bitter pill to swallow

Esben Mose Hansen · #1 July 25th, 2004, 08:55 AM

It's just a rule, and I for one do not think it is so important. I for one would rather have more themes, sites, spellcasting AI/scripting and so on than this. It also provides a convenient counter for the SuperCombantant problem. And more importantly, prevents the ever-Lasting-battle-syndrome.

You my 2?

Arryn · #2 July 25th, 2004, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Esben Mose Hansen:
It's just a rule, and I for one do not think it is so important.

Perhaps if you predominantly played SP on huge maps (where you might frequently see large armies and/or very powerful lone SCs) you might see the issue a bit differently. I, personally, have not experienced the shortcomings of auto-rout, but that is because I have taken great pains to ensure that my battles won't Last that long. Even so, I expect it's only a matter of time (pardon the pun) before this questionable game design decision bites me in a tender spot.

Quote:

I for one would rather have more themes, sites, spellcasting AI/scripting and so on than this.

As do I, but such things are harder to implement than changing one in-game constant to a variable and exposing it to players via the UI.

Quote:

And more importantly, prevents the ever-Lasting-battle-syndrome.

I'm not advocating doing away with auto-rout. I'm advocating allowing players to decide at what point it should happen. And for the minority that doesn't want auto-rout at all, to disable it. I'm a firm believer in the "give the user as much choice as possible". IW has shown that it doesn't disagree with the concept of choice in principle, since they implemented the much-asked-for option to allow commander renaming. Which had to have been much harder to implement in the code than the change I'm proposing.

johan osterman · #3 July 25th, 2004, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Are you sure this would actually happen? From what you've said in the past, the debug dumps, as well as past bugs, battle replays seem to consist entirely of a starting seed value, the data of the combatants, and their scripted orders: Everything else is generated clientside using the random number seed given, yes? Otherwise battles would always be rather huge, particularly if there are a fairly decent number of large battles....

You are right. It shouldn't affect it. I had a recollection of battle replay's affecting trn size but I must have got it mixed up with somethibng else.

Boron · #4 July 25th, 2004, 12:46 PM

yeah a configurable battle turn limit as arryn suggested it would be great

then especially for sp everyone could configure it to their likings

.

the people who don't like sc's can set it to e.g. 30 turns while others can set it infinite .

Quote:

Originally posted by johan osterman:

If you have two immobiles without offensive spells, one teleporting in, troops on both sides routing, you would end up with an infinite amount of turns. Battles where both sides have several summoners could also potentionally Last very long.

that could of course be a problem but at least in sp it doesn't happen almost 100% sure .

Arryn · #5 July 26th, 2004, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Boron:
the people who don't like sc's can set it to e.g. 30 turns

Setting it shorter than 40-50 turns is a very bad idea as many battles against strongly-held forts will Last 25+ turns, unless you bring awesome magical power to bear, or many flying troops. Otherwise, the bottleneck at the castle entrance will assure that the battle takes a while. IMO, a shorter auto-rout limit is not a viable solution for those that have SC-phobia.

Boron · #6 July 25th, 2004, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Arryn:

quote:
Originally posted by Boron:
the people who don't like sc's can set it to e.g. 30 turns

Setting it shorter than 40-50 turns is a very bad idea as many battles against strongly-held forts will Last 25+ turns, unless you bring awesome magical power to bear, or many flying troops. Otherwise, the bottleneck at the castle entrance will assure that the battle takes a while. IMO, a shorter auto-rout limit is not a viable solution for those that have SC-phobia.

i personally would set it always infinite ( or 1000 turns to avoid the rare problem of e.g. 2 monoliths fighting each other ^^ ) .

it was just as example that it could work both ways