A couple of questions from AP:Kharkov'43 armchair general

[Lemonade]

Hi all.
I just purchased APOS. I've only had a chance to familiarize myself with a fraction of changes since AP:Kharkov'43 (I didn't have time to learn the rest of them yet) and I'm dwarfed by the amount of detail present! AP:Kharkov'43 looks really simple compared to APOS. What a game!!! Absolutely the best tactical simulator ever!

Anyways, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions.

First of all, some kind of automatic time control (Change game speed automatically) has been introduced that I don't quite understand. In options screen it states that it's recommended to keep it enabled, but it slows down the tactical phase to a crawl, by keeping the compression at x0.6-x0.8 most of the time. Even manually increasing time compression (with a plus button) doesn't help. It looks like it's stuck at x0.8 max. I wasn't able to speed up the time flow to x4.0 like I could in AP:K43. Am I doing something wrong? Also, what are the disadvantages of disabling this parameter? Loss of performance?

Now, my next question is about the Game and Realism->Limit battle radius (for tactical combat). There are three options for that: No limit, Moderate and Limited. It doesn't say much. I understand that it somehow affects the amount of grid fields or neighbouring units that participate in a particular battle? But No limits would mean that the units from the whole goddamn operational map will be fighting during the tactical phase! And that would mean, like, 0.0001 frames per second. So, what's this option for?

The third question is about the interface. In the patched version of APOS (dunno if the both DLCs affect it or not, but I have them installed too) there are several icons in the upper right corner of the screen. A bendy arrow, a pencil, trash can, clipboard and a hierarchy tree. The first time I saw it I thought I'd be able to draw myself some arrows, polygons and other colourful stuff on the map as notes and reminders of future advance directions, possible enemy positions and things like that, but every single icon apart of the first one seems to greyed out all the time, so I'm puzzled. What are they for?

[Flashburn]

Unlimited as you suspect....can quickly turn your game to a crawl.......FUTURE PROOFED. MOderate can limit things to a more sane (current computer) level.  Limited for fewer units that take part and or older computer.......battles are alot more K43 sized. 
Upper right panel is future network play panel I do beleave. 

[Lemonade]

Wow! All units at the same time? I won't even try setting this to Unlimited on my rig, but oh boy, I'd really like to see that. I suspect it would be close to impossible for one person to control such a large army in a single battle, but so many units on a battlefield could be a step towards a team vs team multiplayer. It could be very interesting, I believe.

Thanks for clarifying the [future] purpose of those buttons. This makes sense.

Ah, I think I answered my own question about the automatic time compression. I simply disabled it and the game runs without any slowdowns at x1 speed. I'm not sure why Graviteam recommends to have this option on.

I've noticed mortar fire missions changed a bit. In K43 a player simply ordered mortar team to fire at an area. In APOS it's squad commander that orders a fire mission to a mortar (if he has one in his squad). Unfortunately I wasn't able to figure out how to fire 8cm mortars. I was playing the first German mission in Fall Blau operation. In my OOB I have one mortar unit consisting of five or so 8cm mortars plus a commander with arty mission available. Those mortars can't area fire and the commander, if ordered to do so, calls some kind of artillery that takes a lot (and I mean it: A LOT) of time to prepare. I had to quit the mission before he called it, but I don't think he was ordering his mortars to fire. That's way too long as it was ca. 20 minutes and the indicator said it was 40% ready!

Also, now with most of the units being unable to area fire (please correct me if I'm wrong, perhaps I've just missed a button), is there a way to suppress enemy positions? --> OK, I've found the appropriate thread.

[lavish]

Mortars will fire direct fire by themselfs when they see the enemy.

Indirect fire of mortars is available through their squad leader (area fire button). Select the button and right click a point target or drag a line target. You will see orange circle (point target) or two orange lines (line target) when the target is active. Note that the fire will not begin immediately, but there's a delay before the first shots are made + delay of flying time. The percentage number inside the target area indicates accuracy of fire. When it's 100% the fire is most accurate (fully "zeroed" target). The whole process is faster and more accurate if your commander can see the target area. The latter is also true for off-map artillery fire. 

About battle radius:
No limits: all units in the 9 cells will enter in the battle
Moderate / limited: A radius is drawn and all the units within this radius takes part in the battle. The center of radius is in the middle of attack vector (arrow). This means that the system picks relatively more units from attacker side than from defender side. My choice is moderate because it slightly favours the attacker.

[Flanker15]

FYI the unlimted setting won't use every unit on the strat map at once.  Only units in the squares surrounding the battle square are used but given the amount of unit slots per square you could have a huge number of units in a battle hence the option to limit it.

