Waypoints with transport

[Paulverisor64]

I ran into a situation in a game that I'm now playing in which I planned on dropping off my passengers from a half track prior to sending this vehicle to it's destination. I gave the Half Track a 30 second delay prior to it's departure.

This turned out quite badly for me. My troops never left the vehicle. I watched in dismay as the entire family took off on a joy ride.

Noticing my mistake the next move I waited the entire turn for my troops to evacuate.

My HQ unit arrived 3 minutes later to complete the loop necessary for ordering up my 1st Mortar strike. This was aggravating.

The Half Track didn't fare so well; it arrived late at the crucial crossing and became a flaming heap.

After this I wanted to get the timing figured out for how long the pause needed to be in order to unload. I discovered that the unload has to be the terminal end of the waypoints or it wouldn't take place. Conversely to unload the same troops when there were no waypoints was very quick. The vehicle had to sit out the majority of the turn.

Before I suggest my idea I'd like to ask the question; is there any way to unload a vehicle prior to it's last waypoint? I'd like to take advantage of any timing improvements because as I noticed it can make a life or death difference.

My suggestion would be to have a LOAD and UNLOAD option added to the vehicle. The vehicle would wait until it's passengers either arrived or departed, and then take off.

[JonS]

As a general rule; if the survival of your transport and the passengers depends on split second timing, you are unloading in the wrong place.

[Paulverisor64]

As a general rule; if the survival of your transport and the passengers depends on split second timing, you are unloading in the wrong place.

I absolutely agree with what you say.

What I am saying is; if it only takes 5 seconds to unload a Half Track why does it have to sit the remaining 55 seconds of the turn?

I just see this as a simple to impliment game improvement.

[eltorrente]

Here's a few tidbits from what I've seen in-game with halftracks and troops:

- If your troops are in a vehicle, then they will always wait until the vehicle orders are completed before disembarking. Give the halftrack a pause of 30seconds, 5 waypoints with pauses, whatever - they'll wait till all the orders are complete before disembarking.

- If troops are in the act of disembarking at the end of a turn, then any orders you issue to the halftrack won't happen until the last guy is out. It'll sit there and wait till they are all out before heading off to the next waypoint.

- If your halftrack is full of troops at the beginning of a turn, then you can either move the halftrack and disembark somewhere else - or you can sit there and disembark and not move after that.

- You can pause in the beginning of a turn and embark troops, then move when they are embarked, though. The halftrack won't move until all the troops are inside, no matter how long you set the initial pause for. This is only if the vehicle is paused for long enough for the first soldier to step inside.

- I'm pretty sure you can also move a halftrack next to a squad's position and pause, and once it pauses the squad will embark on the halftrack (obviously only if it had an embark order), then the halftrack will move to the next waypoint after they are all embarked.

[JonS]

I absolutely agree with what you say.

Hmm, I'm not sure you do. Not when you immediately follow up with ...

What I am saying is; if it only takes 5 seconds to unload a Half Track why does it have to sit the remaining 55 seconds of the turn?

The driver needs to check the oil in the diff.

[Baneman]

Paulverisor64 - you can get men to exit a vehicle and then drive it away by giving the men a "Dismount" command before giving the vehicle its movement orders. It will then wait for them to exit before carrying out its orders.

Nothing works for mid-travel waypoints though - you can only get guys out before or after a plotted movement for the vehicle.

Note also that Dismount is, like Bail Out, a command which cannot be undone - once pressed, the only way you can change your mind is to reload the turn and start again.

Quite why we have (just a few) commands that commit you before you press the red button is something I do not understand, but that's for a different thread

[poesel]

If a movement command of a passenger could be affixed to a waypoint of his vehicle then we had a good solution. But that's probably in the same class of problem as the 'target-line-always-from-first-waypoint' problem.

[c3k]

Here's a few tidbits from what I've seen in-game with halftracks and troops:

- If your troops are in a vehicle, then they will always wait until the vehicle orders are completed before disembarking. Give the halftrack a pause of 30seconds, 5 waypoints with pauses, whatever - they'll wait till all the orders are complete before disembarking.

- If troops are in the act of disembarking at the end of a turn, then any orders you issue to the halftrack won't happen until the last guy is out. It'll sit there and wait till they are all out before heading off to the next waypoint.

- If your halftrack is full of troops at the beginning of a turn, then you can either move the halftrack and disembark somewhere else - or you can sit there and disembark and not move after that.

