Unit fighting animations - Broken?

**DEMETRIOUS II** · November 28, 2006, 11:38 AM

Does anyone know if the unit animations are broken? CA promised us all these cool finishing and kill moves but I have fought many custom battles and saved the replays just to watch some of the fighting but so far I haven't seen much of what was promised. Do you guys know if the animations get better with unit experience upgrades etc? Maybe it's me but I haven't noticed much of an improvement since RTW&BI?? Any thoughts on this subject?

Cheers!

**ProudNerd** · November 28, 2006, 11:40 AM

yes indeed and they are so broken that some units like two handed weapon infantry are useless against cavalry since they cant hit them.

**Spiff** · November 28, 2006, 11:41 AM

I love the animations personally, it's much more fluid and natural than in Rome. Its not perfect of course but the killing 'set piece' style animations are definitely in, and i think they look pretty good.

**Turbo** · November 28, 2006, 11:42 AM

Lots of threads on the animations. A lot seem to be bugged. Some of the 2-handed animations are bugged and dont hit properly. Another problem is that the units spread way out for 1vs1 type fighting.

**The Strategy-Player** · November 28, 2006, 11:49 AM

I am playing as the scots now, and every time I see the Noble Swordsmen fight, they are doing a lot of cool moves! I havent seen the other units doing a lot of things like they do, but Noble Swordmens do it a lot! Set up a custom battle with the scots and you will see

**Scarlett Letterman** · November 28, 2006, 12:53 PM

Its definetly not all it was hyped up to be. It can be cool (like when a guy gets a sword to the head and hes suddenly full of blood) but then bad (when that same guy continues fighting after the head blow). The good animations seem pretty rare while some guy's will do that shoulder thrust move over and over and over.

**ProudNerd** · November 28, 2006, 11:48 AM

Yeah they still miss allot tho i haven't played it enough to decide one way or the other tho thanks to my pc dying. There is allot less standing and staring tho. But animations are often out of allginment like that one where a spearman smashes his spear into his opponents face sending them crashing to the ground clutching their mangled face then stabs them he often stabs the ground instead and the enemy still dies. Still when they work right they are very cool looking.

**DavidtheDuke** · November 28, 2006, 01:18 PM

Yeah, wouldn't it be ironic that two-handed guys can't kill calvary because CA forgot to make an animation for it? God, all they had to do was release an unpacker for us and I bet over half the problems would've been fixed by now.

**Flavius Nevitta** · November 28, 2006, 01:24 PM

well I like the animations for the sword units. looks pretty cool sometimes watching dismounted knights fight. and there are some nice finishing moves. the thing is that the calculation doesn't work upon real contact. so the unit might look like it didn't even touch the enemy but he did when it comes to hit calculation.hmmm hope that was kind of understandable lol

**Rædwald** · November 28, 2006, 01:26 PM

I think the animations are cool I like the one where the swordsman stabs an enemy then pulls the sword out holding the guy down with his foot.

**General Dissaray** · November 28, 2006, 01:34 PM

I see them all the time. It may have some thing to do with graphics setings, but I am not sure on that one. My only gripe when it comes to the animations is the spaceing seems to be off on a lot of them. But when they line things up just right most of them are realy cool looking, a defanate step up from rome and the stab, stab, stab, some times slash, fall over dead.

**The Strategy-Player** · November 28, 2006, 02:45 PM

Okay, I have played some custom battles where I deicided to put my units into loose formation, and I am amazed! I found out that they need space to do their combos. So if you do not move and stay in loose formation, you can see lots of cool combos!

I by the way beatened 15 units of different infanteryunits, by standing in loose formation with 6 noble swordsmen, with 3 experinece

**philip augustus** · November 28, 2006, 03:08 PM

I tried that too, there a lot of good animations I even got a chance to see my general knock a guy to the ground and then stab him then use his feet to get the sword out it was really cool. I got to hand it to CA they did a good job with the animations when the spacing is right.

**Blizzard** · November 28, 2006, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by The Strategy-Player

Okay, I have played some custom battles where I deicided to put my units into loose formation, and I am amazed! I found out that they need space to do their combos. So if you do not move and stay in loose formation, you can see lots of cool combos!

I by the way beatened 15 units of different infanteryunits, by standing in loose formation with 6 noble swordsmen, with 3 experinece

it's the way fought and it should have been deployed loose by default

"ya need space lad ta swing that claymore of yers"

if they're not effective against cavalry then that's a bug since that was the role of the claymore - to chop off the legs of the horses

**ProudNerd** · November 28, 2006, 04:14 PM

Wow really ill have to try that! Melee fighting better in loose formation who would have through?

**Inhuman One** · November 28, 2006, 04:37 PM

It all looks far more natural than in rome. I havent tried loose formations yet but am going to now for sure.

The animations for cavalry hacking in on infantry with swords looks good, sometimes one knight just went through a infantry formation cutting left and right, sometimes killing about 10 men in the process.

I do think that horses fall down very quickly sometimes from a standing position. And its a shame that arrows dont stick into soldiers untill they dissappear.

**dearmad** · November 28, 2006, 05:05 PM

so... what, exactly is tight formation for now then?? This seems wrong. Tight ='s higher moral and effectiveness for most h/h units of this era, historically.

Loose='s get hit by less arrows, but no one to cover your back, so lower morale...

but is this not true anymore and these formations are worthless??

**Blizzard** · November 28, 2006, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by dearmad

so... what, exactly is tight formation for now then?? This seems wrong. Tight ='s higher moral and effectiveness for most h/h units of this era, historically.

Loose='s get hit by less arrows, but no one to cover your back, so lower morale...

but is this not true anymore and these formations are worthless??

depending of the unit's features i guess
animation is equaly if not much more important than stats
for spearmans for example it's more effective to stay in close formation and hold it since they have a block with shield/trusting animation
two handed swordmans needs space to manouver and if you keep them in close formation only the first row gets to fight, the others don't do much in the back
etc.
not sure how much functions as intended in design/ how much is affected by the speed of your processor/ grafic resouces etc.

my opinion on this is that a unit with high defense/attack skills should fair better than an unskilled unit with high armor stats

**Aristocrat** · November 28, 2006, 07:05 PM

I haven't seen an issue with the animations (bar the two handed ones). In my Milan game I saw plenty of times troops fighting back and forth till one was grounded, and then the downward stab came.
Better troops have better finishing animations it seems.

(Personally I can't wait for EB for M2TW...I have images of roman legions doing groin and throat thrusts, then stabbing down, then marching over them.)