Two small TacAI issues

[Thompson]

First, I've yet to see split AT teams rejoin their parent squads, no matter how long they stay near each other (I mean *really* close for many minutes). Also, having them mount the same vehicle and stay there for some time does not seem to qualify as being close enough. IIRC, the manual states that split teams should rejoin together as a full squad if they are left close each other for a while.

Second, in the tutorial campaign (battle 2 or 3), my Javelin teams refused to fire on the enemy bunkers no matter what (the briefing states you should be able to do this). Giving them direct targeting orders or leaving them to target themselves had no effect - yes, they had LOS; no, there where no enemy tanks left.

Oh, one more thing. If there are separate Dismount and Bail Out orders, why does the *crew* bail out on Dismount order? This happened to me several times. To me, Dismount order would be to order all riders to dismount (not the crew) and Bail Out would be to order the crew out. Am I not understanding this right? It's quite tedious to order the HQ and the two MG teams to dismount one by one from the lead Stryker.

[teeps]

On your first two I have seen the correct behaviour in both instances, i.e. teams reform and javelins target bunkers. I don't think I did anything special. Forgive the obvious question, but you did have Javelin rounds as well as the CLU I presume?

[jomni]

I experienced your problem in number two.

But I do get to fire at the bunkers for some time as normal. Then they seem to refuse doing so while there are still enemy targets. The reason is that the bunker is vacated already and the crew is hiding behind it. So your troops refuse to use the Javelin. The red diamond actually represents the crew. I found out because I had my troops jog near the bunkers to investigate. Then I found those buggers hiding behind the bunkers. I opened fire until they surrendered.

If they don't really fire... are you sure you brought along the Javelin ammo?

My dismounts are fine and the crew are still in the vehicle.

[Thompson]

Yup, they had the missiles as well as the launcher. I am not that dense.

If the actual reason for not firing is, that the bunker had been vacated and the enemy troops were hiding behind it, I must commend the Javelin team's eyesight then - the range was quite long. It sounds a bit weird though. How can they know the bunker is *really* empty by just eyeballing it from a long distance away. Do they have x-ray vision or something? In any case, I would have taken out the bunker, just in case, no matter what.

[jomni]

I know it's weird. And it was quite annoying. Since the mission has the Strykers immobile. I had to let everyone do "quick" to the trenches. It was so boring. The red marker was actually above the troops and not the bunker.

A destroyed / abandoned bunker looks the same as a bunker that is intact. No flames or rubble.

[kajones1644]

I have also noticed the problem of split squads not reforming but when I ordered them to the same location they reformed into one squad as they were moving!

[MirabelleBenou]

No flames or rubble.

Well, sometimes on hit, you'll see flames.

For the javelin of this training mission, I ask my QG squad to fire the Javelin.

The other squads prefer to use their machineguns against the bunkers.

The QG squad only have M4 and Javelin, so they used the Javelin.

That's why I always give Javelin to all of my QG squads Works well

[Thompson]

Originally posted by jomni:

Since the mission has the Strykers immobile. I had to let everyone do "quick" to the trenches. It was so boring.

Heh, I can imagine. Fortunately there is arty and air support on that particular mission; I just pounded those bunkers into submission. For their credit, the Javelin guys did fire on the tanks near the bunkers, though. (The delayed sound of the explosion is cool, as well as realistic, of course - light travelling faster than sound.)

[massive1974]

Originally posted by Thompson:

Yup, they had the missiles as well as the launcher. I am not that dense.

If the actual reason for not firing is, that the bunker had been vacated and the enemy troops were hiding behind it, I must commend the Javelin team's eyesight then - the range was quite long. It sounds a bit weird though. How can they know the bunker is *really* empty by just eyeballing it from a long distance away. Do they have x-ray vision or something? In any case, I would have taken out the bunker, just in case, no matter what.

my guess here would be that it's not x-ray vision that they have but once opfor vacate the bunker, machinegun fire stops coming from it. that's what tells them it's empty. bunkers usually hold machineguns.

[massive1974]

however, i've had javelin teams not wanting (they have their own will obviously, just to piss me off) to fire at tanks. they weren't under fire, clear LOS, etc. must be a cocroach. i mean bug.

[Sekra]

I've noticed that the troops wont fire their javelins at bunkers or buildings when they have only one javelin left. When I did the training all the guys fired all but one javelin leaving one bunker intact. None of them would fire the last javelin and then I tried again targetting the bunkers first and then the guys shot all the remaining javelins at the tanks so they had none left. Go figure.