Suggestion re ui/map evaluation

[haard]

I have no idea whatsoever if this has been proposed earlier, but I have not found it when scanning the boards. Right now, it is quite tendious to find information on a tile if it is occupied by a unit. What I'd like to see is an (optional?) ui field where information (elevation, cover) on the tile currently under the mouse pointer was always displayed. Also, I'd like to reiterate a suggestion someone else made a while ago, that elevation could be viewed as a coloured overlay.

oh, and greatgameiloveit and all that jazz [;)]

[Catgh_MatrixForum]

Just want to quickly chime in, we are in discussion on the idea of shading the map for elevation.

I do like your idea about the mouse having a tool tip that displays values of the tile to which it is pointing and will forward it on to Robert.

Ron

[nukkxx5058]

yeah, that's a great idea. Ideally, this should be also available during res phase...

[haard]

Since yesterday, I came up with another one:

The ability to tell my artillery units which ammo to use when giving fire support (on call)

Yesterday, on Meeting of Titans, I had my WP artillery drop smoke on enemy units that stumbled on my flank guard in the woods - with the result that my mech inf that was dug in and defending was destroyed by units it could not see...

[CapnDarwin]

haard,

If you turn the FSCC option off then you are in total control to plot your fire missions. With the option on the AI/higher command will fire on the target. The type of mission is based on a percentage between HE/smoke/gas. The WP doctrine in 89 was to use a lot of smoke to blind enemies as they close. Of course, units with thermal sights aren't really hampered in that case.

As for terrain and elevation info it is in the status bar in the lower right of the screen during orders phase. I also like the tool tip idea for unoccupied squares.

[haard]

ORIGINAL: Capn Darwin

haard,

If you turn the FSCC option off then you are in total control to plot your fire missions. With the option on the AI/higher command will fire on the target. The type of mission is based on a percentage between HE/smoke/gas. The WP doctrine in 89 was to use a lot of smoke to blind enemies as they close. Of course, units with thermal sights aren't really hampered in that case.

But - that makes no sense, when your own unit does not have thermal sights, and the enemy is identified as units which does have thermal sights. Which was exactly the situation. Besides, the unit that was smoked was in the hex beside my unit, and sice the smoke made it impossible to see that unit but my unit was still in the clear, so to speak (in the forest, but out of the smoke) it would not make sense even if none of the units had thermals...

Also:

Without the FSCC option, I must use ten-minute impulses to have any chance at all to use my arty effectivly as WP, since NATO forces move around so friggin' much, and I cannot order my OB arty en masse.

This is really a product of trying to use the WP arty for pinpoint missions, since giving orders to shell the ugly word out of an entire area ("shell/gas/mine that hill/town/forest once/from 1010 to 1020/until further notice") generates way too much radio traffic, and costs way too many order points.

Which leaves most of my arty on CB or direct support (with risk of stoopid smoke).


Note that I'm no cold war buff, so someone might want to tell me what the real mission of the WP OB arty units should be.

[Poliorcetes]

Shift click on your artillery and you can plot multiple attacks with 1 order (so long as it all the same type of barrage).
This allows you to gas 12 or more squares in a 30 minute turn with 1 order. You just then seperately select the artillery unit and move the target waypoint to different locations.
See my comments in the strategy section about WP artillery, but essentially its useless except for mass chemical warfare and the occasional counterbattery success.

Poliorcetes

[haard]

But that won't work for the OB arty, at all, since you can only select one at a time =(

Either way, I now find WP artillery quite useful since I learnt to put most of it on direct support to the hq unit for my frontline units. A mix of conventional and chemical works best for me it seems.

One question: if I put a unit on direct support-chemical, will it continue support with conventional rounds once it is out of chems?

[Poliorcetes]

It does work for off board Arty, it just seems like it doesn't because the OB icons don't get highlighted. But try it and you will see it works just the same. I do it all the time, although you do have to remember to click on a non-highlighted unit to unselect the group once you lay the first barrage.

Poliorcetes

[haard]

Oh, that is sooo nice =)
Thanks a bunch!