Features you'd like to see with SB

Rabbit · 07-03-2010, 07:52 AM,

During battle replays, the game engine moves the focus onto hexes (in other words, the hex becomes highlighted/outlined) whenever your opponent had set a unit to "Hold Fire" if it is within your LOS - even if that unit is currently concealed and does not move. This allows you to know that the enemy is in a particular hex even though their unit hadn't moved and still remains concealed.

This creates a dilemna at the beginning of many scenarios. You often want to set your units to hold fire so as not to give away their position. But because of this bug, you wind up giving away your position regardless.

cazart! · 07-03-2010, 10:29 AM,

Interesting. Noted and forwarded.

Rabbit · (This post was last modified: 07-06-2010, 05:26 AM by Rabbit.)

I don't know if this is by intent, but concealed units become visible to the enemy units in their LOS when changing in and out of Ground Mode.

I think it would be better if units could go into Ground Mode without losing their concealment status. A number of scenarios begin with concealed units that are not in Ground Mode but are in the enemy's LOS. It would be best for them to go to Ground Mode, however doing so would remove their concealment. And more to the point, it would seem that upon seeing enemy units, the first and foremost thing that one does in order to maintain one's concealment is to "get down" (i.e., go into Ground Mode).

Or perhaps it should be randomized as to whether units become detected when entering/leaving Ground Mode, with the odds of them being detected affected by a number of factors, such as: how many men are involved (e.g., was it just one leader or was it a squad of ten men), what their effectiveness is, how many enemy units are in their LOS, what the terrain height is of the hex that they are in, and whether they were entering Ground Mode (less of a chance of being detected) or leaving Ground Mode (much greater chance of being detected). The cool thing about making it somewhat random is that you wouldn't know if you had been spotted!

TheBigRedOne · 07-06-2010, 10:23 AM,

(07-06-2010, 05:18 AM)Rabbit Wrote: I don't know if this is by intent, but concealed units become visible to the enemy units in their LOS when changing in and out of Ground Mode.

I think it would be better if units could go into Ground Mode without losing their concealment status. A number of scenarios begin with concealed units that are not in Ground Mode but are in the enemy's LOS. It would be best for them to go to Ground Mode, however doing so would remove their concealment. And more to the point, it would seem that upon seeing enemy units, the first and foremost thing that one does in order to maintain one's concealment is to "get down" (i.e., go into Ground Mode).

Or perhaps it should be randomized as to whether units become detected when entering/leaving Ground Mode, with the odds of them being detected affected by a number of factors, such as: how many men are involved (e.g., was it just one leader or was it a squad of ten men), what their effectiveness is, how many enemy units are in their LOS, what the terrain height is of the hex that they are in, and whether they were entering Ground Mode (less of a chance of being detected) or leaving Ground Mode (much greater chance of being detected). The cool thing about making it somewhat random is that you wouldn't know if you had been spotted!

If you click on the tab that shows which units are 'spotted' you would!

:)

White Eagle · 07-06-2010, 08:56 PM,

I'd like to see maybe a more detailed AAR/Victory report at the end of the scenario.

For example I would like to know what weapon type caused casualties, how many soldiers lost to artillery and so forth. How many men where taken out by my mortar team, that type of stuff. What kind of damage did my T34 do, how many other tanks did it manage to take out.

I also like the idea that was poster earlier about an odds table, maybe disabled in PBEM or Direct Play but have the option when playing against the AI to see what are my chances of hitting a target.

Rabbit · 07-13-2010, 02:29 AM,

I would like a confirmation prompt whenever I fire smoke in combination with any other weapons. I often make the mistake of double-clicking a unit (so as to select all their weapons) and firing only to later realize they had smoke capabilities, causing me to fire smoke protection into a hex I wish to continue attacking. I believe it would be the exception rather than the rule that you would want to fire your weapons AND smoke into a hex simultaneously. As such, it would be nice if you would receive a prompt asking confirmation or just be prevented from firing smoke in combination with other weapons.

