Formation painter

Wouldn't it be totally awesome to have lets say 50 units selected and then you press a button and move your mouse and paint a curved or straight line click once and then move your mouse again to decide the thickness of the formation and then the units automatically arrange like that.



Would be so useful to set up semi-circles at chokepoints without much micro or distribute 10 scouting units quickly to cover a vast area (long small line).



I so want this in and I won't buy the game if it isn't in.|||yeah, simple ideas like these are what good games are made of...not pages and pages of random nerd dribble.|||This would be great.



I can see it being abused to excellent effect by having formations of cavalry spelling out LOL on the strat map as you plow through their infantry- for this alone I'd want it in. Theres obviously loads of strategic and tactical applications too but damn...|||Make it possible to save these kind of self-made formations too, à la FA's build templates but with a more straight-forward UI.|||dont think that saving is necessary, the key point of formation painting would be that it is very fast and flexible.|||It's a very cool idea, but I think something simpler like the formation options in Rise of Nations would work well enough.



For those that don't know, Rise of Nations didn't have a painter but it had a good mix of shapes, (e.g. line, wedge, left and right echelons, and some sort of box I think). After picking the formation and its facing, you could use the mouse wheel to either condense it or spread it out. Roll the wheel back and a line will become very long and spread out, roll it the other way and they'll pack together very tightly, with one line folding into multiple rows.



They also used a 'smart' formation system, so arty and support wagons went to the center-rear, and the infantry/tanks staggered themselves throughout the line. I've often disliked 'smart' formation systems because auto-formations can be ungainly and not so smart.. but again, it worked quite well in Rise of Nations imho.|||now that is a fantastic idea.



you should be King.