Combat Controls

Overview
Attention Commanders,

We’ve been hard at work, and are releasing New Combat Controls! These changes set the groundwork for a future improvements that will create more consistent performance of the AI, and an overall better gameplay experience.

Today introduces a collection of AI and UI enhancements. A lot is getting revamped under the hood, and all-in-all this work should improve the consistency of troop behavior, provide better UI, and open many doors for exciting new gameplay going forward. You’ll notice some changes at first, but overall this system will improve your ability to command effectively in battle.

The biggest changes are below, but for a list of all changes, please see our patch notes here.

UI Improvements
There are a bunch of UI improvements that will give you greater control on the battlefield:


 * Command Card: Bottom right of the screen in battle. Houses all the new commands and shows their hotkeys. Also shows which commands are active for the selected units. Hover over the new buttons for details on how they work! You’ll also notice we moved the R.U.B.I. button to the bottom right of the screen to group it with the other commands.


 * Target and Selection Highlighting: Hover over anything you control and it will glow white. Hover over any enemy target and it will glow red, indicating what you will hit if you click on it. Note that this might highlight units you cannot actually fire at. If you have anti-ground units selected, it will still show enemy aircraft as red.


 * R.U.B.I. Selection Rings: Dotted rings indicate that R.U.B.I. is controlling a unit. You never need to wonder if a unit is going somewhere because you told it to, or because R.U.B.I. is in charge. Issue a command on a R.U.B.I. controlled unit to temporarily gain control. Once the command is complete, R.U.B.I. will take back over again!


 * Aircraft Grounding Drop-down: Ever wonder exactly where your aircraft’s range starts? Now selected aircraft will have a line drop down that shows where exactly on the ground they are located. Use this to stay out of range of enemy fire!


 * Improved Cursors and Click Confirmations for All Commands!

Commands
Previously the game had stances on defense and no equivalent system for attackers. We’re replacing “stances” with “commands” that both attacking and defending platoons can use. Some of these commands may seem familiar, but their function is slightly different.


 * Attack Move: Select your units and hit “A” or click the “Attack Move” icon to pull up the Attack Move cursor. Click a location, and your units will fire at all enemies along the way to that point. If you click directly on a target with Attack Move, your units will still fire at enemy troops along the way!


 * Move: Select your units and hit “M” or click the “ Move” icon to pull up the Move cursor. Click a location to make troops move directly to a location, without stopping to fire at targets on the way!


 * Stop: Hit the “S” key or the “Stop” button to cancel the commands of any selected units.


 * Hold Position: Replacing “Stand Ground” is the “Hold Position” command. Hitting “D” or clicking the “Hold Position” button will cause selected units to stand still, only firing at units in range. Remember that unlike stances, these commands will go away if you issue a new movement, so on base defense set “Hold Position” once your units are in place.


 * Fire at Will: Replacing “Aggressive” is the “Fire at Will” command. Hitting “F” or clicking the “Fire at Will” button will cause selected units to chase hostiles in a very large radius. Remember that unlike stances, these commands will go away if you issue a new movement, so on base defense set “Fire at Will” once your units are in place.

Changes To R.U.B.I.

 * R.U.B.I. AI has been changed, and units that are acting via artificial intelligence will behave a little differently than before.
 * Not only that, but stationary units will now have some idle AI.
 * For example, in a Platoon battle, ever notice your pack of Gatling Trucks stand still as their fellow Gat Trucks just watch?
 * Now your troops will have a small radius that they are willing to move in to fire at enemies.
 * Don’t want that to happen? You can avoid that by commanding them to “Hold Position”.
 * Want that chase and attack radius to be bigger? Set the units to “Fire at Will”.

Improved Pathfinding

 * The pathfinder has been updated to support navigation around solid obstacles and handle varied terrain.


 * It also now performs path straightening, allowing units to navigate to their destination more directly than before.


 * In addition, we've added a new path planner for aircraft to allow them to make sweeping arcs to their target that we can better synchronize between the client and server.


 * Initially only the Spectre will use this planner, but we plan to expand it to other aircraft in the future.

Solid Buildings

 * Part of improving pathfinding is that buildings are now solid.


 * No longer can you simply walk through a War Factory as if it weren’t there.


 * It’s going to feel different at first, but now you can incorporate blocking buildings into your strategy.


 * You can still walk through your own walls, but every other building will block friendly and enemy pathing.

Future Enhancements

 * All of this work puts the War Commander team in a place where we can add tons of fun new gameplay and usability improvements, while staying true to the spirit of War Commander.


 * Going forward, we're evaluating a number of features that can build on the new technology included in this release, such as command queueing, unit formations, additional unit commands, unit-specific commands (abilities), strategic terrain, and more!

Additional Facts

 * There are no stat changes at all in this update. Kixeye only changes some control improvements and enhanced AI.
 * There's no way range was impacted at all by this update. All the updates and changes can be found in the patch notes here.
 * The controls have only been like for 20min. Try them out a little before you decide you hate them. They're a little different than you're used to and will take a little more time to adapt to =)

Known Game Issues
Click "Expand" to Read This Section 

Listed here are bugs that have been identified with this Feature. Once fixed each issue will be moved to Resolved.

"Greetings Commanders, We (Kixeye) are committed to providing you a quality experience, and thus will be listing any known issues and their statuses in this thread. The thread will be periodically updated with more information. There are some issues going out with this release that will be resolved as soon as possible. These are listed in this forum thread . If you run into any bugs, please check the known issues list, and if its a new problem please report it in the thread so we can fix it as soon as possible."

- Kixeye

Existing Known Bugs : *If you notice a new issue not listed above, please contact support here .
 * Towers are incorrectly receiving a 20% range bonus against air units.
 * Enforcers cannot shoot through walls.
 * Using multi-target components, such as Double Strike, can cause battle desync.
 * The Agility component is not working as intended.
 * Battle desync can occur which may show desynced health values after taking damage.
 * A RUBI-controlled Spectre may begin fleeing from enemy units if RUBI is turned off and no new target is given.

Resolved Bugs :

Forum Discussion Links :
 * Kixeye Forum Thread : Known Issues - New Combat Controls (Official)