Guest JpeBob Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 I've been noticing in my games that my tanks seem reluctant to use their main gun when firing at infantry, particularly in buildings. Is this by default? I hate to have to micromanage target selection and instruct the tanks to use their main gun (and HE) when firing at infantry in buildings. Machine gun fire may help to suppress enemy infantry but if you've got a cannon, let's take out the building guys!!! Otherwise I have to say, "what a game!", and an addictive one at that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 I've noticed the same thing. Always have to individually target to be sure of using the heavy stuff against grunts. And yes, what a game!.. ------------------ Land Soft--Kill Quiet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest *Captain Foobar* Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 I have a thought on that. I noticed it too. I THINK that what was done, was that the infantry priority for armor was toned down in V1.05, resulting in the behavior you are reporting, for the purpose of keeping armor units from being distracted. Do a search on "wittman syndrome", and you can see how far we have come. There used to be problems with armor TacAI fixating on routed crews and squads that were 90 deg or more from their facing, and consequently getting whacked in the side turret. Think of them as waiting in overwatch for armor threats. Its a tradeoff I can live with, personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captitalistdoginchina Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 I have noticed this too, most notably with tank destroyers. Take a look at the ammo, if you are low on HE or sometimes yo have only AP left the tank will rarely fire the main gun at a building. Assault guns are a different matter CDIC ------------------ "Death solves all problems - no man no problem" J.V.Stalin, 1918 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BK6583 Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 Same here. I had an Easy 8 with about 12h rounds left. Had it target a german squad in a building with the main gun. Much to my surprise, not only did it not fire HE at the squad, it fired smoke at it instead! Something here does seem to require a bit a clarification in term of why this happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterNZer Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 The smoke rounds are a bit odd, but this current setup is much tidier instead of tanks with their guns swinging wildly around as they pop off at every infantry target that comes into view. Also it leaves them ready to deal with AT infantry as well as vehicles. Possibly why they like to save those HE rounds. A bazooka guy is a pretty tricky to piece with an AP round PeterNZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horncastle Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 Yes I find it annoying the way tanks decide how to use the main gun. Most tanks normally have a healthy supply of HE, with around 30+ rounds and considering generally ( in my games anyway!) most tanks do not last the whole game, I want them to inflict as many casualties as possible. Also tanks are designed to support infantry so surely they should be quite happy to demolish buildings in case they hold infantry and clearing areas of infantry like woods with HE. I find that tanks also dont re target things you designate. For instance when in a reasonable pos to destroy a building they will attack, but if they catch a glimpse of the enemy will begin to target them which is good. However when they enemy moves out of site, the tank will just sit there and not retarget the building, wasting time and can send coordinated plans into chaos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterNZer Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 Tell the to area fire the building. And trust me, it's better to have it this way than to have them so obssesed with targets they miss the panther coming over the hill. This happened FREQUENTLY in earlier versions and drove some of us to distraction PeterNZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntelWeenie Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 I think a lot of has to do with when the tank starts shooting at the infantry. If the infantry is moving, the MG is a much better choice and that's what the tank will choose. Then, when the infantry stop, the tank is still stuck on using the MG. I have noticed this most often when my tanks go off on their own shooting HE at MG and mortar teams far away from them since these units move less. If they target moving infantry that is much closer (even though it's a greater threat than a MG 300m away) they will usually shoot their MGs. ------------------ Cats aren't clean, they're covered with cat spit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Los Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 Exactly. Some people may be under the false assumption that firing a single HE round is more effective than firing the taks machineguns (which is exactly why they have them). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishu Posted October 19, 2000 Share Posted October 19, 2000 I've had this smoke problem also.. It fires smoke next to the building against some innocent group of enemy soldiers. That indirect fire at building is bit funny too. I did command the same tank to fire at building (StuG 42), but as it got first round off, it turned to shoot some group of guys in the open with MG, but they ran off and then tank was just sitting there.. gee, was it fun when it spent most of the turn just sitting there for nothing and building was still almost intact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JpeBob Posted October 20, 2000 Share Posted October 20, 2000 Looks like I'm not the only one to notice this anomaly.... I do agree that the tank's priority should be to fire on other tanks, or AT teams (little bastards!), but if there is nothing else on the "radar", my point is they should be smart enough to realize those HE rounds are in the ammo compartment for a reason. Take out those positions!!! I've also noticed that if you specifically target a building for an AFV to fire on, you better check on him to make sure he's not using up all his ammo in the process. I had a Puma firing at a house with enemy infantry and he was pumping off rounds like crazy. It might be hard to program but how about being able to instruct the guy to fire...say ten rounds then report back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horncastle Posted October 20, 2000 Share Posted October 20, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by PeterNZer: Tell the to area fire the building. And trust me, it's better to have it this way than to have them so obssesed with targets they miss the panther coming over the hill. This happened FREQUENTLY in earlier versions and drove some of us to distraction PeterNZ<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Sorry didnt make my point to clear regarding tanks targeting buildings. Ill use an example from the other day. PLaying as the axis in Team DeSobry, have 3 mk IV on hill near start, all the yankee tanks are sneaking about behind the buildings in the town mkaing LOS and targeting very difficult, I decide to knock down a number of outlying buildings by targeting them. They start shooting etc. A stuart is moving about and the tanks see him for around 3 seconds then he disapears, they all start targeting him and then dont go back to previous building target, thus sitting about for 40 seconds doing nothing. My point is that after some lapse of time when it seems the threat has gone they should ideally start carrying out their previous orders, much in the same way as a tank that is shooting at inf will start targeting a tank that appears and then once the tank threat is gone will return to the prev target the infantry. I dont like to area fire a target as I think Im correct in saying then they do not target threats that do pop up. The present way everything works is okay, but its just annoying when tanks sit about for 30 seconds a turn doing nothing, rather than destroying a building in 3 turns it will take 6 as they will not retarget a building if a threat pops up briefly then goes so you have to reissue an order in the next turn etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterNZer Posted October 20, 2000 Share Posted October 20, 2000 Interesting idea. Pass it on to BTS? PeterNZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maj. Bosco Posted October 27, 2000 Share Posted October 27, 2000 I think this was discussed before... Something about tanks not being willing to fire main guns at smaller inf guns or somesuch. Kinda ballooned into talking about their general usage of the main gun. Final answer is that the MG is actually leaps and bounds more effective against infantry until you get out past 300 meters and that the act of turning the turrets and launching off those HE shells just generally isn't worth it so the AI won't do it voluntarily. As for firing at buildings I'll take the micromanagement rather than my tanks going nuts and taking out all the buildings in the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raze Posted October 27, 2000 Share Posted October 27, 2000 I witnessed a "random" use of HE. I thought it had something to do with the distance to the target. Sometimes using it and somtimes not. Also, It would seem that the tanks that sport 2 Mgs will only target one but may actually fire on two (hull MG and mantle MG). Not a bug I guess, but YOU can't target two separate targets. ------------------ Sticks and stones may break my . . OUCH! Hey! Who threw . . .Stop! STOP IT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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