Camera Speed and finding commanders

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Just a couple of questions to you old pros, from someone who is new to this game, but not new to wargaming.

The camera speed when you pan using either the edge of the screen or the arrow keys Q and E seems really slow. Is there anyway to speed it up?

Second, it seems really hard to find commanders on the field once the battle gets going. Everyone had the same flag most of the time, and finding a division commander, or a brigade commander gets really difficult. Have any of you found an easy jump method to solve this problem, or am I stuck with just doing it the old fashioned way - keeping them in some kind of order hopefully?????

Thanks. KentHart

GREAT GAME. LOOKING FORWARD TO FURTHER UPDATES. IT WOULD BE NICE TO BE ABLE TO CONSTRUCT BREASTWORKS, AND HAVE THE FENCES NOT SLOW DOWN THE WHOLE ARMY ONCE THE FIRST FEW MEN HAVE GONE PAST AND BUSTED IT DOWN (DON'T YOU THINK?) JUST A COUPLE OF IDEAS.

edited by gzav - no need to shout...

sorry, didn't mean to shout, was I?

 

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You are right, there needs to be a better way to find commanders. Most people use the arrow keys, they will navigate your chain of command.

There is no way to speed up the camera.

We need to make sure that we focus some more time on user interface, thanks for the comments.

 

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More suggestions

Norb, thanks for the reply. I was beginning to wonder if this forum was dead or alive.

I'm a long, long, long time war gamer. In fact my first war game was a birthday present in 1963 (probably before you were born).

The best games on the market right now are the Total War series. I've been hounding them since they released Shogun to come out with an American Civil War series, but they seem to be stuck in the ancient world, literally.

Now along comes Take Command. Wow! You guys did really well for a first (second) try. I haven't seen the first pass - Bull Run, but I'm hunting for it for my collection.

The other great Civil War series is the Battleground group. They were and are still great, but very different from you or Total War.

Little things make a really big difference in these games. For example, when the army moves through a fence it knocks down the fence, so the troops behind won't be slowed down. Each time the troops in 2nd Manassas cross a fence they stumble and stutter and come to a crawl for what seems like an eternity if you want them to go forward fast.

There is a little hitch in the movement of officers when you click on their flag. The "click" even though it's only one "click" makes two things happen. First, it selects the officer, as it’s supposed to, but then it also instructs the officer to move forward a little bit. That's unnecessary and annoying. I know he can't really be killed (I'm not sure why though), so being out in front of the line doesn't really do any damage, but it's just annoying. I didn't want him to move, I just wanted to access his actions. Why can't he be killed again? I'm not sure I understand that feature.

The camera interface seems to need a lot of work, not just increasing the speed. When you enable the "follow the officer" command, it freeze the camera right behind the officer, and moves with him yes, but when he stops it would be nice to be able to get out of that mode easily. It took me forever to figure out that you just had to go and click on another officer or unit to clear the command.

I've had a lot of trouble with several unit commands too, especially the cavalry commands. The AIs idea of a screen isn't the same as mine, and once the cavalry get outside of the "circle of influence" for lack of a better term, it's almost impossible to first find them, and then get them back. The artillery seems to have a similar problem with getting outside this "circle of influence", and not wanting to follow orders. Once they start shooting at something, no matter how far away, they really don't want to be bothered with new orders, like 'COME HERE, PLEASE!".

A lot of these things get solved by using the "Take Command from the AI" key, BUT that creates a new problem in that now they will only do what you tell them, and in a very large battle if you get distracted, units get forgotten.

Now I'm rambling a bit.

There is a lot more I'd like to suggest.

If you have a desire to hear some more, let me know with an e-mail to kenthrt@aol.com

Ken Hall

PS: I'd love to be a game tester for your Shiloh edition when it gets ready.

 

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Ken,

Although I do check this forum, our main forum is on our site. That is the place to really post your comments. We have a staff member "Gary" that goes through our forums and makes sure to add any good ideas or bugs to our in house database. So if you post there under wishlist for new ideas or bugs for bugs, then they'll get onto our in house database.

To get out of follow mode, just use your movement keys WSAD, they get you right out.