Dead Bodies - Comments after actually playing.

[KiwiJoe]

I know it's been done to death and back but after actually playing the game with them in I think its great. In fact I would quite like a body for each man represented in the squads.

[krm]

I agree - much more realistic than having a company of mandrake wizards that can disappear at will

As for the 1:1 rep, that won't happen for a while. At least not until there's a 1:1 rep for living squads - which will be many hot dinners

[EScurlock]

Untill now I've stayed out of this one. Love the bodies. I too would like to see each man represented, live and dead, but fully respect the designers judgements on this. When ever I made an unreasonable or overdemanding request of my father he'd tell me "wish in one hand and s*** in the other. See which one gets full first."

It may be reasonable in a year or two. Then again even when technically prudent it could be a real eye sore. Don't know. The game works fine as is so no problems as is here.

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He who gets there the fastest with the mostest wins.

[Valentaur]

Yeah, I agree with Kiwi Joe. It seems to me that would give a fairer indication of where the serious fighting took place, as I still notice that the AI likes to send the last man in with guns blazing. This means bodies right up on my front line, but they were usual just down to one or two men at that point. Would it really be that hard to code the squads to drop a body insted of having it dissappear? Heck if I know. I learned to love the fog of war feature of this game months ago, and it may become an issue of too much info with too many bodies...I don't know. I preordered back when the first body debates were going on and figure anything we get from Charles and Steve on this is pure gravy. Technology may be a limitation, but for BTS, their design skills are fantastic.

[Harold Jones]

Here's the thing, not all casualties are KIA. This means that not only do you have to drop a marker for each kill, but you have to have a marker for wounded/incapacitated, walking wounded that is self evacuating and the odd psych casualty that refuses to advance or respond to commands. Imagine that you are playing a BN level battle and you have one to one casualty representation, I'm sure that eventually you would be overwhelmed with all the different casualty types appearing and in the case of the walking wounded and psych cases wandering randomly around the map. Add to the effect on the player's ability to command his troops, the impact on the processer as it now has to effectively track the status of every individual soldier in the battle. I'm not sure that all of the above is balanced by the information you would glean from a trail of bodies leading up to a machinegun position.

[EScurlock]

Wow what a picture. Perhaps a bit too realistic for a game, but what a lesson in the horrors of war such a program would be.I can see the headlines now "CM3 Does For Wargameing What SPR Did For War Movies."

BTW I'm neither denouncing or advocating the concept, and am posting this with some trepedation (fear of more blood & guts discusions); the concept of complete casualty modeling just caught my imagination. That's all.

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He who gets there the fastest with the mostest wins.

[KiwiJoe]

Well I would like a body to be placed for each kill so I can tell which squads are getting hammered in action. I find it hard to actually tell who is taking casualties in a fire fight without clicking on the unit and looking at the stats.

[Guest kip anderson]

Hi,

I like the bodies, I think it's fun. You can also spot the damage you are doing. A plus all round.

All the best,

Kip.

[Juju]

I've found the casualty markers very helpful on occasion. At one time in a game a US unit walked into an ambush zone of my reserve platoon (all hiding). It was eliminated instantly but not yet identified. I did not witness this in real time since my attention was focused on "the big action." Only by seeing the casualty marker I found that something had actually happened (turned out to be a bazooka a turn later).

Without the marker I would have been trying to figure out why my reserve platoon went out of hiding while it still seemed invisible to enemy units.

Great addition, those markers.

[Dan Weaver]

I think the casualties are great. Sometimes it's difficult to remember whether you killed a squad or not and the bodies laying there are a very powerful reminder that those Volksgrenadiers are not going to be popping out from behind a tree with MP40s blazing.

The visual effect is of course tremendous as well. I remember one game of Chance Encounter where there were Americans and Germans strewn all over the church - a very macabre picture indeed!

Dan