Units relocating for no reason ?

[DeltaIV]

As seen in the screenshot, this is endlessly frustrating. You have a recon unit at the right spot, you try to set the SOP so they remain silent, hold fire and do their recon job. So what happens ? First enemy unit is spotted, they withdraw and go on a hike to the forest (where they are absolutely useless as they can't spot anything there).

In other scenarios I've had dug in units with hold orders and similar SOP in the city hexes withdrawing from their entrenchment after absolutely first contact with the enemy. This is quite frustrating.

[MaximKI]

Do you mind uploading a save showing the unit's behavior?

[SgtZdog]

I would hazard a guess that maybe the hold order didn't have it's SOP set correctly. This is an easy mistake to make as defender. If you set just the default, then don't change their current orders and they don't need movement orders then they don't implement the default. But a save file would help immensely in fixing the issue.

[DeltaIV]

Unit is on screen (not on hold). At 1639 they start to relocate once they got the contact with tanks. SOP is set right as far as i can tell.

[StefanKreis]

Good Morning

I think it is due to the tactical initiative or the unloading passengers one hex from enemy.

Stefan

[DeltaIV]

They had initiative set to none and stand off range set to 0 at the beginning of the scenario. Took no losses, were not fired upon. There are no passengers, unit is 2x Lynx.

[Tcao]

Press F4 to bring up order SOP window you will see this

SOP.jpg (84.7 KiB) Viewed 521 times

preferred stand off 2 hex

I can guarantee you this is the most frustrating part of FCSS SOP. You have modified everything in the SOP manger window but why it is not reflected on SOP list? That is because by default all the modification in SOP manger window will impact the future order but NOT current order.


In your case, either hit "Apply to this and later units orders" or issue a new "screen order", it will fix your problem

[DeltaIV]

You are absolutely right.

So all my defensive scenarios where I've set some SOP to the units were useless (hence my units on hold going away from their positions), same like this case.

1. Put recon units into some position at the start of the battle, turn 0
2. Give them screen/hold orders
3. Set them SOP via HQ - "apply to self and all subordinates", pick the specific units
4. Watch them go to the forest after the first contact with enemy

This is something I've been doing and the units behaved like this. Especially in scenario where you are defending, since you will most often issue just one order.

So, seeing something in the SOP manager fundamentally means nothing.

"Apply" might mean something for future orders, but basically means nothing even after applying it to whole dug-in company.

Is one supposed to check both SOP manager and unit dashboard to interpolate what the unit might do now and in the future ? Not ideal design in my book.

[SgtZdog]

It says at the top "Default SOP for New Orders". That's also a dropdown if you want it to apply to a specific, currently issued order.

[WildCatNL]

Is one supposed to check both SOP manager and unit dashboard to interpolate what the unit might do now and in the future ? Not ideal design in my book.

Please give the other means to apply SOPs a go. Either from the main menu, or from a unit counter right-mouse menu, choose Adjust SOP or Set SOP, and choose the changes to make. After that, you'll get dialog in which you can see the actual setting for each unit selected, where you can choose whom to apply the SOP change, and where you can even exclude some units from the change.
These actions have been designed with group selections in mind, and the group selection is kept intact after making the change, so you can make successive changes.
It's my preferred means to change SOPs. I rarely use the SOP Manager.

adjust_sop_dialog_example.png (86.88 KiB) Viewed 394 times

[Tcao]

It says at the top "Default SOP for New Orders". That's also a dropdown if you want it to apply to a specific, currently issued order.

I would argue to take this option with cautious. Because that changes the SOP of current order only. If you issue a movement order , or change the status from screen to Hold, it will jump back to original SOP setting. Hitting "Apply to this and later order" doesn't seem to work.


For a new player, I would recommend to change the SOP via "Default SOP for new orders" then hit "Apply to this and later order" to ensure the changes on current order happens.