Fire at will

Yes it should, if your units got an attack order it should not switch that order (unless your enemy moves his units out of range and back in, and you didn't notice it).

Maybe you can test a bit further and also tell how long this is happening, and if in beta games or live games and which game situation and units are involved.

I've noticed it on 22p and american maps in non FP games. If your ART are ready to fire and moving and you order to fire at further target I believe they will hit further target. The graphic will continue to show it shelling the further target, but at the next tic it will switch target and hit the closer stack. This is true even if you explicitly command it to fire at further stack while it's tic is waiting. So basically, the only way to fire at further target would be to move your ART just before tick then after tic is past explicitly fire at further stack. When the tick occurs is seems to reset target.

ps. I assume this happens the same without High Command, but I've only noticed it when I've had HC.

Just noticed another problem with aggressive. In aggressive mode the ART do not start marching until their next tick, even if nothing is in range. In the attached the stack marching to the prov point at the upper left is the target. You can see its red dot location just before prov point and this is well out of range of the selected artillery. Unfortunately , it is cut off in the image but the ART has sat there to within a few seconds of the tic without moving while the target escaped. Once the tick reached zero they started moving. I understand that they can't continuously check if there is a target in range, but it should at least be every 5 minutes or so.

@DxC: I am curious. Why are you moving all of those arty units around as single regiments, instead of 3 and 4-unit fire teams? Are you individually targeting the individual regiments? If so, why?

I think it works better like that on average. Some disagree.

DxC wrote:

think it works better like that on average. Some disagree.

DxC wrote:

I think it works better like that on average.

Well, with singles there is that advantage is that if one if them takes target out the rest still are ready to fire at next target, and this also applies when approaching target and units combine into stack where their timers get reset to timer of attacking stack. This is all obvious and not the reason I use singles. It seems more powerful. It has nothing to do with SBDE. I think it has to do with the so called X factor and rounding.

I have noticed a couple times that artillery will engage at maximum range, but the unit they are attacking is still "unknown" and you don't get to see the health status on the unit you are bombarding (no fortifications involved here) The artillery will bombard much longer than it should in a case like this.

So is this a "bug" where it is engaging a unit that cannot be seen?

Or is there a greater X factor reducing damage at extreme range if you don't have good visual contact on the target?

If the second is true then I can see that having artillery units staggered will give better visual contact, which may increase accuracy.

DxC wrote:

I've noticed it on 22p and american maps in non FP games. If your ART are ready to fire and moving and you order to fire at further target I believe they will hit further target. The graphic will continue to show it shelling the further target, but at the next tic it will switch target and hit the closer stack. This is true even if you explicitly command it to fire at further stack while it's tic is waiting. So basically, the only way to fire at further target would be to move your ART just before tick then after tic is past explicitly fire at further stack. When the tick occurs is seems to reset target.

ps. I assume this happens the same without High Command, but I've only noticed it when I've had HC.

freezy wrote:

Montana you also use alot of artis, do you experience that bug as well?

Sorry I can't help with this one.

freezy wrote:

can someone else confirm that it is working that way

I did notice yesterday when I marched a stack including regular L3 artillery at an AI province with Fire control set to agressive. When I checked later in the day there was an infantry unit advancing towards my stack from that province center, yet my artillery was still bombarding the militia unit in the province center. I used the stop command to let the stack retarget the closer unit. I repeat this was with Agressive fire control, not fire at will control, so not identitical situation.

I will see if I can make some detailed observations this evening.

They don't change target until the tic, so unless you actually saw them fire at the further target when they ticked, it is just normal behavior.

DxC wrote:

They don't change target until the tic, so unless you actually saw them fire at the further target when they ticked, it is just normal behavior.

Artillery with "fire at will" control, give command to attack a target that is not the closest target and observe damage done? Both initial and hourly damage reports I assume you want.

Yea, but the initial hit will target the further stack. But when they tick it changes to closer one. Between the first hit and the first tick, it still looks like it is shelling the further target.

That screen shot looked like our June PL game.

It might be best not to give advice on SBDE and stick to the question of how ART mechanics work, when targeting and using HC. Giving advice beyond the question will only open the door to negative PL comments if DxC pulls out a win. No sense in giving an * to his name in the round. His play is outstanding and he does not need advice that could cloud the results.