Manual Initial Troop Placement

[morleyjoe]

I like the idea of manual placement, but wonder why should people get a medal for it? If someone always plays Peloponnesian War or Feudal War and chooses Manual placement, why should they get a medal for it? There's no skill in doing that. I just joined a manual Feudal War game, and only have one place to deploy the troops, but it could count towards a medal if I win??? And I'm sure there are other maps just like those two.

you still need to win 400 times, so that's also an accomplishment

But is it worth 12 medals for beating 400 people in Manual Assassin Fog Freestyle games on Feudal War? I don't think so.

I do like the idea of medals and winning games to earn them, but not for getting them by default. Those two maps I mention do not matter if it's manual or automatic. Why not then have a medal for automatic deployment or sequential games too? The manual medal just does not fit in with the other medals.

[jleonnn]

So how does it determine how many troops we get in manual?

[Duality.]

So how does it determine how many troops we get in manual?

This proves we need a facepalming smiley... You get the amount of troops that would already be deployed before Round 1 begins.

[cthulhu]

I like the manual placement. It's a good option, although I'm hanging myself with it more often than not for the time being. Ugh!

I'd like to suggest a couple related features for simplification of placement:
1) If you have no troops to place or only one possible territory to place on, then automatically complete the placement phase.
E.g., feudal war, 1 territory to start, then automatically place all in that territory; City Mogul, no troops to deploy (at least it was the last game I started), shouldn't require manual observation, actually, it feels a little like being jeered, you have no troops to place, now click the button and wait 24 hours...

2) "Uniform placement", ever try to take world 2.1 or conquerman and bring every territory up to 2, then concentrate forces on a couple key areas? Placing on territories one-by-one is okay for 3 or 4 territories, it is simply aggravating for 15 or 20. How about make a button called "Uniform placement" which is available whenever you have more (>=) armies to place than territories to evenly spread them out across your vast empire?

To the multiply cited point about putting all of your troops in one territory, this is a problem for the player with their (and my) strategy. It can be very fruitful. It can also be a sheer calamity. I think there was one game I had where 4 players (yes, and me) all put all armies on their australia territory. We all burned and had no real chance from there. Effectively, we all fool's mated ourselves. Now, I don't want to suggest that we go all conventional and take a week or more to just deploy the first round of troops. That would make me avoid manual placement altogether probably. I will say as we discuss a potential solution, placement doesn't have to be completely freestyle and blind, but I'm not sure of a good approach to solve it yet.

Cthulhu

[ender516]

I like the manual placement. It's a good option, although I'm hanging myself with it more often than not for the time being. Ugh!

I'd like to suggest a couple related features for simplification of placement:
1) If you have no troops to place or only one possible territory to place on, then automatically complete the placement phase.
E.g., feudal war, 1 territory to start, then automatically place all in that territory; City Mogul, no troops to deploy (at least it was the last game I started), shouldn't require manual observation, actually, it feels a little like being jeered, you have no troops to place, now click the button and wait 24 hours...

2) "Uniform placement", ever try to take world 2.1 or conquerman and bring every territory up to 2, then concentrate forces on a couple key areas? Placing on territories one-by-one is okay for 3 or 4 territories, it is simply aggravating for 15 or 20. How about make a button called "Uniform placement" which is available whenever you have more (>=) armies to place than territories to evenly spread them out across your vast empire?

To the multiply cited point about putting all of your troops in one territory, this is a problem for the player with their (and my) strategy. It can be very fruitful. It can also be a sheer calamity. I think there was one game I had where 4 players (yes, and me) all put all armies on their australia territory. We all burned and had no real chance from there. Effectively, we all fool's mated ourselves. Now, I don't want to suggest that we go all conventional and take a week or more to just deploy the first round of troops. That would make me avoid manual placement altogether probably. I will say as we discuss a potential solution, placement doesn't have to be completely freestyle and blind, but I'm not sure of a good approach to solve it yet.

Cthulhu

Your suggestion about uniform placement sounds like a nice new feature for BOB or Clickable Maps to introduce. You ought to post something in one or both of their threads.

[SirSebstar]

So how does it determine how many troops we get in manual?

This proves we need a facepalming smiley... You get the amount of troops that would already be deployed before Round 1 begins.

try this one
http://209.85.62.26/5676/26/emo/icon_fa ... cepalm.gif[/img]

[jleonnn]

or this one: