Queue

[Barinthus]

Is it my imagincation or does the game have a difficulty cycling thru a large number of units?

Sometimes I don't want to make a decision on a unit's action for whatever reason, I'd press 'W' for wait in order to cycle to next unit.

In my current epic game, I launched a massive (ok ok massive for me, this is my 2nd epic game!) invasion against my neighbor using three prongs - each having about 40 to 60 units. Naturally when I'm attacking a city, I want to use my artillery type units first and the game would ask me about some other unit so I'd press 'W' until I come across an artillery. I noticed I was cycling thru same units again and again and not diverting to some other units. Puzzled, I checked and yep my artillery units still have their movement points unused. I rechecked by selecting them and they haven't been moved at all.

So I was wondering is this norm?

Also is there a way to change the order of which units to give command to? For instance one turn would open up with the game asking me whatever I want to do with my privateer but I want to focus on a stack attacking a city so I go over there, select a unit to give a command to it. Then the game would zoom me back to the privateer. Everytime which is annoying.

[Wittlich]

Yes, the game cycling of selecting the units is strange at best. What I find a real pain is when I have a group of workers that I'm clearing jungle with and the game will select a couple of workers first, then jump to some remote area of my empire so that I can move a spearman...only to come back and select the 3rd worker, then jump to a ship somewhere - back to another worker, ect... You get the idea. I would love to be able to perform all the actions for units in a given area before the screen jumps to a new area....

[Theseus]

Um, I forget, but isn't there a trick to triggering all automoted actions?

[Solomwi]

One trick I use to good effect is to fortify an entire stack of, say, workers, then use "Wake All" right behind it. That stack now goes to the top of the move queue. It works best if the active unit isn't in the stack, but is near it. That way when you fortify, you don't have to go back and find the stack to wake them.

Wittlich, even worse is when it jumps to another stack of workers, on a different terrain/improvement type, causing the buttons to shift, and instead of cleaning pollution or clearing jungle, I just automated six workers with no restrictions via my rapid fire clicking.

[Dr. A. Cula]

I noticed this in my latest game: I was in a war with some civ on the other side of the map, so I loaded a rather large invasion force onto transports, assigned an assorted escort of battleships, cruisers and destroyers and sent them on their merry way. I also sent a couple of fully loaded carriers to the same place, but from a different location. ETA on the carriers was 1 turn after the invasion force. I then continue to beat the crap out of someone else, much closer to me. After a while, I notice the carriers have arrived and were waiting for orders, but the invasion fleet was nowhere around. I search for it and it was stuck somewhere halfway to it's destination. None of the ships were fortified, there was a clear path to their destination, but they just weren't moving. I put a carrier on wait, let all my other units move (this took a while with 100+ automated workers) and then checked the fleet again. It was in the same spot, unfortified and movement points intact. Still the only unit that was willing to move was the carrier. I had to click on every ship in the fleet and re-order them to their original destination.
I also noticed another strange behaviour enough times that I consider it a feature: if I send a settler+escort somewhere on the map and they get attacked and the escort wins, then the settler remains frozen in place (I think it's also fortified) and the escort continues on the original path.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Dr. A. Cula
I noticed this in my latest game: I was in a war with some civ on the other side of the map, so I loaded a rather large invasion force onto transports, assigned an assorted escort of battleships, cruisers and destroyers and sent them on their merry way. I also sent a couple of fully loaded carriers to the same place, but from a different location. ETA on the carriers was 1 turn after the invasion force. I then continue to beat the crap out of someone else, much closer to me. After a while, I notice the carriers have arrived and were waiting for orders, but the invasion fleet was nowhere around. I search for it and it was stuck somewhere halfway to it's destination. None of the ships were fortified, there was a clear path to their destination, but they just weren't moving. I put a carrier on wait, let all my other units move (this took a while with 100+ automated workers) and then checked the fleet again. It was in the same spot, unfortified and movement points intact. Still the only unit that was willing to move was the carrier. I had to click on every ship in the fleet and re-order them to their original destination.
I also noticed another strange behaviour enough times that I consider it a feature: if I send a settler+escort somewhere on the map and they get attacked and the escort wins, then the settler remains frozen in place (I think it's also fortified) and the escort continues on the original path.

When the destination tile is temporarily occupied by a unit of another power (or a barbarian), the go-to command is cancelled and your units halt. This is not a bug, but normal behavior. Your original mission can not be accomplished, that's the whole secret.

Never move units over a big distance automatically. Bite in the sour apple and move them manually, by using your stack movement command. Using the go-to feature is actually even a bad idea (unless you modded the game), since the ships have very different movement rates.

[Dr. A. Cula]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph


When the destination tile is temporarily occupied by a unit of another power (or a barbarian), the go-to command is cancelled and your units halt. This is not a bug, but normal behavior. Your original mission can not be accomplished, that's the whole secret.

Actually, the destination tile was occupied by my carriers, and there were no enemy units in sight. I know that a unit with a go-to order stops when an enemy occupies the destination tile, but it only does so if one of my units has that destination in sight. Also, when this happens, the unit stops and "asks" for new orders. This time, my fleet was just sitting there.

Never move units over a big distance automatically. Bite in the sour apple and move them manually, by using your stack movement command. Using the go-to feature is actually even a bad idea (unless you modded the game), since the ships have very different movement rates.

I don't mind that, as the whole purpose here was to protect the transports.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Dr. A. Cula
Actually, the destination tile was occupied by my carriers, and there were no enemy units in sight.

No, it wasn't. You noticed, that your fleet stopped, after your carriers arrived. But it stopped significantly earlier, or else your statement, that by your estimation the carriers would arrive only 1 turn later, would be false.

Also, when this happens, the unit stops and "asks" for new orders. This time, my fleet was just sitting there.

Just sitting there, not fortified, but also not getting activated (asking for orders)? Something in your statement does not add up here.

[punkbass2000]

Originally posted by Dr. A. Cula



Actually, the destination tile was occupied by my carriers, and there were no enemy units in sight. I know that a unit with a go-to order stops when an enemy occupies the destination tile, but it only does so if one of my units has that destination in sight.

Beyond that, a few options in the prefs will cause them to stop at the sight of any unit.

[Dr. A. Cula]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph

Just sitting there, not fortified, but also not getting activated (asking for orders)? Something in your statement does not add up here.

I know it sounds strange, but this is what happened. Too bad I didn't think about keeping a save game.
On the other hand, the ships might have been attacked and I didn't notice. But I have no idea why they didn't ask for orders after the attack, because I have my units set to stop when they meet enemies.

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by Dr. A. Cula


I know it sounds strange, but this is what happened. Too bad I didn't think about keeping a save game.
On the other hand, the ships might have been attacked and I didn't notice. But I have no idea why they didn't ask for orders after the attack, because I have my units set to stop when they meet enemies.

I can confirm that this happens to me as well. In fact, during a PBEM game my settler/spearman arrived at a remote corner of a continent as a result of my "go to" command... Well, I forgot that I sent any units to this corner and was not actively tracking the progress. Once the units arrived at the designated square, they just sat there, unfortified and I was never prompted to issue orders to either of these units. When I realized they were down there, i could right click and select the units.

This has happened with my SP games as well....I remember it specifically happening with naval units the way Dr. A Cula describes.

[Barinthus]

So I take it that we can agree that the game doesn't always prompt us for every single unit that does not have a current command to carry out?

[Solomwi]

I've only seen that with ships on "Goto", but I have seen it.

[Dr. A. Cula]

I've seen this happen again last night. I had a stack of about 70 units next to an enemy city: mech. inf., tanks and artillery. After moving every other unit in the game, I got to the stack and the game insisted that I only move the mech. inf. Everything else was unfortified, with full movement points but they were just staying there. I had to select each artillery and tank individually from the right click menu in order to use them. Everytim I finished using an artillery or a tank, a mech. inf. would ask for orders.
I even did a little experiment: I saved the game, then stopped (pressed space) every mech. inf. in that stack. My turn ended.
I think it has something to do with having too many units in the game. Big stacks (I had 3 stacks of about 70 ground units and 1 stack of about 40 naval units) and automated moves (units or stacks on goto, automated workers) might also play a role.

[Shogun Gunner]

so, another bug... I can't say that I'm surprised.