CS Wishlist

[Scud]

Since it will be some time before the Matrix team gets to building the new CS based on the Middle East engine, this should be a good time to start putting together a wish list. 

Since, when it comes out, it will "legacy" JTCS once and for all, but at the same time build upon the old (to an extent), bugs to the old should be listed here as well as new features, or the ridding of features that haven't worked.

I'll start:

CS (which is the new name) EF, WF, RS, ME, VN are to all be stand-alone. For me, I don't mind buying any or all that I want, but for the end-user a common interface like exists now would be great. So if I buy EF my interface lists only that and launches only that, but if I decide to buy another in the series it can be added to that interface. My CS landing page will now list two games that I own, EF and WF and I can launch either one from that screen. Add ME, VN, RS and any other titles that might come out and I still will have that one shortcut on my desktop to launch my game(s).

Dave

[Crossroads]

Thanks Dave! A neat idea, both this topic, and the concept of an overall Main Main Menu

[Big Ivan]

Hey Dave,

Great idea so I'll continue...

For EF/WF/RS

Bunker & pillbox busting (destruction). For example two 16" shells hitting a bunker and there would be a big hole in the ground where a bunker use to sit, troops gone no need for bodies or parts. There has to be a way that with enough firepower the bunker would disappear. Pillboxes maybe more firepower. I'd stay away from building them within the time span scale of a scenario. They are involved engineering feats that take longer than 20 turns, 2 hours to build and leave it at that. (Sorry the metallurgical engineer is coming out in me)

Full hex bridge destruction. Needs to be a way to blow full bridge spanning a hex within the time span of a longer scenario and enough engineer units placing charges.

Rubble creation: Kind of the same idea with bunker busting. With enough firepower the town/suburb/city hex would rubble with in the time scale of a scenario. 

AF rule and retreat. When a tank retreats it shows its back side to the enemy. Not sure how you fix that within the game scale but I have lost more tanks to that issue than I can count. 

Cavalry & Motorcycle troops. I've noticed that when they are loaded and get shot at, they king of get blown out of the saddle and the transport remains. I would think the transport would sustain an equal amount of damage most of the time and if any troops SP's would survive they would immediately dismount after the first attack.

Tank riders. We all know tank riders are extremely susceptible to incoming fire. After the first shot and if some SP's survived wouldn't it be prudent that they would immediately dismount and therefore not be as easy a target to kill? 

Artillery unit strength points. Before JTCS 2.02, in EF a lot of the Soviet guns were 4-6 strength points and after JTCS a lot of them went to two strength points. We all know that an attack into a hex is based on firepower(attack strength) at a range plus the amount of strength points conducting the attack. By reducing the strength points in essence the effectiveness of those units was greatly reduced IMO.

On board aircraft. I've been thinking about this one a lot lately and IMHO they should be gone, removed from the game. We are playing a turn based game that is for the most part somewhat fluid but not fully fluid with respect to the ground units. Aircraft on the other hand operate in fully fluid form/mode flying over the battlefield at 200+ miles an hour and shouldn't stop in a hex to wait for the opponent to complete his turn. The way they currently handle airstrikes in the game is the mechanism we should move forward with. Mind you when helicopters arrive in Korea they should be handled like they are in CSME which is not a bad mechanism. I don't ever expect to see helicopters in WWII. 

All for now...
Thanks

Ivan the Big

[Herr Straße Laufer]

For EF/WF/RS

Bunker & pillbox busting (destruction). For example two 16" shells hitting a bunker and there would be a big hole in the ground where a bunker use to sit, troops gone no need for bodies or parts. There has to be a way that with enough firepower the bunker would disappear. Pillboxes maybe more firepower. I'd stay away from building them within the time span scale of a scenario. They are involved engineering feats that take longer than 20 turns, 2 hours to build and leave it at that. (Sorry the metallurgical engineer is coming out in me)

Full hex bridge destruction. Needs to be a way to blow full bridge spanning a hex within the time span of a longer scenario and enough engineer units placing charges.

Rubble creation: Kind of the same idea with bunker busting. With enough firepower the town/suburb/city hex would rubble with in the time scale of a scenario. 

AF rule and retreat. When a tank retreats it shows its back side to the enemy. Not sure how you fix that within the game scale but I have lost more tanks to that issue than I can count. 

