Quicker but not quick combat animation

[formless blob]

Is there any way to make the normal combat do only one animation? What I am talking about is, when you attack, and the guys stand there swinging at each other for a couple of swings, I want there to be only one swing. Some middle ground between the uh-oh-what-happened quick combat, and the regular go-read-a-book combat.

Also as a side question: Is there any logic to the animations? Like when the archers fire their bows, or attack with their sword, does that mean anything? Does it matter who hits who in the animation? My impression is that it does not matter at all.

 

[A1CBOZ]

I don't know about the shortening of animations, but if you pay attention to the battles, youll notice that arrows will go into the combatants and crap, the first unit to actually get hit with an arrow is usually the one to die. Same with Grenadiers, the first few go overtop of the enemy, then they start hitting them. And with gunpowder troops, They start firing at the same time, but then one starts going faster and that one will win.

 

[boc4j]

If it is not already done by someone, I think doing something to have the combat animations shorter would be a good idea.
Having them as token animations just so you can see that the combat has taken place.
As it is with nice big stacks you have to either sit through all the combat, or try to work out what happened using the event log.

 

[CivDude86]

I think shoot bow=1st strike, attacking with bow itself=not 1st strike
Samurias did this weird thing were they would ready their swords but not attack and units would magically die from it so I assumed they just didn't have a first strike animation.

 

[Dominico]

Is it just me or since the new patch are the animations totally screwed?

Like now all my men die, then one magically appears and kills them all. Or they kill 2 men, i kill one of theirs and then im dead... Quite annoying with vanishing and appearing troops.

 

[formless blob]

Actually I am surprised I can't find this already mentioned, as this seems like such an obvious annoyance. Am I the only one annoyed by this?

I have been poking around the xml files, and some .h files, but I have been unable to find anything related to either reducing the number of animations, or speeding the animations up. I don't have much knowledge about this, so that is no wonder really.

 

[Underdawg]

Is it just me or since the new patch are the animations totally screwed?

Like now all my men die, then one magically appears and kills them all. Or they kill 2 men, i kill one of theirs and then im dead... Quite annoying with vanishing and appearing troops.

There have been a significant number of reports of patch 3.03 messing up the animations in the exact way you described. It's documented in the Bug Reports forum I believe.

 

[Cabay Jet]

I think shoot bow=1st strike, attacking with bow itself=not 1st strike
Samurias did this weird thing were they would ready their swords but not attack and units would magically die from it so I assumed they just didn't have a first strike animation.

Ha-ha! This brings up a memory, I was playing a Vanilla Civ IV game and I had one of my macemen attack a catapult. The maceman was on a hill and the catapult was down below. The maceman then started to swing his mace, while he was still on the hill, and was hitting the catapult down below telekinetically. When the catapult was about to die, he then started sliding down the hill with mace swinging overhead. It looked as if he was taking a running swing in order to finish off the catapult.

Just one example of the animation weirdness I experienced with the "High detail terrain" option turned on...

 

[mnf]

Vote one for token animations. It's a good middle ground between game atmosphere and ease of play.

 

[Bino]

About the broken animations, i've grown to like my Matrix style Riflemen...combat starts, two of them got shot by the enemy (Neo), then they jump up like martial artists and finish off the hero!

Also my vote for reduced length animations, one of the reasons i play for domination/conquest only once in a while is that the game became so looong...just watching combat after combat.

 

[angeleyes]

Civ 3 combat, in all its simplicity, did make sense and was fun to watch; civ 4 combat is only crap and i'm glad i've discovered quick combat.

 

[Roland Ehnström]

Is there any way to make the normal combat do only one animation? What I am talking about is, when you attack, and the guys stand there swinging at each other for a couple of swings, I want there to be only one swing. Some middle ground between the uh-oh-what-happened quick combat, and the regular go-read-a-book combat.

Best suggestion of the day! Modders, get to work!

 

[mice]

Is there any way to make the normal combat do only one animation? What I am talking about is, when you attack, and the guys stand there swinging at each other for a couple of swings, I want there to be only one swing. Some middle ground between the uh-oh-what-happened quick combat, and the regular go-read-a-book combat.

Seconded! Good suggestion because Quick is too quick. You can miss alot, especially if using quick defense. It would help the "wars take too long" problem

 

[KMadCandy]

There have been a significant number of reports of patch 3.03 messing up the animations in the exact way you described. It's documented in the Bug Reports forum I believe.

that would explain why i haven't seen it. i got BtS only this week, and had read that 3.03 did nothing for gameplay at all, but did introduce extra new bonus bugs and issues. so i only updated to 3.02, and my animations are fine. my poor paratroopers are never going to get their fortification bonus, i keep making them drop every turn when i'm at peace and have the time to giggle at them falling thru the air .

 

[Lurking Liu]

I think shoot bow=1st strike, attacking with bow itself=not 1st strike
Samurias did this weird thing were they would ready their swords but not attack and units would magically die from it so I assumed they just didn't have a first strike animation.

Your assumption is right. Put together a melee unit with Woodsman III (+2 First Strikes, other bonuses) and you'll see the same thing. Your Macemen run up to the city, the defenders fall down, and then they run into the combat and start swinging.



When I had animations on, I noticed patterns with the animation. You can use it to tell in advance who's going to win, but the problem is that it's not like you can cancel the attack if you see a losing animation... Personally, I say turn off the offensive animations. They serve NO purpose, since you actively choose the combats. There's no way you're going to go "Wait, what happened to my Warlord?"

DO NOT turn off defensive battles, though =P

As I've said elsewhere, there's nothing worse than finding out your army died ten turns ago but you didn't notice because you had Quick Combat (Defensive) on... I used to love it, but I was at war with Monteczuma, sending my main army up into his area with a nice strong defensive position to my east to hold off Tokugawa. I didn't notice I was in trouble until I started losing cities... An enormous stack of Knights and Samurai had over-run my Crossbows and Pikes...