Enemy moves: is there a way to replay them?

[Gral_Montoto]

Hello guys,
I was wondering if anybody can help me with this:
While playing the 1861 campaign, I'm having problems grasping the enemy moves (and boy, the enemy moves! ). Enemy moves are animated relatively fast and if the enemy disappears into unknown territory I am left guessing what just happened, how strong the enemy formation was, where they went, etc.
Is there a way to replay? Can the move animations be slowed down by a game setting?


Thanks!

[kgsan]

I'll second this request. While the log provides most of the information a player needs about what happened during the previous turn, it doesn’t help with this. As a result, the player doesn’t get to see movement of detected enemy units unless they happen to be on the area where the screen is centered. One frustrating thing is that even when I try to center the screen on an area where I want to watch unit movement during the turn, the computer will often skip to another area, for no discernable reason (i.e. no battle has taken place yet), as soon as the turn starts.

This is one feature which has been requested since BOA but I don't think I've seen a response from the AGEOD guys whether it is something they can or planning to add.

[Gral_Montoto]

Thanks kgsan,

Some (optionally shown) lines displaying previous enemy moves would be cool too!

[gbs]

Sounds like you get to know about as much as the real commamders knew back then. Sounds realistic to me.

[tc237]

Yes and no to the historical aspect of it.
You can only see the movement of enemy units that your side has detected, that is great.
But when I took the time to setup a large US Cavalry screen across and deep into multiple enemy regions of Virginia hoping to track his movements, it was wasted by the map jumping to Kansas for the entire turn resolution phase.
There is no way to replay those movements. I'm stuck straining to watch little dots on the mini-map.

If we can at least get the map to stay on the last unit selected, it might help.

[Gral_Montoto]

@tc237

Are you the same tc237 from the forum of "that" other great ACW game ?

[tc237]

TC2M? Yes sir.

[Pocus]

we answered several times, but in the BOA forum. The turn replay is a big thing to do, but is definitively on our list ... well on the list of the second developer which will arrives in may. So you will have to be patient, because I don't think the module can be done before 3 months somehow.

That said, I'm planning of adding something which will improve significantly how the turn unfold, and hopefully this can be done rapidly. Hope I won't stumble on unexpected problems!

[kgsan]

Many thanks Pocus. I had not seen the comments in the BAO forum but glad this is getting a potential enhancement. I also had not realized y'all were adding another programmer. Congrats, I hope this indicates some well deserved financial success for AGEOD and will perhaps mean some well deserved rest for the solo programmer.

[James D Burns]

A full turn replay that was pausable with forward and reverse options would be the best solution, but perhaps an interim feature could be worked out in the short run. If there was simply a function in the execution phase that jumped to each friendly controlled province a detected enemy unit entered and paused the replay similar to how it jumps to battles now, at least we’d know of an enemy incursion if it occurred in an area not currently under view.

Nothing worse than to have an enemy cavalry unit appear out of nowhere and capture a town in your deep rear when it’s obvious it was marching in your territory for several turns but you just happened to miss the one time it was spotted heading that direction and then disappeared again 3 turns ago because the screen was focused somewhere else.

Jim

[pasternakski]

Amen, James.

If a fully replayable turn is not possible (or practicable), howzabout each turn generating a map (not as big as the game map, but not as small as the strategic jump map, either - perhaps about screen size?) that shows which enemy forces moved where (of course, for PBEM and FtF, there would have to be two maps, one for each side).

Msybe it could show unit paths with arrows on the end of the line showing direction. Maybe it could be zoomable. Maybe it could depict unit types (within the framework of what intelligence allows).

*sigh* Yeah, I know, and maybe monkeys could fly out of my butt...

[Rafiki]

Indeed. *Anything* that can give me a better edge in dealing with those &#&%¤¤ cavalry incursions would be nice

Having an "intelligence map" depicting the moves and the info you were able to "see" about the units in question would be very helpful and also lessen the feel of randomness when observing how a turn gets played out.

Also, I imagine it would be a benefit for PBEM, allowing the non-host to be able to see what was observed during the turn?

[Rafiki]

As a temporary solution to the problem of the view swicthing elsewhere when the turn unfolds, could it be possible to save the view you have set when you clikc the button (i.e. location and zoom), and have the view return there when the game has finished displayed battles and whatnot that happen across the map? That way, a player can at least control where he wants to keep an eye on things.

[tc237]

If anyone has a trick to keep the screen from jumping, please post.
Example: select a unit in the area, etc...

[Pocus]

this is an undesired side effect of an automation... I will push the fix to the top of the list, I know it is annoying.

[pasternakski]

Nothing better than all of a sudden staring at Tucson while the rest of the continent goes up in smoke...

[Rafiki]

I can think of quite a few things that are quite a lot better....

[pasternakski]

I can think of quite a few things that are quite a lot better....

Quite.

[kgsan]

I didn't see this posted in the AACW forum so I thought I would note it here. In the BOA forum while addressing a supply bug in BOA Pocus said:

. . . We would like to add to BOA the new Focus On Move feature of AACW too (you will have the option to have the map focus on all enemy moves, with a variable delay).

This is one new feature I'm looking forward to. Hat's off to AGEOD, there are few developers out there as responsive as they are.

[Fatboy]

I would be interested to hear what others think about the "Focus On Move Feature". I have turned it off because I got confused & disoriented jumping all over that map to view all enemy movements.

I have a couple of suggestions that you might like to consider -

a. Focus On Move for units of Corps or Army size only & ignore smaller force's. (Alteratively focus on forces of greater than 999 power only!)

b. Include the enemy unit sightings in the Message Log (with an extra filter), so I can review them later.

[Pocus]

We wanted to add (a), but some 536 priorities barked at us then, so we gave up for now.