Variable length turns?

[Brian Rock]

A feature I would like is the ability to actually change the turn length - 60 sec is good, but for some scenarios I can see where it would be desireably to have longer turns - 2 min, or even longer.

Even better would be being able to have different length "order phases" for different players.

Why?

To simulate different levels of friction & command and control. Some actions are simply more prone to confusion and tend to slow right down - night attacks, for example. Or the units may be poorly trained, or poorly led, or not well-integrated. Having longer "Boyd Cycles" can partially simulate this.

So a night action, where both sides have problems with coordination, might have both sides on 2 or 3 minute turns. Players have to be very cautious about being too bold, because if you make a blunder you might not be able to fix it for an extra minute or two - you can lose a lot of troops in two minutes.

Or imagine different length "order phases". The highly trained, well led, British tank company might have 60 sec turns. Poor dumb German reservist regiment that's just had the snot whacked out of it has 180 sec "order phases". So the Brits get to add new orders every turn, but the Germans only get to amend their orders every three *game* turns.

It could also allow longer battles in PBEM - you can run a 2 hour battle with the same number of turns as a 1 hour battle, at the cost of less C&C.

The split length orders phase is also PBEN efficient as well - in the example above the "slower" German player sends his turn to the "faster" Brit, who then plays out *three* turns and then sends them back to the German. The German replays these, enters his new orders, and resends.

Now I'm sure some people will hate this - and I can see a few problems myself - but evenso I'd still like the option.

Comments/reactions appreciated from all!

Rocky

[Marko]

Brian,

When I proposed this a few months ago, BTS mentioned several reasons for *not* including variable-length turns (some I agreed with, some I didn't). I think they are relying on thier AI and unit stats to simulate poorly-led, -trained and -integrated troops.

Marko

[Guest Big Time Software]

We are not going to have variable length turns.

You have to remember that this is a low level command game. A unit *would* make command decisions every minute or so, no matter if they are in C&C or not. Example:

I am a squad leader. I have been told to take a house. My Platoon leader is nowhere to be seen. I decide that it would be best to move my squad around the house to the left. Should I have to sit there for 2-3 minutes to wait for that action to start? No way.

I think you underestimate how much action happens in 60 seconds, with or without human orders being carried out. Don't forget that even though the AI in CM is lightyears better than any other game out there (I can VERY safely say this <g>), it only REACTS and not ACTS. To prevent units from taking any new action for several minutes would be VERY unrealistic. It would also give a horrendously huge advantage to the defender, no matter what its quality is.

Don't forget that units out of C&C will be penalized with delays. Nations and unit types all respond differently when "cut off". A US standard Rifle squad is going to react a LOT faster than a Volkssturm unit, but slower than a crack SS Squad. But the delays are more realistic (i.e. less than a minute).

I think Combat Mission has everything in it that you are asking for, except that the scale of delay is smaller. Trust us, a 40 second delay in Combat Mission can be a death sentence

Steve