The Formation Mechanic

[HappyHawlucha.]

Since this mechanic seems to be pretty prominent throughout the reveal trailer I feel as though it deserved it's own post. Feel free to discuss how it may work, anything about it really. I doubt the mechanic will be available on absolutely every unit in the game, rather some units will probably trade that mechanic for more utility, such as:

Thieves, they should be able to steal and pick locks, so that kind of utility would probably balance out the lack of a formation mechanic, plus a bunch of thieves running towards a single chest would look really stupid.
Clerics, a pack of clerics would look hella adorable but sorta stupid. The lack of formation mechanic can probably be balanced through a LOT of healing magic, since other classes should have access to healing, Clerics will need a lot of different spells to stand out.
Dancers, just IMAGINE a pack of dancers, yeah…and the utility of a dancer probably far outweighs the formation mechanic utility.
Trainee units such as villagers shouldn’t get a whole battalion of units behind them, so perhaps a trainee class doesn’t have access to the formation command  because they aren’t a decorated fighter yet, but when they promote they gain access to this feature since they’ve “proven their worth” as a fighter.

Edited June 25, 2018 by HappyHawlucha.

[senior firehood]

1 hour ago, HappyHawlucha. said:

Since this mechanic seems to be pretty prominent throughout the reveal trailer I feel as though it deserved it's own post. Feel free to discuss how it may work, anything about it really. I doubt the mechanic will be available on absolutely every unit in the game, rather some units will probably trade that mechanic for more utility, such as:

Thieves, they should be able to steal and pick locks, so that kind of utility would probably balance out the lack of a formation mechanic, plus a bunch of thieves running towards a single chest would look really stupid.
Clerics, a pack of clerics would look hella adorable but sorta stupid. The lack of formation mechanic can probably be balanced through a LOT of healing magic, since other classes should have access to healing, Clerics will need a lot of different spells to stand out.
Dancers, just IMAGINE a pack of dancers, yeah…and the utility of a dancer probably far outweighs the formation mechanic utility.
Trainee units such as villagers shouldn’t get a whole battalion of units behind them, so perhaps a trainee class doesn’t have access to the formation command  because they aren’t a decorated fighter yet, but when they promote they gain access to this feature since they’ve “proven their worth” as a fighter.

i think there are many formations. In the trailer dimitri rushes to the enemy, i think  his formation gave him that " rush attake" because the enemy formation was weak against it.

oh and thieves uhm....why a bunch of thieves ? i think  IS do it like they put only 3 in the thievegroup^^, mabye thieves have strong avoid ability^^.

i think a bunch of clerics is okay^^ but a bunch of dancers is kinda cool^^

i hope there is more, the formation thing is a really good idea.

[Vitezen]

I don't think a formation of clerics would be unreasonable. If you're healing a massive group of people, you'll need a massive group of healers. I think a trainee class would still need a formation behind them. Are you really just a trainee if you can take on an entire formation by yourself? I'm not actually sure if trainees will even be in this game for this reason. It doesn't make sense for them to be leading a formation, and they can't fight alone.

[Lynsanity]

7 hours ago, HappyHawlucha. said:

Thieves, they should be able to steal and pick locks, so that kind of utility would probably balance out the lack of a formation mechanic, plus a bunch of thieves running towards a single chest would look really stupid.
Clerics, a pack of clerics would look hella adorable but sorta stupid. The lack of formation mechanic can probably be balanced through a LOT of healing magic, since other classes should have access to healing, Clerics will need a lot of different spells to stand out.
Dancers, just IMAGINE a pack of dancers, yeah…and the utility of a dancer probably far outweighs the formation mechanic utility.
Trainee units such as villagers shouldn’t get a whole battalion of units behind them, so perhaps a trainee class doesn’t have access to the formation command  because they aren’t a decorated fighter yet, but when they promote they gain access to this feature since they’ve “proven their worth” as a fighter.

You're highlighting pretty much why I hate this entire mechanic. A series that used to be about individual growths and the valuing of every soldier's life, is now yet another war sim. You can't have a villager stand out as a character, learning to fight as part of a troop. Now the entire troop has to be villagers, or the villager needs to lead a troop like all the officers in the game, or be a standalone Rambo unit, to not just be another meat shield.

Or take the treasure chests. Maybe it would make sense for a pack of thieves to run toward a pile of chests. After all, any item you get is an abstraction for something that can serve an entire troop, since presumably they all need iron swords, or elixirs, or what have you. I'm sure someone could argue this has been the abstraction in the series all along. Nevermind the heavy RPG mechanics or emphasis on inventory management and legendary weapons, no, FE needs to depict large-scale mook war!

I'm a big Advance Wars fan and I still can't believe they want to cross the streams like this. I've seen people suggest formation only occurs on some maps, or with some unit types. I'm skeptical. We don't know how that formation attack comes about or how integral it is to gameplay. We need to see a lot more to know exactly how this bad, bad idea will impact the game.

[SilverArcher]

8 minutes ago, Lynsanity said:

You're highlighting pretty much why I hate this entire mechanic. A series that used to be about individual growths and the valuing of every soldier's life, is now yet another war sim. You can't have a villager stand out as a character, learning to fight as part of a troop. Now the entire troop has to be villagers, or the villager needs to lead a troop like all the officers in the game, or be a standalone Rambo unit, to not just be another meat shield.

Or take the treasure chests. Maybe it would make sense for a pack of thieves to run toward a pile of chests. After all, any item you get is an abstraction for something that can serve an entire troop, since presumably they all need iron swords, or elixirs, or what have you. I'm sure someone could argue this has been the abstraction in the series all along. Nevermind the heavy RPG mechanics or emphasis on inventory management and legendary weapons, no, FE needs to depict large-scale mook war!

I'm a big Advance Wars fan and I still can't believe they want to cross the streams like this. I've seen people suggest formation only occurs on some maps, or with some unit types. I'm skeptical. We don't know how that formation attack comes about or how integral it is to gameplay. We need to see a lot more to know exactly how this bad, bad idea will impact the game.

Yeah I doubt formations will turn out to be something not stupid. Not just the way it would look especially for classes like thieves but it would either be a useless mechanic or broken. 

[Cysx]

A little thing to note is that both Byleth and Edelgard have precisely fifteen soldiers around them on the map, while white archer vampire guy(Wavg?) only has 10, and so does Hilda, another archer. Dimitri visibly has 15 during that arrow formation scene.

As for Hilda's allies, the mage with a moustache seems to have around 15 as well, the bow user behind her 10, and the lance user another 10.

So maybe those are tied to class, or maybe units with different statuses(since both Hilda and Edelgard are likely your commanders, and potentially that mage is theirs, looks the most experienced) will have squads of different sizes. At least we know it's possible.

Also I wanted to count them in battle but I'm not sure we can deduce anything from that. From the short aerial view Edelgard has ~25, Mercedes 20 maybe? The rest I can hardly say, it's too disorganized and/or the camera's too close.

Edited June 26, 2018 by Cysx

[Fabulously Olivier]

Why are we assuming that a formation has to be the same type of unit as the character? In the trailer, we see Dimitri send out a formation of Myrmidons (or Mercenaries?). 

It seems to me that formations will not necessarily match the character and may even be selectable.