Vehicle speed in scattered trees

[GreenAsJade]

For the first time ever (!) I find myself playing in a scenario where there are scattered trees everywhere.

I can't beleive how SLOOOOWWWLY the vehicles move. How can it be that soldiers just diddybopin' along can outrun a jeep through scattered trees, effortlessly?

Is that right?

[Michael Emrys]

Depends on how scattered the trees are, doesn't it? I don't recall BFC making a statement defining that variable (though they could have and I missed it), but considering that they are used to depict orchards, you might assume that a 10-30 meter separation between trunks is reasonable. Now that may sound like plenty of room to drive a vehicle through, and in fact it is what allows them passage in the first place. But the trees may not always be growing in straight rows with even spacing. And there may be other obstacles to be negotiated in addition to the trees, such as brush, rocks, stumps, fallen branches and other debris, and various irregularities in the ground.

In any event, while I never tested specifically for it, it always seemed to me that vehicles were moving through scattered trees at a walking pace. That strikes me as reasonable.

Michael

[GreenAsJade]

My MG jeep is going at 1/3rd walking pace.

That just seems too slow, doesn't it?

I have never encountered this issue before because I have never been forced to drive vehicles through endless trees before!

Man - it's painful in the extreme!

[ March 30, 2004, 07:02 AM: Message edited by: GreenAsJade ]

[Michael Emrys]

Hmmm. I suspect wheeled vehicles take a bigger hit on their speed. I notice in AK that they move with agonizing slowness through rocky and brush terrain too. I'm still undecided if that's realistic or an exaggeration, but I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Michael

[Slappy]

Tracked vehicles hold up far better in scattered trees than wheeled vehicles. I've always assumed that the painful slowness of wheeled vehicles was an abstraction of thier need to 'pick their way' among the trees and change direction a lot among other things. Of course, you should be able to go pretty fast in an orchard, but only in some directions. In other types of scattered trees, you may have more trouble. I think it's a bit of a compromise overall.

[MikeyD]

Just imagine what would happen if you drove your sedan or SUV off the highway and straignt into the brush by the side of the road. Even granting '4-wheel-drive' (a registered Jeep trademark, I believe) it won't be far before something unseen strikes that transfer case hanging unprotected under the under carriage. Whack it hard enough and something vital's liable to break. You've got to SLOWLY pick your way among seen and unseen obstructions in order to safely make your way through wooded terrain. 1/3rd walking speed sounds just bout right to me.

[GreenAsJade]

well, I don't buy it, but it looks like its just me.

I would take a jeep offroad and whip through the scattered trees, blasting and bouncing over rocks & roots. This is an _army jeep_ we are talking about not a sedan or a nancy-boy SUV.

The ground clearance of a jeep is measured in feet!

I just find it beyond belief to have a squad of men and a jeep head off through the scattered trees, and find the men at the destination in 1 turn while the jeep takes 2 more...