Change/Delete Order

[BadBrad]

I'm hoping some one can help me out. I have issued a Move order to a Bn and now I want to add on an Attack order once the move is complete. I have selected the Bn and the location of the Move order is displayed. I tried to Delete but this does not work?? I have also selected the Bn order location on the map and tried to Delete no luck? According to the manual this should work. I'm obviously doing something wrong. Ideas please.

Cheers,

Brad

[Arjuna]

Brad,

Welcome.

It sounds to me like you are doing the right thing, but obviously something's amiss. Let's try and work out what that is.

First off, have you been able to run the game at all - ie if you hit one of the run buttons does the game start running? If not, I'd say you need to reinstall. If that works, then can you please confirm that when you select the Bn HQ, that its icon is highlighted - ie has a yellow tint? If this is the case, does it have a white command bar at the bottom of the icon. If you have issued an order to it, then its command bar colour should change to white. If not, then the selected unit is not under your direct command and it won't respond to the delete key. The task icon you see will in fact be its plan task assigned by the AI. It will have a grey background. An order icon from the player has a white background.

Please get back to me and let me know if this helps.[:)]

[Lieste]

Assuming the end of the move order is suitable for the form-up point...

Click onto the end-point of the order to select it, but do not delete or move it. Now Shift-click using the attack order on the desired objective. The orders will propagate from the moment you alter the end-point of the route - if the distance to go is sufficiently far they will enter re-org and plan the attack as soon as they arrive.

If you have a short distance to go and want to attack later from 'here', then you can put a fire command out of range or in dead ground. This will halt and deploy the unit - reduce the order duration to clear it quickly. Once it expires set up the desired attack, and they will propagate the order (if appropriate move up to the jump-off point first), and attack. This is possibly slightly slower, as the fire/defend order uses in-situ and this takes additional time to undo.

If the opposition is not overly strong (and should you even be attacking if it is?), then an aggressive hasty attack from the march may be an option - just set the move waypoints through the objective, set support by fire or use indirect fires to suppress his long-range and/or high firepower support weapons and you get a weak attack, but one that hits an hour or so sooner...

(I assumed above that you have decided to attack while still en-route, but re-reading perhaps you mean that you have halted and taken up hasty defence at the end-waypoint and now want to continue with an attack? - If so:)

Just plot an attack without deleting the previous (expired) move order - this will set the new order up replacing the current orders. This works exactly the same if the order is still running when you replace it, but you have little control over when and where the move order is cancelled (and the unit stops) and where the attack order is set-up to start from.

[BadBrad]

I have the game up and running right now. I can confirm that the game runs. I have issued M orders already and the units move along nicely. Th Bn icon has the white bar. When I select it the yellow tint appears over the unit icon. The task icon is displayed on the map as an arrow but the box is greyed not white. So white command bar BUT grey task icon. Seen this before? If you let me know the quickest way to capture screen I'll attach for you.

Brad

[Lieste]

The grey 'move arrow' suggests the move order has been cancelled, but the unit hasn't yet propagated the cancellation - the currently requested order is 'none' but the unit is still acting on the previously set 'move order'.

[GoodGuy]

ORIGINAL: BadBrad

If you let me know the quickest way to capture screen I'll attach for you.

Go to the game, and press the PRINT key on your keyboard.
Sometimes Windows won't recognize it right away (eg. in XP), for whatever reason, so you may have to press the print key multiple times. Then open the PAINT program that comes with windows and paste the screenshot (Ctrl + V or "EDIT - PASTE").
Save as "filename.JPG" (make sure to select the JPG format in the pull down menu) and attach the pic to your post here ("click here to upload") with "embed picture in post" checked.

[Arjuna]

Thanks GoogGuy for the advice on capturing the screen.

[Arjuna]

Brad,

Lieste is right in that the grey task icon you are seeing is the AI's plan task for your unit, not the order icon you issued. When you issue an order to a unit you should see an icon with a white background. This is your order icon. After an approapriate amount of time for orders delay the AI controlling the unit will develop its plan. The plan will have one or more plan tasks. For a simple move it more often than not will be a single Move task. For attacks it can be multiple tasks. These plan tasks are not editable by you. However, you can view them by selecting the unit, holding the Control key down and hitting the down arrow key. Try this and it should highlight the plan task. To select the order icon, select the unit, hold down the Control key and hit the up arrow.

Now when you delete an order, the order icon will dissappear but because of orders delay the pre-existing plan task will remain till the unit receives its orders and develops a new plan. One of the key aspects of our engine is that models the fourth dimension - time. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially if you have played most other games where orders are implemented immediately. This is convenient for the programmer but very unrealistic in a simulation of operational command.

Good luck.[:)]

[BadBrad]

Guys,

Thank you for your clearing this up for me. As you correctly noted I was confused by the task icon.

Be Well!

Brad