Stephen Smith Posted October 5, 2000 Share Posted October 5, 2000 I have a suggestion for an improvement to the cm engine. I would like to have a key or button which would allow me to highlight the portions of the map which are within my Line of Sight. This might be done for an individual unit (i.e. select a unit, hit the button, and either everything that unit can see is highlighted, or everything that unit cannot see is shaded), or it could be done for the entire friendly side (i.e. hit the button, and all areas of the map which are not in LOS of a friendly unit are shaded). Why? I find it frustrating that I don't really know what my units can and cannot see. In other words, because I have the 'God' perspective, I can see the whole map (i.e. I can see all the terrain on the map). But my UNITS cannot see all of that, and cannot see enemy units on all the terrain that I can see. Thus, the visual cue that the game gives me when I look at the map (that I can see an entire town, that I can see all of the trees in a patch of woods, that I can see the terrain behind a hill, etc) is not the same as what my Units can see-and what my units can actually see is often hard to determine. This came to light when I was playing "Fear in the Fog" last night. I place units in reasonable defensive positions, but during game play, it turns out to be that the range that units can see is actually about 85 meters-thus a unit in a house overlooking an open field actually can't SEE into that open field-he can only see 80 meters out. This is also especially noticeable when you have units moving through, looking into, or out of, trees. Our computers don't draw all the trees in the forest (to reduce polygons) so the forests appear more 'open' than they really are, and it is difficult to really tell what your units can see (i.e. where LOS ends) when forests are involved. I wouldn't expect this function to be on all the time- I would just like to be able to hit a button during the orders phase and, with the shading (or highlighting), be able to see how far into a forest I can actually see, whether my units in a building can actually see an important intersection or not, whether there is a gap in my defenses, etc. I would then turn the shading off when I give orders to units, and it would be off during the action phase as well. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daveman Posted October 5, 2000 Share Posted October 5, 2000 It's not quite as easy to use as what you're suggesting, but the LOS tool is very handy. At setup I always check where my units can see to make sure critical areas are covered, and to get an idea of where my opponent might be able to see. Beyond that, it sounds like you're talking about what's been refered to as "relative spotting". This has come up in a lot of threads... it won't be done for CM, but possibly later editions. ------------------ “Fortune favors the brave" - Terence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Smith Posted October 5, 2000 Author Share Posted October 5, 2000 I may be wrong, but I don't think I mean 'relative spotting.' I suspect what I am asking for is an enhanced LOS command. I am comfortable with the fact that I can see the terrain on the whole map. I am also comfortable with the fact that I the human can immediately see all the enemy units that my soldiers and vehicles can see-even though this is not necessarily 'realistic.' (it is, I think, an unavoidable part of a computer game). What I don't like is that it is difficult for me to tell what my units canNOT see-because I can see the terain on the whole map, its hard to tell what of that terrain is visible to my units and what of that terrain is visible to me with the 'God' perspective as the player, but NOT visible to my units. An example. I move a unit into the second story of a house. I assume, by looking at the map and terrain, that that unit can see to the end of a field, 400 m away, and can see an intersection 100 m to the west (thus, if there are no enemy units on the intersection, I KNOW that there are no enemy units there-rather than suspecting that there may be enemy units there because that intersection is not seen my any of my friendly units). I can use the LOS tool to check if my unit in the second story of the building can actually SEE to the end of the field and to the intersection, but that gets tedious to go through and check each unit-because of that, I generally just arrange my units into positions which I think will 'see' all the areas of the map (based on my 'gods eye' view), and assume (without checking) that my defense is the way I want it. I would like to be able to hit a button, and temporarily shade the map which none of my units can see, so that I can quickly determine which areas of the map are not within LOS of my friendly army-without having to use the LOS tool for each friendly unit). Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralsaw Posted October 5, 2000 Share Posted October 5, 2000 Looks like you've been playing TS West/East/Pacific Front... Abandoned all these after I saw CM, must say the are still beernpretz OK. I think it's a good idea to have a shade-visible tool, but most of the work can be done manually with the LOS tool. CoralSaw ------------------ The best things in life are sniped at... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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