Coordinating Attacks
Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:36 am
“Attack Launch Time” or “Mission Launch Time”
I was playing HTTR last night and found coordination of assaults from multiple units in multiple directions to be... next to impossible. Orders delay, and unit reorganization, etc. made it so that I could issue the orders in the morning or afternoon, and have some units readied by nightfall, and then they would attack...while others were still organizing, or thinking about organizing.
Don't get me wrong! I LOVE the game. I also know it is a work of art in progress. And I am happy to finance the construction of my Mother of All Wargames over a ten year period with regular $40 to $50 investments.
But I would love to have a "mission launch time,” which could be issued in the assault order or other orders. As the game is currently designed, the penultimate waypoint in an assault order is the assembly point and units move onto the final waypoint. I think it should be relatively simple to attach a small text box to the final way point to indicate a “mission launch time” which indicates the time that the force will leave the penultimate (organization) waypoint. If a player clicks on the box, he may enter a time. This would be the time which units would cross the line of demarcation. If the units were not formed up by the time the "go" time passed, then they would simply make preparations as usual, and "go" as soon as ready. However, if they had already organized, they would simply wait until the time came.
This way, I could tell different battalions and different brigades to attack at, say 0600 with orders issued at 1800 the previous evening. They would all get and digest their orders, march to the appropriate locations at their own damned lazy speeds, and set up. Then they would wait. And when 0600 hit, they would all swing into action at the same time.
As it is now, units are committed piecemeal, and some are in the thick of things while others are lazily deciding on if they even want to participate.
Seems like a simple fix for this problem. But, I could be WAAAAAY wrong.
It is unfortunate that this will probably have to wait until BftB. As it is, I have seen and played so many Bulge and Market Garden games from various companies, that I was hoping that I would, for once, have the opportunity to play a little gamed, but fascinating campaign for Crete with a relatively realistic game engine.
To me, and to my father (a General's Aide in 1960s Germany, who loves to drop by and give me commands while I am playing...he is also fascinated by this system, but is computer shy) the ability to launch coordinated assaults should have come before the "hyper realistic" supply system which has graciously been introduced by the excellent, inspired, and damned hard working staff at Panther Games (now my favorite gaming company in the world). It is probably first and foremost a combat simulation, not a logistics simulation. If logistics simulations were so in, the FedEx package tracking program would be a big seller. However, I really do believe that the supply system is taking a HUGE step in the direction which will make this one of, if not THE greatest operational gaming experience of all time.
I am not a programmer and as such could be waaaaay wrong, but allowing us to attach a "wait until launch time XX:XX" to the penultimate waypoint or final waypoint can't be a massive undertaking. I was hoping to go out and start pushing this game on my friends who were all anxious to start playing, as they had never heard of it. And I told them that I hoped that the few problems in HTTR would be ironed out by CotA and that they could...no, MUST... purchase then. Being able to enter a launch time is certainly a "killer application" and central to the process of making modern war.
It may be that adding unit coordination may be more complicated than adding a "go time" to the penultimate or final waypoint. And, there are better, more realistic, and more complicated (and hence flexible) solutions for this than what I proposed to be a quick fix. And I would completely understand how these would have to be developed over the next one or two releases. I was hoping that the idea that I came up with was simple enough for someone to say, "hey, that's simple" and code it in a few minutes. You know..."wait to launch attack until such and such a time". But if it is not, that's just that.
You know, it's easy for us (me) to sit around and pump out wish lists, but Panther is the genius. Their genius lies in their actual execution of their dream, rather than sitting around and pumping out wish lists like me. So, once again hats off...
[&o][&o][&o]
Thanks Panther
I was playing HTTR last night and found coordination of assaults from multiple units in multiple directions to be... next to impossible. Orders delay, and unit reorganization, etc. made it so that I could issue the orders in the morning or afternoon, and have some units readied by nightfall, and then they would attack...while others were still organizing, or thinking about organizing.
Don't get me wrong! I LOVE the game. I also know it is a work of art in progress. And I am happy to finance the construction of my Mother of All Wargames over a ten year period with regular $40 to $50 investments.
But I would love to have a "mission launch time,” which could be issued in the assault order or other orders. As the game is currently designed, the penultimate waypoint in an assault order is the assembly point and units move onto the final waypoint. I think it should be relatively simple to attach a small text box to the final way point to indicate a “mission launch time” which indicates the time that the force will leave the penultimate (organization) waypoint. If a player clicks on the box, he may enter a time. This would be the time which units would cross the line of demarcation. If the units were not formed up by the time the "go" time passed, then they would simply make preparations as usual, and "go" as soon as ready. However, if they had already organized, they would simply wait until the time came.
This way, I could tell different battalions and different brigades to attack at, say 0600 with orders issued at 1800 the previous evening. They would all get and digest their orders, march to the appropriate locations at their own damned lazy speeds, and set up. Then they would wait. And when 0600 hit, they would all swing into action at the same time.
As it is now, units are committed piecemeal, and some are in the thick of things while others are lazily deciding on if they even want to participate.
Seems like a simple fix for this problem. But, I could be WAAAAAY wrong.
It is unfortunate that this will probably have to wait until BftB. As it is, I have seen and played so many Bulge and Market Garden games from various companies, that I was hoping that I would, for once, have the opportunity to play a little gamed, but fascinating campaign for Crete with a relatively realistic game engine.
To me, and to my father (a General's Aide in 1960s Germany, who loves to drop by and give me commands while I am playing...he is also fascinated by this system, but is computer shy) the ability to launch coordinated assaults should have come before the "hyper realistic" supply system which has graciously been introduced by the excellent, inspired, and damned hard working staff at Panther Games (now my favorite gaming company in the world). It is probably first and foremost a combat simulation, not a logistics simulation. If logistics simulations were so in, the FedEx package tracking program would be a big seller. However, I really do believe that the supply system is taking a HUGE step in the direction which will make this one of, if not THE greatest operational gaming experience of all time.
I am not a programmer and as such could be waaaaay wrong, but allowing us to attach a "wait until launch time XX:XX" to the penultimate waypoint or final waypoint can't be a massive undertaking. I was hoping to go out and start pushing this game on my friends who were all anxious to start playing, as they had never heard of it. And I told them that I hoped that the few problems in HTTR would be ironed out by CotA and that they could...no, MUST... purchase then. Being able to enter a launch time is certainly a "killer application" and central to the process of making modern war.
It may be that adding unit coordination may be more complicated than adding a "go time" to the penultimate or final waypoint. And, there are better, more realistic, and more complicated (and hence flexible) solutions for this than what I proposed to be a quick fix. And I would completely understand how these would have to be developed over the next one or two releases. I was hoping that the idea that I came up with was simple enough for someone to say, "hey, that's simple" and code it in a few minutes. You know..."wait to launch attack until such and such a time". But if it is not, that's just that.
You know, it's easy for us (me) to sit around and pump out wish lists, but Panther is the genius. Their genius lies in their actual execution of their dream, rather than sitting around and pumping out wish lists like me. So, once again hats off...
[&o][&o][&o]
Thanks Panther
