Fire control settings

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    • Fire control settings

      The in game explanation for aggressive fire control settings states that the unit will fire on all enemies in range. I understand this to mean that the unit will only fire on units of nations I am already at war with. If so, I don't see a real difference in that and the normal setting.

      I would like to be able to set some units to fire on any unit that comes in range. I understand that this might spark some wars unintentionally, but it would also help a lot in defense when I am offline.

      If anyone can explain how this actually works, I would really appreciate it.
    • Hey,
      let me explain you the difference:

      With Security Council and fire control settings on: "aggressive", the unit will always fire if a hostile unit comes in range. No matter what, it will stop its previous action to start firing. They will continue their previous action if the hostile unit is out of range or has been destroyed

      Here's an example:

      A) I am the USA, in war with Mexico. I am moving artilleries from Houston to L.A. alongside the Mexican border. Suddenly Mexican units appear on my radar. Eventually, (since the Mexicans and my Artilleries are moving) the Mexicans come in range of my artillery.

      WITH Security Council: My Artilleries stop immedeatly and fire on the Mexicans. My Artilleries stop moving, they shoot. Soon after the Mexicans retreated. They are no longer in range of my artilleries and disappeared from my radar. My Artilleries continue to move to L.A.
      All while I was offline not doing anything.

      WITHOUT Security Council: My Artilleries don't stop, they don't fire a single shot. They continue to move to L.A. Perhaps I won't even know there were Mexicans after I get back online.

      B) I can't be online too often yet want to safely invade other nations. Aggressive fire control setting helps me a lot! I get a nice stack of: "2 Tanks, 5 Artilleries, 2 SAMs, 1 Infantry". I tell them move through all the enemy cities! While I'm offline, they will conquer all the enemy cities. Whenever an enemy appears on the radar and is in range of my artilleries, my stack will stop moving and shoot the enemy. There are 10 Tanks in a city waiting for me to run into that city? No problem, my stack will stop itself, I don't need to do anything, I can be offline in the meantime. After stopping, my stack will shoot the units in the city. Eventually, the 10 tanks are dead and my stack can move on. By the time I come back online, my stack has conquered all of the enemy country without getting damage (on the assumption the enemy has no ranged troops either or aircraft attacks)


      ->
      The firing control settings are one of the most valuable features Security Council for any player and especially the casual player who doesn't have time to check the game every 5mins.



      Edit(1):
      Firing on any unit in range: Declare everyone war? xD
      If you get attacked and you want your units to shoot back while you are offline, they will do so. If Germany attacks you by surprise in night time, he has to change the diplomatic status from peace to war, you will be both at war with eachother. All German units are now hostile units, your units will fire on all hostile units and since Germany declared War on you, your units will also fire on German units.
    • Mc_johnsen, thank you for the detailed explanation. It all makes much more sense now.

      I do disagree about one thing, though. It is very difficult to defend coastal cities against a sneak attack. If I attack a coastal city, war is not declared when I issue the order. I could send units into an unsuspecting opponents city, slip right by their naval defenses, and only be fired on when my units disembark.

      With a "fire at anything in range" option, I could defend that city with artillery or air cover carefully placed to only fire on units heading into the city. I understand that it would cause a lot of wars if used poorly, but I would happily take the trade off.
    • I've been doing some thinking about the "fire at anything setting." I agree with you that it would start a lot of wars if used without putting some thought into what you are doing.

      My idea is to limit it to artillery, aa, and air units. I would love to actually be able to control my airspace and coastal waters. I view that as my territory and anyone there without permission is almost certainly up to no good.

      It would also make aircraft carriers much more useful in setting up a naval blockade. If my alliance controlled all of eastern Asia and the southern Pacific, anyone heading my way from the Americas is a threat that I want destroyed. With carriers flying patrols, I could set up an effective picket to at least be alerted of an incoming invasion. As it stands now, I could put a billion dollar navy out there only to have one undefended troop transport sneak by while I'm sleeping and ruin my day.
    • After even more thinking, I've had a better idea.

      Instead of "fire at everything," have a setting that brings up a list of all nations. I could then select who I wanted to let pass and who I wanted to attack on sight. The attacking unit would have to have visual confirmation of the target's nationality. You could control your airspace against anyone you thought might be an enemy and let others pass. Naval units would have to be close enough to actually see the target, or have some kind of recon patrol flying.

      I really think this would add a lot to the naval aspect of the game.

