Three Questions for Mike

Pak40 · #1 February 22nd, 2002, 04:34 AM

Hi Mike, glad to see you're on board and that the PR is finally being launched for the game.

Question 1: Are you guys using still using the photos from the contest winners for the soldiers in the game? I'm one of the contest winners but the contest was held so long ago I was still wondering if you're using the photos.

Question 2: One of the things that bugged me about 101 was that if a soldier ended his turn in a doorway, another soldier could not move through the doorway. Has this been changed for AA?

and the most important question...
Question 3: A serious flaw of 101, IMO, was that there were no muzzle flashes for the night battles. This made it virtually impossible to tell where the enemy was shooting from even if the shots were only a few meters away. Your men had to visually see a body before they could effectively return fire. Your men couldn't even detect the direction of the gunfire by sound. Have either of these two elements been added in AA?

Pak40 · #2 March 2nd, 2002, 12:11 AM

anybody care to answer?

Richard · #3 March 2nd, 2002, 04:33 AM

1) Yes the contest winner will be used in the game.

2) Probably not. With the turn based nature of the game it is a fairly accurate depiction.

3) This is something we could consider but also consider that the game engine is also taking into account for the fact that there is a lot of confusion going on during a fight so that a soldier is going to have a hard time locating an inidividual muzzle flash during a firefight. Sound is actually a better way to find enemies, and in fact if an enemy soldier fires it is more likely that your soldiers will see him than if he had not fired. While we don't show the flashes it is figured into how easily you can locate enemy soldiers.

Pak40 · #4 March 2nd, 2002, 08:06 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Richard:
1) Yes the contest winner will be used in the game.

glad to hear that.

quote:
Originally posted by Richard:

2) Probably not. With the turn based nature of the game it is a fairly accurate depiction.

Well, I hope that you will consider using the technique that Baldur's Gate II uses. BGII has the blocking person temporarily move out of the way to let the other person move through, then the blocking person moves back to the original position. This technique has made a world of difference in moving several men/women in a confined space, which is a must in an underground or indoor environemnt.

quote:
Originally posted by Richard:

3) This is something we could consider but also consider that the game engine is also taking into account for the fact that there is a lot of confusion going on during a fight so that a soldier is going to have a hard time locating an inidividual muzzle flash during a firefight.

I understand the confustion of a firefight, but these are not large engagements. They are typically 10-20 men engagmentes.

Picture this scenario: Your men are walking across a field at night with no sign of the enemy. Suddenly a few shots ring out killing one of your men. The surviving men will most likely know the general direction and a rough distance that shots came from. They will use the combination of sight and sound to estimate where the enemy is. In 101:AIN, the player has absolutly no clue where a shot is coming from unless he actually sees the German. Im sorry, but this is not realistic at all. Not only is it not realistic, it make fighting at night completely futile.

quote:
Originally posted by Richard:

Sound is actually a better way to find enemies, and in fact if an enemy soldier fires it is more likely that your soldiers will see him than if he had not fired. While we don't show the flashes it is figured into how easily you can locate enemy soldiers.

As I mentioned in the scenario above, the point I'm trying to make is that there should be some indication of the general distance and direction of the offending shots. I'm not asking for all enemies to become visible on the map just because they shoot.

There should be some sort of indicator on the screen when an unseen enemy shoots. Maybe a red pulse from the general direction of the shot. For example, if the shot comes from NE about 30 meters away then a bar in the upper right corner of the screen will flash red for each shot and give a distance range of 20-40 meters away. Every time that same enemy soldier shoots, it will give a slightly different location and distance, but always in the same general direction.

PvK · #5 March 3rd, 2002, 12:53 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Pak40:
Well, I hope that you will consider using the technique that Baldur's Gate II uses. BGII has the blocking person temporarily move out of the way to let the other person move through, then the blocking person moves back to the original position. This technique has made a world of difference in moving several men/women in a confined space, which is a must in an underground or indoor environemnt.

More convenient maybe, but since when can several people run through one door at the same time without either pausing, slowing down, or running into each other?

quote:

... there should be some indication of the general distance and direction of the offending shots. I'm not asking for all enemies to become visible on the map just because they shoot.

There should be some sort of indicator on the screen when an unseen enemy shoots. Maybe a red pulse from the general direction of the shot. For example, if the shot comes from NE about 30 meters away then a bar in the upper right corner of the screen will flash red for each shot and give a distance range of 20-40 meters away. Every time that same enemy soldier shoots, it will give a slightly different location and distance, but always in the same general direction.

Ya, that could be interesting to have an indication of where soldiers think maybe they hear the enemy or see gun flashes. I think it'd frequently be inaccurate though, and it'd be complex to do correctly - realistically, each soldier should have a chance to interpret every sound and flash that they can't tell what/where it is exactly, even if they are friendly units. Each character would have a bunch of symbols showing approximate locations of different unidentified sounds and sights... interesting, and a lot of work to do right, and maybe not a lot more informational than not knowing.

PvK

Strider · #6 March 3rd, 2002, 11:38 PM

I agree about having at least some sort of indicator of the general direction a shot comes from. Maybe a dot, arrow, or something that shows next to the guy(s) who get shot [at] that stays until their next turn????

Richard · #7 March 4th, 2002, 12:46 AM

The indication issue may be something we include, but it isn't decided yet. We have a lot of other higher priority issues we're trying to work on, but we'll see if we can work something like this in.

JDC · #8 March 4th, 2002, 04:24 PM

Given accoustics and the general tension of a firefight, I'm not sure how accurate the first indication would be. I think people hit the dirt and waited for another shot before they had a good idea of the general direction.

Pak40 · #9 March 5th, 2002, 09:41 PM

quote:
Originally posted by JDC:
Given accoustics and the general tension of a firefight, I'm not sure how accurate the first indication would be. I think people hit the dirt and waited for another shot before they had a good idea of the general direction.

I think you're correct for some situations. A lone sniper shot would be hard to detect distance and direction. A machine gun would be much easier to detect. Maybe the first one or two shots would be extremely hard to detect the direction, but as more shots come in it will be easier to tell. If muzzle flashes are seen by surving members of your squad, then it will be very easy to detect the direction that the shots are coming from. The more members of your squad that see the muzzle flash, the more accurate the enemy shots will be located.

But every soldier should be able to tell the GENERAL direction (left, right, front, behind)from where a shot or shots came from. In 101, the player has absolutly no clue where the shots are coming from unless he sees the enemy unit that fires, which is rarely the case in a night battle.

Pak40 · #10 March 5th, 2002, 09:57 PM

quote:
Originally posted by PvK:

More convenient maybe, but since when can several people run through one door at the same time without either pausing, slowing down, or running into each other?

Actually, it's not just a matter of convenience. It's a matter of game functionality with respect to a degree of realism. For Example: Let's say I've got a soldier that's prone in a doorway and I'd like move another soldier through that doorway. In 101, there's no way to do that. But in real life it wouldn't be a problem.

Also, I'm not talking about 5 people running through the door at once. I'd just like to be able to have one person slip through a doorway while there's another person already there.