LOS tips for vehicles?

[noxnoctum]

This continues to sometimes confound me. For infantry it seems easier, mostly I think because even if not all of your squad spots one particular spot, at least a few will (which often results in the rest of the team moving over to shoot at said target)

But for vehicles (and AT guns), I'm still having trouble trying to determine what their LOS is. It can make trying to set up a tank in a good protected firing position difficult. Any tips?

[PhilM]

This continues to sometimes confound me. For infantry it seems easier, mostly I think because even if not all of your squad spots one particular spot, at least a few will (which often results in the rest of the team moving over to shoot at said target)

But for vehicles (and AT guns), I'm still having trouble trying to determine what their LOS is. It can make trying to set up a tank in a good protected firing position difficult. Any tips?

Are you already including plotting - hypothetical - movement waypoints for the AFV / gun in question to the action square(s) you are interested in, setting a facing there and then (with the waypoint active) checking LOF with the target command from there? AFAIU, the results one gets are specific to the height, status etc of the vehicle (and to the stance - prone, kneeling, etc - of foot units?) involved?

Though it is tedious to drag that created waypoint around to check the LOS/LOF from multiple locations! Makes me wish for ... but that's another thread I guess.

[Erwin]

What PhilM said is the best way. However, many times when you actually get your unit to that sweet spot with LOS to a target... you find that in fact there is no LOS. It's very frustrating. What used to be fairly simple in CM1 is much harder now. And that is unrealistic since it's pretty easy in RL to know whether you are in trees or not. In CM1 one had the base color to guide you as well as the cursor would tell you what terrain a unit was in. In CM2, it's usually hard to tell.

[Baneman]

Even more annoying is when you get your vehicle to the "sweet spot", you DO still have LoS with a nice blue line ... but the crew 'disagree' and sit there going "Firing...Aiming...Firing...Aiming..." ad infinitum without firing.

Seriously, if the LoS isn't that good, why is there a blue line ? Shouldn't it be grey ?

[noxnoctum]

Are you already including plotting - hypothetical - movement waypoints for the AFV / gun in question to the action square(s) you are interested in, setting a facing there and then (with the waypoint active) checking LOF with the target command from there? AFAIU, the results one gets are specific to the height, status etc of the vehicle (and to the stance - prone, kneeling, etc - of foot units?) involved?

Though it is tedious to drag that created waypoint around to check the LOS/LOF from multiple locations! Makes me wish for ... but that's another thread I guess.

Yep I already do that. The main problem for me is that quite often the LOS a position is supposed to give me (from checking beforehand), does not match up with what my unit can actually see once it gets there. Or the other way around, which is just as bad (and has gotten me killed plenty of times).

I hope BFC are able to do something to correct this somehow, because it's one of the main areas where CMx1 is superior.

[Jack Ration]

Then again perhaps LOS/LOF is a bit more sophisticated than we think. Sometimes I don't think I have LOF to a particular area on the map, but, when a vehicle turns up in the area, I then get LOS. Maybe my imagination but does LOS/LOF rules take into consideration the height of a vehicle?

[mjkerner]

Then again perhaps LOS/LOF is a bit more sophisticated than we think. Sometimes I don't think I have LOF to a particular area on the map, but, when a vehicle turns up in the area, I then get LOS. Maybe my imagination but does LOS/LOF rules take into consideration the height of a vehicle?

I always understood that it did. Sure seems that way to me when I'm playing.

[A Canadian Cat]

The limitation of the LOS tool is that is determines your selected units visibility to the ground at the selected location. Of course this leads to surprises when a location you thought you had no LOS too hosts a tank that actually can see you. The game give some indication of this right now, the message about reverse slope is trying to tell you that your unit cannot see the ground at that location but it might be able to see something higher. I have no idea what height is used for that determination but there is some hint there.

Here is quick video tutorial I created a while back that shows a technique for assessing a vehicle's viability to an already spotted enemy: