MP Improvements

[NY Cavalry]

In regard to game play, improvements made over the last few months has helped a lot. I'd like to start a thread of what still might need to be tweeked and what has been fixed. In no way is this to be taken as complaining.

Line of sight with the latest patch is a welcome bonus. Increased the realism and game play.

Column charging while still annoying is not a big problem like it once was. Soldier is correct in his estimation that the players who continue to engage in this tactic end up worse off. The changes made to address this has helped.

When troops are in melee they are taking loses from enemy canister and rifle fire.

Pathing is a bit frustrating. Are there limitations that the game has ?????? Players have to spend micromanaging time making sure regiments take the best routs. In TC2M this wasn't a problem.

I think there is a problem with troops firing over each other. If the elevation is slightly different the second infantry line can engage. I have taken numerous screen shots while in Mp games that demonstrate this. If I need to I can post them. The tactic used now is set up brigade in double line and move the second line up a bit until they engage. I would hold up my second line using them to replace my fist line when needed, but I realized my first line was getting shot to pieces while they fought the enemies first and second line. Now I press my regiments together until they are all firing.

The artillery is much more dangerous now. In Garniers campaign he has toned down the artillery, but in regular games the artillery has been much improved. With this improved artillery I'd like to see improved counter battery fire. I know this may be a tough work around, but I would still like to see it. Willard has some ideas that maybe can be worked with in the oob's.

In Garniers campaign when a player drops the game is ended. Everyone has his own division and doesn't want it in battle unless it is being controlled. When we play stock oob's (which isn't much anymore) we would always continue the game. The army commander would just pick up the extra troops. MP connectivity has improved and when we have problems now it is because the games are starting to have 16+ players.


That is all I have for now.

[Garnier]

Just my opinions:

troops firing over each other.

It's realistic that lines can fire over each other if there's room. However there would be more smoke making their fire less accurate, and casualties would likely be doubled. Casualties are doubled only if solid shot hits; musket casualties aren't affected by target density. This is also why skirmishing is only worthwhile when under artillery fire.

Willard has some ideas

If counter battery can be improved independently of fire vs infantry I'd love to hear.

when a player drops the game is ended

Three solutions:
* Have army commanders and just keep playing, which I think is the best.
* Play more smaller/shorter battles so they're more likely to finish before someone drops.
* Play stock oobs.

[Little Powell]

When troops are in melee they are taking loses from enemy canister and rifle fire.

Maybe something to look into. Historically I don't think a gun would be feeding canister into a melee fight, hitting enemies and friendlies.

Pathing is a bit frustrating. Are there limitations that the game has ?????? Players have to spend micromanaging time making sure regiments take the best routs. In TC2M this wasn't a problem.

Hopefully this is the last time I have to explain this. This is something that has been explained dozens of times on this board (no offense). There are invisible tiles around each regiment. If another regiment's path crosses over these tiles, then it will find another path. It is there so that regiments do not pile up on each other. Yes it still happens some but you should have seen it when the tile system wasn't there (blue and grey blobs of troops). If the tiles are made smaller, then it will have a negative effect on the performance. This is on the list to be improved but I don't think there's too much we could do without breaking something else.

MP connectivity has improved and when we have problems now it is because the games are starting to have 16+ players.

This is great to hear.. I kind of painted a bit of a bleak picture to the team after my observations in the game the other night. Even though everything ran flawless (except for a router reboot), Soldier was saying nights like that are rare... But its sounds like it's not as bad as I originally thought, but there are still issues to address.. And you guys should be able to play 16 player games, or 20 player games with no issues.

[Beef Stu]

When troops are in melee they are taking loses from enemy canister and rifle fire.


Maybe something to look into. Historically I don't think a gun would be feeding canister into a melee fight, hitting enemies and friendlies.

I posted once before about this. the canister and rifles don't hit the friendlies, only the enemy.

We understand that you are talking about regarding the pathing. What we encounter are times when there are no units or obstructions and the unit wants to take a 300 yd arch to a destination 100 yds away. Doesn't happen all the time.

And then there was connectivity. The biggest hurdle is getting to staging. I myself can not enter any game through the lobby and must connect directly through IP for some reason. then once getting into staging we must make it through the gauntlet of who will crash entering staging, who will get the "7 bug" and have to rejoin,who wont see the oob and have to rejoin,and sometimes when you leave to rejoin your name wont disappear from staging,which means we have to start the room over again. I hear you witnessed the "7 bug" Little Powell.50% of the games we start don't get played because we never make it out of staging. 40% of the games freeze and never finish. 10% of the games finish and keep us coming back for more abuse.

[Little Powell]

Well this is why a team member is going to start taking part in the big GCM games at least once a week so we can document these issues, send in logs etc., and get them fixed.