LOS suggestion/wishlist

[zgrose]

I know LOS changes have been discussed before but I'm not sure I've seen this idea.

I propose the addition of a "Move to LOS" command. This command would be used in combination with one of the current movement commands (Sneak, Move, Fast, etc). The command would instruct the unit to move along the designated path *until* it obtains LOS to the designated point/unit and which point it stops moving.

I believe that the behavior would be similar to the currently implemented Target command with the notable exception that units tend to ignore targets that are not LOS unless they become LOS early in a turn.

The advantage of this command would be the addition of the commander's intent to moving into (presumably) a firing position on a certain location rather than merely motion towards a point in space. I believe this would also address the issues of losing turns as one attempts to move a tank into a defilade position on a ridge or when moving infantry to the edge of a wood to fire out while keeping maximum concealment opportunities.

Lastly I believe this would incur little overhead in the program since the program must already be calculating LOS for the unit in motion to calculate it's ability to acquire targets along its path.

I welcome your comments.

[Tris]

I think it would make for a stronger model if BTS could figure a way to have units seek some sort of "peak" vantage point before they move farther along an ordered route. In this manner infantry might stop, or at least slow down and sneak, while still inside the cover of woods, meanwhile their vision beyond the woods gradually increases; AFV, in turn, could be expected to inch up to ridge lines until they had acquired LOS beyond these sight impediments; all of this with an eye to units gaining positional advantage such as to allow them better to evaluate the nature of the ground "out there" for possible threats.

For that matter, in the case of infantry it would not seem unreasonable to one day expect to see the TacAI split squads for the purpose of recon out to the edges of vision-impaired areas (i.e., at the least send a split squad to the edge of where present vision ends). It seems to me this might be achieved by programming the TacAI with situational imperatives directly linked to any given unit's state of vision with respect to surrounding terrain--the lower the quality of vision, the greater the imperative for that unit to seek better vision through the use of split-squad recon. To express this another way, less vision for a unit would imply a greater potential threat to it.

We're told CMBO employs fuzzy logic routines. Well, these are the kinds of problems fuzzy logic best tackles--on a good day.

[This message has been edited by Tris (edited 11-24-2000).]