line of sight suggestion to speed up giving orders

[chucknz]

CM is a great game but one thing I find frustrating is having to be so careful with giving orders to troops as they crest a hill so that they don't go to far and end up on the wrong side of it when I want them to, for example, take up a position overlooking a building.

I would like to suggest a new type of instruction, possibly called 'Line of Sight' . The way it would work is that you would give movement instructions as per now but then if you clicked on this button then clicked on a point on the map e.g. a building then as soon as the troops moving along the line of movement got into a position where they could see / fire on that position they would automatically stop.

I really think that this would remove some of the micromanagement and remove the frustration of troops ending up on the exposed sides of ridgelines by accident when you would expect well trained troops shouldn't be ending up in that situation.

Anyone got any comments... or any suggestions for other ways I can make sure my troops make the maximum use of ridgeline cover while still being able to target the enemy as it causes me a lot of problems?

[Erwin]

It's a good idea, as in CM2 it is hard to gauge LOS. On the other hand, one can now click on any waypoint and check LOS from that waypoint (or order fire, or change covered arc) - which is brilliant.

[hoolaman]

I suggest trying to deploy troops across a map in the editor to see how they deploy on tiles of different elevation and with different facing. You can instantly place them anywhere you like, and this should give you a better idea of how they should behave when they get there in the game.

The "crease" of the elevation ridgeline cuts across the centre of a tile, and on a sufficient slope, troops will deploy in a line across the ridge. So if you slow (crawl) your troops up to a tile that looks about right you can click on that waypoint before they get there then hit "target" to trace LOS from that waypoint like Erwin siad above. Its confusing because the line still traces from the unit itself, but the LOS is show as if it is from the waypoint.

I understand your frustration but there is enough feedback in the game to give you a fair idea of what to expect from any given waypoint. Too much easy information on what exactly you can see from any point on the map is also a bit of a cheat. In reality you might arrive on a ridge to find you can't see what you thought you would be able to see. Admittedly seeing what you thought you would see then going further into danger is also pretty silly, but there are simple ways to avoid this.

[Holman]

I'm getting Deja Vu. Didn't we have this command in CMx1?

[Erwin]

We had an order for AFV's to go to hull-down positions. But, it wasn't that useful and I think we all eyeballed it. But, it was easier to figure out what terrain one was in in CM1.

[chucknz]

thanks for your excellent suggestions on how I can handle this better. Will definitely try experimenting more with the editor at next chance. I didn't realise that troops would line up on the ridge like that. I presume that also depends on their facing etc? Maybe it's a combination of things that's been causing them to blunder over the ridgeline like a squad of badly trained lemmings!

[Waaarg]

What Erwin talks about (targeting from waypoints) works with vehicles to see if the are hull down.

But trying to gauge which square infantry can fight from on a hill still takes me a few waypoint attempts.

[Erwin]

Yes, it's useful to check LOS from each waypoint.

But, because LOS is way trickier in CM2 than in CM1, I often find (when in woods) that I have to make dozens of "test" waypoints as I struggle to find that one sweet spot for my unit to go where it can see the enemy while in the woods. And sometimes, the waypoint LOS test suggests that the unit will have LOS, but when it gets there, it still doesn't have LOS. (Grrr...)