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shift8

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Posts posted by shift8

  1. 21 minutes ago, IanL said:

    The way @womble and @llCptMillerll are explaining it is much more reflective of how the game works.  @shift8, as soon as you start talking about infantry as "just a "block" with xxxx fire, xxxx movement, xxxx cover, xxxx leadership xxxxx etc. " you are drifting away from how the game works.  You might think that you end up in the same place but that mental model is not correct and could lead to thinking that a squad with two MG42s and several rifles will always be more powerful than a squad with the same number of guys but only one MG42.  This is not the case.  If the two squads are positioned in such away that only two guys with rifles can see the enemy then that enemy experience the same incoming fire from each of those two squads.  It is *not* fire power xxxx / n it is just two guys with rifles.  This is because the game *does* represent infantry on a 1:1 basis. 

    You are quite correct that there is math and abstraction in behind that but the 1:1 is real and there are not blocks of firepower etc. 

    The thing here is that I completely agree with what Miller said. There is more or less no difference of opinion there. If you dont want to use the "block" terminology fine, but that is how I think of it on macro level. 

     

    I am not sure though how you think my mental model wouldnt add up to what you said about the Mg. Given that Cpt Millers explanation is more or less in line with my own, I think you may be misunderstanding what I mean when I talk of blocks. My mental model of that situation works fine. For example, if the total abstracted fire power sum of the former squad is 10, and the later 8, in a open field all things being the same the former would most likely win. I think we would agree? However, if the Mg is obstructed, this would depreciate the firepower of the former squad accordingly, relative to the Fov of the user. Im not denying the specifics of the game mechanics, as I have already said. There is a certain degree of nuance to this that I think everyone might be missing. I am simply summarizing the units as blocks. You could also choose to further break each man into sub-blocks. However, in many situations the units would be affected more as a single block in certain geometries. 

     

    So here is a more fine tuned definition of what I mean: Each infantry unit is a "block" made up of "sub-blocks" that are capable of having independent actions levied upon them. In the case of spacing for units, I consider it to be a non-issue because the units in general are re-affected by additional modifiers that reflect the terrain or position they are in. So long as the general modifier for a given space compensates for spacing, the end-result vulnerability is the same. Vanirs point on the HE is an example of this. So in summary, the spacing is a non-issue because the overall effectiveness of fires in respective environments is correct imo. 

  2. 10 minutes ago, Vanir Ausf B said:

    For uncapped AP. Ballistic capped AP will penetrate the glacis out to at least 1500, and that is the ammo IS-2s are given in Red Thunder (in reality there was a lot of uncapped AP still in use during the Bagration time frame but the CM2 engine does not allow different AP types within the same vehicle model so the Soviets get a break).

    Yep. Also rechecking the slope multipliers for AP it would be a similar story. I keep forgetting there is corrected data for that. 

  3. 7 minutes ago, TheForwardObserver said:

    So two fish are sitting in a tank.   The first fish turns to the second fish and with a curious look on his face asks;  "Where did you learn to drive a tank?"

    Sorry-- wrong thread

    I could be misinterpreting this, but if you are referring to what I think you are, you are comparing watermelons to coconuts. 

  4. 11 minutes ago, womble said:

    And the Panther's flanks are meat even for pop-guns. Not the smallest kind, but 47mm will penetrate out to a good distance.

    Depends on the Panther, the section of side armor, and type of projectile. For example, the 75mm M3 M61 has a hard time with the Upper side hull of a Panther G, but not the A. But in general, the Panther is vulnerable on the side. 

