LOS for spotters

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> LOS for spotters

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LOS for spotters - 4/6/2000 2:14:00 PM

Scarhead

Posts: 8
Joined: 4/6/2000
From: Jena, Germany
Status: offline

1 ) Is it possible to look over a wooden building in SPWAW? Standing on a height 30 ridge, you should easily look across most buildings. Especially spotters should have better LOS from there. I remember a great Stalingrad map in SP3 (forgot the author, but the map is terrific!). I took the commanding hill ASAP accepting losses, and strategically it was worth nothing (except the vhexes, but I could have taken them later with less losses) 2) If a building is height 10, a spotter should have LOS from the roof, not the basement. (Hey, it would be a nice feature to have spotters being able to climb trees and buildings, using the same switch as engineers :"(do not) clear mines in front" would get "use highest point of hex/stay level". Being more exposed if climbing up, of course... 3) And will the message "no LOS" for spotters still apply if the rounds fall right on top the spotter during a danger close mission? LOS for this purpose should be expanded a bit into the usually unseen... You won't see a squad, but you will conceive an explosion 4) Not exactly for spotters, but related to 2): Recce units now often retreat in SP3 if a tank unit closes in. Could we have a switch there "retreat on contact/stand and fight" like the "clear mines" switch for engineers? And hey, I want it in v1.0, but I would even wait a few patches Scarhead

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- 4/6/2000 4:28:00 PM

Paul Vebber

Posts: 11430
Joined: 3/29/2000
From: Portsmouth RI
Status: offline

The LOS routines are a bit arcane, but if you have a great height advantage there is still a blind spot behind a building that gets bigger the farther away it is. While Mike Wood has changed or added some 100,000 lines of code for this game, we are still using the Sp3 "core engine". LOS is is essentially the same as SP3...but For LOS sighting purposs it is assumed when troops are in a building hex that at least one guy iis up on teh roof, so Height is calculated form there. This also works the other way,. so enemys can see sometimes see your guy on the roof and know you are there. Multiple locations within a hex are just not possible within the time limits we have, so multiple floors, hiding in the basement, etc is too hard at his point. THe game makes no details about what is going on inside a hex, just that being in certain types of hexes convey cetaiin advantages and disadvantages. A spotter in his own FFE would likely be unabale to communicate on his radio given the cacaphony around him. Spotters are more important now, but still work best at a distance :-) Its Halftracks and trucks that "run away", any formation can be designated "recon". I I will have to check that one out as to whether that happens with halftracks, I know trucks "run away" quite easily.

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(in reply to Scarhead)

Post #: 2