Feature suggestion - AD modes

[ivanov]

I'd like to have a possibility of selecting a mode for the AD units. What I mean, is that some systems like Gepard or Tunguska, which are capable of engaging ground targets too, often fire at enemy land units and get destroyed before they get a chance of engaging air targets. So it would be great, if you could to select a mode for that kind of units: air targets only, ground targets or auto.

[Tazak]

requested features and suggestions forum is here

[CapnDarwin]

We are trying to avoid any hard on/off like that because you will get more bad situations than good. Since you can only switch modes on orders breaks you not going to be happy when an "air" mode sits there and gets run over by troops or APC and does not shoot. Same with the flip side when in a "ground" mode and a helo or aircraft pops up and it sits still. I think when we add in the SOP sliders and you can set the risk/threat envelope for the units this issue will fade away. Plus we will be reworking AI and make them less prone to start a fight on the ground but more able to react to it by moving or shooting depending on threat level.

[ivanov]

Sounds interesting. Let's see how it works out.

[Tazak]

While talking about AD systems, any thoughts on enlarging AD routines to cover things like

1. engagement cycle times for AD systems e.g. a SA6 would be able to track and engage 1 target at a time while systems like the 2S6 are able to track and engage up to 4 targets, which when you add in missile flight time to each system (assuming a default engage range) would give an engagement cycle time for each AD system, in game turns would mean that a SA6 would be able to engage 1-2 targets per min while a 2S6 would engage 12 targets, this would result in a slight reduction the number of targets engaged by AD systems but allowing greater opportunities to 'swamp' AD systems with multiple targets increasing helicopter and fixed wing survivability

2. some AD systems don't have their own search/track/engage radars and rely on a separate vehicle mounted radar for some/all functions, having these radar vehicles would increase the chances of reducing effectives or operational status of SAM platoons by destroying the radar vehicle (granted that would be a random chance of direct/indirect fire hitting and destroying the radar vehicle, but might present a better model for disabling SAM systems rather than having to destroy all the 'runners'

[CapnDarwin]

Tazak, both points are good. The first one on engagement limits could be done by adding a unit special for units capable of multiple "simultaneous engagements. For the distributed systems, I am slowly adding specials, but we would need additional code to make this really work. It's a good post 2.1 feature we can work on.