Well - great game but didn't had the time to play it properly before. So now I started playing it more seriously. (In fact I did miss all patches for the game^^').
But some things still confuse me - and some ideas might get into the new version
One thing is equipment and ammo.
Sometimes when a unit routes - routes even several times it will lose any equipment. I can understand this for heavy equipment like vehicles and guns, even for MGs on tripods - but not for each and every small arms. And then again usually the MG-teams within the companies wouldn't usually be made of those weenies that cry at every odd spray bullet but the most reliable guys; so losing the MG is unlikely too.
The first rule any soldier learns - don't drop your weapon no matter what. Of course a part of them still do in action but after the fight has begun and soldiers are dying there are enough reserve weapons around. (including 'scavenging' on this scale would probably asking for too much - tho probably any unit would pick up that nice MG-42 if they get a chance; well but managing supplies in the game would be too hard too).
Ammo - well the units get a full fresh reload at midnight (or 3am after a patch I think) - a bit unrealistic, it might be an interesting feature to increase ammo/supplies for troops under reorganization and rest command say for every 15 minutes on rest/reorg the unit regains a % of their full load - also adjusted by efficiency of their superior units Base Unit (to give them a meaning), distance/route to that Base Unit (in effect units that are encircled are unlikely to get any supplies) - and also adjusted by some global supply level (mabye having some supply level map similar to those used at Panzer Campaign series?).
Another way would be having kind of Supply Points/Units (the Base Units would be perfect for this) and units replenishing their supplies would deduct the appropriate number from their Base Units. The Base Units would in turn regain supplies form these Supply Points (as usual depending on route and enemy presence, status of Base Unit).
Since airborne operations depend heavily on airsupply they need to secure areas that can be used to airdrop in supplies (which is completely missing right now). I guess anyone remembers the scene in the movie 'A bridge to far' where the supplies dropped just outside the Allies area of control. (Question is should the player be able to pick those drop points or should they be fixed by scenario?).
I think putting some more detail to the way supply works in this game adds a lot of depth to it. For instance one can chose to 'resupply' a unit to its full levels even tho the 'global' situation only is at 50% supply (of course this means other units would get less supply, but it might be an interesting feature to beef up some units that are planned to go out on a mission far out of the supply like some Recon Unit creating some diversion or blocking a supply line deep behind the lines).
Well - units with defend orders but not engaged for some time should get supplied too but only a fraction of those with reorg/rest orders.
Orders and Delay - well delay felt right in AA:RDoA but there are some things that are annoying, one being if a unit already got order and one issues another order the old one(s) get annuled by default and the new order will be used - having the 'add' order by default would be better I think and having to delete orders manually (or better explicitly) is better (btw same goes for delete order, usually all are deleted and not just the last one).
Another thing seemed to be working not properly - if I did command a 'withdraw' or delay order and then add another order the prior order just turns into a move order :/ (Maybe that got already fixed??)
Also altering orders sometimes make too much of a fuzz - it shouldn't usually be much of a problem to order a unit (or even full Btn or Bgd) to push their Attack order a few hundred meters further or *slightly* change their attack direction. Nearly always the unit(s) would stop in position (or worse withdraw) reorg, and then attack again. Of course I understand that giving complex or 'new' orders takes a lot of time esp. in combat and WW2 - but at crucial times like an attack there would be more communication (assuming they got radio equipment). So if HQ asks (or gets informed by the assaulting units) that enemy resistance is light a command like 'Push your attack further then planned' would usually get to the units in time without having them to completely regroup and reorg in the middle of the fight :/.
The same applies for direction of attack - I once tried to mop up some 20 men without equipment, remnants of some FlaK unit within the area of Osterbeek with the Armored Recon Unit of the Allies - it was impossible. Even tho they were a motorized unit vs some guys on foot they had no chance to get them since they always reorged while the enemy unit just routed out of sight. Ok, why should I care for some Gerry remnants in my back without fighting capacity? Well they still do recon and the Gerry Arty later in the game is brutal with several Nebelwerfer, sFH18 and lots of 88er grounding anything that looks like a target.
Maybe there should be a command that is connected/link to a unit and not only a 'point' on the map? This could be useful for several things I think like:
The above mentioned mopup - of course a unit slower or as fast as the followed unit will have a considereable chance of losing their target. A faster might lose the trail depending on terrain.
Designing arty support to units (or sub HQs) without removing them from their superforce (in effect the HQ will use those arty only on support missions by the marked unit and not just use it in any way that seem approproate). The friendly AI seems to be quit smart in directing arty to support all units.
With the added option to have indirect fire units only support their 'own unit' this is fine for mortar units but not for the divisional arty assets. On the one hand it is too much strain for a Btn or Brg HQ to have them added to their command structure on the other hand its a big strain on the player to either - select those arty themselves and have them bombard or select the Division HQ and have that unit bombard his subunits the designated target area. So a way to keep them under 'Divisional HQ' and still designate them explicitly to another unit or sub HQ would help a lot.
