Give priority target matching for charging cavalry.

[Anaris]

Battles are chaotic. You don't get the chance to study everything and maximize the efficiency of your forces in the middle of combat.

I think the existing behaviour does a good job of representing that.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Though it's not that hard to tell when there's a single guy left in a unit and when there's a huge one. Why? Well, let's say that different nobles do in fact carry different banners in addition to the ones that they have for their armies. Because, you know, nobles are vain. And, you know...This is a game. Let's not be so nitpicky about ultrarealism when it makes for a better game experience otherwise. Otherwise you might want to go outside and join some Medieval re-enacting company or something...Or move to some tourist town that has a Medieval theme, because you'd sure as all heck be taking the whole low fantasy Medieval analogue *game* a bit too seriously, lol.

Ok, anyway, so the point is you CAN in fact tell whose unit is whose (No freaking duh, why else do you have the reports saying so? Ok, I bet someone like Indirik and/or Anaris and/or the big names will definitely have something to say about how it's a bunch of scribes observing from afar, or something else, whatever, I don't care.)

And then, unless your guys are colorblind, or blind, or really nearsighted (All of which are separate problems in themselves) then your cavalry can see who has the big ass unit and who is the Spartan fighting as the last man, and direct their charge accordingly. Yeah, sure, they can't steer too precisely, but they can aim at a general area.

Also, 5 or so guys standing in the path of charging horses that are really targetting the big ass unit behind them aren't going to stop the horses. Not sure if we recall that these warhorses are really powerful and can just stomp over silly footmen. Apparently not the case in BM lol. Infantry are fitted with armor made of superdense polyalloys that would put Master Chief's armor to shame.

[egamma]

Though it's not that hard to tell when there's a single guy left in a unit and when there's a huge one. Why? Well, let's say that different nobles do in fact carry different banners in addition to the ones that they have for their armies. Because, you know, nobles are vain. And, you know...This is a game. Let's not be so nitpicky about ultrarealism when it makes for a better game experience otherwise. Otherwise you might want to go outside and join some Medieval re-enacting company or something...Or move to some tourist town that has a Medieval theme, because you'd sure as all heck be taking the whole low fantasy Medieval analogue *game* a bit too seriously, lol.

Ok, anyway, so the point is you CAN in fact tell whose unit is whose (No freaking duh, why else do you have the reports saying so? Ok, I bet someone like Indirik and/or Anaris and/or the big names will definitely have something to say about how it's a bunch of scribes observing from afar, or something else, whatever, I don't care.)

And then, unless your guys are colorblind, or blind, or really nearsighted (All of which are separate problems in themselves) then your cavalry can see who has the big ass unit and who is the Spartan fighting as the last man, and direct their charge accordingly. Yeah, sure, they can't steer too precisely, but they can aim at a general area.

Also, 5 or so guys standing in the path of charging horses that are really targetting the big ass unit behind them aren't going to stop the horses. Not sure if we recall that these warhorses are really powerful and can just stomp over silly footmen. Apparently not the case in BM lol. Infantry are fitted with armor made of superdense polyalloys that would put Master Chief's armor to shame.

You're forgetting (or conveniently ignoring the facts) that if your horses are on the left and the big enemy unit is on the right:

• that your diagonal charge will  present a larger target to archers
• that your diagnonal charge may require you to trample your own friendly soldiers
• require your unit to turn in a cohesive formation like computerized fighter jets

Would a battlefield with left, right, and center be great? Absolutely. But as long as we have this 2D (or really, 1D, left and right) battlefield, we're going to see this sort of thing occasionally.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

lol, look man, in every strategy game there is some balance between realism/features and ability to play the game. Thankfully BM is not a game where people need to play 18/7 to be minimally competent with mechanics and strategies.

Now, how hard would it be to include a separate parameter for target affinity? Not that hard is the answer. Does that mean I can do it myself? Well, give me a month where I don't have to study 8 hours of the day and I'll do it for y'all to prove a layperson could even achieve it.

[Anaris]

Now, how hard would it be to include a separate parameter for target affinity? Not that hard is the answer.

Bah. Code me one into the battle code, then tell me it's not that hard.

I can barely follow the new combat system's target-finding stuff, and it was my code from design to production.

[egamma]

lol, look man, in every strategy game there is some balance between realism/features and ability to play the game. Thankfully BM is not a game where people need to play 18/7 to be minimally competent with mechanics and strategies.

Now, how hard would it be to include a separate parameter for target affinity? Not that hard is the answer. Does that mean I can do it myself? Well, give me a month where I don't have to study 8 hours of the day and I'll do it for y'all to prove a layperson could even achieve it.

I would prefer to see this take a different form. I would like the cavalry to destroy the 3 man unit, and on the next turn, be able to charge again into the archers on the next row back. As long as they defeat their target one turn, they should be able to charge the next turn. This would be realistic and even more useful.

Also, need to get the cavalry to turn around and charge back into the melee when they don't have any targets in front of them.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

Bah. Code me one into the battle code, then tell me it's not that hard.

I can barely follow the new combat system's target-finding stuff, and it was my code from design to production.

Well that would require that I had access to the current code. Otherwise I'd just write a standalone that would work in isolation but might not make sense in the actual context. Meh, not my problem. I pride myself in being one of the guys, completely uninvolved with the veiled developer faction.

[Velax]

I would prefer to see this take a different form. I would like the cavalry to destroy the 3 man unit, and on the next turn, be able to charge again into the archers on the next row back. As long as they defeat their target one turn, they should be able to charge the next turn. This would be realistic and even more useful.

This seems reasonable. If a cavalry charge destroys or forces a unit to flee it gets to charge on the next turn, no matter whether it moved or not, to represent the cavalry overrunning the first unit and crashing into a second.

[Thunthorn]

I think it is good at it is. I remember when we lost a battle because both our cavalry units charged into one group of angry peasants each. This is as it should be. Spotting where you want to go isn't that easy as this proposal suggests. Historically on occasion screening units were used (an unit deployed thinly along the entire frontline to make it harder to spot how the enemy had deployed their troops).

At least one game I played in the 90's had them so its definitly historically