Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: Sloehand on April 29, 2008, 05:06:23 PM

Title: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: Sloehand on April 29, 2008, 05:06:23 PM
I've played a number of board and PC-based military strategy games where traveling on a road as opposed to open ground is anywhere from twice to three times faster.  At the moment, AH seems to have no differentiation between off and on-road  travel, which is a major factor in real tracked vehicle travel.

Right now, a Sherman runs at about 25mph flat out on level, off-road terrain, I believe.  In reality, the actual specs on the Sherman indicat it could run 50% faster on-road as opposed to off-road. In AH, that could mean on a roadway it might be allowed to hit up to 35-40 mph.

Adding a few more roadways into and between bases along with faster roadway movement would open up some interesting new aspects to the GV game.  The choice becomes to stay on the roadway for faster movement on attack, but possibly having to go through chokepoint ambushes set up by defenders, or avoid the roads, accepting slower movement, but also possibly bypassing concentrations of defenders. 

In particular, a roadway up a mountain, maybe even switchbacked, would present an interesting choice to a GV-er in a Sherman (as an example).  Go the straight up and over the mountain at 8-10 mph, or follow the longer, but much faster switchback roadway at 20-25 mph (or something like near full off-road speed).  I think this would add a bit more of a tactical element to GV-ing and well as adding more variety to the terrain features.

 
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: E25280 on April 29, 2008, 06:17:28 PM
Right now, a Sherman runs at about 25mph flat out on level, off-road terrain, I believe.  In reality, the actual specs on the Sherman indicat it could run 50% faster on-road as opposed to off-road. In AH, that could mean on a roadway it might be allowed to hit up to 35-40 mph.
The problem is, the more realistic way to get your "road bonus" would be to limit the top speed off-road to about 15-18mph.  Speaking personally, I would much rather have the "paved world" we have now than to have to go slower.
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: zoozoo on April 29, 2008, 07:06:32 PM
 :aok
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: Furball on May 23, 2008, 11:59:15 AM
I think they should solve this problem by removing GV's from the game completely.
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: BaldEagl on May 23, 2008, 01:27:58 PM
While I don't know the specific varience for the Sherman (rated at 24 mph) Through the research I've been doing here's a few examples:

Panzer III 19-40 km/h (off-road/road)
Crusader 24-42 km/h (off-road/road)
M3 Stewart 30-58 km/h (18-36 mph off road/on road)
M3 Lee/Grant 26-40 km/h (off road/on road)

So I agree, it would be interesting.

Not so sure that the switchback idea is practical though considering our current roads go straight up impossibly steep grades.  I've never used the terrain editor but I would guess they just put in a start and end point and let the road pretty much go where it wants between those.
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: Lye-El on May 23, 2008, 03:26:35 PM

Right now, a Sherman runs at about 25mph flat out on level, off-road terrain, I believe.  In reality, the actual specs on the Sherman indicat it could run 50% faster on-road as opposed to off-road. In AH, that could mean on a roadway it might be allowed to hit up to 35-40 mph.

 

More like 24 mph on the road and 12 off road, less in sand and mud. Rougher the terrain the slower it would go. It didn't ride  like a Cadillac, more like a Buckboard.
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: panzerr on May 23, 2008, 09:44:46 PM
I think they should solve this problem by removing GV's from the game completely.
Brilliant... :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: OOZ662 on May 23, 2008, 11:33:39 PM
I've never used the terrain editor but I would guess they just put in a start and end point and let the road pretty much go where it wants between those.


You set the length of the road (usually 10 miles) and the editor places it. I believe it points to a factory, but it also seems to be just the "best direction." Roads can be any length, but convoys will always take 15 minutes to travel the road, so a very long road means the convoy might be going NASCAR speeds.
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: Serenity on May 24, 2008, 05:37:57 PM
I like it!
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: Scherf on May 25, 2008, 02:43:31 AM
Sounds like a damn fine idea to me.
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: Sloehand on May 25, 2008, 10:20:01 PM
Understand what is being said about road speeds here.  I think the real concept is the current maximum 'speed' of a GV is important in it's relationship to the distances (and therefore time) expected to be travelled between bases or spawns.  They can call the current max. speed 24 mph or 100 mph, it makes no difference what the label is.  What's relevant is how long it takes to get from point to point on the map.  Is it too slow (long) to get anyone to make the journey or is it too fast.
 
In other words, the current speed over open, non-road travel could be called 18 mph instead of  24 mph and over a road the speed would be a bit faster than it is now and called 24 mph.  The suggestion is to simply increase the current max. speed of GV by a small bonus percentage (possibly 25%) over a designated road.  And possibly with more roads added in future updates, this adds more varied tactical options and considerations for the GV'er in choosing his path.

What is set now as the max. speed is maybe decent, but in IMO, still a bit slow.  However, it doesn't mattet whether you add a speed bonus to the current max. speed for road travel, or reduce the open country speed slightly so road travel (at the current max. speed) is faster, either way the same desired effect could be achieved.  Not having the variance in max. speed between open terrain and road misses out on an opportunity to add a little more tactical element to the GV game.   
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: Swatch on May 26, 2008, 02:30:24 AM
I want to be able to move at the speed of those damn supply drivers that always throw my multi-ton tanks like tops!  :aok  Do you have any idea how fast they have to move to make up the difference in energy required to flip a Tiger?!?

But in all seriousness, I agree with what the previous poster said, the key here is just to reduce the time it takes from place to place when using road vs not using road.

Additionally, if the road-travel bonus were initiated, I would like to see (but in no way feel it is a priority) the convoy be forced to detour around obsticles rather than running through them... take for instance if a tank is sitting on the road, they would get up to the tank and make a V turn around it and keep on going (convoy speed loss optional here).   This way there is no monster collision from the BulletTrain!
Title: Re: Road Travel Movement Bonus
Post by: Hazard69 on May 27, 2008, 09:04:56 AM
Easier to make the supply convoys a destructible but non-collidable object.