- You can pause in the beginning of a turn and embark troops, then move when they are embarked, though. The halftrack won't move until all the troops are inside, no matter how long you set the initial pause for. This is only if the vehicle is paused for long enough for the first soldier to step inside.

- I'm pretty sure you can also move a halftrack next to a squad's position and pause, and once it pauses the squad will embark on the halftrack (obviously only if it had an embark order), then the halftrack will move to the next waypoint after they are all embarked.

^^^ This is an outstanding precis regarding troop transport. It should be stickied. Or at least memorized.

[Baneman]

^^^ This is an outstanding precis regarding troop transport. It should be stickied. Or at least memorized.

With a slight adjustment to this line : - If your halftrack is full of troops at the beginning of a turn, then you can either move the halftrack and disembark somewhere else - or you can sit there and disembark and not move after that.

In view of the Dismount option I mentioned above.

[Paulverisor64]

Thank you for your helpful feedback!

With this game sometimes things aren't fully apparent and must be approached in the correct way in order to get the correct result.

From what I read I could have averted my mini disaster if I used the "Dismount" command as Baneman suggested. This would have allowed the movement of my Half Track to it's destination as well as my HQ unit on foot. I discovered that this is very order dependant however. "Dismount" "Will Not" work if the vehicle already has waypoints keyed in. You must 1st give the passenger orders to "Dismount". (Otherwise the command is greyed out)

There is further versatility as eltorrente suggested.

- You can pause in the beginning of a turn and embark troops, then move when they are embarked, though. The halftrack won't move until all the troops are inside, no matter how long you set the initial pause for. This is only if the vehicle is paused for long enough for the first soldier to step inside.

- I'm pretty sure you can also move a halftrack next to a squad's position and pause, and once it pauses the squad will embark on the halftrack (obviously only if it had an embark order), then the halftrack will move to the next waypoint after they are all embarked.

The vehicle will wait to be loaded; as long as there is enough pause for the 1st soldier to climb aboard.

This really only leaves 1 issue: It would make the game more fluid if the vehicle could drop off it's passengers in the middle of the vehicle's waypoints. Could a "Dismount" command be tied to a specific waypoint?

Thanks again for helping me out!

[Michael Emrys]

Could a "Dismount" command be tied to a specific waypoint?

That would be handy. What are the arguments against it?

Michael

[eltorrente]

Paulverisor64 - you can get men to exit a vehicle and then drive it away by giving the men a "Dismount" command before giving the vehicle its movement orders. It will then wait for them to exit before carrying out its orders.

Nothing works for mid-travel waypoints though - you can only get guys out before or after a plotted movement for the vehicle.

Note also that Dismount is, like Bail Out, a command which cannot be undone - once pressed, the only way you can change your mind is to reload the turn and start again.

Quite why we have (just a few) commands that commit you before you press the red button is something I do not understand, but that's for a different thread

Oh cool - that's a handy tip. I was wondering what the use was for the dismount command, when you could simply move them instead.

I agree with others about tying the dismount to a waypoint. That would solve the only issue I have with dealing with troops in halftracks.

[Michael Emrys]

I was wondering what the use was for the dismount command, when you could simply move them instead.

It's the only way I've found to get the organic crew of a vehicle to dismount. Since they don't have their own floating icon while they're in the vehicle, there is no way to give them a movement order.

Michael

[womble]

That would be handy. What are the arguments against it?

Michael

Indeed it would. I believe the reasons for it being the way it is can be summed up in three words:

Real Time Play.

Dismount, Bail, Admin commands (I'm sure there's another couple, but could be imagining it) are all "do it now" because of the need to accommodate their use in real time play.

[Erwin]

The rule as Baneman noted is that if you order DISMOUNT - any passengers (not crew) will dismount BEFORE the vehicle moves - no pause is needed.

You can pick up passengers at any waypoint so long as there is capacity in the vehicle (obviously) but also so long as the vehicle has a PAUSE at the "pick up" waypoint sufficient to allow the passengers to reach the vehicle and mount.

IIRC you can not dismount any troops once a vehicle has started its movement until it reaches the final waypoint.

[Michael Emrys]

Indeed it would. I believe the reasons for it being the way it is can be summed up in three words:

Real Time Play.

Dismount, Bail, Admin commands (I'm sure there's another couple, but could be imagining it) are all "do it now" because of the need to accommodate their use in real time play.

You may be right, but what I don't understand is why being able to add those commands to waypoints would prevent their use real-time.

Michael