[Suggestion] Soft retreat and toggle reinforcement

KBTanyos

Hey battle brothers, aspect warriors, and gitz.

I would like to propose two small changes to the game that would, in my opinion, improve the multiplayer experience.

1). Soft retreat

For those of you who have played the CoH series and DoW 2, you'll have an idea what I'm talking about. Select a squad, tap a hotkey, and they run like cowards towards your HQ. Traditionally, the retreat function would give the squad that's fleeing defensive bonuses and increased speed as they made their way back to the HQ.

I would support a function that, if added to infantry units, would simply send the squad back to a predetermined location on the map, or to the nearest production building. Squads would not receive a defense buff, nor a speed boost. This could help protect resource investment in squads, and remedy the annoyance of ordering a unit back to a building on your mini-map, only to realize that the unit is half of a meter outside of the reinforcement area. I deal with this all the time and find it extremely frustrating. Maybe I just need to get better with my mini-map clicks, but having to divert your attention from more important things, just to move a unit a few more centimeters is irritating.

2). Toggle reinforcement

Here's another simple change that could help players focus more on the action and less on managing units out of combat. Let us right click on the reinforcement icon and any time a unit is near a production structure, or toggle an option on the structure itself to allow automatic unit reinforcement.

These are two simple, quality of life changes, allow more focus on the gameplay, and less on out of combat unit management.

Would you guys be interested in these changes?

Katitof

1) That's hard retreat. Soft retreat in DoW2 and CoH series was when you moved back to your forward reinforcement position manually or pulled back to a better position. And hard retreat has no place in DoW3, this horse has been beaten to death multiple times already.

Lordnine

2) I think is a must. I don’t understand why it wasn’t part of the game to begin with.

1) I would like personally but I can see why some people don’t like the idea of it. I wonder how people would feel about it if it was just a convenience option. Click the button and units withdrawal to a point you chose on the map, but they could be pulled off that path at any point.

charlando

I'm pretty sure he meant it as a convenience option.

@Katitof said:
1) That's hard retreat. Soft retreat in DoW2 and CoH series was when you moved back to your forward reinforcement position manually or pulled back to a better position. And hard retreat has no place in DoW3, this horse has been beaten to death multiple times already.

He doesn't mean hard retreat. Its the equivalent of issuing a move order to go to the nearest barracks.

ShakerGER

Make auto reinforce toggleble though so healin scrap is still functional.

TOGgledShot

Let's make all utilities automatically work, without a button press.... Except for grenades.... No cooldown for grenades, though... Yeah...

Also, instead of clicking the mouse, we can yell at the screen and order our armies to do what we want....

I want to hook up my HTC Vive and put myself in the shoes of Wraithknight Taldeer be a VR Commander.

Now reality:

Retreat not needed. Recall works fine. Game isn't made for someone to smash retreat when they put their units into a position they aren't able to get themselves out of.

Toggling re-enforcement is a bad idea. I could then just jump in and out of combat letting my units re-enforce... That would get aggrivating and isn't needed. Pressing R is easy enough.

Lordnine

@TOGgledShot said:

Retreat not needed. Recall works fine. Game isn't made for someone to smash retreat when they put their units into a position they aren't able to get themselves out of.

Toggling re-enforcement is a bad idea. I could then just jump in and out of combat letting my units re-enforce... That would get aggrivating and isn't needed. Pressing R is easy enough.

The type of retreat that is being requested here wouldn’t be affecting that outcome. This is basically just saving people a couple extra clicks on the minimap. Same thing with toggle reinforce, it’s a measure to remove tedium from the game.

TOGgledShot

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

Retreat not needed. Recall works fine. Game isn't made for someone to smash retreat when they put their units into a position they aren't able to get themselves out of.

Toggling re-enforcement is a bad idea. I could then just jump in and out of combat letting my units re-enforce... That would get aggrivating and isn't needed. Pressing R is easy enough.

The type of retreat that is being requested here wouldn’t be affecting that outcome. This is basically just saving people a couple extra clicks on the minimap. Same thing with toggle reinforce, it’s a measure to remove tedium from the game.

Question, because I am curious, do you think if DoW3 had Squad leaders, that they should auto re-enforce in the same manner if they die?

Lordnine

@TOGgledShot said:

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

Retreat not needed. Recall works fine. Game isn't made for someone to smash retreat when they put their units into a position they aren't able to get themselves out of.

