HOTSPOTS

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Alexsej
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HOTSPOTS

Post by Alexsej »

Help me. I dont understand what are they? What is their purpose?
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tkobo
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by tkobo »

I cant help alot, as i dont use them.

There are a tool that allows the player to guide the AIs war effort without going full tilt micro.
Hotspots are targets and locations of interest,that you can tell the AI to act towards.


Below is a link to a very good aar about fighting a war using hotspots.
http://www.bgforums.com/forums/viewtopi ... 54&t=11335
This post approved by Tkobo:Official Rabble Rouser of the United Yahoos
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Draken
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by Draken »

And if you don't let the AI run your military then you can use thet hotspots as markers and quick links to jump to a specific point in the map...
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
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Si vis pacem, para bellum
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Ruges
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by Ruges »

I usualy prefer to micromanage my units myself and dont use hotspots. However I was in a battle against NK last night where there was just too much going on for me to control it all. NK had so many units, They had somthing like 5-7+ units in each tile on thier continent (I dont know why they did not just overrun SK) They had tons of arty to prevent an easy land victory, and tons of AA to prevent you from clear out the arty with air or sea. I tried to control all the units myself the first time but the casualties where too high since by the time you finished controling your units on one end of the line the ones on the other end where getting too pumled.

So what I did give the AI total control of all my units that where in that specic area fighting. (about 250 units all crammed in SK). I then created a connecting set of attack hotspots (each tile hotspot connected to the other) on the front line of NK's army. The AI would then use the nearby AI controlled armies to attack those spots effectivly. As soon as they captured that hotspot I would then delete it and put a new hotspot one tile deaper into NK's territory. Also the AI was not using the further back troops as effectivly as I would like, So I would then manualy move those troops up at the same time the AI moved units up too. The AI would also move back injured units so I would not have to worry about that part.

In such a large fight even at the slowest speed there was no way I could effectivly do that battle alone, So I used hotspots in that situation.

As for using hotspots for all your game, I sugest avoiding doing so. You can give more effective orders yourself.
Opthalamia
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by Opthalamia »

Every time i use Hotspots and let the Ai fight, i getting amused. Ive set a Hotspot, very strong ground force, one month ago. 10 Units approach, and pass this hotspot, just head on to the front wich is far behind. 2 Days later 1 Units approach and attack the Hotspot. I never understand why the AI cant handle them.
playa
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by playa »

Opthalamia wrote:Every time i use Hotspots and let the Ai fight, i getting amused. Ive set a Hotspot, very strong ground force, one month ago. 10 Units approach, and pass this hotspot, just head on to the front wich is far behind. 2 Days later 1 Units approach and attack the Hotspot. I never understand why the AI cant handle them.
So true. Hotspot is so broken.
sonofliberty
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by sonofliberty »

Interesting. I am using hotspotting to fair effect. I preprogram 5 at a time, adjusting as the front moves. I tend to hotspot important strategic positions, and bypass minor towns. If my troops get bogged down, I direct control my air to bomb localized pockets of resistance. I also use my navy to bombard with guns and tomahawks.
Mr_Centipede
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by Mr_Centipede »

Can anyone explain the functionality of the hotspot task/mission/type? Attack seem self-explanatory, but others are not really well. The absence of tooltips also does not help. Please help...
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Leafgreen
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by Leafgreen »

Do the AI nations use hotspots? Maybe something with distance from border, industrial military or city target (and size) factored in?
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gbs
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by gbs »

Another question. Can specific units be asigned to hot spots?
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Ruges
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by Ruges »

gbs wrote:Another question. Can specific units be asigned to hot spots?
No Only a general force of small medium or large, And how much air support if any.
catatonic
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by catatonic »

I am going to resurrect this thread because researching this topic is so frustrating. The old threads that I have found are full of players begging for detailed information on how to use hot-spots and generally they have received little or none.

They consist of two types of posts - one begging for detailed info as to how to use them and others where people just casually say that they have set one or more.

Then there is Tkobo who suggests that you read Gonzars AAR to learn how to use hotspots. Gonzar talks a lot about how he sets hot spots, but no details about how to configure them. They seem to work a lot better for him than they have worked for me.

My personal experience with hot spots is in my recent experiment with them using the save-game of my U.S. attack on Moscow.

I had about a hundred tanks/ATs backed by hundreds of artillery forming an arc around Moscow. I zoomed out and selected all of the 2000 units in the threatre and set them to allow AI orders. I set an "Attack" hotspot at Moscow and configured it for heavy response and high priority. I requested air support. I started the clock then sat back waiting for the action to begin. Nothing happened.

After waiting for a long time, a single AT came forward and headed into the Moscow deathtrap. Then after another long wait, a second AT slowly headed in the same direction. There was no air-support. Both ATs were destroyed and did not retreat for repair, even though they were set for "low" loss tolerance.

I was delighted when I saw a hotspot type for ground transportion. Finally, I thought, BG has corrected the lack of AI-conducted ground transport, like the very useful existing air and sea transport. I set a high priority "land transport" hotspot and hoped that some Airborne or Warrior units would be transported there. The only thing that occured was that several transport aircrat started circling the hotspot. Over a week later I looked at the spot again and there were several AX transport units sitting empty on the hotspot.

