Question: Vehicle facing

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

OK - Consensus seems to be that a manually initiated turn to face should draw opfire (A.1). Should be simple to do in the right-click on map event handling code.

Sounds good to me.

[Mobhack]

OK - Now have this incorporated into both games for testing. seems to be working fine.

One thing - there were two right click events to handle, one on the map with no detected enemy there (turns turret if it has one), and one onto an enemy unit (the latter shows the enemy info, and also aligns the hull). Now, the latter has an option to SHIFT+RIGHT_CLICK if all you want is target info, unit does not turn to face the enemy then, possibly drawing fire.

I have also limited it to a maximum range of a kilometre or so, half that if it's an infantry unit, as only close-by enemy may notice. Chance of popping off an opfire shot is also higher closer than far away.

[geoff]

OK, I agree with having the turn to face trigger op fire, but is there now a way to see what a unit's field of view is without using up movement points? As I understand this change, any right click could use up a movement point unless it doesn't cause a change in facing.

Unless it's a shift right click on an enemy unit.

So what happens if you shift right click on a blank square?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by geoff

OK, I agree with having the turn to face trigger op fire, but is there now a way to see what a unit's field of view is without using up movement points? As I understand this change, any right click could use up a movement point unless it doesn't cause a change in facing.

Unless it's a shift right click on an enemy unit.

So what happens if you shift right click on a blank square?

None of this uses movement points, as we decided to go for KISS, option A.1 only - see the thread above.

Voluntarily changing face may now trigger an opportunity fire or even several. It does not cost move points. And as stated, there is already the Unit View button, which shows all hexes a unit can see but without moving it.

Been testing this in an ongoing WW2 LC, and it really doesn't cause massive bursts of fire, even when I forget and swivel a unit just to see if it can see something. A habit I'll simply have to grow out of!

[geoff]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. I read A.1 as a subset of A, ie costing MPs.

I have to admit, I thought that turning to face already triggered opfire, but I must not have been paying attention to what was going on. I've since tried that out in the tutorial, and found I was wrong.

What a great game. What is it, 20 years old now? And still going strong. I started with SP2, which had been out a year when I got a computer fast enough to play it.

[Oche]

Originally Posted by geoff

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. I read A.1 as a subset of A, ie costing MPs.

I have to admit, I thought that turning to face already triggered opfire, but I must not have been paying attention to what was going on. I've since tried that out in the tutorial, and found I was wrong.

What a great game. What is it, 20 years old now? And still going strong. I started with SP2, which had been out a year when I got a computer fast enough to play it.

Not only is a great game and 20 years old (and still improving), it is just simply the BEST, top notch, these combat simulations (WINSPWW2 & WINSPMBT) remain unmatched in the Tactical subgenre of wargames from Brigade to single man size turn based.

You don't need fancy graphics and eye candy to have a good combat simulation do you?

[ru_disa]

Just throwing an idea out there... Couldn't this be used as a tactic to soak up all op-fire from a group of enemy unit? (For example, I can use a tank to soak up all op-fire from a group of infantry unit, after which I can advance my own infantry without risks.)

I liked to idea of expending movement points to change facing of a vehicle, on the other hand.

Infantry should not expend movement points to change facing, because at this scale an infantry unit shouldn't have a facing. Different guys in a unit of 8, 9 or 10 soldiers could be covering different arcs, etc.

Anyway, congratulations on an amazing game and thanks for the continued support!

[scorpio_rocks]

Click the "Unit View" button...
(between preferences and rally hex at the bottom of the icons)

[Mobhack]

All units have a primary spotting arc of the direction they are facing, with limited arcs elsewhere. e.g. in the turret arc of a tank. The limited arc goes 360 degrees, but of course with a lesser chance.

Units that are stationary do have a better chance of spotting someone coming up from behind. Especially if they are not pinned. And infantry has a better chance outside the frontal arc than vehicles do.

There are many variables as to what spots what, and we wont be specifying those in any detail since its not a simple look-up table like in the old cardboard shuffling games but an intermingled set of routines that call other routines with lots of ifs and buts.

However the best way to stop things coming in from the flank or rear unspotted is to have a secondary line of stationary unsuppressed spotters watching your flanks/rear from reasonably close, and its better if they are infantry than vehicles. Not easy to do in a wood or buildings, other than say having a flanking element positioned at each end of your line but pulled back a hex. A useful role for little scout teams, or AT rifles etc.

Of course the best way to advance in such close terrain is firstly to stonk the area you wish to advance into with your artillery. Rally up any of yours that were too close to the barrage and got pinned, then hopefully as you go in you will find stunned enemy elements that are too pinned or worse to spot your guys and then you blast them at 1 hex.