[Lemonade]

Thanks for your answers guys.

A radius is drawn and all the units within this radius takes part in the battle. The center of radius is in the middle of attack vector (arrow). This means that the system picks relatively more units from attacker side than from defender side. My choice is moderate because it slightly favours the attacker.

I understand that this refers to Moderate setting? What about Limited?

So Unlimited setting is just like it was in AP:K43, only with more units available (due to several units per square). I'll keep it at Moderate then as I remember how prone to exploitation the 9x9 system was in K43. You could place your defending units in such a manner during operational phase, that attacking AI was almost always outnumbered. And it should be the other way around. More attacking units versus less defenders.

P.S.
What's 2.2 3D Buffer Resolution? Should I keep it at the same value as my 2.1 Screen Resolution. I remember 2.2 from AP:K43 but was never sure what that buffer did. Right now I have both set to 1920x1200.

[Shadrach]

What's 2.2 3D Buffer Resolution? Should I keep it at the same value as my 2.1 Screen Resolution. I remember 2.2 from AP:K43 but was never sure what that buffer did. Right now I have both set to 1920x1200.

Keep it the same as your screen rez, that's the answer I got back with Kharkov. I can't really think of a situation where you'd need to have them different. Maybe it's a way to run at native rez for your screen while the game runs at a lower rez. But it would look like crap I guess 

[andrey12345]

What's 2.2 3D Buffer Resolution? Should I keep it at the same value as my 2.1 Screen Resolution. I remember 2.2 from AP:K43 but was never sure what that buffer did. Right now I have both set to 1920x1200.

Keep it the same as your screen rez, that's the answer I got back with Kharkov. I can't really think of a situation where you'd need to have them different. Maybe it's a way to run at native rez for your screen while the game runs at a lower rez. But it would look like crap I guess 

If your native resolution is high for example 1920x1200+, but graphics card is lowend and do not makes it comfortable to play in this resolution, you can reduce the resolution for 3D buffer. In other cases, it does not need to change.

[Lemonade]

Thanks. I'll keep the setting as it is then.

[Lemonade]

I've noticed, that every now and then, some of my platoons gain "combatant +1" status. What is it?
Also, does "weakness -xx%" mean that a unit regains fatigue?

[Flashburn]

I've noticed, that every now and then, some of my platoons gain "combatant +1" status. What is it?
Also, does "weakness -xx%" mean that a unit regains fatigue?

On the first.......not sure  .  I am guess experience or leadership abilty +.

Change weakness for fatigue and you got it.  Thank gawd no one speaks like that.......I got -5 weakness last night

[Lemonade]

Thanks. I suspected it's some kind of a mistake with the "weakness".
Yeah, this combatant thing seems like an experience growth at the first glance, but if I remember correctly, some of my units that did not participate in a battle during the previous turn got this modifier too. So it's kind of unclear what it stands for.

[andrey12345]

I've noticed, that every now and then, some of my platoons gain "combatant +1" status.

If platoon still saved in reserve, you got +1 score each turn (in some operations)

Also, does "weakness -xx%" mean that a unit regains fatigue?

Minus means that fatigue is reduced. Stamina runs in antiphase (high = good, low = bad) with the other parameters, it is therefore the calculation of it is reversed.

[Lemonade]

Thank you Andrey.
When speaking about this platoon in reserve, do you mean those platoons that are outside the main operation map border - with "in reserve" tag?
This "weakness" might be confusing. May I suggest you introducing a small change and replace this string with "fatigue", so it reads: "fatigue -xx%" when unit regains it, instead of displaying "weakness -xx%"?
Please note, that:
fatigue -xx%=weakness -xx%
Keep things simple and easy to understand. Why complicate, when we already have a "fatigue" factor bound with each squad of every platoon and no "weakness" to be seen anywhere but on this floating text? Be consistent.

[andrey12345]

fatigue -xx%=weakness -xx%
Keep things simple and easy to understand. Why complicate, when we already have a "fatigue" factor bound with each squad of every platoon and no "weakness" to be seen anywhere but on this floating text? Be consistent.

Ok. I can rename this mess for 5 seconds. 

[Lemonade]

Thanks Andrey! *hands Andrey a large glass of beer*

[Lemonade]

Some of the platoons have a free slot available with an airplane icon.

This slot can be filled with unit from reserve. But what does the plane stand for?

[Dane49]

The plane means that you can fill that position with an air spotter if one is available in the reserve pool.

[Lemonade]

Thanks!