Continental rally point (patch this, please!)

[Commander Bello]

The situation:
Playing on a huge archipelago map. Being at war with the Egypts, being located on another continent. Already in the modern ages, so all my cities are connected via railroads. Current empire size: >70 cities; > 380 units
At the northern edge of my home continent, there are 4 Galleons waiting for refreshment to be shipped to my bridgeheads at 'Egypteria'

Now, what happens each and every turn?

Each turn, there are some 4 - 8 Cavalries, Infantries and Guerillas produced. As I am to lazy to send them individually across the map, I've set a continental rally point in front of my northern harbor.

---- but, the units show up there AFTER all other units have been managed!
So, I have to make all fighting units at 'Egypteria' (being only three sea tiles away - so I can ship and unload my troops in one turn) wait, then I have to manage all units (some 80+ workers) at my home territory, then I have to make wait all my Galleons, until finally, the new troops arrive at the rally point. <spit>

As they are produced at the very beginning of the turn, and don't pop up in their home town anyway, this makes my turns last almost double the time it should be.
I think, auto-movement to the rally points should be executed as soon as the production queue has been calculated. Then, it would be possible to make use of the units exactly where you want to make use of them, without to have to do everything else before. This becomes even more urgent, as the result of the fights might influence your decisions about what to produce in your homeland cities. The later would slow down the whole turn even more, in case that you either accomplish your goals or suffer a severe defeat.

So, I plea for this to be patchend urgently!

 

[rdomarat]

Isn't the order your units are activated the same regardless of whether you've set a rally point or not? I'm pretty sure that units created on this turn are always activated last, but I could be wrong.

 

[Commander Bello]

Originally posted by rdomarat
Isn't the order your units are activated the same regardless of whether you've set a rally point or not? I'm pretty sure that units created on this turn are always activated last, but I could be wrong.

... hmm... I've to admit that, I don't know in the moment.

Nevertheless, what ever the cause may be for the problem, it is very annoying. And even if units created are always activated last, it wouldn't harm to have them activated as soon as you have acknowledged all the production information at beginning of the turn, as far as I see it.

 

[Qpdaj]

As I mentioned elsewhere, I haven't played a C3C epic game long enough to use this feature, either, but I agree that units heading to a rally point should be given a priority.

Of course, I'm constantly irritated by the order that my units are activated in...I'll be in the middle of a campaign, concentrating on arranging my invading units as best as possible...then I'm on the other side of the world trying to figure out what to do with this worker slacking off around my capital...sigh...

 

[Park Ranger]

Originally posted by Qpdaj
Of course, I'm constantly irritated by the order that my units are activated in...I'll be in the middle of a campaign, concentrating on arranging my invading units as best as possible...then I'm on the other side of the world trying to figure out what to do with this worker slacking off around my capital...sigh...

My way around this is to activate a unit in the general area of the campaign I want to focus on, move it one tile so that it stil has MP's left, then manually select the other units and move them. As I finish each unit's move, the computer will return to the initial selected unit and I can move it and let computer select next active unit or keep selecting other units to move first.

And I rarely use the "wait" button for units I want to move last, since it doesn't bump them to the end of the queue. Those I "sentry" and try not to forget about them before the end of turn.

 

[smcSoon]

How does C3C choose the order player units are activated in?

 

[TheNiceOne]

Originally posted by Commander Bello
I think, auto-movement to the rally points should be executed as soon as the production queue has been calculated. Then, it would be possible to make use of the units exactly where you want to make use of them, without to have to do everything else before. This becomes even more urgent, as the result of the fights might influence your decisions about what to produce in your homeland cities. The later would slow down the whole turn even more, in case that you either accomplish your goals or suffer a severe defeat.

I think there is a good reason for keeping it as it is now. Units thats set on some automatic task (either due to a rally point, or a worker action or a goto command) are moved after other units, so that you get a chance to cancel the automatic move before it is performed.

I ue continental rally point similar to what you do, but this rally point affects ships as well. My newly built battleships should not move towards the rally point, but since their move is performed later, I get take command and move them elsewhere.

With the current version, I will manage workers, and also most military units that's on the other continent. Those few that need to wait until after the auto-move can easily be ordered to do so by hitting 'w'. I don't see how 20+ clicks of 'w' will make your turns twice as long.

 

[Commander Bello]

hmmm.. you made some valid points....

Nevertheless, the "w"-command doesn't seem to put the particular unit to the very end of the queue, so it pops up in between again, and requires a second "w".
And I have to admit, that sometimes I am just lost and have to look around what I really wanted to do with that unit. But this may be part of my personality ;-)

Maybe, the solution could be a pop-up for long distance "auto-runs": "x units of type ABC will be sent to this location. Please confirm y/n".
Although I am pretty sure that other people then would complain about to have to answer that pop-up.... And for sure it would not fit to a patch, but to "our" new Civ4 :-D , only

 

[TheNiceOne]

Originally posted by Commander Bello
Nevertheless, the "w"-command doesn't seem to put the particular unit to the very end of the queue, so it pops up in between again, and requires a second "w".

Yes, this is an annoying problem. When pressing wait, a unit should be put to the very end, behind any units on automatic move.

But what I think happens, is that the queue isn't changed, only a pointer that points to the next unit to move is changed to the next unit. I.e. if you have units A - Z and press 'w' on A-D, the pointer is moved to E. If you then manually select G and continue from there down to Z, the game rememebers that E and F haven't been moved (or waited), and instead of only activating those, the pointer is moved to the next unit, which is A, so that you'll have to press 'w' for A-D again.

This is annoying, pressing 'w' should move a unit to the back of the queue...

Maybe, the solution could be a pop-up for long distance "auto-runs": "x units of type ABC will be sent to this location. Please confirm y/n".
Although I am pretty sure that other people then would complain about to have to answer that pop-up.... And for sure it would not fit to a patch, but to "our" new Civ4 :-D , only

I would surely hate this pop-up. A better solution would be a command (button/hot-key) called "Activate automatic orders" or something like that. When you wished to, you could give the order, and all units with a waiting order would do their job immediately - workers would finish their job, and units with a goto order would move. If you don't give this order, they will move last as it is now.

 

[Commander Bello]

Originally posted by TheNiceOne

[...]A better solution would be a command (button/hot-key) called "Activate automatic orders" or something like that. When you wished to, you could give the order, and all units with a waiting order would do their job immediately - workers would finish their job, and units with a goto order would move. If you don't give this order, they will move last as it is now.

Now, that's a good idea!

 

[Robertr4836]

Originally posted by TheNiceOne

I think there is a good reason for keeping it as it is now. Units thats set on some automatic task (either due to a rally point, or a worker action or a goto command) are moved after other units, so that you get a chance to cancel the automatic move before it is performed

I think this is it exactly! How many Beta testers complained, "I set a rally point and all my troops moved there when I wanted to redirect them to a new threat! Why can't they move last so I can change their orders when a new situation comes up!!"

I was very annoyed by this until I needed to redirect auto movement, then I said damn, it's a good thing those move last!

As far as multiple wait commands go...I'm not 100% sure but it has been my experience that you only have to hit "w" once as long as you don't overide the order. For example, I press "w" for unit 1, I move unit 2, there is another unit near 2 that I want to move but it doesn't come up next so I click on it and move it. What do you know, now unit 1 comes up again!