List of Moves With Delete/Reorder Options

Here's an idea (maybe useful only for casual games, not sure):

In the top menu, you could have the menu item "Current Turn Moves" (or any meaningful and grammatically correct English sentence, excuse my French).

When you would click on the link, a window would show up (like when you click on "Cities"), with a chronological list of your moves made so far this turn. There could be a little red x to the left of each move. You could click the little x to delete a particular move (and the move on the map would get deleted as well) or you could drag and drop (or any other mechanism) a move from a given position to another to change the order. There could also be a "Clear All Moves" button.

Possible information in the list for each move:
- Units moving
- Start location (in city, or near city, country)
- End location (in city, near city, country) + enemy units if destination is a stack of units in the field
- ...

Advantages:
- No need to redo all your moves when you are unhappy about one move or its priority;
- When the interface is jam packed with arrows and it's hard to click the red x, the list gives a good alternative to cancel a move;
- Once the list gets implemented, it can be combined with the "Save" option (http://atwar-game.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=8582), and the following scenario (wonderful for Casual game players, again) becomes possible: you could move part of your units, save, leave the game, come back, open the "Current Turn Moves" list, and you can delete moves you did during your first session.

For sure this list of moves already exists in the background. So it would "only" be a matter of making it visible, and removing links in the list upon cancellation of a move, and you end up with a very useful upgrade to this already great game.

What do you think?

I like the idea. Support

Merging units makes all that a lot more complicated

Napisao dinoscout, 25.12.2015 at 10:43

Merging units makes all that a lot more complicated

Thanks for showing interest.
I agree it looks more complicated, but I think we could find straightforward solutions. One of them could be that once we cancel a move which units eventually end up in a merged stack, we cancel the stack-related movements as well.

No support
Your first couple of moves are very important every turn. having a greater sense of awareness in a game to move a stack first and in the correct order can be a decisive edge in a game and one of the few real points of skill in the game that can be improved upon and can't be messed with by sp or any other improvement/upgrade based aspect of the game.
having the ability to make any move wherever you want and then getting to refine them later on is just too blunt there is no finesse in that at all.

i'm using the word "skill" loosely here but i think you get the piont

Definitely in support of this. However, cancelling all the moves shouldn't be possible.
That's the way it is now, with moves such as this "transport docks on land, ground units get moved out of it" not allowing the transport's move to be cancelled( only to go on, provided it has the range needed) after docking it and moving units it contained out.

Napisao Netre, 28.12.2015 at 07:49

No support
Your first couple of moves are very important every turn. having a greater sense of awareness in a game to move a stack first and in the correct order can be a decisive edge in a game and one of the few real points of skill in the game that can be improved upon and can't be messed with by sp or any other improvement/upgrade based aspect of the game.
having the ability to make any move wherever you want and then getting to refine them later on is just too blunt there is no finesse in that at all.

i'm using the word "skill" loosely here but i think you get the piont

Thanks to you too for showing interest and taking the time to reply. If you wrote the above comments in a quick game context, I will grant you everything you wrote since I exclusively play casual games. And in that context, a priori, I agree that one of the main skills you have to develop is the ability to QUICKLY prioritize your moves, like in blitz chess games.

I will now talk for myself, as I undoubtedly know some casual players will disagree, but I know my thoughts will reach out to many casual game players nevertheless.
Casual games try to reach a different kind of audience. Here is not necessarily the place for quick moves. Thorough thinking can be of the essence, not reflexes. I disagree with your statement that "your first couple of moves are [...] one of the few real points of skill in the game that can be improved upon" (tactically speaking, intelligent walling could be another example, but there is also the whole strategic side of the game that can be improved upon). A lot of thoughts can be put in before playing a move. I regularly write many pages of conversation with allies before deciding on a move. I sometimes want to explore many scenarios before ending my turn. In this context, I believe that cancelling a move could be very beneficial. It is strategy at its best.

Where are the fine military strategists? I am sure there are players that are looking for the gratification of intelligent and careful planning (and I am not suggesting that quick games do not require intelligence; it simply does not solicit the same kind of intelligence, and does not offer the same kind of gratification). Can you imagine Churchill making a plan on a map and, after seeing a flaw in the strategy, opting for the flawed strategy nevertheless? Or Mussolini, after designing an attack in the Balkans, getting a message from Hitler saying he's already there with sufficient strength, asking Mussolini to go to Africa, but ... Mussolini going with the initial plan anyways? It's the same for AtWar. When you enter your moves, and you see a flaw, or have a discussion with your ally, it would greatly add to the game if you had the ability to modify your moves.

In my opinion, allowing move cancellation allows more thorough strategies, the revision/fixing of flawed strategies, and it really opens up the diplomacy aspect of the game.

PS: I finish with one last point: in a sense, when finding a flaw in our moves, many casual players do it already anyways. When we are not satisfied with our moves, we do not end the turn. We exit, we log in again, we enter ALL our moves again, making sure to fix the flaw in our strategy. This is a lot of efforts, so why not make it more fun? This will only bring finer strategy to the game, and attract better (casual) players.

Napisao Noir Brillant, 31.12.2015 at 13:01

Napisao Netre, 28.12.2015 at 07:49

PS: I finish with one last point: in a sense, when finding a flaw in our moves, many casual players do it already anyways. When we are not satisfied with our moves, we do not end the turn. We exit, we log in again, we enter ALL our moves again, making sure to fix the flaw in our strategy. This is a lot of efforts, so why not make it more fun? This will only bring finer strategy to the game, and attract better (casual) players.

For casual games this is a good idea, it would definitely save time.

i do play cas games but in the defense of quick games, they require more intelligence. there i said it. haha .

I love this idea! It often takes me many exists before I get all my moves just the way i wanted!

Keep up the great work guys!