RT request: HOLD/EXECUTE orders button

[panzermartin]

Given the lack of pause in online RT I as thinking for a HOLD/EXECUTE feature that will only affect the unit orders. For instance, I want to carry out a coordinated assault of multiple infantry squads with support smoke/fire from on map mortars, tanks and HMG supressing fire. Right now its hopeless to do this in RT with no pause because every time you order a unit the execution is instant unless you are a master of pause command. So, by the time you are ordering your inf forward, the smoke screen is disappearing and your supressing fire is being countered by the enemy defenders. Result= assault ends with a waste of men and material.

No diverse attacks are possible, or distracting enemy tanks with a bait, as you can only move a couple of units at a time. Also, you dont have time to watch the action because every sec counts as you have to plan on the fly.

I would imagine it, pressing the HOLD button, giving the commands to all seperate units and when ready and the situation favors it you unleash the plan byt pressing the same button for EXECUTE. This will be done with no actual pause of the action. Of course if you dont want to, you wont have to press this button to order your units. (small unit action etc)

Would this be simple enough to implement till some kind of TCP/IP WeGo/Pasuing system is realized?

[Gryphonne]

I like this idea actually, it's elegant adding an extra command level to the units in real time. So, like a general pause button for a group/all units then? and without a timer counting down.

Right now it's a real B*TCH trying to accomplish complex troop movement/fire & maneuver in RT.

[panzermartin]

Yes, exactly, a general simple pause/unpause by pressing say spacebar..like a WEGO subsystem inside RT. Units under pause will still remain active and responsive to threats, only player input will be put on hold.

[stikkypixie]

There is an indefinite pause order. Just give it to all the units you want on hold + their orders, pause the whole game and select all the units that you don't want on hold any more using shift + select, and click the clear pause button. Would that work?

[panzermartin]

Hmm, not sure..sounds like too much work for online RT. I'm talking for a simple click/unclick thing. No selective pausing, rather a universal HOLD button that will give you some peace of mind to think clearly and plan something more complex than getting your panzer around the next corner.

[stikkypixie]

Hmm, not sure..sounds like too much work for online RT. I'm talking for a simple click/unclick thing. No selective pausing, rather a universal HOLD button that will give you some peace of mind to think clearly and plan something more complex than getting your panzer around the next corner.

Oooh, you were talking about online . Yeah that would be way too much work.

[Migo441]

Interesting idea. It's a little ironic that people want to play real-time but without "real time" in terms of continuously flowing time and immediate response to player input. But I DO see where this would be helpful for players and make it possible to handle larger numbers of troops and give higher levels of coordination.

However, it could be troublesome in practice.

Imagine you are planning a movement where a large number of units will emerge from hiding. You hit the "Pause Orders" button and issue orders to ~ half of the units. Suddenly, you are confronted with an emergency on another portion of the map. Now what?

1.) You start issuing orders to react to the emergency but nothing happens! "Pause Orders" is in effect. Which leads to...

2.) You toggle the "Pause Orders" in order to react to the new threat, but now your coordinated action is screwed up. Only half of the units begin reacting to their orders while the other half stay hidden.

So it could be tricky in practice. Would you want a way to quickly cancel any paused commands? Would you want a way to issue paused commands to only a specified subset of units?

Also, with the action continuing, there could be some strange results as units move or change state between when the orders are issued and when they start reacting.

[panzermartin]

Valid points. But again I'm talking about an optional, "use at your own risk" feature.In emergency situations you are still a click away from cancelling all the issued orders and jump to the hot spot. But I guess this sort of planning will be opted by the player when the situation is stabilized and not that heated.

[panzermartin]

Also, I dont think its ironic to want to have the fun of the "lively" RT and enjoy the tactical complexity and the visual details of CM at the same time. Besides, online players are currently stuck with either PBEM or no pausing RT. So we are somewhat forced to play in "real" RT a game that obviously wasnt designed for that kind of fast gameplay.

[bbaker]

Interesting idea. It's a little ironic that people want to play real-time but without "real time" in terms of continuously flowing time and immediate response to player input. But I DO see where this would be helpful for players and make it possible to handle larger numbers of troops and give higher levels of coordination.

However, it could be troublesome in practice.

Imagine you are planning a movement where a large number of units will emerge from hiding. You hit the "Pause Orders" button and issue orders to ~ half of the units. Suddenly, you are confronted with an emergency on another portion of the map. Now what?

1.) You start issuing orders to react to the emergency but nothing happens! "Pause Orders" is in effect. Which leads to...

2.) You toggle the "Pause Orders" in order to react to the new threat, but now your coordinated action is screwed up. Only half of the units begin reacting to their orders while the other half stay hidden.

So it could be tricky in practice. Would you want a way to quickly cancel any paused commands? Would you want a way to issue paused commands to only a specified subset of units?

Also, with the action continuing, there could be some strange results as units move or change state between when the orders are issued and when they start reacting.

I think you solve this not by using a universal "hold" that affects all troops, but by adding new functionality to the current "pause" command, "indefinite pause until triggered" --- you issue this order to an individual unit first, then plot its actions. It remains paused and does not execute the orders until the trigger is given.

You do this for whichever group of units you want. All of these remain paused until you hit the trigger command. Meanwhile, troops not given the indefinite pause behave/can be controlled normally.

This way, if you're interrupted by something on the other side of the map, you can go deal with that and your half-formed attack plans are still on hold while you deal with the crisis.

[Major.Pain]

You can do this to some extent with the pause button on the UI just above where your order/movement buttons are, the three little icons, pause, cancel and find cover, though you so still have to select each unit that is on a pause command to unpause it.

If you have a group of units on the pause command that are in the same part of the map, drag select them using shift and unpause, works well.

For lots of small groups spread over different parts of the map though, difficult to do.

[Ranger33]

This idea has some real merit, think of it like the "go codes" from the Rainbow Six games (well, the old ones). You could assign units to a group and give the group a "hold until released" command. Then every unit gets its orders and you hit go. I don't see why you couldn't use this for multiple groups as well.

This doesn't make the game less RT it would just give us better tools. In real life a company commander wouldn't order an attack one squad at a time, he would create a plan, and have every squad involved execute the plan at the same time.