To fire or not to fire i ask my crews whats it going to be?

[TakeTheBody]

Ok, my puzzlement continues.

I've noticed that even though you can plot a target, either direct to a spotted enemy, or to area fire at a patch of ground, and I am certain the line stays blue for LOS, and the line "locks" to the action point, when the turn is executed, the crew (tank or MG or mortar) may or may not actually fire. I look at the crew status and they are spotting, spotting, spotting but not shooting, shooting, shooting. Sometimes, they spot, aim and shoot. Then stop for no reason. Sometimes they shoot the whole damn turn.

I notice that sometimes plotting a target the point where I clicked adjusts itself to a spot that is not where I clicked to set the target. Is this part of the problem? Or is there a technique to plotting your target? For instance, don't plot to the very end of the line but back up a bit to compensate for the action point getting locked in? Or some such?

I haven't played that many games so far, so perhaps I'll figure out a more consistent way to get my lads to shoot when I really, really need them to

If this is all par for the course with the CM2 engine, apologies for a newbie question or if I've made no sense.

 

[DellieJonut]

I've had some similar problems before. In a recent match I had a tank crest a slope, spot an stationary enemy tank and fire once. Then it sat there for 30 seconds until the tank fired 4 rounds at it and eventually knocked it out. Very perplexing.

 

[Nelson1812]

My memory is fading... but I think I read somewhere, the spotting element is maybe due to a member of the crew can see the target area, but not the gunner... hence it pays to target a bit beyond the target area, if in doubt.

 

[TakeTheBody]

DellieJonut - Yes! The same behavior just happened to me with a pair of tanks shooting at an ATG. They both had LOS and the action point was the ATG itself. When the turn started, one tank fired intermittently, the other didn't fire at all, but the ATG fired alright and knocked out a tank - the one that didn't shoot back.

I've noticed it even targeting buildings; crews will have LOS and they won't area fire into a building. Its right there, gunner. Fire! When targeting buildings, if you pick a spot at the end of a building, and there is LOS to that spot, you click to target and the spot "jumps" to the center of the building. Is this a case of having LOS, but then the action point supersedes the spot where you targeted and that slight adjustment actually breaks LOS when the turn starts?

The uncertainty around this is starting to effect moral!

Nelson - That is interesting. I can see how this could mislead a player. Maybe they should only allow LOS to be drawn from the gunner's vision slit?

I will try and gain a better understanding of what I am seeing in CM2, but I am going to start some CM1 games soon where the action is a little less mystifying to me .

 

[Vartuoosi]

It's just a quirk of CMx2 engine. The way the engine seems to be handling LOS is rather random, but don't expect Battlefront to get on fixing this. They've been in denial about this particular issue since Shock Force.

 

[Corsaire31]

I came to the same conclusion after playing some CMx2 games, but I'm affraid we'll have to live with it. As Vartuuosi just said, BF has been continuously saying the problem doesn't exist without ever giving a clear explanation about how it works.

I've also been tempted to go back to CMx1, but the pixels are really big on my 27" monitor.