How do you rate DarthFormations_8.0?

[DARTH VADER]

In case you have tested my brand new formations come here and rate it. You can comment and say what you like, do not like, what you want to see in future versions (type of formations etc.)
Also comment the AI usage of each type of troop (roman legionnaire, skirmisher, archer, phalanx etc.)
Just to produce a good conversation.

[wipeout140]

better ai now

[Trajan]

Everything's great except the starting Roman formation. I think that the legionaire's width in the front lines should be a little wider. Besides that, the formations are excellent. Good job!

[Pyr0]

I'm using it with RTR 6.1 and AI still throws archers and slingers in front line and attacks in melee in many occasions. It still isn't much good with cavalry and charges hoplites in front sometimes. Otherwise it is a very good mod, the difference is especially notable at sieges, which were terrible in vanilla.

[war927]

The only negative thing I seem to notice about battles where I'm attacking and the A.I. is defending is that they don't respond well to being shot by ranged units. After a while of mowing the A.I.'s troops down with ranged units they will start to send some units after you, but the moment the ranged unit they are chasing starts to run the A.I. will turn back around and return to its formation. This strategy often allows me to expend all my ammo before I actually have to engage in combat, and while it lowers possible casualties for me, it doesn't make for a very difficult battle. If the A.I. could be made to be smarter about chasing ranged units, that would be great.

Otherwise, 95% is what I'd give DF_8.0.

ps. The problem I mention isn't specific only to DF_8.0, just a recurring problem that seems hard to fix, if at all.

[Enemy]

Archers (especially "heavy") now are stupid...

[Simstyle]

Archers (especially "heavy") now are stupid...

On the contrary, missle units are less suicidal than DF7.0 and of course MANY times less suicidal than RTW1.2.

I'm about 6 custom games into DF8.0 and noticed German Phalanxes hold up together much better. Enemy cavalry is still suprising me, every tec secounds or so I have to pause and sweep to see where they were. Few times behind me. I'll post a mini story of my battles.

[Vrabac]

Well I must say that AI is still as stupid as it was. Formations are very nice and smart, with cavalry pushed far out to allow it to flank me, or spearmen grouped together in 2 lines to make them a more compact mass, but the problem is that AI keeps breaking the formation, to me it seems as if it's constantly changing it, until the point of contact with me. I'm currently playing a Seleucid campaing so most of the enemies are phalanx-based, just as my armies are. Game is modded by me mostly, but with 8.0 Darth formations. I haven't screwed with unit types, and formations seem very good at the beginning, as I already described. But as I close the enemy army, it starts shifting, placing units that were for example on the left to the right and vice versa, so when my phalanx hits them, their pikes are lifted and their backs or sides revealed to me, so they rout quickly. Also, while I keep the line more or less tidy and straight, AI line totally turns into chaos, and in no way looks as a true phalanx should look.

So I guess that AI problems aren't in formations, but in AI's way of using them. For some reason, AI simply can't settle with one formation for long, and constantly issues "move" orders to it's army, more and more as you close in, so it usually turns all the nice formations into one big mess, in the critical moment of contact, that is easily wiped out just like it did in vanilla.

I haven't tested it much with non-phalanx armies, but with phalanx armies I haven't really noticed any improvement. Your idea and dedication to improve battle AI is admireable, but I don't think it can be done by simply changing formations. It's probably hardcoded, which is VERY unfortunate. Because AI's base issue is that it's sequence of orders is wrong, he issues them in wrong time, wrong orders, too frequently etc etc, which makes it retarded as it is.

If somehow you could "force" AI to, for example, when defending with phalanx based army just keeps it's central spearmen body turned towards oncoming opponent (or opponent's largest part if he split), and meets him like that, in order and formation, and not in total chaos because of bunch of uneeded movement commands, than that would be the day of true hapiness for me.

[The White Knight]

I noticed that the AI always spawns in a 'wrong' place. This is especially irritating if you have just set up your army in the middle (Because that's where the AI spawns) and you have to move all your troops again...
Not sure if it's a bug cause by this mod though. (Never sure with CA are you? )

[Scar Face]

I KNOW THAT IS SO ANNOYING sorry Last night I wasted like 20 mins trying to get to the bastards.. and they were the attackers!

[Turbo]

Missile units are seriously screwed up in 8.0. They continue to act like front line melee units and attack. This is the worst feature of Darthformations and makes the game almost unplayable. Unless there is a fix, I am going to switch over to Sinhuet's formations. I know the issue with Sinhuet but in SPQR the archers act like archers.

[lt1956]

What issue with Sinuhet? just curious?

[Sinuhet]

What issue with Sinuhet? just curious?

Ave lt1956 and Darth Vader!

The main issue of the AI formations for SPQR and my previous formations mods, which they are based on the same template, is a lack of any modification of the original CA files sections for the bridge and siege battles. In my opinion, the best solution is to the time, when I will implement the users suggestions for them, for the SPQR (and maybe also for the any RTW 1.2 based formations) the solution by repman - i.e. adopt these unmodified sections from the Darth Vaders formations version 8.0, which are now really mature product.

From some reasons (for users unimportant) it is not possible to do this officially, but as I know by repman, he has successfully implemented this solution for the Vlad Total war mod after some playing with various combinations of mods for the AI and HP formations.

P.S.:
The only reason, why I have stopped during last month further development of any mod of the AI formations after the version of the formations for the SPQR 4.6 is my new "baby" - a project, which is in my eyes more valuable to deserve all my scripting capacities - the Scripted diplomacy for SPQR 4.6. It is really a breakthrough for the whole course of a campaign, in my opinion, something what is not implemented by anybody for any major mod, firstly in a major measurement is a foreign policy functional in non-randon way and more complex situations are in capmpaign created. But as I wrote already, it is a huge work, really time consuming.

Bye to all Sinuhet