  5. 2 minutes ago, womble said:

    Incorrect. They are precise visual indicators, and precise targets for trajectories. If a bullet's trajectory does not intersect a pTruppe's polygons, the pTruppe will not be rendered a casualty. It's only after the pTruppe's volume has been intersected by one or more bullets or other casualty causing projectiles that the abstraction is applied. And the abstraction is based on a "terrain save". You might be trying to assert this by 

    but

    is not true because of the trajectory-polygon interaction: an enemy aiming at one soldier that is near another soldier will sometimes hit the other soldier if they miss their target. This can happen even if the shooter hasn't seen the "other" soldier, due to bullet spread and targetting variations in area fire. So if your guys are bunched up, some "misses" will actually result in intersections which otherwise might not have happened. Powerful rounds and narrow bursts can also hit targets beyond their first. Even taking "it's just a hitbox" as a valid interpretation, each pTruppe's hitbox is individual to them, and if all the team's hitboxes are close to a source of multiple wounding projectiles (an HE burst), the team is more likely to suffer more than one intersection of an invisible shrapnel object's trajectory with their polygons than if they were dispersed and further away, so the spacing of the hitboxes matters, even if you think the level of abstraction after that is anything like approaching that in CMx1 (which it demonstrably isn't).

    No they aren't.

    Yes, it is. Every eyeball and gun muzzle is modelled one-for-one. I don't know the precision of the calculation, but there's no need for it to be less than centimetre-accurate. Outgoing fire is limited by troopers who can find firing positions that will bear, and those who will keep their heads up to shoot back. The exact location of every trooper is exactly as you see them on the screen. This is why splitting squads into teams and spreading them out more means you get fewer casualties from incoming HE and automatic fire (and why splitting squads and letting them stay in the one AS after recombining is not recommended, nor is stacking teams which won't recombine. It's why your HMG won't give you a target line when its operator is cowering, or Hiding behind a berm or other defilade. It's why the facing you choose is significant sometimes. It's central to the CMx2 infantry experience. It's also why changing the animation for buddy aid to be prone reduces the casualties suffered by buddy-aiding troops. It's why a team that's found a place to hide from an AI HMG (out of its LOS) but which has lost a mate to that HMG in the same AS will be whittled down: they aren't being shot at, so they feel comfortable enough to Buddy Aid their comrade, so they move their position to be in arm's reach of him, which exposes the individual trooper to the HMG, he gets geeked, and the HMG no longer has a target. Rinse and repeat. Such things would not occur if the pTruppen were not precise locations of discrete game assets. It's also why if you have three men hiding behind a lamp post and a 60mm mortar shell hits one of them, the others have a better chance of snuffing it too than their team mate hiding behind a kerb 5m away in the same AS.

    No, no it doesn't. I'm afraid you're the one completely misunderstanding how infantry are modelled.

    Is the 1:1 modelling 100% accurate? No. As you say, there are nuances (close combat, close assault, microterrain cover to name but a few) which are abstracted out, but the graphics, precisely as they are for vehicles, are as close to 1:1 as they can be given resources available. I think I saw you post something along these lines before, and I nearly corrected you then, but it seemed like you were suggesting that it's viable to treat infantry elements as if they are blocks of infantryness with aggregate characteristics, in some circumstances, which is, potentially, true to at least some extent, but the precise statements you have made here are incorrect.

    Yeah you are completely missing my point. Again. That last time you "corrected" this you also misunderstood by doing the same thing you are doing now: inserting your own presumptions of my casual understanding in between the lines of what I actually said. I corrected you on this last time, and I guess I have to do it again. 

    I disagree with none of the mechanical things you said. None. Just like before...big surprise.  But that doesnt change the fact that the END RESULT of the infantry combat is a abstraction that makes this 1:1 comparison of infantry locations silly. As I already pointed out, but you found it somehow necessary to repeat as though I had not, the game does use the individual 3d representations to determine what is hit and what isn't (aiming  etc....) However, this is a moot point to a certain extent if units that are literally struck at saved when a (insert statistical modifier) prevents their demise. This means that units that are bunched up have legitimate reflections of their vulnerability so long as CM's adjustments for a particular set of terrain are representative accurate. The game does not render 1 to 1 the micro cover of the units any more so in a field than it does in a building (in terms of the visual.) Hence why a unit sitting in clump of trees might not die even if physically struck because it is "in the clump of trees." 

