My goal in this post is to suggest quality of life improvement features that reduce the friction of the myriad layers of complexity in combat and allow more interesting tactics and strategy without having to fight through the sometimes difficult and overwhelming information, unit behaviors, and user interface foibles. Not only will this enable more interesting gameplay tactics, but it also reduce the barrier to entry for newer players to increase lobby participation and game uptake. Some of these are drawn from other game interface solutions and some are particular to this game’s dynamics. While no change in a game is trivial, many of these are relatively simple with the existing game infrastructure and functionality, they just need to be added as features in the options and key binding with explanations of what, where, and how they are. Some of the others are content that may take more development but would add to the variety and realism of units.


Click and drag circle area of continued behavior:
Add feature behavior over area via click and drag circles like in Planetary Annihilation allowing you to not just move units to a location but drag an area or shift click multiple circular areas to patrol, attack, scout, evade, etc perpetually. Click the center of action while selecting a command, then drag out to define the size of the area around that, and if necessary shift click to define another area to perform over as well. This would be especially useful to police rear areas for infiltrating infantry or form a forward skirmish area in the woods or scout an area without having to monitor it constantly to keep them out of range when trying to scout but encountering threats. This should also be available for aircraft and artillery to fire on targets of opportunity in a defined but adjustable area similar to the overwatch or defend features currently, but able to adjust how large or how many of those locations to act over.

Composite field of view representation to total fog of war:
There should be a highlighted outline or more opaque overlay to show where the current visibility of your team is. The sight tool for individual units and locations is useful, but it’s very hard to know where there are blind spots, especially within forests or buildings intervene. Many games have a fog of war represented on the mini-map and game play screen, while it would be more complex because of the many obstacles and variation in terrain height but it would also be much more useful in this type of game. While the stealth and optics of certain units would make what is actually observed along this line of the fog of war, it would still be useful to know where it is.

Auto unit camera lock hotkey:
Instead of trying to zoom in on moving units precisely enough that the camera locks on and often falls off when trying to zoom in/out again, have a simple single click hot key letter to lock onto the selected (making it easier to just click and drag lasso select a moving unit like an aircraft) that will lock onto the selected unit while zooming in/out or repositioning the camera to look in a different direction around it until a new unit is selected or the screen movement keys (wsad or arrows) are used to move off.

Camera location anchor key assigning:
Similar to assigning control groups by selecting them and hitting ctrl-# to call up those units again, a location on the screen could be anchored to for quick recall with shift-# or alt-# to assign them. This would make it easier to go look at how an ally’s front is doing to provide fire support, check the enemy’s rear where artillery is firing from, or different locations on your own front where control groups might not be or might not be assigned coherently as a way to get the camera back there to check quickly. There’s a similar system in Planetary Annihilation that is pretty well done.

Enemy Sightings:
Enemy being sighted by your forces should be an even in the event log scroll, in addition the spotted unit’s icon should appear as a gray shaded or light outline to show what and where it was, but then fade over time so you know how fresh it is and previous sightings don’t accumulate into total clutter on the screen. This helps with temporary sightings that can be easily missed at the edges of battle or while conducting a deep fight or on more than one front but the enemy recedes into cover or your spotting unit is killed. Their position would have been radioed in so this is based in some tactical realism as well as gameplay convenience.

Space key move to last event for your units only:
In large maps hitting the space key to go to last event can drag you all over the map, the priority should be on your own forces and only hop around between events happening to you (the activity stream on the right should also only show yours). By holding shift and hitting space you can check in on ally event logs or locations, but not the default simple space button.

♥♥♥♥ click move orders after counter battery or over watch fire for artillery including supply vehicles:
Allow behavior settings like over watch or counter battery to be cued up with move orders or relocated within dragged area to allow shoot and scoot to be used in conjunction with automated behaviors. Currently if you use counter battery fire for example you will get to hit artillery quickly but will then be a sitting duck for even manual fire back at yourself because it may not be easy to tell when you ended up finding something to shoot back and ended up getting killed. But if you only commit manual fire on position with shift click of movement, you can’t use the counter battery fire or over watch an area at all. This should be able to be applied to unit groups that include both artillery and supply trucks, so that the supply trucks will move with the artillery after or at the beginning of the fire mission but included in the same control group instead of needing to be chased around separate after the artillery is directed.

Ingress vs in battle motorized path finding and early commands:
Settings currently let you default units to motorized path find either along roads or in a straight line, then you can change them later, but you might forget or if you re-task them en route then they will continue to take roads and likely be destroyed. There should be separate setting for each so that on their way to the front line when you call them in they will move along roads (Fast) but if you try to send them somewhere after that initial movement can be in the much safer direct movement mode (Short). Similarly, while you can cue the first action of a called in unit like unload at location, you should be able to shift cue up orders so that they can unload somewhere, then maneuver somewhere else for instance instead of having to go find them and bring them along manually as they arrive. Using previously mentioned click and drag area behaviors will allow units called in to perform their initial mission when you’re calling them in and tracking it instead of after the fact when they may go unused or quickly get killed over the front line.

