I for one would really like to see a stack auto-bombard option, similar to the auto-bombard feature...

I am guessing that the code rework would be minimal, though I am no programmer :D

Tavis, if you are listening... and taking requests... :)

Originally posted by BomberEscort
I for one would really like to see a stack auto-bombard option, similar to the auto-bombard feature...

I am guessing that the code rework would be minimal, though I am no programmer :D

Tavis, if you are listening... and taking requests... :)

I am a programmer and I think that the code rework would not be minimal. There are some issues in that option. For example if someone select stack bombard with 100 cannons, and after the 50 canon all the units being bombard would be in red line(only one hp) ... Wath to do ? stop or continue bombarding and doing no efect ? .... that could be hard to program. And imagine that all units were in red line but there werea mine under them ... Would you like to continue bombarding ????? And if the mine were in your territory ??? ....there are so many more issues to that...

So ... it would't be easy to programe that.;)

@BomberEscort

Don't listen to programmers!! - for them nothing is possible the first time you ask them to do something ;-)

I think stack auto bombardment would be cool as well as auto stack clean-up-pollution!!

The easiest way to implement it would be with the j-key stack move. If you try and move a stack of artillery onto an enemy, it should try and bombard them from your current square.

I am programmer too and I disagree with nalves!
Why aks so many questions as a programmer? Think what the player would apreciate: Bomb until a) out of cannons or b) all is redlined... When Player Stack bombards after all is redlined bomb until out of cannons.

Could be something like this:
<code>
if (true==allunitsontileredlined(tiletobombard)
while (for int i=0;i<numberofcannonsontile(selected_unit->tile());++i)
{
if (true==cannon[i]->canbombard) cannon[i]->bombard(tiletobombard);
cannon[i]->canbobard=false;
} else while (for int i=0;i<numberofcannonsontile(selected_unit->tile());++i)
{
if (true==cannon[i]->canbombard) cannon[i]->bombard(tiletobombard);
cannon[i]->canbobard=false;
if (true==allunitsontileredlined(tiletobombard)) break;
}
</code>

Originally posted by nalves


I am a programmer and I think that the code rework would not be minimal. There are some issues in that option. For example if someone select stack bombard with 100 cannons, and after the 50 canon all the units being bombard would be in red line(only one hp) ... Wath to do ? stop or continue bombarding and doing no efect ? .... that could be hard to program. And imagine that all units were in red line but there werea mine under them ... Would you like to continue bombarding ????? And if the mine were in your territory ??? ....there are so many more issues to that...

So ... it would't be easy to programe that.;)

I don't think it would be that hard at all, in fact it is basically in the game. I do it all the time, especially with Radar arty and other times with bombers. I usually already have a stack on auto bombard, and before the lethal barbmardment was brough into the game, it would start hitting the population or just "fail" Now with lethal bombardment and collateral damage (which I love BTW), after the toops are killed, the arty goes after imporvements. And it keeps going too, untill you cancel the orders and the city is taken. Actually if ya really lucky, with collateral damage, you'll destroy improvments and troops in the same round :)

Being able to have a stack control would be a wonderful idea, so much easier than cycling through the units one by one, a bombard all is nice, there already is a wake all and fortify all, its probably just a bombard sum check.

It should be easy (and I'm a programmer).

ok since all the programmers are speaking up, i'll speak up as a mathematical programmer.

i don't know whether it is easy or not because i have no idea how well organised / designed the current code is, i don't know whether there are memory issues, hard coding issues, oo issues, possibility of side effects etc etc etc

I think all the functions I used in my example already exist in a similar way...
You can already cycle through all units with movepoints in one stack as shown in the stack-move command.
You can already determine if all units on a tile are readlined as shown when you bombard it and destroy a building or pop.
It can not possibly be hard to code!
The guy who already wrote the stack-move command can program it in a matter of minutes! It's 90% copy/paste of the code already used for that!

We can bomb a tile(x,y) and we can stackmove all units of a type to a tile(x,y)... No reason for having any problem to stackbomb a tile(x,y) with all units of a type that is Artillery!

The hardest thing would really be to create a new icon, place it on the GUI and connect the new command with it...

i think it is naive / over-confident to instantly say it is easy without seeing the existing code and how is has been designed / implemented, i'm not saying it isn't easy, i just don't know the facts and the professionalism of the existing code so i (and i believe anybody) cannot accurately comment on its difficulty from internet fora information

Hey, we are talking about a commercial product, it can't possibly be written without an extremely high degree of professionalism! ;)

I'd really like to see a comment from Tavis on this issue...

Forcing several units to go to some tile and bombard it isn't dificult ... ok I agree ;)

But the question that I made was, when to stop bombarding.

a) All units reach red line
b) There are nothing more to bombard
c) There are nothing more to bombard that doesn't belong to us
d) some popup to decide
e) others that I can not remember this time ....


And of course that zurichuk point is very , very, true... ;)

And for know hold shift and "B", and click like crazy in the target, thats the closest to stack bombard that we have.

From a player point of view, i have never figured out why i would want to auto bombard much less stack auto bombard.

Now we just need to hear from the programmer that can put this in the game... On the surface though, as I said earlier, it doesn't seem like too much work. It's not truly a new feature since most/some of the code could be reused.

