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Squad Leader Producer Andy Mazurek
by Jim CobbCobb: How much flexibility will the player have in initially arming and positioning troops? To what extent can he customize soldiers or units?
Mazurek: The player has limited control over their troops when arming and positioning them for battle.
They can arm their soldiers with any of the weapons that are available to them. That’s not to say that the player can arm all of his/her soldiers with BAR’s. We did limit the number of special weapons that the player can take out into the field. This was done more to balance the scenarios and prevent the player from running out 15 men all armed with Mortars and laying waste to the field of battle. The player needs to take a balance of weapons to get the job done. The soldiers are also limited to what they can carry by weight and total number of items. We also have a supply system in the game. It is very possible that the player may have 10 Thompson Machine guns available but only 15 clips of ammunition. But once the player is in battle all limitations are off, they can have their soldiers loot weapons from the dead and dying soldiers both allied and enemy!
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Once the player has entered the mission itself, they are limited in their deployment of forces. The player’s forces are automatically deployed on the map but the player can select and move soldiers around as long as they stay within a deployment boundary area defined by cells boarded in red.
The player can move soldiers from one squad to another. They can even promote soldiers into leader positions. The player can not make a player a medic, radio operator, sniper or engineer simply by moving a soldier into the slot. We consider the medic, radio operator, sniper and engineer skilled positions i.e. the soldier must be trained to perform the duties of the position.
Cobb: Combat Mission allows for a “worm’s eye” view for using terrain. How will SL handle this?
Mazurek: Squad Leader has a 2D gaming environment and really can’t do a ‘worms eye’ view. But we do have total line of sight environments. Anytime a soldier or vehicle moves into a new cell, the game calculates a new line of sight from the soldier to each object as well as from each object to the soldier.
Another interesting Line of sight feature in Squad Leader is we calculate line of sight not only from the soldier’s head but from his body as well. A standing soldier in Squad Leader is 4 bits high. We calculate Line of sight to each bit but only out from the head bit. Thus it is possible that a soldier’s chest, abdomen and legs could be seen but not the head. The soldier could be targeted and shot but until he kneeled or went prone he would not see who or what was shooting him.
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