Units not firing at enemies in cover arcs?

[GeneralChaos]

Hi all,

In a quick battle game where I was defending, I had a few MG units inside a building with a cover arc set to the right side of the building.

Enemy infantry would crawl in and out of the cover arcs but my machine gunners never seemed to fire. They had LOS everywhere within the arc, were not pinned/panicked, and had ammo.

Yet, in the orders phase, I never see them targeting any enemy units within their arc. I always end up having to target them manually.

Also in the action phase, they had no target lines to any enemy units either. Only when I do it manually.

So, if units fire on enemies within their cover arcs, will I see targeting lines? Or am I misusing cover arcs?

[bitchen frizzy]

Please be very specific:

Are they not firing at all during the action phase, or are you not seeing targeting lines during action and orders phases?

[Wicky]

Have you any screenshots you could post to get a better idea about the units and context in question?

[GreenAsJade]

Covered arcs don't force things to fire at things inside the arc, they only prevent them from firing at things outside the arc.

If your MGs didn't think it was a good idea to fire right now with the arc off, then they still won't fire with the arc on.

Maybe the units are too far away? Or not spotted by that MG?

GaJ

[Bannon DC]

Yes, it could be that another unit actually spotted the enemy unit, not the MG. They were "crawling"... ie, less visible.

Could also be that the MG thought it was not worth firing because the unit was too far away.

Could be that the units where moving in and out of the cover arc before the unit reacted and chose to fire. It sometimes takes the Tac AI sometime to react.

Some things that could improve your MG's reaction are being under command. Especially with an HQ that can also "see" the same LOS and one that has better stealth capabilities (the ? symbol). The higher the experience of the MG, the more likely it will be to react quickly to the enemy target.

If you MG fires, you will notice it use up one or more of its ammo points. If you have it selected, you will also see it "see" the enemy with a red line. It will not always fire, but when it connects a red line to the enemy unit, it sees it.

[GreenAsJade]

Actually, a red line specifically means that it not only sees it but intends to shoot at it (IE is aiming at it).

Units can see each other without you seeing a red line (otherwise there would be more than one red line from each unit!)

[bitchen frizzy]

It could be that the units were very close and the MG was rapidly switching targets, which often results in no targeting line being shown, especially during the orders phase.

[GeneralChaos]

Well, I don't have any screenshots, but I used the map editor to set up almost the exact same situation, and this time around they behaved like they should have. They fired at the advancing enemy rifle squads as soon as they stepped within the arc.

I was going to post all the screenshots of my test, but I ran it several times with the same result. For those of you curious, here is what the area looked like.

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/9530/example1qp0.th.jpg' alt='example1qp0.th.jpg'>

Apparantly during my QB game when I first noticed this there was something else to it. I know my MG squads spotted the enemy themselves, because I could draw the line of sight tool from my MG out to the enemy, and it would tell me information about the contact.

The only thing I can think of at this point is that they had low ammo and I hadn't realised it. Or it's possible that during the action phase, they fired, shook up the enemy squads, they sneaked off, thereby losing contact, but still seeing them due to my other nearby squads.

[Broompatrol]

Aside from the aforementioned tips, sometimes I miss it when the gunner has a jam. You can still designate a target the mg won't shoot though.

[dieseltaylor]

Hidden?

[Broompatrol]

Originally posted by dieseltaylor:

Hidden?

Unit will unhide to fire, unless it can't see target. Which he thinks it should've been able to.

An out of command low experience gunner (green or Conscript) sometimes will just wait along time. Also, had your gunner moved recently? he may have been still setting up, perhaps?

[GeneralChaos]

Hmmm.. come to think of it, I did order them to move from one side of the building to the other. Can't remember exactly when though. I don't remember their experience level, but I almost always use regular troops against the A.I. Meaning they could've been green.

Also, they had no HQ.

[JasonC]

Units will also tend to ignore targets that are already fully suppressed or broken. Which is almost always what you want - it is usually a waste of ammo to keep hitting an already broken unit. Sometimes one shooter to prevent rally. If you want that, you have to order it manually.

[Philippe]

I often forget about set-up times when I wonder why my machine guns aren't firing.

[RockinHarry]

Although with LOS within the covered arc, it could be it was bad enough that hit/kill probabilities were too low to initiate the HMG crew shooting. A buidlings interior is abstracted and although you see one large room, it is not! Internally there may be many rooms and interior walls, that simply prevent the HMG (maybe currently pointing out of the window) shooting at the enemy next door? Sounds reasonable and realistic to me.

The game manual actually tells the same.