Tero Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 In a recent night time PBEM (LOS in the 45m region) I had an Allied sharpshooter hiding in brushes 10 meters from a German infantry contact. I figured the sharpshooter was history anyway so I targeted the infantry contact. In the reaction phase the sharpshooter refused to open up and the infrantry unit moved away. About halfway through the reaction phase my esteemed opponent made a rush towards the sharpshooter with full squads (as I had expected). Bang bang, one killed German HQ unit (which I take had sustained 2 casualties in a previous engagement) and one killed sharpshooter. Sharpshooters are supposed to be cool under fire and it not opening up on an uncertain target was OK as such but this demonstration of clairvoyance and ESP in picking out the HQ unit in brushes at night with enemy squads moving towards it raised my eyebrows. The enemy units may have been sneaking so that would account for some of this but not all of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMplayer Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 <blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by tero: Sharpshooters are supposed to be cool under fire and it not opening up on an uncertain target was OK as such but this demonstration of clairvoyance and ESP in picking out the HQ unit in brushes at night with enemy squads moving towards it raised my eyebrows. <hr></blockquote> Why? First rate soldiers often act on mysterious 'hunches' and intuition. Some people are like that, and your pixellated sharpshooter just must have been one of them. Kudos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graaf Spee Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 Sharpshooters dont usually open fire on such short distances so I guess he thought he would be better off if he just left the enemy alone. But when he was rushed he acted in self defence . As for picking out the HQ, thats what sharpshooters are programmed to do (if there had been a schreck team nearby he probably would have fired at it instead). If you think the result was strange you probably shouldnt use sharpshooters at night as they prefear to shoot at ranges over 200m. /Kristian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tero Posted November 20, 2001 Author Share Posted November 20, 2001 Originally posted by CMplayer: Why? First rate soldiers often act on mysterious 'hunches' and intuition. Some people are like that, and your pixellated sharpshooter just must have been one of them. Kudos. Well..... in the case of the first squad I do agree it was propably better to leave sleeping dogs lie. But how did it know it would be prudent to delay opening fire against the second squad and wait for the yet unspotted HQ unit instead ? Why not delay opening fire until there was better a chance to survive the engement AND kill off the HQ unit ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tero Posted November 20, 2001 Author Share Posted November 20, 2001 Originally posted by Graaf Spee: But when he was rushed he acted in self defence . As for picking out the HQ, thats what sharpshooters are programmed to do (if there had been a schreck team nearby he probably would have fired at it instead). Agreed. Except the squad emerged first and it was right next to the sharpshooter when it opened up on the HQ unit. By opening up on the HQ the sharpshooter effectively commited a suicide by enemy. If you think the result was strange you probably shouldnt use sharpshooters at night as they prefear to shoot at ranges over 200m. It is a scenario, not a QB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 Maybe the sniper's TacAI just isn't that complex, so it could avoid engaging strong infantry as it knows it can't make much more difference than get killed itself, and it could target a HQ team as it knows that's a juicy target for it, BUT it can't prioritize properly when these two situations are presented simultaneously. This leads into what we consider as illogical behaviour, as we usually put our lives to the first place, fulfilling the task to second. This is of course just a guess, and TacAI sure is too complex to just say "BTS fix or do somefink", but I hope (and trust) Charles will present great improvements to it in CM2. It's just sad that there is a need for copy rights, otherwise he could distribute source code and everyone could try to solve the problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tero Posted November 20, 2001 Author Share Posted November 20, 2001 Originally posted by Sergei: Maybe the sniper's TacAI just isn't that complex, so it could avoid engaging strong infantry as it knows it can't make much more difference than get killed itself, and it could target a HQ team as it knows that's a juicy target for it, BUT it can't prioritize properly when these two situations are presented simultaneously. This leads into what we consider as illogical behaviour, as we usually put our lives to the first place, fulfilling the task to second. Agreed. The sharpshooter propably saw a target it could not leave alone. As there is no "memory" for it it propably forgot about the full infantry squad not 10 meters away and opened up on the HQ unit. The shots fired during the reaction phase were almost simultaneous. I expected the sharpshooter would get killed and I was surprised to see it had taken that HQ with it. This is of course just a guess, and TacAI sure is too complex to just say "BTS fix or do somefink", but I hope (and trust) Charles will present great improvements to it in CM2. Yes. These Kodak moments are the ones that baffle us the most. It may well be that the sharpshooter "heard" commands but since the player does not get nearly the same amount of data the AI uses to calculate stuff the player has to go by what he sees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted November 20, 2001 Share Posted November 20, 2001 In real life terms - if a sharpshooter is looking through a scope, his situational awareness is pretty low - ie, he won't be able to see a squad of infantry in his scope due to the lower field of vision, right? Of course, in real life said sharpshooter would have a buddy armed with a tommy gun for security... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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