Ally Management Discussion

[XuaXua]

I am a big proponent of some mildly better form of ally management, especially considering the new Mercenary card in trunk (do Merfolk mercs gain XP and levels and "get stronger?"; hasn't happened to mine yet...). Understandably, no one wants to add too much minutiae, but there is lots of room for basic improvement. I figure this is a good place to chat about it.

STASH SEARCHING
One item I've complained about recently is a request for deeper stash searching (scroll down, read KoboldLord's post) in order to reduce the tedium of building multiple 5-item stashes under Beogh, though it applies to all allies.

UNARMED SUMMONS
One item I noticed within the last couple months was an update that removed the ability of some summons (notably crimson imps) from picking up items, though regular versions do this. I'm not sure I understand the rationale behind this.

LOST PICKUP MINDSET
One item I am currently encountering is a mindset switch. I have a merfolk mercenary. He has no ranged weapons. No enemies are in sight. I have previously, but not recently, given him the 't a' command (take all you need). He walks over a crossbow, but doesn't pick it up. I give him the 't a' command again and get him to walk over the crossbow again. This time he picks it up. I shouldn't have had to give the command again; what happened, did the prior command time-out or get reset?

[njvack]

UNARMED SUMMONS
One item I noticed within the last couple months was an update that removed the ability of some summons (notably crimson imps) from picking up items, though regular versions do this. I'm not sure I understand the rationale behind this.

Trying to get your crimson imps to pick up weapons is really tedious, and Call Imp is quite strong even when the beastly little devils are unarmed.

[XuaXua]

UNARMED SUMMONS
One item I noticed within the last couple months was an update that removed the ability of some summons (notably crimson imps) from picking up items, though regular versions do this. I'm not sure I understand the rationale behind this.

Trying to get your crimson imps to pick up weapons is really tedious, and Call Imp is quite strong even when the beastly little devils are unarmed.

I understand that; I don't think it harms them to have the ability to do it (to act like standard Crimson Imps), considering it's a penalty if they disappear over deep water/lava or take something you want. I would expect them to arrive with a 'ctrl-t n' (take nothing) attitude and only take if told to, leaving it up to the player to bother with the tedium of arming them. I figured it added flavor and detracted nothing, but that's me.

[XuaXua]

LOST ALLY
Dammit, I walk faster than my Merfolk and I didn't tell him to wait.
Guess what happened? I left him behind somewhere between Lair 2 on D7 and and D14.
Ctrl-f is great for finding stuff, but not allies, and Dungeon Overview is only useful for automated annotations.
It would probably be a cool feature to have a Ctrl-f style search for friendlies.

[BlackSheep]

There are implementables for this stuff already.

[Sojiro]

I would very much like to have the "t w(ait)" command actually make the allies wait rather than start wandering around the level and engaging anything they find.
We should get a "t p(atrol)" command that does what the current "t w" does. It would be much clearer, and would let player understand what it actually does much more intuitively.

[IronJelly]

I would very much like to have the "t w(ait)" command actually make the allies wait rather than start wandering around the level and engaging anything they find.
We should get a "t p(atrol)" command that does what the current "t w" does. It would be much clearer, and would let player understand what it actually does much more intuitively.

I remember back when I used to play Dawn of War, you had a few different settings for your troops to keep them more or less stationary.

You could have them chase enemies as they encounter them
You could have them assault a position by chasing enemies a good distance from their post when they get too close, then returning to it,
You could have them defend a position by only chasing enemies a short distance before returning to their post.
You could have them defend themselves, and not move more than a few feet when they're attacked.

Each had it's uses. There were times when letting them chase for a distance was good if they were shock troops hiding near a chokepoint or something, but you wanted them to return. there were times when they were kamikazes and you wanted them to follow an enemy back to their base, and there were times when they were on an objective, and you preferred if they didn't go anywhere.

Maybe that's what we need here, a system to tell your allies when waiting, just how far to chase or engage an enemy. You could have them do anything from "guard this one spot, and do not move under your own power from it" to seal up a hallway or something, or a "wait in this room" type of command to have them freeze where they are, and only engage enemies 5 spots or less from where they are at the moment, then return there, or a "wait in this area" command, letting them scour that particular quadrant of the map for you, and finally, a "search this floor" command, giving them range on the level you're on.

In this way, you can slightly control them more, but not get away from what I think is an interesting form of tactics where you have to shout only general orders, and can't micromanage them.