Feature request/suggestions to BF

[H1nd]

First of this post is meant to to give sort of feedback and wishes with full knowledge that many of these things might be too resource intensive for BF to make actually make them happen.

In the future could it be possible to give us map makers more tools to make the terrain even more varied. The addition of smaller tree type was a very nice thing in RT but I still find my option very limited when it comes to making realistic and varied vegetation and terrain. Here are some things that come to my mind that could have huge impact on the games outlook as well ad additional "gameplay features" for lack of better words (read even harder LOS conditions).

-The ability to change the look of certain terrain tiles by adding brush is very nice indeed. Especialy the way "brushing" changes the way mud tiles can be used to make ditches. Could this feature be expanded even more? Maybe have another different sort of "brush -like" modifier tile say like "rocky" or "rough" that aint quite the same yet as current rocky tiles but just something to rough up the tiles a bit without changing the entire tile type from grass or etc.

-I would very much like to be able to place bushes in same tile with trees to make very messy and thick woods and vegetation. Atm the transitions I can make from low brush to woodlands is still too stark. If this is impossible due to both trees and bushes being in same category of vegetation then maybe we could have a new third forest terrain tile with even taller undergrowth? The heavy forest tile is very nice but its brush is still very low even if very thick. Or make a similar terrain modifier as the current brush that could be added on top of regular forest tile. Also additional types of bushes would be welcome with more variety in height and size. Also additional types of small trees would be welcome.

All in all I'm slightly dissapointed with the new forest floor textures that look way too dry to properly fit in to Byelorussian context. More moist and mossy textures could have been more apropriate. However maybe these could be added along side with the current textures and maybe it could be possible to give us the option to also use the older textures from CMBN as well to give the forrest terrain even more variety. As a Finn the forest has a big importance for me as some of you might have noticed from this post..

-Current flower texture is so underwhelming that I rarely use it but rather I almost always opt for weeds instead. The problem is that even when zooming very close to the terrain the flower tiles are almost impossble to make out in the midle of all the other tile types. I would love to see taller and more clearly visible flowers. Btw are the sunflower fields in game atm behind some modtag? EDIT: after taking another look at flowers at best possible quality I have to recall some of my argument that they are underwhelming. They are actually quite pretty but still could use more taller flower variety.

-The rock textures! Why are they brownish? The CMBN type of grey rock textures would have been very good addition along side these new textures.

I'm pretty sure that I had additional stuff in mind but seems like I forgot them along the way. However these are the most pressing issues that have come to my mind after the release of RT and rather intensive effort to make new maps. (Nemanitsa version 2 is coming out this week if all goes well)

Some of you might think that mehh why not just use modded textures but the thing is that when making maps I really want to have them look the same for everyone with unmodded base game. The addition of the new mod tag option is ofc a new interesting option but it will only solve part of the problem.

Lastly the new marsh textures are very beautifull!

Cheers! And sorry for all the typos

-H1nd

[apoll]

The thing I'd like to see is some way to set formations. Say, if I wanted to advance to contact with two companies/platoons up, one back, with the command element in the middle, then a button that would make that happen, so the battalion would move as a whole like that, and keep that formation. So it did not have to be such a micro managing manner as at present. A selection of say six formations, like one up two back, two up one back, linear, diamond, column, and irregular, for example, or something like that. Or the AI tried to keep formation that you set up in the first place. That would be my request.

Apoll

[Wrath of Dagon]

It would be nice if we finally got topographic overlay option. It's quite hard to distinguish gradual elevations right now.

Also, why do the crews of knocked out guns still have the gun icon? That's very confusing, they should have the regular crew icon just like knocked out vehicle crews.

[db_zero]

Formations-the ability to advance in line, wedge ect. would be nice.

CQB-this is probably even more relevant to Black Sea as current conflicts take place in urban settings, but still relevant to WW2-I see a game for my tablet called "Breach and Clear" by Gun Media that looks interesting. If something along those lines could be incorporated into CM that would be something I would pay $25 for.

Of course I wouldn't want to be the one who has to program something like that...

[Kieme(ITA)]

...

-H1nd

I'd like just to point out a couple of things:

"The rock textures! Why are they brownish?"

you could just swap textures between CMBN and CMRT or make a mod.

There are no sunflowers in CMRT vanilla, but, again, you might mod one of the crops to look like sunflowers.

About flowers, well, I think they are sufficiently tall, I wouldn't like flowers taller than tall grass because I see such flowers rarely..

Again for the forest floor, you can swap textures with CMBN if you feel like, or make mod.

About bushes and heavy forest, the bushes CMRT uses in heavy and light forest grounds are exactly the same as "brushes", same doodads.

All in all if most of what you don't like is textures you can mod them or search for mods. Fortunately these are things we can change without too much effort.

[Sequoia]

I'm betting CMx2 4.0 will include fully functioning fire and improved snow/Winter terrain so it can be used in the Bulge game and a Winter module for Red Thunder.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Another thing, why is there no move to contact anymore? Doesn't make sense they keep moving after coming under fire or seeing an enemy. Hunt doesn't work well for this, it's too slow, they get tired too quickly, and they stop if they hear a shot a mile away.

