"All I can see is the flags"

[Amish John]

Sometimes when I played TC2M it seemed like there was an overabundance of flags. Maybe just because my troops usually got decimated and the regiments were so small the colors were packed close together.....anyway....are there colors/guidons used in the game where not historically accurate? I'm thinking of the use of a separate guidon for each artillery piece as an example. I'm not really up on the colors carried by artillery batteries so I'm not sure how many and what style colors were carried by a battery. If it's not historically correct to have a guidon with each piece in the battery can there be some other click point for the gun? Any other places where flags are used that maybe aren't appropriate?

For extra points..from what movie is my subject quote taken?

[122nd Ohio]

Here's an interesting link I found just recently, it has some info on battery flags:

http://www.cwartillery.org/adrill.html

[Hancock the Superb]

I have created a flag for the artillery pieces - it isn't a flag at all, but since the game needs a flag, well, you get the idea. For TC2M, obviously.

As far as I know, brigade commanders had individual flags, so as division and corps commanders, and army commanders. However, regiments would generally get pretty much a state flag (north) and a national's colors. Confederates would get either the Red Cross Flag and maybe a national flag.

Battery commanders had the battery flag. Cavalry troops had guidons PER COMPANY and one state and national flag. Late in the war, large infantry regiments would get company flags (heavy artillery units, eg.) so their commander, actually wielding a regiment the size of a brigade or two, could actually command the regiment properly.

[Amish John]

122nd Ohio wrote:

Here's an interesting link I found just recently, it has some info on battery flags:

http://www.cwartillery.org/adrill.html

Based on this one source article, it sounds like only the battery commander had a guidon and not the individual guns.

[Jim]

Historically that is correct. For the game, something distinct must be clicked in order to 'activate' a unit to receive orders. Since all of the other units historically had unit flags, it was thought less confusing to add flags for the guns rather than to have some unique activation zone that only applied to the individual artillery guns.

-Jim

[Amish John]

Jim wrote:

Historically that is correct. For the game, something distinct must be clicked in order to 'activate' a unit to receive orders. Since all of the other units historically had unit flags, it was thought less confusing to add flags for the guns rather than to have some unique activation zone that only applied to the individual artillery guns.

-Jim

Jim,

I certainly understand the logic of your design choice. However, I believe all the guidons associated with a battery in addition to the commanders flag detract from the look of the battery. If it's not a big deal to assign an activation zone such as the barrel of the artillery piece or just the piece itself I believe players could easily adjust to that. As someone mentioned in an ealier thread, the more flags you have the greater the chance they will be blocking your view, especially at lower viewing angles, and perhaps obstructing you from clicking on another unit. Don't get me wrong, I love the flags in the game, but personally hope they can be restricted to their historic applications.

John

[Hancock the Superb]

There are arrow keys for a reason! I'm using those!

[Jim]

AJ: I understand your desire for historical accuracy as I have the same syndrome myself. There are however reasons internal to the game engine that would make using, for example the gun barrel, as the activation point very expensive in terms of memory usage. This is one of those places where neither alternative is truly right and the designer just has to make their choice. In this case using the historically incorrect gun flags gives us the memory room to add a second artillery gun type.

-Jim

[CSARELEECO]

Fort Apache

[CSARELEECO]

I can't remember the actresses name that said it, but she was commenting about the soldiers after the women were pretty much left alone at the fort.