Isn't Veteran the more realistic approach as far as in-game Intel?

[Yskonyn]

While playing in Elite you often have your own units disappear if there's no line of sight with the unit you select.

Isn't that a bit awkward? Even if you would not see the unit, you would still now the position of the friendly unit because of memory, radio contact, radar coverage, satellite uplink, etc.

Of course from a units' standpoint its logical to hide other units it can't see, but:

The player assumes the role of Commander, so in essence it doesn't matter if Unit A doesn't see Unit B, because the Commander knows both units are there. Also we, as players, control the camera creating the awkward instance that when you look behind Unit A (where Unit B is) you still can't see Unit B.

The reasons for not showing enemies are, of course, clear as crystal, but I have difficulties to understand why you wouldn't want to have all friendlies on the map. . .

[thewood]

In POA2 you get an icon that shows last approx position with timer on it to show old that intel is. Very useful

[molotov_billy]

Doesnt the stryker have a fancy GPS system showing all other friendly units in the area?

[kipanderson]

Hi,

I too prefer the Veteran mode. It is very close to the toughest CMX1 mode but without the dreaded Borg/Absolute Spotting…

Great stuff…

All the best,

Kip.

PS. The long-term answer is live team play/CoOp play with each player only seeing what this own units can see.

[Becket]

I'd love love love the ability to independently set each difficulty aspect - enemy spotting, friendly spotting, etc.

Until they add the ability to pause & issue orders to Elite, I'm sticking with Veteran. After that we'll have to see whether the friendly spotting rules (which I don't want) keep me from playing with the harder enemy spotting rules (which I think I want).

[Chelco]

Elite is great. I love when the troops are moving and you loose radio link with them. Forces you to think a lot before sending your guys in.

[Javaslinger]

POA2???

Javaslinger

[Darren J Pierson]

Originally posted by Javaslinger:

POA2???

Javaslinger

Point of Attack 2, I assume.

[thewood]

Yes, and as commander in CMSF, just don't select any unit and you see them all. Friendly FOW tells what that particular unit can see. There are several minor implications to this, friendly fire being important, but also affects your abilty for a platton commander to issue orders in formation order.

[Chelco]

Originally posted by thewood:

Friendly FOW tells what that particular unit can see. There are several minor implications to this, friendly fire being important, but also affects your abilty for a platton commander to issue orders in formation order.

I don't know how extensive is the friendly FOW in elite difficulty. You can just click in the map and all friendly positions will be revealed to you, no matter if they have a comms link with the HQ unit.

[thewood]

Didn't I say that in my post

Also, I hope BFC chimes in becuae all my points are assumptions based on what I seen playing and snippets from BFC.

[Sgt Joch]

I have been playing with "Elite" and it has a nice feel to it, closer to real battlefield confusion, especially when you try to play the whole scenario without pausing, although admittedly that limits the size of playable scenarios.

I agree though that the friendly intel limitations on U.S. forces maybe too restrictive, although they would make sense for Syrian or WW2 forces.

I like the way the intel and spotting interact also. For example, I had an infantry team which spotted a red ATGM team on top of a hill. A nearby Bradley had LOS, but could see nothing, then over a few minutes, an unidentified marker appeared followed finally by the enemy ATGM Icon, at which point it opened up with its chaingun. I presume that represents the time until the info from my infantry team filters down to the Bradley.

[Chelco]

Originally posted by thewood:

Didn't I say that in my post

I'm not saying that you said it. What I'm saying is that the player/commander always knows the position of his troops. That means this is not a fully fledged friendly FOW.

[Chelco]

Double post. Sorry

[thewood]

Sorry, I do agree with that. But prefer it that way after playing POA2 for a while. Once you lose contact with your own troops it becomes too much like work.

[Chelco]

Yup, it becomes a bit complicated.

But can you imagine the adrenaline rush of calling indirect fire support and then realizing that you don't have a clue of where is one of your squads?

Still it is great as it is now at elite difficulty level. Kinda forces you to keep it real with your troops.

[dischord]

The manual states that at elite difficulty you might lose radio contact with some troops and the only way to find them would be to "click down" the chain of command (In the formation window?).

BUT, as stated above, you can actually see all friendly troops by just de-selecting any unit.

Do these two points not jive, or am I missing something here? Can anyone explain?

***My testing so far is limited to the humvee with no radio in campaign mission 2

[jomni]

From what i see... seeing friendly troops and radio contact are not the same things.

You can only see what the selected unit sees.

Not selecting a unit will allow you to see all units so that you will be able to select them.

But sometimes, when you lose radio contact you can select but not give orders.

I have yet to play the game so this is not a definite answer.