Bradley Dick Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 A thought hit me as I replayed last night's final battle..... Formations. For infantry, mostly. Is it possible, in the current state, by way of orders to get the infantry into a certain formation ? Maybe by targeting arcs and facing orders ? If it is not, how hard would that be to implement ? I ask because now that we are at a 1:1 scale, with infantry being less abstracted, it seems like a useful feature. In CMx1, I don't think it would have any true purpose (besides a combat modifier). In CMx2, it might be very useful to put your guys into a wedge, line, or L formation. I know this would be a complete cluster fudge inside buildings, but in the open I could see it working. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panzermartin Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Infantry is a bit messed up right now. While armor battles are ok, infantry managing is hell. Formations could help a bit but I'm expecting more improvements in the TacAI and no additional baby sitting. I was glad to see that with 1.02 men run for cover when art falls on them for instance. COH might be a "shallow RTS" but you can position a squad pretty easily behind cover, along a wall or pack them behind a car. CMSF is not terrible in this (TacAi use of cover in trenches and shell holes is wonderful) but most of the time your men "just dont get it". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 For infantry I think we should have a context-sensitive icon similar to the "get in vehicle" one for things like stacking at building corners and hugging walls. If you move the mouse near a building it will change to a corner or wall icon and the men will attempt to maximize cover at the building. If you move the icon further away it just changes to the normal "move here" icon. No AI involved at all (other than knowledge of what a wall is and how to get every member of the squad to stand right next to it) so it shouldn't be hard to implement (says I, LOL!). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itael Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Originally posted by Cpl Steiner: For infantry I think we should have a context-sensitive icon similar to the "get in vehicle" one for things like stacking at building corners and hugging walls. If you move the mouse near a building it will change to a corner or wall icon and the men will attempt to maximize cover at the building. If you move the icon further away it just changes to the normal "move here" icon. No AI involved at all (other than knowledge of what a wall is and how to get every member of the squad to stand right next to it) so it shouldn't be hard to implement (says I, LOL!). Yes I like this idea, something similar to "Full Spectrum Warrior". They had a good GUI for cover in that game. Itai 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Originally posted by Itael: Yes I like this idea, something similar to "Full Spectrum Warrior".Yeah, I have to confess I was thinking of FSW when I made that suggestion. FSW had other neat features too. Like once your men were hugging a wall, issuing an order to hug the wall further along made them edge along the wall covering all sectors as they went. Very nice feature that would be a welcome addition to CMx2. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RT North Dakota Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 I can't see why Platoons and Companies can't have effect, rather than action, specific orders. - like mortars and artillery. You should be able to say "Shoot here" and have teams manouever to deliver the effect, like "HULL DOWN" in CM1. You should be able to define an effect and the area you wish the effect to take place and then have the chosen elements carry it out. Just an idea, and a bit more logical than the current system. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpl Steiner Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Originally posted by RT North Dakota: You should be able to say "Shoot here" and have teams manouever to deliver the effectIn an ideal world I think this would be great but it would probably take too much AI processing to be viable. To my mind, there are two ways of achieving the same effect, the AI (artificial intelligence) route and the UI (user interface) route. The UI route puts the onus on the player to make his men do the right thing but gives them lots of fancy tools and feedback to help them do it. FSW is a very good example of this approach. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panzermartin Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 TOW avoids modelling squad behaviour by giving you control over individual soldiers. Not a perfect soluton but with all the TacAi problems it could have some use in CMSF. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornfleek Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Originally posted by panzermartin: CMSF is not terrible in this (TacAi use of cover in trenches and shell holes is wonderful) but most of the time your men "just dont get it". haha, brilliant stuff 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardcharger Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 I think I made a similar post about this before. I was thinking more for armored vehicle formations, but it would be neat to put your squads into specific formations like skirmish line or patrol column. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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