    The fact the moving units significant distances from each other in individual fire teams is a moot point because we are now talking of units that are far more separated in general. This had nothing to do with what I was on about. 

    I am viewing the infantry in game as a sum of their parts, which is the only thing that matters in the end. Effectively, they are simply blocks of firepower that move around and are affected by various states depending on tactical geometry. The only way they would not be this is if BFC somehow created near sentient ai and billions of 3d animations or represent the massive and varied possibilities for infantry on the battlefield. Not to mention all the additional 3d models we would need to represent all the micro cover and terrain that currently exists only as math. 

     

    The main point can be summarized as this. It does not matter much how point to point the 3d render of the simulation is if huge amounts of the final results are done behind the scenes due to limitations on what can actually be shown. YES, much of the game IS visual, but the final result of everything is NOT. This means that while CMx2 is FAR MORE visual, it is still in abstraction overall. And this in turn means that as a sum of it parts, each squad or fire team etc, is just a "block" with xxxx fire, xxxx movement, xxxx cover, xxxx leadership xxxxx etc. (AND yes those things are modifited by the individual actions of the separate troops....) Reiterating the same mechanics I already did does not somehow make the end result any different. 

     

     

  6. 1 hour ago, MikeyD said:

    'Invincible' is a relative term. Lets not forget Russia's got many more 122mm guns than Germany has Panthers on the eastern front, and by the end of the war you're going to see SU-100s rolling around too. The Russian 85mm gun is closer to the US 76mm than to any of the genuine monster AT guns out there like 88 KwK L/71.

    Awhile ago I wanted to 'visualize' the armor numbers we read so often so I did a side-by-side comparison of Panther armor to Sherman 47 degree armor.

     

    PatherShermanarmor.jpg

    Yes those other guns did exist, and the 100mm in particular was capable of killing the Panther. However I was under the impression we were talking about the 85mm gun. I included the others just as a comparison reference. Generally, the Panther was a difficult tank to knock out from the front. The Is2 also has a bit of a harder time with the Panther than vice versa. The Panther can pen the turret, LFH, and upper half of the UFP on the Is2 at long range. The 122m gun can pen only the LFP and turret/mantlet at long range, and the glacis at 600m. That makes the Is2 plenty effective vs the Panther in general, but still quite well protected in a sense. 

  7. 15 minutes ago, slysniper said:

    The in game ballistics really does a fine job of being pretty accurate.

    With that being said. If the Panther has a little hgt. advantage as mentioned. That is when they get really tough.

    I have seen them take 15-20 hits in situations like that from 85MM rounds.

    Now reverse that roll and  put them in a poor position where they do not increase the slope of the armor  but decrease it and I have seen the first shot from a 85 take them out.

    The point I am trying to make, use every advantage that is available for you to help your armor. generally pays off in the game.

     

    When ever they do make a cm3 engine. Maybe we can start talking about getting tanks that have the ability to aim at different portions of the enemy tank.

    It sure would be nice to see the gunners aim for the weak portion of the enemy tank. Or maybe allow the player to select a aim point, like hull, turret, tracks, main gun or whatever seems logical.

     

    Tanks already do aim for weak points. Higher experience crews have higher chances to do this etc. Im not sure it would be a good idea to allow the player to do this directly, since at most normal tank battle ranges (including the 400m example above) it is simply too far away for a human to have much effect on shell placement. Aim center mass etc. 

    Also just to add to your story on hits: I once lets an entire company of shermans 75mm's pound a Panther in game at 100m. They ran out of ammunition trying to penetrate the Panthers. :)

     

    CMx2's ballistics system for the tanks has no equal in gaming. In fact, I dont know of a single other game that is as accurate as CMx2 when it comes to ww2 armor penetration. Most other games dont even take into account slope multipliers, but instead just erroneously calculate geometric slope LOS (world of tanks etc). The armor system in CMx2 is truly a masterpiece, and is the only 99% accurate AP system out there that I know of other than steel beasts. 

