Ideas that could make CM titles any better!

[gnarly]

little umbrellas for our pixeltruppen 

I can already see your next drawing!

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by gnarly

[Badger73]

little umbrellas for our pixeltruppen 

+1 (not really but loved the suggestion.  Thanks for the gift of laughter . . . )

[A Canadian Cat]

little umbrellas for our pixeltruppen 

Great picture too.

[A Canadian Cat]

I think when ask for things we should mention our primary play styles.  I mostly play online asynchronously.

Ideas : 

• The camera could really use some attention.  

I'm confused - idea?  I am very happy with the camera controls (except for one mode that I would love to see removed or at least optional) so it is not obvious to me what needs attention.

 

• Instead of just local trunks I would like it to be all only trunks.  That would maybe halt some LOS complaints.  

That could be a useful feature for performance I guess.  I have no idea how it would help LOS complaints though.

 

• Contour lines could be really cool.  I'm pretty sure I've seen that before and I think I heard good reasons why it would be very hard.  Failing at that, Maybe an overlay at a set controllable height.  I've sort of seen that with the target arcs.  

yes, that would be nice

I would ideally like to screen a lot of action points from position at once as opposed to having to scroll around.

I have no idea what that means though can you elaborate, please.

 

• I really love the grid mod-ed squares.  If there was a way to do with with an overlay so I could turn it on and off at will and not have to install stuff that would be awesome.

Yuck - sorry I don't like grids I have never seen value in them while playing.

[RockinHarry]

What I´d sometimes like to use would be a pixeltrooper eye level camera view that can be switched to the leader of a unit by simple keystroke (SHIFT-TAB maybe), with 3 possible options that would be "normal view", 6x30 binocs and maybe a 10x binocs view. I do something like that oftenly by use of the zoom view to check LOS from a unit which is a bit tricky, but I´d prefer something automated and at correct eye level the way as mentioned above. I understand that there could be some clipping geometry issues with the camera at certain heights and distance to nearby objects (FOV), but I think it should be doable.

[simon21]

 

I'm confused - idea?  I am very happy with the camera controls (except for one mode that I would love to see removed or at least optional) so it is not obvious to me what needs attention.

There are points where the camera can make things very hard to see.  People in the rest of the thread have pretty much said all I would say on the topic.

 

That could be a useful feature for performance I guess.  I have no idea how it would help LOS complaints though.

People complain about LOS a lot.  Local trunks make it look like foliage is blocking a shot, when it really isn't.  You can turn trees off of course, but all trunks would help me kinda find a sweet spot between game LOS and real LOS.

 

I have no idea what that means though can you elaborate, please.

Ok.  I have seen a post on this before, but basically I'd like to be able to drag my move 'dot' to a position and see highlighted all the points I can shoot from that position.  Basically points you can shoot from a point overlay.  Right now I have to drag the shoot cursor around a lot when I'm planning a move and when you are debating 10 positions, then it can get tedious.  I've seen other people mention this before too.  

 

 

Yuck - sorry I don't like grids I have never seen value in them while playing.

I really like the grids.  It's a preference.  It helps me tell where my guys are going to end up during movement.  It also just makes it you can our count ranges faster in some cases.  I wouldn't be shocked if there is a mod to do this already.

[BLSTK]

 

Cool. A patio on wheels. The only thing missing is a hot tub, unless...

Seriously though, what's the story behind this tracked vehicle thing?

[Baneman]

Cool. A patio on wheels. The only thing missing is a hot tub, unless...

Seriously though, what's the story behind this tracked vehicle thing?

Tank Girl's tank, I believe

[sburke]

 

People complain about LOS a lot.  Local trunks make it look like foliage is blocking a shot, when it really isn't.  You can turn trees off of course, but all trunks would help me kinda find a sweet spot between game LOS and real LOS.

Not sure what you mean by that, but Steve wrote up an extensive post on how foliage is interpreted in game recently that was very interesting.  I'll see if I can't find and add a link.

[A Canadian Cat]

Ok.  I have seen a post on this before, but basically I'd like to be able to drag my move 'dot' to a position and see highlighted all the points I can shoot from that position.  Basically points you can shoot from a point overlay.  Right now I have to drag the shoot cursor around a lot when I'm planning a move and when you are debating 10 positions, then it can get tedious.  I've seen other people mention this before too. 

Thank you I get it now.  While it would be nice I think Steve has rejected it before - too much information / too gamey / computationally a concern if I recall correctly.

[Michael Emrys]

...basically I'd like to be able to drag my move 'dot' to a position and see highlighted all the points I can shoot from that position.

