Best way to "approximate" old CMx1 vehicle "Hunt" command ?

[Sardaukar]

Hi,

Since Hunt in CMx2 games use "Hunt" as old "Movement to Contact", is there any way to sort of "duplicate" old Hunt in CM:N (CW&MG) ? I play with WeGo, so I don't desire using Real Time, where this issue would be less critical (albeit still present in larger battles).

Seems that Move & Pause combination still gives penalties for moving tank for hitting (did read it simewhere on forum). It'd be desirable for tank to stop for firing and continue moving when losing sight/destroying enemy. Any sort of combination that'd work? I was thinking alternating Move/Fast & Hunt, but does Hunt cancel following movement orders if tank/vehicle spots danger or is fired upon?

While current Hunt is OKish, I'd want my tank to move again before 60 secs have passed. Old Hunt command was not perfect, but it was very useful for tanks in CMx1.

[umlaut]

As I understand the game mechanics you can combine "hunt" with a covered arc to ensure that the tank will only stop and engage units that are spotted within that covered arc. But as far as I know there is no way to make it move again automatically, once it has stopped. And yes, I am pretty sure spotting/stopping when moving with "hunt" will cancel all other subsequent moves.

I agree that the old CM1 "hunt" would often be handy.

[Erwin]

+1

Also would like CM1 style "Movement to Contact" for infantry as well. It's best for recon with a Hide command when one would usually prefer troops to Hide if fired on. Using Hunt tires them out, and Move usually turns into "Fast" if fired on.

Is there a good reason why "Move to Contact" was eliminated?

[Sardaukar]

I have suspicion (with some forum search), that implementing these commands with current relative spotting would be problematic to program.

I cannot think any other reasons for eliminating such useful commands from CMx1.

I could live with this easily, if there would be "Stop & spot" command. Using Pause sort of works that way, but seems that accuracy penalties of moving are still included. WW II tanks often did tend to have only 2 speeds...full speed and stop...

[YankeeDog]

Purely speculation on my part, my guess is that the challenge of incorporating the old CMX1 style "Hunt" command into CMx2 is that now, without Borg Spotting, enemy contacts drop in and out of contact much more frequently.

The old-style Hunt order wouldn't be very useful if, e.g., a tank on Hunt that spots an enemy AT team would stop, fire a round at the AT team, and then start moving again immediately because the dust kicked up by the first round fired was obscuring its view of the enemy target.

So for the order to work properly, the AFV AI would need to have a way of evaluating the situation and "knowing" that if it loses contact for reasons other than a confirmed KO, it should stay stationary and try to re-establish contact for at least a few seconds rather than immediately starting to move again.

I suspect this would be technically possible, but probably requires a fair investment of coding resources, which is probably why it hasn't been done yet.

I do agree that it would be a nice thing to have. Not something I see as a Top-10 priority, but definitely desired. I can generally get done what I need to get done tactically with the orders available right now, but a refined "Hunt" order in this style would reduce the number of waypoints & pause orders I use, reducing micromanagement overhead.

[Sardaukar]

I agree.

If there would not be firing accuracy penalties with Pause (not sure if there are, but forum search seems to indicate that), this would be close to "non-issue". Just that one would still need to use lot more commands (alternating movement and pause-commands).

IF Pause is treated as Stop for gun accuracy, I'd say that problem mainly solved. If not, then there is still bit of problem. Anyone know reasonably sure if vehicle stopped by Pause is still considered moving for accuracy?

[akd]

I agree.

If there would not be firing accuracy penalties with Pause (not sure if there are, but forum search seems to indicate that), this would be close to "non-issue".

That bug has been addressed in latest versions.

[womble]

As I understand the game mechanics you can combine "hunt" with a covered arc to ensure that the tank will only stop and engage units that are spotted within that covered arc.

As I understand it, this is misinformation that crops up on here occasionally, and CA doesn't have any effect on Hunt halts at all.

Currently a halt called by a Hunt command will, indeed, cancel all subsequent movement orders.

I don't know whether a vehicle halted under "Pause" orders (which we are assured no longer cause the vehicle to be treated as moving, for fire determination purposes), with a Hunt for the next leg, will cancel that next leg (and subsequent bounds) if it spots something while still Paused.

My feeling is that Hunt is used as the last bound when contact is expected, if you're trying to ease into place. Most of the time, though, you'd be better plotting a shoot-and-scoot, rather than hoping your now-obviously-visible vehicle survives its duke-out in order to move on, if you know there are enemy there to hunt down. It always seemed a bit optimistic to plan a turn expecting more than one victorious engagement per minute, anyway; there's something out there that'll kill anything you have cruising around, and assuming you know where they all are is dangerous for your assets...

[Sardaukar]

I don't know whether a vehicle halted under "Pause" orders (which we are assured no longer cause the vehicle to be treated as moving, for fire determination purposes), with a Hunt for the next leg, will cancel that next leg (and subsequent bounds) if it spots something while still Paused.

That is excellent news for me!

Might have to invest more time playing CM:N then (old veteran of CMx1 series).

[Oddball_E8]

I miss the old hunt order

[womble]

That is excellent news for me!

Might have to invest more time playing CM:N then (old veteran of CMx1 series).

Pretty sure "no longer" (as I referred to it in my post) only applies if you're up to date with a v2.12/1.12 (for BN and FI respectively) install. It might have been an earlier patch, but I don't believe the fix was ever applied to v1 (I've had a look in the release notes for 1.10 and 1.11 to see if it was mentioned; I think it was slated for inclusion in the abandoned 1.12). Indeed, it might not even have been present; my (admittedly wooly) recollection is that it wasn't pointed out until v2 had been released.