New algorithm creates accurate troop movement

I never know where to post my announcements about the development of General Staff. If this is the wrong place, please let me know.

We've added slope weighting to our least weighted path algorithm. This creates realistic (and optimal) paths for units. A key feature in General Staff is the simplicity of giving orders to units. Just select the destination and the AI does the rest. Destinations can be selected by either clicking on the map or selecting a destination from a list of important objectives.

Link to post about this new AI is here.http://general-staff.com/slope-weight-added-to-least-weighted-path-calculations/.

A screen capture of a unit avoiding a hill:

I suppose the weighting of terrain changes by unit type (artillery vs cavalry vs infantry), so they have differing movement penalties by different terrain?

Nice to see the columns moving. Do they slowly transform their footprint into line? Or pivot? Or something else?

Below is a chart of the unit speeds that I'm using:



Movement is currently in 1 minute increments. So unit's position (and wheeling, etc.) are displayed accordingly.

I've posted a brief note about 'General Staff' over on the GCM website forum (a number of GCM'ers have cross-over interest in KS HITS and enhanced realistic play), with links back here and to the General Staff website.
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/garniers-campaign-mod/73439-new-wargame-in-development-general-staff

Thanks for the cross-posting!

I'm very unfamiliar with the current computer wargame community.

I'm not convinced that cavalry could sustain those speeds for any length of time. Those would be speeds more commonly found during a charge. The same observation can also be made for the horse artillery.

Are you sure an elephant can outpace a horse?

I would certainly be happy to change these values.

Frankly, I don't remember where I found them. The elephant speed does seem to fast, but then again, I don't have any scenarios with elephants so it hasn't come up, yet!