Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops...
 

Hello. I hope you can help. With the CD version game I encountered no trouble. However now that I have patched up all the way to the turret correcting 2.51 patch I have encountered a vexing problem.

When the AI's forces take fire and losses in their infantry units from my AFV/APC's they first dissappear without any related message then reappear. I had one encounter last nite where they dissappeared completely but reappeared when I selected another vehicle two hexes away with the same vis on the same hexes. Both units were vision 40 and both could see the unit once it reappeared. There was as well no message to indicate why they dissappeared on this occaision nor in the past.

Query: Since this is new for me:
Have I installed incorrectly? [I had completely reinstalled Win XP hence WinMBT was fresh - I rebooted after each patch install].
I do run other programs at the same time as the game; hence could this be the factor -- ie low in ram? processor errors?

Thanks

Gus
Danstudentvcc

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops...
 

My guess is that they are taking cover as a reaction to your fire and that you are just not getting a message about it. Does it only happen after you fire on them?

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops...
 

If the message delay has been set extremely short, then the original poster may not be seeing the "Rifle section takes cover" etc messages.

Infantry which succesfully take cover (as opposed to simply hitting the dirt) can break spotting. Both reactions can break the "chain of fire" from the firer.

You will sometimes reacquire if you select another unit and look at the spot, or the same vehicle sometimes, e.g. if you rally it up a bit so it's spotting better due to lowered supression level.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops...
 

I've noticed this too, but I attributed it to the fact that a unit sometimes retreats moving out of the line of sight of the attacker.

On other occasions, I have had side A fire on side B. Then side B returns op fire on the firing unit of side A, which is totally suppressed or eliminated. Then the side B unit seems to disappear.

To be honest, I thought this was just a feature of the game.

WB

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops
 

It ***is*** a feature of the game.

A unit has broken LOS with the original unit that spotted it will "disapear". It *may* disapear becasue the game has determined it has found sufficient cover to do so OR the unit you are using to spot it has taken fire and is now face down in the weeds. It's hard to keep spotting the other guy under those conditions ( face in mud etc etc etc )

If *may* be possible to pick up the original unit with another one of yours ** IF ** the game determines it's not in good safe cover. However, if it's not moving and not shooting it's no different than if you advanced across a field and didn't see the enemy unit laying in wait for you on the other side ( and even if it IS shooting at you and you don't see it, it may be because now the game has determined you are too busy finding cover to spot properly.)

There are a lot of reason for units to "disapear" I haven't found one that would be called a bug yet

Don

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops
 

Good. I think it is logical under battle circumstances. Remember, we are dealing with a hex 50 meters across. A unit can actually move around in it with some room to spare.

Hard to keep that in mind when a unit fills the hex. Though it may fill the hex, that is for our convenience and eyesight, but the size of the hex must be kept in mind.

WB

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops
 

Yes, It's easy to mentally compress the distances due to the scale differences between the infantry, armoured units and the hex itself. The infantry are scaled larger than the tanks. They have to be or they would too difficult to see. The tanks are 6 inches = 1 pixel scale so a tank like an Abrams that fills the hex really has a hull just under 8 meters long and it would take about 6 and a hlaf of them end to end to make up 50 metres.

Attached is a quick visual comparision between how big a hex would have to be for the infantry to be in approx 1:1 scale and how big a hex would have to be for the tanks to be in approx 1:1 scale

Don

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops
 

Great illustration, Don. "A picture..." I wanted to do something like that but just don't have those artistic skills that you do.

Add to that hex, trees, buildings, tall grass, etc, and you can understand better how a unit could seemingly "disappear."

WB

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops
 

Many times when a unit disappears or when I am "searching" for the enemy,I will click on a number of my units, not just the attacking or defending one, to find out if another of my units can still see the enemy.

If it can, then usually the unit that has lost sight of the enemy recovers it. Keep that little idea in mind when this happens to you.

WB

Re: Trouble with dissappearing/re-appearing troops...
 

Hello and thank you gentlement. Holy cow what a relief!
I was wondering why it was happening all the time now but not prior to: you guessed, I had begun to play with the settings.

This make total sense now. Yes, I did adjust my settings to zero values for everything but the animations [in 640 the animations go by at light speed; while the full 1280 requires up to 30 seconds to resolve.].

Thanks for the tip, I'll make the adjustments tonite.

Gus
Danstudentvcc