Matrix Games Forums

While I really like the naturalistic shapes of Panzer Command woodlands I'm finding their 'transparency' hard to read/enjoy.

Any chance of a tweak?

we plan on adding an enhancement to add 'unit bases' or 'unit outlines' as a toggle to allow users to see units that in cover better. we hope that will help solve the problem where guys in woods are hard to find.

thanks!

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. When I say I'm having trouble reading woodland 'transparency' I mean I'm having problems estimating lines of sight. In the attached pic I was surprised to see my tank spotting and engaging through so much woodland.

I just check the jump map to locate units.

PoE (aka Ivanmoe)

EDIT: I keyed in a response while GliderRecon was posting his second message. I didn't understand what he was getting at. I certainly didn't mean to step on his post. Apology extended. [:)]

It seems what is happening is that LOS is not determined by woodland 'areas' but by the actual 3D trees themselves (or areas just around them). I've had LOS blocked to AT guns that were at the edge of a wood with just one tree in front of them and nothing else in the way. But from the manual we know that isn't the case.

Well actually now that I am looking at the manual, in your screenshot you have about 200m of light woods and ~30 meters of heavy woods. Not sure the base sighting on an AT Gun but for infantry it would be -650m, the light woods would give it -775m, and the heavy -650m. A big factor is whether the AT gun fired or not. If your tank was stationary its sighting distance would be 800m. The math doesn't work in this case but those figures are for infantry not an AT gun and not if it fired.

I agree it is not particularly intuitive and even after playing quite a bit I am still surprised when things are in/out of LOS. A LOS tool you could use to check points would help. I almost wonder if a simpler LOS algorithm would be preferable even if less 'realistic'. It's good that size and actions affect LOS and it is simply not reciprocal but it can be hard to figure out covered paths.

I'm sure Matrix will clarify.

GliderRecon,

ORIGINAL: GliderRecon
Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. When I say I'm having trouble reading woodland 'transparency' I mean I'm having problems estimating lines of sight. In the attached pic I was surprised to see my tank spotting and engaging through so much woodland.

I agree, I'm surprised to see that targeting line there as well. We do check the "geometry" to see if your shot actually passes through any trees. However, we also assume a "minimum obstruction" based on the terrain map. If you can e-mail me a save file of that shot, I'd like to see how exactly it worked. Send to erikr@matrixgames.com please.

Regards,

- Erik

The quickest way to ck LOS is use use the mini map (after getting the red line fire order) to the unit in question. Even from your firing unit you can drag the line across the map to the target which is a dot and move it till you see the chance to hit.
 
To really get down and dirty..tab tab..to the close view and you can fire from there.
Here you can really see what's blocking. Better yet..click on an enemy unit and tab tab and you'll see what they can see....like nice tanks in a woods but visible between the trees.
 
The one thing that gets me is I'll get a pink line but if I move it back like 10 meters its red..so I don't understand whats blocking.

ORIGINAL: HardRock
The one thing that gets me is I'll get a pink line but if I move it back like 10 meters its red..so I don't understand whats blocking.

Area fire targeting has more lenient visibility than specific units. So seeing a patch of woods to target it is easier than seeing a specific tank or squad hiding in the woods.

Regards,

- Erik