Lacking in Self Preservation?

[7thGalaxy]

I'm just playing through the Marines Campaign again, and on the first mission was amused to watch one of my elite teams, in full knowledge that there is a stationary tank in line of sight, casually open up at long range against a squad of enemy grunts, giving the tank a pretty good indication of where they were, and eventually getting a close look at a 120mm shell. Is there a way of getting them to stay spotting and looking out for potential targets, without giving their position away? I contemplated giving them a target arc, but does that reduce their long range spotting abillity?

[MehMan]

Have you tried using the hide command? I'm unsure if it does anything for spotting abilites, but I'd imagine it shouldn't.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Target arc does not reduce their long-range spotting ability as far as I know. It does determine their facing, but that's all.

@MehMan,

Hide can significantly decrease spotting ability; it depends on the exact position of your troops though.

[SlapHappy]

I successfully used hide to spot tanks from the upper level of a building to call in anti-armor artillery strikes. Worked very well.

[hcrof]

It depends - A hide command will reduce spotting ability because only one person will look for the enemy at a time (most of the time, sometimes more or less).

On the other hand a short target arc won't affect spotting ability very much as far as I know.

Its all about context - at 300m you will stay unseen as long as you are in cover. If you are playing as the Syrians or close to the enemy you will need to hide more often and accept the loss in spotting ability.

I personally use target arcs with the Americans but hide a lot as the Syrians (and use dedicated spotters)

[7thGalaxy]

I used a target arc in the end, it seemed to work - although I'm pretty sure the sniper pulled off a sneaky shot whilst I was not looking! Hide definatly reduced the spotting ability.

Is there any coding which reduces the chances of opening fire, if a known threat is present?

[Sivodsi]

Actually one thing I've noticed with the area target command: that vehicles will deviate from it if they see a nearby 'target of opportunity' and then go back to popping away at the area target I love this feature!

Target arc does not reduce their long-range spotting ability as far as I know. It does determine their facing, but that's all.

For vehicles this is not true. They will ignore enemy vehicles that appear outside their target arc, even if they spot them, as what happened recently when a bmp 1 appeared about a km away from a LAV-25 in clear LOS. The bmp represents a substantial threat with its 73mm and AT-4, yet the LAV kept its focus on the target arc. Admittedly the bmp didn't take a shot at the LAV, but all the same you would expect the LAV to react in some way (retreat, or break the arc and ping the bmp).

If only the same flexibility that vehicles have with area fire could be shown when another vehicle appears outside the target arc.

[slug88]

Actually one thing I've noticed with the area target command: that vehicles will deviate from it if they see a nearby 'target of opportunity' and then go back to popping away at the area target I love this feature!

For vehicles this is not true. They will ignore enemy vehicles that appear outside their target arc, even if they spot them, as what happened recently when a bmp 1 appeared about a km away from a LAV-25 in clear LOS. The bmp represents a substantial threat with its 73mm and AT-4, yet the LAV kept its focus on the target arc. Admittedly the bmp didn't take a shot at the LAV, but all the same you would expect the LAV to react in some way (retreat, or break the arc and ping the bmp).

If only the same flexibility that vehicles have with area fire could be shown when another vehicle appears outside the target arc.

Agreed. I think the ideal solution would be for the current target-arc behavior to apply when a target-arc + HIDE command is given. When no HIDE order is given, the unit should be able to fire outside of it's arc, but of course it will prioritize it's observation to within the arc. In the current state, I feel arcs are rather useless outside of ambush situations; I've been burned far too many times by easy targets popping up and wreaking havoc just outside of the arcs of my overwatching units.

[akd]

For vehicles this is not true. They will ignore enemy vehicles that appear outside their target arc, even if they spot them, as what happened recently when a bmp 1 appeared about a km away from a LAV-25 in clear LOS. The bmp represents a substantial threat with its 73mm and AT-4, yet the LAV kept its focus on the target arc. Admittedly the bmp didn't take a shot at the LAV, but all the same you would expect the LAV to react in some way (retreat, or break the arc and ping the bmp).

If only the same flexibility that vehicles have with area fire could be shown when another vehicle appears outside the target arc.

What was stated is true: that spotting chances are not reduced even if the target being spotted is beyond the arc.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

For vehicles this is not true. They will ignore enemy vehicles that appear outside their target arc, even if they spot them, as what happened recently when a bmp 1 appeared about a km away from a LAV-25 in clear LOS. The bmp represents a substantial threat with its 73mm and AT-4, yet the LAV kept its focus on the target arc. Admittedly the bmp didn't take a shot at the LAV, but all the same you would expect the LAV to react in some way (retreat, or break the arc and ping the bmp).

If only the same flexibility that vehicles have with area fire could be shown when another vehicle appears outside the target arc.

I agree. The comment I originally wrote was intended to address the OP's situation, when he was talking about an infantry team.

But I do agree that the situation that you mention could use some fixing. I generally find that it's not such a great idea to issue target arcs to vehicles unless you really, really want them only focused on one part of the battlefield.