Multiplayer coop battles still possible?

[Eilandeien]

I have couple questions after last stream, from me and my friends. We love AoW for being able to play these huge coop battles together against as hard AI scenario as we can create. We don't really mind waiting for each other's solo battles/turns to finish, but being albe to fight together is pretty much the biggest reason for us "Wondering" together.

On the last stream, confirmed cap for reinforcement range mechanic was "up to 3 stacks per side", which is less than possible limit in previous titles. Until then I took coop battles for granted, but that got me thinking - I don't remember any confimration on the very topic. So my questions are:

1) Will there be settings or mechanics allowing us to increase total number of stacks participating in battle?
2) Can other players join battles of their allies if they are within the reinforcement range?
If so:
3) Will the limit be "per side", or "per player", or some hybrid/other solution?

 

[Triumph Jordi]

There are no settings or mechanics to increase the amount of stacks that engage in a combat. It's always 3 stacks max per side. Any stack inside the range that is friendly (Defensive Pact/Pact of Loyalty or higher) can join you in a fight. The system always chooses the 3 strongest stacks in the range to participate in combat.

 

[SunSpartan]

Oof, that's pretty disappointing. I also play with a large group of friends, but now we can't all be in tactical combat together? Do you know if this is something that can be changed with mods?

 

[Low]

I doubt you can change it with mods and even if you can, I think that the battle maps are too small for more units than 3 stacks each. At least from the videos they look rather small and the excess units will not fit.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Oof, that's pretty disappointing. I also play with a large group of friends, but now we can't all be in tactical combat together? Do you know if this is something that can be changed with mods?

Correct, if there's more than 3 Stacks in the range only the 3 strongest (and their players) will be part of the combat. This is not something that can be modded. The Reinforcement Range and Combat Maps are all designed with the 3v3 max in mind.

 

[Balance44]

Correct, if there's more than 3 Stacks in the range only the 3 strongest (and their players) will be part of the combat. This is not something that can be modded. The Reinforcement Range and Combat Maps are all designed with the 3v3 max in mind.

Related question: Is there an option to take control over vassal army it TC?

 

[Sadorhael]

Correct, if there's more than 3 Stacks in the range only the 3 strongest (and their players) will be part of the combat. This is not something that can be modded. The Reinforcement Range and Combat Maps are all designed with the 3v3 max in mind.

This is sad for the very reason that is mentioned above. 4-5 players in a coop battle is some of the most fun experience in AoW ever! Can you please reconsider increasing this to at least 4 stacks? And to make them selectable in stead of automatically the 3 strongest?

 

[Daerhaug]

And to make them selectable in stead of automatically the 3 strongest?

I think it presents all possible stacks in range and selects the 3 strongest among them. But ultimately the player decides which stacks go in to battle. That's how I understood it in the stream.

 

[Goemoe]

This is sad for the very reason that is mentioned above. 4-5 players in a coop battle is some of the most fun experience in AoW ever! Can you please reconsider increasing this to at least 4 stacks? And to make them selectable in stead of automatically the 3 strongest?

They would have to change the whole system of how it is working now. Sadly 4-5 players coop is one of the most rare player configuration of all AoW4 customers, so I sincerely doubt, this will ever happen. 3 vs 3 stacks is also a matter of battle map sizes which have to be changed as it is for balance issues how, when and where an oppenent attacks.
However, the option of selecting those stacks who shall participate in a battle when players are involved would be a great addition!

 

[TulajMnie]

However, the option of selecting those stacks who shall participate in a battle when players are involved would be a great addition!

I think the reason for that is that if you are attacked you cant choose a single unit or weak stack to prevent oponent from destroying your strongest (which can be still much weaker than opponents) stack. Like you could have done in Endless Legend - you surrounded the enemies city with single unit stacks and when attacked you disallowed reinforcements forcing enemy to destroy one unit after another in endless loop. It was really annoying and cheesy strategy so I think that's the reason for that mechanic - to prevent disallowing a proper fight when caught

 

[Melikat]

I think the reason for that is that if you are attacked you cant choose a single unit or weak stack to prevent oponent from destroying your strongest (which can be still much weaker than opponents) stack. Like you could have done in Endless Legend - you surrounded the enemies city with single unit stacks and when attacked you disallowed reinforcements forcing enemy to destroy one unit after another in endless loop. It was really annoying and cheesy strategy so I think that's the reason for that mechanic - to prevent disallowing a proper fight when caught

The attacker (and presumably, defender) can opt out of including additional stacks if they wish. Jordi shows it at 1:33:08 in the Toad stream (Jordi notes that if you get attacked and your scout is nearby, you might prefer it not to join the battle). Presumably the only stacks that must participate in battle are the two that are actually initiating combat.

However if I understand the issue correctly, it's that the most useful/wanted stacks to include are not necessary the statistically strongest. Take this hypothetical scenario where there are 5 allied stacks in range of the attack:
- Two with with T3-5 units
- One with T2 Melee
- One with T2 Ranged
- One scout owned by an allied player

The two T3 stacks are a given for "Most useful" but the other 3 are wildly dependent on the situation. Depending on the enemy composition, melee or ranged units might be preferred, even if one or the other has 'technically' a greater combat power level and so always takes precedence. The final option of the scout owned by an allied player gives allied spell support which could be more helpful than either other stack.

Albeit a rare and (often) preventable situation, this could be especially annoying if say a Free City or other allied faction moves a stack of units near you just before an enemy attacks and it precludes one of your stacks from participating in battle. A practical example of this might be say, 6 Houndmasters included specifically for the Tome of the Horde's "Blaze of the Horde" spell (+3 Damage per T1, +2 Damage per non-T1) but are forced out because they are statistically too weak to make the cut.

If there is not already a mechanism for choosing between more than 3 stacks (and we have reason to believe there is not, other than having prepared ahead of time by moving the extraneous stacks out of range) then presumably this would be a difficult thing to fix/change because of the extreme scenario where you could have 25+ stacks capable of participating in battle and the UI having to account for choosing just 3 of them. Perhaps more realistically it might be nice if it showed the top 6 and let you choose 3, which might eliminate the majority of already-edge cases where this is could be a problem?