Yes, I have noted this behavior since the first founder's release. The devs have not confirmed it in the forums, and there isn't much public video evidence, so I wanted to see if we could rectify both of those.

We can talk about the UI zoom level and unit combat speed and whatever else, but lack of unit responsiveness will really hurt this game above all other issues because it feels buggy. And if the game has this buggy feel at release, it will be difficult to recover from that.

RE: medics, okay thanks.

Totally agree. I'm a patient man. That is, as long as I know that eventually the bad stuff will end. Pulling from another game (same publisher, different devs) the GalCivIII devs thought 1-turn overflow was working in Beta 3, despite outcries on the forums and live streams. They finally acknowledged it after months and fixed it in beta 5. Those were a frustrating few months. Had there not been that outrcry, who knows how long it would have taken them to notice.

Well we have to keep badgering them. They will probably read this post !! lol

I think there is a fundamental misunderstagnding of what a Meta unit is.  Once you turned those units into a Meta unit they act as a single unit. That means, the army, as a whole, is a single large unit.

If you want the units to just swarm a position individually, don't use Meta units.  

Now, that said, I think one thing we can do is give the Brute a longer "leash" (the Zeus has a long leash).  So that they are more willing to get out in front of the  core of the unit.

Much of the meta here is designed to keep the core of the unit safe (i.e. the brute sare protecting those artemsis's while your zeus's are up doing what you asked for).

just edited my response with mroe info.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=AE73D69FD38970E0!114881&authkey=!ACiM9T6YKJcG_Cg&ithint=file%2ccsv

Try replacing the file in your Ashes installation with this and see how you like it.

So they sit back and let two artillery units fire and all the brutes and units with shorter range do nothing but get shot at. Surely the idea of a meta unit is that it is smart enough to use all the units within to the best of their abilities. This video is rather tame compared to some situations where your army will get shredded with almost zero return fire.

By your argument and the reality of the game you would have to run around your armies putting them in and out of a meta unit all the time. That is just not practical and surely defeats their purpose.

The front units need to engage while the longer ranged ones hang back. At the moment they often just all hang back.

How about atleast:

Defensive mode: hang back, good for meta unit of mostly arty with a few short range units to intercept aggressors.

Aggressive: Everyone gets close enough to do damage to target. 

Okay, I wrote my replay before your edit came up. The "leash" is basically what I meant when I said, "the front units need to engage while the longer ranged ones hang back. "

The problem with having brutes hang back when you just have a few Zeus like in that video is that they could be swinging the tide of battle instead of just idling about. If something gets through the Zeus' then the tide of battle has probably already turned and the brutes will be too late to make a difference.

My recommendation would be top modify the file I sent and see what behavior you like.

I think this is a perfect topic for us to team up on.

I really like the idea of selectable defensive/offensive formations/postures.  I do not think a full formation control system like in Total War would work in this game (as COOL as that would be lol), but a button for each meta group to set them on a defensive or offensive posture/formation would be pretty dope....

If you're talking about unit behavior variations in-game, I would say that needs to be fluidic. Meaning, if I'm able to change unit type behavior and relationships I should be able to change it throughout the game. All that said, it's way beyond the level of control I am able to exert in-game. I'm just not good at micro-management to begin with. LOL I'm the kind of guy that shouldn't be a founder of this type of game for just that reason. I suck at the RTS genre. LOL But I do stand behind my suggestion in principle!

Assuming that the game is macro oriented, with large groups to manage, if we want to form groups with units of course, and that the gameplay stress seems to come from multi tasking and several large scuffles to handle at the same time :

Can we reasonably expect to see some engagement rules or formation stances implemented in the game for the groups management? we had great routines to achieve that in Sins of a solar empire. could they do the trick here again?

For example :

-Formations :

- Compact : The units stay in close formation around the dreadnought/each other. It could advantage the immediate firepower of the group (better concave), or the mutual cover and the Healing of units. Useful to hold terrain and enhance a static defensive behaviour, or at the opposite a strong attack on a particular point (tanking). It could trigger a defensive/offensive buff for the group for example, but at the cost of some movement speed. armor/rate of fire buff?

- Normal : The one we currently have : Homogeneous formation, no buff/malus, but a good capacity to move, turn or u-turn, a reasonable mutual cover and range of engagement. The default one.

- spaced : A spaced formation : It could advantage the movement speed (buff), the rearrangement of the lines and the reformation of the whole group, and maybe a bit the "engage at will" behaviour of the frontline units when they cover each other. And so the range at which they engage enemy units. The main purpose? Allow the group to move easily, as said maybe with a buff to the movement speed, and overall to avoid, or defend against the air bombings and the artillery strikes. In conjunction with the movement speed buff, maybe a bit of range of engagement, and a malus to the cooldowns/energy recharge rate?

- Engagement rules :

Quite classic here : It could be something close to what we had in Sins of a solar empire :

- Static/defensive : The units attack/retaliate, but they don't follow the attackers. They stay in place/in formation

- Normal : Like what we currently have : The units engage at their range, they can advance/stay back a bit from the whole group to ensure the mutual cover, but on a limited distance. They stay relatively close to the group, and the dreadnought position.

- Engage at will (gravity well ) : Well, like the name suggests, the whole group/meta unit can move freely to engage.

See the general idea? Formations and engagement rules could also be merged for a better ergonomy. And the bonus tied to the kind of units/dreadnoughts contained in the group for example. Of course, a single button in the UI, or a keyboad shortcut to toggle between them is perfectly enough.

For now, we see that the group movements or engagement phases have rooms for improvement : Specially about responsivity of units, their agility when they regroup, reform a formation while moving, and how the whole group stops to engage enemies at maximum range. This is pre-beta for sure, and many routines are going to be improved and calibrated. Something to enhance units agility when they U-turn, and some work to the pathfinding when they regroup and reform formations, when given a move order, seems to be an important point. (deactivate collisions for units of the same group to solve pathfinding issues, allow a quicker reformation and group responsivity?)

Those are just some humble suggestions of course, but these formations and stances could bring, if not a proper and complete "micromanagement" gameplay phase, at least enhancements regarding the depth of gameplay and the groups macro management tactics on the battlefield. in my opinion, it could undoubtedly serve the gameplay.