If I understand you correctly, this has been brought up a number of times over the years and a number of times it has been explained that this would cause a huge performance hit on the CPU. Don't expect to see it any time soon.

Michael

[simon21]

Not sure what you mean by that, but Steve wrote up an extensive post on how foliage is interpreted in game recently that was very interesting.  I'll see if I can't find and add a link.

I think you'll find I was commenting on that thread.  I know how it works.  I just think that if you have 'just trunks', then you might be able to make some better judgments.  Basically, it's a quick fix.  

 

Thank you I get it now.  While it would be nice I think Steve has rejected it before - too much information / too gamey / computationally a concern if I recall correctly.

The fact is that competitive people are clearly doing exactly what I'm implying.  Unless CM is going to add time limits for PBM turns it's just an inconvenience, but from this post 

If I understand you correctly, this has been brought up a number of times over the years and a number of times it has been explained that this would cause a huge performance hit on the CPU. Don't expect to see it any time soon.

Michael

I wouldn't be shocked if this wasn't entirely correct.  I know a bit about how this system would work.  I think there probably is a way to make it not hyper CPU intensive especially on smaller maps.  Basically, I want this game to look a bit like that horror show Battle Academy.   I think there is still a little too much emphasis on CM being still an RTS as opposed to my preferred form TBS.

Edited February 3, 2016 by simon21

[sburke]

nah CM  is an omfgihlcompfafm* game

*oh my f**kin god i have lost control of my pixeltruppen for a full minute!

[Fenris]

And for God's sake, add an undo button.

Yes!!  Really need a simple ctrl+z option both in the editor AND when plotting orders.

And fire with smoke.  There's so little smoke on a CM battlefield.  Loooong overdue.

Not as important but another long standing one... Better infantry animations, the spongy ice jogging looks crap.  Troops need to actually move quickly and be bent over when under fire.  I also detest the conga-lines.

 

[Stephen E Lyons]

New campaign system. I know this will NEVER happen, but I'm digging the idea of a Combat Mission operational-level title with a campaign system akin to Graviteam Tactics. In short, basically Total War Karkhov 1942-1943, and I know for a fact there are die-hard Total War junkies here.   

[hobo]

And for God's sake, add an undo button.

By far the best idea ever.  I would love it with move commands as well.  I cannot tell you how many times I double click a unit to figure out its group and then give a command or remove a command) by mistake not to the unit but the whole dang platoon/company.  I then have to go back and painstakingly figure out who was effected and redo their command or worse have an entire company marching in the wrong direction....

[Pak40]

By far the best idea ever.  I would love it with move commands as well.  I cannot tell you how many times I double click a unit to figure out its group and then give a command or remove a command) by mistake not to the unit but the whole dang platoon/company.  I then have to go back and painstakingly figure out who was effected and redo their command or worse have an entire company marching in the wrong direction....

Well, I was specifically talking about an Undo command for the map editor.

For the situation you're describing, the simple thing to do is double click on one of the units to select it's whole unit, then hit the backspace key. That will undo all of their commands I think. If you've already hit the GO button then I suppose your SOL.

I think a simple text warning that you have multiple units selected will help people reduce these mistakes. Maybe something as simple as an X5 next to the cursor, this would let the user know that you have 5 units selected.

[The Steppenwulf]

I´d tend to vote for using the "experience" soft factor for making a trench or foxhole a better or worse camouflaged version, adapting purchase points (for QB) accordingly. IIRC trenches and FH get more or less automatically detected at ranges between 3-400m (assuming unobstructed LOS), so a possible "elite" trench could i.e be detected only at ranges of say...50-100m. Off course that needs to go hand in hand with unit detection and that´s probabaly the point where the whole idea gets more complicated. An "Elite" trench and a "Green" unit in there and shooting at a target 500m away gets what spotting probabilities for the (various) opponent units? Hm....

I like this idea, something I hadn't ever considered. 

 

My current short list:

Front end:

• For the long term, make infantry animations smoother and more varied.

 Specific Infantry animations in urban environments (eg firing over/around obstacles) would do the trick.

Currently its possible to get intel for one side before a battle (axis or allies), it would be cool if both sides could get intel on each other (in some cases its appropriate).   

Yep, I suggested this a long time ago. http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109400-new-featuresfeature-ideas-for-cm-for-the-next-few-years-thread/?do=findComment&comment=1442547

Competitive battle scenarios where full intel is available to both sides at the start of play would play out faster in the early stages and place more emphasis on speed and maneouvre. Smaller (perhaps more mobile) size forces in larger battle areas - this would bring greater tactical variation to CM games. it's  quick win in terms of programming so why not.  