White Eagle · (This post was last modified: 07-13-2010, 07:11 AM by White Eagle.)

(07-03-2010, 07:52 AM)Rabbit Wrote: During battle replays, the game engine moves the focus onto hexes (in other words, the hex becomes highlighted/outlined) whenever your opponent had set a unit to "Hold Fire" if it is within your LOS - even if that unit is currently concealed and does not move. This allows you to know that the enemy is in a particular hex even though their unit hadn't moved and still remains concealed.

This creates a dilemna at the beginning of many scenarios. You often want to set your units to hold fire so as not to give away their position. But because of this bug, you wind up giving away your position regardless.

This just happened to a game where I am playing "thebigredone". I played the Soviet battle replay and saw the hex where he has troops hidden from view because of the red outlined hex landing there.

The only units that could touch that hex are my mortors but I used my mortors to fire on the victory hex instead. I try to take a course of action in a situation like this that I would take if I didn't know the unit was there.

I'd like to add better AI. I just finished a scenario where the AI was on the offense and it failed to commit 1/3 of its forces to the battle. They just sat there out of sight.

I realize that the real challenge is head to head but an improvement to AI would be great for times when you want to play through a scenario alone!

cazart! · (This post was last modified: 07-13-2010, 09:50 AM by cazart!.)

Which scenario was that? It might need a revisit of the scripts... The newer titles tend to make better use of the AI scripting. Also John Tiller hired John Rushing to specifically program AI in later titles.

I'd like to see a stricter use of covered arcs/facing for support weapons. (Similar to the Set Up feature.) Some sort of penalty if you fire an AT gun to a different facing in the same turn.

White Eagle · (This post was last modified: 07-13-2010, 10:43 AM by White Eagle.)

(07-13-2010, 09:48 AM)cazart! Wrote: Which scenario was that? It might need a revisit of the scripts... The newer titles tend to make better use of the AI scripting. Also John Tiller hired John Rushing to specifically program AI in later titles.
I'd like to see a stricter use of covered arcs/facing for support weapons. (Similar to the Set Up feature.) Some sort of penalty if you fire an AT gun to a different facing in the same turn.

Hi Mike,

The scenario was in the Finnish campaign, it was called "Crisis at Portinhoika". I played through it I think 3 times and noticed on one occasion one of the rifle companies just sort of hanged back, like it was in the staging area. I saw this when the scenario ended and I could view the whole battle field.

I ran through the scenario again just hitting the next turn button and it looks like the rifle company in question mobilized and moved forward this time. Not sure what happened before?

TheBigRedOne · 07-13-2010, 10:52 AM,

(07-13-2010, 07:04 AM)White Eagle Wrote:
(07-03-2010, 07:52 AM)Rabbit Wrote: During battle replays, the game engine moves the focus onto hexes (in other words, the hex becomes highlighted/outlined) whenever your opponent had set a unit to "Hold Fire" if it is within your LOS - even if that unit is currently concealed and does not move. This allows you to know that the enemy is in a particular hex even though their unit hadn't moved and still remains concealed.

This creates a dilemna at the beginning of many scenarios. You often want to set your units to hold fire so as not to give away their position. But because of this bug, you wind up giving away your position regardless.

This just happened to a game where I am playing "thebigredone". I played the Soviet battle replay and saw the hex where he has troops hidden from view because of the red outlined hex landing there.

The only units that could touch that hex are my mortors but I used my mortors to fire on the victory hex instead. I try to take a course of action in a situation like this that I would take if I didn't know the unit was there.
I'd like to add better AI. I just finished a scenario where the AI was on the offense and it failed to commit 1/3 of its forces to the battle. They just sat there out of sight.

I realize that the real challenge is head to head but an improvement to AI would be great for times when you want to play through a scenario alone!

The AI never handles the offense well, which is why whenever I chose to play the AI, or am playtesting, most of the time I take the offensive. The AI handles the defense well, but can get bogged down on the offense, especially when you start to pin them.

I've already told Rich that when I win the lottery that I'll be the SB sugar daddy!