HerrTom

I think I remember Steve saying that SMGs actually have a hard cap on distance to avoid this particular problem. When the effectiveness goes to zero, your units will waste ammunition (easy with SMGs) with little effect. So they have a hard range cap so SMGs won't fire unless they have a chance of causing damage. Maybe it's too much damage, though

I think you hit the nail on the head there. If you look at automatic fire in CM, it pretty much follows a laser. Recoil seems like it would be fairly simple to model and might deal with some of the issues here? The Sturmgewehr already fires semi auto at long ranges, right? This is all speculation anyway, since we know CM has a "save roll" that occurs on infantry when they're hit. Maybe "Rock and Roll" mode has a penalty to that? Who knows?

@Sgt.Squarehead Beautiful data - good find! That curved jet is not going to go through much.

I said I'd make an illustrated guide, and I did! Hopefully it helps some of those who were asking me about it Step Zero is to download the Reshade distribution at the bottom of the page here: https://reshade.me/ Steps 1 through 8 are in my guide here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LG9Og33Re95sPx4KyKtk98DjyUyK-Qcn And my preset is here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dQ5zgLkyS5RRI559yJG929QFs2YqnRdb Hopefully the archive works, I didn't really do extensive testing on it.

The scenario is called "Ambush" and ships with the game. It's one of my favourites, I definitely recommend it! To make an escort scenario, I think all you need to do is fire up the editor and give the enemy a unit objective on whatever you want to escort. Then, you simply have to build your terrain, OOBs, other objectives, briefing, etc

Wow that's a convoluted install process you have there! Glad it worked though. I'll put together an illustrated guide to show how I did it and how to get my present values.

I've noticed it a couple of times. I didn't have a better filler shot, so I included it. I think it got them killed too, since the two that died were inside each other and stuck at the corner. You definitely appear to be correct. Wasn't really even aware they were on the balcony until they took fire!

@IanL I'm afraid of my opponent now. Didn't think ATGMs were so amazingly useful at such close ranges! I like your action shots. In other news, excuse the inconsistent voice - I'm suffering from a cold today. Hopefully I'm getting better at this whole video thing, though

If you use reshade and can afford the performance hit - don't forget to add SSAO or some version of ambient occlusion. In my opinion, it adds huge amounts of depth to the image. Off On It's a subtle effect with the caveat that due to how CM's depth buffer is made the effect will show through smoke, glass and trees. (Trees I don't understand, the others I do haha!)

Breathing old life into a new scenario? Something like that. The convoy moves out! Panzergrenadiere dismount to cover the ford crossing. MG-42s seem almost more effective than the PKMs! Air support fires on a suspected Russian position. I translated the BTR platoon into a PzGr platoon in SdKfz (with the 37mm guy to make up for the lack of firepower and protection of the halftracks). The BMP platoon is also PzGr with two Luchs in support to be the BMPs Maybe it's just that I'm bad at the WWII titles but I still find it much harder, even though the Russians don't have good handheld AT weapons and need to rely on AT rifles, flamethrowers and a pair of light AT guns. @George MC what have you done to me? I feel obsessed at this point haha Edit: Swapping the FW-190 for mortars or something... Air support looked cool at first, but then it swung around, bombed a building I was occupying, killed two halftracks and strafed my command team.

Fairly uneventful. Some artillery has started to land on 1st company and on the Konkurs teams in the dachas. Unfortunately, their weapons have been knocked out by tank fire. A tank shell impacts in front of the hedgerow behind which the ATGM team is set up. They flee. And as they flee, the tank fires a second shot. It goes wide and collapses a wall of the cottage behind the team. They keep running. The next shot again hits the cottage, but also injures the team commander, destroying his sights too. Artillery fire lands on the dachas. Some stray fragments knock out the second ATGM. 5. Platoon, 1. Company surveys the smoke and carnage across the river. They will slowly start to move forward to get a better view on that tank that's causing me so much trouble. Only time will tell if they succeed!

Indeed. One could argue that the other way to solve the problem of needing 30,000 IFVs is to have a smaller army. Pansies!