  8. On 5/30/2016 at 5:43 AM, alwaysfish said:

    I am playing a pbem match, and on several occasions i observed that it is really hard for Russian T-34-85s to penetrate Panther armor. In the video you will see how T-34-85 hits Panther four times at a range of 400m, but never penetrates Panther's hull. I don't know much about armor penetration, so i thought maybe somebody will provide good insight, if Panther is really that hard to penetrate at such short range. 

     

     

    I will answer your question on the Panthers armor as in depth as I possibly can. I know this is late but others may find this interesting as well. 

    The short asnwer: hell yes. The Panthers Upper front hull especially, the Panther is a beast from the front. It is immune to fire from the Russian 85mm gun, and even the American 90mm gun, and its OWN 75mm gun: even at point blank range. 

     

    The T-34-85 firing its standard APBC ammo has a max penetration at 100m of 139mm. 85mm/85mm (panther armor) gives us a Thickness to Diameter ratio of 1.0. This gives us a slope multiplier of 2.1. A slope multiplier is a number that is multiplied by the base armor thickness to give us effective LOS thickness when over-match and the effects of sloping the armor are taken into account. This includes energy loss from the shell impact at the associated slope, not just the geometric LOS thickness. This is important because most people assume you can simply take the geometric thickness, but this is not true(LOS thickness here would be 148mm). Anyhow, this gives us a effective armor thickness at 55 degree's of 168mm. Meaning that a T-34 is nearly 30mm short of being able to penetrate at point blank range even with a perfectly straight shot. If there is any side angle the problem is even worse. 

     

    Additionally, that value of 168mm is only true for a 85mm APBC round. The Panther has different effective armor values for different guns. I will give one example to demonstrate this. I will use American 90mm M82 APCBC and 76mm HVAP as examples. 90mm APCBC over matches the 85mm armor slightly with a T/D ratio of .94. This means it will incur a slope multiplier of 2.5~. Notice this is higher than the soviet APBC, because APCBC is more affected by slope. This give the Panther 212mm of effective armor vs the American 90mm gun. At 100m M-82 penetrates 169mm of RHA, making it ineffective. 76mm HVAP under-matches the 85mm armor, at 1.11 T/D. APCR rounds incur significant slope penalties, and with that T/D ratio the slope effect is 3.3, giving the Panther 280mm of armor vs 76mm HVAP. 76mm HVAP penetrates at most 239mm. 

  9. 4 hours ago, Raptorx7 said:

    That is not true, infantry in CMx2 are actually 1:1 in terms of representing soldiers, they are not blocks that is why individuals can get shot and it doesn't take away a random number of men when something actually hits them. This would have been true in CMx1 but it isn't now, an easy to way to see this is when a MG burst catches 2 or more soldiers at a time, if it weren't a 1:1 abstraction than it wouldn't matter where the bullets went as long as they "hit" which would mean it would just kill of random people in the fire team or squad instead of where they actually are on the map when hit.

    Cool breeze basically said this but Ill also say it so that it is more clear still. 

    I did say they are 1:1 in terms of the location of the 3d model in the world. and that 3d model is a hitbox etc. That does NOT mean they are a complete 1 to 1 representation of every infantry function. Their visual model is simply MORE precise that it was in CMx1, BUT they are still abstracted in a sense because much of their function is done as "invisible" math behind the scenes. For example, just because they are visually bunched up, it says nothing as to how vulnerable they are necessarily. When a bullet is fired or a shell lands, the literal shrapnel strikes the 3d model of the infantry, BUT whether or not that unit takes damage is still hinged on whether the game chooses to "save" the unit based on certain factors. So a infantry unit standing in a gaggle in a open field does NOT mean the unit is receiving "gaggle" modifiers. It is receiving modifiers tangent to the general vulnerability of infantry in a "field" which means the formation and spacing are to a certain degree completely irrelevant. (visually)

