Option to set turret facing be good, bad, or unnecessary?

Currently, flanking with tanks is OK. The bitch is getting your turret to line up with the intended target. Usually, it's fine to just move the tank to the flank and wait for the turret to swing around. If you wanna get fancy you can set the direction of the hull and try to path you approach so that minimal time is wasted getting the gun on target. In vCoH2 it's a relatively small issue. Most tanks had decently quick turrets and enough HP that taking a shot because your turret is slow getting on target is survivable.

Then WFA introduced the Jackson, glass cannon with a miserably slow turret. The Jackson is quick enough to flank, but with it's shit pathing I dare not ask to much of it in regards to getting the tank lined up right. I've been trying a trick where I issue an attack ground command behind the Jackson to swing the turret past the desired facing and then move the Jackson into a flanking position before the turret returns. It's miserable and I do not recommend it.

Ultimately, this benefits all tanks. The Jackson is just a good example. With true sight and using houses/obstructions for cover being able to set gun facing is a great way to use micro to enhance your unit's effectiveness. I should also add that this is good on defense too. You can set the gun where you expect a threat an set the hull on your planned fallback path. Etc.

So, would you like an option to set facing?

Implementation:

Easy: Click a button to cycle 12, 3, 6, 9 o'clock facing relative to the hull.

More fine tuned: Click a button then click in game to set the direction you want the gun facing relative to the tank's hull. (When you move the tank, the angle between the hull and gun is preserved. The gun does not constantly look at the place you clicked). Then just click the button again to go back to default facing.


Link to the original post on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/CompanyOfHeroes/comments/2cwnq0/would_an_option_to_set_turret_facing_be_good_bad/


I don't mean to flood the forum with suggestions and tell the devs how to build their game, but I have submitted a few suggestions in the past days. To be clear, I love CoH1/2 and just want to push the envelope as far as I can. I promise, no more suggestions from me for a bit

I think this would be pretty tricky to use effectively and would probably end up being more of a hindrance than any help (forget to reset orientation).

I think this would be pretty tricky to use effectively and would probably end up being more of a hindrance than any help (forget to reset orientation).

Well, the first implementation I offered is just click a button to cycle directions. Pretty basic, maybe even slightly more problematic than the latter because to get to the starting direction again (front) you need to click 1-3 times to cycle past the other positions depending on what direction you set.

The second, it's identical to toggling hold-fire, but with one additional click. Toggle on -> click to set facing (the extra click) -> toggle off.

In either case, forgetting is on you IMO. It's no different than forgetting a squad/vehicle in a bad position and losing it. If this is a a big issue for someone it's not like they are required to use it. This just raises the amount of micro you can use to get the most out of your units.

+1 I've been thinking along these lines too. With the fragility of some units, it's imperative that once you have an opportunity to flank, you waste minimal time in firing at the INTENDED target. Additionally, a HOLD FIRE button for ALL TANKS is needed too.

One way could be this: You press a button, (like hold fire) and this activates turret facing mode. The next click you do will turn your tanks turret in the defined direction and lock it in place, automatically enabling hold fire. After you move in for the attack and sight the target, you press the button again (hotkey will make it easy) and this "unlocks" the turret allowing it to turn and fire.

I have a slightly different implementation suggestion.

Face the turret the same way you currently face team weapons (click and drag). To indicate you are turret facing rather than moving the tank, hold ctrl or shift or something. This would be easy, fast, and give a finer grain of control than a toggle button or something.

I have a slightly different implementation suggestion.

Face the turret the same way you currently face team weapons (click and drag). To indicate you are turret facing rather than moving the tank, hold ctrl or shift or something. This would be easy, fast, and give a finer grain of control than a toggle button or something.

It should work like this.

1-Toggle button for tanks and AT to just target vehicles
2-Your suggestion
3-Turret won´t move unless a valid target is on sight.

I have a slightly different implementation suggestion.

Face the turret the same way you currently face team weapons (click and drag). To indicate you are turret facing rather than moving the tank, hold ctrl or shift or something. This would be easy, fast, and give a finer grain of control than a toggle button or something.

+1 this sounds awesome and in line with game controls

I have a slightly different implementation suggestion.

Face the turret the same way you currently face team weapons (click and drag). To indicate you are turret facing rather than moving the tank, hold ctrl or shift or something. This would be easy, fast, and give a finer grain of control than a toggle button or something.

Clever! To flesh out the details does a move or any other order force the turret to reset? The turret must maintain a facing if we want this to work offensively.

I'm thinking I should have merged no and unnecessary (and not used the terms 'good' and 'bad') in the poll and given the third option as 'I don't care'. Surprised to see the the votes falling the way they are compared to the reddit post.

Clever! To flesh out the details does a move or any other order force the turret to reset? The turret must maintain a facing if we want this to work offensively.

It should maintain its facing regardless of movement, otherwise it's pretty pointless. It should still automatically turn to fire at an enemy if it spots one, unless the tank is currently ordered to hold fire. Obviously this means the ability is effectively pointless for any tank that cannot hold fire, meaning that every tank would need that ability as well.

It should maintain its facing regardless of movement, otherwise it's pretty pointless. It should still automatically turn to fire at an enemy if it spots one, unless the tank is currently ordered to hold fire. Obviously this means the ability is effectively pointless for any tank that cannot hold fire, meaning that every tank would need that ability as well.

And every tank SHOULd have hold fire. Why the hell doesn't the Panther for God's sake? Relic has added hold-fire to vehicles then AT-guns in a piece-meal fashion just put it on all of them already dudes.

I've been having a lot of problems flanking because of the turrets recently. Like I'll move around a hedge to flank a Panzer IV for example, and my T34 will then turn its turret around to shoot some useless pioneer squad, so that when my T34 finally gets around, the turret is facing the wrong way.

I try to use attack ground to remedy this, and it makes the tank stop moving, then as soon as you start moving again, the turret rotates back around where you don't want it. You can't even always just right click the unit you want to attack, either, because then your tank will just charge right at it, which is problematic when trying to pull nice flanks.

As we all know the pathing was better in the past.
And I am pretty sure turret rotation was already implemented with some patch: Click and Drag to set direction of turret.

But somehow it disappeared and pathing also got totally fucked up.

Is my memory wrong? Do I hallucinate?

Or just a button that you can turn on and off;

Shoot tanks only On - Off
That would help a LOT.

Instead of a cumbersome button to rotate your turret 12 o'clock or 9 o'clock or whatever, it would be the easiest to simply hold the mouse as you do now to rotate the vehicle, but then click the left mouse before you release right mouse. That seems the fastest and easiest way to me.

Or just a button that you can turn on and off;

Shoot tanks only On - Off
That would help a LOT.

I think this is the best and simplest solution to the problem.

+1

Its extremely frustrating to have your tank switch its turret arround when you chase an enemy vehicle into the fog of war.

Or just a button that you can turn on and off;

Shoot tanks only On - Off
That would help a LOT.

+1