Disembarking Pasenger Bug

[Pvt. Ryan]

I noticed an odd occurrence yesterday. I had ordered a Marine squad to disembark from an AAV and at the same time I ordered the AAV to reverse. After hitting go, the entire squad instantly disembarked in place (didn't exit through the door) and the AAV started backing up. My intention was for the squad to disembark at the AAV's final destination.

[ASL Veteran]

This is so. I had that happen on multiple occasions playing the Rahdanak scenario yesterday and the day before. Basically in We Go if you plot a dismount destination during the orders phase while your AAV is in motion (stopped because it's an orders phase but still with a live movement order) the troops 'fall off the back' of the AAV as soon as the turn starts and start to move to their destination. This was particularly frustrating in that battle as the destination was longer than one minute away from where the AAV was with it moving full speed. I had to watch for an entire minute in both cases while the troops started running along watching as the AAV slowly disappeared in a cloud of dust "hey, wait for us!". After the minute was over I would then have to stop the AAV and the squad and then go back to load them up again . A work around is that you can give your loaded squad a pause order while they are loaded up, but you have to err on the side of a longer pause, otherwise they will 'fall out the back' as soon as the pause ends. I have to admit that it was probably the only source of actual frustration and aggravation I've really experienced playing SF up to this point.

[MarkEzra]

You are giving two opposing orders. How to deal with this is simple enough. First order your vehicle to reverse. Next, give your infantry a move order to where you want them to disembark. Add a 5 sec delay and you'll get the results you want. My personal view of the "disembark" function key is: Excellent for setup and acquire actions and in game play dismount in VERY secure areas. Poor for use in combat situation. best use "quick" to some defensive area nearby but far enough away to suffer few casualties when your vehicle brews up!

[Pvt. Ryan]

I've been giving orders this way since CM:SF came out and I've never seen this before. The only thing I may have done differently this time was to order the vehicle to reverse. Normally it is a forward moving order.

[MarkEzra]

could you duplicate this wih a WEGO save file and a little text description of each command order in sequence? I'd really like to understand this better.

[Pvt. Ryan]

Sorry, I don't have the save. The AAV had a reverse order, then several move orders to get to a new destination. The squad had a disembark order with the one waypoint in a building. When the turn started the squad immediately started running towards its destination as if it had not been inside a vehicle. The vehicle reversed and then followed its orders. I saw it again a few turns later. That time the AAV had a move order instead of reverse, so I guess that has nothing to do with it. If I can find a save I will send it to you.

And on an unrelated note, the game crashes every other time I try to load a save. It gets to 2% and freezes.

[ASL Veteran]

You are giving two opposing orders. How to deal with this is simple enough. First order your vehicle to reverse. Next, give your infantry a move order to where you want them to disembark. Add a 5 sec delay and you'll get the results you want. My personal view of the "disembark" function key is: Excellent for setup and acquire actions and in game play dismount in VERY secure areas. Poor for use in combat situation. best use "quick" to some defensive area nearby but far enough away to suffer few casualties when your vehicle brews up!

Yeah, that's how it's supposed to work, but in the case of the AAV and the Marines it doesn't work like that. It happened to me often enough that it should be easily repeatable under test circumstances. In the specific instances that it happened to me it was always a marine infantry squad (not a sniper team or a command element or anything else) and the AAV was already loaded with the squad. The first time it happened the AAV was given a "Fast" movement command to a destination that was more than a minute of travel time distant and the squad was given a "Quick" move to their destination. As soon as the We Go turn started the infantry fell out the back and started quick timing to their destination. The ramp didn't open - the infantry were just on the ground moving when the turn started and the AAV left them in the dust. Tactically there was a remote chance that a distant RPG could have hit the AAV at about 500 meters or more, but the destination was behind a building filled with friendly troops who needed reinforcements (in front of the trench filled palm orchard thingy in Radhak or whatever it's called) and I didn't want to take any chances. I had an AAV seemingly self destruct way back behind the front lines and I found no enemy infantry within the LOS of that location even after clearing every building in the area (high walled compound to the right side of route major from the blue perspective) and knowing that all the hilltops were cleared (infantry walked them and the sagger team was dispatched) so I didn't want to take any chances of having my troops sitting in a deathtrap until the full minute ended whenever they got to their destination. That blown up AAV was so mysterious and so far back in a 'safe' location that I didn't even see it on the replay because I never looked over there (after watching several replays). I assumed it was a grenade but there was nobody anywhere around.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there as far as the men falling out of the vehicle, the second time was when it was pretty quiet and most of the OPFOR was obviously huddled in fear because almost nobody was shooting at me. I used the "Move" for the AAV and gave the squad a fifteen second delay with an order to "Quick" into the first building on the right side opposite the second bridge in Radhanak on "Route Major". A friendly squad split into three teams along with a scout vehicle were already occupying the buildings on the left side of "Route Major" on the other side of the bridge in Radhanak (having crossed the dry creek on foot) and were well positioned in overwatch. After fifteen seconds the AAV was halfway across the bridge and the squad fell out the back of the AAV. The AAV proceeded to it's destination and stopped outside the building I wanted to clear. The troops were quick timing up the bridge until the minute was up (very slowly I might add).

So, anyway, tactically I'm not making any errors by using the AAVs the way I wanted to. The infantry just fall out of the vehicle and my tactics have nothing to do with it.

[ASL Veteran]

Incidentally, I should add in the two situations I described, both squads were split into teams prior to loading onto the AAV and each team loaded onto the AAV independently, reforming into squads after they had loaded up. I don't know if that matters or not, but I figured that I would mention it just in case. I don't recall it happening with any of my units when they originally unloaded, only in the case where the three teams formed a squad while in the AAV after reloading into the AAV.