Humanity in the battlefield

[Glaumir]

Out of all CA statements on Rome II, the one that worries me the most is about "soldiers stopping to drag wounded friends". They aren't seriously trying to implement something like this in the actual game, right?

Image how annoying and hilarious it would be if your units started to react to such frivolities. A hail of arrows falls down: half of your army is dead and the other half is busy performing a limited array of scripted reactions. This is a game, not a movie. Things like that will never work.

[Greve Af Göteborg]

Where did you see that?

[Glaumir]

Where did you see that?

If a soldier gets an arrow in the neck, his buddy will recoil in horror, or try to drag him to safety

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...otal-war-ever/

In the demonstration, this was shown off by leaping into Scipio Aemilianus’ unit as they prepared to storm the Carthaginian walls using a siege tower. The same Romans that had just been swarming from biremes by the hundred were now fidgeting and shifting as nervous individuals, listening to the orders of a general a few feet away.

http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/tota...ayer-and-mods/

Sure, the writers might be exaggerating but I don't like the idea of mixing gameplay with cinematics...

[katsusand]

"Human Drama" sounds like the most talked about thing about the game from CA... Human Drama this Human Drama that...
I hope CA won't just put all their efforts on the cosmetics and superficial stuff.

[katsusand]

^ I can already see the hilarious bugs and glitches that comes with that...

[General Maximus]

And I think of a battlefield turning into a hospital. Oh jeez, did I just imagine a whole set of metal beds with drips and vaccines attached, laid out in the Manipular Formation?

Humanity? In war? Especially in Total War? Nah. I have a tendency to fall down my chair when I see something funny, and I am afraid I will break my bum bones when I see that a legion is dying in the arms of a Sacred Band, who is crying heartily with his comrades and whole battlefield is overflowing it with tears.

It is a great concept though, but I worry that bugs will come with it.

[Glaumir]

And I think of a battlefield turning into a hospital. Oh jeez, did I just imagine a whole set of metal beds with drips and vaccines attached, laid out in the Manipular Formation?

Humanity? In war? Especially in Total War? Nah. I have a tendency to fall down my chair when I see something funny, and I am afraid I will break my bum bones when I see that a legion is dying in the arms of a Sacred Band, who is crying heartily with his comrades and whole battlefield is overflowing it with tears.

It is a great concept though, but I worry that bugs will come with it.

Besides, who in the world would load a siege tower with his own general unit? And that's damn Scipio Motherin' Africanus for god's sake!

[General Maximus]

Besides, who in the world would load a siege tower with his own general unit? And that's damn Scipio Motherin' Africanus for god's sake!

Scipio went up the tower? Time to bring out some archers with fire arrows! The tower will be his mortuary.

I wonder what will be the reaction of a soldier who watches his friend being burned alive and trapped without any escape.

He would be very sad...until...he learns that that man was with his wife and sister alone in the tent last night, *attacking* them with *phalanx formation*

[zg0301zg]

And I think of a battlefield turning into a hospital. Oh jeez, did I just imagine a whole set of metal beds with drips and vaccines attached, laid out in the Manipular Formation?

Humanity? In war? Especially in Total War? Nah. I have a tendency to fall down my chair when I see something funny, and I am afraid I will break my bum bones when I see that a legion is dying in the arms of a Sacred Band, who is crying heartily with his comrades and whole battlefield is overflowing it with tears.

It is a great concept though, but I worry that bugs will come with it.

some suggestions are really a joke, field hospital, next thing you know you will have sim city, theme hospital and similar whole in one

[TheCossack]

That really seems like a waste, im sure CA wont Over-do it though. I mean in modern war it generally takes two men to bring an injured man to safety(part of why the AK74 rifle series uses a smaller round than the Ak47 series, it takes 3 men off the field instead of killing 1). I cant imagine it will ever reach the point of 1/3 the men being carried off the field by the other 2/3. Besides that just wouldn't be historically accurate at all.

[Greve Af Göteborg]

I think(hope) that this will only happen when the unit is idle, so that they won't do this in the middle of a fight.

[General Maximus]

If they are really adding the the 'wounded being carried out' feature, how about adding one or two extra slots intended only for special 'rescue' units, which have no other purpose than carrying out wounded men from the heaps of bodies and taking them somewhere in the backyard.

