Is the TacAI unable to use Area-Fire ?

[Wiggum]

I read about it in another thread some days ago and i had to think about this...

Is the TacAI unable to use Area-Fire ?

You, as player, use it the hole time.

You "know" that there is a enemy in that building, you see the ? above it.

You use area fire to supress him.

Now, what would the TacAI (your enemy) do ?

Nothing ?

Becasue they actually cant spot you ?

Or are they smart enough to use area-fire on suspected enemy positions ?

I ask because a AI, unable to use Area-fire against suspected enemy positions...is kind of bad.

[SteveP]

I suspect the answer is no. It was a limitation in CM1, and I was hoping there might be a breakthru in CM2. But I haven't seen any indication of it.

[Blackcat]

I don't think I have ever seen the AI use area fire, aside from artillery barrages, in any CM game. My gut feel is that the level of processing needed is just too great for the computing power available.

It isn't just a case of there is a ? over a building so wack some HE in there. How old is that mark, how did the unit come to know of the "sighting", are there any better targets around worthy of its attention, how does the unit decide what is a better target, what would be the consequences to the unit if it opened fire on a suspect enemy position, what would be the consequences for the "plan", what... There are very many considerations that a human player takes into account, most without even being aware of them. It is crazy to expect a computer programme running on a desktop machine to produce valid area fire decisions for potentially dozens if not hundeds of units with each unit having dozens of potential targets to consider and do so in real time.

It is of course one of the many reasons why the game only reaches its true potential when playing against a human opponent.

[lookeylou]

i remember playing a demo mission and i had a number of squads up against the bocage laying down heavy fire on the enemy on the road east of my location across the open field. And the AI hit me with a barrage of mortar fire. that taught me to spread my men out in the future real fast. maybe it was the amount of fire coming down on the AI that prompted the ai to use mortar fire in that situation. If you are talking about exploratory bombardment, i haven't seen that.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

There is of course the area fire as performed by the TacAI after a sighted unit drops out of view. It will fire a few shots into the last known position for good measure.

[womble]

To some extent, the lack of area fire options seems to be compensated for by the facility with which the AI finds firing spots that have good direct targetting options on your assets.

[Taki]

They use Area Fire. If seen it alot. Great thing of the New Game!

When they attack a unit and it drops down into cover they keep peppering the last known Position for effect!

*thumb up* !

[SteveP]

Just to clarify a couple of things:

I think the design of the AI is to rely on overwatch rather than pre-emptive area fire. In some cases that is not unreasonable, because responding with overwhelming fire on a location that has revealed itself is going to be very effective, whereas pre-emptive area fire might not be hitting the right place, and the unit so ordered may continue to area fire into the wrong location after the defender reveals himself.

Where it gets tricky is that you are allowed (and even encouraged -- e.g., the tutorials -- to do some things with area fire that the AI can't do AFAIK). An example would be ordering an overwatch unit to area fire at a location that the overwatch unit itself never saw anything. Another example would be using a tank in a keyhole position to area fire into the vicinity of an AT gun from a position of relative safety (not as easy in CM2 as CM1 perhaps, but still a valid tactic).

OTOH, I really haven't played CM2 enough yet to be sure about any of this. So, keep that in mind.

[Praetori]

It's very hard to judge as it's hard to detect if the AI has spotted your unit or not.

I've had units take fire even though they can't see the enemy and I've also seen the AI lay waste to buildings which haven't been occupied for several minutes.

Arty seems to drop pretty "intelligently" even on spots that I'm pretty sure the AI haven't spotted any units in (since there haven't been any). Though it's mostly areas that I've moved towards or spots that would have been ideal to man.

I do get a feeling however that the AI doesn't use recon-by-fire as there's a distinct lack of small arms or cannon fire on face-palm obvious spots they're advancing towards.