Auto Cycling of Units must be optional

[gunnergoz]

Ample evidence exists in preview streams of Civ VI that auto cycling feature is an impediment to smooth play. Even lead game designer Ed Beach got burned by it during this week's live stream. The game cannot be allowed to dictate what units we move next. Feature must be able to be turned off or it will cause a lot of shoes to be thrown at a lot of computer monitors.

 

[cooldude1128]

Agreed; not sure what else to say. I'm certainly going to need a mod to disable it if it isn't added by release.

 

[shyPiano]

I do agree that Unit Cycling in this game seems as bad as in Civ V, and as such an option to turn it off is needed.
In Civ IV, unit cycling wasn't bad because the vast majority were in the same tile, but in Civ V, the constant jumping between units, often very far apart, caused me and many others to feel nauseous - and I'm not even a person that gets nauseous from camera movement that easily.

If Unit Cycling chose the closest unit, instead of the next unit in an arbitrarily ordered list, then it'd be acceptable, and I would think about turning it back on to try it out. As it is, it's the first option I'll turn off as soon as I start the game - assuming the option is there. If it isn't by the first patch of the game, I guess I'll have to mod the game.

 

[gunnergoz]

If any of you end up having to mod the game to compensate, because Firaxis doesn't fix it, please let me know once you have a mod working. Thanks.

 

[narmox]

At the very least, the game UI needs to stop auto-cycling if you select another unit after giving orders to one unit. That's how Civ5 does it, but Civ6 so far seems to insist on auto-cycling no matter what, which is where the trouble comes from.

 

[Bkeela]

The way you guys talk about 'auto-cycling' is as if it is a UI feature that the developers have implemented and think is good. But if you should not want this feature, you get to turn it off.

I've always assumed it was a bug. It should be stripped from the code, and the person who designed it taken out the back of the Firaxis lot and whipped. There is only one thing more annoying, and that's when an AI is taking ages to bombard a city you know is going to fall, and there is no way to auto resolve - you've just got to sit there and take it.

Auto-cycling should be gone at launch.

 

[gunnergoz]

Fact that it bit Ed Beach during his latest video stream tells me no one has decided to get rid of it yet and suggests that someone thinks it is a good idea to keep it in the game. It should be off by default but reverse seems to be true.

 

[qadams]

It should be off by default.

Absolutely right!

 

[stealth_nsk]

Autocycling itself is a great thing. You don't want to click next unit every time. There are problems with implementation which need to be solved:
1. Auto-cycling should work only if the currently selected unit didn't make its turn. If you manually selected a unit which has movement points left before auto-cycling occurred, it shouldn't automatically jump to another unit.
2. Auto-cycling shouldn't jump to far away unit if there's a unit with movement points left closer. If the system could take into account current viewpoint of the screen, that would be even better (so units on screen receive higher priority).
3. Auto-cycling shouldn't jump before combat animation ends and results are shown. It would be even better if combat results (including things like gold/culture from kills) are shown in way which doesn't require looking at the particular unit.

 

[alaric1112]

There should be an option to turn it off!! It drives me crazy in civ5. Hopefully they address this.

 

[narmox]

Autocycling itself is a great thing. You don't want to click next unit every time. There are problems with implementation which need to be solved:
1. Auto-cycling should work only if the currently selected unit didn't make its turn. If you manually selected a unit which has movement points left before auto-cycling occurred, it shouldn't automatically jump to another unit.
2. Auto-cycling shouldn't jump to far away unit if there's a unit with movement points left closer. If the system could take into account current viewpoint of the screen, that would be even better (so units on screen receive higher priority).
3. Auto-cycling shouldn't jump before combat animation ends and results are shown. It would be even better if combat results (including things like gold/culture from kills) are shown in way which doesn't require looking at the particular unit.

Agreed with it all. Essentially, auto-cycling should be predictable and most importantly it should NOT supercede player input. That's the big problem, the game's interface should prioritize what the human player is doing rather than whatever task it queued up.

 

[Morningcalm]

Agreed. Auto-cycling was a huge nuisance in Civ V that added to frustration with rather than enjoyment of the game.

 

[Jabulani]

That's fundamental to have it as an option, pls enquire devs about that asap, thx

 

[Abraxis]

"next unit" should be handled by hotkey by default, ideal especially for those with forward and back buttons on the mouse. I have never understood auto end-turn or auto unit-switching. Both are awful "features", improving the interface is how they aught to go about speeding up our interaction with the game and removing redundant actions, removing control of the game from us is the wrong approach. I don't really believe they would release the game without the option to toggle both these things off though.

If any of you end up having to mod the game to compensate, because Firaxis doesn't fix it, please let me know once you have a mod working. Thanks.

I have my team of carrier pigeons ready and waiting to take flight at a moments notice, I'll send word to you immediately once I have it. Rest assured that should such a mod be released you'll be informed within a fortnight.
(Why don't you just look at steam workshop whenever you think about it, like the rest of us?)

 

[Brianstorm]

Can someone explain what the problem is? Every unit still gets cycled through, yeah it's a bit random but much better than taking a couple days off from a game and forgetting you have an important unit on the other side of the world

 

[KrikkitTwo]

It a

Can someone explain what the problem is? Every unit still gets cycled through, yeah it's a bit random but much better than taking a couple days off from a game and forgetting you have an important unit on the other side of the world

It auto cycles to the next unit while you are currently trying to manually select a unit, and you give the order to the wrong unit

And

It suddenly moves you across the world to a random while you were trying to coordinate several units in one area.

Basically auto unit cycling is a bug that the developers deliberately put in the game

 

[MadDjinn]

It's almost as if being able to group units into an 'army' (purely just a UI kludge, nothing gameplay wise) to force the auto-cycle to stick within only the units in the army before jumping away would be good.

but yeah, otherwise, UI auto-cycle tends to follow the unit list, and not 'find the closest next unit with movement points left'; similar to civV. Less computation per second, but causes annoyances.

and yup, if you manually select the next unit, the auto-cycle should be interrupted; not have the auto-cycle interrupt your choice. That will be hugely annoying and will likely cause some turn reloads if done at a point where a bad order causes trouble.

 

[MagicCuboid]

Just adding my voice to the chorus. Civ designers shouldn't be so afraid of their own keyboard commands. Hitting "spacebar" and then "." (or just "." if the unit has no movement points left) accomplishes the same thing as auto-cycling, and gives more control to the player.

 

[Nefelia]

It a

It auto cycles to the next unit while you are currently trying to manually select a unit, and you give the order to the wrong unit

And

It suddenly moves you across the world to a random while you were trying to coordinate several units in one area.

Basically auto unit cycling is a bug that the developers deliberately put in the game

Auto-cycling is a convenience feature. In most cases it is better than having to enter 'c' after every unit action. Calling it a bug is just silly hyperbole.

There are issues with the way auto-cycling is implemented that could likely be improved. First and foremost, the autocycling should cycle via proximity when there are units on stand-by within 5 tiles of the unit currently being ordered. Secondly, the auto-cycle should wait until an ongoing battle is complete (with results and possible gains displayed) before warping over to a new unit.

I don't know how useful auto-cycling is to the average player. But to anyone playing on a huge or giant map, it certainly beats hunting for units on standby one by one, or having to press 'c' 20 or so times a turn.

 

[oedali]

Is "c" the same as the wait command "w" in civ 5? I was watching some quill older game play footage where he was complaining there was no keyboard shortcut for "wait", or at least he couldn't find it. I absolutely need a wait command- please tell me it exists!