Randomness in BftB?

[rfrizz]

OK, I'll go out on a limb and say that the programmers need to answer this one.

What aspects of the game are random or, to be more accurate, non-deterministic? It seems that two infantry companies slugging it out would have outcomes resolved by weighing the various factors of each unit (including the terrain of each) and picking a random number for the final determination.


Here is a really tough question... I won't take offense if Panther doesn't want to answer. If you know how the AI works "under the hood" would it give you an advantage in gameplay?

[Arjuna]

Just as probability plays a massive role in determining the outcome of battle in real life, so too it does in Command Ops. It impacts in so many ways through the planning process from selection of approaches to allocation of resources. It impacts on the action events like fire and bombard. It impacts on the reactions units take from whether to stand and return fire or to retreat to cover and which location to retreat to. it impacts on the reassessments commanders make to their plans based on commander and troop attributes like aggression, stubbornness, determination.

On the other hand there are fixed values and known constants like the amount of personnel and weapons a unit has. But there are so many variables. Combined they determine the range of possible outcomes and the probability. It's a complex system with many, many individual probability determinations. This combined with cause and effect provide a great deal of scope for different outcomes based on the same starting positions.

As for knowing what is under the hood, I don't believe that this does give you an advantag. We have endeavoured to design the engine so that it models reality. If you approach it like a real commander then you should do fine.

[wodin]

Thats the answer I expected, the game is far far more complex than most wargames out there.

[rfrizz]

ORIGINAL: wodin

Thats the answer I expected, the game is far far more complex than most wargames out there.

I figured that too.

My assumption was, as Arjuna said, that a real battle can turn on random events. As an example, I read the memoirs of a US soldier who went to the front less than two weeks after the Bulge ended. There was a battle, and the US was hung up and couldn't make progress; regimental reserves were committed.

The writer just happened to see a convoy bringing reserves to the fighting, and reported it. Artillery slaughtered the convoy. But for his position. But for not being hit by Wehrmacht return fire. But for other random factors...

The Americans barely took the town. Had the reserve force not been spotted, the battle would likely have gone the other way.

I have a lot of experience with system design and programming, and I am considered by colleagues to be very clever. But next to the programming of Command Ops... I would not be able to understand the code, let alone design it.