Problem with Relative Command

[Stephen Smith]

This may have been mentioned-I don't want to search the 100,000 threads to find out. But I read the CRC post lower down, and think there is a problem with the whole attempt to implement any type of relative spotting (whether it resembles CRC or not).

The complaint now is that it is unrealistic for every unit on the map to know what every other unit on the map knows, instantly-best example, two tanks, one can see and shoot at an AT gun, the other can't-but in CM, they both do react to its presence.

The solution is to institute some kind of relative spotting-so that the second tank doesn't 'know' and thus doesn't 'react' to the presence of the at gun when it couldn't actually see it. This is supposedly more realistic.

However, the problem is that I, the player, and overall commander, know about the AT gun. I can react to it in the next orders phase, by giving the second tank appropriate orders to react to the AT gun, even though that tank can't actually 'know' about it. And if I can do so, then there is very little realism improvement by simply delaying what the AI does (react to an unseen enemy) by 0-60 seconds (until the end of the execution phase) and allowing the human commander to do the same thing. Every unit on the map having instantaneous knowledge is no more or less realistic than every unit on the map having knowledge with a 0-60 second delay-its just a different form of unrealism.

A solution to this would be to bar the human player from moving/reacting that second tank-but then you have the impossible task of distinguishing between 'legitimate' orders (i.e. I want to move my tanks over that hill) from 'unacceptable' orders (I want that tank to move because I-and not the tank- can see the AT gun over that hill): thus, its not a real solution.

I suppose you could say that its more realistic because at least you are forcing a delay of 0-60 seconds between an AT gun being sited by one tank and the reaction of all other friendly forces, but I'm not sure that small increase in realism is really that valuable, nor worth the programming effort.

Steve