Building Queues, Ctrl Groups, & Armies

from AshesoftheSingularity Forums

First, let me qualify all you're about to read as coming from someone who's no good at this style game. I easily get distracting trying to make something work on one part of the map and forget about other things I wanted to remember to deal with elsewhere, etc. ADHD, more or less. I also tend to just forge ahead instead of figuring out all the nuances of build orders, types, upgrade types, costs, etc. I'm more the action RPG type that wants to tank. So, there are my challenges. I see being in at this level of the game as a huge leg up for better understanding of the underpinnings of the game and how to be more successful. We'll see.  :grin:

 

The following is a combination of questions and ideas as there is a lot of this game about which I know very little still. Let me start with my understandings and please let me know what I have wrong or what I have only limited understanding. Thanks.

 

1) Ctrl-n is something I'm very used to in other RTS-style games. The minimap even shows them by numeral - cool.

2) After selecting a group of units one can press V or click the appropriate icon and create an "army". The army tries to intelligently form up for attack or defense based on each unit's abilities when compared and used in conjunction with other unit types.

3) When building units in a factory, I can select a build order, check a box, and that factory will continue to puke out that build order as long as it exists, has resources, and the checkbox remains checked.

 

Question: What is the best approach for using 1 & 2 together? Armies aren't designated on the mini-map (as far as I can tell). I have no shortcut to move to an army's location on the map as I can by pressing the number for a Ctrl group twice. If I click on a unit that is a member of the army, it seems that selects the entire army - at least when it comes to movement. If an army is made up of more than a single Ctrl group and I select a Ctrl group, will I give directions to the entire army or just that Ctrl group?

 

Idea/Suggestion: I (think) I would like the ability to designate a factory's build queue as a reinforcement for a particular Ctrl group or army. So when I have an army on one flank and I have factories sending units their direction they actually join that army and know where to position themselves and how to act as part of the entire army. If that's too much, I'd at least like to be able to have a factory's queue reinforce a Ctrl group. Rallying points would be ignored by a reinforcement queue. The units would head directly to their assigned group.

 

Otherwise, I'd like to use this thread for anyone's suggestions as to how to manage unit groups. I'm open to all kinds of ideas. Maybe mine are far less than optimal.

 

Thanks for reading!

4,037 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Good post.

I'm sure my methodology has its downsides, but it works well enough. Each control group has a particular role. For example, 1 might control the north sector and 2 the south. 3 might push into enemy territory. I tend to have 3-5 different land armies by the late middle game, and if I am going with a Hades (bomber) strategy, I'll reserve 7 for that. I expect as the gameplay changes I'll have new and interesting roles.

My various armies grow in size and change in composition as the game progress. Because calling for reinforcements doesn't work right currently, I set my factories on a repeat queue with a rally point at their intended army. Then every once in a while when I'm about to use the army I'll click-drag select all the units in the area, hit 'B' to un-battle-group them, hit 'V' to re-battle-group them, then Ctrl-n to set them to the control group. I un-battle group them because I think I end up with better battle group compositions when there are multiple lead units. It also seems to reduce some of the confused battle group AI by making all the units ungrouped once in a while.

To answer your first question, you have to treat armies as a single unit. So you select some units in an army which happen to be in control group 1 and order them to point A, then other units in control group 2 which are in the same army to go to point B, all units in the army will go to point B regardless of control group. I find it best to eliminate the overlap and do your best to only control group formed armies, and to re-army and re- control group frequently. Not the best UI, but I find it the best solution in the current game design.

I like your idea. Having the AI choose far away factories for reinforcements is a recipe for disaster. Rally points would make that better. Reinforcements need to be automatically included in the army (they used to be that way but are currently not) so that they catch up to the army and fit in with the group. When reinforcements get back to this, there will be more opportunity for more advanced and tactical control grouping.

Reply #2 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

It sounds like we manage Ctrl groups similarly. Before I'm about to use an army I'll click-drag the area to pick everyone up, Ctrl-n them again and then hit V (most of the time). I didn't realize using the B might help to un-army them, heh. I'll give that a try!

 

I'll admit to being disappointed that there's not something I've missed. I was hoping there was some benefit I was missing from using both Ctrl groups and armies.

 

I would think clicking Ctrl-n on a factory should assign it's production to that Ctrl group. What's produced would rally at the location of the Ctrl group to which it was assigned. Should the Ctrl group be wiped out, production would default to the rally point assigned to the factory by default or player. With the right mix of factories you could have them cranking out exactly the builds you want spread over however many and whatever type of factory.

 

A thought, can a rally point be Shift-clicked as waypoints to the final rally destination to define the route a unit is to take to it's ultimate rally point?

 

And we still need the ability to pause a factory's production!

 

I didn't realize there was some kind of reinforcement mechanic that had been worked on. I'll be waiting to see it's next iteration! Thanks!

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