Wounded Soldier holds up entire AI Plan

[xian]

I have noticed on several occasions that a single wounded soldier can dramatically disrupt the execution of an AI Plan movement order.

The AI group will wait for the wounded soldier to join them (taking up to 10 minutes) before performing the next AI order in their list. Considering that an AI group can often change a movement order to 'slow' the effect on the overall AI plan can be dramatic.

Could this be looked at at some stage, perhaps allowing groups to continue to the next order without waiting for the wounded?

[Boo Radley]

This has happened to me on a couple of occasions. I just hit "Split Teams" and took whomever wasn't going to be held back on ahead.

[xian]

I'm talking abut the AI - not the human controlled TacAI.

That said, you still have a point - creating smaller groups. Unfortunately there is the limitation of a maximum of 8 groups in the editor.

[StellarRat]

Hmm...well I believe that happens IRL too. Most soldiers aren't going to leave their buddies behind if at all possible.

[Boche]

Hmm...well I believe that happens IRL too. Most soldiers aren't going to leave their buddies behind if at all possible.

hmmm well, if you need to get an attack on end and you start taking casualties someone is going to have to be left behind

btw to the author, are you talking wounded as in yellow or light/dark red?

[TheVulture]

Pretty clear he means yellow IMO. If you are waiting for red base injuries to catch up you are going to be waiting for a very long time.

Not much that can be done about it though except for the AI cutting out waypoints or auto-splitting teams with an injured solider who is moving slowly so the rest can carry on without him

[Boche]

Pretty clear he means yellow IMO. If you are waiting for red base injuries to catch up you are going to be waiting for a very long time.

Yeah I supposed so aswell but just making sure...but do yellow soldiers run slower? I havnt really noticed that

[xian]

It can take an eternity - especially when the AI decides to go against the set plan and starts to crawl. Waiting for a crawling wounded soldier in CMBN is like watching paint dry.

[c3k]

Yes, yellow soldiers tire more quickly. Once tired, they gradually lose the ability to move at the faster speeds.

[TankDawg68]

Never leave a soldier behind!

[bodkin]

Does the unit group continue to tire when waiting for the injured member to catch up? If you look at the UI for the unit it will give a lower fatigue status until the straggler catches up which means the whole unit is tiring.

[xian]

Indeed it does - just making everything worse.

[Peregrine]

Definitely introduces problems in campaigns. I think it would be best if soldiers with those type of mobility wounds are left out of battle, especially if on the attack. It feels unrealistic and introduces micromanagement to overcome it.

[DavidFields]

Definitely introduces problems in campaigns. I think it would be best if soldiers with those type of mobility wounds are left out of battle, especially if on the attack. It feels unrealistic and introduces micromanagement to overcome it.

I am going to, not very vehemently, disagree with this. To me, it adds character to the units. And a wounded unit with a BAR, or a wounded solo HQ, may be more valuable slow than not available at all.

That being said, I don't agree with the "don't leave anyone behind." In a war with fronts (for the US, Korea after the stabilization of the front, and prior), someone whose condition was endangering the unit mission could just be sent back to a rear "rally" point.

This is partly why (and I struggle with this) I am less than enamored with the Buddy Aid. Fighting and endless war, with an endless enemy, where every friendly casualty was noteworthy, the showing of Buddy Aid makes sense. But that was not, IMHO, WW2. Get the (red cross marked) injured off the field. We need, as the Allies, to get to Berlin. A few more daily casualties for a markedly shorter war would have been a bargain. For the Germans, patching someone up so they could be a POW, or sent away from the front, was not very useful.

But I can certainly see the other side. Different aspects of the simulation are going to be interesting to different people.

Again, for me, the concept that my yellow-wounded soldiers walk slower is fascinating.

[xian]

Yes... I think some people might be misunderstanding... I don't have a problem with the wounded soldiers if they are under my command. The problem arises when they badly affect an AI plan.

A human player can always split the squad or perhaps find them transport, but when an AI soldier is wounded it forces the entire squad to wait for the wounded soldier to catch up before following the next order.

[Magpie_Oz]

Bit of a funny one really isn't it.

Standard doctrine in an assault is to leave wounded and keep going otherwise everyone ends up a casualty, on the other hand tho' some one gets hit and the first call is MEDIC ! and everyone stops to sort him out.

I did see suggested in another thread that opening up with area fire or grenades on the wounded did solve the loss of tempo problem..............

[Wodin]

Maybe some doctrines need to be brought in in future games...like "probe" or "leave wounded behind" etc etc for both the AI and our use.

[Sgt Schultz]

This will be solved once we get Soviets and the "Commissar's Mercy" pistol shot.

Seriously, the only real flaw I see is the tiring of an entire squad because one wounded soldier is trying to drag his entrails after the rest of the squad. BFC had to stop the 1 troop is 1 troop detail somewhere, and go to abstraction, and that is where they drew the line.

My suggestion is differing AI value placed on wounded, depending on battle type. Meeting Engagement or Defense... all aid possible. Probe, not so much. Attack, even less. Assault, leave the bugger lie, we have things to do.

This could possibly be implemented by having wounded turn into casualties faster.

Example - Assault. Yellow wounded AI attacking troop gets 1 minute on the map, then disappears as a casualty.

Attack - Wounded gets 2 minutes.

and so on ..

[dieseltaylor]

Quite a major problem - especially for AI plans. If I played the AI rather than humans expect me to try and inflict wound damage as a matter of course to degrade AI squads. Not funny to play on game engine weaknesses.