MajorH TacOps Developer

I don't know what currencies are accepted by Battlefront.com. I am not a part of the business side. I suggest that you ask at the link below. http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_contact&task=view&contact_id=3&Itemid=3

> 1. Is it possible to play co-op versus the AI? Note that this only works for factory provided scenarios that include an AI opponent. Do the following if you want to umpire/host a Multiplayer game session where the humans go against the AI instead of against each other. The hidden feature mentioned below is a quick hack that I did some years ago for development and testing. It was never exhaustively tested by myself but has been used a lot by military users without complaint. Note that the umpire is the only participant in a multiplayer game who does what is below. Everyone else starts up normally. Run TacOps as the host/umpire. Skip through the splash screen. When the game start up window appears click in the lower left corner (just inboard of the decorative window border) of the game startup window while holding down the Shift key and the Alt key. If you hit the correct place you will see an alert window that says "g_umpireUsingAI is TRUE". If you get an alert that says "g_umpireUsingAI is FALSE" then repeat the click until you get the correct alert. There is another place in the program where you can also turn this feature on and off. Select the "Network/More Network Tools" menu item. In the window which will then appear, click in the lower left corner (just inboard of the decorative window border) while holding down the Shift key and the Alt key. If you hit the correct place you will see an alert window that says either "g_umpireUsingAI is TRUE" or "g_umpireUsingAI is FALSE".

Download the free demo and see for yourself. > 1. How big is the battle? Some scenarios are company vs battalion, others are battalion vs regiment, a few are regiment/division. > 2. Can AI fight on every map? Most of the factory provided scenarios have an AI opponent. > 3. Do you have campaigns, like in combat mission? No. > 4. How accurate is the simulation? Good enough. It has been used by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. > 5. Wich countries are in-game? There are factory provided scenarios for U.S., Canada, and Australia/New Zealand vs an OPFOR that was modeled on the Soviet Army. > 6. How big maps can be? The largest possible TacOps maps is roughly 31 km x 31 km. > 7. Can I play co-op against AI? The official answer is no, however it can be done with an unsupported hack. > 8. Are translations of game avaiable? No, if you mean languages other than English. > 9. Is TacOps worth 50$? TacOps costs $25 from Battlefront.com.

> 1. Is it possible to play co-op versus the AI? Note that this only works for factory provided scenarios that include an AI opponent. Do the following if you want to umpire/host a Multiplayer game session where the humans go against the AI instead of against each other. The hidden feature mentioned below is a quick hack that I did some years ago for development and testing. It was never exhaustively tested by myself but has been used a lot by military users without complaint. Note that the umpire is the only participant in a multiplayer game who does what is below. Everyone else starts up normally. Run TacOps as the host/umpire. Skip through the splash screen. When the game start up window appears click in the lower left corner (just inboard of the decorative window border) of the game startup window while holding down the Shift key and the Alt key. If you hit the correct place you will see an alert window that says "g_umpireUsingAI is TRUE". If you get an alert that says "g_umpireUsingAI is FALSE" then repeat the click until you get the correct alert. There is another place in the program where you can also turn this feature on and off. Select the "Network/More Network Tools" menu item. In the window which will then appear, click in the lower left corner (just inboard of the decorative window border) while holding down the Shift key and the Alt key. If you hit the correct place you will see an alert window that says either "g_umpireUsingAI is TRUE" or "g_umpireUsingAI is FALSE". > 2. Is it possible to play with more than 2 players without an umpire, or > for the umpire to function as a player? No, except for the hack explained above. > 3. I tried to connect to my own server with a 2nd copy of tacops > running, and the map was blank. Any suggestions on how to get 3 people > playing together without forcing one player to be an umpire? Were you running both iterations on the same computer? If so, that won't work reliably. You need to have a separate computer on your home network for each iteration of TacOps. This is not a copy protection thing, it is an issue with shared memory and resources on a single computer running two iterations of the program simultaneously. Best regards, Major H

Thanks Sgt Ray. I'm still here. Every day is a holiday.

