Back to CM:SF - consequences of the infantry blob

[Bonxa]

Partly due to RL and partly due to the unpolished nature of CM:SF at release I've had a year long pause from it. I just recently got back to playing it after reading good reactions to the latest patches here at the forum (and again realizing that there are no other games with nearly the same appeal to me as the CM series). It sure is a blast! The glitches are mostly gone and I get the results I expect.

Now to my issue, the new infantry modelling. It works very well in an urban setting. I had a blast with Michael Dorosh's campaign scenario when you have to extract an infantry platoon in an urban setting. It was reminiscent of Black Hawk Down. Very nice! However, his next campaign scenario "Normandy" looked very nice as well. But it became obvious that using dismounted infantry in the bocage-like setting did not work as I wanted/expected. There were lots of small ridges, perfect for eg hull down positions for tanks, were I tried to deploy my men on the reverse slope. The idea was to have them reasonably protected from enemy fire yet still able to fire over the top. As it turned out it was either fully exposed and shot up or fully defiladed with no outgoing fire.

I think this is in part due to the way infantry cover is handled and part due to the blob formation of infantry squads. Proper trenches seem to work quite well (with no apparent special treatment a la CMx1) so I don't know why ridges don't work so well? As for the formation I would like them to recognize the ridge feature and deploy on line when they have a face across the ridge. If no automatic conforming is possible could it be so that we set formation ourselves? As it is now half the squad could be on the hostile side of the ridge getting shot up while the other half is sitting on the reverse slope in full defilade.

Has anybody else thought about this and what can one do about it presently?

[Moon]

Part of the upcoming improvements that are being worked into the USMC Marines module (but most of these types of improvements will be made available in a patch to users of the regular CMSF version as well) have to do with how infantry soldiers use terrain for cover. In short, they do so much more intelligently than in the current public 1.08 version of the game, and do recognize (and use) terrain features - such as ridges - much better. There are also new feedback features which communicate more clearly to the player where his teams and soldiers will end up based on the target waypoint, facing etc.

[Bonxa]

That was both a quick response and some very good news! Thanks! And trust me, I will get the Marines module regardless. I will get everything you release for CM and most other Battlefront games as well just to keep you in the business.

[c3k]

excellent...

[handihoc]

Thanks for that, Moon! That really is a good bit of news. All we need now is a date (of release, that is; not me and you on a date).

[Topo]

excellents news!

[Mord]

Oh yeah...that sounds sweeeee-eet!!!

Mord.

[Dirtweasle]

"There are also new feedback features which communicate more clearly to the player where his teams and soldiers will end up based on the target waypoint, facing etc."

That sounds great. Will there also be some indication where each troop or marine is currently? I sometimes had a difficult time telling for instance if a individual was in tree cover or deep grass vs having their fanny hanging out in the breeze.

[Sivodsi]

If you've seen the video AAR of the Marines module, you can see the use of cover the infantry will have to a certain degree, and in rubble too. Very impressive and well worth a look.