     

    A very obvious example of this working in game is any combat that occurs in buildings. Units can seemingly survive barrages of fire, sometime even from HE, because the game in "saving" units from death despite physical hits because there is a chance that is assumes certain things about combat in a building that it would be extremely hard to visually represent. For example, while you might be flummoxed that a sniper team just survived 900 rounds pelting the side of the building they are in, the game is potentially assuming they that are not just behind the wall.....but also perhaps behind several layers of furniture not literally shown. There are also affects from the more nuanced and particular ways human beings make themselves scarce. 

  10. 3 hours ago, BletchleyGeek said:

    "Gamey" is a very tricky term, @spawncaptain. But good on you for being a good sport when it comes to C2.

    It's not so much that one can create these outcomes with certainty, but rather than they just tend to happen. Another example where dubious spacing by the TacAI and light mortars interacted in a weird way was in a H2H game on @Pete Wenman "Drive on the Dreijseweg" (the spelling of the Dreij-thing is probably wrong, feel free those who like to pick at nits to correct me). I was playing British, and on my right flank a quite curious situation ensued. In a little enclosure surrounded by a quite dense forest, my opponent had one of these colourful Schule/Naval/Ersatz formations with the little German 50mm mortars equipped. I discovered this as the company I was attacking with on that flank was literally repulsed by some Heavy AA stuff my opponent had craftily placed to strengthen his main line of resistance. What happened was basically that my 3in platoon mortars and his 50mm mortars duelled it out in the forest... a few Bren or Enfield or Mauser fired in anger, most of the fires being just those little mortars. I counted over 30 casualties amongst my paras, all of them found in clumped together in a mash of limb and gore. When the scenario was over, I saw that a similar carnage had taken place on the German side (I salute @db_zero for playing a quite good game).

    Last night I got see The Battle of The Bastards... that part of the map was blanketed in a similar way as that battlefield just out of Winterfell.

    This wasn't a thread about mortars effectiveness, we know them to be very effective and fearsome weapons. Maybe @Battlefront.com, instead of duking it out with Putin's Motorised Troll Brigade, will want a change of company and explain to us how HE effects are dampened in order to compensate for the tendency the TacAI has to clump people around the center of the action spot or some piece of cover.

    My original point was to highlight that the effectiveness of these weapons is amplified in a significant way by the limitations in the TacAI (and you can do good tactics as long as the TacAI, the resolution of the terrain modelling and fog-of-war allows you). This is not so much a problem about how people play the game (even if it is true that depending on how you play it you can make it worse) but rather at how the pieces of the game interact sometimes in ways which catch the eye. Because if CMx2 was a complete, utter mess, we would probably be barking mad about tanks going through buildings, infantry sprinting for 500 meters in full battle gear without breaking a sweat, single bullets killing three troopers, missiles going through hills and destroying T-72 (all of these stuff is things I remember from other games which I won't name). Since it is not, we look at the "little things". Because they're little, but not because of that, they're nothing.

     

    The ai has no effective tendency to clump. The virtual effectiveness of mortars and every single other weapons is more or less equivalent to IRL as near as makes no difference because of the modififiers (you cant see) that are applied to units in general based on the terrain. Infantry in CM are simply placeholders as general visual representations of the units position and actions on the map. Attempting to model their movements more precisely would be mess, since as other already pointed out, infantry are far too nuanced and complicated for this to be done without creating worse problems. The 3d models ARE hit boxes, but the sum of modifiers that occur behind the scenes mean that the visual bunching is irrelevant. The infantry in CM are largely just slightly more visually representative versions of the infantry in CMx1 (that can also be broken into smaller pieces, unlike cmx1). This means that a squad in game, or fire team etc....is simply a "block" that represents the orientation, firepower, and general location of a unit. It is not a one-to-one visual representation of a group of infantry, and as such does not need to represent (and cannot) every single nuanced move infantry make. This entire thread stems from a massive misunderstanding of what infantry in CM actually are on  a game level. 

