Visual Questions

[junk2drive]

Number of view levels?
Top down view?
Screen resolutions?
Camera controls? Mousewheel? Hotkeys?
LOS and FOW? Adjustable?
Thanks

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: junk2drive
Number of view levels?

I'm not sure what a view level is - you can scroll, pan and tilt at will.

Top down view?

Sure.

Screen resolutions?

I've played at up to 1680 x 1050, not sure if it goes higher than that. I usually play at 1280 x 1024.

Camera controls? Mousewheel? Hotkeys?

Mouse-driven, mainly.

LOS and FOW? Adjustable?

Yes, there's definitely Fog of War and LOS. There are two things that combine here. First, each of your units does a sighting check every five seconds. The results of those checks are what you can see on the screen. You can't see something that none of your units have spotted. Similarly, you can't shoot at something Unit A has spotted with Unit B if Unit B can't see it. Second, weather and lighting. Some maps have lighting or weather conditions that limit visibility below what the unit would be able to see on a clear, bright day.

If you believe a unit is in a location, but it's not actually spotted yet, you see a "?". If you spotted a unit but then lost sight of it, it's marked with a "?" for the next turn as well.

Regards,

- Erik

[junk2drive]

By view levels I mean ala CM view height 1-4 ground level, 5-9 top down.
The unit A can, unit B can't sounds like you've solved the borg spotting issue.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: junk2drive
By view levels I mean ala CM view height 1-4 ground level, 5-9 top down.

Ah, ok. You can get down all the way to the ground and you can also set to "follow" a unit visually if you like. The views are not "levels" like in CM though. You don't hit an up or down arrow to change level, you just pan, zoom or scroll until you are in the view you want to be in. I personally play zoomed out at an angle so that I get a good view of the situation, but I know lots of folks like to get down in the dirt.

Regards,

- Erik

[Plodder]

sounds similar to the free camera in Silent Hunter 3

[Mad Cow]

ORIGINAL: junk2drive

By view levels I mean ala CM view height 1-4 ground level, 5-9 top down.
The unit A can, unit B can't sounds like you've solved the borg spotting issue.

I dont think so, at least not as Erik stated.

In CM, if unit A can draw LOS to an enemy, unit B also has to be able to draw LOS to the enemy if he wishes to fire.

Borg spotting isn't the same thing.

[junk2drive]

Wishful thinking on my part that something had been overcome in the gaming world.

[GJK]

Is a zoomed out, top-down view possible?

[Mad Cow]

ORIGINAL: junk2drive

Wishful thinking on my part that something had been overcome in the gaming world.

I hope Erik corrects me if I am wrong on this.

Borg spotting refers to all units of your force becoming aware, instantly, of an enemy unit spotted by just one of your units.

BF.C has supposedly found a way to fix the borg issue in the CMx2 engine so I am sure it is possible for the same to happen in Panzer Command.

[koiosworks]

no borg spotting. every unit spots independently. Spotting is checked every 5 seconds for all units vs all units. also, spotting is checked for a target every time a unit tries to fire at the target (in case it moved out of spotting during the overall all 5 seconds.

VISUALLY, we show you on the minimap and viewport EVERY enemy unit that ANY of your units sees (spots). But, gameplaywise, every unit INDEPENDENTLY spots and only 'knows' about units that it can spot.

hope that helps.

[Mad Cow]

Excellent Koios. (what the hell does Koios mean anyways?)

Anyways, I had just read the FAQ thread and saw this explained.

So as I understand it, the tank which does not 'spot' the unit which its friendly unit spotted will not even be aware it is there?

Another question off of that one, hopefully I can explain:

Tank 'A' sees enemy MG unit 'X'

Tank 'B' is 50 meters behind A, has LOS to X, but has not spotted it.

A fires on X as soon as possible.

Will the fire from A in the direction of X make it more likely that B will become aware of the presence of X and 'spot' it.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Mad Cow
Will the fire from A in the direction of X make it more likely that B will become aware of the presence of X and 'spot' it.

No, but if 'X' fires, B would have a better chance of spotting it. Alternately, if B moves up a bit closer to A it might see it, but just because A sees it doesn't mean B does. In the scheme of things, you can assume someone in A tells B that it's there, but until B can actually spot it itself, it doesn't have a target that it can actually shoot.

Regards,

- Erik

[koiosworks]

Excellent Koios. (what the hell does Koios mean anyways?)

http://koiosworks.com/rome/who.htm

"Among the Titans was Koios ("co-EE-uhs"), keeper of Wisdom, Invention and Asking Intellect"

The Titans where the 'Gods' before Olympians

ps. also, a unit that is currently 'spotted' has a spotting modifier applied that makes it easier for other units to also spot it (in other words, once i'm seen, other enemy units have a better chance of seeing me too)

[junk2drive]

I notice the long coats on the troops in the screenshots. I also notice the white uniforms in koiosworks avatar.
Is this unit selected or user selected or from some other game?

[Mad Cow]

Thanks for the swift replies.

Game sounds better and better as I learn more about it.

Will there be a demo?

[Error in 0]

Hmm, the demo question. I for one "demand" demos, but it is not Matrix' strongest point.


JT

[Yoozername]

I mentioned this in another thread but will repeat it here.

There is the issue of spotting and then identification. Will there be degrees of identification? Will it be based on factors such as experience, optics, etc?

[koiosworks]

There is the issue of spotting and then identification. Will there be degrees of identification? Will it be based on factors such as experience, optics, etc?

The only levels of identification are "?" meaning you know something is there but no idea what and total knowledge.

But, sighting takes into acount a few pages of modifiers such as unit experience, terrain, firing, moving, weather etc. However, only 2 degrees of knowledge.

hope that helps!

[XENOPHON49]

Hi Erik[;)]
Will it be easy to know which friend unit see what and who ? Like selecting an unit will brighten up the aprt of battlefield and units in LOS (or darken what is not in LOS) ?[&:]

X.

[redwolf]

I would be great if you could make sure that the game is doing 1920x1200, which is the native resolution of 24" LCDs and many 17" gaming notebooks.

It drives me nuts that CM is limited to 1600x1200 for no good reason