Toggling re-enforcement is a bad idea. I could then just jump in and out of combat letting my units re-enforce... That would get aggrivating and isn't needed. Pressing R is easy enough.

The type of retreat that is being requested here wouldn’t be affecting that outcome. This is basically just saving people a couple extra clicks on the minimap. Same thing with toggle reinforce, it’s a measure to remove tedium from the game.

Question, because I am curious, do you think if DoW3 had Squad leaders, that they should auto re-enforce in the same manner if they die?

Not at all. I would prefer squad leaders to be an upgrade on a per squad basis that offers some form of defensive buff, thus making individual squads more meaningful than cannon fodder.

And for auto-reinforce, I don’t think anyone is asking for automatic reinforcements in the field. Instead, if you have reinforcement toggled on, and your squad happens to walk near a building, that it would reinforce without a player having to click the button.

Stoner

I can see how some people might want it back, but community wouldn't stand for any kind of retreat option. Avoiding being surrounded and having escape route is part of global strategy, and it should stay that way. No more cheeze with melee traps.

TOGgledShot

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

Retreat not needed. Recall works fine. Game isn't made for someone to smash retreat when they put their units into a position they aren't able to get themselves out of.

Toggling re-enforcement is a bad idea. I could then just jump in and out of combat letting my units re-enforce... That would get aggrivating and isn't needed. Pressing R is easy enough.

The type of retreat that is being requested here wouldn’t be affecting that outcome. This is basically just saving people a couple extra clicks on the minimap. Same thing with toggle reinforce, it’s a measure to remove tedium from the game.

Question, because I am curious, do you think if DoW3 had Squad leaders, that they should auto re-enforce in the same manner if they die?

Not at all. I would prefer squad leaders to be an upgrade on a per squad basis that offers some form of defensive buff, thus making individual squads more meaningful than cannon fodder.

And for auto-reinforce, I don’t think anyone is asking for automatic reinforcements in the field. Instead, if you have reinforcement toggled on, and your squad happens to walk near a building, that it would reinforce without a player having to click the button.

Well, why even have an option for re-enforcing then? There would be no reason to toggle it off, right? It would end up being just a game mechanic that happened. Maybe it should be an upgrade to a building that allows your army to re-enforce there. But then that would create more micro. Honestly, I think it's fine where it's at.

jonoliveira12

@TOGgledShot said:

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

Retreat not needed. Recall works fine. Game isn't made for someone to smash retreat when they put their units into a position they aren't able to get themselves out of.

Toggling re-enforcement is a bad idea. I could then just jump in and out of combat letting my units re-enforce... That would get aggrivating and isn't needed. Pressing R is easy enough.

The type of retreat that is being requested here wouldn’t be affecting that outcome. This is basically just saving people a couple extra clicks on the minimap. Same thing with toggle reinforce, it’s a measure to remove tedium from the game.

Question, because I am curious, do you think if DoW3 had Squad leaders, that they should auto re-enforce in the same manner if they die?

Not at all. I would prefer squad leaders to be an upgrade on a per squad basis that offers some form of defensive buff, thus making individual squads more meaningful than cannon fodder.

And for auto-reinforce, I don’t think anyone is asking for automatic reinforcements in the field. Instead, if you have reinforcement toggled on, and your squad happens to walk near a building, that it would reinforce without a player having to click the button.

Well, why even have an option for re-enforcing then? There would be no reason to toggle it off, right? It would end up being just a game mechanic that happened. Maybe it should be an upgrade to a building that allows your army to re-enforce there. But then that would create more micro. Honestly, I think it's fine where it's at.

An Elite that slowly auto-reinforces infantry around it, would be a good concept.

Lordnine

@TOGgledShot said:

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

Retreat not needed. Recall works fine. Game isn't made for someone to smash retreat when they put their units into a position they aren't able to get themselves out of.

Toggling re-enforcement is a bad idea. I could then just jump in and out of combat letting my units re-enforce... That would get aggrivating and isn't needed. Pressing R is easy enough.

The type of retreat that is being requested here wouldn’t be affecting that outcome. This is basically just saving people a couple extra clicks on the minimap. Same thing with toggle reinforce, it’s a measure to remove tedium from the game.

Question, because I am curious, do you think if DoW3 had Squad leaders, that they should auto re-enforce in the same manner if they die?