  11. 4 hours ago, womble said:

     

    Well, it took 3 versions (CMSF, BNv1 and v2) without the feature at all before they managed to shoe-horn the current (I agree, unsatisfactory) version into v3 (RT). Given that the current implementation is effectively RealTime with no pauses allowed in the minute between a mandatory shared pause (that's finished when the second player hits the BRB), there must be some reason they can't have the game calculate from simultaneous inputs. The turn exchange for WeGo was streamlined in x2 compared to x1; it has one less step and is not vulnerable to someone calculating the turn and then using the replay to see about re-running the turn for a more advantageous result before returning it to their opponent. The architecture is strictly built around asynchronous order entry; if it were straightforward to unpick that, I think there's been enough demand for simultaneous order entry. As it is, the second person to watch the turn cannot do so until the first person has generated their orders; the file that is passed from the player who calculates the turn contains the orders; extracting that could be demanding...

    Ok I see where you are coming from. But for myself I will not simply assume a technical problem unless BFC says there is one. Even then, that would require some explanation. I still find it hard to believe that there is some kind of technical issue. After all, all it would be is what PBEM already does: simply without leaving the games interface. 

    I dont think (demand + no result) = cant. Game companies refuse to change things all the time for tons of different reasons. It may be a case of simple lack of inclination. There are a number of features in cmx1 (like the push campaigns for example) that failed to carry over. I think CMx2 was overall and improvement over x1, especially in terms of armor ballistics, but there are a few serious losses from the former. 

    Although I on a side note I am not sure how much I really care for getting the rewind aspect specifically. There are some cases where this feature adds to the realism, but I think that is the minority. Most often I find myself and others using this mechanic to unreasonably analyze a situation by seeing the same even 100 times  over. Doing silly things like tracking the exact location of a hidden AT gun by following the tracer ultra precisely etc. It detracts somewhat by the aspect of WEGO I most like: the prevention of second by second micro of single units. But I digress. 

  12. On 6/1/2016 at 5:45 AM, womble said:

    You can play TCPIP WeGo. You don't get to replay the minute between orders phases, so it's effectively RealTime with an enforced pause every 60 seconds, and the inability to issue orders during any other pause. It ought to be there in the manual; it's been an option since the advent of v3 with CMRT, IIRC.

    It's not the same as the old "both giving orders in parallel" model of the CMx1 engine, and it would take some major architecture engineering to arrange for that to be possible after the decisions taken way back in the development of CMSF.

    What exactly was changed that makes it do hard to implement true WEGO in TCP? Legitimately curious, because I am having a hard time imagining what sort of crazy code gymnastics must have occurred to make something as simple WEGO without PBEM impossible. I always prefered CMx1's option to play WEGO "in game" rather than using the archaic method of email play. It is particularly onerous in CMx2 because the load times are horrendous. So has BFC actually ever specified some kind of engine limitation or is this just the line the community likes to feed itself?

  13. There is also nothing wrong with the casualty rate in CM. Too many people on here are piece meal comparing anecdotal and irrelevant real life examples with very specific CM instances. The Physics of the combat in CM is extremely accurate. IF there are some battles with higher than expected casualties it is because HOW people play, not the physical nature of the combat. 

