Targeted firing

[soccercw]

Sorry if this has already been brought up...

 

I think a simple addition would be the ability to key+click to target the enemy instead of the movement click.  This is especially essential in artillery.  I hate having them target a unit then move off their spot to try and hit that unit once it's outside the LOS.  Perhaps a cntl+click (or any hot key) that allows the unit to target a unit but not move (and then acquires another target in its current range) would be a simple fix for it.

[David Fair]

How would this work if the artillery battery is placed so that it can't target any units from its current location?

How would you know the battery is in a bad location?

[P-Dup]

A) The battery would fire barrages at the ground whereyou ctrl-clicked.

When there is no enemy unit within range. If you didn't ctrl-click, the artillery would act normal (as before).

[soccercw]

David your suggestion of seeing what target can be hit while selecting an artillery unit is the clear accompanying change for this

[David Fair]

P-Dup,

Wouldn't the player need to watch the fire from each battery to understand the field of fire?

Keep in mind this is not an issue of artillery range. The range for most of the guns is quite long.

We are focused on field of fire and LOS - which is the source of the confusion.

[P-Dup]

The field of fire of a particular unit would be shown by s red marker as the unit is selected. Additionally the units in LOS would be highlighted. If you attack units not in the unit's LOS (indirect fire) it would be treated as barraaging ground around the target with huge penalties on hitting the desired target. The field of fire and the marker would be greater if further away.

Maybe you need an arrow or other visualization of the actual trajectory for situations where sometjing (a hill, units) blocked the trajectory.

[CmdrMctoast]

Option for indirect or direct fire at a specific target or location as is in some games but im not sure if this was a viable tactic back then..

[P-Dup]

P-Dup,

Wouldn't the player need to watch the fire from each battery to understand the field of fire?

Keep in mind this is not an issue of artillery range. The range for most of the guns is quite long.

We are focused on field of fire and LOS - which is the source of the confusion.

 

David,

they could just give the targeted unit a marker and use a targeting/LOS visualization system like you proposed in the 'Artillery Line of Sight' thread.

(http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/1174-artillery-line-of-sight/?p=25031)

[Reisman17]

I do not believe in indirect fire at this time of the American Civil War. Ammunition was extremely expensive / used a lot of materials/expense that were hard to come by at this time (e.g solid iron shot balls). It was next to impossible to get any kind of indirect fire accurately. This was not a viable tactic in my opinion until probably World War 1 or later. The closest to this was Howitzers however they were fired into the air above a unit and they again would have to have line of sight (because why would you fire over a hill that you can see nothing and waste valuable ammo that may or most likely not hit any enemies anyway). Now thinking about this the only exception I can think of would be if you are assaulting a fort (not in this game) therefore you know there are enemy troops inside and you could fire Howitzers over the walls in the hope it would kill some men or better demoralize the troops inside and get them to give up/surrender. The regular guns would be firing at the walls trying to breach them. Hope this clarifies my opinion on the matter.

 

Reisman17