Whatever tools you used to debug Command and Control, maybe give us access to them - at least to know what our own forces are doing!

quote:

ORIGINAL: nijis

The Take Command flagging system is NOT intuitive, nor does the game give much help figuring it out. Whose orders are my units following? Why, sometimes, when I command a unit to move to a spot on the map, does the commander move? Why, at other times, does the entire unit move and the commander go off somewhere else?
I'm currently playing the Waterloo full battle scenario, with courier for all levels of command. I tried to commit the entire Guard Division to a flank attack. The divisional commander moved by himself, so I committed the brigades piecemeal. Well, the brigade went off to the attack, but the brigade commander seems to be following the divisional commander. I'm sure there's a logical explanation, somewhere between toggling the TC flag on or off at one or the other echelon, but I cannot figure it out. And at some point I want to just throw in the towel.

quote:

That's good to know - and I'll try it - but it's not intuitive, easy to remember, or transparent when it's going on. In fact, I'd go as far to say that if you need tricks like that, then that shows up a deficiency in the system. None of this is a criticism of the AI in itself, just of the interface.