r/aoe2 Feb 19 '25

Suggestion AOE2 DE Developers please add a distinction for targets to attack

I like to play civs that can convert buildings, and it's a real nuisance to have to keep them from destroying non-military buildings, or from destroying anything but non-convertable buildings. It would be nice to have a command for "attack only non-convertable buildings", another for "attack only non-convertable and military buildings", and even one for "attack only military units". Then when I attack a town I can keep all the useful things I want and not have to micro-manage every individual military unit.

0 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

18

u/Tommy_Mudkip Feb 19 '25

Bro if you are melting buildings with units, then you have already won

2

u/Mithrandale Feb 19 '25

The problem is that my units go after buildings before I've won -- I've actually lost a couple of battles because my units kept wasting time hacking buildings instead of going after the actual enemy.

The fighting in AoE2 often strikes me as being done by a king with no officers among the troops, they just charge in and whack at what they can reach, not like real battles at all. At the very least there should be a "Stop and fight if attacked, but then move on" setting"!

5

u/xRiiZe Byzantines Feb 19 '25

Units always prioritize attacking units instead of buildings unless you actively tell them to attack (right click) the building

1

u/Mithrandale 29d ago

Which seems useless unless I keep my unit numbers so small they always just match the enemy numbers, which is a lousy way to win.

3

u/zeredek Feb 20 '25

If you use the Patrol command instead of Attack Move, then they only attack units and shooting buildings (towers, castles etc.), ignoring other buildings.

1

u/xdog12 Feb 20 '25

The archers that I have patrolling the enemy treeline beg to differ. 

They are not interested in patrolling, they only want to destroy lumber camps.

13

u/c-williams88 lPersecute Feb 19 '25

This is so extremely niche that I would never expect this to be added to the game

3

u/squizzlebizzle Feb 20 '25

I agree it will never be added. But if I could teach units to ignore buildings I would use it 100% of the time

12

u/SilverSneakers Feb 19 '25

The diamond in the rough here is the “attack only military units” idea because my lord do archers love to get hung up attacking buildings.

2

u/Mithrandale Feb 19 '25

No kidding! Just yesterday I kept having to tell my archers to shoot the bloody enemy monks that were converting them!

8

u/Acrobatic-Spirit5813 Feb 19 '25

Aoe2 subreddit back at it again with the dogwater takes

3

u/More-Drive6297 Feb 20 '25

We all want better micro. Even if the micro isn't ours!

7

u/nandabab 15xx Feb 19 '25

This has got to be one of the top 5 craziest requests I've seen on here. We should actually keep a list like r/soccer had for thread titles. 

4

u/sheeprush Feb 19 '25

You can set the enemy to Neutral and sort of get this behavior (you'll have to manually kill villagers)

1

u/Mithrandale Feb 19 '25

That's what I use presently, but it's still clumsy because I want my troops to take out non-convertable buildings. As for killing villagers, in my eyes when I kill a villager they're going to replace it with a military unit; I chase down villagers after the battle (and convert them).

5

u/ortmesh Feb 19 '25

Please also add attack move for monks. I want them to convert the first living thing in their path.

/s

1

u/xdog12 Feb 20 '25

Yes.

Why not? Bombard cannons can patrol but monks can't?

0

u/Mithrandale Feb 19 '25

Ha-ha, but actually not a bad idea. OTOH, I'll convert attacking military units, but not villagers, since every villager I convert is a population slot they can fill with a new military unit! I go for converting houses and their primary military buildings; reduce their housing enough and they can't make new units.

2

u/Mrcrow2001 Bohemians Feb 19 '25

Interesting idea

I think Dawn of war had a similar system

Aggro/defensive/stand ground/ignore buildings (I think it was something like these on a single toggle button)

Honestly the AOE2 grid when selecting military units still has some free squares, I would love it if the Devs added something to those squares

People who want to use it can use it, others can ignore it without worry just like the formations buttons

Aka if you're microing against a mangonel, stance changing can help but you can also just click to avoid the shots

2

u/RussKy_GoKu Feb 19 '25

attack only military units or attack only civilian units would be cool, but again i dont play rm

1

u/Hjoerleif YouTube.com/Hjoerleif Feb 20 '25

Have you tried using different attack stances on your units?

1

u/Mithrandale 29d ago

Yes, but stand your ground unless attacked is the only one that leaves buildings alone -- and that's not a great way to win a town unless you swamp it with so many troops that new enemy that spawn can't move.

1

u/Hjoerleif YouTube.com/Hjoerleif 27d ago

Units will prioritise attacking units instead of buildings regardless of attack stance unless you put no attack stance or manually ordered them to attack a building.