Rocky Balboa Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Last night while playing Closing the Pocket I witnessed one of my AT teams exit a house where they had no eyes on a target, cross a road and set up a firing position next to a stone wall by a church. From their new vantage point, they proceeded to launch zooka rounds at a target ~ 100 yards away until they finally took it out after about 3 rounds. All this was done without me issuing any orders at all. Pretty impressive I would say. Of course the down side is that if they had gotten mowed down in the street some players might be cursing the AI for doing something so stupid. From my standpoint its a testament to the game that we would even have that discussion at all. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunnergoz Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Ditto. I saw a 3-man MG team get reduced to one man, who then lugged the MG from where they had been hit by artillery, to another location behind a wall, where he then set up the MG for a last stand. Very impressive. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadsword56 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 That rocks, Rocky! Can you share a few more details about the circumstances -- I'm curious to know what orders the unit originally had, whether it was an AT team that had been split out from a squad, and whether it had any particular facing or target orders in effect at the time. I'm wondering whether any particular variables like that make it more or less likely for a unit to do what your brave little AT unit did. And there are certain cases when we might want a unit to hold its position no matter what, and not go off to hunt from what it thinks is a better spot (I guess "hide" ensures that, right?). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadsword56 Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Also, I'll bet fitness and training and experience might affect the likelihood of a single soldier or team doing this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeeDog Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Nice. AI initiative can definitely cut both ways... I actually kind of like it when my pixeltruppen get themselves in trouble by doing some dumbass thing, as long as whatever stupid thing they do is believably something a real soldier might do in the heat of battle. Last night, I was preparing to Spring a coordinated assault with artillery and armor, and I had a full platoon of infantry hidden behind some bocage, with short cover arcs on all the units to keep them from opening fire and revealing themselves. Then an MG42 opened up on another unit I had moving around elsewhere on the map. The fire was long range, and not particularly dangerous, but one of the teams I had hiding behind the bocage decided to come to the rescue, ignoring its cover arc and taking the enemy MG under fire. Then the enemy fired back, things escalated, and all hell broke loose before I was ready for it. Spoiled the whole timetable for my attack. But this is definitely something I could see a jumpy rifleman doing in the stress of combat, so I don't mind it that stuff like this happens in the game occasionally. It's important to remember that any battle plan which requires your pixeltruppen to behave absolutely perfectly according to plan, is a battle plan that needs to be revised... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunnergoz Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Yea, these guys seem to have some "character" don't they? For better or for worse, they sure seem to not be too predictable. In a good way for the most part, since I like the uncertainty that is injected into the game from it...seems more realistic somehow. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Balboa Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 That rocks, Rocky! Can you share a few more details about the circumstances -- I'm curious to know what orders the unit originally had, whether it was an AT team that had been split out from a squad, and whether it had any particular facing or target orders in effect at the time. I'm wondering whether any particular variables like that make it more or less likely for a unit to do what your brave little AT unit did. And there are certain cases when we might want a unit to hold its position no matter what, and not go off to hunt from what it thinks is a better spot (I guess "hide" ensures that, right?). Details: I was playing the US side against German AI. If you've played Closing the Pocket then you know the drill. The Germans normally assault the town up the middle through the field with trees and hedgerows around it. I had not issued any orders at all to any of the infantry in the town. The Germans brought up 2 AC's to support their assault across the field and the AC's were very effective at laying down suppressive fire. The AT team consisted of 4-5 men and it was probably the whole squad and not just a team. The US infantry in this scenario begin the game with 70% losses and I'm pretty sure they had taken some casualties already as the building they were in had been under fire from the AC's. I was watching the replay and at first I thought the AT team was routing away from the building but they showed no sign of suppression. They ran across the road to the church and laid down next to a stone wall facing the axis of attack. The location they chose gave them a perfect keyhole position between 2 buildings to one of the AC's. They starting firing their bazooka and on the 3rd round scored a hit on one of the AC's. I suppose you might believe that they were routing and were just lucky enough to stop at a perfect firing position but it didn't look that way to me. To looked to me like a very well planned and executed tactical maneuver by the AT team. My guess is the Tac AI logic new that the bazooka couldn't be deployed from within the building so it exited the building then searched for and found a location from which to fire the bazooka. Details like this are what really makes the game great. With the level of detail already in the game I really can't wait to see what they have in store for the future of this franchise. Great Work Guys !!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soldat-Hans Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Details: I really can't wait to see what they have in store for the future of this franchise. Eastern Front I hope ;-) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Last night while playing Closing the Pocket I witnessed one of my AT teams exit a house where they had no eyes on a target, cross a road and set up a firing position next to a stone wall by a church. From their new vantage point, they proceeded to launch zooka rounds at a target ~ 100 yards away until they finally took it out after about 3 rounds. All this was done without me issuing any orders at all. Pretty impressive I would say. That will have been assisted, I'd guess, by the fact that the AT team couldn't perform its function inside a building, eyes-on or not No zook/faust/schrek action from inside in this game. Too loud. Disturbs the neighbours. And the firer's protoplasm. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Balboa Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 Yes I realized this after making my first post. What obviously triggered the AI behavior was the inability to fire the zook from inside the building. Obviously they would have stayed put and fired from the building if they could have. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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