caralampio Posted April 21, 2001 Share Posted April 21, 2001 Hi, I'm aware of the AI's limitations, in CM as in any game. However some can be exasperating. Is there any way to order a unit NOT to fire at a target? I'm playing Villers Bocage. Wittman's Tiger goes rampant and kills several units. Enemy tanks lurk ahead, so you point the Tiger in that general direction. Ah! a Sherman. The Tiger acquires it, but it goes behind smoke or a building. Instead of remaining in overwatch for the obvious danger of the enemy tank, the Tiger starts rotating to fire at some of the hapless British infantry that's running around the place. Gasp! It presents a fat side or rear facing to the soon reappearing Sherman. Starts rotating back, real s l o o w. Clank! Wittman is history. The tanks that come as reinforcements suffer the same fate. Is there any solution, even partial? -------------------- Caralampio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
109 Gustav Posted April 21, 2001 Share Posted April 21, 2001 Well, some people have had success by telling a tank to area fire in the same direction, but not to use the main gun. I won't do this against human players, it's just a wee bit too gamey for me. Besides, humans are sometimes smart enough to flank you while you're area firing away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Posted April 21, 2001 Share Posted April 21, 2001 Well, you seem to have gotten as far as realizing the limitations of the TacAI in certain situations, which is pretty good overall IMO, so an obvious next step and solution, since humans are much more intelligent than the AI, is to simply avoid those circumstances where the TacAI falls apart. Not always possible you say? True, but those occurances will become rare enough that you won't be pulling your hair out or crying foul at the dumb AI when they do happen. I'm not a programmer, but from what BTS has said the AI requires a lot of work for minimal gain. BTS has tried to address and tweak TacAI behaviour in the patches, but it doesn't always make everyone happy all the time, witness the hull rotation changes. I am sure BTS will continue to improve the TacAI behaviour but in the end I realize it will never be perfect all the time so I am content to compensate for it in my play when it isn't. In your particular example, which has seemed to vex so many people, a solution is to narrow the Tiger's focus so it will only have targets 'in front' of it, which means taking things slowly and not rushing into the fray. Hope that helps... Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CombinedArms Posted April 21, 2001 Share Posted April 21, 2001 In this particular scenario and situation one thing that might work is to issue a reverse order. If your Tiger backs up, it will keep its front to the Brit Sherman and will eventually lose its target on the Brit infantry. This would be a fairly logical thing to do in any case, since you want to keep your heavy Tiger front to the Allies and engage them at range (which is not what Wittmann actually did, according to the briefing, which is why his Tiger was lost to a PIAT or AT gun--sometimes humans aren't perfect, either.) The AI might lock in on the infantry anyway and ignore your reverse order--love that fuzzy logic!-- but most of the time this should actually work. BTW--this scenario seems to me really stacked against the Brits so as to make Wittmann look like an Ubermensch. All the Brit tanks are Conscript, with a few Green, and two don't even have guns. Conscript tanks are pretty hapless--a 33 sec command delay, IIRC, so the tactical situation is bound to have changed by the time your order is carried out. If Wittmann faced the same force mix, but rated Regular with a few Greens, he'd have a much tougher time. So in this scenario, the Green and Conscript Brit tanks, and the infantry panicked at the scenario's outset, are dumb, dumber and dumbest, no matter how good the human commander (as Brits) might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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