Unit visibility (eye icon) settings and display:
The eye icon should be able to be checked on to show weapon ranges AND selected unit match up visibility (in/out of cover and good/bad stealth). Currently if you turn on unit detection range rings based on their stealth and cover you lose the weapon range rings. Worse still, leaving this feature on clutters the screen with check box options for what types of cover and unit stealth you want displayed, which should only be called up with the other unit behavior settings are called up and disappear when those settings are hidden as well. This would allow you to use the visibility eye mode for selected units while not also cluttering the screen with more boxes. The ability to apply this to ALL selected units and not just a single selected unit would also be helpful to see where your fields of fire reach and overlap.

Add tactical behavior to unit settings:
In addition to out of range behavior, allow settings like only engage with and from maximum range weapon. This somewhat automates kiting behavior for helicopters, atgms, aircraft, and tanks so that they don’t sit too long within a very vulnerable position when they could be firing from relative safety. This doesn’t fully automate combat as the enemy could keep pushing you back by advancing, but in some stand off areas with open territory or especially for strike aircraft would be very useful to avoiding flying unwittingly into instant AA death when hitting the enemy’s front line. Similarly to ensure maximum lethality a behavior for all weapons and ammo usage could set a unit to keep moving in as it expends its rocket pack or missiles to then use the next available weapon’s ammo even if requiring it to move in closer to do so. Additional flanking behaviors for light anti-vehicle weapons to avoid wasting shots on front armor could also be added for infantry.

Total Force Unit Icon Status Display:
Similar to Company of Heroes with a list of unit icons at the top (in WARNO it should probably be along the left side of the screen) a set of unit icons, and ideally clustered or ordered by geographic proximity to one another so you can tell if many units are firing or under attack in a single area or across many locations. The icons can be outlined or have their background color changed (oh no they’re not always red or blue!) to indicate whether they’re moving (blue), spotted enemies (green), resupplying (orange), firing weapons (yellow), or taking damage (red). This makes it easier to see what is happening, to which units, and roughly where (concentrated or broadly across geography) especially when getting sucked into certain battles and easier to quickly interpret than all of the small changes to individual unit icons on the main screen which in large battles (10v10 or high points) can be very hard to absorb the meaning of quickly.


Airborne Forces Deployment:
Forces deployed with the parachute icon shouldn’t be limited to a slightly forward of the recon boundary but instead be able to deploy anywhere on the map and do so from cargo aircraft and helicopters as they actually would be. Their whole point in real operations is to deploy quickly forward or into the deep rear when safe enough, not just slightly ahead of the road mobile deployed forces. To offset this huge potential advantage to seize key terrain, the aircraft should be visible on the way in as other aircraft are making them vulnerable to fighters and intentions easily observed during the early seconds and minutes of a match though they will not be totally wiped out because there will be too many to be destroyed by limited numbers of anti-air aircraft. Also, the units will only be able to be deployed into conducive terrain such as open fields, roads, parking lots etc. meaning water and dense forests will just destroy or maybe for a significant amount of time ensnare movement of those units limiting the options to where to deploy. The attempt to dive into the deep and surround an enemy at the outset will be countered by the local AA units on the ground which are more numerous and have more ammo than the aircraft for shooting down overambitious airborne deployments. Unlike some of the re-mobile units like Aero-Rifles that keep their deployment aircraft, the cargo aircraft and helicopters like C-130s and Chinooks will leave the field afterwards without being able to be re-tasked like an NPC.

Amphibious Force Divisions:
The addition of marines (many NATO and Soviet countries would have good historical options) as division actions would increase the variety of units and play styles. They have unique units and doctrine, which could be highlighted by having them able to deploy from any body of water that extends off map (like rivers or lakes) and deploy farther forward or as far forward as the recon units are allowed. Many of these divisions would have light vehicles and units that move fast on the map and/or have amphibious attributes for more aggressive advances early in the game. Where water entrances to the map exist waterborne forces could have aquatic or amphibious delivery vehicles like hovercraft, inflatable boats, and landing ships. They often have more organic close air support that attack and resupply close to the front for higher sortie rates though at more risk, see Harrier Jet suggested features.

Harrier Jet Features:
Harrier aircraft, because of their STOVL capability, should be able to take tight turns or come into a hover at lower altitude when chasing fighters or engaging hovering helicopters (vectoring in forward flight). They should also be able to land in the field to resupply (fuel, ammo, and repair) the way helicopters do as this is one of the primary advantages and reasons for STOVL aircraft. They can operate from austere forward operating bases to increase their sortie rate and time on target, reducing the large downtime required from most other aircraft and if they just need some more ammo they can get that quickly and take off again. They’re not the best at anything else, but they should make use of this unique feature the way it would have been used, with the accepted risk that they can then be fired on when on the ground from close range or by artillery. At the very least or in the meantime while this is in development, the transit time before in mission should be much shorter if not non-existent to abstract this characteristic into the game play.

F117 Jet Features:
The F117 should not provide a warning sound when entering the field, not have an icon shown over it from the adversary’s point of view (requiring them to visually identify and click on it or put their air superiority craft within visual range to engage). It should be totally immune to radar guided SAMs and AA guns which would not be able to detect or target it. They should honestly be immune to IR MANPADS fired from the ground as well because they would fly high enough to avoid their short altitude range and with guided bombs don’t need to fly as low as dumb bombs need to be accurately targeted. They can still be hit with IR missiles or guns from fighter aircraft that could fly at the same altitude, but again requires them being positioned within visual range to do so and spotted by an eagle eyed player to position them there.