Suggestion: Mercenary Attack & Retreat Command change

[Griffin]

I'm not sure if it's intentional or just not possible, but would it be at any all possible to change the script of mercenaries that giving them the command to attack or retreat doesn't interrupt you?

For instance, retreat won't make your hero stop/stutter, or if you're casting a spell (and know you're about to kill that unit) then commanding your mercenary to attack the next unit without interrupting/cancelling your spell would be pretty neat. Small change really, but still neat.

Not sure if I'm explaining this entirely clearly but do you mates understand what I mean?

Just an idea anyways, cheers!

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I'm pretty sure this is impossible. While there are abilities that don't interrupt other orders (like immolate), there is no targetted ability that displays this behaviour.

 

[Xonok]

What if the mercenary was controlled through the backpack? This would fix the issue.
Could also use it for minions in general.

 

[Ihazdialup]

What if the mercenary was controlled through the backpack? This would fix the issue.
Could also use it for minions in general.

I believe that this would be too inefficient as the Attack and Retreat commands are also shared with pets/summons, in general making it actually much harder controlling the mercenary/pet, solving this issue, yes, but the inefficiency it creates, in my personal opinion, is much to high to actually be a feasible option. While one may argue again it only 1 hotkey just like q for the spellbook or whatever hotkey one may have, but it takes you away from your hero causing one to pay more attention to the hero, but then you have to switch back to your hero and open the spellbook, at the cost of hitting 2 hotkeys instead of, well no hotkeys. Most spells also usually have a really short cast time now due to the spell haste of most characters. It is actually kind of is logical to cancel a spell by barking orders at your follower, i.e breaking your concentration/chant/meditation or through whatever medium that the characters require to cast spells.

 

[Xonok]

I believe that this would be too inefficient as the Attack and Retreat commands are also shared with pets/summons, in general making it actually much harder controlling the mercenary/pet, solving this issue, yes, but the inefficiency it creates, in my personal opinion, is much to high to actually be a feasible option. While one may argue again it only 1 hotkey just like q for the spellbook or whatever hotkey one may have, but it takes you away from your hero causing one to pay more attention to the hero, but then you have to switch back to your hero and open the spellbook, at the cost of hitting 2 hotkeys instead of, well no hotkeys. Most spells also usually have a really short cast time now due to the spell haste of most characters. It is actually kind of is logical to cancel a spell by barking orders at your follower, i.e breaking your concentration/chant/meditation or through whatever medium that the characters require to cast spells.

It could be both ways. The commands can stay in the spellbook and also be on in the inventory.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

There's obviously no place in the inventory, isnt it?

I could remove the pet commanding in general and instead make the pets directly controllable, but I think this will take away a lot of immersion and will also be more frustrating because of the spellbook mechanic as you always have to tap Q first to cast a spell when you reselect your hero.

 

[Xonok]

There's obviously no place in the inventory, isnt it?

I could remove the pet commanding in general and instead make the pets directly controllable, but I think this will take away a lot of immersion and will also be more frustrating because of the spellbook mechanic as you always have to tap Q first to cast a spell when you reselect your hero.

No place? The next option would be recipe bag.

I like it that the pets are not directly controllable. If they were, it would just put more responsibility on myself, but with the current way of things I can mostly just let them do their thing.

The spellbook has a hotkey. This makes it quite fast imo. I just keep every unit(including inventories) in control groups and use hotkeys a lot. Isn't very painful to me.
In any case, it doesn't have to be forced onto everyone. I bet there are people who don't mind the current way of things(such as crusaders, since they can barely channel anything). That's why I propose it as an option.

 

[Noe1]

Mb you can add 2nd spellbook? (for commands and passive skills for example)
Like in defi4c3s was 2 spellbooks

 

[Zwiebelchen]

2 spellbooks wouldnt play out nicely. I hate pressing esc, then Q and then pressing a hotkey just to access that one spell I need.

 

[Malygos10]

Whatever you do, please DO NOT remove pet commands from hero abilities. I'm terrible at microing and don't have any control groups set on hotkeys. I don't even have time to download any software for that. Anyways, it would be pretty neat to not get attack or spell channeling cancelled while ordering your pet to attack or retreat, but if it's not possible, I say leave it as it is since it's not that big of a problem, if not at all.