Stacking Up

[RebBugler]

With patch 1.6 the infamous use of Stacking Up (lining up units behind one another for increased firepower) should be severely crippled. Please let us know if this has been addressed with the shooting through units fix.

[KG_Soldier]

http://www.sowmp.com/gcm/battles/screenshots/14976

I saw a few regiments which seemed to be firing through their own lines, but we also noticed guns not being able to fire through friendlies.

Garnier has made a lot of changes to the GCM, such as removing the support bonus, which really made stacking potent. So we've been seeing a lot more spread out lines and flanking rather than the massed troops firing through each other.

I'm pretty sure 1.6 makes it harder to stack regiments, but you can bet I'll keep my eyes on it and let you know if we see much of it again.

[Garnier]

Here's a screenshot I took post 1.6:



All three confederate regiments were getting lots of kills. I think sometimes one of them showed the "target blocked" icon (but not always) and even when they did show that icon, they were still firing and getting kills.

Any info on how it's supposed to work would help us determine if it is working. I remember reading that sometimes part of a regiment can fire while another part is blocked. I see this sometimes where smoke is only coming from one part of a regiment. But in my screenshot above, you can see how the smoke is denser where the regiments overlap -- smoke puffs were coming from every point on each of the three regiments, including the rear regiment in the places where they overlap.

I did see a situation where a regiment was in front of another regiment, the rear regiment was able to fire as long as the front regiment was moving (I was just wheeling it back and forth to test), but when the front regiment stopped moving the rear regiment said it was blocked and stopped firing.

When should the "target is blocked" or "firing over" icons appear for infantry? Should this mean the entire regiment stops firing? Or should we see no smoke coming from part of the regiment that is blocked?

[RebBugler]

http://www.sowmp.com/gcm/battles/screenshots/14976

I saw a few regiments which seemed to be firing through their own lines, but we also noticed guns not being able to fire through friendlies.

Garnier has made a lot of changes to the GCM, such as removing the support bonus, which really made stacking potent. So we've been seeing a lot more spread out lines and flanking rather than the massed troops firing through each other.

I'm pretty sure 1.6 makes it harder to stack regiments, but you can bet I'll keep my eyes on it and let you know if we see much of it again.

Hard to tell from that screenshot because of the angle. The way Norb fixed it is a large percentage must have a target to 'Shoot Over' (Shooting Over icon), but not all. To test select the regiment and click 'Go To' or the F key. If you can see the majority of the unit engaged without being blocked by your friendlies, you can shoot over. If most of that unit is covered by your friendlies, you should be 'Blocked' (Blocked red icon).

[Davinci]

I was playing a game yesterday and noticed that one of my regiments deployed behind a shed. So none of the men in this regiment could fire.

Once, I slid the regiment to the left a little bit, or when the flag was clear of the shed the units started firing.

So, I think that it depends on the position of the flag.

In the picture that you posted, all of the confederate flags have a sight on enemy troops, or are not blocked by friendly troops.

davinci

[Garnier]

So you should still be able to stack if you put your regiments like this:

. . . targets targets targets targets targets


. . . . . . . . ========
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .========
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ========
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .========

Correct?

That's still better than nothing. Ideally the regiment would just have half of the firepower if half of the men are blocked.

[RebBugler]

Here's a screenshot I took post 1.6:



All three confederate regiments were getting lots of kills. I think sometimes one of them showed the "target blocked" icon (but not always) and even when they did show that icon, they were still firing and getting kills.

Any info on how it's supposed to work would help us determine if it is working. I remember reading that sometimes part of a regiment can fire while another part is blocked. I see this sometimes where smoke is only coming from one part of a regiment. But in my screenshot above, you can see how the smoke is denser where the regiments overlap -- smoke puffs were coming from every point on each of the three regiments, including the rear regiment in the places where they overlap.

I did see a situation where a regiment was in front of another regiment, the rear regiment was able to fire as long as the front regiment was moving (I was just wheeling it back and forth to test), but when the front regiment stopped moving the rear regiment said it was blocked and stopped firing.

When should the "target is blocked" or "firing over" icons appear for infantry? Should this mean the entire regiment stops firing? Or should we see no smoke coming from part of the regiment that is blocked?

Think I answered some of your questions in my recent post, we overlapped. Regarding this statement:

I think sometimes one of them showed the "target blocked" icon (but not always) and even when they did show that icon, they were still firing and getting kills.

Please check again, this should not happen...blocked units should not fire, our testing NEVER saw firing when blocked, red icon.

Unfortunately moving units won't block, this is a different coding beast.

Gotta run, chores, maybe someone else can handle more of your questions, Thanks Sir

[KG_Soldier]

http://www.sowmp.com/gcm/battles/screenshots/14976

I saw a few regiments which seemed to be firing through their own lines, but we also noticed guns not being able to fire through friendlies.

Garnier has made a lot of changes to the GCM, such as removing the support bonus, which really made stacking potent. So we've been seeing a lot more spread out lines and flanking rather than the massed troops firing through each other.

I'm pretty sure 1.6 makes it harder to stack regiments, but you can bet I'll keep my eyes on it and let you know if we see much of it again.

Hard to tell from that screenshot because of the angle. The way Norb fixed it is a large percentage must have a target to 'Shoot Over' (Shooting Over icon), but not all. To test select the regiment and click 'Go To' or the F key. If you can see the majority of the unit engaged without being blocked by your friendlies, you can shoot over. If most of that unit is covered by your friendlies, you should be 'Blocked' (Blocked red icon).

That screenshot was from the hits/gcm game Saturday, so I couldn't go to it. It did have line of sight on the yank regiment right in front of it.

[Garnier]

Please check again, this should not happen...blocked units should not fire, our testing NEVER saw firing when blocked, red icon.

Thanks, I'll watch for this.

Unfortunately moving units won't block, this is a different coding beast.

This is less of a problem anyway since they can't be shooting while moving, unless fallback counts as moving -- I'll watch for that.