Garrisoning Update is now in the game
[h2]What's in the newest update[/h2]
The units on the map will now use buildings for cover. This is both for the AI (you can now never be sure how much opposition awaits you in the village you're about to roll into) and your own.
Units can shoot out of houses, but only if there's a shot line from any of the house's opening to their target. More powerful weapons, like the .50cal, can shoot into the houses through walls, but doing so will not be very effective (except for damaging the house itself).
Here's the changelog:
version 0.4:
* NEW: both your units and the enemy can now garrison in the buildings. This provides extra protection (it's not fast or easy to take down a determined shooter hiding in the structures)
* NEW: before your units can garrison in an unknown building, they'll first breach and clear it. This is similar to the "house searches", but will not reveal any weapons or drugs caches. Immediately after the breach is over, the units will take firing positions inside.
* NEW: you can now shoot at houses, and out of them. Shooting at enemies hiding in structures will also engage any civilians stuck there along with the enemy.
* NEW: the units inside structures now observe the world outside, which lets the AI engage your units from within structures, or try to lure your men closer (wait with opening their fire until your units are within range).
* NEW: each building on the map got hand-placed firing positions, more or less aligned to it's windows. There may be less positions than actual windows (due to optimization concerns), but in general - the units inside will only be able to shoot from the side of the building which isn't solid wall.
* NEW: heavy weapons, like te 50cal, can still fire at buildings through solid walls, but the effectiveness of this fire will be rather low.
* NEW: snipers are a bit more effective at picking off targets in houses, but they need to be placed in a position that gives them clear view into one of the building's windows.
* NEW: you can now select houses, the same way you select your units.
* NEW: CEASE FIRE order for all your units. You can now tell your men to stop firing and don't try to engage new targets in their current engagement.
* NEW: additional UI for the selected houses, showing you the lines of fire / line of sight from the closest window to the point under your pointer. This should help you realize which sectors of the map are covered by your garrisoned troops.
* NEW: AI will try to hide in buildings, if engaged by overwhelming force
* NEW: AI will garrison in villages you have no presence in
* fix: the "house details" window is now much more mouse-friendly - you no longer need to have the camera focused entirely on the house to get it to open
* changes the max passenger count for all the troop carriers to 5
* optimization to the actions splash menu - will now be opened faster
[h2]Why it took so long?[/h2]
No part of my game scripts was ready for this change - in the previous versions, the houses were completely ignored in engagements, and the game had no idea how to target them or use them for cover.
I had to rebuild all that, step by step.
[h2]What's next?[/h2]
Save games. Pretty much everyone's asking about saves these days, so I'm making them my immediate next priority.
The units on the map will now use buildings for cover. This is both for the AI (you can now never be sure how much opposition awaits you in the village you're about to roll into) and your own.
Units can shoot out of houses, but only if there's a shot line from any of the house's opening to their target. More powerful weapons, like the .50cal, can shoot into the houses through walls, but doing so will not be very effective (except for damaging the house itself).
Here's the changelog:
version 0.4:
* NEW: both your units and the enemy can now garrison in the buildings. This provides extra protection (it's not fast or easy to take down a determined shooter hiding in the structures)
* NEW: before your units can garrison in an unknown building, they'll first breach and clear it. This is similar to the "house searches", but will not reveal any weapons or drugs caches. Immediately after the breach is over, the units will take firing positions inside.
* NEW: you can now shoot at houses, and out of them. Shooting at enemies hiding in structures will also engage any civilians stuck there along with the enemy.
* NEW: the units inside structures now observe the world outside, which lets the AI engage your units from within structures, or try to lure your men closer (wait with opening their fire until your units are within range).
* NEW: each building on the map got hand-placed firing positions, more or less aligned to it's windows. There may be less positions than actual windows (due to optimization concerns), but in general - the units inside will only be able to shoot from the side of the building which isn't solid wall.
* NEW: heavy weapons, like te 50cal, can still fire at buildings through solid walls, but the effectiveness of this fire will be rather low.
* NEW: snipers are a bit more effective at picking off targets in houses, but they need to be placed in a position that gives them clear view into one of the building's windows.
* NEW: you can now select houses, the same way you select your units.
* NEW: CEASE FIRE order for all your units. You can now tell your men to stop firing and don't try to engage new targets in their current engagement.
* NEW: additional UI for the selected houses, showing you the lines of fire / line of sight from the closest window to the point under your pointer. This should help you realize which sectors of the map are covered by your garrisoned troops.
* NEW: AI will try to hide in buildings, if engaged by overwhelming force
* NEW: AI will garrison in villages you have no presence in
* fix: the "house details" window is now much more mouse-friendly - you no longer need to have the camera focused entirely on the house to get it to open
* changes the max passenger count for all the troop carriers to 5
* optimization to the actions splash menu - will now be opened faster
[h2]Why it took so long?[/h2]
No part of my game scripts was ready for this change - in the previous versions, the houses were completely ignored in engagements, and the game had no idea how to target them or use them for cover.
I had to rebuild all that, step by step.
[h2]What's next?[/h2]
Save games. Pretty much everyone's asking about saves these days, so I'm making them my immediate next priority.
tl;dr; Garrisoning in buildings is now possible in the game. The next update will be the save games, I'm starting to work on them now.