DJ_Unit_Selection

Good day to you all. It’s time for another discussion on one of the many features in ‘War Between the States’. This time around our topic will be that of Unit “movement” and “selection”.

While designing how the Units were going to be selected and then moved we had many things to consider. One, of most importance, was the fact that the User was going to have “A LOT” of units within their control and how best to select and control these Units needed to be the absolutely simplest of tasks. So what did we come up with?

Well, after much thought and debate we decided the best way to proceed was to assign the selection of Units to the left mouse button and the action / movement to the right mouse button. The selection of Units has been broken down to several different levels without going into the full detail (going to have to wait for the game for those ), I can say that Units when recruited from the towns are pre-grouped to make life easier.

The Units are broken down into small groups called Brigades. These groups are assigned to officers who retain the control of the Units. By selecting an Officer higher in the chain of command, the User is given control of more of the armies at one time. The selection and control of the Units goes from using the highest ranking officer that has control over all of the armies at one time down to a single Unit that can be selected as an individual Unit and moved by itself. This way there are no restrictions or limits that would hinder the User from doing just what they want to do. The Groups can be switched around, combined and broken apart on a large scale or even on an individual Unit basis. The same is true with the commanding Officers. They may be replaced by better or worse officers if you desire to do so. This way you can design a better selection of Units to go into battle or perhaps you need a decoy of Units while you work your good ones around a flank. You just need to put those poor souls who never had a chance all together and you’ve got your decoy. This way the possibilities are truly endless and the outcome is anyone’s game.

Movement of Units is as simple as right clicking on the desired location. The Units will proceed to the spot indicated by the User and when they get there, they’ll wait for their next order. Right clicking also has the ability to engage your units with the Enemy. With the Units selected you can position the cursor atop the Enemy and then right click. This will initiate the attack sequence and depending on the type of Units selected they will move into position and begin the action required.

To conclude, a straightforward set of controls that govern the movements and selection of Units within the game gives the User the best way to play ‘War Between the States’. It allows for full control while helping the User out with some of the more tedious and time-consuming tasks. The point to remember is that the game has to be fun, so if you can keep the controls and commands for the User simple and easy the game is going to be that much more fun!

Until next time,
Have a good one.