That means they should add a central war camp where wounded men will be dropped off. I expected those cloth-walled camps in Shogun II but they didn't implement them. Probable now is the best time.

Those hospital units would carry nothing more than a knife or a Gladius, and you can already customize your troops as CA said, so probably you could give them some spears as well.

[katsusand]

and you can already customize your troops as CA said, so probably you could give them some spears as well.

Source?
I hope this is true.

[General Maximus]

Source?
I hope this is true.

Read somewhere in one of those previews which many sites have put up.

Well...nothing can be said at this moment. They promised land and sea interactions in Shogun 2's development too, as far as I remember. But that got limited to aerial bombardment from nearby ships. It was devastating but only available in FoTS (since in Shogun 2's main game timeframe i.e. medieval period, there are no ships with that much range)

[BJas]

Nah it's fine, and they won't drag that body half the map, I guess just behind the ranks (as long as they do this, obviously, while not fighting). Regarding that humanistic aspect I think CA meant of things like if an arrow volley is coming, soldiers will shout "¡shields up!" or if cavalry is coming to charge they will say "stand your ground". Make them feel alive in the end. Even react to wounds of any kind screaming of pain or saying stuff to the enemies while fighting. Who knows, there is much to tell there.

[General Maximus]

Nah it's fine, and they won't drag that body half the map, I guess just behind the ranks (as long as they do this, obviously, while not fighting). Regarding that humanistic aspect I think CA meant of things like if an arrow volley is coming, soldiers will shout "¡shields up!" or if cavalry is coming to charge they will say "stand your ground". Make them feel alive in the end. Even react to wounds of any kind screaming of pain or saying stuff to the enemies while fighting. Who knows, there is much to tell there.

Boy oh boy! If they manage to implement it correctly, I will surely go insane.

But I am still thinking about the hospital units.

[Humble Warrior]

I actually like the idea of `Human drama`. While I want things realistic, many games makers forget the `Human` element. WAR is all about humanity and it goes through literally all the Human trials one can experience. So if we have the odd scene where a soldier breaks ranks to rescue another soldier or even attacks too early, I`m all for it. These things DID happen, even if not officially recorded.

Of course, I don`t want to see silliness, like armies falling to pieces because a few men died, etc.

I would also like to see the `Human drama` of civilians fleeing a battle scene, mass exodus from a city about to be attacked; weeping women and children begging for protection from the oncoming barbarian (or Roman) hordes.

But you know what, i have a bad feeling that `Human drama` will not be something to do with reality, but will be CA`s weird version of whatever they think human drama is... probably something like the mythical godlike heroes popping up instead which you can `pwn` with.

[General Maximus]

I would also like to see the `Human drama` of civilians fleeing a battle scene, mass exodus from a city about to be attacked; weeping women and children begging for protection from the oncoming barbarian (or Roman) hordes.

This.

It is one thing when you kill off a few peasants and get the option to exterminate, which gives a picture of crucified people hanging in lines, and a few sounds of chaos.

And it is completely another thing when your Gallic barbarians breach the gates and march in, on the scene of total chaos with everyone screaming and running away, women trying to hide their children while men run off. All this is happening when your men enter the city and throw torches into the buildings and city is burning. And everyone is massacred wholesale.

I hope they include peasants that will run off and spread chaos everywhere. Otherwise the huge city I have seen in screenshots will look quite dull and bland.

[Glaumir]

This.

It is one thing when you kill off a few peasants and get the option to exterminate, which gives a picture of crucified people hanging in lines, and a few sounds of chaos.

And it is completely another thing when your Gallic barbarians breach the gates and march in, on the scene of total chaos with everyone screaming and running away, women trying to hide their children while men run off. All this is happening when your men enter the city and throw torches into the buildings and city is burning. And everyone is massacred wholesale.

I hope they include peasants that will run off and spread chaos everywhere. Otherwise the huge city I have seen in screenshots will look quite dull and bland.

I doubt they will go that far. Rating agencies won't like it one bit, especially if there is children involved.

[The Useless Member]

It would be really funny to see that, although on a serious battle/campaign, I'd like the ability to turn it off.