Scenario author mode is great!

[Thomm]

Just had the time to run CM:SF a few minutes in Scenario Author mode and forgot to give orders to my units, because it was that cool to watch both sides fight without FOW for the observer!

It is basically a wonderful debug mode which replaces the tedium of having to play WeGo-Hotseat. A great addition, especially for somebody like me who is more interested in the inner workings of the engine than hours of playing, hehe.

Anyway, there is two small suggestions I would like to put forward:

1) It would be great to be able to toggle enemy forces on/off during playing. Such that one can select to scan OpFor only when something unusual happens.

2) It would also be great if unit-in-LOS highlighting would be active for OpFor. Currently, all friendly units are displayed (naturally) when an OpFor unit is selected and non (or was it all?) are highlighted. It would be great to get the LOS info for OpFor teams by blue units being highlighted (or non-visible blue units not being rendered).

But even in the current implementation I see how this new feature will make testing much easier, and will raise the quality of scenarios and the game itself!

Good job, Charles!

Best regards,

Thomm

[Paper Tiger]

IMO this is one of the most important improvements to the game. It has made scripting and debugging AI plans a much simpler thing to do. Before, I used to deploy Spies all over the place to observe the AI perform its plan (a PITA to do) and even then they would miss a LOT. And then you had to remember to remove them all before finalising the mission.

I was fortunate enough to have this tool when I was working on 'USMC Second Storm' and I could see that the AI was having problems moving its vehicles around in the town. So I 'knocked down' a few walls and put in an extra waypoint or two and the AI was able to move its vehicles around without too many snags. I was able to sit back with a cup of tea and watch the AI repeat this several times to make sure that it wasn't a fluke either. Wihout this, I'd probably have just added a couple of minutes to the order to allow the AI more time to get to its next objective.

You are also able to gauge how well the AI units are positioned for spotting enemy units when you give them 'Ambush XYZm' orders. When you select them during the game you'll see their large yellow covered arc. You can then watch as your units move into the arc and see when the AI spots them as the arc disappears immediately. You can follow their actions in the little text box in the bottom left of the screen so you can see that soldier X is aiming etc. This will allow us to determine more effectively the effects of experience, morale and equipment quality has on a unit's ability to perform its orders in the game as well as the different levels of concealment certain terrain offers to moving units. Wheatfields seem to be particularly good at concealing moving infantry units from enemy eyes.

I must also say that used in conjuction with ability to Disable AI Plan 1 scenario designers can actually select which plan they want to test without having to worry that they'd get AI Plan 1 even when it was set to 'Use Rarely'. It happened enough to me for it to be an issue.