Jackal Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 I have seen a couple of war games that showed a LOS FAN for the selected unit showing good/bad LOS for the primary weapon. The fan was colored such that red and green or whatever represented good LOS or otherwise. Similar to what is currently used but somewhat more efficient as far as quickly obtaining LOS. Thoughts????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Germanboy Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jackal: I have seen a couple of war games that showed a LOS FAN for the selected unit showing good/bad LOS for the primary weapon. The fan was colored such that red and green or whatever represented good LOS or otherwise. Similar to what is currently used but somewhat more efficient as far as quickly obtaining LOS. Thoughts?????<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Has been discussed a long time ago, and IIRC was dismissed at putting too much info at the hand of the player, that would also be unrealistic (bit like the roster discussion, IIRC). If anyone can remember more or provide a link? ------------------ Andreas Der Kessel Home of „Die Sturmgruppe“; Scenario Design Group for Combat Mission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Heidman Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Germanboy: Has been discussed a long time ago, and IIRC was dismissed at putting too much info at the hand of the player, that would also be unrealistic (bit like the roster discussion, IIRC). If anyone can remember more or provide a link? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That is surprising. I could see it not be done because it would be difficult calculating all those LOS on the fly for a 3d game. But how could seeing what your unit can see be unrealistic? That seems an odd position to take. Certainly your units know what they can and cannot see. It is a bit like the roster discussion I suppose, in that it would be a design decision to arbitrarily limit the convenience with which the player has access to information. Jeff Heidman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coralsaw Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 Must agree with Jeff here. Computationally calculating a full LOS is very time consuming. I don't know the code of course, but in principle it is quite challenging to do, unless you pre-process maps, which is impractical for CM. ------------------ My squads are regular, must be the fibre in the musli... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wildman Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 Sounds like he is talking about Steel Beasts. Quite a simple concept really. In SB you click on a point on the map and a "fan" of white or red colors appears. White showing terrain you are hull down to and red for terrain you can see, but are not hull down to. Three caveats to this. 1. Really only used in this manner during the setup phase. During the phase you plot movement points, phase lines, movement orders, etc. 2. During the game play it is only accessable from a point to point method on the map. You click on a point then as you drag the mouse around it changes color based on the terrain point it is over. Oh by the way the game does not stop while you are looking at the map, so you'll never know that a T-80 has popped out of a tree line and is about to kill you because your head-down in the TC position. 3. Not available from the viewing position. In other words you have to look at your map to use this feature, so during the mission itself its not that great. --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wildman: Sounds like he is talking about Steel Beasts. Quite a simple concept really. In SB you click on a point on the map and a "fan" of white or red colors appears. White showing terrain you are hull down to and red for terrain you can see, but are not hull down to. Three caveats to this. 1. Really only used in this manner during the setup phase. During the phase you plot movement points, phase lines, movement orders, etc. 2. During the game play it is only accessable from a point to point method on the map. You click on a point then as you drag the mouse around it changes color based on the terrain point it is over. Oh by the way the game does not stop while you are looking at the map, so you'll never know that a T-80 has popped out of a tree line and is about to kill you because your head-down in the TC position. 3. Not available from the viewing position. In other words you have to look at your map to use this feature, so during the mission itself its not that great. ---<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Steel Beasts is a first person simulation, though - simulating things at a different level than Combat Mission - hence the "if I look down to read my map I cannot look anywhere else". I kind of wish there you could set a movement waypoint and then check LOS FROM that waypoint - but as is indicated, it gives the player a lot of info a real soldier wouldn'thave. I hadn't thought of it like that before - it is frustrating though if your intent, say, is to move a MG onto a position overlooking a piece of road, say, and your squad moves up in 20 seconds - and you find that he really needed to go forward another 2 or 3 metres to find the true crest. In real life, they would just crawl til they found the perfect spot - in CM they will stop for 40 seconds until the next "turn". Don't mean to be irritatingly nitpicky - actually, the game is pretty smart in other areas - will the squad in the case mentioned above crawl the 2 or 3 meters to a better firing position all on their own? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackal Posted January 17, 2001 Author Share Posted January 17, 2001 thanks for your responses. Actually I was referring to BCT-Brigade Combat Team. It uses real-world maps with no 3-D terrain, showing full contours and the works. great, fast-paced game with alot of cool in's/out's. CM is a superb game by all measures, such as reported by all the players and most of these "suggestions" are personal wants. The LOS Fan on BCT allows for you to select a point on the map and then arrays a LOS FAN 360 degrees around that point, or unit in this case. Of course this LOS Fan shows what can be seen for eternity until it hits an elevation higher than the point selected, BUT, the unit will only be able to observe and engage units up to its maximum potential. . . thinking out loud I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The LOS Fan on BCT allows for you to select a point on the map and then arrays a LOS FAN 360 degrees around that point<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> This has been discussed to death and it's not realistic at all to pick a point anywhere on the map and obtain los information if you do not have a unit there. -Tiger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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