I feel that it might be a good idea to change the rules of Infinity slighty, to allow that if you delay your ARO and a new ARO opportunity arises then you can take it. They could make Delay ARO an ARO skill. Specifically this is to prevent the following scenario: Smoke is down between Biker and an opposing Suppressive Fire Unit. Biker first short order moves into smoke without being seen, and enters the Zone of Control of the Suppressive Fire Unit. This provokes an ARO, the only legal one being Change Facing (or Hack or Jammer if possible). The Suppressive Fire Unit is already facing the right way, and doesn't want to break suppressive fire so it forgoes it's ARO. The Biker then uses the second short order move to move out of smoke and into base to base with the Suppressive Fire Unit. Although this defensive unit can see the Biker clearly now as it moves between the smoke and into base to base, and is in Suppressive Fire, it cannot do anything as it already gave up its ARO. Now it is in Close Combat, and has been temporarily neutralised as a defensive piece. This doesn't feel realistic, fluffy or mechanically correct. I feel that Delay ARO should mean that you give up any available AROs (eg in this case Change Facing, Hacking, Jammer), but allows you to choose any new AROs generated by the opponents second short order (eg in this case Shoot, Dodge, Close Combat), if any. This would put Delay ARO in line with Camo and Impersonator rules, and would allow those delay rules to merged under this one. You still wouldn't be able to "take back" a delay, for instance if a Camo Marker walked in front of you, you delay, it keeps walking, you already gave up Discover so you can't then choose it if the Camo Marker doesn't reveal itself. I haven't yet been able to come up with any downsides to this change, except that maybe some people like the above tactic and think it is an important part of Infinity. I have never seen it used on the table. Sorry if this isn't even correct, or this topic has already been covered, I haven't seen any discussion about it. Do you think this would be a reasonable improvement to Infinity?
Forced Change Facing AROs are an intended part of the game, and one of the things that makes Sixth Sense so powerful. Background-wise they represent the active trooper having got inside the reactive trooper's OODA loop, rules-wise they let close-combat troopers get into combat more easily.
It has been discussed extensively in the past few years. It comes up again every so often. As @ijw states, it is working as intended. Close Combat is already a niche skill that can be difficult to use correctly (much better now than in 2nd edition), and it doesn't need anything to push it further down the ladder of "useful options" in your toolkit.
What's an OODA loop? I thought background wise pretty much every soldier on the battlefield has knowledge of the whole battlefield via aerial surveillance and walkie-talkie equivalent, so no one is really surprised by any non-camo movement. Being in suppressive fire implies to me that the unit is ready to shoot whatever comes in front of them, particularly if they just heard the motorbike roaring directly at them. I understand that it would be too powerful mechanically, but realistically I don't see why a unit couldn't start shooting at an enemy in their zone of control, even through the smoke (with horrible mods), especially if they are on suppressive fire or have a direct template weapon. Eg Highlander has been assigned to guard this corner, kill anything that comes by - he gets covered in smoke, then he hears footsteps coming around the corner - he would just open fire with his chainrifle.
in N2, supp fire were actively gunning down a 40mm wide corridor (and as far as your gun can reach). The bullet would hit anyone passing through even if hidden behind smoke cover, although with a big penalty for shooting pass a ZVZ. In N3 supp fire is a 180° arc (or 360° if you have that skill), you are not spraying the whole battlefield anymore, you are just waiting to see someone not too far to supress him, much like a normal ARO but instead of quickly shooting back you are suppressing. If you see no one then you don't shoot. I'm fine with the new Supp Fire, and i'm also fine with not shooting blindly something you heard behind smoke, or not shooting a camo marker that was deployed in front of you.
Makes me miss Second edition Suppression Fire. I even have the cool acrylic markers for the corridor of death still.
i really don't miss it, as an avid user of uberfall kommando and morlock lol although it was a good answer to now enemy smoking on top an objective to then grab it with a specialist.
