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Fortifications and concealment

Perhaps there is an already existing engine that could be modified into "CM3"?

The graphical part of the engine could probably be replaced with a modern off-the-shelf product without too much work*. However, it would cost licensing dollars. As long as people still buy the games, there's no business reason to change graphics engine.

The underlying mechanics engine is more tricky to replace. I would be happy if they kept the way it works now, provided they fixed some of the most annoying issues such as targeting buildings and (my pet peeve) infantry being completely blind while in any kind of medium tall grass or crops.

It really makes it impossible to do covering fire and advance in bounding leaps when your cover element is busy taking a nap in the grass.

*Everything is relative of course. "Without too much work" doesn't mean in an afternoon, but it means something that doesn't take years to complete, provided you have a coder who's familiar with the codebase.
 
Not that I have tested it but foxholes seem as much use as the gun shield on a half track....
 
Not that I have tested it but foxholes seem as much use as the gun shield on a half track....

The gun shield does actually give some protection, but I'm not sure foxholes give any at all (against bullets). It seems like it's one of the parts of the game that are actually broken, but the developers don't realise it.

And neither do many players :)
 
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Thanks for that research, Josey. Interesting information.

I am still relatively new to the game, but I have been disappointed every time I have used fortifications (other than bunkers).

Not only are they too easy to spot, they don't provide the protection from fire that they should.

A trench or foxhole should be better cover than a hedgerow, for example.
 
So in a forest against infantry are you better off in or out of foxholes? I'm assuming the foxholes will be spotted at a greater distance and will allow area fire but what about hard cover - in a foxhole behind a tree or just behind a tree?
 
So in a forest against infantry are you better off in or out of foxholes? I'm assuming the foxholes will be spotted at a greater distance and will allow area fire but what about hard cover - in a foxhole behind a tree or just behind a tree?

I'd love to know the answer, but haven't tested it. My hunch is that there's little to no benefit being in a foxhole, whether in forest or open terrain.
 
So in a forest against infantry are you better off in or out of foxholes? I'm assuming the foxholes will be spotted at a greater distance and will allow area fire but what about hard cover - in a foxhole behind a tree or just behind a tree?

Good question, the testing I did in open terrain suggested infantry in the open are spotted at the same distance as if they were in a foxhole. From that I get that a foxhole offers no additional concealment but I did not test this parameter in woods. All I can say about that is that infantry in a foxhole in light woods is spotted at 50m (IIRC regular US infantry team spotting regular German infantry team - spotting ability also depends on the experience and equipment of the spotter)

Its also situational, if there is a strong likelihood that your infantry are going to be attacked by HE (arty/mortars) then get them in the foxholes.

If you are going to be attacked by infantry moving through the woods towards you and if you can afford it then get trenches (best concealment)
 
If you are going to be attacked by infantry moving through the woods towards you and if you can afford it then get trenches (best concealment)

In my experience, the protection offered by cover varies a lot with distance. At 200m, most buildings are great cover. At 50m, not so much. I suspect the same goes for trenches. At close ranges in a forest, trenches are not going to do much, apart from attracting hand grenades.

Since trenches are also very expensive (50 points a piece I think - two pieces could buy you a light tank), the only time they might be worth it is when you have a great defilade position for a gun or MG (down a street, between two hills etc.), but there's just no cover there at all.

I wish they would adjust points and cover values so that trenches and foxholes could become the challenge to overcome that they were in real life. It should not be easy to clear out a platoon of infantry in trenches.

It should require suppression, flanking, and even flamethrowers, if the defenders are stubborn.
 
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