Main Engine Improvement Request

[Dog Soldier]

Sgt Fury,

I think the Highlight Reachable Hexes feature response time is a function of the diversity of the terrain on the map. I have found in desert scenarios this function is quite fast, even for the recon units in T mode. I think this is attributed to the homogeneous landscape.

Dog Soldier

[Sgt Jasper]

Letting the AI choose your path for long-distance moves seems like begging for a close encounter with a minefield or an enemy unit. Given half a chance, the AI will generally get you blown up or shot to pieces, in my experience.
I use short bounds to avoid the known minefields and irate enemies the AI seems to delight in charging into. Once I'm clear of those I'll turn on the reachable hexes, but I still won't use the full range, at least not initially, because I want to be able to back off if I bump into unspotted bad guys. At any rate, I don't see speed as an issue. By the time I can take a swallow of the cold beverage du jour, the Artifical Idiot generally has finished calculating a disastrous route for the fastest of WWII units (I don't play the moderns, though, so don't know about that.) I'd much rather see the AI given the ability to avoid known minefields and enemy zones of control than have scarce programming resources spent on producing unsatisfactory results more quickly. :rolleyes:

[Krak]

I concur Sgt. Jasper

[Glenn Saunders]

.... I'd much rather see the AI given the ability to avoid known minefields and enemy zones of control than have scarce programming resources spent on producing unsatisfactory results more quickly. :rolleyes:

Oh God - not the Mine issue again :)

I'd bet that every soldier that ever drove in a vehicle down a road wished HQ had the sense to never send them where there was any chnace of a mine - AND - that if they were going anywhere near Mines, the idiot driving the vehicle would in no way, sway ever so slightly from the cleared path.

Mines are just part of the play and part of the "loss of control" I mentioned in another thread resently, that drive players to distraction - even though their effect in the big picture are not really that great. Just the loss of that perfect plan and knowing exactly how far a unit can move, and still disembark and get one shot in.

Glenn

[Liebchen]

On a slightly separate note, I always think the reachable hexes command provides too much information for a commander. I think it removes some of the uncertainties of command. We have much more time to make decisions than a real commander and having the exact lie of the land accounted for automatically and how it affects movement removes some of the fog of war.

I think that this uncertainty arises from the enemy units (yes, and those minefields) that the "reachable hexes" view doesn't take into account. Sure, you might think that you can get that AC units to that hilltop, but you might run into some surprises along the way.

[Mr Grumpy]

.... I'd much rather see the AI given the ability to avoid known minefields and enemy zones of control than have scarce programming resources spent on producing unsatisfactory results more quickly. :rolleyes:

Oh God - not the Mine issue again :)

I'd bet that every soldier that ever drove in a vehicle down a road wished HQ had the sense to never send them where there was any chnace of a mine - AND - that if they were going anywhere near Mines, the idiot driving the vehicle would in no way, sway ever so slightly from the cleared path.

Mines are just part of the play and part of the "loss of control" I mentioned in another thread resently, that drive players to distraction - even though their effect in the big picture are not really that great. Just the loss of that perfect plan and knowing exactly how far a unit can move, and still disembark and get one shot in.

Glenn

I love this story from the EA42 designer notes........

The confusion of battle is perhaps best illustrated by the exploit of Maj. C. C. Lomax, the commander of HQ Squadron of the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers. Leading a column of supply trucks and trying to find the 201st Guards Brigade Box at Knightsbridge, he veered too far north and got lost in the darkness. Suddenly he spotted a low trip wire, which denoted the boundary of a minefield. His driver hit the brakes and they stopped a few feet from the wire. Two sentries approached and identified themselves as Guardsmen. Lomax asked if this was the Knightsbridge Box, and they replied that it was.

"How very fortunate!" the major exclaimed. "Another few yards and we would all have been in the minefield."

"On the contrary, sir," one of the sentries replied, "another few yards and you will be out of it."

He and his whole convoy (which was following in his tracks) had passed through the entire minefield without hitting a single mine!

:eek1:

[Sgt Jasper]

Actually, it wouldn't bother me much if the reachable hexes feature didn't exist at all, and my point was that it's of limited utility and works well enough that speeding it up hardly seems worth the effort to me. I don't miss it in the HPS ACW games and don't use it much it PzC. Where it does come in handy is in deciding whether I can pop off one more round and still move a hex or two (assuming I don't get disrupted by return fire.) But then, I've been used to tallying movement points as I go since I got Tactics II in 1959, so just having the computer do the math for me seems like living in the lap of luxury. And not having to rummage through half a dozen game boxes looking for a die when I get ready to play, or have to worry about one of the dogs bumping the card table leg and tumbling stacks of units like dominoes -- I can swallow a lot of quibbles when i'm getting all those advantages. (The wife finally banished all my old SPI magazine games to the attic; said the dust mites were setting off her allergies; another problem I don't get with Tiller's games.) What's not to like?

That's enough of this: :soap: Time for this: but with my tongue this far in my cheek I might choke on the suds:eek1:

[Dog Soldier]

I have no problem with the unexpected minefield or enemy ZOC interrupting what the AI thought was a safe route.
If the AI highlighted a safe route taking these things into consideration, then the Highlight Reachable Hexes feature would just become a gamey recon feature allowing the player to see suspected minefields or enemy units by the shape of the highlighted area?

That would be a tragedy to game play indeed.

Dog Soldier

[U124IXB]

I'm just dreaming of the day when the ai deploys its troops in a line rather than insist's on stacking them three battalions deep in a hex and invites me to leisurely surround them and annihilate with ease.

[Glenn Saunders]

I'm just dreaming of the day when the ai deploys its troops in a line rather than insist's on stacking them three battalions deep in a hex and invites me to leisurely surround them and annihilate with ease.

And I can't say I've seen the AI do this. SO if your dreaming of a solution, I'd suggest you send your btl file to HPS with where the units in question starts not stacked and then ask tech support to end the turn and watch Hex X,Y for the AI behavior you don't like - and we can have it looked at in the programming.

Also confirm with Tech Support that you are using the most recent ver of the game.

Last time we had a good review of the AI - prior to the Minsk release - we cleaned up a number of issues like this and I never saw this behavior. Not that it isn't possible - just that perhaps I was looking at a situation that was different than yours.

Anyway - you are free of course to dream about fixes if you like, but if your a little more proactive you may indeed make your wish come true.

Glenn