[Wrath of Dagon]

So I'm probably wasting my time since developers don't seem to read this, and also I've already asked for this and was told I'm playing the game wrong, but I have more information now. At issue is area firing on a machine gun or ATG another unit has spotted, lets assume the player is using a tank. Once you click on the tank you don't see the target any more, so area firing on the target is a long and tedious process, you have to target as best you can, click near the target so you see it which shows where approximately it is relative to the target line, go back to the tank and click on it, go back to the target and adjust the target line as best you can, click near the target again and so on. I don't see what else you can do, since a tank often will not see a machine gun at all, and by the time he spots an ATG it'll be destroyed since ATG will almost always spot him first. Supposedly this is realistic since it hinders Borg spotting. But in fact when Soviet tanks supported infantry, once the infantry spotted a target, they would either fire a flare or tracer rounds at it, to indicate the target to the tank. Even if the tank didn't spot it at that point, it would still area fire on the indicated spot. They had to do something like that, or their tank support would be useless, in other words they behaved exactly as a player would.

 

It's not necessary to show the target to the tank since he shouldn't be able to direct target unless spotted himself, but the base of the target could be shown to help area target. Also the tank should get a spotting bonus once the target has been spotted by another unit.

[womble]

The easiest way to get around this embuggerance is to select the spotted target (or move the camera so you can clearly see the "?" icon), adjust the perspective so you can still see the target, but the icon for the asset you want to area fire is also visible. Move the cursor to the icon of your unit, but do not click it yet. Keep your eye on where the target is, then click your unit that can't see it. Move the cursor to where you're looking and set the Target order. Sometimes you have to redo it to make the target line snap to the right place, but it is Area fire, so it's not absolutely vital.

 

What I'd like to see is the "?" icons remaining visible all the time when they're supposed to be. It's vastly irritating that even when they're visible at one zoom level, they shrink or hide behind vegetation at another.

[Erwin]

Try using a movement waypoint to have the unit with LOS move to the "target". Then target fire with the desired unit at the waypoint. Then don't forget to remove the movement order. (I use SLOW as it is not hard to forget to cancel movement and at least SLOW usually is not fatal.)

[Baneman]

Try using a movement waypoint to have the unit with LOS move to the "target". Then target fire with the desired unit at the waypoint. Then don't forget to remove the movement order. (I use SLOW as it is not hard to forget to cancel movement and at least SLOW usually is not fatal.)

 

If you use HUNT for the unit that can see the Target, even if you forget it, they will ignore it instantly as they are the ones who can see the enemy unit

[MOS:96B2P]

It would be nice if we finally got topographic overlay option. It's quite hard to distinguish gradual elevations right now.  <Snip>

 

This. +1

 

If you use HUNT for the unit that can see the Target, even if you forget it, they will ignore it instantly as they are the ones who can see the enemy unit

 

I will give this a try.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Try using a movement waypoint to have the unit with LOS move to the "target". Then target fire with the desired unit at the waypoint. Then don't forget to remove the movement order. (I use SLOW as it is not hard to forget to cancel movement and at least SLOW usually is not fatal.)

Thanks, that's an excellent idea.

[A Canadian Cat]

So I'm probably wasting my time since developers don't seem to read this,

 

Well, wasting your time - perhaps but the developers *do* read these forums and many suggestions.  They just don't respond to every single request.  You might not like it but I would rather they work on the game.  They have no shortage of good ideas to improve things so even if they miss one or two of your brilliant ideas it will not really hurt the over all progress

 

Try using a movement waypoint to have the unit with LOS move to the "target". Then target fire with the desired unit at the waypoint. Then don't forget to remove the movement order. (I use SLOW as it is not hard to forget to cancel movement and at least SLOW usually is not fatal.)

 

That is not a half bad idea.  I'll try that out.  I have to admit I am half worried I'll forget and end up with infantry running off willy nilly - but the hunt idea would help with that.

 

Here is what I do:

 

1) select the asset I want to use for area fire - the one that cannot see the enemy contact.

2) click on nothing to deselect it and move the camera along a path from that unit towards the target area so you can comfortably see the area

3) press F12 (which selects the last unit that was selected) and press V (to flip the camera around 180 because F12 will swing the camera to face the selected unit)

4) click on nothing again - do *not* change the camera position at all

5) look at where the contact icon is - maybe even put the mouse cursor on it

6) press F12 and V again (that will put the camera back exactly where it was before but now with the unit you want selected and your mouse cursor will be over top of the thing you want to shoot at)

7) press T and area target the place you want

 

It sounds harder than it is I just broke it down step by step.  This is something I do every game, multiple times.

[Baneman]

I do use your method sometimes, Ian, but putting a waypoint on it can sometimes be quicker or more exact. Sometimes if a unit I want to fire on is on a road, you can get better results by putting a waypoint on either side so the purple line ( since I use Hunt ) crosses the target. I generally then set my area fire ( for MG fire ) in front as it usually goes high and will also cover adjacent AS's.

 

But then again, I am a micromanager by nature, so I do not begrudge doing things that might take extra time.

[mjkerner]

Ian, I just tried the waypoint method in our Eindhoven battle.  It works pretty well!     (Although I don't know how much longer my poor P-truppen have to live!)

[A Canadian Cat]

LOL yeah but you are getting your licks in that is for sure.