Why Does It Take Vehicles So Long To Turn?

[Col Deadmarsh]

I've noticed that if you issue your vehicle move orders, they take forever to make a turn, especially if the turn is more than 90 degrees. Why is this? Sometimes, they're not even rotating the hull. They just sit there for 15 seconds before rotating or moving as if they're radioing in to double check the orders or something.

[Bullethead]

Most vehicles in WW2 (not only wheeled vehicles but many tracked vehicles as well) could not pivot in place but turned in an arc like a car. However, in CM, all vehicles pivot in place, even wheeled vehicles. To make up for this, the time required to change facing is pretty long--it represents the time the vehicle would really be spending going around an arc (or backing and filling in a tight spot where there wasn't room to travel the arc). At least that's what I recall BTS saying.

As for the time delay before rotation starts, that's just normal orders delay. If you have a stationary unit and give it orders to move, it will always take some amount of time in the next turn before it starts to move. So if you order a vehicle to move off in a direction different than its current facing, you will see the vehicle sit there before it starts rotating to face the direction of travel.

[Col Deadmarsh]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bullethead:

Most vehicles in WW2 (not only wheeled vehicles but many tracked vehicles as well) could not pivot in place but turned in an arc like a car. However, in CM, all vehicles pivot in place, even wheeled vehicles. To make up for this, the time required to change facing is pretty long--it represents the time the vehicle would really be spending going around an arc (or backing and filling in a tight spot where there wasn't room to travel the arc). At least that's what I recall BTS saying.

As for the time delay before rotation starts, that's just normal orders delay. If you have a stationary unit and give it orders to move, it will always take some amount of time in the next turn before it starts to move. So if you order a vehicle to move off in a direction different than its current facing, you will see the vehicle sit there before it starts rotating to face the direction of travel.<hr></blockquote>

Yeah, as a veteran of this game, I'm aware of the orders delay before the turn. What I was talking about was when your vehicle was already moving, stops to make a turn, but doesn't rotate to the new direction until a certain amount of time elapses.

I'd like to see BTS implement a new way for these vehicles to move. I'm guessing that they don't use arcs because of extra memory needed to compute paths and such. Maybe in the future this will change.

[Phantom Captain]

try plotting your turns in very small arcing waypoints instead of a 90 degree angle etc. might help!

[Cameroon]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Lord Dragon:

try plotting your turns in very small arcing waypoints instead of a 90 degree angle etc. might help!<hr></blockquote>

From what I can tell this does actually work though I suppose it could be objective.

If the degree of the turn gets too large, the vehicle has to stop to make the turn (though I don't know what the limiting angle is). If you use the arc method and make the changes small enough, then the vehicle will slow down but not have to stop. I suppose it isn't Grand Turismo 3's driving model, but it seems to be reasonable good

[Panzer Leader]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bullethead:

Most vehicles in WW2 (not only wheeled vehicles but many tracked vehicles as well) could not pivot in place but turned in an arc like a car. However, in CM, all vehicles pivot in place, even wheeled vehicles. To make up for this, the time required to change facing is pretty long--it represents the time the vehicle would really be spending going around an arc (or backing and filling in a tight spot where there wasn't room to travel the arc). At least that's what I recall BTS saying.

<hr></blockquote>

Wait, are you saying that the tanks didn't have the one-track-forward, other-track-reverse ability?

[Bullethead]

Colonel_Deadmarsh said

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>What I was talking about was when your vehicle was already moving, stops to make a turn, but doesn't rotate to the new direction until a certain amount of time elapses.<hr></blockquote>

I've never seen such a pause. In fact, I just set up a little scenario to test this. Regardless of whether the vehicle has wheels, tracks, or both, and no matter how great an angle the turn is, the vehicle immediately starts pivoting when it comes to a turning waypoint. It never stops moving.

[Bullethead]

Originally posted by Panzer Leader:

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Wait, are you saying that the tanks didn't have the one-track-forward, other-track-reverse ability?<hr></blockquote>

In WW2, it was fairly common for tanks not to have this ability. Some did, some didn't. One that did not, as far as I can tell, was the Sherman. I don't think US tanks gained the ability to run their tracks simultaneously in opposite directions until the experimental M26E2's cross-drive transmission of late 1945. German tanks, OTOH, seem to have had this ability for much of the war.

[aka_tom_w]

There was another thread some time ago that listed all the german tanks that could and could not.

It has also been called nuetral steer

Look up neutral steer in the search and I'm sure you will find at least a few threads where this issue has been discused.

As already stated most Allied tanks did not have the nuetral steer functionality. Some German tanks did, I think the Tiger I was one of the first but I could be mistaken.

-tom w

[Vanir Ausf B]

To the best of my knowledge the only Allied tanks on the Western front that could turn in place were the Churchill and Cromwell, and tanks based upon those chassis. On the German side only the Panther, Tiger and KT could, as well at TDs and other vehicles based upon those chassis.

[SGT_Gold]

All fully tracked vehicles could pivot steer. Since steering came from applying braking force to whichever side you want to turn to, all tracked vehicles could turn in this manner. The big thing is if the transmission isn't set up to allow one track in neutral it puts a great deal of stress on the stationary track. Most vehicles would steer in a small circle in order to keep the wear on the transmission to a minimum. Brakes are alot easier to replace in the field than tracks or gearboxes.