Some ideas to improve units selection.

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by ant0ine, October 15, 2014.

  1. ant0ine

    ant0ine New Member

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    Hello there !

    I have some ideas to improve units selection and I would like to know how you do so most of the time.
    So here is how I proceed and the problems I often met.

    [OOh.. New poster can't post link.. SO imagine two mixte unit group (10tank +3inferno+1spinner+1scout+1combat-fabricator-5dox) for exemple.]

    If I want to select,.. Let's say all the left group's inferno, I'll select the all group using a square selection then click on the inferno's icon at the bottom left corner.. That's not easy,.. I don't look at the battle, I look for the good icons.. Can't use CTRL+Z here because it'll select the other Inferno that might have some other orders already.
    Now PA use a great AREA command system. And.. Why not to select my inferno in the Area? Or all the tank or.. A keybind option for each unit type would do the stuff as a start. But of course I would like to use Cycle and why not TEMPO command to reduc the needed keybind.


    Now I want to spread my Spinners and circle my Target with some land or air scouts. So I'll select one or several scout and press CTRL+Z to SPOT them all, then ONE by ONE I'll give them accurate order. But each time I'm done with one I press CTRL+Z to easily see them all and repeat the action. Same thing for my Spinners, combat engineers..
    My Idea is to select one or several Spinners (Or any other unit) then press a key to cycle through the closest one from the screen.

    I have some more ideas but I would like to know what you think about these two mentioned here before continue..
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  2. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

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    Here's the images OP was trying to post.

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    Great idea!

    Mixing the area commands and the selection, allowing me to select all units of a certain type in a certain area. Real good stuff.
    Last edited: October 15, 2014
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  3. zihuatanejo

    zihuatanejo Well-Known Member

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    Area selection commands would be great, I've asked for similar features before I think, can't be bothered to look for the threads right now though but more control and finesse in selecting the units you want would be /fantastic/.
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  4. ant0ine

    ant0ine New Member

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    So I'm not alone ;)

    But may be some people don't understand why we ask for this feature so let me explain how I manage my unit. Or how I try to.. :oops: I don't say it's the way to go. But that's for me the logical way to do it.. And the result is there when I can manage it.

    So let's Imagine we have a couple factories that build all kind of units. Dox - Tank - Spinners - Scout - Fighter and Bomber Aircrafts.. A true mixte army.

    The problem is I can't give the same order for all my ground units. That's not how to micro manage.. The result would be catastrophic! Dox moving as slow as inferno,.. Scout in the middle of the fight.. Spinners as well.. Bolo in range from eni DOX or Inferno... FAIL :eek:

    Don't get me wrong I know a CTRL+MOVE will make all unit go at their max speed but.. NOPE !


    I want to properly micro my units, and ALL of them. In my opinion that means :
    - Give my infernOs a CTRL+MOVE order right next to the main TARGET. So they go straight for it.
    - Followed by Bolo which have an attack order for use their long range.
    - Assisted by Spinners, Combat engineers and some scout that I manage this way :

    Quote
    Now I want to spread my Spinners and circle my Target with some land or air scouts. So I'll select one or several scout and press CTRL+Z to SPOT them all, then ONE by ONE I'll give them accurate order. But each time I'm done with one I press CTRL+Z to easily see them all and repeat the action. Same thing for my Spinners, combat engineers..
    My Idea is to select one or several Spinners (Or any other unit) then press a key to cycle through the closest one from the screen.
    /Quote

    And of course some Aircraft running on harmless target.

    All this with a constant flux of incoming units. Yep factories are still building. :) So it's impossible to use the groug feature here. Cause each seconds you have to add the incoming unit to all the different group.. And it wouldn't fix the problem that some units might have other orders already. So you would have to CTRL+square selection to remove them from the selection... :mad: Arrrg I can feel the pain !

    Group are AWESOME for "Closed group". For exemple a little Dox group that bypasses the enemy.

    ____________________________________________________________

    An other idea to easily solve some problems :

    Make a difference between support units and assault units. A square selection will actually select everything except engineers I think. That's cool, but I think it shouldn't select Spinners and Scout as well. (Support Unit). Let's get them by adding a modifier to our square selection. As we do to select all the units. SHIFT+SQUARE.

    What I would love is several dedicated command to select my AA, SCOUT, Combat engineers.. Etc.. ++ an other one to cycle through the closest one from the screen to the Farthest.. In order to give them accurate order ONE by ONE.

    As a temporary fix (I hope :p) to call back all unit of a X type I made several macro on my keyboard :

    - I select a scout or a spinner for exemple
    - Then add it to a # group
    - finaly press my macro key that execute ;
    • #1..2..3 (Select the group assigned to the unit I want to call back)
    • CTRL+Z to get them all (Azerty Here o_O)
    • CTRL+#1..2..3 to add them all in the group.
    Now each time I want to call them I press my macro key and it get them all. Without having to look for them!
    It work very well !

    Sorry for my English.. Not perfect.
    Last edited: October 17, 2014
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  5. ant0ine

    ant0ine New Member

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    An other idea.. :)

    Call back the last selection.

    Invading a proxi base with a couple of inferno and Dox. I would give a general CTRL+MOVE order to my inferno then micro my DOX.

    With a "Call back the last selection" I could easily and very quickly adjust my Inferno path.



    Edit :

    An other that goes with the area selection Idea.
    HOLD a key to active the Area selection THEN mouse clic to cycle through available unit in the area. Uhmm let's say left clic to go from largest group to smallest and right clic for the inverse.

    Sounds like a very simple and powerfull tool :cool:
    Last edited: October 17, 2014
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  6. zihuatanejo

    zihuatanejo Well-Known Member

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    I'd love to hear a dev chime in on this particular topic - will the game get any updates regarding finer control over selections? Some good suggestions in here, it could be really nice.
    ant0ine likes this.

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