Few Questions

Panzer Command: Ostfront is the latest in a new series of 3D turn-based tactical wargames which include single battles, multi-battle operations and full war campaigns with realistic units, tactics and terrain and an informative and practical interface. Including a full Map Editor, 60+ Scenarios, 10 Campaigns and a very long list of improvements, this is the ultimate Panzer Command release for the Eastern Front!

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Gerry4321
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Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2003 2:40 am

Few Questions

Post by Gerry4321 »

Hi Rick and Mobius et al

Hope you don't mind a few questions or as someone said on another forum, an interrogation.

Random Battles:
1. Is there a way to control the size of the map? I see you pick a map but I don't know which of those are large/medium etc. Or does the force size determine the size of the map.
2. What is the unit selection pool? Cannot see anything about it in main or RBG manuals.


Others:
1. I see the Options screen but I don't see anything in there about viewing the maps in higher resolution?
2. Is there a legend somewhere for the underlying color coded terrain map?
3. Does the HUD show if a half-track is carrying passengers or if the squad is a passenger?

Thanks.
Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad)
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Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:57 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad) »

Hi,
not to hijack this threat but there are some more questions that I did not find an answer to in either the manuals or on the net.

Can one expand the time of a campaign in the campaign editor? (I find it odd that there is no "long" campaign for the Soviet side)
How do unit upgrades in an edited Campaign work? Say I change the 1stPzDiv(41-44) to playing as the Russians (if that is even possible), will my T34s upgrade to newer models? Generally I find the lack of proper documentation for some of the features disheartening since there was obviously so much love put into them. E.g. what does the "HQ helper" do? I tried it out and got a weird response (and a Soviet-style threat :D) but I have no idea what that actually does. Can someone point me to a guide for the campaign editor. The one in the manual is not terribly helpful.
rickier65
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Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by rickier65 »

ORIGINAL: Gerry

Hi Rick and Mobius et al

Hope you don't mind a few questions or as someone said on another forum, an interrogation.

Random Battles:
1. Is there a way to control the size of the map? I see you pick a map but I don't know which of those are large/medium etc. Or does the force size determine the size of the map.

You can find the size of the current map by clicking on the word Template. You should see a map size and a description of the map. If it says 0 km x 0 km, select a different map then reselect you're original. In the current version of the RBG it isn't easy to limit your random battles to a particular map size. It's possible to do, but not easily. You would have to create a specific battle plan. Let me know if you want more information on how you can do this.
ORIGINAL: Gerry
2. What is the unit selection pool? Cannot see anything about it in main or RBG manuals.

my first answer was wrong. The force pool modifier allows you to spend points to select your units from a pool of units, rather than having them bought for you.
ORIGINAL: Gerry
Others:
1. I see the Options screen but I don't see anything in there about viewing the maps in higher resolution?

The maps are shown at their highest resolution. In one of the patches all maps were changed to be Hi-res maps.
ORIGINAL: Gerry
2. Is there a legend somewhere for the underlying color coded terrain map?

You can see the terrain under the color when you have a movement order and hover the cursor of the map. To see a chart of all of the terrain colors you can check the Map Maker Guide in the manuals folder. There is an appendix C (page 54) that shows all of the colors and the corresponding terrain type.
ORIGINAL: Gerry
3. Does the HUD show if a half-track is carrying passengers or if the squad is a passenger?

Thanks.

No, I don't think so. It does show buttoned or unbuttoned.

And we certainly don't mind questions!

Thanks!
Rick
rickier65
Posts: 14241
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by rickier65 »

ORIGINAL: Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad)

Hi,
not to hijack this threat but there are some more questions that I did not find an answer to in either the manuals or on the net.

Can one expand the time of a campaign in the campaign editor? (I find it odd that there is no "long" campaign for the Soviet side)
How do unit upgrades in an edited Campaign work? Say I change the 1stPzDiv(41-44) to playing as the Russians (if that is even possible), will my T34s upgrade to newer models? Generally I find the lack of proper documentation for some of the features disheartening since there was obviously so much love put into them. E.g. what does the "HQ helper" do? I tried it out and got a weird response (and a Soviet-style threat :D) but I have no idea what that actually does. Can someone point me to a guide for the campaign editor. The one in the manual is not terribly helpful.

