Regiments Return to Start Position When Ordered Forward

[J Canuck]

The “Help Me, I’m Twirling” thread reminded me of other micro movement issues. It seems that whenever (or perhaps occasionally – I can’t recall) I issue the Oblique or Flank commands to one regiment and then issue the Halt command before it reaches its’ destination, the regiment returns to its starting point.

A similar issue, which to me is a significant problem. I can’t use my cursor to advance a regiment just a few yards forward. I find I have to point and click my cursor further forward than desired. When I wish a regiment to advance just a few yards it is usually to move it from just outside of the 160-yard firing threshold to just inside. When I click halt before the regiment reaches its’ destination, the regiment returns to its starting point.

These examples may be happening only when in a firefight but I’m not sure – I haven’t tested them out nor tested TC both on and off. I can test various conditions and report back later if these examples are too vague.

[J Canuck]

Too vague, eh? Ok ..... I'll test them out and report the details.

[SouthernSteel]

I know of what you speak - I find it is usually more frustrating in the midst of advance or fall back commands. I always figured it had something to do with terrain, but I have noticed it occurring a lot more lately (although perhaps I just don't recall it earlier).

[Rich Mac]

J Canuck....

I've had this happen many times. Like you said, it often happens when I have a regiment at, say, 165 yards from the enemy. I will issue a move command to close the gap to just less than 160 yards and then hit the Halt button to stop them. Then they always seem to do a little shifting to the left or right and end up backing right back up to their starting position which puts them out of rifle range.

Another time that I notice this problem is when I try to move my infantry up to a fence line. They will sometimes exhibit the exact same behavior, only they end up a few yards behind the fence line, thus not receiving the terrain bonus. This has also happened to me by using the "7" key. The unit indicates that it will move up to the fence line, advances to that position, does it's little dance and then backs up off the fence line. When this happens, I have to manually advance the unit about 6 or 7 yards past the fence and manually halt them to get them to stay at a location that will gain the fence bonuses.

It's a minor annoyance, but nothing too difficult to work around. I always figured that the dev team was aware of this behavior and was working on it.

[J Canuck]

These tests were performed at GB08 Devil’s Den, on Ward’s right flank. The following screenshots demonstrate the results. I hope you will be able to see the cursor point better when you click on to the larger image.

FEW YARDS FOWARD
Illustrates where I used my cursor to command the 86th and 20th (cursor not showing) to march forward only a few yards.


86TH REG RETURN TO START
Illustrates the 86th returning to its starting point when I commanded the 86th to halt prior to reaching its destination.


20th REG IGNORE HALT
Illustrates the 20th ignored my Halt order and marched on to its destination.


BOTH OBLIQUE RIGHT
Illustrates where I used the Right Oblique command for both the 86th and 20th (cursor not showing) regiments.


86th RETURN TO START
Illustrates the 86th returning to its starting point when I commanded the 86th to halt prior to reaching its destination.


20TH SWITCH TO OBLIQUE LEFT
However, the 20th switched to Oblique Left and marched on when I commanded it to halt!


I attempted using the #5 Key to see if I could get the two regiments to halt just a few yards forward. Unfortunately the regiments immediately and significantly changed their marching direction whenever I clicked the #5 Key.

Using the same methods to test halting during the execution of the Right Flank and Left Flank commands, resulted in both regiments halting immediately whenever I commanded them to halt prior to reaching their destinations. In other words, they do sometimes do what they are commanded to do.

BACKWARD FACING
Illustrates both the 86th and 20th facing backwards.


SWITCH FLANKS AND ANGLE
Illustrates the About Face command where the 20th (bottom of screenshot) has almost completed switching its flanks running its sprites right to left and left to right (similar but not the same as twirling). The 86th (near top of screenshot) has almost completed this same movement but also ends up facing at an angle.


Considering Devil’s Den has a lot of obstructions, and the regiments were not in a precise battle-line formation when I started the test, I ran a second test using GB03 Blood in the Run Meredith’s brigade in a wide-open field containing no obstructions. I had essentially the same results. When commanding a regiment to halt before reaching its’ destination, most often the regiment would return to its’ starting point; but not always – sometimes a regiment would actually halt. Interestingly, when I commanded every regiment to an About Face in unison, always one regiment (but not always the same regiment) switched its’ own flanks.

I have witnessed these behaviours plus the twirling phenomena during numerous scenarios. The ability to halt Oblique and Flank commands midway plus the erratic About Face are really just minor distractions. If you still wish the saved game files however, I will send them to you.

The bottom line is my wish to command a regiment to advance or halt just a few yards straight forward. Phew ...... now wasn't that a hell of a long march to arrive at a simple request! :dry:

[Marching Thru Georgia]

It looks like an obstacle is in the way. I've seen that happen often in heavy woods or rocky ground. Your regiment is occupying both.

[voltigeur]

yes there do appear to be some issues in what I would consider to be simple adjustments of the line and it's particularly distracting when you have to micro manage.

The bizzarre about face behaviour is even weirder when they start firing 180 degrees away from where they should be aiming as well

Brill game tho!

cheers Volt

[J Canuck]

It looks like an obstacle is in the way. I've seen that happen often in heavy woods or rocky ground. Your regiment is occupying both.

That's right, however I observed similar (occasional exception) results in my test of Meredith's brigade where there were no obstacles.

I ran a second test using GB03 Blood in the Run Meredith’s brigade in a wide-open field containing no obstructions. I had essentially the same results. When commanding a regiment to halt before reaching its’ destination, most often the regiment would return to its’ starting point; but not always – sometimes a regiment would actually halt.

[NefariousKoel]

I've had them moving back to their start point after hitting Halt a few times that I recall.

When I further push Halt a couple times, while they were heading back to the start point, they stop after a couple seconds.. even keeping their facing back towards whence they came. Each additional Halt order makes them move and turn a small amount if done while they're moving. :blink: