Tactical Vs AutoResolve

That's a great idea.

Actually it should replace AutoResolve. It's very annoying with the game has two different rule sets for resolving combat. A lot of early 4x games with tactical combat had AutoResolve option which just did some random math formula in the background kinda like what EWOM does. But this often results in cases where you would clearly win in one case but loss horribly in another.

For example I had a single squad attack a group of spiders and one of the kept using web so I won't get a turn or counter attacks. After a few turns of this and I was at 1/4 HP left I just said screw it and hit the auto resolve button. Much to my suprise the fight resolved how I had originally expected it to go when I attack the spiders in tactical combat. My squad didn't take another hit and killed every spider. It seems auto resolve also doesn't take into account "effect" spells. Thus only damage spells seem to matter.

What they need to do is strip out the GFX animations and such of tactical combat and have the computer run it in high speed in the background real quick. With movement, spells, attacks, and etc. instantly resolving without the animation effects it should go very quickly. After all it's just a grid with a few pieces moving on it.

My biggest issue is the way autoresolve with have my casters needlessly throw off spells in fights they could win without even attacking, wasting huge amounts of precious mana when I'm saving up for a summon or enchantment. Need to be an autoresolve without using magic option.

I think the main issues is many fights, that I will win without losing anything by charging forward and attacking, (no tactics required) kill my army if i auto resolve with minor losses to the other side.  This forces me to waste time on tactical for trivial battles.

"My biggest issue is the way autoresolve with have my casters needlessly throw off spells in fights they could win without even attacking, wasting huge amounts of precious mana when I'm saving up for a summon or enchantment. Need to be an autoresolve without using magic option."

this.

though i am surprised to find it was using magic at all; i was having the opposite problem in that my sovs magic abilities seem to be ignored...?

I had the same problem.  So with my current game, I didn't research any attack spells. 

I have also taken advantage of the way auto resolve works and turn my sov & champions into "meat-heads" wielding huge 2handed hammers.  Since the only thing that matters is how much damage you do, they can churn out some big initial numbers and the slowness of the weapons doesn't matter (you only get 1 attack anyway).

Yes I have also wanted a feature like this, but I would like to have this option per "unit" so I can turn on all the mindless boring units I have that I dont care about. Also this would solve some players who only want to control the casters to use mana there own way.

*1* Computer controled ?
Have Computer auto attack button on/off per unit.
By having this on each unit, then it is you can let the computer control all the archers and mindless units

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*2* Spells ?
Allowed to use spell/abilities on/off

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*3* Behavior ?
This could be many differnt settings, boxes and settings.

** Cowardly = always try and stay 2 squares away from enemy, Good for ranged units, and actully use tactics, instead of mindnumbing stand and shoot tactics.
Forcing players to play strategic fights just because the Auto resolv is bad deisgned is not a good game.

** Berzerker = Full charge towards enemy.

** Stand ground= Stand ground and attack enemy close to you.

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*4* Target mode ?
Who do you want the target to attack
HP Weakest enemy, HP strongest enemy, closest enemy, furthest away enemy, casters


Ofc a game with these option would prob need alot of programming and shit, but a game with a feature like this would be "NEW" and really kick ass impressive.

I think AoW did the auto thing where you would actually be in the tactical map and watch them fight, and could actually turn off auto mid-battle?  Or Lords of Magic?

Anyway.

I always do tactical.

I just wish we were allowed to setup our formation before the battle, be it tactical or auto resolve. It's annoying jumping into tactical and 3 units are standing there alone in the middle of the field!

Also autoresolve seems to ignore your spells. I can win a fight with just my sovereign spells, and having everyone else protecting him. But hitting auto, and it only uses ONE spell once....sheeesh.

Aside from the random Sov. getting killed in a battle he had no buisness dying in for auto-resolve, my biggest complaint would be the speed of Tactical combat. I love the idea of tactical combat (such as MoM, AoW, HoMM and so on), but they had options to speed up animations, enemy movies, and so on, so it is not such a freaking tedious trudge just to make sure your archers fire, your sov. does die, and even the most basic tactical thinking is applied.

A tactical auto resolve where you can see the battle unfold would be great. SD could use the same AI that the enemy uses in the tactical battle.

In the short run, I would offer players choosing tactical auto resolve two options to guide the the AI;

1. Magic Strategy

a. No Magic

b. Use Magic against strongest units

c. Use Magic against weakest units

2. Battle Strategy:

a. Target all

b. Target strongest enemy units first

c. Target weakest enemy units first

Example 01: Magic Strategy (No Magic), Battle Strategy (Target strongest enemy units first)

Example 02: Magic Strategy (Against strongest units), Battle Strategy (Target weakest enemy units first)

AoW 2 had the option to go into tactical then hit "auto" and let the computer play it so you could watch. Was convenient for mop-up after the important part of the fight was over.

While it would be nice every once in a while to be able to sit back and watch your army pound out the enemy in an automated AI vs AI battle, and despite the many things wrong with auto-resolve and tactical battle as it stands, I would be satisfied if there was just an option for changing the animation speeds (both on the world map and tactical map). In HoMM3 I ALWAYS duked the battles out (since you can pretty much always outperform the AI results), but thats because you could make the battle very fast. In this game, the tactical battles are currently unreasonably time consuming and there is little-to-no strategy involved (making them very boring), which leads me to auto-resolve all battles even if it means I lose more health or more units than I could have in tactical battle (which, because of the current bugs and differences in the way auto-resolve determines the battle results, is generally not the case anyways).

Yeah, they definitely need to increase the speed of tactical battles or have an option with multiple speed settings. 

Auto does counter the moral lock talent some sovereign have though. Auto seems to totally ignore moral.