City Battles

[Fatal631]

I was wondering if routing in city battles could be turned off some how. I always thought that it was pretty stupid when your guys are fighting to save the city and they start routing even though they have nowhere to go but the city center. Sorry for wasting your time if the is hardcoded.

[sumskilz]

It can't be turned off, but I'm told that the XAI guys have really improved the way city battles play out. I think some degree of routing is realistic however based on historical accounts. Men overwhelmed by fear don't always logic out their options. In addition, there probably was some hope of escaping death - slip past the enemy, blend in with the civilian population, try to switch sides or get oneself captured rather than killed. In game terms, routing does usually result in a lot of men being captured.

[Rinan]

I don't think the average medieval peasant was all that eager to throw away his life for whatever city anyway. So I don't think the routing is that unrealistic. Also, routing gives some tactical opportunities for both sides, such as epic last stands on the city square or running down routing soldiers with cavalry hiding in parallel streets, etc. etc.

[Kjertesvein]

DLV addicts have long disabled the unrealistic city timer long before XAI disabled it. You should ask Taiji for some tips here, it's next to perfect back there

~W

[Azim]

DLV addicts have long disabled the unrealistic city timer long before XAI disabled it. You should ask Taiji for some tips here, it's next to perfect back there

~W

Turning off the siege battle timer is easy enough. The timer can be disabled in the campaign options in the faction selection screen or in the strat map options menu. It can also be disabled automatically using the preferences.cfg file and set_option. What is more difficult is ensuring that more of the battle takes place on the walls and in the streets and not in the central plaza. The central plaza is completely devoid of any obstacles, making it the most boring place to fight. One of the goals of XAI has been to reduce the amount of conflict in the city plaza. XAI's modifications may not translate perfectly to dominion units, but Achilla and Argent Usher will be owrking on tuning XAI specifically for DotS after the first beta is released and we have a good amount of player input.

[Fire-dweller]

Will there be civilians during the battle?

[sumskilz]

Will there be civilians during the battle?

Do you mean totally non-combatant civilians?

[Space_Ed]

Will there be civilians during the battle?

That would be awesome but I don't think that is possible. Someone prove me wrong please! I'll look into it but I doubt it.

[Hospitallers Kane]

I think when you choose exterminate populace you have to face a large peasant force and fight them in the city

[sumskilz]

I think when you choose exterminate populace you have to face a large peasant force and fight them in the city

In every historical instance I can think of when a civilian population was slaughtered after the defense of a city had already collapsed, the reaction of the people was to try to flee in any way possible. Jerusalem during the First Crusade is a well-documented example.

[sirfiggin]

the way this could be implemented is the spawning of a number of peasant units in a besieged city; useless on the battlefield but they would give the impression that there's more at stake than two armies fighting it out, also it would present a greater challenge to the player.

[Vaz]

Course it's possible.

That's all well and good. But I fail to see how a couple hundred peasants become a "greater" challenge to the player. It simply means that the player takes a couple more of their own units to counter the Peasants. The Peasants just used weight of numbers to swarm around and kill opponents, but that mechanic is not in the Total War Engine. Even Knights and the like were subject to having them broken apart in the close confines of the city, but the game engine doesn't recognise chance, only set figures.