 

And fire with smoke.  There's so little smoke on a CM battlefield.  Loooong overdue.

 

Playing Black Sea, I really wanted to see some apartment floors, that have had their facades blown out, to be billowing smoke. Perhaps this could be randomised to represent the chances of interior furnishings in a property catching fire: Great eye candy, adds immersion and in programming terms is another quick win.

Some other ideas:-
 

• Tanks and vehicle sounds - On hide the spotting signature is dampened! IRL hiding in ambush means engine cut-out. Not reflected in game. Again it's a cheap trick but two generic start up/cut out engine files to cover all vehicles would be enough to do it - nothing much to add to the memory. The effect of a silent tank hull down in a forest in ambush would present this impression so much better than what we have presently. 

 

• I'm inclined to think that ammo counts should be lower and suppression far easier to achieve than it is presently. This forces players to use light target as the default rather than target.  I suspect that the balance of maneouvre tactics against firepower would shift here in favour of mobility. Target only gets a look in when the fight gets desperate, such as being outflanked. In short gameplay would become more 3 dimensional.
   
• Barrciades for street fighting - nuff said.  

[bisu]

One of my techniques is to buy extra fortifications and place them in likely locations...which can be spotted. I leave 'em empty. They do a great job of absorbing my oppos' artillery.

Nah, everybody knows that trick these days. If you want to protect your infantry you should actually put them INTO the fortifications :).

Edited February 6, 2016 by bisu
missing quote

[bisu]

Edited February 6, 2016 by bisu

[leon_2]

Having now read this thread and after long thoughts about game mechanic improvements, I think there are only two real necessary "Improvements" that need to be made, and, I think would not be a lot of work to the devs (but I might be wrong, of course)

1st: Show terrain elevation. Its just hard to read some terrain tiles, and its unrealistic as I think every commander in real life has at least one topographical map of the terrain he fights on. I dont understand why Battlefront have not implemented this yet, as every map tile has an elevation data, which can be seen in the editor.

2nd: Unit feedback. Sometimes a unit gets wiped out and the icon just disappears. Its really hard to keep track of your units sometimes (on larger scenarios even in turnbased) plus unit feedback would make real time much more attractive. I dont know how hard it would be to implement this, but as every unit has a clear name already given (1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, 3rd Company etc) I think a short text message like "1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, 3rd Company: Unit spotted" or "1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, 3rd Company: Under Fire"
would be sufficient.

3rd: Name Units (Unit groups, Landmarks...): Just for a simpler organisation of the battle, I think it would be great once a formation or unit group is selected, you could give them a name that would just float over their unit icon. Also ingame playermade landmarks would be great, to create either your own Ocoka analysis without 3rd party programs, or mark seen enemy units, or just spam some random stuff. I think this suggestion is the least important, however I think this would also be not to much work.

To the replies on the initial thread: I dont think camera movement is too hard, it is pretty adjustable with the 3 presets, and I think you can even change the movement hotkeys in an editor file. Personally I like the camera movement as I think it is necesarry in Combat Mission to move the camera to every angle.

Anyway, I really think everything else in the game is great as it is. I also know there have been dozens of suggestions like these in the last couple of years, but I did not find these specific or similar suggestions on the forum (but i didnt read all of it). This is just my 3 cents.

 

[gnarly]

'Save' button in the army purchase screen.

 

Can't think of how many times I've bought the army, gone to setup, and realized I'm missing X, Y or Z. So had to repurchase from scratch. And if this occurs over multiple nights (I only have short periods of computer-time available at night), it then introduces errors; I resolve the missing X or Y, but then inadvertently miss item A or B on the following purchase session.

Also this would allow the saving of your favorite/standard armies as a base, particularly for PBEMs.

[BLSTK]

I agree. I rarely deviate from my set lineup of favourite PixelTruppen, regardless of terrain or type of engagement.

[Fenris]

I posted a long time ago that I'd like the option to have custom formations that you can save and choose to use in any battle, the points being deducted from the overall total available.  For extra points it'd be great to be able to save any custom formation's status at the end of a fight to carry it over to the next one (after a few replacements of course and with perhaps the option of a time stamp restriction so you can only use it in battles that occur after the fight before).

[Pike]

Mama mia. Where did camera view suggestion going main topic here?!! 

I just wanted some better trenches and maps . 

I wanna play with the pigeons! Come come little birds!

Edited February 8, 2016 by Pike
fun