1.06 Feedback

[Peter Panzer]

I will fall in with the zeitgeist and note that v1.06 may be the point at which CMSF turned the corner. Thank you to BFC, the playtesters and to the many observant customers who perservered and helped to advance the game to its current state.

I suspect that with another patch of v1.06's caliber, this title will be solid. With that, I submit the following:

Note: All of the conditions below occur in v1.06, WEGO

WEGO Playback:

<ul>

[*]Please continue to refine the infantry movement playback - there is still some "hitching" - some soldiers will slide

into their final position - mostly noticeable during "quick" and "fast" movements

[*]Allow 3-D objects to "reset:" blast craters, wall damage, foliage damage, missles in launch tubes (TOW)

[*]Infantry small arms sometimes disappear. This seems to happen most when units are embarking.

Infantry Movement/Actions:

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[*]Permit "Face" commands to be issued to dismounting troops

[*]Troops frequently "prone out" upon reaching intermediary waypoints. Can faster movements be executed as a more continuous motion while the proning out is limited to the slower/assault commands?

[*]Permit infantry to deploy smoke in directions other than the one the unit is facing (Note: this should apply to vehicles with dischargers installed on their turret or 360* weapon mounts as well)

Gameplay Suggestions:

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[*]Allow waypoint positions to be adjusted (drag and drop)

[*]Permit "exact movement" for infantry as is now conditionally allowed for vehicles

[*]Allow cover arcs to extend off of the map

[*]Permit M1114 passengers to re-man the MG if the original gunner is KIA (already possible, but inconsistent?)

[*]Add aircraft flyover sound effects when CAS is in play

Other Possible Bugs:

<ul>

[*]M1114 passengers' feet sometimes protrude from the bottom of the vehicle (reintroduced in v1.06)

[*]PKM team, prone on a walled rooftop, passed shots through the rooftop wall (weapon was deployed)

[*]Recon M1114's cannot be made to focus on a sector via a target arc in the same manner OPFOR spies can

Scenario Editor Suggestions:

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[*]Add small images of flavor objects to the selection menu in place of the current numbers

[*]Add the ability for the AI to utilize artillery and CAS during the fight when executing a plan (AI menu)

[*]Add the ability to pre-attrit units in the "Purchase Blue/Red" screen

USMC Module Suggestions:

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[*]Model white phosphorous rounds for artillery/mortars

[*]Model artillery/mortar smoke rounds

[*]Model M1114's equipped with the Mk.19, as well as uparmored variants

[ February 10, 2008, 10:10 AM: Message edited by: Peter Panzer ]

[Rokossovski]

I have several suggestions, but for emphasis I will mention just one:

Dynamic use of artillery assets by the AI.

The inability of the AI to make use of artillery is the only remaining deficit in the game that is truly important (to me). (Although several on Peter Panzer's list would certainly be nice to have.)

[SlowMotion]

One very small suggestion: now when your infantry sees enemy tanks, they sometimes say "enemy armor approaching". This would be more useful if they said it only when seeing tanks that are not destroyed already.

[handihoc]

Directionable smoke.

Icons showing civilian occupied buildings.

Two small numbers in the battlefield unit icon, telling us the unit's platoon and squad ranking ie 2/1 = 2nd platoon, first squad. At the moment you have to click on units to confirm who they are.

Delete Saved Game button.

No more CTDs.

[CommC]

I'd like to see a replay feature for real time games.

[Peter Panzer]

From handihoc:

Directionable smoke.

If you are referring to artillery/mortar smoke rounds, I agree, this would be a welcome addition.

Additionally, white phosphorous would be a great addition for the USMC module.

From the March-April 2005 issue of Field Artillery "TF 2-2 in FSE AAR: Indirect Fires in the Battle for Fallujah:"

WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."

[Darkmath]

*Collision model for vehicles (not necessarily an ultra high realistic physics modelling, just a pushing interaction like in CMX1 would be fine for me)

*Hand to hand combat (Just hand to hand fighting sound effects , if animation programming is too much time consuming.)

*Flamable terrains.

*Sound contact (or already modelled? )

*Prisoners

*Please, set the minimal pause duration under 15 seconds. It's modern warfare...

[ February 10, 2008, 04:44 AM: Message edited by: Darkmath ]

[bodkin]

User set time limits for QB's is a must.

[handihoc]

No, I didn't specifically mean artillery smoke. I want inf and vehicles to be able to target where they lob smoke. Atm it's only in the direcion they're facing, which isn't necessarily where you want it to be.

[SlowMotion]

How much control do real tank crews etc. have on the direction where smoke appears?

[purpheart23]

More like they used he to get em in their holes and wp to "bake" them out, actually quite an effective tactic.

[M1A1TC]

Originally posted by SlowMotion:

How much control do real tank crews etc. have on the direction where smoke appears?

The smoke pretty much goes where the tank is facing, then the wind blows it where ever

[vincere]

Slow motion,

How much control do real tank crews etc. have on the direction where smoke appears?

I guess there's two issues. In we go you may have to waste a turn just to face a vehicle to pop smoke and than face where you want it to.

With infantry they should be able to pop smoke in a direction other than where you've positioned them to face.

[Peter Panzer]

handihoc:

Understood - good catch. I added that item to the list as I have obseved it as well, but forgot to add it in the original post.

The ability for a vehicle to direct smoke would be related to the mounting position of the discharger. If it is on a turret (M1, M2, T-72, etc.) or 360* weapon mount (M1126), the crew would have a measure of control as to where the screen is deployed.

Infantry should have a much wider degree of latitude in this regard as well.

Here is a device that has been appearing on M1114's:

M7 Light Vehicle Obscuration Smoke System (LVOSS)

The LVOSS is a self-defense smoke/obscurant device externally mounted on the host vehicle. The LVOSS is made of lightweight materials.

