TW:WH3 Feedback and propositions

fihnarfin#8246

First of all, I want to say good job for a lot of the new features and improvements in the game. Of course their are issues, but WH3's debut are mostly promising so far, despite coming after a very successful WH2. Can't wait for IE though.

Here are a few points which if improved would make the game more enjoyable. As I have plans to spend more hours on this game.
Of course this is my own opinion, a random dude on the internet. Take it for what it's worth.

Campaign

1. Plagues:
   Give a form of counter-play to plagues for the player, beside a random chance to not get it.
   Eg. being in camp stance reduces plague duration twice as fast, or ancillaries to reduce duration. The AI attrition damage nerf and the fact that player's armies tend to live much longer make this mechanism stronger for the AI than for the player. And the RNG counter isn't a fun-inducing game-mechanism.
   
2. Tzeench's Halt Faction:
   A tiny nerf please, to make it less obnoxious.
   It's very strong, for the AI or the player. For the player, it's made worse by AI bias pile-up (I know, this has been reduced). Eg. make it reduce movement by 90%. Armies could at least change stance from Forced March.
   
3. Yin/Yang prediction for the next turn:
   Display somewhere on the UI the predicted Yin/Yang estimate for the next turn.
   It would save us some brain-time for more game-time.
   
4. Exchange Settlement Diplomacy option balance:
   Prices feel too low in general (buy or sell). Settlements shouldn't go for 1-2k only.
   And sometimes during diplomacy, when buying a settlement it gets locked at -1. Offering more gold doesn't make it rise. And a few turn later it's unlocked. This is for the same settlement, same faction, same campaign.
   
5. Ataman Management:
   It's too easy to deploy the wrong Attaman by mistake on a province, and it's not clear how to remove them.
   Eg. ask for confirmation before deploying an Attaman, or add a "Deploy" button somewhere. I'm not sure how to handle Attaman removal better than how it is already (recruiting as general + disbanding) and keep it balanced though.
   

Battle

1. Make way, peasants!
   Entities are easily blocked by friendly infantry or worse, larger entities. This is less a problem for high-mass units. But particularly annoying for some horse-mounted Lords/Heroes who take 15 seconds to cross a line of infantry. I would expect the rabble to make way for its commander.
   
2. Where are you, Grandfather?
   Have Ku'gath stay with his army, somehow.
   Currently, as he is played (by the AI in particular), he sits alone in the back, firing away, while his whole army goes and fight out of leadership range, and he's too far for some of his spells. Eg. give him "Fire on the move" with a range nerf in exchange (or something else). That would be cool as the player too.
   
3. Balance underused or overpriced spells:
   I expect this is already on the radar.
   
4. Peasant Archers, charge!
   Missile units who run out of ammo will then run in to melee their target if they had previously been given a firing order, even in guard mode. If this option is needed (Multiplayer? Kislev?), then maybe only activate it out of guard mode?
   
5. Walled Sieges:
   The sieges are more fun now, but not there yet. Lots to say, but lots have been said already so I'll be brief.
   Easy ladders for everyone make the walls generally less useful to hold than the supply system's defenses. Wall towers damage have been buffed to compensate for that it seems, but that not fun-inducing. Players will try to backdoor or cheese the towers.
   With the new supply defense system and large maps, fast units are now more important than infantry for sieging. Which doesn't seem fitting?
   Exemple ideas: Reduce ladder availability or add a stronger debuff to climbing units. Replace wall towers with towers from the supply system (and more starting supplies). Add upgrades to wall sections with the supply system: oil-throwing, defense buffs, anti-ladder, missile protection buffs, ammo supply etc.... Make the gates sturdier or repairable with supplies.
   
6. Fire orders? Who cares!
   This is a very old thing (bug?) which I had already seen in previous TW games back from Medieval II. When grouping up missile units with Fire-At-Will, and giving a target firing order to all of them together, each will instead pick a random target.
   

Battle AI

1. Battle Start AI:
   Some interesting changes from WH2 here, trying to manage bait and long-range combat.
   In a nutshell, AI "shooty" armies will change formation at the worst time instead of firing (Eg. when you charge at them from the start). And melee armies's trigger for waiting/attacking while under fire doesn't always make tactical sense (get shot at first, then attack). I don't think it's possible for the AI to truely counter baiting / long-range shenanigans against a player, so probably it's better to keep it simple.
   
2. Ambushed? Run for your lives!
   Right now, when ambushed the AI simply makes a run for the "Escape area" (If that's what it is?). Not much of a fun fight. Is that a band-aid fix to the previous Ambush AI bug?
   
3. Battle Siege AI:
   The AI's deployment doesn't protect against sneak attacks anymore.
   It used to leave a token unit back to protect gates/cap points in WH2. Why did it stop this sound practice, I don't know.
   Lots of other stuff could be said here, but this post is long enough already.
   

Battle Commands

1. Formation automatic change with Alt:
   Why the change from WH2?
   I find the automatic change of formation depth when you move units with alt click + rotation particularly annoying. I don't understand the point. And doing alt + move + hold ctrl + rotation is much less practical. If we want to change depth, we can already do click + drag. Depth is important to configure and maintain sometimes (charge-proof depth, missile unit's block, avoid cavalry spill at the edges...)
   
2. Not-so-locked groups:
   Moving multiple locked groups together with alt + rotate screws up the overall formation and the individual group formations. Again, this worked fine in TW:WH2 and Alt + drag + hold ctrl + rotation = urg....
   
3. More on Alt Rotation...
   A minor gripe. In TW:WH2, rotating a unit with alt used to aim your unit toward the cursor. Now it aims at 90°. Which is less convenient to position missile units in my opinion.