Facing command not working as intended?

[Muzzleflash1990]

Hello (new to this forum).

I'm not sure Face command is working as intended. I find it a minor annoyance I always have to select the last waypoint to set a facing. Then looked up the command it in the manual to see if it says anything about it. Turns out i don't have to have the waypoint selected:

You can issue a Face Command to a unit in motion as well. If you do so, then the last waypoint will be automatically highlighted so the Face command will apply to that last waypoint, not the current position.

Then I tried it with a unit "not moving" but about to and it did not work. Okay maybe it mean it literally, the unit has to be moving when I do it. Same result. Turns out it picks the direction at the time you give the facing comamnd, and then applies it when the unit stops moving. That is, it is relative, not absolute, contradicting itself. Maybe I misunderstood, but then it provides an example:

An example: You issue a Face command to a moving unit by clicking on a house in the distance. When the unit reaches its final waypoint, it will turn to face the house.

Say I have a unit SW of a building. In my testing if I order a unit to move north, such that it is west of the building, and I place a face command on the building (without a waypoint selected) my unit will face NE, where the building was in relation to the unit in the beginning, when it arrives. The example above suggest the unit should turn and face the absolute position of the building, thus face east.

[Vanir Ausf B]

I don't know if it is working as intended or not, but if I had to guess I would say yes and that the manual is wrong. Target arcs work the same way.

[Holman]

I don't remember what the manual says, but I think the way it actually works becomes intuitive after a small amount of gameplay.

Remember too that a lot of facing is automatic in the game. Even if you set units to face west, they're not going to keep staring that way (unless you've given a restrictive target arc) when an enemy threatens from the south. You can usually trust this to work naturally without giving every unit a face command.

[Muzzleflash1990]

Thanks for the responses.

I'm not new to the series (also played CMSF) and I didn't find it intuitive after long amounts of gameplay . It is not a problem during prolonged engagements as units turn automatically then. But it has occasionally caused some of my units to lose the moment of surprise because they were not facing the correct direction on initial contact where as the enemy was.

Now that I figured it out, I have another way of setting the facing. Though having to do find the direction at the final waypoint, and then apply that direction to the current unit position is not what I would call intuitive. For target arcs, however, it is the only thing that make senses. But as I said it's a minor annoyance, not having a way to set facing would be much worse .