A Few More New Guy Questions

[John S]

Thanks for your help in the past. A few more questions.

1) Have you seen limits on the number of guys who can go into a building or onto the floor of a building? I have encountered a couple of instances where the computer did not seem to want to let me enter. If there are limits, and recognizing that building sizes differ, is there any way that you use to determine if the building is "full"?

2) When the AI targets my men for fire, is it targeting by using the center of their display or is it firing at the "outliers" too? I have noticed that when I try to put a squad behind a wall I sometimes end up with two guys who are visually on the "wrong" side of the wall and I wonder if I need to go to the trouble of moving the whole squad in order to physically get those two guys on the right side of the wall.

3) Why is it that my unit can sometimes "see" an enemy unit but is not able to fire on it?

4) When you call up the QB maps they have displays showing a time (example 45 minutes) and ground conditions (example - "hazy"). What is the purpose of this since by the time you see the map for selection you have already chosen these elements? Is it to describe "optimal" or "suggested" conditions to play the map under?

5) Am I correct that in QB you need to "occupy" the objective location on the last turn in order to get the VP? In other words, if you clear the objective and are the last one who passed thru it you still need to send someone back by the last turn to get the points?

6) Last - I think you guys did all you could last time on trying to help me on this issue the last time. Playing a Gustav Line QB I am still getting the "roaring wind" background sounds (who in their right mind thought that was a good idea?). I tried the sets of mod substitutions (the bird chirps) that you guys suggested a few weeks ago but they seem to work only with certain QB's and not with others. Any other suggestions for how to finally get rid of the roaring wind and still be able to hear the game's actions?

Thanks a bunch guys.

[A co]

1) I don't know about building limits but if you have a building totally packed with your men I sure hope a random shell doesn't land on it. Are you doing it just out of curiosity?

2) If part of a squad is on the wrong side of a low wall, try giving a 'face' command toward the enemy. I think the men will get behind the wall. If it's a really big squad, they might spread themselves beyond the wall, to avoid bunching up. Have to see it by trial and error.

[A co]

Also when you move a unit to a wall, observe which action squares are dimly highlighted when your movement command cursor is over the terrain, before you click to choose the spot. The squad will occupy the highlighted squares, so make sure the ones on the correct side of your wall are lit up, then go ahead and click. One, two, or three squares will light up, depending on the size of the squad, and where you move the cursor.

[AlexUK]

Any idea why the highlighted squares are different colours?

[A co]

I never noticed that. It's not because of different grass or terrain types under them? It would be good if the colors are indicating where the squad leader or assistant SL would go, etc. Another thing to test by experimenting.

[mjkerner]

Pretty sure the squares correspond (left to right) to the sections of the squad as shown in the UI, left to right/1-2-3.

[Jim1954]

I believe you got that one right. For example, when you select a section of a squad that can break down no further, you get 1 highlighted action spot. If you take a squad that can split into 2 sections, you get 2 action spots. 3 sections, you get 3 action spots.

[Haggard Sketchy]

Putting a face order on a waypoint is good to adjust their facing ahead of time. The highlighted action spots will show accordingly.

[Oddball_E8]

There is a bug that won't let you put soldiers in buildings I think.

Not sure how that bug manifests itself, but that might be why you can't get your troops in buildings sometimes.

[womble]

Thanks for your help in the past. A few more questions.

1) Have you seen limits on the number of guys who can go into a building or onto the floor of a building? I have encountered a couple of instances where the computer did not seem to want to let me enter. If there are limits, and recognizing that building sizes differ, is there any way that you use to determine if the building is "full"?

I have found that it can sometimes be difficult to get more troops into a building if there is already one element on each floor. It can be done, but needs some precise clicking on bits of the building that aren't occupied (I think).

2) When the AI targets my men for fire, is it targeting by using the center of their display or is it firing at the "outliers" too? I have noticed that when I try to put a squad behind a wall I sometimes end up with two guys who are visually on the "wrong" side of the wall and I wonder if I need to go to the trouble of moving the whole squad in order to physically get those two guys on the right side of the wall.

