All the battle system flaws, in one thread!
I THINK THE FORMATTING IS FIXED NOW MAYBE PERHAPS SORT-OF PROBABLY
Disclaimer: This is obviously just my opinion.
I guess this thread could be used as a sort of compilation for any modders or whatnot to figure out what they want to tweak and change. Anyone is free to toss in ideas that I may or may not add to the list.
1. Battles are way too short.
Infantry units run at ridiculous speeds.
The combat, even when it involves heavily armoured units on both sides is often over in no time. This means there is virtually no time to manage your units once the engagement has begun.
You cannot, for example, sneak cavalry units around the enemy's flank, because by the time they reach the fight (even if they're at full gallop), the main battle will be over.
The resulting hectic gameplay is unsatisfying, and it prevents you from employing many tactics. It also means that the cinematic nature of the game is seriously hurt - you can't watch your men fight, and the sense of scale is lost when you don't get to see the two armies duke it out for any significant time. You could also say it's a huge waste of resources on CA's part. All that time and money spent on animations, and you don't even get to see them!
2. Melee units with throwing weapons are heavily flawed.
This is a problem that infantry units like Legionaries and some cavalry units such as the Gallic Light Horse have. They can only use their throwing weapons when charging. This is obviously bad game design for a number of reasons.
When used defensively Infantry cannot throw their javelins at an approaching enemy, at a huge cost of attack power. In the case of cavalry units, they can't be used to skirmish, despite their ideal armament!
This is seriously silly.
3. Victory Points are often whack.
I'm sure many have had this scene before. You're defending, you've got an expansive, large battlefield full of possibilities to hold off the enemy's superior forces.
Well, you wish you had that.
Sadly the game has decided to put a victory point at some arbitrary, sometimes undefendable location, and if you don't hold it you'll bloody lose. It doesn't matter that the attacker's sensible objective (getting the enemy out of the immediate area) obviously wouldn't be completed by holding this insignificant circle of land, you MUST defend this place at all costs. It's absurd, and un-fun.
4. Many abilities are just stupid.
I'll put the bad abilities in 2 categories:
1. Pointless Abilities
The best example of these are the various "click here to charge harder" abilities of many cavalry units.There's literally no reason not to use them, especially when battles are as short as they are. There's not much in terms of elaborate decision making that needs to be done. Just click that thing to make your unit better. These abilities are just unneeded clutter, the game wouldn't be any less enjoyable without them.2. Absurd abilities
"Click here to reload faster", "Click here to make your spearmen run like Usain Bolt", "Click here to instantly reset a unit's fatigue", and so on.The dreaded "magical" abilities, responsible (on my part at least) for many moments when someone goes "now that just shouldn't be possible". They can make units behave in truly ridiculous ways, and they sabotage the cinematic experience with their Warcraft-esque nature.Abilities should be focused on tradeoffs and mindsets, and should stay within the realm of common sense. Examples of good abilities are ones that do things like make a unit fight harder in a crucial moment at the cost of stamina, as well as the various new fancy formations and stuff. More of that, and less silly stuff please.
Also, cooldowns should be avoided whenever possible.
That's all for now. Feel free to flame.
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Originally Posted by Evan MF
