Fester Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 Have a question regarding the movement of troops and target assignment. I know the Tac AI has been reworked, and this may have already been covered before so please bear with me As it stands now, if I have a SMG squad in the woods, I cannot assign target priorities to them until they can actually see the target (LOS), even tho they may have knowledge of the targets existance. A good example of this is utilization of Panzerfausts by infantry. If there is a Sherman Just outside the treeline, I want to be able to specify that "THE SHERMAN" is their target ("Go Kill that tank!"). Have them take what preparations are necessary to ready their Faust (seems like it takes some time to get it ready to kill a tank) "Then" move to contact and engage. As it is now, I just move the guys close, and leave it up to them to decide if the tank is a priority. Even if the TAC AI is reworked, this still means they are prepping for the attack "After" the movement phase and most likely in full view the enemy. Anyway, thats probably enough to either get a discussion going, or get flame broiled BTW, BTS, this rocks! I just got done installing a bed pan "Into" my computer chair (necessity is the mother of invention) in doing so Ive cut my "Away Time" by 32% Fester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wild Bill Wilder Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 The interesting thing I have noticed, Fester, is that sometimes the enemy unit does not always "see" the Panzerfaust or bazooka crew. In one battle "Stolberg-Punching a hole" I watched two Panther tanks suddenly charge the advancing Americans. I had no tanks except a Stuart on that side of the battlefield and little except squads and mgs to stop them. One lucky shot by a bazooka team damaged the gun of one Panther. He stopped. The other kept coming. Nothing I could do. The turn was running. When he came abreast of the Stuart (hiding in some scattered woods), the trusty little tank had been tracking him all the way down the long hill, he fired a round into the side of the Panther at nearly point blank range. Bam! He killed that bad boy! The Panther evidently never "saw" the Stuart or he would have creamed him, or at least stopped. So a lot of factors come into play with this seeing and shooting. I can't speak from the techincal side of the game, but I often point out a target to a unit, even when it is out of sight from him. This seems to help somehow. Second solution. Put the game on a laptop and take it with you (LOL)... ------------------ Wild Bill Wild Bill's Raiders Director of Scenario Design, The Gamers Net billw@thegamers.net http://wbr.thegamers.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 As the Evil Wild Bill indicated above, it is entirely possible to designate targets outside of current LOS. The targetting unit keep the order for a few seconds and engage the target if it comes into LOS, but will cancel the order if it doesn't. This is a good way to designate a priority target when you're moving a tank from turret down into a hull down position, btw... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fester Posted January 14, 2000 Author Share Posted January 14, 2000 Thanks for the replies guys. I was curious if targetting outside of LOS had any affect, and I should have started my post off with that question I actually do assign target priorities in some circumstances prior to movement, I just didnt know if I was accomplishing anything. Great idea with the laptop BTW, Man! now I can play even while Im driving Fester -out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted January 14, 2000 Share Posted January 14, 2000 The TacAI will, as said above, track out of LOS units for a couple of seconds. If the unit hasn't popped into view by then the unit will start looking around for other targets. The reason for this is to avoid "tunnel vision" where the TacAI ignores other IN LOS targets on the off chance that the OUT LOS one might come into view sometime during that turn. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zigster Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 I tried that and it didn't work so well. One of the A/I's 88s had just taken out my lead Sherman, which was surely witnessed by the other three in column behind it. I targeted the 88 with the next Sherman in line (out of LOS) and issued a move order to edge up to a spot a few metres forward past the wreck that looked like it offered a good clear shot. Unfortunately, due to the pause before movement, the targetting was lost. THEN the Sherman started to crawl forward. Just as it came into LOS of the 88, it picked up a machine gun target that was closer and on the other side of the road. I watched in horror as that horrible yellow line stretched down from the heights to the Sherman, which was at that very moment swinging its turret away from its primary target towards a MG which could do it no real harm beyond forcing it to button up or causing a crew casualty. The only benefit that came out of this for me was that the new flaming wreck offered good cover for the others to slip by. Goodie for me. Now, I'm not complaining and saying that the Sherman shouldn't have been lost. There would, in real life, have certainly been a pause while it searched out the location of the AT Gun, perhaps a fatal pause. But, damn, it would have been nice to allocate a "primary immediate threat zone", outside of which it would not have accepted a target that couldn't kill it. Some kind of a danger arc of 30 to 60 degrees or so. Just to sum up, if I'm actually in Sherman number two, and I "know" number one just got brewed up, and I "know" I'm moving into a position to tackle whatever killed it, and I "know" I'm going to stop and be a nice juicy target in that kill zone, am I really gonna swing my turret away from the threat and bang off a round at a machine gun? I think not... Just my spleen vent for today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 Zigster, this is a bunch of seperate TacAI problems in the Beta Demo. We have changed quite a lot with the target aquisition code since then. What happened to you in Riesberg should have much less of a chance of happening now. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zigster Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 I'm happy with "much less" Thanks for the feedback (and at this ungodly hour too). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 Hm, I don't know. The fact that you see a Sherman brew up right in front of you does not mean that you automatically know where the fire was coming from. So how would you know which direction to swing your turret? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zigster Posted January 15, 2000 Share Posted January 15, 2000 I have seen first-hand what happens to a tank when it gets slammed. It rocks on its suspension away from the point of impact, and in extreme cases can be physically flung. Back, and to the left... Back, and to the left... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelU Posted January 17, 2000 Share Posted January 17, 2000 I've seen it from the other side, Zigster. My 88 in Riesberg was targeting a Sherman, but before it could get off a nice flank shot the Sherman ducked behind some woods. The 88 crew quickly unloaded the AP shell and loaded up an HE to target an MG. Right at this moment the Sherman reappears, and the 88 crew get pasted. Another interesting event in the game was that a Panzerscheck was able to hide until a Sherman was within about 20 metres and then rose up for a nice flank shot. Okay, so the shot missed and the team got wiped out, but at least they had the right idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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