Movement Formations?

[Jerry]

Sorry if ththis has already been asked before, I know how touchy some of you can become. But I was wondering if there was any commands that will allow vehicles to follow each other in formation when they move? If I select a group of vehicles to move, they all go in their own directions to get to the objectives. Kind of looks like a cluster f***.

[Kingfish]

There is a follow command in the works. It will allow you to convoy a group of vehicles.

Here is a recent thread on the subject:

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/007157.html

Do a search on "follow command", also try a search under the Tips and Techniques forum.

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Charlie don't surf!

[Jadayne]

The day was cold and damp, much like today. My aging grandfather took me on his knee, looked me right in the eyes and said those words that have stayed with me to this day -emblazened on my brain like a titanium branding iron:

"Waypoints." he said.

At the time, I didn't know what he meant, or why he was telling it to a 6 year old. But with the wisdom that comes with age (and Combat Mission) I now know the truth

-he was senile.

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"Well then private, it must be sh*t. Good thing we didn't step in it."

[Pham911]

There's currently no follow command, but it's on the wish list(and I myself would love to see it put into CM2).

You say your vehicles are moving in different directions to reach the same location? The solution is to do the following: Don't use group move for vehicles in anything but open terrain(group move for infantry in non-open terrain is ok, because they can traverse much more varity of ground types than vehicles which have to plot around it). Pick the first vehicle and plot the complete path to the objective using waypoints. Pick the second, plot the same path(stopping in a slightly earlier spot than the first one), and hit P to pause the order. Repeat, hitting P once for the 2nd vehicle, 2 times for the 3rd, 3 for the 4th, etc.

(In order to see the paths for the other vehicles so you can plot them all the same make sure you use the shift-p show all paths or show all paths/targets command)

If you don't use the P key, you will get gridlock more often than not as the colum plays bumper tag.

If you don't need to have them in a column, you should deploy the armor to an assembly area(or place them this way in setup if possible), making sure that no vehicles are directly behind each other in a good semi-spread out formation(diamond, wedge, line, whatever), and plot the moves as stated above(but keeping them relative to each other, so tank A will allways be to the right of tank B as they move, etc) without using the pause function. They'll arrive at more or less the same time this way, though gridlock can still occur when the formation makes sharp turns that reqire the lead elements to slow down. Make sure to leave room for this, though the gridlock isn't as horrible or drawn out as with a column.

Oh, and it's usually safer to move them in hunt mode even though it will totally screw up your formation if they run into the enemy.

Dead tanks will screw up your formations even more.

Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by Pham911 (edited 09-22-2000).]

[Guest Michael emrys]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pham911:

Pick the first vehicle and plot the complete path to the objective using waypoints. Pick the second, plot the same path(stopping in a slightly earlier spot than the first one), and hit P to pause the order. Repeat, hitting P once for the 2nd vehicle, 2 times for the 3rd, 3 for the 4th, etc.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This technique will only work with a maximum of four vehicles. If you hit Pause four times (or some even multiple of four) it defaults to zero.

It's kind of a coarse way of achieving the effect anyway. I prefer to set the waypoints for the first vehicle in a column normally, using, say, the Fast command. Then start off the second vehicle with a short stretch at Move speed, then shift it up to Fast. The third vehicle starts off with a slightly longer stretch at Move speed...and so forth. It also helps if your vehicles begin with a decent amount of space between them before they begin movement. You can control any number of vehicles this way, and they don't take up so much road space as they do with a 15 second pause between them.

Michael

[Pham911]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael emrys:

This technique will only work with a maximum of four vehicles. If you hit Pause four times (or some even multiple of four) it defaults to zero.

It's kind of a coarse way of achieving the effect anyway. I prefer to set the waypoints for the first vehicle in a column normally, using, say, the Fast command. Then start off the second vehicle with a short stretch at Move speed, then shift it up to Fast. The third vehicle starts off with a slightly longer stretch at Move speed...and so forth. It also helps if your vehicles begin with a decent amount of space between them before they begin movement. You can control any number of vehicles this way, and they don't take up so much road space as they do with a 15 second pause between them.

Michael<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Mmm, good point. I've been moving columns in groups of 4 to form up platoons(when the setup is padlocked), otherwise I just form the platoons in setup. The pause does indeed not work for a larger column.

I'll give your method a shot.

[Jerry]

Thanks to all who provided constructive answers.