Matrix Games Forums

Using the the <a> key brings up the Unit Stats and Im trying to make sense of them.
Have read this:
Toggle unit stats: This option permits the
player to see for each unit its precise supply
level, approximate Strength and Morale
levels (green and blue bars, respectively),
and its in-command star. Hotkey is <a>. (3.4.3.1)

However the bar colours don't seem to make sense.
For example 6th Maine has Strength 664, Morale 2.60/3.50

It looks to me like the green bar is showing almost 50% casualties and morale is under half of the starting value.
Even if you reverse it and it is showing damage/morale taken it still does not reflect actual scores
Here's the unit:

Maybe the values of this scale take in account a different unit that is not present in this game, i.e. a unit with 1200-1300 strenght and 6-7 quality.

Yes, I believe the scale is for something like maximum strength units and maximum quality levels (which is something like 8... I can't remember exactly.)

I hate to be negative but this flies in the face of every other game that shows Unit levels like this.
How on Earth is it giving the player any useful information?
Did the Beta team really think this was OK?

It shows absolute levels of strength and quality, which would seem like useful information to me. Nobody on the beta team expressed any reservations about it that I can recall. Starting strength/morale isn't such an important concept in this game as absolute strength/quality, so my own preference is to see the absolute information. The absolute information lets you distinguish big units from little units; the relative information would make a company look just as big as an over-sized regiment. I'd be happy to consider changing it to relative values if players think this might be more useful, but just because other games do it differently doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best way to do it for BAB.

Big units and little units can be distinguished by the number of men they have. The bar chart is useful, at least to me and LuckyJim apparently, to see at a glance how strong each unit still is in relation to its starting strength. I see your point Eric, but I must throw another vote towards LuckyJim's argument.

Why not give us the option to show it either way. Just another option, relative vs. absolute unit bar charts.

The trouble is Eric that so many regiments start way below the absolute maximum it renders the bars useless.
If I have a brigade of 4 regiments at 1800 men but every other Regiment at 250 - 800 men where is the value in the Unit Stat Bars?
If you want to bring that sort of info how about colour coding the unit hex based on number of troops and adding it as a filter?

If I have a brigade of 4 regiments at 1800 men but every other Regiment at 250 - 800 men where is the value in the Unit Stat Bars?

I really don't see the problem, if a unit is 800 men you quickly understand it reading the bar, when will be a game with 1500 regiment men you will able at first glance to understand which are the best units for strenght and morale. At the moment is less helpful because for the most part the units are pretty similar but in the future can only be better.

The thing with showing relative strength is that most units don't survive long after their strength falls below their breaking strength, which early in the war means about 80% of their maximum strength. So showing these bars with relative strength would mean they'd all be in the 80-100% of full range, and that wouldn't really give very much information. Maybe showing strength between breaking and maximum would be useful.

ORIGINAL: ericbabe

The thing with showing relative strength is that most units don't survive long after their strength falls below their breaking strength, which early in the war means about 80% of their maximum strength. So showing these bars with relative strength would mean they'd all be in the 80-100% of full range, and that wouldn't really give very much information. Maybe showing strength between breaking and maximum would be useful.

yes - THAT would be useful. I would definitely use bar graph in that case

agreed that would be a nice feature to add[;)]