Every man is tracked. Every pixel of every man is a legitimate target, so those guys on the wrong side of the wall will, indeed, get shot at. If you can't/haven't split your squad, the way to get the two/three teams to line up along the wall is to put a Face command at the waypoint that brings them adjacent. When you're moving a multi-team squad, while you have the movement order selected, as you move the mouse cursor across the map, the Action Spot where the A Team will end up if you set a waypoint is highlingted "brightly", and the Action Spots that the other team(s) would occupy are more dimly highlighted. Often, if you're about to set a waypoint near a linear obstacle, you'll see that the several highlighted AS will "snap" to the wall. If they don't, it's time to use the Face command. Once you select the destination waypoint and "Face", if you move your cursor around the waypoint (which is where the A Team will end up), one (or two, for a three-team squad) the "dimly" highlighted Action spots will orient themselves differently. You should be able to find a Face direction which puts all the destination AS on the desired side of the wall.

However, there has been an apparent bug reported whereby some members of a team don't end up where they're meant to. I can't recall the status of that observation, whether it was a confirmed bug or, if it was, whether a fix has come out.

Also, the "dimly highlighted" Action spots have sometimes been very difficult indeed to distinguish against the ground tile colours, so it can be hard to see where exactly all the teams will end up, even if you know to look.

3) Why is it that my unit can sometimes "see" an enemy unit but is not able to fire on it?

The most common reason is that it's a team with a heavy or specialist weapon, such as a squad MG or a crew-served weapon. For those teams, while you're using the "Target" tool, LOF (different to LOS) is calculated from that significant equipment, so if the MG42-gunner can't (at the moment) see the target, you won't be able to order the team to fire at it. The most common reason for the significant shooter to not be able to see the target is that they are Cowering, but anything that affects LOF could be in the way. However, it's likely that those members of the element who do have sight of the target will engage it on their own recognisance if they're within what the TacAI considers effective range, and you've not given them any orders that would preclude them doing so.

Since "Spotting checks" are conducted periodically, rather than continuously (the default is every 7s, but that increases as ranges decrease threats increase, it's also sometimes possible that the team has actually lost sight of the target but the "Spotted" icon hasn't been downgraded to "?" yet because a fresh "spotting" check hasn't been conducted. The Target tool uses exact, current information, so will be more representative of the current situation. Mostly it'll be a Cowering LMGer, though.

4) When you call up the QB maps they have displays showing a time (example 45 minutes) and ground conditions (example - "hazy"). What is the purpose of this since by the time you see the map for selection you have already chosen these elements? Is it to describe "optimal" or "suggested" conditions to play the map under?

I'd imagine that's simply because maps have to include those elements as part of their creation process. I'd expect the more unusual condition sets to be relicts of the map having been originally created for a scenario that called for "hazy, muddy" conditions.

5) Am I correct that in QB you need to "occupy" the objective location on the last turn in order to get the VP? In other words, if you clear the objective and are the last one who passed thru it you still need to send someone back by the last turn to get the points?

Yes, that's exactly so. It's true for all "Occupy" terrain objectives. One single, solitary man is all you need to leave there, though, so a redundant truck driver (he can have his truck, but the truck alone won't suffice).

[A Canadian Cat]

There is a bug that won't let you put soldiers in buildings I think.

Not sure how that bug manifests itself, but that might be why you can't get your troops in buildings sometimes.

This effects one story buildings and only occurs for some people with certain intel processors and NVIDA graphics cards. It is *not* common.

Also no soldiers can enter the building at all.

[A Canadian Cat]

Any idea why the highlighted squares are different colours?

Just speculation on my part but I would suspect is to help you see that there are two or three squares being highlighted.

[womble]

Just speculation on my part but I would suspect is to help you see that there are two or three squares being highlighted.

Also so you can tell the difference between the "A team" action spot (which is brightest) and the others. Though that's somewhat redundant, since there will usually be a cursor or waypoint where the A team is going to be... It might make a difference when you're applying a Face command to a squad. On the whole, though, I tend to think you may be onto something and the "dimmer" action spots could be brightened up, which would make them easier to see.