I was making progress with a carbon version some years ago but I couldn't keep up with the OS changes coming out of Apple nor with its OSX philosophy of apparently trying to make Mac coding as obtuse as possible. Or maybe I've just lost too many brain cells. However, I still pay the annual freight to be an Apple Developer and I still buy a new Mac Pro every three years - got the latest one just two months ago. Every Monday I think that this will be the week that I go back to work.

> Will TacopsCav or MC ever be available? TacOpsCav is obsolete. Its features were blended into TacOps v4 years ago. TacOpsMC ... maybe.

> further thoughts? Units that were recently suppressed by arty fire or direct fire might not take a shot. If an enemy unit has been shot at several times in a given fire pulse, there is a chance that your other units will choose to engage another target. A unit with a weapon that can penetrate but has a very low momentary probability of hit due to range, a moving target, the unit moving itself might not take a shot. Even when all is perfect, there is always a low probability per fire pulse that a unit will not fire. Murphey's law says that this will generally happen at the worst possible moment. Also, a few exasperated folks have sent me saved game files of situations where a unit wouldn't fire and it turned out that the unit was out of ammo or that weapon was damaged.

Units don't fire their weapons at targets that they can't harm. If the BMPs get a shot at the flank or rear of an M1 then they will likely light up. Or, if you want to even things up for human vs human play, you can use the options menu to give OPFOR "advanced ATGMs".

> The WWII units are not extensive and you'll notice some glaring omissions > (no Tigers, Panthers, newer T-34s, etc.). When I started the WWII mod experiment I only included items from the first year or two of the war. After several months of work there was still almost no interest in the WWII mod from my customer base at the time and the project moved to a back burner. Then I took up sailing.

Sprocket62 - Thanks very much for that info. Nice to know the bug isn't in TacOps. I presume that a March 2010 hot fix has by now been incorporated into the regular OS updates. That might explain why this hasn't been reported before.

Vehicle units. Effective direct fire, indirect fire, mine explosions, artillery strikes, and air strikes usually produce secondary explosions and or display symbols over the target to indicate the level of effect. If a symbol or a secondary explosion is not displayed over a visible target then there probably was no effect on the target. Effects include vehicle destruction, vehicle damage, weapon damage, personnel loss, and suppression. A secondary explosion will be shown if a vehicle in a unit is destroyed or severely damaged. If a vehicle is destroyed, a wreck marker will be drawn. Infantry units. Infantry units may sustain permanent casualties and or be suppressed. Permanent infantry casualties are indicated by the display of a skull symbol. Suppression is indicated by an S symbol. Suppression may also be assumed when the skull symbol is seen. Chapter 11, Combat Effects in the user guide shows the various casualty symbols that appear on the screen during the combat phase. Static information is reported by the Reports/Game Status menu item and the Reports/Order of Battle menu items. Game Status window. Provides detailed textual information on the current strength and cumulative losses of each force. If the "No Enemy OOB Reports" preferences item has been marked, enemy numbers will not be shown in this report until the end of the game. At the end of the game this report will also state which force has succeeded or failed in its mission. Order of Battle window. Displays the current strength of each force in a graphic format. If the "No Enemy OOB Reports" preferences item has been marked, enemy units will not be shown in this report.

