Formation: Overview and Design – Our idea on formation for units
This is a high level introduction to Unit movement and formations for War Between the States.
Unit Selection
Unit Selection provides the player with the ability to select units (infantry, cavalry, artillery), through a means of left clicking (single) and/or dragging (group). Units also have selection keys to quickly re-select units while playing. The image below will act as a guide for the following examples.
In addition to unit selection; by selecting the Officer of the group, you will be able to quickly control the complete Corps, Division, and Brigade.
Unit Movement
Unit movement allows for both standard translation and formation setup of the units from one location to another. This is where things split in to a few categories. We need to look at Group Types, Goup Movement, Formation Types, Formation Movement.
Group Types
The Group Types are divided in to three group sets: 1. Brigade 2. Division 3. Corps
Group Movement
In order to control the movement of Groups, we needed a system for quickly accessing one of the three sets (Corps, Division, Brigade) and have the ability to point ‘which direction’ they should go and face when they get there. The two video examples illustrate the movement of the groups direction. The first video illustrates basic group movement to a new location (green shapes) with no new rotation at the end point.
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The second example shows how we support the more complex movements and control. The yellow box shows ‘where’ the mouse left down click occurred. Then the green arrow shows where the mouse movement position and mouse up from click occurred, which provides group direction. This provides the group with all the necessary information to properly get to the new location and rotate in to position (red arrow shows group front facing during movement).
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Once the process was refined, the next step was to create a clear working example of group selection and movement, as defined in the next two videos.
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Group Hierarchy (Manager System)
The next element to controlling the groups is in the editing level. Before or during a battle the Officer in charge is able to go to an ‘edit’ mode, connect Brigades and Divisions together, rotate them in to position and then continue playing.
An image and video example are below.
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Group Formation Types
While developing the Formation Types for the groups, we went through several different approaches. Our final (current) direction is to provide the player with a handful of preset formations (Row, Column) allowing for quick changes to the groups (Marching, Drills, Movement), providing different bonus points for each depending on the situation.
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Below are some additional formations for the brigades and divisions.
This completes the first look at the Unit and Group Formation System.