Kurtz

Another thing: at the end of the scenarios I got "server not responding" for a couple of seconds, after that the score screen was shown and everything was normal. I haven't seen that on any other server.

Nice! Throw in some more bots so there's more to shoot at The recoil on the Hurri was really vicious! Instant flip-over if your not careful! No more high-speed drive-bys! And the "twin 76" was fun. But it lacks the "feeling" of two shots. Then again, there has been similar ammo for small arms (two projectiles, one cartridge). It might be my imagination, but the vehicles -e specially the Shrike - felt like they were skidding more. And the Shrike didn´t jump like I'm used to. But it's hard to tell. If you hadn't announced that the Shrike was modified, I probably wouldn't had noticed anything.

PopSci article which mentions the Blue Force Tracker, amongst other things.

The drop ships always drop facing north. I have pointed this out and it sounds like there may be a change to this...at some point.

Yesterday I saw a burning tire. Not as high this time, just about one tire diameter above ground. No vehicle, just a burning tire, but possible some firing from it, but I'm not sure the fire came from that vehicle.

But infantry will be in later updates, right?

Bots have good accuracy, but short memory. Drive behind an obstacle and they forget about you almost immediately. Drive forward and fire, drive back into cover. Repeat until bot burns. I agree that bots should fire at anything that belongs to the enemy - in some threat priority of course.

One thing that's a little bit annoying is that you can't take control of another vehicle while you're dropping. This makes sense in normal situations, but if you are using the Command track and want to do something in a bot vehicle and at the same time are dropping jammers, you cant switch vehicle until the jammer drop is finished.

I can recommend the extra audio. Hearing bullets go by like 'angry bees' gives early warning that you are being shot at. Too bad grass is a disadvantage when playing.

Do a drop order first, then extract the bot(s). Otherwise they might drop again before you have selected what they should drop.

Two things I've observed: Drop ships can't extract an upside-down vehicle. When using a Command track, I constantly flip because I'm busy with the Tac Display. I shouldn't try to read the map while driving. It would be nice with a progress bar in the Command vehicle to see how far facility capturing is progressing when bots or other players are doing the capturing.

Today I saw a burning vehicle hanging vertically high up in the air. Static. The underside was towards me and the wheels were separated and below it. Really weird. Tried to make a screenshot, but that didn't work. Any other weirdness you have observed?

You can extract jammers (all deployables) and reuse them. But in this case you must of course have control over the ATGM tower.

It seems to connect to port 9961 on the server.

I'll answer # 2 again "deploymenttime" and "gamelength" are two different parameters with the first being a subset of the second. "gamelength" is total time. "deploymenttime" is a part of this total time.

Another solution would be to have just one ammo type and some kind of indication that you're trying to fire beyond maximum range.

Very good write-up, yurch! I just want to add that I'm an avid follower ofThe path of the Jammer. Dropping jammers at the edge of AA covered areas will render automated AA ineffective in this area. This enables you to create a path of jammers towards your target. With a bit of skill (and luck), you can drop jammers and AA turrets near the enemy base, forcing them to drop in other areas. Sadly, the dropships do their manouvering on the way up, flying outside the jammed areas and ending up as burning wrecks. Another scary aspect of the jammer is that you can't be sure the enemy is really dead unless it burns (it might still be alive, but a burning vehicle is usually not combat effective). I have been using a burning comamnd vehicle - which was lying upside down - and continued to drop jammers/turrets and ordering fire mission. Enemy Hurricanes were in the area but I guess I looked harmless, or more likely - they thought it was a burning wreck. Also, you can position yourself near your own ion towers and be protected from a lot (but not all) of incoming fire. What would be interesting is a vehicle that can deploy a dozen jammers or so, somewhat like a minelaying vehicle. And resupply is available from all vehicles. Unless someone has been voted CMDR, in that case the commander has full control over the resupply. [ April 30, 2006, 11:42 PM: Message edited by: Kurtz ]

ATGMs can be confused by sensor jammers. Maybe that's the explanation for the first case? I observed similar behavior when using jammers. As for hitting a Hurri at full speed: if the missile is fired in "fire and forget" mode, the missile will attept to rise just before impact and hit the target from above. Maybe the missiles have trouble doing this on fast-moving targets.

The turrets you have placed and are killed by the opposing team add to your death count.

It's surprising that the bots don't fire at jammers (or sensors). But that could be changed anytime, I guess. If you keep still in your vehicle near a bot, there's a chance it won't shoot at you. At least as long as it has more important (in its mind) targets to fight.

The problem with launching an ICBM is that everyone who observes it will assume it's nuclear. And the flipside is that you can launch heavy missiles (e.g. cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles) capable of carrying nuclear warhedas, but it's not automatically assumed they actually do!

I've checked the difference, and my earlier statements were wrong. There is a difference in the amount of information avalible in command- and "normal" vehicles. Speaking of sensors, has anyone found use for them? Their range (seen on Tac Display) seem very short, and they are big fat targets for the bots. It seems as if you can't detect enemies without the enemy seeing the sensor. Maybe other terrain would be better for sensor use.

But I can drop a mortar vehicle and shoot indirect fire at targets I do not have line of sight to. Are we discussing the same thing? I'll have to take a look at this. Added: Do this info show up in non-command vehicles? This could be the obvious benefit of having a command vehicle on your team, without crippling too much if you don't have it. Added 2: You get more info when inside the command vehicle. Maybe this additional info should be available to all as a "command bonus"? I agree about "just any schmuck" wasting plans. But they mostly do it by aimless turret spamming at the start. "yeah, I'll put every turret in one place inside the base, that'll show'em! Maybe we are to few human players to see the benefits? If you have 2-3 human players on your team, a fighting - not command - vehicle seems like the best choice. [ April 30, 2006, 03:27 AM: Message edited by: Kurtz ]

The drop ships always drop facing north. This can be annoying sometimes when the first thing you have to do is turn around (under fire). Couldn´t they drop towards the objective? That way the vehicle unloads with the thickest armour facing against they enemy.

This is what the manual tells us about Command and control: Having a dedicated commander is actually limiting! You get restrictions but no appearant gain.