Sorry that I took so long to notice and reply. I'm on a walkabout. I won't be back to my studio for a couple of weeks more. Yours is the first report of a problem with Win Vista 32bit. Try the OS compatibility experiments below first and let me know what happens. Two possible workarounds are mentioned later in this post. = = = = = = OS Compatibility Settings From the Windows desktop, navigate to and open the TacOps folder. It is likely to be at the root level of your primary hard drive rather than in the Programs folder. If Vista hid it somewhere else then do a file search for "TacOps4.exe". Right click on the file named TacOps4.exe and select Properties from the pop up menu. When the Properties window appears, click on the Compatibility tab. Check mark the OS Compatibility box, and then experiment with the various OS compatibility settings - starting with "Windows 98/Me". = = = = = = = I don't have a Vista machine with me so the instructions above are based on what I see when I right click on an exe file on an old Windows XP notebook. Hopefully Vista has a similar option. > Are there any command line options or hidden doohickeys > that will let me play without any sounds at all? Not that I recall. The "click sound" option is there but you said that didn't fix the problem. Try this as a workaround. Select the TacOps Options/Preferences menu item and un check the items named "Startup Screens" and "Bugle Alert". That will stop the playing of the one time startup music and a bugle sound that is played at the beginning of each orders phase. > I deleted all the wav files but I'm guessing the game sounds are either in the .exe > or some other resource file, right? The game sound effects (weapons, explosions, etc) are all compiled into the program file, the exe file. > plays several times consecutively and the system becomes unstable from memory usage and then locks up the sound system Try this as a workaround. Don't start a new game by using the TacOps "New Game" menu item. At the end of each game, quit TacOps and then restart the game for the next session. This should do a better job of clearing all memory that Windows may think is being used by the TacOps program.

I am not working on anything at the moment.

Bad day. There is no difference in the arty combat res tables between U.S. Army and USMC arty.

Also available at the link below. http://www.tacops.us/support/tacops_406AHu.zip

Not dead, but I am not currently actively working on it either. When I do go back to work on it, it will not be to add polish. There are plenty of worthy, high gloss, games available for company, platoon, and squad actions on tiny maps. Not so many that allow large numbers of unit markers to be in play on large maps. I am the most comfortable with the more abstract conventions of the grand tactical scale. A scale that I admit has gone out of fashion.

> What are the chances of you being able to release a version that will run on the Intel Macs? > Do you plan to, or have you permanently switched to PCs at this point? I am not currently working on the hobby version of TacOps for either the Mac or the PC. However, the unfinished hobby v5 code is still on both of my dev machines and it is right where I left it two years ago - when i got supremely pissed off by it, Apple, and Microsoft . Just before the blow-up I had a more or less working Mac Carbon version. When/if I continue that work I will likely remove the non-Intel code bits. I just paid Apple $540 for another year of ADC membership so I have not given up completely.

> Mine was wrecked in a fire about three years ago. It now sits in a storage locker > sans its HD which I was able to salvage. "Old Macs are memorialized in closets and garages, old PCs are put in the trash." - I.L. (Major H) Holdridge, 2010.

Hey Michael, good to hear from you. Its not the version of TacOps, but rather the version of Macintosh that is germane. Older Macs (with or without OSX) that can run or dual boot OS9 can still run the current Mac version of TacOps4. Most of those machines are now in closets and garages. The newer Intel Macs, that can only run OSX native Mac programs, can not run the current Mac version of TacOps4 but they can run the current Windows version of TacOps4 if the Mac user has installed Windows on his Mac. The Mac OS9 version of TacOps4 is no longer listed on the Battlefront storefront as being for sale but it is still on the hybrid CDROM that is shipped to Windows buyers. At least until the current warehouse stock is exhausted. Which may be a while as almost all current purchases are by digital download.

My interpretation is that his analysis was that 80% of all combat wounds were caused by fragments rather than by bullets. I have read similar percentages before for that time period. If I remember correctly, the flak jacket that I was issued in the Marine Corps in the mid 70s had a little tag sewn inside that stated that "75% of all combat casualties were caused by fragmentation weapons". The purpose of the tag was undoubtedly to encourage us to wear our flak jackets despite the common knowledge that the jackets of the Vietnam era and the decade after would only rarely stop bullets but might stop grenade, arty, and mortar fragments. I personally put a .45 pistol round through the front plate of such a jacket at about 15 yards during a trip to the range.

