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Future Stuff

Rob

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Oct 22, 2014
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Hi all,

Just some things I'd like to see:

1/ A more realistic routine for mounting/dismounting. I know the current process is only a temp. routine but greatly look forward to something a little more robust.

2/ A separate movement type/class for tracked equipment. The current 2 classes (foot and motorized) do not (IMO) accurately reflect the differences between a tank and a truck in varying terrain and ground conditions. Unless there is already something under the hood that is not discernible to the user??

3/ The ability to create forces and make attachments etc. from the OOB lists. Control clicking off the map in unit congested areas can be an adventure in fat fingers for some of us.

4/ The ability to capture and use at least some basics and fuel from surrendered or destroyed enemy units. Especially enemy bases. Not ammo for obvious reasons. also allow the player to manually reassign units to non-organic bases - even if bases are only of the same type eg. inf to inf and armour to armour.

5/ The ability for units within the same force -- at the lowest level ( i.e. companies and platoons within the same CURRENT battalion or company level force structure) -- to be able to share basics/fuel/ammo between themselves when in very close proximity to each other and no spotted enemy units are around. This could be a manual process initiated by the lasso technique followed by an order to rebalance supplies within the force.

6/ The ability to ascertain whether reinforcements are foot or motorized (and hopefully mechanized if #2 above sees the light of day).

7/ Reinforcements more than 24 hours away should not always be visible on the list to the player as there were often occasions when formations only became available at the proverbial last minute. A dynamic reinforcement list. Sort of a friendly fog of war.

8/ In line with #7 above we should not have as much precise info on reinforcements that are hours or days out of the battle. Their actual strength etc. should only become truly apparent at the time of entry. More friendly fog of war......

9/ Routing units should be losing/abandoning way more of their heavy equipment than is the case if they are truly disorganized and fleeing for their very lives. Maybe rout less and retreat more?? Or perhaps a new condition somewhere between what we currently call routing and retreating??

10/ More fog of war when it comes to things like always knowing whether a particular enemy held bridge is primed or not. Also applies to new features like mines. Ooops, unit "X" just plowed into a minefield and sustained "Y" per cent losses. Only then does the new minefield terrain graphic become apparent. Sometimes we know ahead of time and sometimes we don't........

11/ A way to target those pesky enemy remnants that haunt your rear areas, trash your supply columns, and call in incessant artillery strikes. I really don't think it's the role of the Divisional or Corps commander to personally supervise their pursuit and destruction, but if you don't you're entirely at the mercy of the sixteen most dangerous enemy troops on the map.

12/ How about a dedicated counter battery mission/task option button for artillery units? The AI sometimes does a decent job of this when on call but often has other priorities that occasionally mystify me. I would like to be able to at least make it the priority fire mission for a designated battery or so.
13/ The ability to have each player (or the AI) play at different Orders delay levels. Newer players or the AI could play at realistic (as an example) while the more experienced player plays the match at painfully realistic. Just another way to find play balance without always resorting to more or less supply/reinforcements.

14/ Something I think would be kind of cool (and is therefore sure to be a programming nightmare) is the capability to obtain in-scenario optional but necessarily conditional reinforcements during play. Kind of like what SSG's latest offerings allow for in using "alert" units.
These would only be offered to the player to help stave off imminent disaster or to reward collapsing the enemy front and facilitating subsequent exploitation. Naturally they would cost a hefty number of VP's if chosen but not so many as to nullify their usefulness.

Those are my top picks and do not include or supersede Arjuna's previously announced list of enhacements such as a cross river assault process, amphibeous assaults, off map artillery, sequential tasking, triggers ......... all of which I would also like to see!!!!!!

Thanks for listening! Comments are always welcome!

Rob. :)
 

Iconoclast

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Oct 26, 2014
Messages
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Location
germany
Hey fellas,

I wanted to give my two cents also, I hope it is okay to hijack Robs threat for that. I don't think it is worth opening another threat with yet another "I would be happy to see...." list.

Let me just slip in that my Matrix Forum Nick was "calgar" I have not been active in the CO section, but I thought as a matter of courtesy I should mention that I decided to change nicks.

I would also like to second Robs points, especially #3.

1# Feeling like a Commander

That summs up what CO and AA always meant to me and probably a lot of other people too. How about we capitalize on that? How can we increase the "Feeling like a Commander" aspect of the game?

The answer to me: Overlays, reports and tools.

It is great to observe the map closely and extract all kinds of information. But wouldn't it me great to just tell your Operations Officer to creat a proper Overlay? Let's see what overlays might be useful:

Bridges: Click on the overlay and all crossing points will be highlighted with different colours for the different kinds of crossings. Maybe with a little infoboy attached with general Info (enemy occupied, estimated buildingtime for bridges, and priming time estimate etc.)

Threat Areas: Map is shaded in red to indicate which areas are observed by the enemy. The darker the red the higher the enemy weapons density. Of course based upon available intel. Could be a nice way to seeenemy engangement Areas. Maybe a seperate Overlay for air situation (showing where you have AA coverage)

Mobility: Similar to Decisive Actions mobility overlay. Movementratings are indicated in colour on the map, mud/snow is factored in.

Tools are providing information in relation to the map, but not "objectively"(as Overlays do) and not in written form (as reports do). That is my working definition of tools, reports, and overlays

One tool that I would like to see expanded is the LOS Area tool. It would be great if there would be the option to not just display the LOS Area in relation to the current Weather and light condictions. Sometimes I would like to see what the LOS would be when the sun rises, so I can issue orders during the night.

Another tool I would like to see, is also a variant of something that is already there: the....well....in Germany we say "Verfügbarkeitsskizze"...."availabilitysketch" Click on a Unit and use this tool and range rings will appear. But they won't display engagement ranges, but rather "time rings" (let's assume they start at 20 min. then 40 min, then 60 min and so on). The rings display where this unit could be in this amount of time. The rings obviously will have dents.

