[UMC] Move several units at once for greater population control

[flashxy]

The problem: Usually during gameplay as the units increase in population (especially in large maps), the time taken to control every unit adds up and becomes stressful. Let's take this scenario: supposing I have 15 new units at my castle and intend to move all of them across the battlefield and towards the enemy castle, I would have to select each of the 15 units one by one and select the destination tile of movement each time. This is stressful, because the intent is just to get them marching across the battlefield for the timebeing.

Proposed addition: It would be a good idea to implement a kind of feature that allows to select multiple characters (perhaps by click & drag or by clicking while holding down shift to add to the selection or ctrl to remove from selection) or even ALL characters at once. Then after selecting the multiple characters, the player can set a destination tile for them. They would try to reach that point as much as possible, but if it gets occupied they would reach for a nearby tile. This way, crowds of units can be controlled at once. It would also be good to add the option to stop the movement of a selected group of units as well, so that they can be fully controlled. For a further example of what such kind of multiple-unit control feels like, I would refer to the game "Age of Empires". Much appreciation to the devs of this awesome game, Battle For Wesnoth and whoever decides to implement this.

As for possible downsides of this addition: I don't think there are any. It just makes the game much more controllable and large numbers of units are made less cumbersome to manage.

[Atreides]

My solution to this problem has been to give them multi turn moves. That way I order each one once every few turns. On some giant (Dominus) maps some units have orders that last for a dozen or more turns!

I am not speaking against the idea however! Not at all. This idea is exactly how it was done in Dune 2. You mouse over a bunch of units and group them. Warwind has a similar method IIRC.

In fact I'd combine this with my technique of multi turn moves. Each turns output gets lumped and then sent on a long trip to the front lines. : ) Excluding the leader each time would be a pain though. Not sure... never mind this is only a wish list at this point. Hehehe.

[doofus-01]

It's possible to do this as is. Assign units to an allied AI side, with a "goto" location that updates each turn to match one of the units still on your side, so that they automatically follow them, like baby ducks. Or they go to some other assigned location. And if enemy attacks or whatever, they change sides back to player control.

[egallager]

I've kinda wanted this feature as well; a click-and-drag interface that brings up a selection area box would be great for it

[Lord-Knightmare]

I've kinda wanted this feature as well; a click-and-drag interface that brings up a selection area box would be great for it

File a Feature Request at the Wesnoth repo.

[flashxy]

My solution to this problem has been to give them multi turn moves. That way I order each one once every few turns. On some giant (Dominus) maps some units have orders that last for a dozen or more turns!

I am not speaking against the idea however! Not at all. This idea is exactly how it was done in Dune 2. You mouse over a bunch of units and group them. Warwind has a similar method IIRC.

In fact I'd combine this with my technique of multi turn moves. Each turns output gets lumped and then sent on a long trip to the front lines. : ) Excluding the leader each time would be a pain though. Not sure... never mind this is only a wish list at this point. Hehehe.

What you suggested has already been done. Just select a unit and click on the far end of the map and watch it move automatically through as many turns as possible until it gets to that point. However, it still doesn't give that fluid control of moving (or stopping) a large number of them at once.

But yeah, as you said, this works great in combination with moving several units at once and I initially imagined it to be like that too, since by default units already move for several turns until they reach their destination tile.

[Atreides]

I combine multi-turn moves with a very useful addon called Cancel Goto If Attacked (CGIA). Units that find obstacles (enemy ZOC) when on a long move automatically get rerouted around but if they are attacked they do not stop to meet the threat. In a large map it is quite common to miss such events. The addon simply adds an event to check for when a unit has been attacked and nulls out its destination so that it stops and needs new orders (such as fleeing or fighting the unit that intercepted it).