God-like view of battlefield

[Bruce Robert]

I have been a wargamer for many years -both boardgames and miniatures; mostly historical. one of the weaknesses in miniature gaming is the "general flying in a helicopter over the battlefield" as one author put it in a recent MAWN magazine. One of the strengths of computer gaming is for the comp. to minimize this: I always thought submarine type games ideal for the computer; keep everything hidden until it is known to the ship, etc.

So I was disappointed when a buttoned tank firing at an enemy on a hill top started moving away and firing at a 2 man panzerschrek team crawling through woods. Did the buttoned tank, the team was approaching the tank from its flank, see the team? Did the infantry team 300 yards away see the 2 man team? And if they did, how was there instant communication to the tank; tanks would not be on the same net as inf.

What about a true fog of war during the 60 sec. turn. Now when you use historically correct tactics the game will properly play it out. With instant observation/communication, you have to resort to fake game tactics.

And at the end of the turn, to make it fair to the comp. all new info. on the battlefield would be available just as it is to the player. But at least during the 60 sec. turn, you can use historical tactics.

[curih]

There's been a lot of talk about this. The basic problem is that for you submarine example, the computer only needs to figure out what the sub can and cannot see. For a CM type game, the computer needs to redo that for every unit continually throughout the turn. There simply is not enough computing power available.

curih

[Michael Emrys]

What you are asking for, B.R., is called Relative Spotting around here, and BTS has acknowledged its extreme desireability. Right now we are in a regime of Absolute Spotting such that as soon as any unit on one side becomes aware of an enemy unit, all units on that side simultaneously become aware of it, even if they do not have an LOS to it or any realistic communication with a friendly unit that would.

The problem, as curih indicated, is that Relative Spotting is very CPU intensive. As systems become faster and more powerful, it is reasonable to suppose that BTS may satisfactorily address this issue.

Meanwhile, your tank crews will continue to be issued ouija boards and crystal pendula.

Michael

[Sgt. Beavis]

once this is resolved, one of the few major simulation innaccuracies will be gone. this is an irritating problem, but perhaps for the russian front it will be better, along with MG issues.

bruce robert must play a game with me, and i will teach him the meaning of armored warfare.

[Sten]

Welcome aboard, Bruce.

As Michael said, what you want is called 'Relative Spotting'. If you do a search for this, you'll find several threads on this issue, including some official statements from BTS.

This board has been VERY active for more than two years, in the 250+K posts a lot of topics and ideas have been covered.

As I see this is your first post, and to avoid getting some , ahem, "coarse" , responses in the future, take a friendly advice and utilize the search function before inquiring/suggesting stuff.