Squad formation

[Kwikwilyaqa]

The way squad formation works is useless, but is one of the coolest features to see when walking around.

Lets make the steps on how it works:

1.Pick up the slowest member in your party;
2.Select everyone but that guy;
3.Click on that guy and put everyone to follow;
4.Select the guy and walk around;
5.Deal with the "follow" command inserted in the formation;
6.Repeat every time when: (1) entering or leaving a city; (2) looting bodies; (3) etc. - any actions that takes one guy to do it break the "formation".

One hour of gameplay shows you that formation is losing time with looks - because select everyone can make you change speed as you go by, and all you need is click ' (the key ', close to the 1 key) and click to walk.

Now, make "formation" (only formation, not the follow command) works with the selected time to decrease steps. Already have the 3 basic formations - military, caravan and random. The people only walk on random when you select a group. Make the first person in the first squad the leader and all the rest make the formation. Its a cool feature nobody uses just because there's to much steps in.


EDIT: forgot about the biggest WHY?: formation keeps your guy tied together. No more animals lagging behind or Rane making that stupid path to avoid water (why sheks do this?). No more that random guy getting lost 300 km from the party to be eat alive by gutters (I had one case - luckily she was carrying a prisoner in coma xD).

[Hatsune_Neko]

Select all you want to move.
Go to walking icon then click untill it has the double stick figure. Then click where you want to go.
They will auto set speed to the slowest member.

[Kwikwilyaqa]

Select all you want to move.
Go to walking icon then click untill it has the double stick figure. Then click where you want to go.
They will auto set speed to the slowest member.

That's exactly what you cannot do with "formations" (random works with selected groups, but is simple madness and everybody go where they want) - the one guy who everybody follows is not in the "group" itself. I'm talking basically about the "Military" and "Caravans" formations that only work when everybody is "following" (the command follow) a leader detached from the party itself (everyone who can't run as fast as him/her is simple left behind - as I state "pick the slowest guy" for this reason).

[Hatsune_Neko]

That's the pathing being wierd.

Maybe the Dev's can set it so it selects the slowest person and auto assigns them as leader and everyone else fallows.
That way you dont have to micromanage the entire group.

Might be the best solution. But that's upto the Dev's.

[Kwikwilyaqa]

When everybody is following a leader the pathfinding does not seams so bugged because everyone is in the same path. That's why I love to use - but I don't - the formation thing. If its set to random when you select a group why not make possible to change to military or caravan?

One other thing that makes "following" and "formation" together even worst is yes, you can turn "following" a job and everyone walk in line - BUT, you can't turn off the "following" job. You need to delete it manually from every single person in your squad. As it is works for NPC's, but for players not - that 5-9 mph you gain from "walking" to "top group speed" button makes a big difference in long walks.

[swillo]

When using the formations I just set my leader to jog instead of run. usually everyone can keep up, if not then set him to walk.

If you have someone you know is the slowest you can just have everyone follow them instead. I do that by having everyone run a little way then see who lags behind. The make them the one followed. Very easy.

[Kwikwilyaqa]

When using the formations I just set my leader to jog instead of run. usually everyone can keep up, if not then set him to walk.

If you have someone you know is the slowest you can just have everyone follow them instead. I do that by having everyone run a little way then see who lags behind. The make them the one followed. Very easy.

Quoting myself "that 5-9 mph you gain from "walking" to "top group speed" button makes a big difference in long walks."

Yes you can walk or jog to make everyone follow the leader in the same pace, but even 1 mph if you can set everyone to "max group speed" is a must when walking from Drifter's Last to Sho-Battai, right?

[swillo]

Yup, which is when I find the one who is slowest and have everyone follow them. As they get faster everyone gets faster too.
I usually do this with the regular follow command not the shift+follow as it's easier to change and reassign when someone else becomes slower.