AI Reporting contact

[dmarkwick 261]

Thanks for implementing the distance to target menu -it's been a great help :)

Something is off with the reporting direction by player and AI. Meaning I'll auto yell out "Man Left Flank 100!" and instantly check my map for icon (yes I'm lame) and he'll often be straight ahead or even sometimes to my 1'oclock. I'd rather he say 'Front' if any where in my 10-2 o'clock then left flank as that's somewhat deceiving. Granted sometimes the AI is running and quickly 'slicing the pie' of directions but since we don't have endless voice chatter in which he'd ideally say "Man, moving from left to front" or something along that lines, I'd say left/right flank should really only mean the farther extremes of our periphery.

The target shout-outs may not be oriented to your current direction. The clock is more usually oriented to the direction of travel, which can take a while to re-orientate sometimes. Other times it seems the direction of orientation changes dramatically in just a second or two, between shout-outs.

[frederf 0]

With human groups our standard procedure is to reference direction of movement/facing or the compass, clockface is heavily discouraged except when referencing the hull of a vehicle.

The classic problem with OFP-A3 is that 12oc/front is defined by the same variable that AI line up in a column formation to. The concept of "front" is best related to significant motion instead of facing. If the leader or group has not moved a significant distance a particular direction then the group's motion and thus its front should not be defined. When the front direction is not defined then absolute (cardinal) directions should be referenced. This neatly avoids the "we've been stationary for 20 minutes and are all facing different directions, what do you mean enemy contact left?" problem.

In short I'm saying that the manner contact directions are given should be logically dependent on several factors in order to make them natural and clear. The following is an example:

CONTACT CLOSE-FAR -- Proximity will favor less specific direction such as "front-left" or "east" while distant contact will favor narrow definitions such as "2 o' clock" or "bearing 095."

GROUP MOTION -- If the group has moved consistently for one minute at a pace of at least 2km/hr then motion direction is defined and front-referencing is allowed, otherwise cardinal or bearing.

VEHICLE - If within a vehicle can declare contact relative to hull (not sure how this works with some of group in vehicle and some not).