Reverse movement?

amrcg

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Dear Major

Is there any way to make your vehicles move back, i.e. in reverse mode? This is very useful if you want to retreat while facing the enemy. Vehicle specs show something about "reverse speed", but I could not find any reverse movement feature in the game.
As a TacOps player, I must also say that "retreat after firing" or "retreat after being fired" SOPs are also very useful.

Best regards,
Antonio
 

Deltapooh

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All vehicles in ATF can fire while withdrawing. (That is unless their path causes them to loose a line of sight with the enemy target.) All you have to do is stop the clock, click on the "Path" tab or right click, path on the vehicle to plan a new path in the direction you desire.

There are also several automated options available. The first is "hide on contact" This option is available as an SOP for vehicles to hierarchies. This order basically causes the unit to "minimize" visibility upon making contact with the enemy. They will stop, hold fire, find somewhere to hide, and defilade. The effectiveness of this tool depends on the vehicle, terrain, and lighting conditions.

Finally, there is the abort conditions that can be set by assigning a hierarchies a mission in the TACSOP rollout. You can set the percentage the hierarchies can loose before triggering an abort mission order. Once this condition is triggered (let's say you only will tolerate 10% casualties), the unit will execute the order conditions you plan out when you set up the TACSOP.
 

amrcg

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Originally posted by Deltapooh
All vehicles in ATF can fire while withdrawing. (That is unless their path causes them to loose a line of sight with the enemy target.) All you have to do is stop the clock, click on the "Path" tab or right click, path on the vehicle to plan a new path in the direction you desire. ETC.
Yes, I know. But I mean "retreat while facing the enemy" literally. Armoured vehicles use to be more difficult to kill from the front (due to strionger armour), while being much more vulnerable to attacks from the rear. As I understand it the techniques you mention allow the vehicle to change direction about-facing, while it would be desirable to allow the vehicle to reverse and keep presenting the stronger front side to the enemy.

Best regards,
Antonio
 

kbluck

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Vehicle specs show something about "reverse speed", but I could not find any reverse movement feature in the game.
A lot of things are heavily abstracted in the game. Defilade, for example.

I'd like to think that proper tactical movement is (or should be) an assumption already incorporated into the statistics in use to determine pK. I think it would be hideous micromanagement to have to order your units specifically not to show their butts to the enemy unnecessarily.

In other words, I think the player should be able to assume his tanks are backing up when appropriate, even though it might not be explicitly indicated on the play surface, without the player having to take any special action.

Whether or not this is the case now in the game, I have no idea.

Regards,

--- Kevin
 

Pat Proctor

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The "micro-movements" of berm drills, or "saw-toothing" as it is called in Sweden, that is popping up over a berm, dropping down below the berm in reverse, scooting over 10 or 15 meters, and then repeating is really below the resolution of ATF. Such a movement would amount to 3 pixels on the max zoom on an ATF map.

We abstract these movements using defilade, hold fire, and sprint. When you are in sprint, you are extra-easy to see. When you are in defilade you are hard to see. When you are in defilade and hold fire, you are VERY hard to see. These postures also effect enemy pH (percent Hit) on your vehicles.

At the risk of cheesing off the TacOps fans out there, (I enjoyed the game; it's fun), you will NEVER see an armored vehicle, even on wide open terrain, back up 100m. If you have gotten yourself into a situation where you have to back up that far, you will probably get smoked before you make it to cover.

The figure you see for reverse speed is abstracted to the time to enter defilade and time to fire.
 
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