For example in my Combat Calculator the Normal, Defensive Bombard, and Retreat all use the same basic routine, with minor subroutines to handle their differences. I figure it would be the same with Stack Auto-Bombard...

But I wouldn't mind it bombarding until all the stack bombards even if this means that some units would have nothing to hit because all targets have been destroyed. Call it the payment for my laziness, that is not wanting to sit through and click each unit and bombard individually...

But the question that I made was, when to stop bombarding.


What's the difference between this and "Ctrl-D" but no more pollution to clean?

I am a programmer too, and a much better one than I am a CIV player. :)

Originally posted by microbe

What's the difference between this and "Ctrl-D" but no more pollution to clean?


The difference is the limit...

Are you saying that the stack bombard should only stop to bombard when there are anything more to hit ?
I don't agree.
For exemple when I want to capture a enemy city I bombard that city until all their defenders are in red line. After that I don't bombard any more since I want to preserve as much buildings in the city as I can.

So I would like a stack bombard option that bombard only until the enemy units are in red line. In fact I would love that option.

Like I said earlier, it is the penalty for our laziness... when I auto bombard with bombers they will still target a city long after eveything has been destroyed. Stack Bombard & Stack Auto Bombard could work the same way.

IIRC, bombers will stop when all tile improvements are destroyed and troops are killed, so the code to stop is already there...

I think one of the problems is this.... i'm guessing that the way the code is done, a stack bombard command would still have to go through and show the animation for every single artillery anyway - my guess is that if all 50 cannons were to be fired 'at once' the program would launch them all at the same target. So assuming that every cannon must be fired individually, really you're only saving yourself a fraction of a second on every cannon anyway. Give your fingers the excercise.

A big YES to stack bombard!!

bombarding with stacks is easily the most time-consuming and boring aspect of the latter half of the game.

Originally posted by =DOCTOR=
A big YES to stack bombard!!

bombarding with stacks is easily the most time-consuming and boring aspect of the latter half of the game.

I agree, this was my main reason for wanting this... near the end game I have about 100 radar artillery running around on rails, bombarding anything in sight...

Originally posted by Jazz_Newton
I think one of the problems is this.... i'm guessing that the way the code is done, a stack bombard command would still have to go through and show the animation for every single artillery anyway - my guess is that if all 50 cannons were to be fired 'at once' the program would launch them all at the same target. So assuming that every cannon must be fired individually, really you're only saving yourself a fraction of a second on every cannon anyway. Give your fingers the excercise.

If this is the case, why don't you go back to the boardgame ;) ... Seriously though, they have accomodated our fellow color-blind Civ'ers... I'm just asking for the same for us Carpal Tunnel Civ'ers... :D

I voted no because I would never use it.

I would use this all the time, now all I need is auto-recon;)

Maybe Yes and Maybe NO.

It depends on how programmed. If the same RGN is used for 100 bombardments, it would be great if the RGN is a hit, but how would you like 100 misses?

I would personally find it of marginal value. Sometimes in the middle of a stack bombardment, I change my mind and so something else with the units.

== PF

Originally posted by Bobisback
I would use this all the time, now all I need is auto-recon;)

Auto Recon would be nice also... Lets add it to the list!

Originally posted by BomberEscort


Auto Recon would be nice also... Lets add it to the list!

That would be cool with ships. Kinda like having them on patrol. Set up something like four rally points and just having them move in cycles. Then way you can catch the pesky AI naval invaiders before they declare war on you :)

Originally posted by xxyyzz


That would be cool with ships. Kinda like having them on patrol. Set up something like four rally points and just having them move in cycles. Then way you can catch the pesky AI naval invaiders before they declare war on you :)

I was thinking more of auto-recon for fighters, but this is good too... an old Mac game called 'Strategic Conquest' had this feature and this was 1993!

Originally posted by nalves
And for know hold shift and "B", and click like crazy in the target, thats the closest to stack bombard that we have.

This is my auto bombard. Though sometimes like last night it goes overboard. I had a stack of about 30 artillery in that area (had tons in other areas). I wanted about 15 of them to fire. Well it kept going and going, then I did alt tab and they just fired them all off.

There's another stack bombard issue ... how about bombarding cities back to 12? or 6? or 1? And then as mentioned, bombarding on enemy territory versus your own versus on an ally's/third party's territory?

Not impossible... but there is some complexity here.

AutoBombard does not give you this flexability, it bombs until all bombers drop their load, even if there is nothing to hit in the city. On territory, just program the option to be unavailable when bombing allied territory or your own... This is the simple fix.

On a regular stack attack those units with movement all move in.

What I'd really like is "Stack Any Command". Any action that can reasonably be attempted by a stack should work.

YES, stack Bombardment sounds AWESOME!!! I might even consider building Artillery Units if they were around . . .

Well, try playing without autobombard in multiplayergame when lag is 0,5s (ping is less than 100ms btw). It would take hour to use decent size of artillery stack. I really wouldn't mind if those artillerys would shoot some useless targets too, as long as they would do something usefull from time to time,

I've bee asking for this since pre-patch vanilla.

Stack Anything would also be cool. If that's too hard to programme, at least give us Stack Any Worker Action. I don't want Worker Gangs; gimme Stack Any Worker Action!

Edit: I could live with SAWA not working for Build Airfield, Build Colony, Build Outpost and Build Radar Tower. ;)