So I started to think that I was doing something wrong. I noticed that the hotspot dialog has a box on its right where you can add units. There is no hint as to how you populate this box, but I finally managed to put a hex full of units into the list - many foot-pounders and one mobile unit. Then I tried the "land transport" hotspot again with them - same result.

I gave the Moscow attack one more try. Maybe, I thought, the AI is just too smart to send tanks and artillery into the close-combat environment of Moscow. So I got rid of the tanks and artillery and gathered all hundred or so of my ATs West of Moscow and retried the attack hotspot. Same result.

No one has posted about hotspots in the past year. Most of the threads (like this one) started and ended in 2008. Is this because everyone but me knows that they don't work, or has everyone just just gotten tired of trying to use them?

If hotspots are broken, will someone please just come out and say it. If I set an attack hotspot for a "heavy" response and just get two or three responding units in a week, then I consider that "broken".

If they do work then what am I doing wrong?

If I give the units over to AI control then it does not make sense that I should also have to set the same units to a high level of initiative. I tried that too and instead of rushing to Moscow, many units streamed South to attack a Russian land fab hex.

If I must use the Defense/Defense Condition/Military Initiative global settings and set all of my units to "High" or "Full" initiative then that is simply out of the question. I cannot have my 6000 units all over the globe decide by themselves to leap out of reserve and run over to guard some bridge or power plant.
"War is merely the continuation of politics [diplomacy] by other means"
General Carl von Clausewitz - 1832

"Defense: De ting dat keeps de cows off de road."
Catatonic - 2012
Gonzar
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by Gonzar »

hi catatonic, i haven't use hotspots any much since the expansion, so i am not sure if what i will tell you now is obsolete or not.

The AAR you mentioned was written before the expansion. There I only used attack hotspots and rarely supply ones. I never gave the AI control over air or navy, because it didn't seem to be able to use them with a minimal logic. They just sent them, and they got highly damaged or killed.

Now for the attack hotspots:

How are your ROE set? I had them at hith initiative and engange order, rest default and, of course, "units available for minister" but only after i brought the units to the border i wanted to attack. And only for those units. So i kept control over all other land units that were doing other tasks (border control, other fronts, guarding cities, ports, etc).

Ok, what i did:

- Bring the land units you want to use to the border of the attack area. Still under your orders (examples: look Portugal or Poland in my AAR).
- Set your hotspots, better several, not very far from the border. When they are taken, set a new group of hotspots, and so on.
- Let the AI take the control of your units.

Now, what you will see is a bit shocking at first:
- Many of your units will go towards the marked hotspots, but, and this is important, as soon as their supply is low they will go back to the next supply node, usually a nearby complex or city. It helps if you set several supply spots near the border to avoid them going elsewhere. As soon as they have resuply many of them will go back toward the hotspots.
- If you have many units (and you should) slowly but steadily the border will be push toward the objectives, the supply will catch and your offensive will advance, sometimes faster than you thought (or i thought, for the case).
- If you have supply units, everything is a bit easier, but i hadn't any in my AAR.
- In my experience only Infantry, tanks, recs and antitank will move, if they are "mobile" thats it (i mean with that they have wheels or are tracked).
- The AI will always send certain amount of units to other tasks (border guard, other fronts, guarding of cities, etc.). If you think it send too many in other directions you must correct it manually, i didn't found any other method. It helps if the other posible tasks already are done by enough units, then the AI will not send almost any in other directions.

My advice if you want to use hotspots: use many units and of the four types i mentioned before. APCs and Tanks are you main front units, but Recs help a lot in expanding the border what makes your supply lines expand faster.

Also, don't make hotspots at the same time in different far away areas. In those cases the AI will continuely send troops from one area to the other. Very time consuming and inefficient.

Why does i not use hostpots since the expansion? Well, i prefer to order the units myself, much more efficient, but despite that, sometimes i give the AI the initiative to fight some wars self, and in my experience, the AI after the expansion does a good job even without setting any hotspots.

Last comment: I say that the AI does a "good" job when it conquers the objective without much casualties and in a logic timeframe.
In my experience, with or without hotspots setting, this happens only when:
- It outnumbers the enemy clearly
- The tech level of my units is much higher than the tech level of the enemy
catatonic
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by catatonic »

I tried using supply hotspots in N.E. Siberia. I wrested my oil/gas fields back from China but the territory is very slow to
convert from Chinese to U.S. control. Russians just aren't that eager to become U.S. citizans it seems.

The supply hotspots worked very well. I set four of them and they promptly attracted several very attentive little transport airplanes.

And the AI did not seem to be summoning transport aircraft from the other side of the globe. I believe that either Chris or George said that the HS pool was "within the region".
"War is merely the continuation of politics [diplomacy] by other means"
General Carl von Clausewitz - 1832

"Defense: De ting dat keeps de cows off de road."
Catatonic - 2012
GIJoe597
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Re: HOTSPOTS

Post by GIJoe597 »

As I have posted many times I have never used hot spots or AI control, so I wanted to give it a whirl. To my suprise it works and I enjoy it. The AI does a good job of attacking my designated spots and I even let it do the air supply. Now I am playing a complete world conquest with ai control.


Caveats:
1. I still maintain manual contol on the unit builds.

2. I manually moved units to other continents when sea lift was needed.


I am impressed after all these years..
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Older/retired gamers, who do not tolerate foolishness.
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