> Force Lethality Ratio How the two sides compare in combat power. > EXITED A unit that traveled off of the map instead of being killed. Some scenarios require one side to pass or exit a certain number of unit markers across a map edge as a victory condition.

James Dunnigan has a good chapter on attrition (casualties) in his book 'How To Make War'. Below are some paraphrased excerpts/bullets from Chapter 24 of that book. It should be noted that my copy of this book is dated 1982 so Mr. Dunnigan's comments must be taken as based on data that can no longer be described as 'contemporary'. = = = = = = According to Mr. Dunnigan .... The types of casualties are combat, noncombat, and troops taken prisoner. The forms of combat casualties are fatal, wounded, and mental. Historical experience suggests there will be one fatality for every three wounded troops. About 80 percent of these injuries will be caused by fragments (i.e. not bullets). During WWII, the U.S. Army had three combat fatigue cases for every two combat wounded troops. For every 100 men killed, 125 men were discharged because of mental breakdown. Historically all men who surrender are not captured alive by the enemy. Up to 50 percent of those surrendering do not survive the process. They are either killed on the spot or die in captivity. Troops in combat quickly learn this, which explains why surrenders are not more common. When they do occur, they tend to be in large numbers or by negotiation. Once in combat, a soldier is effective for about 200 days of action. After that point if he hasn't become a physical casualty, he will be a psychological one. Generally 60 percent of combat wounded who eventually recover return to duty within three months. 85 percent return within 6 months and over 95 percent within a year. Fifty percent of non combat casualties return within a month, 85 percent within three months and nearly all by six months. At division level, one day of heavy combat or several days of light action usually results in 10 percent combat losses. [That is 10 percent of the division - the percentage is several orders of magnitude higher in the front line armor and infantry units.] At 30 percent most divisions show serious signs of disintegration. [Again that is 30 percent of the division - at that level 60% to 70% of the front line units may be gone or ineffective.] Combat beyond this point will practically wipe out a division's combat power. Once the 50 percent level is reached there is little left in the division except support troops and artillery. Continuing the fight past the 50 percent level quickly results in the complete destruction of the division. Historical casualty rate for WWII, US infantry battalions [theater unspecified]. D = defending, A = attacking. Inactive (not in contact with the enemy): 2.6% per day. Meeting engagement: D4.9% to A7.5% per day. Attack of position (1st day): D6.1% to A11.5%. Attack fortifications (1st day): D9.8% to A18.7%. Mr. Dunnigan speculated that future casualty rates could double or triple due to enhanced artillery ammunition and due to an expected general increases in infantry firepower (spread of personal grenade launchers, greater numbers of automatic weapons at lower levels, and greater linkage of infantry squads to the heavy weapons of AFVs). = = = = = = =

> I know that in such games the casualtys are generally to high but a regiment > taking 80% casualtys and lose 122 of its 144 BTR80 in a 1.5 hour battle...wow. In real life a lot of the casualties shown in a one or two hour TacOps battle would not be permanently lost. Much damaged equipment would be recovered and repaired. Many slightly wounded, or dazed, or demoralized troops, etc., would recover and be returned to duty fairly rapidly. > I also would like to know if there are troops giving up or running away are represent in the game. The infantry combat results tables are a bit liberal to reflect some troops conceptually choosing to stop firing or to otherwise remove themselves from harm's way. Most of the infantry casualties typically shown in TacOps would not be permanent losses in the real world. Many of the vehicle and equipment losses in TacOps would also not be permanent losses. The casualties reported in TacOps represent units losing their combat effectiveness - for whatever reason - for the duration of the given scenario. Some of the TacOps casualties are certainly attributable to KIA/WIA/catastrophic destruction but probably not the majority.

The unit data base contains an OPFOR T90S w ATGM and a "TFO" (Tank Future OPFOR) which is basically a US M1 tank painted red. These vehicles can be swapped in for tanks in any scenario by using the Options/Change Units & Wpns menu item.