Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Steve McClaire

The AI units spot player units exactly the same way as the player's units spot AI units. The AI can spot muzzle flashes from firing units and figure out where they are -- this is not guaranteed and is not substantially better than an experienced player in my experience. One advantage the AI has is reaction time. It notices instantly if a new enemy unit has been spotted, whereas a human player may need a moment to notice the new blip on the mini-map and move the view to see what it is.

Steve

I don't agree Steve. Then how can the AI instantly spot a unit when you order a "fire" order and EXACTLY the same time, Before any muzzle flash, target the unit?

I'm on the fence with this.
Want to buy it but I am sadly old enough to have played the original CC, thought it was awful, and to be honest from what I am reading here does not bode well.
18 Hits on any tank would have the crew beating feet backwards in any tank.
Insta-Return fire just because you order a crew to Fire!
And yet it appears that if you give a Defend Order to the same unit they can pummel away and not be seen.

Instead of dedicating God knows how many Man hours revamping a system that was never that good in the first place, why not design something new ?

equal number of them against a comparable tank such as the Sherman (although the MkIV has a much better gun) I would be the loser in the majority of the battles. Even if I am in ambush position hidden in the hedgerow it seems that the tank is easily spotted. If I manage to get the first s

I agree the MkIV is horrible in this game. I expect it to be a match if not better than the Sherman but it seems that only 'luck' will make a MkIV survive h2h with a Sherman. I estimate the MkIV will win only 1/3 of the time against a Sherman so my tactic is to line them up in groups of at least three and hope for the best.

one would think that this would have been play tested? this is pretty basic stuff...mk 4 VS sherman.....[8|]

cathartes.......is anyone looking into the sherman vs mk 4 issue?

I checked the data, and all looks good. Pretty much the same as PitF. No one complained in playtesting.

I recall one battle during playtesting where I was attacking onto a map against Conrad and I lost 7 Shermans vs zero losses for the German Mk. IVs. Peoples' experiences vary tremendously. The Mk.IV has a better gun, while the Sherman has slightly better armor. Sherman is a bit faster with faster turret rotation. There are a lot of variables that are never explained or seen by players, and they make snap judgements which are not based on good data.

I think the problem may be that the game runs to its own logic which is easily misinterpreted by human players.
My own experience has been that I frequently get pasted by the AI when I am playing as allies with sherman or as axis with pzkw4.
I move/place/defend/ambush in a way that makes perfect sense to me but seems to frequently result in disaster. The AI has no such problem, and is aided by the fact it almost never moves except in response to the player.
A few things I have noticed:
Moving tanks towards a hedge to get line of sight on enemy units is extremely dangerous. The AI will shoot instantly the player makes line of sight while your own unit is still following your move command and takes time to respond (always to late)
Same with moving to get behind and surprise enemy tank, unless you get very lucky, your move command will give a delay to your tanks response, allowing the AI tank to start shooting first - the fact you have sneaked up behind them counts for nothing.
Traditionally there was supposedly an advantage conferred on units that were given a direct command by the player, but it now seems that this is no longer the case?

I agree with what imaca is saying. I have noticed for a long time that the AI seems to know where you are as soon as the line of sight is fixated on target thereby giving a player sneaking into a hedgerow or ambushing from a concealed position very little chance for a surprise attack. It seems that tanks should have very little field of vision from anywhere other than the frontal arc, at least when in combat.

I believe that tanks have the ability to see way too far assuming that they are traveling in a buttoned up mode which is generally what they do when in combat.

On a side note: the camouflage seems to work really well. I had a 75pak40 that was only about 125m from some infantry and was not discovered at all.

Flee was just a get out of Gaol free card.

you make your decisions and then have to live (or die) with them.

Disengaging was not as easy as hitting a FLEE button.