Battle length in single player campaign

[Muizer]

We've talked about how many turns a campaign should last. But what about battles?

In a single player campaign, how long would you like a major battle or siege to take?

And perhaps the CA reps can tell us what their market research tells them in this regard.

[Sharpe]

I can only speak for myself, but about 10-20 minutes would be a nice average. Long enough to implements some nice tactics, but not too long as to burn all my time.

Obviously longer for large sieges and ultimate battles.

[HigoChumbo]

I think they should be flexible enough. For the average battle 15-20 minutes is probably the sweet spot.

But it would also be nice if the very very few trully meaningful huge battles lasted longer (up to 40 mins i'd say, but it would be a very very rare thing). And not just because the process would be slower, but because you would have to be constantly making choices and reactions and the outcome would not be trully decided until the very end.ç

For whatever reason I'm thinking of a lol match right now.

[TsarGrey]

I think they should be flexible enough. For the average battle 15-20 minutes is probably the sweet spot.

But it would also be nice if the very very few trully meaningful huge battles lasted longer (up to 40 mins i'd say, but it would be a very very rare thing). And not just because the process would be slower, but because you would have to be constantly making choices and reactions and the outcome would not be trully decided until the very end.ç

For whatever reason I'm thinking of a lol match right now.

This. Though whatever happens, I hope that AI can take initiative. Too many times in Shogun 2 it's just destroying first wave and waiting. . waiting. . waiting for better half an hour or taking risk unfavorable conditions before time limit is up. Especially with sieges. Clueless AI is actually forcing player set limits when defending.

[Sharpe]

INB4 the hardcore crowd ask for three day battles because actual battles lasted that long.

[Muizer]

Time flies when you're having fun. I think the "epic" battles should last around half an hour (but I tend to spend a lot of time in deployment and paused mode )

[Sharpe]

Yeah, that seems reasonable. Battles on Empire and Napoleon take about 10-15 minutes and that seems pretty good.

[jsully16]

I generally do no time limit just because time limits don't really make sense against the computer in a single player campaign. If I want to charge, I'll charge. If I want to take my sweeeeeet, looooong time playing to my advantages, I'll do that.

Online, of course a time limit makes sense.

[-=PHX=-Hades]

I don't really care how long it is. All that matters to me is how big it is. (This sounds so dirty)

More soldiers. Bigger maps. That's what I want.

[Clock]

On average, I probably take around 10-20 minutes per battle, maybe up to 30 or 40 for large engagements/sieges depending on the situation. But really, battles can last for as long or as little as you like.

I can't recall if in S2 you could turn off the battle timer, but you could still set it to a max of 60 minutes, which is probably plenty of time for every situation. On top of that, you can pause, slow or hasten the battle speed as you see fit, so it's really up to the player how long they want to take. Of course, unit speed does tie into this, because the faster the units, the quicker the battle will play out. But with the aforementioned ability to slow and fast forward time, it's sort of a non-issue, not unless you really hate the unit speed, in which case I guess you'd have to look to mods.

[Gelston]

If it is a small engagement, I prefer it to be quick. If it is a large and meaningful battle, I want it to be longer. Still, nothing over an hour, although I don't set time limits.

[Smolka]

It would be really nice if we could save the game during a battle. It does get annoying when I have to be somewhere and a battle just takes to long and I have to quit. If the game could be saved so we could come back to it later at the same point in a battle, it would prevent us from having to re-fight the same huge long battle over again.

[bojieh]

Since the scale would be the biggest in Total war games yet, I'd like a hour + for the longest battles.

[robin2852]

It is extremely hard to just blanket vote '20 minutes', when different kinds of battles, will all play out at different lengths. I don't want a small battle with 3-4 units, taking as long as 20-30 minutes.

And if by 'major battles', you just mean two full stacks killing each other, i'll still have to say again: some battles, even full stacks against each other, will be quite short, and some will be very long; i can't just blanket vote an arbitrary number. CA really shouldn't try to aim their battles to be a certain length, they just need to balance all the running speeds, and attack stats, so the battles feel well balanced and not rushed.

[Muizer]

It is extremely hard to just blanket vote '20 minutes', when different kinds of battles, will all play out at different lengths. I don't want a small battle with 3-4 units, taking as long as 20-30 minutes.

And if by 'major battles', you just mean two full stacks killing each other, i'll still have to say again: some battles, even full stacks against each other, will be quite short, and some will be very long; i can't just blanket vote an arbitrary number. CA really shouldn't try to aim their battles to be a certain length, they just need to balance all the running speeds, and attack stats, so the battles feel well balanced and not rushed.

People have played these games and I'm asking them to give an indication of the length of the battles they enjoyed most. Of course, nothing can be deduced about the specific circumstances of the battles in question, if only because they could vary from player to player. Nevertheless, battle length is in part the result of the way the tactical level is designed (including how large it is, how large armies are, what the pace of the game is and so on). Preferred battle length is a relevant consideration.

[WorthyRacked]

I personally like when my battles last 30+ minutes, just seems so rewarding, when you win, and so heartbreaking when losing a grand battle

[I2ain_2_Battle]

25-30 minutes but nothing longer. love how the roma surrectum battles are but, sometimes i just fast forward through it and it gets kinda boring.

[Asuryan]

I always set it to unlimit, I don't like to be forced to do things faster than I should because of a stupid clock says I must.

[Kenios]

The poll is useless without a baseline comparison. Someone may be thinking of a 20 minute fight between 4 stacks. Someone else may be thinking of a 20 minute fight between 2 levy spearman units. You should set a baseline, like "If 2 levy spearman units are fighting each other, how long should they fight before one side routs" At least everyone would be on the same page, looking at the same battle.

[Muizer]

The poll is useless without a baseline comparison. Someone may be thinking of a 20 minute fight between 4 stacks. Someone else may be thinking of a 20 minute fight between 2 levy spearman units. You should set a baseline, like "If 2 levy spearman units are fighting each other, how long should they fight before one side routs" At least everyone would be on the same page, looking at the same battle.

You'd be right if the goal was to establish preferred battle speed alone, but it isn't.