[HJ]

Originally posted by Zen:
Friendly fire is a part of Dom2 Unfortunately a large part expecially if you arn't spacing and setting your units correctly.

The more I play, the more I find this to be a really big problem. Right now, I am starting to become too terrified to use any missile troops in my armies, because of the butchering of the pursuers they might do when the fight is nearing an end. I equiped one of my commanders with Bow of War, and right now I think he killed more of my fliers and demons than he killed enemy troops by far.

Something like "Fire and attack" and "Fire and hold" orders would go a long way to improve the usability of missile troops and combo troops (such as Tien Chi cavalry and legionaires) in the game. "Fire and attack" would be great for strong troops who are good at both roles, or good at melee and just happen to have a missile weapon as well. "Fire and hold" would be great for everybody else, since you don't really want them firing in the crowd once the lines crash anyway, unless you're using wards (which are not that easy to come by for just any army). You would get the most out of your missiles, as they tend to count when the field is open to soften up opposition, and reduce friendly fire significantly. All the components for the orders are already there, so I guess it wouldn't be too hard to code either.

As it is now, friendly fire, along with the AI not building any forts and hence not fielding any national troops, are two of my biggest gripes, to a point that they hamper my enjoyment of the game. I am seriously considering composing missile-only and missile-free armies, as this is the only way I can make sure nobody gets killed who wasn't intended to be. This also renders spells like Flaming arrows useless, since I know who will be on the receiving end of them. In short, it's limiting diversity of the game options for me, and I'm beginning to think that waiting for a patch to continue playing might be a good idea - something I don't like.

[ December 01, 2003, 10:34: Message edited by: HJ ]