  14. On 6/14/2016 at 1:25 PM, sonar said:

    Or will we have to wait for a new engine? Sorry much as I love these games, the spacing or lack of between squad members is way off. The casualties in cmx2 are much higher than before and can't get close to the kind you read about in combat reports. I've heard the arguments about pushing harder than a real life commander would do, but i don't buy that. You can play as cautiously as you like [ and i tend to do so} it won't help, because as soon as a squad comes under fire it will start taking needless casualties due to this. I'm looking at a battle i'm playing now and every squad member in every squad, is lying toe to toe with one another, and woe betide if there is a tree about as then they will lie on top of one another. It looks wrong and it is, squads get chewed up and there is nothing you can do about it. if you think i'm wrong, have a battle in a wooded area then look at the casualties at the end, most of the dead and wounded will be lying on top of each other stacked up behind a single piece of cover i.e. a tree. The bumping into one another while trying to get into position is another result of this, the ai on the whole does ok, it's just that they can't help themselves and you can't help them as there is literally no where for them to go as the are too many men confined to too small an area. if they were spread out even a little more than present, I think you would see casualties figures drop quite a bit, because from what i'm seeing a lot of the casualties are avoidable and are sustained due to the simple fact that they are just too close.

    Cheers.

    Infantry in the game are still essentially what they were in CMx1. They should be views as "blocks" of firepower. Infantry are far far too complex to animated or display their highly nuanced moments to such a degree that they would be 100% visually accurate. You should not be expecting that. Instead, you should view the simulation for what it is: the tactical movement of "firepower" elements. The accuracy of the weapons in game and the various calculations for micro cover etc already "effectively" take into account the effect that spacing would have. 

     

    As others have already pointed out, IRL infantry do NOT follow the manual definition of spacing. COVER always takes precedence over individual space. Just because you want every man to be 10m apart doesnt mean the terrain will allow for it. You find cover where it is plain and simple. 

     

     

  15. Cooper is but one example of a logical plague that infests any dialogue. Cooper was taken seriously because there is a general assumption by the public at large, even among many grogs, that because a person was involved in something they are an "expert"

    Examples:

    He is a general, ergo must know how to win battles. 

    or

    He was a soldier, therefore what he says about a war must be true. 

    Etc Etc. And this logical fallacy applies to much more than military science. 

     

    The experiences of people have a certain value and application, but it is much narrower than people assume. Anecdotal evidence must always be weighed against certain data. Personnel experiences never trump the laws of physics or the combined knowledge yielded from comparison of other data points. Almost every WWII myth derives from this nonsense. 

  16. Just to add a few things on a different note for the Sherman:

    One of the biggest myths of the Sherman was that it was poorly armored. This is absolutely untrue. The Sherman's armor was more than adequate against the most common threats all the way until the end of the war more or less. When the tank was first introduced, it had exemplary protection. The cast armor models gradually became less adequate as the Germans improved the guns, but with the M4A3 and beyond the protection of the M4's glacis was good enough to defeat the long 75 of the Pz4 at ranges exceeding 750m. In particular the M4A3W. It was not for pure jollies that the M4A3 and variants of the M4A3 had their armor changed from cast to RHA, and later from 51mm to 64mm. Most people simply figure the LOS thickness of the armor as 90~mm but this is not an accurate estimate of the tanks protection. 

                   The M4A1 models had very varying protection ranging from about 122mm to only 90mm due to the inconsistency of cast armor effectivness. The M4A3W had a consistent effective thickness on the glacis of 118mm. This is substantially better protections than that of the Shermans contemporary mediums, the Pz4 and T-34. Combat mission models all of these things more or less to the T. 

     

  17. 1 minute ago, ASL Veteran said:

    No, I don't know if there are any game limitations involved.  However, I'm not the one lodging the complaint so I don't have a vested interest in the answer.  The burden of proof is squarely on the individual who wants something to change.  If you want something to change you have to prove something is wrong.  I personally would like to see an increased rate of fire at closer ranges even though you probably don't think I do.  I have actually lodged complaints in the past on older forums that I thought the Sherman's rate of fire was too low as compared to vehicles like the Tiger.  In CMBO I think the rates of fire for both the Sherman and the Tiger were identical to each other.  There is also the case of the ready rack.  How many rounds of ammunition are held in the ready rack and how many rounds are held in the hull of the tank.  Would your assessment of a higher rate of fire change if the loader was pulling rounds from the tank hull instead of the ready rack?  I don't think the game differentiates between the two but surely there would be a difference in real life? 

