Abstract Recon?

[Jeff Heidman]

ONe of the things I think would be nice to see in CM2 would be the ability for a scenario designer to vary the amount of information available to both sides about the enemies set up.

Currently, neither side ever gets to spot the other sides units, once setup is done. They have to discover where the other guys are through running into them or whatever.

That is certainly realistic some of the time, but there are certainly times where, for whatever reason, one side, the other, or both would have more info about where the bad guys lines are.

Maybe the scenario designer could set some variable that would allow, for instance, one side to randomly have 20% of the enemies units become revealed, maybe only with a generic contact indicator, or maybe even more than that.

Jeff Heidman

[Lah]

But if one guy hasn't setup yet then how's the other isn't going to have any information even with your recon idea?

[aka_tom_w]

I thought thats EXACTLY what the scenario breifings were for?

Are you requesting scenario briefings for QBs?

Now that's not a bad idead but a little tricky to get the AI to write a breifing with just the right amount of intel.

I would like to seem some briefings with WRONG in intel, just plain outdated or old wrong info about what you are heading into?

just my quick thoughts

-tom w

[Londoner]

Agreed Tom, designers shouldnt always give a correct intel report in the briefing, however I'm not sure how much use this would be in a single battle. However in an Op....

[Jeff Heidman]

No, that is not what I am talking about at all!! Although I agree that that is an important tool that scenario designers should use, and use more often. But that relly only applies to enemy OOB guesses.

I am talking about actually revealing units after setup, prior to the first turns orders. Maybe only to the extent of Infantry Squad? or maybe more, depending on what the designer wanted.

Jeff Heidman

[Jeff Heidman]

***bump***

[Robert Mayer]

Hmm, sort of a "operational intel" variable, maybe. Say the designer of a scenario can specify whether to use Operational Intel (OI) or not. If he doesn't, it's like it is now, If he does, each side gets an OI rating. For instance, maybe the Germans would have an OI rating of 2 and the Russians they are facing in a 1944 battle would have an OI of 4. Mabye 20% of the Russian units would be revealed in some fashion before the first turn, and 40% of the German units would be revealed to the Russian player at the same time (percentages pulled out of a hat, BTW).

Let designers also specify which units are exposed instead, so they can set up battles where one side always knows where that AT gun is (for whatever reason) maybe, too.

Dunno how much this would add to the game in terms of enjoyment, but it seems it would allow the simulation of certain types of engagements better. Then again, I'd rather have the work put into a good night fighting system <g>.

Or horses!

[Simon Fox]

I agree with Jeff (oops, did I say that? ). I have often thought that this would make the game more realistic. This is especially applicable to assault type scenarios.

I would love to see FOW applied to terrain type too (sorta dynamic terrain hehe), that would really set the cat amongst the pigeons

[aka_tom_w]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Simon Fox:

I agree with Jeff (oops, did I say that? ). I have often thought that this would make the game more realistic. This is especially applicable to assault type scenarios.

I would love to see FOW applied to terrain type too (sorta dynamic terrain hehe), that would really set the cat amongst the pigeons <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I REALLY like the idea of dynamic terrain type. As Simon suggests maybe FOW could be extended to terrain features. I think that would be great. I think that implies that you you don't know EXACTLY what all the features of the map look like until you have one of your units recon the area.

I would really like to see something like this incorporated in CM2 but it may be somthing more likely to make it into CM II (Roman number two, the NEXT generation game engine overhaul)

-tom w

[ 04-20-2001: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

[Jarmo]

I remember seeing BTS mention that terrain FOW will probably be included in some future incarnation of CM.

And I do like Jeff's idea. Kind of what you might get from low flying aerial recon plane.

Of course you can do something a bit like that with the scenario briefing, but this would be cool too. And possible in QB's, unlike briefings.

[Jeff Heidman]

The big difference between scenario briefings and what I am proposing is that unless the scario fixes the starting locations, the scenario briefing cannot give you info about where the player actuallys et up his units.

The reason I thought of this is that I was wondering how you would simulate an immediate follow on attack, where the attackers are going to attack through existing troops, and you want to simulate that portion.

Of course, there are other examples, where recon elements or whatever have spotted enemy positions prior to the main force attacking (i.e. prior to the start of the scenario).

In general, I would like to see vastly more capability for scenario and Operations designers to tweak and change the parameters of the scenarios and Ops they create.

Jeff Heidman