The LVOSS has a push button Arming/Firing Unit (A/FU) which allows the operator to select the direction he needs obscured.

The LVOSS counters threat weapon systems operating in the visual and near infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The LVOSS was Type Classified Standard in August 1997 and production began in FY98.</

[ February 10, 2008, 10:02 AM: Message edited by: Peter Panzer ]

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[Drusus]

Pauses for online playing. Doing any kind of coordination with more than two units is pretty much impossible because of continuous play. A chess clock system would be excellent, but just a pause which either player can set or unset would be fine at the moment. If your enemy abuses it, don't play against him...

Another suggestion (kind of related to the demand above): group triggers. This would be a special pause selection, that is when pressing P the selection would go as follows: 15 sec, 30 sec, ..., 1,5 min, "pause", group 1, group 2 ... This would work so that _all_ units set to group 1 would act when the pause is canceled for _one_ unit.

Example: Making a simple counter attack plan involving a platoon: set the movement commands for the squads, and set them to "pause group 1". Then when you want to activate it, just cancel the pause for one of the units in that pause mode. Every squad will start doing their thing.

The group pausing would be useful in online (and RT play in general) if there is limited time for pausing the game, as this would allow coordination of troops even without pausing the game. Implementing this might be too hard for the rather small usage this would probably get, though... (Just have to say this: Allow units to have multiple plans...)

Online play also needs some command delays. It is too easy to have a vehicle behind a building to pop out at an enemy tank (which the vehicle behind the building doesn't know of) and just wait if you see the enemy first. If you do, kill the enemy. If you don't, you as the player will see the turret of the tank beginning to rotate and can order the unit to reverse into safety. Very gamey and very effective tactic. Even a 3 to 5 seconds pause would remove this option. Area fire should also be delayed, it is too easy to just manually area target those muzzle flashes, which is a really gamey way to get past the limitations of relative spotting.

Allow vehicles to see better into the sector directly in front of them. Too often I have seen situations where my MGS Stryker knows there is an enemy vehicle in given area. I give a covered arc order which is about 15 degrees wide and move my Stryker to a good firing position. It can take more than 20 seconds to spot the enemy vehicle. Range is about 400 meters, the enemy vehicle is on a road and doing nothing. Visibility is good. I have seen this multiple times. One time I got bored and issued an area fire command, and BOOM there goes the enemy vehicle. Very gamey and again very effective.

It would be great to have a different icon for the enemies which the selected unit knows because of relayed information. And when the unit knows of enemies through this way, it should be much easier to spot them. Selecting the icon could then tell how that information was gotten.

And last but not least: There is a problem with suppression at the moment. There is another thread about suppression going on, but I don't think it is about the same thing. I made a post about this some time ago but didn't get much feedback.

The problem is as follows: troops in buildings seem to be fighting too well even when panicked and suppressed to maximum (according to the suppress-o-meter). I have seen troops route just a second after they were effectively firing back at the enemy. I did some testing of this in the house cleaning scenario, playing in hotseat mode. I had both Syrian squads and US squads experience this.

So, BFC, please fix, or...

In general V1.06 is very enjoyable. Good work on a game engine that is fundamentally flawed . To be frank, I did have my doubts about the engine, too...

[vincere]

my two pennies:

agreeing with most of the suggestions here.

Also:

longer time limit.

ammo sharing. ie use small sections to run for ammo.

other sources of ammo resupply.

[SlowMotion]

I agree that some kind of online pause feature would be nice. I think it would be better that both players could use some number of pauses during the game or that if you use a pause, you could use next pause after some delay, like 3 minutes or whatever.

[Drusus]

Whatever online pause system is implemented, please make sure it will have the option to pause the game even if the chess clock time is used up, in case both players agree to do so.

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[Raton]

This 1.06 its a real improvement, but the game is not still fine (but is already enjoyable)

I'd suggest make "aquire" a movement order, to be possible to take ammo from Humvees.

I'd suggest not reagroup the whole squad in every intermediate waypoint, but just when order change (i.e. quick to hunt or whatever...)

I've found problems dismounting and re-mounting units. Some times they becomes splitted (mounted and dismounted) or they refuse to re-mount.

Friendly fire is still a joke. You can fire (not blast) a house full of friendly forces and they don't take casualties (at least not as fast as bad guys do)

When you order to go in a house, friendly forces making suppression fire against it don't stop firing. As friendly fire is unappreciable (if it exits...) thats is not really important, but now, when game is running more o less nicely this sort of details becomes more evident.

Enemy TacIA still a bit crap. IMO still worst than CMx1.

[Darkmath]

Enemy TacIA still a bit crap. IMO still worst than CMx1.

How exactly?

The problem I had with TACAI (vehicles self reversing, infantry pathing) are solved in 1.06 for me.

[Raton]

You are right, they are fixed most of main problems but it still remains some senseless behaviour, especially when troops are managed by IA.

I think vehicles don't fire when a threat appears off their covered arc (thats my experience until now, but maybe I'm wrong, because relative spotting and so made more difficult to know if the vehicles is seeing or not the potential threat...).

I've seen enemy vehicles dont moving nor firing when they are ahead of a potential threat (again relative spotting doubts).

Troops never change their target when a threat more dangerous than their actually target appears (again...).

And things like that. Its just a feeling.

[fallingleaf]

To bad it still doesn't work for some of us Paradox users. And for a while I haven't heard anything about trying to find out why. Sad but I am losing interest and faith.

[Sequoia]

Originally posted by fallingleaf:

To bad it still doesn't work for some of us Paradox users. And for a while I haven't heard anything about trying to find out why. Sad but I am losing interest and faith.

What is it that doesn't work? The Paradox patch has been out for several days now.