The campaign editor is really EXTREMELY flexible. Unfortunately, it isn't well documented. And to compound the problem, the documentation for the Campaign Editor wasn't updated with the changes made when the game was updated. I happen to be working on testing some Random Campaign ideas so if you'd like I can try and help. While the random campaign editor is very flexible, it can be hard to use.

There was an effort to make it easier to edit units used in a campaign. I thought there was a post in the forums. I will try to find it and post a link. If you're interested in extending one of the Random Campaigns, and would more info. let me know and I'll try to post some guidance.

I think the HQ Helper was a tool that was put together to give a players a chance to "replay" a particular battle in a campaign with more points. So that they would have a better chance of continuing a campaign. I have to admit, I haven't used it in quite a long time (years), and I'm not sure that it still works or how it works. Mobius might recall better.

I think there is some additional information on the Campaign editor in the Readme file as the Random Campaign generator was modified in one of the patches.

Let me know if you want me to do post a walkthrough of editing a Random Campaign. Though it will take a few days for me to do.

Thanks
Rick
rickier65
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Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by rickier65 »

ORIGINAL: Rick

ORIGINAL: Gerry
2. What is the unit selection pool? Cannot see anything about it in main or RBG manuals.

I'm pretty sure this is just a point multiplier. Not really sure why it's there since you can change the battle points by clicking on the points.
[/quote]

This is incorrect. I did some more looking and this option allows you to generate a random battle but instead of having units already selected, when you fight the battle you get to 'buy' your force from a force pool.


Sorry for the mis-information!

Thanks
Rick
Gerry4321
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Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2003 2:40 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by Gerry4321 »

That appendix C is helpful.

Any idea of what is the difference between unit selection pool 1, 2,3, 4, or 5? If not, don't spend time on it. I can come back to it later.

Thanks Rick.
Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad)
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:57 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad) »

-Gerry
I think it is the size of the force pool you can choose from. I.e. two means that you can choose from a list that has twice the amount of points available => you can choose half the units. Pool three => you can choose a third of those troops etc.

-Rick
Thank you so much for your kind answer and offers. Yesterday I experienced something disturbing: an enemy infantry platoon just walked out into the open to hold a mission objective. The troops on the objective just stood there while being blasted by three tanks. This in itself seems pretty horrible AI. But what really annoyed me was that they were just sitting there for twenty turns, being mortared and shelled by tanks thirty-five meters away just to be on that mission objective. They did not try to get close and drive off my tanks or tried to hide in better cover or anything.
This seems dangerously broken to me. Since I am a new player, my question is: is this always the case? Is the AI that simplistic; just sit on the objective no matter what? Doesn't this make the game very easy in the long run?

Cheers
Burn
rickier65
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Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by rickier65 »

ORIGINAL: Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad)
...
-Rick
Thank you so much for your kind answer and offers. Yesterday I experienced something disturbing: an enemy infantry platoon just walked out into the open to hold a mission objective. The troops on the objective just stood there while being blasted by three tanks. This in itself seems pretty horrible AI. But what really annoyed me was that they were just sitting there for twenty turns, being mortared and shelled by tanks thirty-five meters away just to be on that mission objective. They did not try to get close and drive off my tanks or tried to hide in better cover or anything.
This seems dangerously broken to me. Since I am a new player, my question is: is this always the case? Is the AI that simplistic; just sit on the objective no matter what? Doesn't this make the game very easy in the long run?

Cheers
Burn

Burn,

That does sound bad. But it hasn't been my experience with the game. Was the squad pinned? Could it see the tanks that were firing at it? Were you playing with SOP on? If an infantry unit isn't pinned, my experience is that they retreat away from AFV's pretty fast, even if they are on an objective, unless they have some cover. But if they are pinned they won't be able to move.

