T-34 advances off the map?!

[karlis]

Situation - in a PBEM quick battle, I ordered a T-34 to fast move toward the enemy's back map edge, turn right (to get behind a patch of scatttered trees). I don't remember specificially, but I think there was at least 10-15 meters from my turn point and the map edge.

Result - instead of turning right, the T-34 moved off the map!! The tank was not under fire or distressed in any way.

Am I not supposed to order units near back map edges or did the tank simply on its own decide to leave the map?

Any insight is appreciated.

[Sergei]

If it was moving fast, its attempt to turn might have gone too long - tanks don't turn on a coin when they have speed.

[karlis]

That explanation makes sense to me. A lesson learned the hard way.

[Beta1]

had the same thing happen to me with a marder.

of course shortly afterwards I ran into 4 churchills...

[Redwolf]

In CMBB (but it wasn't in CMBO and is better in CMAK again), if you do a fast move and then sharp turns, the engine automatically rewrites parts of your path to smoothen the edge out.

In early CMBB patches this has been subject to a lot of complaints because tanks were turning their backs on certain kinds of turns - namely a long fast move followed by a very short one to finally position the tank. Such a path would be edited to extend the fast move and then drive to end of the positioning move - which usually meant the intermediate waypoint was moved towards the enemy and then the tank would turn its back to the enemy when going to the player-indicated direction. On top of that, the ultra-slow turn rates in CMBB added insult to injury since you could spend several turns turning the stupid thing back again.

This particular situation has been fixed up but the engine is still doing rewrites in other situations - like you just learned the hard way.

Insert regular standard rant here that CM should just drop half of these automatic order changing business from the TacAI.

[edgars]

OFFTOPIC:

Karlis, i wonder if you're from Latvia (your nickname sounds "latvian-ish"?

You can reply by e-mail (adress in the profile).

[karlis]

I'm an American of Latvian descent, partially (50%). I'll respond more fully in private E-mail.

[karlis]

I should add that the Latvian half is the good half.

[Corvidae]

instead of a fast waypoint and a second fast set at a sharp 90 degree turn, try a fast waypoint, a hunt waypoint set at 45 degree angle, and another hunt at 45 again,, its a slightly longer comand delay, but it works well

[karlis]

Thanks for the tip; I'll try that next time. that would have worked well this time. At the time it vainished, my T-34 was not in LOS of the Panther and PzIV it was trying to avoid. I should have been more careful. I was fast moving at that point only b/c I wanted to run amok in the enemy rear area as soon as possible. Careless.

[Corvidae]

Karlis, running amok is a very good way to get stomped, but it sounds like your basic strategy was good, get behind the poor buggers , and let the kaka fly,