How about a formation option for setup?

[Agua]

Just sitting here with a 5,000 attack and thinking how great it would be to click on a platoon then be able to right click and have it set up in a wedge, column, V, etc. I know its late for CMBB, but just throwing this out there. I guess the distances between the squads / support would need to be customizable.

[ May 27, 2002, 12:25 PM: Message edited by: Agua ]

[The Commissar]

Good suggestion Agua, and one I will expand on if I may.

You know how during a setup all your troops start out as one long line stretching out along the edge of the map? What I would really appreciate is if that long line of squads, teams and AFV's was somehow more organized during setup.

Just have the game pair all the platoons from a company in one area instead of having them stretched out in a line. Maybe have the platoons grouped with their appropriate AT/MG/Mortar teams as well. Also, put all the AFV's together into one area of the map just so you dont have to go looking for them all over, especially on those 10km maps we've heard about! Same idea with AT's, spotters, etc.

If this is done, it will save me from 5 minutes (for 2k games) to 45minutes for large 5k battles. It would really be much appreciated.

[Flipper]

Ive advocated these kinda (macros) since day one maybe a little 'shogun' type mouse stretch interface I could see this coming down the line/

[Agua]

Bumping this because it's a damned good suggestion and maybe there's a shot that it can be implemented.

[MrSpkr]

I like it. I spend time before nearly every battle organizing all my squads in one area, all the company HQs in another, all the mortars in another, etc., etc.

This would be a terrific time saver.

I do suspect it is too late for CMBB's initial release, but it would make a great patch (just as TCP/IP was for CMBO).

Steve

[lcm1947]

Well I can't imagine anybody not wanting to be able to do this. Unless there would be some negative aspect to it which I can't think of. I think it's a very good idea. OK let's do it.

[Frenchy]

Agua - I concur. It would be a nice feature and timesaver.

[Philippe]

And what I would really like to see is a command which tells all of your trucks to stay in the right lane, move down that road in an orderly formation, and to maintain a one vehicle length distance for every 16km/h of speed, unless the driver is from California.

[Some Dude]

While formation setups are very subjective, what I think would be very useful is a function to form a generic formation simply for initial audit/unit location purpose. It would be nice to be able to say "company form up on company leader". And for a 5000 point attack, being able to collect your battalion in one location around the commander would save a lot of time.

[ July 11, 2002, 10:25 PM: Message edited by: BlackNemesis ]

[Bruce Robert]

I have a slightly diferent idea that is not going to solve the setup time, but will introduce a higher command level order that is missing in the game: A grandtactical level if you will.

At the start of the game, unit(s) are formed into one or more "battlegroups". Each is then given a higher level command - from battalion HQ for example -something like; move due west 500 meters to ridgeline and dig in. The battlegroup would then attempt to carry this out and could not disengage from this order unless they run into something - enemy units in their path, etc. or they receive a new order from a similar or higher ranking command. The command elements within the battlegroup would be responsible for determining how to best achieve this order, micromanaging, but could not give orders that would contradict the battalion orders.

This could possibly be done by drawing a box around the unit(s) in question, and opening up a "grand tactical" window. This idea comes from miniature gaming, where we required players to write out their orders for the units they commanded, so I don't know if this is workable in computerland.

This idea in miniatures provided another level of command to the game, and helped to minimize the borg sighting, and more importantly, the godlike view and awareness of the battle. If one of your groups are under heavy attack, you couldn't immediatly send the other group to help out until you got that information back to the appropriate command. They in turn would have to issue new orders to the group not immediately aware of the situation.

This would present some interesting situations in early war Russia. A junior officer jumping on the nearest horse to race towards the area in question to relay new orders, or someone frantically waving flags from a treetop.

We already do this intellectually when we are setting up the units for the battle. Deciding which units will work together, where they are going to defend, etc. This would simply make it official within the control element of the computer. I think it is usually unrealistic to have individual units making command decisions for themselves. This would also minimize that.

Thanks for the opportunity to present this.

[CMplayer]

Very good ideas. I've often wished this were the case.