Gun Dog Posted January 4, 2001 Share Posted January 4, 2001 I dont know if this is the place to post this, but after playing CM, I have a suggestion that I would like to share with the creators of the CM game system. (If this is not the place to post this, I apologise and would appreciate guidance to the appropriate b-board.) One of the problems I find is I am spending alot of time micro-managing the movement of my squads. Sometimes they become seperated and I have to manually pull them together or when crossing hedgerows or engaging the enemy,I have to manually bring all of them on-line. It seems a button in the orders menu could help by letting the computer get them in a basic formation where I may only have to tweak it a little to meet the suitation. To ease C&C of my units, I would like to see an additional 'bullet' in the orders menu, perhaps called 'Formations'. Upon clicking, we would be taken to a sub-menu where we could give our platoon orders followed by a direction of movement. For example, one of the formations I would find immediately useful would be a 'Regroup' formation where the squads/spt weapons would automatically move to consolidate around thier leader. Other nice formations would be 'Column' where the platoon would follow in trail (good for faster cohesive road movement), a 'Herring Bone' or 'Staggered Trail' where the platoon would assume a opened tactical column formation, a 'Line' where the platoon would come abreast (good for crossing hedgerows with minimum stragglers or engaging enemy)and possibly a 'V' formation. I feel this would be a value-added feature. It would take some of the micro-management of moving squads off my hands (so I can concentrate on moving platoons), while not adding clutter if it was incorporated smoothly. Thanks for producing a terrific product and I look forward to good things to come. Gun Dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gun Dog Posted January 4, 2001 Author Share Posted January 4, 2001 Oooops! Sorry for the duplicate post here. I tried to submit it under a differet location and somehow it posted here again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terence Posted January 4, 2001 Share Posted January 4, 2001 Yo G-Dog, I respectfully suggest that you _may_ believe too strongly in the advantage of having your men in particular formations. I think you are supposed to micromanage your squads, and that this is an aspect of the game that is both fun and interesting. Allowing you to choose the path for each squad and team also allows you to move your men with the terrain and available cover and to maximize every advantage of firepower. If CM had an alogrithm running that kept you in tight formations you could find this much harder to do. Peace, Terence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vergeltungswaffe Posted January 4, 2001 Share Posted January 4, 2001 My apologies if you are familiar with this, but you can double click on the platoon leader and give movement orders to the entire platoon. So if you want a herringbone, spend 60 seconds getting them in a herringbone, then away you go in formation, with buildings and obstacles and things occasionally breaking up your formation as they would in combat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curih Posted January 4, 2001 Share Posted January 4, 2001 I can definitely see the advantage of formationsin certain situations, especially a column of vehicles restricted to a road. They tend to crash into each other a lot because they don't all have the same movement speeds. With infantry, you can kind of already do this. Put them in the formation you want them in and do a group move. I tend to use this a lot when I'm advancing through an area of homogenous terrain (i.e. the middle of a forrest) where moving each squad seperately to tak advantage of bits of cover is less important. curih Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dar Posted January 4, 2001 Share Posted January 4, 2001 I'd like to see this option especially for vehicles. Having "Wedge", "Column", "Vee", "Echelon Left" and "Echelon Right" as in M-1 Tank Platoon would be great options. However, given that CM is not centered around platoons, I'd be happy to have a "Rotate Turret To (Default)" or "Default Turret Facing" command so I could simulate formations. In other words, I could place one tank in front with its default turret facing to the front, as tanks do now in the game. And then I could trail off tanks behind and to the left with their default turret facing to their 10 o'clock positions to simulate an echelon left. If CM2 is going to have large tank battles on the steppes, this command would be a great help for folk like me! ------------------ Dar [This message has been edited by Dar (edited 01-04-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow 1st Hussars Posted January 4, 2001 Share Posted January 4, 2001 Aslong as there are Russian Penal Battalions I'll be happy. ------------------ No bastard has ever won a war by dying for his country. They won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackal Posted January 4, 2001 Share Posted January 4, 2001 Personally it wouldn't matter with the infantry - I enjoy the individual movements. I have no idea what it would take to accomplish this type of request in CM, but as stated above when place vehicles in formations you can bet 10:1 that most of them will run around like Rainman, crashing into one another and throwing your whole scope of movement for them out the window. Even careful observation of the units involved placing them in marching order by their experience rating (ie Regular, Veteran, etc.) still has the tail end wiping their butts while the front end races to the checkpoint. I don't do any "structured" formation with vehicles anymore because of this. Even when I see a benefit from doing so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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