PO Programming

[arksent]

What is this mystery?

I just downloaded the game and installed the latest patch. Started to play Normandy 44, my old favourite. Discovered some new buttons on the control panel labelled (variously) PO this and PO that.
What is PO I thought? No mention in either the old or the new manual nor (as far as I can tell) in the Forums.
Back to playing the game I mad the mistake of pressing the "Move PO" button - wow!!!
Units moved everywhere including a disturbing number which ended up back in England.
So quit the game and started again. This time by examining the 82nd Airborne units I discovered all the "objective tracks" so back to the manual and found references ONLY in the scenario editing section. I am not interested in creating just playing so back to the game to give my own movement orders.
No luck. Apparently no way to override these preprogrammed movements.

Help please? Is there any documentation on this stuff?

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: arksent

What is this mystery?

I just downloaded the game and installed the latest patch. Started to play Normandy 44, my old favourite. Discovered some new buttons on the control panel labelled (variously) PO this and PO that.
What is PO I thought? No mention in either the old or the new manual nor (as far as I can tell) in the Forums.

PO stands for "Programmed Opponent". Which you will find mentioned in the Manual. It may also be slangily referred to as "Elmer", here and there.

You have discovered the "PO Assist" buttons. They allow you to give control of some of your forces to the PO - leaving you to focus on those elements most of interest to you. The buttons can be made visible or not via an Advanced Rules switch setting.

Back to playing the game I mad the mistake of pressing the "Move PO" button - wow!!!
Units moved everywhere including a disturbing number which ended up back in England.
So quit the game and started again. This time by examining the 82nd Airborne units I discovered all the "objective tracks" so back to the manual and found references ONLY in the scenario editing section. I am not interested in creating just playing so back to the game to give my own movement orders.

Probably very few of your formations were in "Manual" orders. So you basically gave control of your entire force to the PO.

No luck. Apparently no way to override these preprogrammed movements.

?? Are you sure you didn't restart the game with one side PO-controlled?

Help please? Is there any documentation on this stuff?

PO Assist is a new feature introduced in 3.4. So it will only be documented in the "What's New" document. See section IX, item 39.

[sPzAbt653]

Is there any documentation on this stuff?

You might find an 'Elmer Assist Primer' document in the Manuals Folder.

[altipueri]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Is there any documentation on this stuff?

You might find an 'Elmer Assist Primer' document in the Manuals Folder.

Blimey, only just stumbled across this. Might finally get beyond Arrancourt. You guys sure keep the goodies hidden. Just printed it so will have another couple of beers whilst I read it. Almost just bought Battles from the Bulge.

[governato]

Speaking of which..is there a way to stop Elmer from incessantly moving his units and bringing them down to supply 1%? Even setting the PO to 'cautious' does not seem to do the trick.

[sPzAbt653]

is there a way to stop Elmer from incessantly moving his units

Mr. Fulkerson labled this as 'Elmer doing the pee-pee dance'. Ralph made a big change for 3.4 that helped out a lot (this lowered Elmer's chance of movement if a unit might suffer a disengagement attack). Units that are free from disengagement attacks will still shuffle about a lot. You can bump Formation Supply Distribution and the PO's Force Supply Level a bit to help him overcome these issues. If units have high Recon Values and can disengage freely, you may still have a problem.

[altipueri]

Rather than "Program Opponent Assist" which sounds like it helps the opponent shouldn't it be labelled something like "Assistant mode" or "Delegate mode" or "auto-assist" ?

This a bit like buying a new car; spending hours in a traffic jam getting ankle ache from all the neutral to first and back; then later finding there's a semi auto-mode and you can do stop-start using a couple of buttons on the steering wheel stalks.

PO Assist is a GOOD THING - as long as it does a reasonable job, that's what delegation is about.