      It would also allow some of us OCD types to get some sleep instead of waking up in the middle of the night just to see if somebody is sneaking up on us.

      Of course, this feature should come with a warning along the lines of "WARNING: Be very careful when using this feature. If you start wars recklessly, you and your descendants unto the tenth generation shall all suffer agonizing deaths at an early age and spend eternity in hell."
    • ;) I was rather scratching my (bald) head in a digital manner... while figuring out how to possibly fit it in.

      In all honestly I believe if we ever do bring in a "fire at will" feature we will implement it kill on sight - ask later (Iran Air Flight 655 mode so to speak).

      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655
      "Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion." Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
    • This feature is one of the most wanted in my opinion.

      I've presented this one here (i'm not linking it for self-promotion, but to show that you're not alone : ) :
      [Concept] Blockade stance

      'Coastal break through' at night are just a hole in mechanics from my perspective. Problem is specially painful at the ocean, so maybe it should be implemented there first without risking a mess with air traffic.

      Well, best wishes in 'pushing it forward' @DumFud. Maybe you'll be more lucky. :)
      Display Spoiler

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      "We rarely recognize how wonderful it is that a person can traverse an entire lifetime without making a single really serious mistake — like putting a fork in one's eye or using a window instead of a door."
      - Marvin Lee Minsky

      ***



      The post was edited 2 times, last by Efreet: grammar ().

    • Not sure we can do this easily - sounds simple but is not. If we do the command will not be configurable, it will set your unit on high alert - declaring a free fire zone and shooting at everything in range - except coa friends / ROW units of course.

      This is in fact realistic - as numerous incidents from the cold war and beyond show us.

      Again - not sure we can do it easily without having to refactor some serious parts of the code... Due to how the system was built in SUP and COW and how the server handles position and combat checks.

      //G
      "Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion." Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
    • Germanico,

      So if I'm understanding you correctly, the attacking unit would have to have visual confirmation of the encroaching unit's nationality to avoid firing on friendlies. A naval unit with sight range of 25 and gun range of 75 could only fire at full range if it had some other kind of recon asset available.

      I could certainly get on board with something like this. It would add a lot of realism to have an aircraft carrier flying air patrols and supported by a destroyer escort. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for in the naval part of the game. If only we could have patrols centered around a moving carrier, I'd be in love. I'm sure that's way too much to ask for, though.
    • @Germanico

      Maybe the problem needs a different approach.

      Lets say blockade stance could trigger war status and damage only if unit touches neutral object (A location value equals B location value).
      This one could make subs patrols effective anyway.

      That's the last theoretical simplify form me for now i guess, i don't have an idea how it could be simpler.

      ___
      Oh, yes. I know exactly what do you mean by scripting something that looks pretty simple on a 'paper'.
      That's why I'm gaming here.
      Display Spoiler

      ***

      "We rarely recognize how wonderful it is that a person can traverse an entire lifetime without making a single really serious mistake — like putting a fork in one's eye or using a window instead of a door."
      - Marvin Lee Minsky

      ***



    • I do hope this issue can be addressed in some way. I know nothing about game design, so I understand that getting it perfect will be difficult if not impossible. I'll take anything I can get.

      When I put my baby to bed at night in a hostile environment, I like to feel it has some protection. Right now I can hire the narcoleptic teenager from down the street to sit on the front lawn with a bb gun. I'd like to be able to hire a squad of Marines to keep an eye out. They won't be able to do anything if a stray asteroid hits the planet, but I would feel much better about the situation.

      I'd love to see others join Efreet and Kalrakh in throwing some ideas out. Maybe someone can come up with something that will stick.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by DumFud ().

    • I am with KALRAKH on this: "I would like some fire control for airplanes/chopper, too. If I send my stealth fighter for a scout mission, I don't want him to reveal his position by attacking hostile flight units on his own."

      Yes, indeed. AT LEAST stealth planes anyway. Today, I spent money to get on the SC specifically so I can have the "fire control" feature only to find out that aircraft does not have this capability. It seems rather silly IMO to not have this for planes and artillery and have it for ships??

      I don't build many ships so I feel a bit short changed because I will rarely use the feature. I guess I should had checked in the forum first but logically, to me anyway, planes should have it.

      Can we, please, have this feature added to at least stealth aircraft?
      " “If we can’t persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause we better reexamine our reasoning.” - Robt. S. McNamara