Moving vehicles

[Sven]

Is there a solution on how to move vehicles without them making sudden stops all the time? They seem unable to make turns without stopping and they're absolutely horrible if you want them to move in a convoy.

How can a game so focused on accuracy be so inept when it comes to vehicle movement?

[womble]

Is there a solution on how to move vehicles without them making sudden stops all the time? They seem unable to make turns without stopping...

Make the turns gentle. Put in lots of waypoints and draw a curve. Once you get the hang of it, agile vehicles like jeeps barely have to decelerate from Fast to get round even 90degree road turns. Some vehicles turn slower than others. Trucks and halftracks are the worst. For those, you'll probably have to use a movement speed slower than "Fast" for some turns. But if you plot a 90 degree turn in one waypoint, of course they're going to have to stop.

 

...they're absolutely horrible if you want them to move in a convoy.

Well, that depends on how tight and fast you want the convoy to move. You'll note that they only halt and wait once they get near a "friendly, moving" obstacle, so if you keep your spacings wider than that, they'll not need to stop for other convoy members. When you're starting off, a 5 or 10s gap will generally give a decent separation if they're on a straight road and able to fully utilise "Fast": use the Pause function at their initial waypoint to give sequentially increasing delays to their start. That said, a "Follow" mode has been eternally and frequently requested. It's even on BFC's list of things to do; obviously it's hard to make the TacAI do things plausibly, because it would certainly be a useful and welcome addition to the controls.

How can a game so focused on accuracy be so inept when it comes to vehicle movement?

Ever considered that the ineptitude might lie in your employment of the available commands? You do realise that the burden of accuracy presents obstacles to the implementation of a "Follow" command, both in adapting to the necessarily (for accuracy) complex environment and the portrayal of realistic (because the bar is high)vehicle behaviour?

Vehicles don't generally drive nose-to-tail in combat situations, and if your plan is relying on it to work, then your plan needs revising.

Yes, vehicle movement AI could do with a tweak or two (though those tweaks are potentially very challenging to code), but "inept" is hyperbolic.