More flexible roles for units

[mrvn]

Hi,

currently units can take different roles like protect something, be assigned to sensor, ... But you can't pick the role, the role gets picked by what you click on. (Or am I wrong here?) Sometimes I want to take a few units and make them protect the unit carrying the sensor instead of attacking the sensors target.

So I would like to suggest that the units menu, where you can send it for repair, to stand still, to not fire,... should also have icons for the different roles a unit can play. Clicking at one of them would require either an already assigned target or a second click to assign a target (unit, building, position or waypoints).

I would also like to suggest the following extended roles:

1) Bodyguard - stick close to the position / building / unit and fire at anything that comes too near / tries to do harm.
2) Scout - Go to where the unit is heading but stay out of enemy range. Don't go too far ahead of the unit. Only makes sense if the scout is faster but let the user take care of that.
3) Assigned - stay near enough to the assigned unit/building and attack the target of that unit/building
4a) Patrol (position / building / unit) - Like Bodyguard but circle around at some distance.
4b) Patrol (waypoints) - Like Bodyguard but walk from waypoint to waypoint. If first waypoint == last waypoint then round robin, otherwise ping-pong.

The behaviour of units should further depend on how agressive they are set to:
- Attack - shoot anything
- Shoot back - shoot when fired upon yourself or the target
- Don't shoot - mostly pointless except for scout (so they don't draw fire and give away the position)
- Follow - Once engaged stick with the enemy before returning to the assigned role


The Patrol role has a nice use for units that need to recharge between fireing. You could select a bunch of them and then let them circle around a position so that only a segment of that circle is within fireing range. Each unit would close to range, fire and withdraw while it recharges. That way they are not sitting ducks in front of a turret.

MfG
Mrvn

[Verin]

I like

[Zarel]

There's not really a need for this - there are usually only one or two roles a unit can do with any given target, and in the cases there are two, you can switch between them with Alt.

Like with assignment - there's really not much difference between guarding a unit and assigning to it.

[mrvn]

There's not really a need for this - there are usually only one or two roles a unit can do with any given target, and in the cases there are two, you can switch between them with Alt.

Like with assignment - there's really not much difference between guarding a unit and assigning to it.

On a sensor carrying unit the Alt switches between assign and attack. But one can not protect the unit.
And there is a huge difference between sticking close to a sensor carrying unit and guarding it out of range of enemy fire and being assigned to the sensor and charging off to destroy whatever the sensor is pointed at while the sensor gets shot to hell. Currently one has to eigther manage a set of protector units manually aong with the sensor or point the sensor at the units swarming it instead of the real target before it gets destroyed.

MfG
Mrvn

[Zarel]

On a sensor carrying unit the Alt switches between assign and attack. But one can not protect the unit.
And there is a huge difference between sticking close to a sensor carrying unit and guarding it out of range of enemy fire and being assigned to the sensor and charging off to destroy whatever the sensor is pointed at while the sensor gets shot to hell. Currently one has to eigther manage a set of protector units manually aong with the sensor or point the sensor at the units swarming it instead of the real target before it gets destroyed.

Well, I mean, sensors generally point at whatever is closest, so again, I don't see a difference. You generally don't want to guard anything directly with artillery, anyway; artillery only work well when assigned to a sensor.

[mrvn]

On a sensor carrying unit the Alt switches between assign and attack. But one can not protect the unit.
And there is a huge difference between sticking close to a sensor carrying unit and guarding it out of range of enemy fire and being assigned to the sensor and charging off to destroy whatever the sensor is pointed at while the sensor gets shot to hell. Currently one has to eigther manage a set of protector units manually aong with the sensor or point the sensor at the units swarming it instead of the real target before it gets destroyed.

Well, I mean, sensors generally point at whatever is closest, so again, I don't see a difference. You generally don't want to guard anything directly with artillery, anyway; artillery only work well when assigned to a sensor.

No, you wouldn't use artillery. But you would build a unit with sensor turret, a bunch of artillery tanks and a bunch of machine gun tanks. The artiellery you assign to the sensor while the machine guns should be set to guard the sensor unit. If you assign the machine guns to the sensor too and then point the sensor at a turret the machine guns will go in hot and shoot the turret and get shot back in turn. What they should do is stay back and let the artiellery finish the turret on their own.

Ok, bad example. Because simple attilery assigns itself to the sensor while simple machine guns guard sensors. But I know that with later units I wanted to set them to guard and could only assign them. If you research into a single direction your attilery units might be better guards than your best machine gun unit. Or you simply don't happen to have the right kind at hand.

MfG
Mrvn

[Rman Virgil]

.

Well put Dylan.

- RV

.