Modding & "vehicle facing arrows" for normal units

[LongstreetCSA]

Hey guys,

 I have been working on a total conversion for one of the SB games - titled Squad Battles - American Civil War - for a while now and due to the recent release of the map editors I am finally able to make proper maps to go with the units as well.

Anyway since formation facings are very much an integral part of the 19th century warfare I can not help but wonder if  there is any way to get a "facing arrow" (like they are available for vehicles) to show up for normal units as well? I have looked around but have not found any clues yet.

I appreciate any information on this subject, cheers!

[Embis]

Since "facing" isnt relevant to other units in SB, I cant envisage a way of implementing that effectively. The only other units which would have a facing that might be displayed would be caves, bunkers and "set up" machine guns...but of course you wouldn't be able to change these within a game.

Sounds as if you have an interesting mod on the way though..

...But since the SB series is more about small units rather than larger formations does formation facing have to matter? unless you are planning on changing the scale for your mod, in which case I can see you running into all sorts of problems.

[LongstreetCSA]

Thanks for the input Embris!

While I am aware that facing is not relevant for most units in SB, I thought (and hoped) since vehicles have a facing arrow getting one to show up for other units might still be possible somehow.

Regarding the Mod: Well facing is still a thing in 19th century warfare - even with small formations. I have it implemented via flags within weapons/ammunition so, in order to be able to fire ones weapons in my mod, one actually has to face the appropriate way. I just thought it would be nice (and helpful) to get that facing arrow to show up so one knows with one glance which direction the unit is actually facing.

Scale is not such a big problem, since I am concentrating on skirmishes or small scale actions and not the huge battles. For example: Apart from special units like pickets or dedicated skirmishers, the basic infantry unit encountered in the mod is company-sized. A full regiment of 10 companies, with 8 companies in battle line and two held in reserve or used as skirmishers, thus has a frontage of 4 hexes.

I am still playing around with weapons stats a lot since I hope to be able to achieve historical results regarding casualties. For weapon distances I  decided to go with the average distance fire was opened, which is usually considerably less than the maximum range.

[Embis]

Well that certainly sounds like an interesting project and I hope it works out well. I just dont think a facing arrow on anything other than vehicles would be possible. The individual squads in SB just move hex to hex they don't rotate. I think it's just assumed that they would be facing the direction of a threat if they were firing or would instantly turn to face that threat if they were fired upon.

[rahamy]

Just curious if you considered the EAW engine for this...? We just released the map editor there too, and most of the functionality is much more 19th century focused...