Sharpshooters in game

[Bravescot]

Hey guys

I'm a big fan of being a skirmisher in the current game Mount and Blade: Napoleonic Wars and it's mods (North and South hint hint) and I was wandering if Sharpshooters were going to be a part of this game considering the 1st United States Sharpshooters fought in this campaign as part of V Corps.

If they are a part if it I was curios as to if the men would need to all stay together and move as a large group fighting in the pitch battles or if they'd be aloud to move about the battlefield in small groups fighting very hit and run style tactics

Hope all the development is going well
Scotty

[Rithal]

The developers have stated in the past that players are free to do whatever they want in battles. There will be nothing that keeps them from running off into the forest except the danger of running off into the forest XD So, they could theoretically move around in small groups, but it probably isn't a good idea to to get too small. The goal of skirmishers is to slow down the enemy and chip away at them at the same time. They are sometimes used to hold off an enemy attack while a unit is pulled from the reserves to replace a routing one. If I were commanding a regiment, I personally wouldn't feel too intimidated by a 20 man group of skirmishers, however, a 200 man group would indeed slow me down for quite a while. Just giving some helpful examples :D

[[RG]Chewie]

Don't forget skirmish formations were often made up of more then one company of men from a regiment, so they were often around 200 men strong.

[Bravescot]

This is all true in historical terms but I doubt that we'll be seeing 200 people moving about as a Skirmisher regiment in games, as big as the servers are.

[Soulfly]

Actually i hope that there will be not much Player-Slots for those skirmishers, since i want to see large scaled line battles and not fight against bush-monsters which are just playing for their K/D ratio which 99,9% of those players are doing.

[[RG]Chewie]

Rifleman slots should definately be extremely limited to keep all the bs listed by soulfly to a minimum.

[Bravescot]

It should be limited that is a very valid point, but also doing so might hurt groups, Regiments or Clans who want to play together as Sharpshooters as the slots are packed by as Soulfly put it, and I full agree with him, "bush-monsters which are just playing for their K/D ratio".

[TrustyJam]

Sharpshooters will most certainly be limited in supply. We have a few ideas as to how to best implement this - it likely won't just be a matter of being the quickest one to select a limited class, but also a matter of managing a much lower reinforcement count.

- Trusty

[Bravescot]

Doesn't that just link back to the idea of K/D people playing as Sharpshooters so they don't get killed? Sharpshooters obvious were not an mass force like the regular infantry regiments and limiting them is a good idea. Does this not bring up the problem of what I said before of people wanting to play together as an organised unit of Union or Confederate Sharpshooter who want to have some fun and follow the general's and higher officer's orders only to find all the slots are taken by people running around as individuals hunting for officer kills or something. It would cause a deal of distress to both sides to find that they're trying to work as a unit and these individuals spoiling the fun for them. It has been said that you can and are able to run about as a single person and that is a nice idea to allow such freedom, but however this is annoying as in many games this is know as 'Ramboing', as I'm sure you know' and is cause a deal of upset for many people. There should be massive debuffs for running off on your own as this is no Plantside 2 where one guy is able to kill of whole armoured columns if he plays his cards well.

[TrustyJam]

Doesn't that just link back to the idea of K/D people playing as Sharpshooters so they don't get killed? Sharpshooters obvious were not an mass force like the regular infantry regiments and limiting them is a good idea. Does this not bring up the problem of what I said before of people wanting to play together as an organised unit of Union or Confederate Sharpshooter who want to have some fun and follow the general's and higher officer's orders only to find all the slots are taken by people running around as individuals hunting for officer kills or something. It would cause a deal of distress to both sides to find that they're trying to work as a unit and these individuals spoiling the fun for them. It has been said that you can and are able to run about as a single person and that is a nice idea to allow such freedom, but however this is annoying as in many games this is know as 'Ramboing', as I'm sure you know' and is cause a deal of upset for many people. There should be massive debuffs for running off on your own as this is no Plantside 2 where one guy is able to kill of whole armoured columns if he plays his cards well.

Are you indeed free to do as you please - I've never said it would be without consequences, though. :)

- Trusty

[[RG]Chewie]

Example of a sharpshooter nest against regular infantry. Remember that being a sharpshooter in the civil war doesn't always keep you beyond the range of rifled muskets.
888

[Bravescot]

Naturally. But hiding in solid cover instead of standing face to face with said rifles can keep you live for long.

[Soulfly]

Personally i step away from comparisons between games and reality, due to the fact that what happened in reality could be a complete game breaker. Assuming we have 100 players each side and 20-30 players have "sniper" rifles which higher accuracy and range, it is hard to have a balanced and avoid getting shot to pieces in minutes for the regular infantry men that way. Especially if you are playing as a clan with teamspeak and such things, this will be frustrating.

But my trust goes to the fellow devs to implement those special classes fairly.

[Bravescot]

Here here!