Dust Clouds

[sgtabell]

Pardon Fluf if I subsume your thread, however I played the demo last night, and would like to expand on some "dust" issues/features.

The following is not a criticism, but more observation.

First, I think the AI is reacting to dust, and it is reacting to sound also.

My panzers were moving, below LOS, and the AI worked to get a flank. However, they were not in sight, so I am assuming a bit of both.

(Aside here: It was awesome to see the TacAI flank when in a defensive position).

However, I have a rather large concern about dust, as it relates to TacAI.

LOS is being interrupted with much greater frequency by dust, and I note that my tanks are not staying locked on to their targets. I realize this means we will have to use the cover arc more to control the situation, however, it was a bit frustrating as I would then have my panzer shift it's turret to react to sound of another tank, however, as soon as the small amount of dust passed, the allied tank had a bead on me. In short, we will need to "force" facing using the cover arc, and in addition, assume that reg and under will not necessarily follow the order.

Here is the gamey tactic exploit:

Gamey exploit 1:

Defender has a small rise between them, and a valley, which has a high rise for the attacker (from which the attacker could view defender and vice versa). Attacker gets a fast mover into the valley, and runs it back and forth to raise dust, which allows the attacker to go over the high rise into the valley, thus closing distance at no cost of smoke. (i.e. Free Smoke for the cost of a truck, which works much better than smoke at obscuring.)

Gamey Exploit 2.

Ok, this isn't as gamey, and was used to some extent, but the use of Scoot and Shoot takes on a whole new meaning. It will now be Scoot and Shoot and Fall back into the dust cloud of your own making.

As cool as the dust is, with the exploit possibility, and the non-knowledge of this user how to tweak the TacAI, I would almost like to see the dust removed or not have it affect LOS.

My humble opinion,

SgtAbell