Off Map Boxes

[Chief Rudiger]

Hi,

Long Time Lurker.

Has anyone tried using an "Off Map Box" to represent Naval Artillery or Air Support? A bit like in AGEOD's Birth of America (&c) series of games. The box, as depicted in the screenshot, could be inaccessible and inescapable. Special immobile bombardment unit(s) might be created to represent Naval/Ground Attack Squadron or individual ships, with indirect fire weapons. A dedicated supply unit and Ammo only SEP could also be located there.

How do you think the A.I. would respond to this? If the Off Map Box was in my deployment zone rather than somewhere threatening i can't imagine there'd be any common problem.

[Arjuna]

Off map fire support to model naval and air forces positioned off map is one of the features on our wish list. In fact it's in our top four for implementation along with realistic mounted/dismounted infantry, minefields and cross river assaults. To implement it effectively we need to write special mods to the force allocation, sighting, route finding, tasking code etc.

[Chief Rudiger]

Understood,

Off the top of your head though, can you see any problems in the method i've described? I know it is crude but a bird in the Aegean is worth two in the Bulge...or whatever... Obviously i'll test it myself but i'm just picking this up and playing with the map maker first, before tackling the scenario maker part.

Also, can i ask here, rather than a PM, whether it is possible, to change a layer's type once drawn? For example, once a 10m altitude layer is deliniated with the drawing tools and the layer name is double-clicked to finalise, is it possible to reselect the string of points and double-click another layer to change the polygon to the 20m layer? What i've done is drawn a (big) polygon on the wrong layer.

Similarly, can you copy the same points and use them to place another layer directly on top, for example, making the Xm layer a broken terrain layer too. I notice the "duplicate" option, what does this do?

I can't find the answers to either of these in the pdf, this, or the HTTR forum. Can you guess what river crossing scenario this map is for?

[Arjuna]

I just checked the BFTB MapMaker, as I have that loaded, and yes you can cut and paste between layers. Just select the polygon, choose Cut from the edit menu, select the new layer you want to paste into from the layer palette and choose Paste from the edit menu. I'm pretty sure we had this for COTA MM. Try and see.
 
Re creating an island and using that as a suedo off-map fire support base. Yep that can serve as a crude work around.

[Chief Rudiger]

Arjuna,

These are the only options i have...

[Arjuna]

OK, then it looks like that capability was added for BFTB. You'll just have to wait! [:)]

[Chief Rudiger]

Arjuna,

Will it be possible to design backward compatible elevation models in BFTB MapMaker or will any of these new features be ported back into the COTA MapMaker with the next patch, if there is one?



Ryan

[Arjuna]

No you won't be able to use the BFTB MapMaker to generate COTA maps. The map classes have changed to cater for BFTB's requirements. We are yet to decide on whether or not to upgrade COTA at some point in the future. As I mentioned in another thread we will be sitting down and reviewing options after BFTB is released.