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AI Friendly Fire


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Has anyone had friendly fire from the AI before? Playing a PBEM Final Blitzkrieg game and I have had three instances of friendly units attacking other friendlies.

1. HQ team shoots at panther tank commander. No enemy spots

2. Two separate times MG team shoots at panther tank commander. No spots in the area or behind it.

I have never experienced this before.

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Friendly fire casualties tend to be a high % of total in my games.  Esp tanks have no problem firing at an enemy (that it just now spotted in the middle of a WEGO turn) even if that means firing very close to a friendly and causing many casualties.  IIRC in CM1 it was impossible to fire at an enemy unit if it was within a dangerously close distance from a friendly.

Poor visibility/night can also result in friendlies firing at each other.  But, that is probably realistic.  

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2 hours ago, ViperAssassin26 said:

Yeah sometimes I use Bradley fire as cover for infantry and even when I clear the target as the a squad enters the Bradley will fire again and cause casualties. I immediately restart the game lol

I've seen that. What I'm talking about is friendly units shooting at other friendly units without any input of the player and no enemies visible.

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When visibility is poor the risk of friendly fire increases (fog, night, dawn, rain). The soldiers, even if they have no reported enemies around, misidentify the units, according to their level of experience, and open fire. Most of the time there are no casualties, except on the mounted troops (in a pbem FB scenario to Verdenne and victory, my squad riding a Sherman was shot at night by a BAR = 2 dead, the police are still investigating). In the environmental conditions already mentioned, tanks are poorly identified by troops without officers or of low level. Tank commanders or soldiers riding a tank are very exposed silhouettes at all times. These shots unwittingly reveal their position to enemies and that's the tragedy.

Edited by laurent 22
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I've witnessed this the first time in CMRT as I played a scenario with partisans in the night/early morning. 

They have clearly mistaken their comrades for the enemy multiple times. Though casualties were very low (only 2 guys). I guess friendly fire is toned down in terms of actual casualties (not including explosives) because of the frustration it would bring. 

My assumption is that low visibility, bad or no communication (radios) and poor experience rises the chance of it happening. 

 

I set up a thread in the CMRT category not so long ago, if interested:

https://community.battlefront.com/topic/141587-friendly-fire-added-through-fire-rubble/

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On 12/26/2022 at 1:53 AM, laurent 22 said:

When visibility is poor the risk of friendly fire increases (fog, night, dawn, rain). The soldiers, even if they have no reported enemies around, misidentify the units, according to their level of experience, and open fire. Most of the time there are no casualties, except on the mounted troops (in a pbem FB scenario to Verdenne and victory, my squad riding a Sherman was shot at night by a BAR = 2 dead, the police are still investigating). In the environmental conditions already mentioned, tanks are poorly identified by troops without officers or of low level. Tank commanders or soldiers riding a tank are very exposed silhouettes at all times. These shots unwittingly reveal their position to enemies and that's the tragedy.

That's so funny. I'm in a PBEM to Verdenne and Victory and that's where I had the friendly fire incidents.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think friendly fire was something stealthily added when CMFB came out, because before then, I never saw it happen, even in battles in the dark, fog, etc. It's a really nice addition, in my opinion, even though of course it's a problem when it happens.

I wonder if the risk of friendly fire is affected by troops experience levels, command, and whether they have friendly or enemy contact markers in the area...

Edited by Bulletpoint
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On 1/8/2023 at 3:05 AM, Bulletpoint said:

I think friendly fire was something stealthily added when CMFB came out, because before then, I never saw it happen, even in battles in the dark, fog, etc. It's a really nice addition, in my opinion, even though of course it's a problem when it happens.

I wonder if the risk of friendly fire is affected by troops experience levels, command, and whether they have friendly or enemy contact markers in the area...

I didn't know that. 

I know friendly fire is a real issue but in a game where you can see what any unit sees it feels out of place and just a nuisance.

I had some machine gunners on a hill and rather than attack the enemy they could see they just attacked my men. I ended up putting a target arc so they didn't end up doing anything.

Just another reason the Veteran difficulty is best difficulty.

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12 minutes ago, Simcoe said:

I didn't know that. 

I know friendly fire is a real issue but in a game where you can see what any unit sees it feels out of place and just a nuisance.

I had some machine gunners on a hill and rather than attack the enemy they could see they just attacked my men. I ended up putting a target arc so they didn't end up doing anything.

Just another reason the Veteran difficulty is best difficulty.

I do not know for sure whether it was added in CMFB, but I think I would have noticed it if it was there before.

If as far as I remember, I even made a post many years ago now, where I said that I thought friendly fire should be in the game when played on iron level - since that level introduces the whole 'spotting friendlies' mechanic. So why not use it for something.

But of course there's nothing wrong playing on veteran or other modes either. I think choice is a good thing.

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4 hours ago, Simcoe said:

Just another reason the Veteran difficulty is best difficulty.

It is best when you enjoy playing it. Iron for me because it gives me the correct situational awareness. Units can't fire at friendly units they are on full contact with. However a small shift of the mouse and the cursor becomes area fire then you can be hit by friendly fire. Never a good idea to have units inside the LOF of friendly units. 

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2 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

It is best when you enjoy playing it. Iron for me because it gives me the correct situational awareness. Units can't fire at friendly units they are on full contact with. However a small shift of the mouse and the cursor becomes area fire then you can be hit by friendly fire. Never a good idea to have units inside the LOF of friendly units. 

Iron would be pretty cool if it was incorporated into a co-op style mode. Each person could run a company and have an agreement that you can't communicate unless you can actually communicate in game. As it is now it just makes things more difficult.

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11 hours ago, Simcoe said:

Each person could run a company and have an agreement that you can't communicate unless you can actually communicate in game.

Yes and that is how we play it on Hotseat, the radio buttons on the left need to be on green before we can think of horizontal communication. Start the game by sorting out a Command Post where the HQs of Engineers, Infantry, TacAir etc communicate with each other. On Iron you can see which units are in  direct contact. 

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On 12/25/2022 at 2:26 PM, Simcoe said:

Has anyone had friendly fire from the AI before? Playing a PBEM Final Blitzkrieg game and I have had three instances of friendly units attacking other friendlies.

1. HQ team shoots at panther tank commander. No enemy spots

2. Two separate times MG team shoots at panther tank commander. No spots in the area or behind it.

I have never experienced this before.

I also noticed that a while ago

 

https://community.battlefront.com/topic/138840-night-combat-friendly-fire-casualty-caused-by-hmg/

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