Idol Observations

[Larry Reese]

Hey guys,

I've noticed a few things that have caused me some concern in the game lately. Thought I'd mention them here. I'll leave out my constant pet peeve on the abysmal artillery system (no barrages, etc...).

1. I really think it would be nice if the "auto-path" calculations could take into account blocked hexes that are readily visible to the moving side at the beginning of the turn. This is done for mine fields, etc..., and I while there may be some programming esoterica that prevent it from working for blocks, if not, I'd love to see this minor nuisance removed.

2. May be I'm imagining this, but I think the US M3 half-track is considered inferior in performance to the German 251. From a review of the record, in particular testing done on captured models, I do not think this is justified and such performance should be equal or indeed superior (such as road performance).

3. Swim tanks, in particular the German models.... don't get me wrong, I dig having these in the game, but I think they are ridiculously modeled. I've used them in a scenario I designed and found that, as implemented, they can drive straight into the water, move about, drive out anywhere, and continue fighting without a pause. A key point about these tanks is that they were to be deployed from boats/barges after having had an extensive period of time spent equipping them with snorkels, baffles, seals, floats, etc... As currently modeled, this quite lengthy process takes, quite literally, zero time. Moreover, they were quite slow in the water, and could not fire their weapons, etc... or even see where they were going. They were also required to exit the water on a long gentle slope, like a beach. When used on rivers or other stretches of coastline, they should be allowed to exit the water into rough terrain, forest, or even city/town hexes in my opinion. Of course, once they exited the water, it was expected that some time would be taken to inspect, unseal, and generally un-rig the vehicle prior to putting it to use in combat. As currently included in the game they are wildly imbalanced, again, just in my opinion.

Be good all.

LR