Flanking

Knowing thats this will be a medieval game should there be bonus for flanking? I mean i have pictured this in my head and thought if two melee armies go aginst each other that have equal units strength ect. it will come out to who ever gets lucky because the combat will be equal. So to give more advantages to the tactcian i was hoping maybe give a 10% bonus to the flanker.
To much?|||If melee combat is properly simulated (or even if flinching on hit is put in) the natural bonus for attacking from the side or back will be realized by the target unit being at a disadvantage while they turn to face their attacker. Alternately, with armies, the bonus would again be natural as the attacked army has fewer units that can join the fight (because they are likely encircled), and they have to divide their attention between the two halves of the attacking army, while the attacking army has their strength more focused.
My point is, there is no need to slap on an artificial bonus, when natural effects provide the same incentive to flank.|||I kinda agree with Shadowfury. If you are getting flanked in a game like this, its probably because youre outnumbered to begin with, and then you will be eaten by the bigger blob anyways.
Theres plenty of tactics to be done, without the need to make rules of how is the best way to attack. Then it'll just be about who gets to flank who first, which imo would be a tiresome way to having to micro, in a game that will hopefully be about macroing huge armies.
And, as Shadowfury says, flanking will still be a worthwhile maneuveur if you decide to do something like that, bonus or not.|||Most important advantage flanking gives it is makes the flanked unit nervous and more likely to run.
It's silly to talk about realistic tactics if soldiers never run.|||Headless|||Shadowfury333|||DoW's method runs into the problem of adjusting damage to simulate battle tactics, which is the issue I have with flanking in the first place. Perhaps a better way would be (in combination with a previous formation discipline upgrade strategy) to make formations less reliable with low morale, or even to have units run away, although that would run into the issue of taking control from the player, which is also bad.|||Morale might be all nice and “realistic” but it sucks for gameplay.|||pkc|||@Shadowfury:
There's no way melee combat will be 'properly simulated' to the degree that the real-world value of a flanking attack exists as an emergent property of the basic rules for unit interactions. That's just silly. Their soldiers have shields, but do you think GPG is going to realistically model that shield in 3d space and then calculate sword thrusts and swings such that it would accurately reflect the uselssness of a shield when someone is swinging at you from behind? I suspect they will not.
What they can do, however, is draw some arc around the unit where its shield bonus does not apply, and where attackers get some sort of bonus (or the defender gets a penalty). That would simulate the value of flanking to my tastes, but don't kid yourself, it will require an abstaction. Without abstract bonuses/penalties, there's just no way the engine will adequately model the peril of someone stabbing/shooting at you from another direction. I know TA/SupCom fans love to dream about the glory of an RTS engine that 'realistically' models in-game physics rather than relying on 'dice rolls' and abstract armor interactions and the like.. but there are limits to any in game physics engine.|||Mr Pinguin|||Yeah.. the morale mechanics were worse in Shogun imo. I was reasonably happy with Medieval 1, where units had some chance to rally but it was easy enough to run them down with cavalry and they didn't feel as bipolar as in Shogun.. And the time compression helped avoid the tedium when it was an issue. You're right though, I forgot how tedious it can be to chase units.. or watch your units flee..|||Just thought of an idea. Yes i want my guys to fight to the death, never disobey orders, and blissfully follow orders even though there just out there to find the traps. So I thought hell thats all great but to keep the game some what realistic maybe have a morale bar but it doesnt affect the units in battle just the ones next to them watching there comrades die. This result in morale loss would not cause a retreat but a drop in combat effectiveness. So a debuff or some kind of drop in dps and or movement speed. This could be avoided by battleing in waves like they did in medieval times. In all honesty though that would add some micro into the game but i would still want my epic battles with the click of a button. So yes this is a flawed idea, but an idea none the less.|||Mr Pinguin