Not at all. I would prefer squad leaders to be an upgrade on a per squad basis that offers some form of defensive buff, thus making individual squads more meaningful than cannon fodder.

And for auto-reinforce, I don’t think anyone is asking for automatic reinforcements in the field. Instead, if you have reinforcement toggled on, and your squad happens to walk near a building, that it would reinforce without a player having to click the button.

Well, why even have an option for re-enforcing then? There would be no reason to toggle it off, right? It would end up being just a game mechanic that happened. Maybe it should be an upgrade to a building that allows your army to re-enforce there. But then that would create more micro. Honestly, I think it's fine where it's at.

Because some units may have a higher priority on getting reinforcements. If I have resources to blow then all my units should be reinforcing without needing my consent. However, if money gets tight I might want to switch off that option on units that are less impactful at the point in the game we are at. (example, I care more about reinforcing my Wraithguard than I do my Avengers.)

Or I may simply be saving money to tech to the next tier, at which point it makes more sense to stick with my slightly crippled army than to wait around for them to heal while not advancing.

TOGgledShot

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

@Lordnine said:

@TOGgledShot said:

Retreat not needed. Recall works fine. Game isn't made for someone to smash retreat when they put their units into a position they aren't able to get themselves out of.

Toggling re-enforcement is a bad idea. I could then just jump in and out of combat letting my units re-enforce... That would get aggrivating and isn't needed. Pressing R is easy enough.

The type of retreat that is being requested here wouldn’t be affecting that outcome. This is basically just saving people a couple extra clicks on the minimap. Same thing with toggle reinforce, it’s a measure to remove tedium from the game.

Question, because I am curious, do you think if DoW3 had Squad leaders, that they should auto re-enforce in the same manner if they die?

Not at all. I would prefer squad leaders to be an upgrade on a per squad basis that offers some form of defensive buff, thus making individual squads more meaningful than cannon fodder.

And for auto-reinforce, I don’t think anyone is asking for automatic reinforcements in the field. Instead, if you have reinforcement toggled on, and your squad happens to walk near a building, that it would reinforce without a player having to click the button.

Well, why even have an option for re-enforcing then? There would be no reason to toggle it off, right? It would end up being just a game mechanic that happened. Maybe it should be an upgrade to a building that allows your army to re-enforce there. But then that would create more micro. Honestly, I think it's fine where it's at.

Because some units may have a higher priority on getting reinforcements. If I have resources to blow then all my units should be reinforcing without needing my consent. However, if money gets tight I might want to switch off that option on units that are less impactful at the point in the game we are at. (example, I care more about reinforcing my Wraithguard than I do my Avengers.)

Or I may simply be saving money to tech to the next tier, at which point it makes more sense to stick with my slightly crippled army than to wait around for them to heal while not advancing.

Sure, but then you get down to the specifics. Using your scenario, If I only want 1 squad of Wraithgaurd to re-enforce 1 unit of the 3 units in that squad, then having a Toggle becoming irrelevant. Each of those units cost money. It's giving me the option to only re-enforce as needed.

I'm just saying, having a Toggle to turn it on and off (for economy management) isn't as helpful as being able to bring 5 squads up to a Warrior portal and press R 5 times to re-enforce 5 of the 10 units missing from those squads. It just makes more sense and is easier on my managed economy.

Lordnine

Um, that’s fine? Not asking to remove the option to click the button as well, just that a toggle would save a lot of time for other people. It really comes down to, if I’m microing an army in the field, I send a unit or two home but keep the rest of the army in the fight, I don’t want to have to worry about manually reinforcing those guys at home. By the time the rest of my army is done fighting, I want my reinforced squads to be ready to go.

That is basically where the idea of soft retreat comes from as well, at least for me. With the high lethality of the game, if a big fight is going on with 3-4 people, I would just soon let one unit die than to try and path them away because I know that doing so will take away focus from the rest of my army. If we had an option for a bit more autonomy in our armies than we could do things like cycle in and out units from the fight.

Stoner

At first I thought auto-reinforce is a must and was pretty much suffering without it, now I'm so used mashing R, that I'm not sure I would ever activate auto. I mean it's much more precise, because when units are on auto, you can sometimes forget about this, and they'll drain your resources pretty hard when you say, need 10 more energy for T2, and those situation are pretty crucial.