We need ability to toggle fire at will on/off

[TheRomanRuler]

If you have units in 2 lines, you don`t want soldiers behind shooting your own guys (and i asked before is there friendly fire, yes there is). Enough said really

[TheCenturion]

While any control you get over your own troops is a good thing, I rarely see FF... in fact I don't think I've seen it at all. Mainly because your commander AI won't allow a unit to fire if it would hit their own units. That's why you can set up lines quite easy, because units behind others wont fire until they have a clear shot. 

 

Are you sure that there's FF? I don't think I've seen ANY in my games. Then again, I haven't looked for it, and it's difficult to tell whether unit deaths are from the enemy or your own fire. 

[Tormidal]

Ive never seen friendly fire actually kill units.

[TheRomanRuler]

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/1066-is-there-friendly-fire/

 

Friendly fire yes it exists and trust me if we turn it off, the game will become a mess, as everyone will shoot from behind, units will merge undesirable and many other strange things that we see in simplistic RTS.

It is pending to make friendly fire better visible, to see only the unblocked part of the unit to fire (now we see a reduced volley or a complete fire holding).

 

In the coming patch which comes today/tonight, friendly fire system will be working much better, just for info 

 

[sharky0922]

I ddin't see it either, and I set up my arty straight behind or almost between brigade lines.

Didnt looked on morale bar when they shoot, maybe thats what suffers more?

[TheRomanRuler]

I have not noticed it either, which is why i had to ask. But Darth said units don`t fire if friendly is in their way, so propably there is ranged friendly fire only, and artillery could inflict casualties too i think. 

Thanks to Total wars i have learned to be careful about it, in those games you might shoot your friend`s head if he is in front of you. 

[R.E.B.Blunt]

Although units standing in front of  friendly units will prevent the rear brigade from firing. Cannons standing within a Brigade sphere of influence and to the front row will fire. Cannons directly behind a Brigade will NOT fire unless up on a hill a few degrees above the Brigade.

 

I have 48 hours into this game and I have not ever seen friendly fire. I have even held my cannons fire until I used Canister Shot. Shot through my own Brigade and into the enemy Brigade. My Brigade took no damage but the enemy ran away afterwards.

[TheRomanRuler]

Perhaps Darth then just means that if there are friendlies units don`t shoot there? It would be great. 

[TheCenturion]

Yeah, I think by the quote you posted Darth simply means that 'friendly fire' is just a function that stops units firing into other friendly units- not so much the actual act of killing friendlies. 

[sharky0922]

Although units standing in front of  friendly units will prevent the rear brigade from firing. Cannons standing within a Brigade sphere of influence and to the front row will fire. Cannons directly behind a Brigade will NOT fire unless up on a hill a few degrees above the Brigade.

 

I have 48 hours into this game and I have not ever seen friendly fire. I have even held my cannons fire until I used Canister Shot. Shot through my own Brigade and into the enemy Brigade. My Brigade took no damage but the enemy ran away afterwards.

That would explain to me why often my art wont fire at any unit. Was wondering whats going in on, maybe bug? Cause it sure was in range and in Field Of Fire. 

Thanks!

[Zelekendel]

Friendly fire doesn't affect artillery, that is, other batteries will not affect your batteries?

Since finding LOS for artillery is such a pain, I tend to observe which of my guns are firing, and then move everything in that very same spot

[P-Dup]

Back to topic: I think fire at will should have a on/off toggle. Or maybe a cease fire or hold your fire option, at least for strategic reasons (e.g. let an attacking regiment/brigade come up close, then fire a devastating volley more accurately, although with less time to reload if charged)

[David Fair]

The on/off toggle is to set your artillery units on "canister". This lets them rest and recover morale and condition.

I try to rotate which batteries are firing to ensure they are in reasonable shape once the action gets close.

Note - I don't like this answer; but, it does work if you can put up with the micromanagement.

[P-Dup]

@David This is more like a workaround, but I think this is what you meant by your last line. Although it shows additional reasons why a cease fire toggle is useful.

 

And it's a must if ammo should get implemented (please don't).

[David Fair]

P-Dup,

The cease fire would be really useful.

But, I don't want a cease fire command only to discover batteries overrun because they sat in cease fire mode.

I want to ensure the design team understands requirement.

When cease fire is ordered the artillery should load with canister?

Units within canister range automatically cancel the cease fire order?

Do you have other ideas?

My point is that it is silly for the AI to fire their artillery until it routs.

It is silly for a player to need to micromanage this level of detail to monitor the artillery.

There should be a limit on how fast they fire so they don't rout.

Historically General Hunt implemented "Deliberate Fire" to manage artillery supply. The idea was to fire not more than 1 round every 5 minutes which should give the artillery enough ammunition for a day. The Union was having a problem with batteries firing all of their ammunition in about 90 minutes then pulling out of the line to resupply.

[P-Dup]

At first cease fire could be handled differently for infantry and artillery.

 

And then I admit I don't have a really good idea. For artillery there could be a way to toggle all on/off, so you don't have to search the battlefield for the silent artillery units if you want to switch it on again. Then there could be a indicator on the unit (I know that certain people don't wish more indicators in the HUD/GUI). There could also be a timer so you could toggle it off for 5 minutes or a possibility to switch it off until condition hs reached XXX, like a re-conditioning mode.

 

Another idea (maybe a good one - or at least a considerable one) could be to have the next (move) order simply override the cease fire.

[David Fair]

Override is a good idea.

Having a governor on the artillery so it doesn't continue shooting until it routs would make the AI better and reduce the micromanagement for the human player.

You could also just make the artillery more historically accurate by reducing the morale and condition effects. Artillery units firing at long-range didn't have much impact on morale. Ammunition caissons were also starting to rotate back to the ammunition supply to ensure units stayed on the line while their ammunition was replenished.