Tactical / Combat Map

I really want terrain to play a role. Not just a log blocking a pathway, but height playing a role.

I actually prefer Disciples format of using single units over the spamalot battles in HoMM, so here's my hoping for that.

Personally I wouldn't mind if it were hex or square based, they both have positive and negative aspects imho.

Other than tweaking your recommendations a litte, Mentora, I'm pretty much in line with your thinking.

I hate the chess board battle map.  That, IMO would be a huge disappointment.

Brad already mentioned terrain will make a big impact.  He also said he would like to see battles where dragons take out massive armies of units (since modern graphic cards are capable of rendering a lot of units at once now).

Having 3D unit does look cool but I would prefer if the game is optimised to cater those with mid range gaming rig. 

Isometric view is clearly the best option .. if you have a flat map. But with heights, forests, and thaht sort of things a movable camera is really needed.

Really different unit sizes is a good thing. Moreover unit size should also have an impact to the ruleset (like a morale bonus, a stomping options or things like that)

I really hate chessboard like maps. But it's just the fact that I played so many wargames with hexagones that I feel acustomed to it. A chess-map has a flaw the : diagonal move. You spent too much move points when you just want your unit to go diagonaly, and it really harms the slow units.

Also the battles should use those things that wargames use for so long : the morale (and the fact that a routed unit should oblige adjacent unit toi make a morale check) , the "quality" of unit, the impact of terrain, the fatigue and the most important : zone of control. Other things like flanking, rear attacking, surprise, critical hits, instant death would be really cool.

Would or should there be a battle length.

Meaning should the game put a limit on how long a battle should last.

For exemple if you are laying seige to a castle can you stay in battle mode for 20 turns 30 turns or whatever.

I remember when I use to play gemfire you had tot ake a certain amount of food with you when you went into battle. If you ran out you lost the battle regardless of your troops.

Just a thought.

Unit size from Tiny (Birds) > Small (Halfling) > Medium (Human) > Large (Knight on Horse) > Monsterous (Siege Tower) > Huge would be great.

I am a MAJOR fan of Hexes of Tac Combat but I believe they already shot down that Idea.

I would love to see Morale and Zone of Control as factors but that can get too complex for the average gamer.

Sammual

Yeah .. the average player ... *sad*

The morale system could be semi-transparent. And instead of having numerical values you would have a general indication of their attitude "brave" "fresh" "exhausted" etc.. and any mix of them (you can be brave and exhausted or fresh and coward). The total war series use that system and it doesn't scare the "average player"

The reason that i loved MOM more than AOW was that the battles didn't take a long time to resolve.  There were way too much space for the units to go in AOW and after a while, I really hated going into battle.  But at the same time, HOMM was way too simple (1 unit representing 1000 peasants etc.) and battles just got boring.

I guess the 'magic' is all in some sort of happy medium between the two.

The problem with AOW was that in long battles you had to make your camera move a lot. A simple zoom out/zoom in like in supreme commander or sins of a solar empire would resolve that problem and let you focus on strategy and less babysitting your units.

I would love for the combat system to be a complex as they can make it and still ballance it for release.  I'm not shure who the target audiance for this game is and if that would be missing them or not.

Sammual

Just did my pre-order and noticed this tactical battle image:

Shows some interesting details about how the tactical battles will work.

These details are very likely to change. I've gotta be honest, I'd love maps that were a good bit bigger because something on this scale would be overwhelmed by an 8 unit army, the options for maneuver would be plugged up terribly. Something twice this size would be really good, it'd let speed differences matter more and give the possibilty for much more tactical maneuver.

How do you know thats the size of the map?  Maybe that's just the amount of it they were using

I imagine this game will have diag movement just like MoM so that slow units aren't hampered too much.   Again, I also imagine the regular foot troops have a move of 1 like MoM.  

(I really hope many of the 'sub-core mechanics' like that are like that of MoM)

Total War is combat done quite simply and intuitively.  If one wants simpler combat than that they should probably be looking into shallower games than Stardock customarily puts out.

It's just a bit fast for those of us who like to micromanage each unit. I generally end up with about five groups and managing the battle with them, but that has its own set of problems. I bet SD can do a really good job no matter what they choose, I just think a more finicky system with more potential for management on a small scale would suit this game better.

But not at the cost of morale.  Morale is an absolute must in a game like this, and not having it would be a real game breaker.  To be quite honest, lack of confirmation on unit morale being represented in the game is the only reason why I am holding off on the pre-order.

I firmly agree on the morale point. I dont agree on the holding off point. SD is a solid company that really supports and listens to its customers and has well over a decade track record of doing so. Consequently people order the game on faith, if for nothing more than to show that the brand is more important than a single title.

I agree completely that Stardock is a solid company that really supports and listens to its customers, however no morale is a game breaker for me.  The second I hear that morale is included I'll be wipping out my credit card and ordering, however I have made it a rule not to purchase games that represent troops of this era but don't represent morale.  That means a large number of RTS's are out, and has saved me a great deal of time and frustration since I implemented.  I am willing to purchase from Stardock on faith for most things, but also tend to obey the rules I set for myself, and this is one of them.