Directional armor and similar mechanics

Reposting from reddit, but I would love more battle mechanics like directional armor. For example, Men at arms are almost comically tanky to arrows(presumably due to their shields), it’s a bit of a balance concern imo, but it also looks really silly when you shoot arrows in their back and they take very little damage. Directional armor would be a great mechanic in this game imo as it rewards positioning and micro a great deal, with the logic being that the front or shield facing side of the unit takes much less damage. You could even add a shield upgrade to different units to make micro / positioning more interesting

Anyway, this is just one example of “battle mechanics” that would make the fights more dynamic and interesting imo.

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it would be better if they can use shields to received less range damage but when active move slower… but not sure if it fits in this game, age never was about special abilities, arches not doing any dmg to heavy infantry can be fix with a late game upgrade for archers, that would increase dmg vs heavy armor but not as good as crossbow.

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That would also be interesting, but that would probably mean most players would just activate them when in battle, and switch them off when not, which is still cool but less dynamic. But honestly these are just details, I just wish they added more mechanics like both of these. I think they would be good for the game.

Archers aren’t and shouldn’t be good against MAA. That is what xbows and handcanoneers are for.

These could need a bit of a buff to get into their respective roles. Xbows are quite expensive.

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I agree with this, but I just gave an example, but the wider point is that I think mechanics like directional armor would benefit the game, and give the devs another way to make battle more interesting and balance the game other than just bonus damage.

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No.

It’s an RTS not an RPG.

What does this have to do with being an RPG? Company of Heroes (another Relic made RTS) uses directional armor to great effect. Dawn of war has a great cover system. These systems create more depth in the game imo.

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This might make flanking with cavalry actually useful. Perhaps we may even be able to use hammer and anvil tactics because cavalry now have increased charge dmg!

Im unsure about archers however. I think they should remain in their current state vs MAA. They’ve specifically designed other units to counter high armor targets such as crossbowmen and handcannoneers. Archers should remain in their skirmishing role.

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Why giving directional shield an RPG things? People playing RPG love tweaking stats so all stats are RPG as well?

Yes I agree, and there are nothing more boring than just relying on bonus damage for everything. Not to mention how lazy the implementation is. That is why hill bonus is a things. You need to use army position and movement in an RTS game.

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That is why giving shield directional damage reduction is better. Like hill bonus or wall bonus it required army movement and position not cool down and ability clicking.
Thinking about it, it would be cool if archer can kind of slow down infantry with lots of arrows. No, not an ability like English long bow magically create spear wall out of thin air in the matter of seconds like what they did in this game.

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Doing things like directional armor is impractical in a RTS since my units - aside from the bugged out units that moonwalk - can’t walk backwards to retreat.

Things like this would rather belong to Total War, which gets further dumbed down in each new iteration.

Well, that is a bit pessimistic in my opinion. I still think a simple directional shield is not that hard. Maybe in the simplest form. Like, do not allow troops to move backward, use them as a pushing tool and punish them when retreat.
It is sad that Total War getting dump down. I was a total war fan too. The more money they get the more they want to appeal to the casual player and abandon their loyal fans. And people will fight me saying that “it is a good thing to streamline the game”, or “It about making money so your opinion do not count”.

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The only total war I play is the original Rome 1 Total War, not the remastered one. Mainly because I found it very enjoyable, and note that I said the original, because with the renastered they ruined everything that they could ruin except the graphics, but everything else is horrible, especially the Pathfinding, which ruins all the formations.
As for the slowdown for using a shield ability, I don’t think they will because it is the ability of the private soldier in Warcraft 3.
I would like it to be an additional damage to archers for attacking from the back side and an additional reduced damage for attacking from the side.
I say this because it would make the invincible hit and run that is in the previous AOE not used so much, since they would start to surround, I especially have in mind the archers on horseback making a kind of Cantabrian circle with a small army in the center Although it would take a lot of micro, but it would be more fun than the damn hit and run.

The reason men at arms can take a lot of arrows is because historically they could. The bow is designed as an anti archer unit in this game for killing crossbowmen. The crossbowmen are the more capable ranged unit that can kill infantry effectively.