Are you playing with SOP turned on? In the options you can set SOP to on or off. If you have it set to on (which I recommend) you can set the SOP for the unit to be either Standard (which is what it is if you don't use SOP at all, Aggressive, sort of 'hold at all costs', or Cautious, don't risk getting shot).

Thanks and let me know if you keep getting that odd behavior. There are a lot of factors that go into determining how a unit will react to a threat but an Infantry squad in the open shouldn't be be standing up to and enemy tank.

Thanks
Rick
Gerry4321
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Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2003 2:40 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by Gerry4321 »

Thanks Burn.
ORIGINAL: Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad)

-Gerry
I think it is the size of the force pool you can choose from. I.e. two means that you can choose from a list that has twice the amount of points available => you can choose half the units. Pool three => you can choose a third of those troops etc.

...

Cheers
Burn
Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad)
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:57 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad) »

Hi,
well it was not just one unit, the AI sent at least a dozen squads to that objective and they were getting slaughtered, firing their machineguns into the tanks (uselessly). I have not had much time to play recently but I will try some more battles. Once I'm relatively sure that the AI is not broken, I'll have another look at creating a long Soviet campaign (because I think it would be awesome to play a campaign through the entire war, with about one battle per month).

Cheers
Burn
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Mobius
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RE: Few Questions

Post by Mobius »

Well, I think the AI is sometimes too aggressive. Especially, on defense. Maybe if attacking a maximum effective range to close too should be programmed in where their firepower/protection is compared to yours to find the optimal range to fight at. Though, this might be too much a Terminator battle as humans don't have that kind of analysis.
All your Tanks are Belong to us!
panzer
rickier65
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Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by rickier65 »

ORIGINAL: Burnside(Yes,Imthatbad)

Hi,
well it was not just one unit, the AI sent at least a dozen squads to that objective and they were getting slaughtered, firing their machineguns into the tanks (uselessly). I have not had much time to play recently but I will try some more battles. Once I'm relatively sure that the AI is not broken, I'll have another look at creating a long Soviet campaign (because I think it would be awesome to play a campaign through the entire war, with about one battle per month).

Cheers
Burn

Do you happen to have a saved game? It's certainly possible that the AI will send infantry to cover an objective, but they should only be firing at tanks if the tanks are unbuttoned, and they should also be retreating or withdrawing if they are under fire from tanks unless something is stopping them from withdrawing.

It may be possible to tweak their behavior.

Thanks
Rick
rickier65
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Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by rickier65 »

ORIGINAL: Mobius

Well, I think the AI is sometimes too aggressive. Especially, on defense. Maybe if attacking a maximum effective range to close too should be programmed in where their firepower/protection is compared to yours to find the optimal range to fight at. Though, this might be too much a Terminator battle as humans don't have that kind of analysis.

We could look at that. I seem to recall we did tweak the behavior of armored units that were on the defensive so that they would be more reluctant to leave good defensive positions.

Thanks
Rick
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Mobius
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RE: Few Questions

Post by Mobius »

Seemed to me in an early version of the game when time was running out the AI would send all it's available infantry to attack and try to regain a flag if it was behind.

That was suicide but it played the game on points and as there was no tomorrow so why not try anything? But, I thought that pretty much changed with the SOP.

You did fix the defensive armor from advancing from their entrenchments and dugouts.

All your Tanks are Belong to us!
panzer
rickier65
Posts: 14241
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by rickier65 »

ORIGINAL: Mobius

Seemed to me in an early version of the game when time was running out the AI would send all it's available infantry to attack and try to regain a flag if it was behind.

That was suicide but it played the game on points and as there was no tomorrow so why not try anything? But, I thought that pretty much changed with the SOP.
....

That could be. It's often what a human player would do too! I know when SOP was put in, it took some getting used to.

Thanks
Rick
Gerry4321
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Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2003 2:40 am

RE: Few Questions

Post by Gerry4321 »

Yes, that is what happened a lot in games like ASL with scenarios - the last turn mad rush. In ASL campaigns that was not such a good idea as you had to conserve forces.

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