Spotting and unit quality - does it matter?

[The Coil]

Ok, so slightly different test, to try to answer some of these questions once and for all...

Sniper, walking through a field of scattered trees toward a hidden squad...sniper is on 'move to contact', so he'll stop when he spots something. Just for kicks, a platoon HQ unit is a short distance away, with no ammo, to see if he can spot the incoming sniper. Twice with an 'elite' sniper, twice with a conscript. One of these days, I'll learn to post screenshots...

Here's what happened:

The conscript snipers spotted the hidden unit at 12m on trial one and 16m on trial two. They both gave sound contacts on the way in, one was actually spotted.

The elite snipers spotted the hidden unit at 15m and 17m. Neither was detected at all, no sound contacts or anything.

A few conclusions:

1) Better quality = harder to detect.

2) There does seem to be a random element to spotting (contra my earlier conclusion) - units were spotted at different distances each time.

3) The elite snipers seemed to spot marginally better, but the facts that the better conscript spotted between the two distances of the elites - 16m v 15m and 17m, and that I only ran two trials, leaves this an open question in my mind. Probably needs a bunch of trials run to be sure there's a real difference....perhaps I shall do this at some point.

Still open questions:

1) Do snipers have some 'special' spotting ability over and above other units with binocs? I sort of doubt it, but maybe. Undoubtedly, they are harder to counterdetect, esp a high quality unit, so even if they don't necessarily spot better, they can get a heck of a lot closer without being seen, which practically amounts to being able to spot better.

2) Ranges at which snipers can be seen by various units...not sure, would take a lot of testing...might get around to it at some point if someone else doesn't. As Leto pointed out, it would be right handy to have an idea of how close you can creep your sniper around the enemy without being spotted.

Semi-interesting side note: I've noticed this before in games I've played, and it showed up again in this test. Snipers apparently carry side arms, and will use them when out of ammo, or will use them on nearby units, even if outside of their cover arc, where they wouldn't fire their rifle.

[PoorOldSpike]

1- If by "wasting your time" you mean "spending it somewhere where people might actually disagree with you instead of just being slack-jawed in amazement at your 'credentials'"....

2 - There does seem to be a random element to spotting (contra my earlier conclusion) - units were spotted at different distances each time.

Yes that's what I said, there's a random element running through everything in CM.. :)

[PoorOldSpike]

[The Coil]

[PoorOldSpike]

[Colonel Talvela]

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

[The Coil]

[The Coil]

So, anyway, back to the topic at hand:

Ran the 'sniper walking up on a hidden squad' test a few more times: 10 with an elite, 10 with a conscript.

The elite sniper spotted the unit at an average distance of 13.1 meters, the conscript spotted the unit at an average of 15.4 meters. Draw your own conclusions...

CT - a few 'at what distance will a sniper be spotted' tests coming your way soon...

[Copper]

[Copper]