Wish list for CM1.02

[RobVarak]

I'm with Epee. Watching the full length movie is the one feature that I continually wish for as I play. Imagine being able to save, review and share your favorite/most eventful battles. I know that it's on "The List" but I hope it really makes it soon.

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Rob Varak

Editor

Site on Sound: The Web's Premier Site For Musical Discussion

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[Dragon-6]

I love the demo and eagerly await my full version. The direct fire fights seem on target to me, but the indirect fight appears artificial.

I'd like to see any leader being able to call in Indirect Fires but at a much longer delay and with less accuracy that with FOs.

I also think its a little awakward having 4 FOs to support a single reinforced Company (ala US side Demo Scenario #2). An FO should have access over the Artillery nets to all available fire support, one FO should be able to handle all fire request for a single company sized maneuver unit.

Basically artilley allocation needs to work like this:

- A "force" has a certain known number of dedicated Fire Suport Missions.

- A single FO can call in any of these.

- A Company commander can call on these but at a longer delay (except maybe from the BN's Mortar PLT).

- A Platoon Leader can call in fires at even a great delay than a Co HQ and may not have access to any fires outside of those dedicated to support th BN.

- Finally, even if the "Force's" dedicated fire missions have been exhusted, FOs and leaders should still be able to request fires, with some random factor determining if that fire mission is shot by other FA/Mortars/Air Support assets. Coversely even some of of the "dedicated" fire missions may be stripped away on occasion.

Basically, you have three kinds of fire support: Organic (Bn Mortars), Direct Support (Field guns dedicated to support a specified maneuver unit), and General Support (Guns that are in range to support, but may have other priorities). The game only address the first two, and besides caliber of the rounds there is no difference in the processing of those fires.

I leave you with these final thoughts on Indirect Fire Support:

- Calling for indierect fire is a basic leader skill (at least as far down as you have commo).

- Artillery is never held in resreve (They want to shoot what ever mission they can get)

[Observer]

I would like to see an outline of the chit at the end of the movement rubberband. When moving tanks a small biit, it is IMPOSSIBLE to see the movement rubberband under the tank... An outline only of the chit that moves at the end of the rubberband would help a lot.

Just a suggestion

[Holman]

After playing this excellent game for about 24 hours (no, not straight), I've got a couple of minor suggestions:

1) I'd love to see an order of battle hotkey. This would throw up a text box containing a list of all the player's units and their ID codes. (Making this list clickable to jump to a selected unit would be icing on the cake.) Wouldn't this make large scenarios and complicated organizations more manageable?

2) As an option to replace the unit bases (which can't be seen from some angles and in some terrains), how about a bright square (red for Axis, green for Allies) similar to the yellow square that appears when a single unit is selected? The drab bases somehow just don't look good to me, and they block the view of the terrain underfoot.

[Guest Rommel22]

My wish is:

I want the Maus tank to apear on the battle field. Some may say it's over kill. But the Germans did use 4 of them. those were the only 4 prototypes they had. Although they were used on the eastern front. You ccan still make them availible in the game now. Please.

[Mattias]

Eh...

Rommel what is your source on the four Mouse's (Mice?) being used?

Curious as I have never heard or read anything that indicates something like that.

As for game suggestions:

How about a "fire slow" order for on-board mortars.

A lot of the time I just want my mortars to "gently" suppress and impede the enemies movement in a patch of trees or a wood line. This could be as effective with 5 rounds a minute as it is with 10 and would double the endurance for this kind of "interdiction" fire.

Considering the limited ammo supply available to the mortars it would at least increase their flexibility further.

M.

[dumbo]

My request is an easy one 8)

Bunkers available for the allies as well as Axis please. That we we can do german attacks on fortified Allied MG nests etc.

Cheers

_dumbo

[CoolColJ]

1) Undo (ctrl+Z) for map editor, the painting bit.

2) Right mouse button erase, clears tile to default grass

3) the different map editor modes assigned to the function keys, so you can switch between them quickly.

4) A button on the console to flip the camera 180 degress. Its a pain to constantly rotate around to the opposite direction as it is now.

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Check out my CM mods, Music and artwork

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[Guest Rommel22]

The maus,

A "Super heavy" Tank made by the germans.

Hitler wanted a super heavy tank to counter the joseph stalin tanks. To stop the huge herds of russians. The project came to little to late. crew of 6 weight of tank was 191 tons. It's main gun was 128mm kwk44 l/55

here is the link for a picture of a Maus

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pz7.htm#maus

Hope that clears it up.

it's a good site.

[Seanachai]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CoolColJ:

1) Undo (ctrl+Z) for map editor, the painting bit.

2) Right mouse button erase, clears tile to default grass

3) the different map editor modes assigned to the function keys, so you can switch between them quickly.

4) A button on the console to flip the camera 180 degress. Its a pain to constantly rotate around to the opposite direction as it is now.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm, like a lot of these. Also, and maybe I've missed it, or just haven't played enough yet to see it occur, but would like an option on the Quick Battle generator for terrain type 'bocage'. Given how many significant battles took place in this terrain in the first 1-2 months of operations in Normandy, I'd like see it modeled for Quick battles, and there's no such setting, nor have I seen it turn up. I imagine that, graphics and code-wise, it's not an easy terrain to generate, so maybe I shouldnt' be so lazy and move to the Scenario engine and make maps. It's just that I love the Quick Battle generator's ability to set up rapid, random and semi-random forces for combat, and would like to make this very peculiar terrain type part of the process.

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After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

[Seanachai]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Rommel22:

My wish is:

I want the Maus tank to apear on the battle field. Some may say it's over kill. But the Germans did use 4 of them. those were the only 4 prototypes they had. Although they were used on the eastern front. You ccan still make them availible in the game now. Please.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't know, man, since there's no significant (or even any) historical impact, and IMO nothing more interesting than seeing a (barely) mobilized pillbox/gun emplacement move across only completely perfect terrain (otherwise it becomes a fixed fortification in fact), then its inclusion seems fairly unimportant. But hey, everyone has different desires/wishes, so if it's no hassle to do, I hope they put it in for you!

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After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

[Holman]

How about the ability to set up Quick Battles on a specific map (one that we have predesigned in the scenario editor)? It would be great to create a map you like and to try very different DYO scenarios on it.

This would give Seanachi (above) the ability to fight his Quick Battles in the bocage, as well...

[Bertram]

I would like to see some way to give an 'orders list' especially to tanks or other verhicles. Something like

- move over there to hull down

- shoot once at the first tank you see

- back out

that would save me some frustration caused by tanks duelling it out, instead of playing hit and run (the AI occasionally does this better than I manage to do).

Beside that I would love to have a better indication of the trouble along the pathway of verhicles. It happend me to often (in 'chance encounter') that I lost two Stg's because they could not decide who had right of way, and they kept backing up and waltzing around till a Sherman decided the issue for them.

Bertram

[IntelWeenie]

I would like to see:

Visible command radii (I've had problems using spotters).

SOME captured weapon use (MGs, etc.) or use by same-side non-original-crew units.

More 'sticky' targeting (yes, I have v1.01). Option for AFVs to target only tanks would be dangerous but really useful at long ranges.

Church bell towers (3 story buildings)

Movement waypoints for groups.

[sbg2112]

I didn't think I'd spend any time on the editor (at least not any time soon), but I accidentally started on this map that I can't put down....

One of the things that would be very useful would be for the ability to select an area in the editor, and then use the AutoGenerate feature to fill in that area based on whatever parms.

Probly a bit of work to implement, but it would help those of us who want to do maps but aren't experts on the layouts of villages in Western Europe.

The implementation costs could probly be kept down by supporting cut-n-pasting from portions of existing maps. So you could generate a quick-battle map for say a village, and then snag pieces of that for the map being built in the editor...

[JMcGuire]

I've only been playing the demo for a few days, but a few UI-related things immediately come to mind.

1. Major: contour overlays. Obviously the 3D thing is awesome, but having contour overlays at a few levels (eg. 5-foot, 10-foot, 25-foot) would be great when you're checking out "the big picture" from above, and even at ground level it's often hard to discern subtle changes. These ought to be much easier to implement (speaking as a D3D programmer) than it probably seems.

2. Minor: a real config dialog. Shortcut keys are ok, but checkboxes and such are much nicer.

3. Minor: fixed camera positions. After giving orders, I always want to hop to one or two spots to watch the whole thing run. It would be nice to be able to just bounce straight there.

4. Minor: Replace the company logo with buttons to issue commands as an alternative to the pop-up menus.

5. Major: In-game volume control is very important. My machines run through a 250W amp to a pair of giant old Fisher tower speakers and the first time I ran the game I almost went deaf...

6. Minor: Slider-style control for moving foreward & back through the replay. I find it kind of annoying the way the VCR-style buttons jump in ~15 second increments.

7. Major: Use the friendly unit bases to indicate changing unit status, based on player preference (morale, damage, ammo levels, whatever). This would improve the player's ability to size up overall situations at a glance and draw attention to critical areas.

8. Minor: Ability to drop a "marker" -- when I'm checking out terrain at eye-level, it's often hard to identify critical wrinkles later when I zoom out. If I could drop a big old "X" under the camera with a keystroke, this would make planning a lot easier.

Also, count one more vote for some kind of pop-up unit roster, perferably sorted so you can determine command relationships.

I think it's a significant statement about the quality of this game that I don't have a lot of gripes or requests about the gameplay itself!

[This message has been edited by JMcGuire (edited 07-04-2000).]

[Guest Chris B]

Ditto wishes (mentioned by others)

OB window with a "Zoom to unit"-ability. Would also like to see an enemy OB as evaluated from what you know, just to allow for "where did that crew go?" actions.

Config/prefs dialog. Seems like BTS went out of their way NOT to implement certain dialogs, like OB and prefs.

Different color bases. I want the enemy bases red for instance. Grey clashes with the bases of buildings. Other people have other preferences.

The full length scenario movie. I doubt it will work in CM, but the game Myth has a real good implementation of how to save movies. It saves orders and has a deterministic engine, so the same orders will always result in the same result. Ergo small save files, small film files.

Order wishes:

Primary target order. It is ok when the AI fires at greater threats, but when I get 2 AFVs killed by an incoming tank that my AFVs knew about, just because my AFVs started shooting at infantry.....

Move into LOS (to target) order. Sometimes you want a unit to shift a bit so it can target what you want it to target. This is always taking a chance, you waste 1 minute moving a unit into position, only to discover it is still not in LOS to its target. And meanwhile it is shooting at something else. Sigh.

Move then target order. A bit like the previous. You can give queued move orders, but never queue a target order, unless in LOS to the target at the orders phase. But if it could target then the unit probably would not need moving.

Really hide order. Nothing like setting up a Bazooka trap with a hidden team beside a pathway you simply now AFVs will go down, allowing them to fire a point blank round into the AFVs side, only to have the team pop up and fire a round at medium range at the targets front. Please tell me why the hide and ambush orders are there if the teams ignore them.

Toggle option to remove killed units from next/prev unit cycle. Nohing like cycling through 20 dead units to get to the second live squad.

Movie/view wishes:

LOS available while viewing movies.

Completely transparent buildings option. Have played a few town scenarios, and even if the occupied building is transparent, the ones next to it are not, and it is really hard finding your units.

Better rotate. As of now the rotate rotates around a camera spot, but usually I want to circle around my focus. As it is now I always have to follow up a rotate with scrolling. I'd like the camera to rotate around the viewed focus, so if I am viewing something it stays in focus, except when using view locked to unit, when rotate should rotate around the center of the unit, so you see what it sees around the horizon.

Autocamera. Real nice for self-running demos. Focus on an event, as spoken for instance, switch to other focus after a time of stickiness.

General interface wishes

Configurable keys. I want to use my left hand to move the kamera, not have to lift my right hand from the mouse.

Show a wait cursor when resolving turn. A wait cursor means "please wait", no cursor means "I just crashed". There is no reason not to show it. It is there while the computer thinks.

Use standard save dialogs.

Use standard or even complex dialogs to open scenarios. Like photoshop shows you a preview and other info before you open a picture, it would be nice to see something similar. Obviously not something for 1.02 but for CM 2.

Hierachical save dialogs. Allow folders within the "Scenario" and "Save" folders so that the game does not show everything at once.

User selectable resolution. Mine drops to 640x480 no matter what.

[Ron Meier]

I would like to see a way to assign threat areas/coverage areas for armour so that they have their turrets "pre-positioned" in a general direction. Mainly would be used for armor on the move in formations. (ie. A column of tanks moving; first tank turret forward looking for threats, second tank-turret to the left, third tank-turret to the right, fourth tank-turret to the rear. So if a target popped up in back the rear tank won't have to traverse 180 degrees to get a shot off.)

[Guest Richard C. Giberson]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TheJoat:

Well, if we're doing internet play - how about team play against the computer? Sure would be a blast to divide that battalion among a few human players!!!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ...

Re: TEAM PLAY, extend the concept to two or more humans on EACH side, in either an IP game or a PBEM game!

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Rik

[Berlichtingen]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I'd like to see any leader being able to call in Indirect Fires but at a much longer delay and with less accuracy that with FOs.

I also think its a little awakward having 4 FOs to support a single reinforced Company (ala US side Demo Scenario #2). An FO should have access over the Artillery nets to all available fire support, one FO should be able to handle all fire request for a single company sized maneuver unit.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It doesn't work like that even in modern armies, so why would it for WW2? Each FO is on a net, not nets. The Company HQ is on a seperate net. You do not cross over, as this just breeds comm confusion. The way CM deals with indirect assets is extremely realistic.

[stodge]

- How about a map editor that looks like the one in Railroad Tycoon 2, where (if my memory is still working) you pull the land up, and push it down to create hills. I find it too tedious drawing some hills box by box, then previewing, then clicking, then previewing etc.........

- Right mouse button to erase to the default grass tile.

- Key/mouse combination to rotate 180 degrees (i.e. reverse).

- I prefer to hold the right mouse button and spin the mouse to move the view than to move the mouse off the screen. Moving the mojse off the screen to pan/rotate the view is limiting as it only allows one pan/rotate speed.

- Of course save complete video of the battle in a standard format for distributing/viewing later.

- Holding down control when I click on a unit should add it to or remove it from the currently selected group of units.

- When the view is locked on a unit, I should be able to rotate/pan the view without unlocking the view. Only unlock the view when I press tab again.

- Improve the graphics performance on larger maps. There arent that many objects kicking around on the map (compared to say Panzer Elite - I think!), but graphics performance is disappointing on my P3-700.

- let me turn off the explosion sound when I quit! It drives me mad, especially at 1am!!!

Thats it for now - great game though - definitely the best wargame around.

Oh and while you're at it, how about CM where one graphical unit on the map equals one soldier/vehicle?

[Jeff Heidman]

When it comes to a patch, by far the most important thing to fix is the moronic behavior of armor. I care not how it is done, but losing Panthers to Sherman 75s because the Panther is turning to engage some .45 pistol armed, routed crew hiding in the bushes 100m away instead of paying attention to the axis of enemy attack is borderline to being a critical defect.

In an otherwise excellent product, this one bug makes some scenarios almost unplayable. For me, it completey ruins the enjoyment I get when something really cool happens that illustrates what is great about this game, followed by something so totally stupid. Last night playing the Villers Bocage op, I had one turn where a Tiger got into this great gun duel with a 6 pd AT gun to his side. After shrugging off one hit, and having another hit penetrate the side hull but not kill, my Tiger finally got his gun around, shrugged off another hit to the front turret, and killed the AT gun. That was cool, and provided some great intensity.

The next turn he died because he turned his turret to face a routed crew in some trees over 150m away and 90 degrees off axis, and could not get his turret back around to engage a Firefly to his front. SUre, the Firefly might have killed him even if his turret was pointed in the right direction. But the stupid tac AI never even gave him a chance, and that would be no better against a human.

A great turn, that really illustrates the best of CM, followed by a turn illustrating the worst. Grrrr...

Jeff Heidman

[Ricky]

I'll agree with that. The biggest issue that needs to be dealt with is the AI prioritizing targets. I've seen the AI make some really dumb mistakes here.

All targets in LOS should be dealt with in a priority basis. i.e the tank shouldn't turn 180 degrees to engage a low priority/lower threat target when a higher priority/higher threat target is present.

[JMcGuire]

Too bad you can't rename a thread. (Or can you?) Most of these really aren't appropriate for 1.02, more like a 2.0.

A couple more UI-type enhancements...

1. Some kind of rank/unit-type indicator (kind of like Command & Conquer had... those little chevrons, etc.)

2. A "tool-tip" feature to provide quick info by just hovering the mouse over a unit... maybe unit rank/type, condition, morale, ammo level.

3. A way to re-select the most recently selected unit with a single keystroke. Often when I'm laying out a VERY long series of move orders at eye-level, I accidentally deselect the unit. So I have to zoom out, find the guy, re-select, get the camera back into position, and re-orient before I can continue...

I wonder if BTS pays attention to this thread? I used to be somewhat active in the forum for the so-so game Alpha Centauri, and one thing that was nice was that the developers would step in periodically and say "here's a list of the suggestions we have decided to use at some point"... it was cool, and it was useful because it gave everybody a good sense of what they were and were not willing to consider. (Hint hint)

[Uedel]

i would like to see a little chnage in the scen editor of how to plot streets.

Make it like set an start and end point and maybe 2-3 midlewaypoints and the computer draws the line of the street. will make it much easyer to plot streets rail and rivers over huge maps. minor changings can made then in the way like it is now (tile by tile)