I think you misunderstand me. Of course the overall discussion is "what if we could change the Stryker?" What I'm saying is that beyond that, your approach to design is traversing through the chain of "what ifs" of situations. Naturally, to some extent, one can approach design this way - what if my linkage breaks? What if the supplier gives me parts that only rate to a fifth of their claim? There are certain points where the what if becomes a little absurd and outweighs the cost. While you have a point - if things go wrong on the battlefield - it costs lives. That's quite the big cost. But you can still bring the cost and feasibility into it by considering the big picture beyond the narrow scope of the tactical battle. Taking your example of the Puma - it is indeed a fine vehicle, but if you consider it in context it might not make sense for everyone. It may make sense for the Bundeswehr since they anticipate using a small number of them (say a brigade) in any combat they anticipate being in. But would it have made sense for the USSR to design and build a similar vehicle? I may get some flak for this, but I'd argue the BMPs and BTRs are actually fairly well designed for their role in the battlefield. The USSR primarily needed a lot of steel to fill out its massively motorised army and accomplished just that with effective, if not elegant or ergonomic vehicles. They may not win 1:1 against the enemy, but that doesn't matter when you have very mobile vehicles with a lot of firepower that can stack your odds 20:1 with mobility and suppression. Would I want to ride in one? No. But I could see the attractiveness as a brigade commander, for example.

It really looks like a big "what if" game. What if we run into tanks? What if the infantry are all dead, what if we are surrounded, what if they have battle mechs, what if they have John Rambo? There's only so far down the chain you can go before it gets ridiculous. +1 for Pentagon Wars. It's my favourite "almost too real to be funny" movie alongside Office Space.

Thanks, George! I mostly just read your briefing with some omissions and word edits to get it to make more sense when I read it out loud in this context haha! Yup! Learned some more effects in Lightworks. And found a better location to record - less echos and more consistent. Still probably need a better microphone. My fiancee heard me reviewing the video and told me "that doesn't sound anything like you!"

While waiting for the New Year hubbub to die down and for my buddy to get me his turn, I tried making a video! (Spoilers to Ambush if you haven't played it already) I've got the introduction and the first 5 minutes. I can say making videos is a lot more work than the text AARs - so let me know if you think it's worth my time! Oh, and happy new year to everyone!

Screenshots have only been cropped, believe it or not. I'm running a post processing injector on top of CM. It has its artifacts - like shading showing through transparent things like trees and smoke.

PIL is in the right direction, combined with win32gui you should be able to use some deeper Windows methods. See this post for a suggestion https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3260559/how-to-get-a-window-or-fullscreen-screenshot-in-python-3k-without-pil I've never tried it myself but good luck!

Thanks! I try my best I'm considering trying video AARs... we'll see if Fuzzy lets me - she thinks my books are boring! Merry Christmas everyone! Fröhe Weinachten, alle! Cчастливого Рождества!

Figured I'd drop a Christmas bone of my own - haven't gotten very far due to all the holiday obligations, but I do have a turn for you guys! Eventful in the explosions, but uneventful on the manoeuvring. 1. Platoon, 2. Company managed to reach the copse to the east of the dachas without losing any more vehicles. For now I'm going to keep the rest of 2. Company in cover until the smoke starts raining down in the next few minutes. The smoke screen will be kept up for the next ten or fifteen minutes as the companies stage and start the crossing. 2/4 PTRK (ATGM teams from 2. Company weapons platoon are doing a number on the Ukrainians - knocking out 4 BMPs with the help of the battalion tank, and another tank got blown to smithereens by a well placed shot from 5. Platoon, 1. Company. Buddy's been on vacation so it's been slow going getting these turns in - hopefully we can speed it up again with the new year! I'll make it my resolution A Ukrainian BMP eats an ATGM. The ATGM teams at the Dachas are doing great work, quickly enaging and launching missiles at the number of visible enemy vehicles on the far bank. One after another, three BMPs are perforated by the skilled operators. A fourth BMP gets exploded by the battalion HQ's tank, avenging the demise of the BTR crew the last minute. Kablooey. 5. Platoon, 1. Company watches over the bridge. The gunner of the westernmost tank spots a little shimmer hidden behind the trees - another T-64! He fires a shot that lands squarely on the glacis plate, brewing up the enemy tank in a pillar of fire.

That was exactly what happened Ian. CMBS, RT and A all had the same profile, while FB was slightly different! I swear to drunk I'm not god!

Doh! It was transparency anti aliasing being set to supersample - off or multisample are acceptable. I guess it was different for FB than the other CM games I have.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? I see it in CMFB only - not in CMRT or CMBS.

Fantastic! Didn't know area and linear missions reduced the rate of fire.

Something I'd still love to see is an expansion of the "particle" effects in the game. Namely: Being able to create multiple explosion animations to add variety Tying particular explosion animations to particular impact types - dirt, metal, mud, etc Allowing more than 30-odd frames in the explosion animations. I want 150!! Pipe dream - actual particle system so we can create some real beauties like in Squad!