LOS oddness

[Hukka]

For some reason the tank can't see the church. (Can't target)

I don't know why the targeting line isn't visible in the screen capture, but I can assure you that I tried to target every part of the church.

There are lots of weird LOS issues in this map for some reason. The map is mostly flat in many parts, yet you can only see like 50 m forward, but here and there you can see 200 m or something like that.

Overall I don't like how you can't target buildings when most of it is clearly visible to troops, but maybe you can't see the very ground level of the building. Trying to call artillery missions and area targeting (for suppressive fire) gives me lots of headaches in this game. Maybe LOS could be loosened up some for area targeting and fire missions.

Usually troops fire on enemies just fine when you'd thought they have a LOS at least.

[flamingknives]

Weather conditions?

Buildings have always been a bit of a pain in the CMX2 engine. Especially at odd angles or when partially obscured.

[Hukka]

Weather conditions?

Yes, I was thinking this too, but I think the weather effects are constant across the map (?). So that shoulnd't explain why you can see 50 m on a flat ground, and when you move the target a little, you can see suddenly much farther.

Maybe with the buildings the LOS spot could be move to the roof instead to the base of building or something. Well I guess they've thought of that already.

EDIT: And for the record, I don't recall having anywhere near this level of difficulty targeting buildings in CMSF. Of course there wasn't almost any vegetation etc etc... But I don't know. The buildings shouldn't be very hard to spot and target.

[Blackcat]

With muti-storey buildings you can target each floor assuming a LOS, well usually. Dunno about the belfry in that church but it looks like a single storey building to me. One way to test is just give an infantry unit an order to move into it.

As to the target line not appearing in the screen shot, it doesn't look like you have the Panther selected, so the line wouldn't be displayed.

Now, to the meat of the question. Why is visibilty restricted to 50m in some directions but not others? It is impossible to say from that screen shot. I see that a couple of US units are clearly visible from some unit at greater than 50m. What level of difficulty are you playing on? Not that it would affect the question but it might help in deciphering the screen shot (who can see those 2 US units). Do you have a saved game?

One last thought. Do you have trees turned on or off? You might just want to check this.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

I reckon it is the partially obscured building flaw. If you cannot see the centre of a building you can, sadly, kiss targeting it goodbye. You should still be able to target troops that are visible inside it, but the building itself cannot be fired upon.

[TheVulture]

To target a building you need to have LoS to the center of the building (or at least the center of the floor you wish to target). It is one of the quirks of the action spot system that they haven't figure out how to deal with decently yet. The main time it creates a problem is if you have a unit in the building. the unit can target you, you can target the unit in the building if you can see the unit, but if you lose sight of it you can't direct area fire at the bit of the building you can see.

[Lunsku]

This area looks oddly familiar... wrong angle though.

I would say that there's quite a lot of trees, not dense but still some between my troops and your tank there. alt+t a couple of times and see how it looks like from the tank viewpoint then.

[Blackcat]

"To target a building you need to have LoS to the center of the building (or at least the center of the floor you wish to target). "

Are you sure about this? I know there is still an issue if the building is at an angle - one might be able to see the face but the target line always draws to the corner so area fire is much less effective. However, I am quite sure it is possible to target a "blank wall" of a building in those circumstances the unit would have no line of sight to the centre of the building.

If Mr. Hukka could provide us with a save game, we could tell for sure waht is going on. Looking at the ground in his screen shot again and comparing foreground to background, I think I would wager a modest bottle of scotch (less shipping charges!) that he has trees turned off. Any takers?

[Hukka]

I am ashamed beyond words. The trees visibility setting is OFF.

[Lunsku]

No biggie, just reclaim your honour be beating my yanks. :3

[Blackcat]

I am ashamed beyond words. The trees visibility setting is OFF.

No sweat, sometimes we all overlook the simple solutions.

Pity you didn't wait a bit until some people had accepted my bet.