Is it ok to show these nude pix here?

[c3k]

Gents,

(Okay, the change in subject _was_ gamey, but it did get you to read this!!)

I've just finished another scenario and I finally realized how to improve Area Targeting.

Here's the situation: there are several enemy "contact" symbols in some woods. To suppress them, you use a "target" command. Since you're not targeting a known enemy unit, your "target" command morphs into an "Area Target". That's all well and good, and as long as the enemy remains at the "contact" (or unknown) level, your unit will continue to blindly fire into the woods hoping to suppress them.

Now, the same situation, except some of the enemy become subsequently become "known". In other words, they advance closer, revealing themselves and causing their respective "contact" symbols to disappear.

What will YOUR unit do? Nothing different than before, that's what! Even if you put a cover arc over that zone - the area fire takes precedence. Your unit will ignore the known enemy, even if you know that the known enemy are the ones you wanted to suppress/target.

My idea: I want to be able to area target a zone, BUT if I then gain a LOS to a known enemy, I want to zap them!

I'd implement this by making the area target work as it currently does --with the exception that if you also set a covered arc command, any known enemy within the arc gets targeted with a higher priority over the area target. Of course, should that enemy disappear, your unit goes back to the original area target.

Anyone have any thoughts? (Would an MP-44 unit be able to do this? Andreas? Snowbart? )

Thanks,

Ken

(Edited to make a shameless attempt to use sex to get some more comments. )

[ May 14, 2003, 05:34 PM: Message edited by: c3k ]

[SFJaykey]

I know what you're talking about, it's frustrated me too, but I think you're asking the AI to make a big judgement. It will already shift fire to units that pop out of cover close enough to be a threat. Cancelling my Area Fire order to directly target enemies that pop up at a distance is taking too much control from me, I feel. After all the turns are only 1 minute long, units on average will "pop out" in the middle of the turn, and I can retarget in 30 seconds or so.

Now, what really gets me about area fire is the rapid rate, and some units blowing close to their entire ammo loads in one turn. The tweak I'd most like to see in Area Fire would be the addition of a slow ROF option.

[c3k]

Matt,

I agree. That's why I'd like the OPTION of allowing my unit to fire at known enemy units. The OPTION would be toggled "ON" by the creation of a covered arc. Known enemy units within that arc would be fired upon, breaking lock on the "Area Target". At any time there are no known enemy units inside the covered arc, the "Area Target" location gets targeted.

If you do not want to stop firing at the "Area Target", do not add a covered arc.

At least that's my idea.

Ken

[Snowbart]

A new feature that needs to be implemented in the next round of CM games is some sort of order that will limit the ammo expenditure of a unit. Light mortars can easily go through over 1/3 of their ammo supply. Maybe a command to slow the rate of fire, or a simple maximum number of shells fired per turn order?

[SFJaykey]

So basically, we would have the option of ordering: "Lay down some suppressing fire on that house, but stay sharp and nail anybody who advances into the field." OK, might be useful, but seems to tread along the fine line of micro-management that some have complained about. As I said before, turns are only a minute long, seems like it takes a good chunk of that just to issue the above order.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by SFJaykey:

So basically, we would have the option of ordering: "Lay down some suppressing fire on that house, but stay sharp and nail anybody who advances into the field." OK, might be useful, but seems to tread along the fine line of micro-management that some have complained about. As I said before, turns are only a minute long, seems like it takes a good chunk of that just to issue the above order.

Perhaps smarter units should have a quicker reaction time from changing from Area to Covered Arc then. Don't let Green units do it at all. Right? Elite units would be smarter and be able to change from area to specific targets. Vets and Regular would be somewhat slower to switch.

It's not necessarily "gamey." The question to ask in real life is - how much do you trust your NCOs? If the company commander - the human player - tells a squad to area fire, but puts a covered arc command in as well as described above, basically he's telling his squad leader - in this case, the Tac AI - that he is free to select a specific target if it presents itself. A green squad leader might not do that - then again, a green squad leader might pick a specific target, say, an unarmed AFV crew that is retreating, at the expense of laying down suppressive fire on an enemy platoon that is not yet spotted.

So letting the AI pick a specific target is not always going to be optimal, either.

[ May 15, 2003, 01:07 AM: Message edited by: Michael Dorosh ]

[Prinz Eugen]

Dammit man, you promised nude pix !!! :mad: