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Number of Men in an Army

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:15 pm
by Zoetermeer
Is there an easy way to see (even roughly) how many men are in a given army? If I hit CTRL when in the Unit Panel, I can see how many men are in each individual unit, but it's kind of a pain to have to add these up each time to get an idea how many men constitute either a whole corps or army.

And you obviously don't have access to these numbers for the enemy, so as a newbie, it's difficult to really ascertain how strong an opposing force is.

That's one of the things I like about Forge of Freedom (sorry!).

Maybe this is sort of a minor thing - but for me, it just really increases the immersion factor if I can see how many men are in a force instead of having to rely on esoteric and arbitrary ratings and numbers.

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:33 pm
by Jacek
Welcome to the forum!

I had the same problem when I started to play the game two weeks ago. It was kind of hard not to think in terms of number of men in a stack, rather than a stack power. But good question. Why no " Ctrl stack" feature in the game?

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:52 pm
by Spruce
I think this would be a nice feature - however, also important is to know how the stacks power is relating to it's max power. Now you have to check out every single unit or division to see if they are fit to fight.

Would have been cool to see = Jacksons corps strength = 1350 / 1450

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:52 pm
by type7
If there is one thing I'd love to see added to this game, it would be the ability to get estimates on troop numbers of the enemy. Depending on your control of the area and hide value, those estimates could be way off. It would at the very least add to the historical flavor I would think. Then it would only be natural to have a ctrl-click on your own stack to get your total numbers too :o

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:26 pm
by Zoetermeer
I second that! At the risk of getting into more "2.0"-like features than patch additions, you could even give each general a rating that determines his ability to estimate the number of enemy forces in the proximity.

So then if you're working with a Union army commanded by somebody like McClellan, you would routinely be overestimating enemy strength.

But I do think it'd be nice to be able to see roughly how many men are in both friendly and enemy forces. BTW what is the best way to determine that now? I have a lot of trouble understanding exactly how to figure out how strong an enemy force is (I may have missed this in the manual).

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:18 am
by Franciscus
type7 wrote:If there is one thing I'd love to see added to this game, it would be the ability to get estimates on troop numbers of the enemy. Depending on your control of the area and hide value, those estimates could be way off. It would at the very least add to the historical flavor I would think. Then it would only be natural to have a ctrl-click on your own stack to get your total numbers too :o


I vote for this, also. As I said previously, nothing like the good old number of MEN, first, and then, if and when we wanted, the "power", or whatever you would like to call it. (look, for exemple TC2M - we have troop number. Their relative quality, due to their leader, ammo, experience, etc, is a sublayer, there for the "cognoscenti"). Of course on a strategic level we should not have absolutely accurate numbers for the enemy :siffle:

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:29 am
by Pocus
this is noted, but we need to change the format of some data for that, so it will be done with the patch removing divisions HQ from the game.

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 9:26 am
by arsan
Great news!! :coeurs: :coeurs:
Thanks Pocus!!

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:13 am
by Franciscus
HOORRAY !! :dada:

This is indeed great news. Can't wait for that update !

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:50 pm
by Doomwalker
I love the support you provide Pocus. Apparently we keep you a very busy man.

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 1:31 pm
by LMUBill
So does this mean that the unit stack with Pinkerton in it will show enemy numbers 10-100 times higher than they actually are? :niark:

If you are going to add this might as well be historially accurate with it. :siffle:

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 3:03 pm
by Queeg
LMUBill wrote:So does this mean that the unit stack with Pinkerton in it will show enemy numbers 10-100 times higher than they actually are? :niark:

If you are going to add this might as well be historially accurate with it. :siffle:


Agreed. I assume FOW will still obscure the real numbers a bit. Too much information can be just as bad as too little.

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 3:25 pm
by Zoetermeer
Pocus, you guys are fabulous with product support! It's awesome to be able to talk about features here and know that you guys are listening.

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 4:15 pm
by arsan
LMUBill wrote:So does this mean that the unit stack with Pinkerton in it will show enemy numbers 10-100 times higher than they actually are? :niark:

If you are going to add this might as well be historially accurate with it. :siffle:


Yeah, good idea!!
But it should work that way only when you have Little Mac stack selected! :niark:
You need someone who can believe that unbelievable reports... :tournepas :niark:

Cheers!

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 6:44 pm
by Zoetermeer
Is this still something that will come with the next patch?

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:49 pm
by Zoetermeer
I guess that means no...?

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:28 pm
by veji1
Probably a little later. I think they are first going to fix de Division thingie, to get the AI running a bit, and then tackle the whole battlescreen/report thingie.

Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:57 pm
by Pocus
depends, but veji1 can be right. AI demands reparation from too many defeats inflicted upon her by cunning players! So I have to comply... but perhaps if time allows, reworking how men are displayed instead of hits can be done too.

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 11:06 pm
by Gray_Lensman
deleted

Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:49 am
by Zoetermeer
I don't think so...they said they were going to try to do it, but I don't think it made it in.

All I was really asking for was for something that shows up in the tooltip when you mouse over a unit/stack that includes the total number of men in the stack, in addition to the effectiveness rating. It seems like that would be a simple addition - just add up the number of men in each individual brigade/division in the stack...

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:59 am
by Pocus
I added the number of men (for you stack only, not for the enemy) for the next update. We will see when we can do better (in the battle report and such)

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:46 am
by arsan
Pocus wrote:I added the number of men (for you stack only, not for the enemy) for the next update. We will see when we can do better (in the battle report and such)


That's great news!!! :coeurs:
But don“t think we are so easy to please...
We want more "real men" numbers!! Numbers everywheeeeeere!!!!!!! hahahahah!!!!! :nuts: :nuts: :nuts:
:niark: :niark:
Thanks for listening!!