Several Observations/Suggestions

The highly anticipated second release in the Panzer Command series, featuring an updated engine and many major feature improvements. 3D Tactical turn-based WWII combat on the Eastern Front, with historical scenarios and campaigns as well as support for random generated battles and campaigns from 1941-1944.
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WhiteOwl
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Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:04 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Several Observations/Suggestions

Post by WhiteOwl »

Hi,

After playing for a while, I have a couple of observations and suggestions.

1. The maps are very well done. If playing an infantry battle they seem huge, and the lack of "terrain compression" makes them quite difficult to advance over (a Good Thing, IMO).
2. Indirect fire should be at least somewhat adjustable. Just played a scen where I directed mortar fire at an inf gun that unmasked itself. The gun was killed in short order as the other one also unmasked. The rest of the fire mission was spent pounding a now empty copse of woods, while the other gun squad happily pounded away less than 100m away. This being a very accurate closed sheaf 81mm barrage, it was nowhere near harmed.
3. When an enemy is seen, far too much information is given away. For example, I detect an infantry squad and it says "1st Rifle Company/6" - thanks, I now know there are at least 5 other squads somewhere.
4. Direct targeting shouldn't, IMO, be a platoon related command, you shouldn't have to get your platoon cmdr to engage in order to be able to direct a sqaud's fire. I was rushing a platoon into various wooded positions. One of the squads arrived way before the cmdr but I can't direct its fire without changing the commander's order to engage->move which is of course slower than rush.
5. Allow squads to mount in one go. Currently you have to move somehow next to the building, then wait out the phase before you can mount in the next phase. I had a squad rush right up to a building, then have to wait about 30 secs until the phase ended. Needless to say, it was killed by the above mentioned inf gun :) before the phase ended and I could mount it (not to sy that it would have definitely survived had it mounted the building, but at least it would have had some cover...). Another suggestion would be to add a pause order to at least with some experience you can time the movement to end just before the phase ended.

All in all though, I am enjoying this greatly. Good job and thanks!

Cheers
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Mobius
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RE: Several Observations/Suggestions

Post by Mobius »

ORIGINAL: WhiteOwl
3. When an enemy is seen, far too much information is given away. For example, I detect an infantry squad and it says "1st Rifle Company/6" - thanks, I now know there are at least 5 other squads somewhere.
Good observation. Yeah, I'll go along with that. I don't think you should even see the star of the command element. This would be bad if you had HQ units or named leader units as they would come under special attack.
ORIGINAL: WhiteOwl
4. Direct targeting shouldn't, IMO, be a platoon related command, you shouldn't have to get your platoon cmdr to engage in order to be able to direct a sqaud's fire. I was rushing a platoon into various wooded positions. One of the squads arrived way before the cmdr but I can't direct its fire without changing the commander's order to engage->move which is of course slower than rush.
No you can't do this as part of the orders phase. Curiously you can target from a halted rushing unit during the Reaction phase. But he loses his target and goes either into rush or defend mode the following Orders phase.
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Erik Rutins
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RE: Several Observations/Suggestions

Post by Erik Rutins »

ORIGINAL: WhiteOwl
1. The maps are very well done. If playing an infantry battle they seem huge, and the lack of "terrain compression" makes them quite difficult to advance over (a Good Thing, IMO).

Thanks, glad you are enjoying them.
2. Indirect fire should be at least somewhat adjustable. Just played a scen where I directed mortar fire at an inf gun that unmasked itself. The gun was killed in short order as the other one also unmasked. The rest of the fire mission was spent pounding a now empty copse of woods, while the other gun squad happily pounded away less than 100m away. This being a very accurate closed sheaf 81mm barrage, it was nowhere near harmed.

The best way to handle this right now is to call up Spot Indirect Fire again and "Cancel Fire" for that battery, which will allow you to get it back sooner to re-target.
3. When an enemy is seen, far too much information is given away. For example, I detect an infantry squad and it says "1st Rifle Company/6" - thanks, I now know there are at least 5 other squads somewhere.

True, we should add some more fog of war there. The one trade-off I can think of comes in making the unit designations so vague that the event list becomes less meaningful.
4. Direct targeting shouldn't, IMO, be a platoon related command, you shouldn't have to get your platoon cmdr to engage in order to be able to direct a sqaud's fire. I was rushing a platoon into various wooded positions. One of the squads arrived way before the cmdr but I can't direct its fire without changing the commander's order to engage->move which is of course slower than rush.

The Reaction phase is for making changes like that to single squads that have completed their orders before the full turn is over.
5. Allow squads to mount in one go. Currently you have to move somehow next to the building, then wait out the phase before you can mount in the next phase. I had a squad rush right up to a building, then have to wait about 30 secs until the phase ended. Needless to say, it was killed by the above mentioned inf gun :) before the phase ended and I could mount it (not to sy that it would have definitely survived had it mounted the building, but at least it would have had some cover...). Another suggestion would be to add a pause order to at least with some experience you can time the movement to end just before the phase ended.

Planned for the future (both mounting while moving and some kind of delay order).
All in all though, I am enjoying this greatly. Good job and thanks

Excellent, thanks for the feedback!

Regards,

- Erik
Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC


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