Cavalry & Motorcycle troops. I've noticed that when they are loaded and get shot at, they king of get blown out of the saddle and the transport remains. I would think the transport would sustain an equal amount of damage most of the time and if any troops SP's would survive they would immediately dismount after the first attack.

Tank riders. We all know tank riders are extremely susceptible to incoming fire. After the first shot and if some SP's survived wouldn't it be prudent that they would immediately dismount and therefore not be as easy a target to kill? 

Artillery unit strength points. Before JTCS 2.02, in EF a lot of the Soviet guns were 4-6 strength points and after JTCS a lot of them went to two strength points. We all know that an attack into a hex is based on firepower(attack strength) at a range plus the amount of strength points conducting the attack. By reducing the strength points in essence the effectiveness of those units was greatly reduced IMO.

On board aircraft. I've been thinking about this one a lot lately and IMHO they should be gone, removed from the game. We are playing a turn based game that is for the most part somewhat fluid but not fully fluid with respect to the ground units. Aircraft on the other hand operate in fully fluid form/mode flying over the battlefield at 200+ miles an hour and shouldn't stop in a hex to wait for the opponent to complete his turn. The way they currently handle airstrikes in the game is the mechanism we should move forward with. Mind you when helicopters arrive in Korea they should be handled like they are in CSME which is not a bad mechanism. I don't ever expect to see helicopters in WWII. 

Good points.
Bunkers/Pillboxes - destruction agreed. But even a 16" shell would almost need a direct hit on a pillbox.
Patton used 155mm and 8" guns to fire direct at Pillboxes. They had the great, and desired effect. But, it cannot be always duplicated in the game against the troopers in the pillbox and never cause the destruction of the pillbox.
Building the Pillbox should never be part of the game unless they factor in the curing of the concrete. Way to out of scale.
Full Hex Bridge destruction - always thought that was a game engine issue. Hexsides recognized. Full hexes not. (Not a programmer so do not know the way it would work).
Rubble - I thought that was going to be addressed a long time ago. Must have been put on the back burner.
AF - to me it was addressed in the optional rule. I like it off but I see it as a unit cohesion issue that created opportunities for more rear shots.
CAV and MC troopers - yes there should have be incremental damage to the transport (more so for the fleshly ones).
TANK RIDERS - historically, did they drop off at the first shots?
Artillery SP and effectiveness - part of the tinkering (that should have been left to the scenario designer) that had an unexpected/unintended effect on the game.
ON BOARD AIRCRAFT - definitely with you on this one.



HSL

[ScoutsOut]

My only technical request would be to address the OP Fire keyboard short cut. It used to be the "p" key to set the op fire. Now it's ctrl+p to bring up the op fire dialogue box. Please, this is a wrist wrenching movement for one of the most used keyboard shortcuts. Is it possible to change the shortcut to a simple "o" to adjust op fire? It would save my neck from a lot pain. Thanks.

ScoutsOut

[Schwerpunkt75]

For EF/WF/RS

Bunker & pillbox busting (destruction). For example two 16" shells hitting a bunker and there would be a big hole in the ground where a bunker use to sit, troops gone no need for bodies or parts. There has to be a way that with enough firepower the bunker would disappear. Pillboxes maybe more firepower. I'd stay away from building them within the time span scale of a scenario. They are involved engineering feats that take longer than 20 turns, 2 hours to build and leave it at that. (Sorry the metallurgical engineer is coming out in me)

Full hex bridge destruction. Needs to be a way to blow full bridge spanning a hex within the time span of a longer scenario and enough engineer units placing charges.

Rubble creation: Kind of the same idea with bunker busting. With enough firepower the town/suburb/city hex would rubble with in the time scale of a scenario. 

AF rule and retreat. When a tank retreats it shows its back side to the enemy. Not sure how you fix that within the game scale but I have lost more tanks to that issue than I can count. 

Cavalry & Motorcycle troops. I've noticed that when they are loaded and get shot at, they king of get blown out of the saddle and the transport remains. I would think the transport would sustain an equal amount of damage most of the time and if any troops SP's would survive they would immediately dismount after the first attack.

Tank riders. We all know tank riders are extremely susceptible to incoming fire. After the first shot and if some SP's survived wouldn't it be prudent that they would immediately dismount and therefore not be as easy a target to kill? 

Artillery unit strength points. Before JTCS 2.02, in EF a lot of the Soviet guns were 4-6 strength points and after JTCS a lot of them went to two strength points. We all know that an attack into a hex is based on firepower(attack strength) at a range plus the amount of strength points conducting the attack. By reducing the strength points in essence the effectiveness of those units was greatly reduced IMO.

