Now, for your reading pleasure

[Larry Reese]

The latest installment of.... (drum roll) LR's bitching about the limitations of the game engine. Todays topic: SPOTTING. Now, I know the engine was originally designed for smaller maps where this will rarely come into play, but I think it's kind of silly that a unit, no matter how well hidden, becomes almost automatically spotted if it is within the LOS of a large enough number of enemy units. You can have a single platoon of infantry, hidden in dense forest, on a steep hillside, 4000 meters away, doing nothing, not moving an inch, firing no weapons, neither shooting fireworks nor having a rock concert, yet they are almost universally spotted when a sea of enemy units moving across the valley floor miraculously spots them, as though all those units are made up of the model for Eagle Eye GI Joe (yes, the 12 inch tall ones, not the jerk off dildo made in Japan 3 inch bull sheisse).

Without dissecting this thing, it seems to me that every enemy unit gets a fresh "roll" at spotting a friendly unit. In most cases, fine. But in scenarios with huge sight lines and long visual distances and large numbers of units, this yields ludicrous results. Not to mention the fact that a unit not on what it perceives to be the "front line" is generally far less wary than those out front. Infantry and other units in the third echelon, in my opinion, should get significant penalties to spotting.

Of course, we could chalk it all up to something like land-based Huff-Duff, and say they're spotting the radio usage of the unit while it is calling in artillery, etc..., but that does not take into account the fact that they could be using only land lines.

In short, I think this needs to be rectified. But then, this would still be behind my number one peev - the abyssmal artillery system. But I digress.

Be good people,

LR

[Von Earlmann]

My all time spotting favorite is the justly famous ?

LOL

VE

[Herr Straße Laufer]

Todays topic: SPOTTING. Now, I know the engine was originally designed for smaller maps where this will rarely come into play, but I think it's kind of silly that a unit, no matter how well hidden, becomes almost automatically spotted if it is within the LOS of a large enough number of enemy units.

You are singing in my choir.
Though, I am not a fan of Large unit Large map scenarios, I believe it is still up to the scenario designer to set "realistic" ranges for line of sight. On a clear day you may not be able to see forever?

Of course, we could chalk it all up to something like land-based Huff-Duff, and say they're spotting the radio usage of the unit while it is calling in artillery, etc..., but that does not take into account the fact that they could be using only land lines.

And, the feature is there before spotters, forward observers, and spotting planes?

this would still be behind my number one peev - the abyssmal artillery system.

:violin2: And, "excuse me, sir, is that how the fight started?" next will be a discussion of Halftracks and artillery!



HSL

[Huib Versloot]

Limitations of the game engine. All you can do is try to work around them.
Scenario designers should think twice before implementing a visibility >10 (although I do it sometimes). Long visibiltiy has the serious drawback that all sorts of units that are miles away from eachother serve as spotters for eachother.

In the PzC series the target has to be spotted by a unit attached to the artillery (in a broad sense) to be able to fire on it with that artillery.

I don't know if that is programmable in CS.

Huib

[junk2drive]

In reference to Huib's post and PzC brought to mind Panzer Corps and Panzer General.

The guy that made PC made a freeware version of PG for his own enjoyment and to share with fans of PG. Of course there were things about PG that he didn't like and he changed them in his version. It caught the eye of Slitherine and they approached him about a commercial version. I don't play the game but when there was news and chatter about the game I read some of the forum posts. A lot of PG fans had there likes and dislikes for the original PG. From this discussion came the final version of PC.

My point to all of this is that we don't know what is possible with the current JTCS engine. We don't know what John Tiller has planned for his Panzer Battles game. We can hope that someone is listening and one of the above is better than what we have. What we can wish for is that someone out there surprises us with a home made clone that does everything that everybody wants.

[Von Earlmann]

Todays topic: SPOTTING. Now, I know the engine was originally designed for smaller maps where this will rarely come into play, but I think it's kind of silly that a unit, no matter how well hidden, becomes almost automatically spotted if it is within the LOS of a large enough number of enemy units.

You are singing in my choir.
Though, I am not a fan of Large unit Large map scenarios, I believe it is still up to the scenario designer to set "realistic" ranges for line of sight. On a clear day you may not be able to see forever?

:violin2: And, "excuse me, sir, is that how the fight started?" next will be a discussion of Halftracks and artillery!



HSL




[/quote]

HALFTRACKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BRING 'EM ON......I'm in hog heaven :-)

VE

[Jim von Krieg]

Conversely,

Let me throw you under the bus, err I mean halftrack, for bringing this up... LOL...

How is it that the lone platoon that just got spotted on the battlefield has a direct hotline to the Commanding General so he can make critical decisions as to troop deployment?

M3 vs SdKfz 251 at 250 paces... may the best MG win... LOL...

Woo HOO!!!

[Herr Straße Laufer]

The hills are alive with the sound of radios?

Half tracks ... debate ...



HSL

[Von Earlmann]

The hills are alive with the sound of radios?

Half tracks ... debate ...



HSL

All my halftracks have radios..trouble is some like rock,some like country,some like jazz...the ones that don't like music listen to rap :-)

VE

[Larry Reese]

I'm rolling in my M17. Bring your MGs.

LR