Archer targeting weirdness

[Velax]

Seems like I've found yet another...oddity when it comes to archer targeting.

Recently (this turn) there was a battle in Nahad in the Far East. During the first turn, one of the Arcaean ranged special forces units that started in the front row "moved closer to get better shots". Not out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary, was that this apparently caused every enemy ranged unit (6 of them) to target that unit, despite the fact that 23 Arcaean infantry units that started in the front row also moved forward.

So I'm assuming that because ranged movement and attacking occurs before infantry movement, the special forces unit was considered to be in front of every other unit and so was targeted by every enemy ranged unit? Am I reading that correctly? Will that be fixed in the upcoming ranged unit changes I remember reading about? It wasn't my unit, but I imagine it sucks rather heavily to have 27 out of your expensive 30-man SF unit nailed in the first turn due to something like that.

Battle in Nahad: [Scribe:226427|c67e9d56586708cd]

[Fleugs]

I lol'd.

[Foundation]

Hmm, I agree that certainly doesn't make sense.  It depends on whether there are priorities such as ranged targeting ranged or something else.

[Anaris]

Yes, that might well have to do with the order in which things happen in the combat script.

Not sure there's a lot to be done about it short of a wholesale overhaul of the script.  Which is probably needed, but not going to happen soon.

[Vaylon Kenadell]

I'm going to test the new code a bit. Just to make sure I understand range right -- if there is an enemy on the front lines, and your archers have a range of 4 and deploy in the back, they -should- be able to hit the enemy, right? The wiki is characteristically unclear on what range means. Example:



Or does range of 4 mean they can only hit three squares away?

[Indirik]

Range 4 means they can hit something 4 ranks away. The rank you are in does not count. Someone in the rank right next to you is Range 1, etc.

[Vaylon Kenadell]

I tested it just now, and I'm rather dismayed at the results.

What determines whether or not a unit of archers retreat? My archers don't always retreat when they lack infantry cover.

[Anaris]

I tested it just now, and I'm rather dismayed at the results.

What determines whether or not a unit of archers retreat? My archers don't always retreat when they lack infantry cover.

Could you please elaborate? I'd like to see what the behaviour of the new code looks like, and I don't currently have a character in a position to test it.

[fodder]

http://www.mediafire.com/?xb24dmtsvee27mt 
<--- nothing particularly strange with this one... aside from monsters and infantry charging right through each other.... (poor infantry XD)
----
apparently same as the one below...

[Vaylon Kenadell]

Could you please elaborate? I'd like to see what the behaviour of the new code looks like, and I don't currently have a character in a position to test it.

Here's the battle scribe note.

Two of our archer units (including mine) retreated because they didn't have infantry cover -- but in previous battles, my archers stayed on the field and continued to fight even though they were the sole unit on the field.

[Anaris]

Here's the battle scribe note.

That's all very well, but I at least need to know what continent it was on

[Vaylon Kenadell]

Sorry -- it was on Dwilight.

[Anaris]

Two of our archer units (including mine) retreated because they didn't have infantry cover -- but in previous battles, my archers stayed on the field and continued to fight even though they were the sole unit on the field.

There's a certain amount of randomness in this, as in many BM behaviours. 

[Vaylon Kenadell]

There's a certain amount of randomness in this, as in many BM behaviours.

Is there anything I can do to lower the chance of my archers running from the field? (Besides infantry, of course.)

[Anaris]

Is there anything I can do to lower the chance of my archers running from the field? (Besides infantry, of course.)

Keep their morale up.