Some ideas on Delay - well Delay usually results out of two things one being the command getting issued and transfered to the unit and the unit itself starting to execute the order; the later consisting of packing up stuff, pulling the guns and heavy equipment out of their defensive positions and attach them to the jeeps, making sure no squad is left unnoticed of the new order, the sniper at the church tower - this takes a lot of time.
But the other reason for delay depends on several other things.
Well we first start with the order itself - someone noted that it needs to be coded and decoded. I'm not quit sure - of course this is correct for strategic commands, coordination of sea warfare and airstrikes and bombing. That is logical too since all this coordination is not too time critical. For airmissions most of the orders are delivered with 'safe' methods - cable or written too and radio communication that could be observed by the enemy will consist of codewords only.
Since battles are fast and decoding slow it is enough to assume that orders at a level AA:RDoA are only 'encoded' by some codewords and codephrases which were agreed upon prior to the mission, they usually change every 24 hours (or upon a given command to change to another code list). A lot of information is just plain text. The reason behind this is that the enemy cant efficiently gather enough information to 'break' the coding. Even if they catch some radio messages they can't efficiently attach them to events they know of - if they catch a message that some 'unit' named 'Hound' should move to point 'Bravo' they don't know what size and typ unit Hound is neither were point Bravo is - if they have recon on some units it is still impossible to know whether this unit IS Hound and if that point is Bravo or Hound is just regrouping before moving towards point Bravo. Since 'ELOKA' is not very efficient at that time the enemy neither can get every radio transmission nor pinpoint the position of each and every transmission leave alone analyze each message - they probably wont have enough translators to translate the plain part of the transmissions.
So radioed commands should get to subunits quit fast.
But sometimes orders - esp detailed and complex ones need to be on paper. The time it takes to deliver them depends - on means of transportation and available route to the subunit. So in effect HQ units with jeeps will be able to deliver their commands much faster.
Well - usually the HQ unit itself wouldn't send personel out to deliver orders. This is usually a job for someone on a KRad, the Melde or Fernmeldeeinheiten, - and as it seems they are part of the 'Base Units' - guessing from the size of units it seems that the 'Stabs' subunits are gathered for simplicity within these Base Units (all those guys that aren't really fighting but doing the logistical part of warfare like repairing tanks, transporting supplies). So to reflect this in AA:RDoA it might be an idea to adjust command delay based on status of the Base Unit and HQ unit (to bypass any problems that would result in the code for HQs without Base Unit) and their equipment - a HQ and Base unit with lots of fast small vehicles would be able to deliver orders much faster the one completely on foot. Also having or completely lacking radio equipment (or enough of it) should have impact on delay. Again this would put Base Units to much more use. Of course distance and route to ordered units form HQ and Base Unit should matter too. So even if the screenshots said for orders delay 'painfully realistic' I hope that it wont turn out to be 'painfully unplayable and unrealistic in effect'.
The way AA:RDoA delay is feels absolutely fine - even tho some fine tuning might be needed on 'minor' orders like slightly adjusting position's.
Ah, one last thing - on defend orders the friendly AI should pay more attention to terrain - if given a defend order with facing the AI should assume that roughly at that point is the center of the front line of defense and usually put some combat unit at that position (and not place the HQ there and the combat units hundred meter further in the open); since anything else is a bit hard to estimate where exactly the AI will place the units. I don't know if the way orders are given have changed with the overhaul AA currently gets. (Maybe for defend orders drawing a box might be a good idea - the AI would assume that the box is the main area of defense and position the combat units within this box according to terrain and LOS while keeping support units, reserve and HQ safe behind that area).
Well - striking idea - maybe being able to issue attack orders with a drawn rectangle might be a good option too - instead of attack orders that go along a line a command like that would let the AI plot an attack from different angels towards the center of the rectangle (depending on the number of units available the AI even might consider to first doing a complete encirclement).
OK, one last thing - it might be a bug it might be already fixed. Sometimes when giving move orders units use very odd routes. The reason might be that they try to avoid some roads or part of it because there was some enemy unit at some time. This even happens whith ordering the 'quickest' way and is especially annoying if the AI decides to 'shortcut' through some forrest :/ or the AI decides to plot a move well outside the established line of defense and not inside the 'secured' area. (Once I plotted a move for some units from NE of Grote Heide towards the Arnhem RR bridge with Osterbeek and the outskirts of Arnhem already being secured - somehow the AI decided the 'quickest' way would be to move West along the RR and the through Wolfhezen South and entering Osterbeek from there continuing to the RR bridge. With Wolfhezen being completely out of recon and control and not secure for travel. It's annoying to plot every move from each roadcrossing to roadcrossing and not the point of having a 'friendly' AI and the option to chose the 'quickest' path.)
Hrm, hope that's all.
murx
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