On board aircraft. I've been thinking about this one a lot lately and IMHO they should be gone, removed from the game. We are playing a turn based game that is for the most part somewhat fluid but not fully fluid with respect to the ground units. Aircraft on the other hand operate in fully fluid form/mode flying over the battlefield at 200+ miles an hour and shouldn't stop in a hex to wait for the opponent to complete his turn. The way they currently handle airstrikes in the game is the mechanism we should move forward with. Mind you when helicopters arrive in Korea they should be handled like they are in CSME which is not a bad mechanism. I don't ever expect to see helicopters in WWII. 

Good points.
Bunkers/Pillboxes - destruction agreed. But even a 16" shell would almost need a direct hit on a pillbox.
Patton used 155mm and 8" guns to fire direct at Pillboxes. They had the great, and desired effect. But, it cannot be always duplicated in the game against the troopers in the pillbox and never cause the destruction of the pillbox.
Building the Pillbox should never be part of the game unless they factor in the curing of the concrete. Way to out of scale.
Full Hex Bridge destruction - always thought that was a game engine issue. Hexsides recognized. Full hexes not. (Not a programmer so do not know the way it would work).
Rubble - I thought that was going to be addressed a long time ago. Must have been put on the back burner.
AF - to me it was addressed in the optional rule. I like it off but I see it as a unit cohesion issue that created opportunities for more rear shots.
CAV and MC troopers - yes there should have be incremental damage to the transport (more so for the fleshly ones).
TANK RIDERS - historically, did they drop off at the first shots?
Artillery SP and effectiveness - part of the tinkering (that should have been left to the scenario designer) that had an unexpected/unintended effect on the game.
ON BOARD AIRCRAFT - definitely with you on this one.



HSL

I especially love the idea of built up hexes being reduced to rubble. This needs to happen.

I like that AF is an optional rule. I don't play with it turned on any more, as I don't think it fits with the game scale, but I understand that others like it.

Definitely believe that tank riders should drop off their carrying tanks after taking fire (and damage).

Definitely don't introduce building of bunkers, pillboxes or trenches into the game - again, not in the game's scale.

On board aircraft = terrible idea. Won't play a scenario that includes them.

If it can be done within the confines of the game engine, the option to be able destroy a full-hex bridge would be a good addition. Might be best handled as a scenario design feature, i.e. bridges start wired for demo, as opposed to having engineer units with the ability to prepare them within the game for demolition (out of game scale?).

Suggestions of my own:

Airstrikes should be more like artillery strikes, targeting all units within a particular hex.

Artillery strikes should occupy a hex for a full turn, which would not permit units moving through hexes to avoid being struck.

If there's any way to do counter-battery fire, i.e. identify artillery units (especially rocket units) locations out of line of sight, it would be welcome.

[RedDevil]

One of my wants has always been color coordinated command structures.
Dependent on the number of separate commands on the map in any scenario, have the ability to hard set them in different colors so you can "keep" them together within their lower HQs command ranges.

That or some sort of Info box section that tells you at a glance the command structure of the unit being viewed without having to go to the F2 box to see it.

A little bit of reorganizing the buttons so that stupid air attack button isn't right next to the artillery list or assault buttons... Too many times I hit it and sent planes where I wanted to assault or shell.

display of reachable hexes that actually works and "sees" the visible roadblocks, taking them into account for distance you can move

Obstacles that remain seen after discovery ( mines, bunkers, roadblocks, etc...)

The ability to rotate the map, both in game and in editor as opposed to simply flipping it.

[Crossroads]

My wish is that this thread would be placed among the "Important threads" category, so it doesn't get lost

[fritzfarlig]

One of my wants has always been color coordinated command structures.
Dependent on the number of separate commands on the map in any scenario, have the ability to hard set them in different colors so you can "keep" them together within their lower HQs command ranges.

That or some sort of Info box section that tells you at a glance the command structure of the unit being viewed without having to go to the F2 box to see it.

 

absolutely agree with that, this is also my great desire

[Scud]

My wish is that this thread would be placed among the "Important threads" category, so it doesn't get lost

I can do that, but I think people tend to not notice new posts when the threads are "stuck" up there. Let's let it stay here as an ongoing discussion for now until it slows down at least, then I can put it up there and guys can add to it over time. I assume we're talking a lot of time?   

Dave