Is an Attack Order Movement Halting Rework Possible?

So when it comes to flamethrower and SMG equipped infantry squads, they really get unduly penalized because of the way Attack order movement halting works.

For flamethrower equipped squads, they seem to stop when the flamethrower is just barely in range of the closest enemy squad model, which more often than not results in just barely hitting that one model with what is an AoE weapon.

For SMG equipped squads, they seem to stop at a terribly far range and thus deal practically no damage.

In both cases, you have to manually issue a move order, which not only adds extra micro requirements to squads that already require much more intense micro to flank and get up close, but also shifts a tough task that's usually handled by the game's AI onto the player: figuring out the optimal range for the unit to make sure its damage output is sufficient but that the unit isn't within the range that invalidates all cover.

This is one of those serious but hard to notice issues alongside the issue of giving vehicles the order to attack a particular unit, then giving a move order to get closer, and the vehicle proceeding to acquire an arbitrary target (if I recall, something was done about this, but not sure if it was totally fixed).

So now that we're in the post-support era of community patches, what are the chances that this sort of thing can be altered so that, upon being issued Attack orders, flamethrower/SMG units actually run up to enemy units and stop at optimal range for those weapons?

is right clicking once really that much of an extra micro requirement? you should be micro managing all your battles anyways.

SMG + ARs > right click

Bolt action + LMG > A move

Flamer > micro

It's not just about the extra micro requirements.

The core problem with flamethrowers is that attacking just one model with it is absurd. It would clearly make more sense to have flamethrower equipped squads auto-position to target the model furthest away from them in the same way they know target the closest model.

The same can be done for SMG-wielding squads.

Hell, maybe even change it to this for all squads. That way LMG-wielding squads won't do the absurd dancing and constantly halting their firing to reposition after every model kill from a stationary enemy squad.

As you have noticed, nobody is going to support such a rework in this "l2p" community where everything is the player's fault and totally not a design oversight.

Even if a change makes sense it will not be even considered the slightest.

Your mistake here is that you expect A-move to choose optimal distance. A-move shoots on max range - you are behind the keyboard to choose correct range. Also, its not exactly what I would call AI in rts games. It's just a simple algorithm.

No, my mistake was assuming this was an Attack order specific issue.

Upon further consideration, I realize now it's a squad AI issue, specifically in how target acquisition works.

Whether it's an Attack order or an Attack Move order, the unit will stop when it can fire at the closest model of an enemy squad.

That creates fidgeting nonsense for LMG squads (and they waste a good third of their time not firing the LMG for other reasons besides), causes flamer squads to just be a waste of munitions a lot of the time, and makes SMG squads require even more extra micro than they already do by virtue of being short range troops and needing to take paths less traveled to accomplish proper flanking.

If the target acquisition were to be changed to stop when the furthest model of the enemy unit is in optimal range of the attacking squad's weapons, gameplay would get so much smoother, and it's not like this would somehow reduce the need to micro -- there are so many other reasons to micro, including getting into cover, positioning behind line of sight blockers, getting into garrisons, avoiding grenades and artillery, etc. etc. etc.

Better Squad-AI could be good for this, as all troops could be moved into slightly closer range and then halt for awhile. The flamethrower could also be moved into closer range while the riflemen stay back.

This seems like a decision they want to leave to the player. Otherwise if one model of the squad being attacked is spaced very far out it could cause very unpredictable and undesirable actions.