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Add all round security formation or AI function/microbehaviour
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

More and more missions contain dynamically spawned enemies, which makes difficult to predict the direction of an attack. This is very good.

What's not so good, is that my AI squad often gets attacked from behind and, at least partially, killed when stationary, because no one watches our back. Issuing individual "move to" and "watch direction" commands helps, but sometimes there is no time to play with that.

Such all round security formation would place subordinate soldiers in a circle, with guns facing outside, while the leader and medic would sit in circle's center. Leader would provide command and overwatch and the medic would be free to treat any wounded soldiers. This would be a stationary-only formation. The leader could go on a recon, but the rest of the squad would stay in the circle and be prepared for the unexpected. Before moving out, it would be necessary to order another formation.

A more simple solution would be to have soldiers automatically turn to provide 360 degrees overwatch and security, while stationary in any of the available formations. Currently they do slightly turn to secure flanks, but there is still a non-covered arc behind the squad. A one man to watch that arc would be enough.

When walking in Aware combat mode, a last man in the formation should periodically check what's going on behind the squad and then rejoin.

AI squads also should employ all round security and last-man-overwatch procedures, when in Aware combat mode.

Details

Legacy ID
2979382510
Severity
None
Resolution
Open
Reproducibility
N/A
Category
Feature Request
Additional Information

If implemented as a separate formation, all round security could replace delta formation in the formation menu.

Event Timeline

armapirx edited Steps To Reproduce. (Show Details)May 15 2013, 3:13 PM
armapirx edited Additional Information. (Show Details)
armapirx set Category to Feature Request.
armapirx set Reproducibility to N/A.
armapirx set Severity to None.
armapirx set Resolution to Open.
armapirx set Legacy ID to 2979382510.May 7 2016, 2:07 PM

I think both options are nice:

  1. Currently we have a Scan Horizon option, which usually results in having the entire squad looking in the same direction while slowly turning 360 degrees. If the AI could assess the number of soldiers in a squad, and assign each a separate direction to watch, it would be a lot more useful. Ie. 3 AI would each have to cover a 120 degree angle, while 8 soldiers would only have 45 degree angle.
  1. I often find myself having to recon a bit ahead of my squad. It would be nice if there was a single command to tell them to stop, form a circle, and pull 360 security.
  1. Scan Horizon helps, but there are two issues with it:
  2. the squad looks in the same direction, which still leaves an unobserved arc.

You could first turn individual people to various directions and then issue "scan horizon", but if you have time to do that, you could have set up all round defense manually as well, with "move to" and "watch direction" commands to individual soldiers.

  • the squad turns and scans different areas (arcs), while I'd prefer them to ramain stationary (concealment!) and constantly scan a single arc each (easier to spot enemies in a "familiar" area).
  1. This is exactly, how I've proposed the feature to work. Leader gives order and people form a circle and stay there. The leader is free to move anywhere and the medic is free to move inside the circle, to treat wounded.

Then the leader issues a command to form a new formation and the squad rejoins on him, like they would do after a combination of commands "all-hold", then "all-rejoin formation".

Even with all round security implemented, "scan horizon" would still have uses with vehicles, where you want commanders/gunners to scan with their optics, without necessarilly moving the entire vehicle. Another use would be to have a single early-warning sentry placed prone on a tower's upper platform (many of those on Stratis) and scanning around for trouble, directing QRF or artillery. This could be nasty ;)

"Watch direction" should remain as well. It's helpful, when setting up a defense against an attack from a known position. With this command, you make sure, that a maximum number of barrels is ready to greet the guests.

MadDogX added a subscriber: MadDogX.May 7 2016, 2:07 PM

Mass closing ancient tickets with no activity for > 12 months; assume fixed or too trivial.

If this issue is still relevant in current dev build, please re-post.