Chief Posted January 6, 2001 Share Posted January 6, 2001 Yes, two of my favorite activities (in CM). I had a weird thing last night with the withdraw command that I suspect plays into other posts I've seen about irrational retreating. My boys are advancing through fog (visibility about 80m) towards a bridge. I advance a team to check the place out (OK, to draw fire), whereupon they get pasted by a KT sited next to the bridge. Fine sez I, they done their duty and I will now bug them out of there by issuing a withdraw command to fade them into the fog (and some conveniently close piney woods). Surprise! The withdraw command will only let these po boys withdraw towards the KT, away from their friendly edge, across the bridge and into a house. So I opts for crawl instead and haul out of sight. Any thoughts on what gives here? It sounds to me like the withdraw command was evaluating the house as the best cover for these people to take, regardless that they would have to troop across the bridge away from their pals and past a KT. I also suspect (but can't say definitively) that the AI retreating units will occasionally do the same thing: move units closer to a known enemy if it evaluated the cover that the enemy is in as the best cover around. The bocage threads also suggest this, at least for that terrain type. So, ye hearty grognards, have you seen this behavior on the part of your minions? And how do you deal with it? ------------------ Also los, Augen zu, und hinein! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellros Posted January 6, 2001 Share Posted January 6, 2001 I have to agree that the Ai will also do that. I watched the surviving squad of a German platoon run towards a house (and into the teeth of fire from a .30cal, 3 infantry squads, a platoon HQ, and company HQ). The House was the nearest physical cover (and housing my .30cal and platoon HQ), even though the german could have retreated back over a hill and out of sight. Needless to say, the german squad was wiped out just short of the house. I can't see it as an assault charge, as it was outnumbered over 4 to 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoePrivate Posted January 6, 2001 Share Posted January 6, 2001 Sounds to me like the designer overlooked the orientation of the friendly edges. After you're finished your game open up the scenario in the editor and check that, it's the only reason I could see your being able to 'Withdraw' towards the enemy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USGrant Posted January 6, 2001 Share Posted January 6, 2001 From my observations I believe that there are 2 modes units can go into - 1)take cover, 2)retreat. I rarely use the withdraw command so I am not too familiar with its behavior. In "take cover" they usually head for the nearest cover, but they do not consider line-of-site (hence the behavior of running forward towards a building instead of backing over a hillcrest). In "retreat" they head straight towards their home map edge, regardless of cover, LOS, or enemy units. My wish list includes tweaks to: 1. Consider LOS when taking cover - but this would be a significant programming effort and might have unintended consequences when you are trying to engage the enemy. I'm not sure there is a reasonable way to implement this. 2. Consider LOS, cover, and enemy units when retreating. Reasonably, a retreat should always be in the general direction the home map edge, but the current straight line approach is an oversimplification that creates wierd situations. ------------------ USGrant When the game is over, the kings and pawns go in the same box. - Old Italian Saying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Posted January 6, 2001 Author Share Posted January 6, 2001 If this is repeatedly observed behavior, I'd also vote for some tweaking for this logic. I can understand that LOS considerations might be hard to program, but I would vote in favor of more a logic rule reducing the likelihood of a unit seeking cover moving to cover occupied by known enemy units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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