On with the reports: It would be amazing if I could just open pages of reports in seperate tabs. Own and emeny OOB (how awesome would it be if the enemy OOB screen starts out empty and gets more dense when we positively confirm the presence of enemy units), supply situation etc. Something that is not necessarily a "Report", but required in my eyes, would be a Combat Power Display. A percentage that indicates (maybe as part of the unit counter) the Combat Power. 100% beeing 100% of equipment and personel according to standart TOE at that time. only HQs show Combat Power, which is the aggregated CP of all subordinate units. Also, HQs show aggregated values in the "general Info tab", so we can see on a glance the average fatigue of that Bn. Sorry in case this feature is already included and I just don't know of it.

#2 The Art of generic War

I will keep it brief because that is a question of taste: I am a big friend of generic scenarios. I love to play generic US InfBn with the TOE of July '44 against a generic german InfRgt '44 fighting in a generic french village. I feel that strictly historical scenarios are not what I dig, partly because (and that is a weakness of CO in my eyes) I feel to consrained. A Quickbattle Generator as in Combat Mision would be great. Freedom in deployment of forces and I would be the happiest man on earth, of that could be applied to Airborne Operations (DZs, schedules etc) that would just make my day.

#3 Game Features

There are many great ideas here and I think the developers are amazing. Mines, Smoke, field replacements, mounted Ops, Patrols, spliting units, Illumination, ....all just a few key words to take into account.

I really should have been working on my paper....sigh....

Thank you for reading and stay safe,

A
 

Rob

Member
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Oct 22, 2014
Messages
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Hi all,

Of course it's ok to add to my thread, Iconoclast -- that's why it's here :)

I like your ideas -- esp. the ideas of an enemy OOB that evolves with contact over time and the expanded LOS tool.

Get back to your paper! ;)

Rob.
 

Daz

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Some more great ideas Iconoclast.
That's the great thing about the current Command Ops engine, it has great potential to improve, twice yearly ;)
 

Iconoclast

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Oh, and another thing that springs to my mind, tool wise: A Sync Tool. Has anyone used the ArmA II Editor? You could "tie" waypoints to another, so a Unit starts to execute an order once another unit executed the synced order. Endless options here, e.g. using proper Lines of Departure with a schedule, or letting a unit cross a gap once a smoke screen is set up.

regards,

A
 

Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

Panther Games Designer
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Jul 31, 2014
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Movement Overlay.jpg Re Overlays. We have added a new Overlay display button on the display toolbar and you can select from a range of overlays, including:
  • Friendly and Enemy APer, AArm, Arm firepower
  • Foot and Motorised movement
  • Control
Here's the motorised movement overlay.
 

luigi

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Oct 21, 2014
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Thanks for the screens! These overlays seem very useful.

I second request #2 of Iconoclast: "the art of generic war".
 

Rob

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Oct 22, 2014
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Hi all,

Nice....very nice indeed!
I presume that the overlays that include enemy data such as map control and enemy APERFP are just estimates based on the current Intel levels the player has on the enemy? i.e. the fog of war still applies, right?

Rob.
 

Rob

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Oct 22, 2014
Messages
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Location
Vancouver BC, Canada
Hi,

Thanks for the quick response........ and speaking of fog........does anyone else think a weather forecast feature might be useful?? Say hourly for the next 8 hours or so mainly to facilitate planning? Hunker down because a blizzard is coming this afternoon? Could be a very useful aid on the East Front.

Also ground conditions affecting movement in a more detailed (poor word choice) way? As in 2 inches of snow is a lot easier to march through than 12 inches. As opposed to just 1 ground condition called snow. I'm sure you get the idea. :)
Thoughts?

Rob.
 

Iconoclast

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After playing CO for the first time since a long while I was wondering if there is anything new to report on the reconnaissance front? I remember a very interesting discussion on the Matrix forum about how Patrols might be implemented and feel the this certainly needs some kind of reform. I would rather no longer need to send out complete Coys to find out if AOA X is clear....

in relation to that: How about a screen order? The Unit would devide itself into subunits as it sees fit and then positions these units a a ways that allows best abailable observation of the are that I want it to screen.

Another thought here: How about "follow and assume" order? 1st Bn follows 2nd Bn. Once 2nd Bn is below strenght 1Bn assumes 2nd Bns orders with no orders delay. The distance between the units can be modified.

And, while I am at it, maybe a more detailed Arty control? So that we can put Arty units in direct support of another unit (so we can support one specific unit) general support (as it is now) and counter-battery?

Regards,

A
 

Daz

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Oct 22, 2014
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Very useful thanks for the sneak peek Dave.

There are some amazing things that can be done with this game" A" (Iconoclast).
I have a list as long as two arms lol
That's why I am excited about the twice yearly game engine modules where things can be added to our wish list's.
I'm going to wait and see what Command Ops two, base release has added, before I start to real of to many requests, although one of the things at the top, after supply enhancements, is a better abstraction for Road Column formation.
 

Iconoclast

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@Daz

I know what you mean. But I am so psyched to see CO2 slowly progression again, that I couldn't resist to throw a few more ideas into the pit that I felt where worth discussing. I absolutely don't expect the devs to actually implement anything of what I said, but I am always very interested in discussing ideas and see what others think of it, even if it stays purely academic.

regards,

A
 
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Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

Panther Games Designer
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Great suggestions guys. I'm sure we'll get to them all eventually. Right now the focus is very much on the GUI. I am knee deep at the moment in trying to get the OB display to support multiple selections. Hopefully I'll crack this by the end of the day and I can put up some screenshots. In the meantime keep those suggestions coming. :)
 
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