    If you want something to change then you have to make a case for it.  That's just the way BFC operates so the more thorough you are the better chance you would have of getting something changed.  It stands to reason that if you believe that the rate of fire is too slow at short ranges that perhaps there should be noticeable differences at other ranges.  Are there?  I don't know.  Is it good information to know?  Sure it is.  If there are no changes then you may have identified a bigger problem than the one you are narrowly focusing on.  If there are differences then how big are the differences?  If we can identify what the differences are then we can probably get some idea as to where BFC stands on the subject by seeing how big the differences are.  What would be the main cause of the differences at different ranges?  Perhaps the amount of time it takes the gunner to aim?  How much time does the gunner spend aiming at different ranges?  Presumably the loading time would be the same at all ranges with the exception that there would probably be a difference between ammunition in the ready rack and ammunition in the tank hull.   

    That is pure nonsense. In order for me to show there is something unrealistic in the game I do not have to prove every facet of the game code. Utter rubbish. Doubtless we could explore every nook and crany of every odd and end: but that doesnt meant I havent shown there is a problem. With that attitude I may as well package my OP with a patch of game code I wrote to fix it. 

     

    IF BFC wants to chime in on what is and is not impossible that is another matter entirely. BUT whether or not there is some strange engine limit is besides of point of realism. 

  18. 14 minutes ago, ASL Veteran said:

    Yes, really.  I am not attacking you so I don't know why you are getting defensive.  I am trying to establish some things and the information scattered in the thread is incomplete.  There are two sets of data that we are discussing.  We are discussing the shift8 set of data and we are discussing the 'game' data.  Simply saying 'I said it before' doesn't mean anything within the context of what I'm trying to do here.  Besides, it would have taken you less time to simply type it again than it did for you to complain about my question.  Why do you think asking about what you think the time should be for 1000 meters is a stupid question or an attack upon you?  If you think that the game data is incorrect then you must have some way of formulating what should be correct and if your method is better then you should be able to identify what the correct rate of fire should be at all ranges not just whatever range you feel like discussing at this particular point in time.  By demonstrating that you can answer a simple question of 'what should the time between shots be at 1500 meters' then that demonstrates that you have at least some sort of an educated opinion of what the correct answer should be.  Did you serve in an armored unit?  Did your father?  Do you know anyone who operated a tank?  Do you have any Field Manuals that you are referencing?  What is the basis of your data set?  This is not an attack.  This is establishing facts and the basis of your level of knowledge on the subject being discussed.  If you can't tell us what the correct rate of fire should be at 1500 meters then someone reading this thread might be justified in assuming that you don't actually have a method that can be applied consistently in all situations and that you may possibly not have the appropriate knowledge base to comment on whether something is correct or not.  Maybe you do though - I don't know.  How can we determine if your objection is a good one if you can't fill in all of the blanks and compare that to what is in the game now?  If you know that the rate of fire is too slow at 50 meters then you should also know if the rate of fire at 1000 meters is accurate or not.  So I'm asking you - is the rate of fire for tanks at 1000 meters accurate in the game or not?  If so, just say yes it is.  If not then just say what you think it should be.  I don't know why that would be so objectionable.  Let's just establish a few baselines for comparison. 

    Is there any change in the rate of fire for tanks at different ranges in the game?  Don't you think that would be important to know?  If the rate of fire is 8 seconds per shot at every range then perhaps there is a code limitation within the game such that your request for an increased rate of fire at close range may not be possible from a code standpoint.  Aren't you at least curious to know whether or not it is even possible for your request to be implemented in the game at all?  So I'm asking you - is the rate of fire in the game consistent at all ranges or is it different at different ranges?   

    1000m has nothing to do with the topic of the thread. Im not complaining about the fire rate at 1000m am I? 

    And your response here pretty much proves you are conducting an intentional derailment here. I and others already posted and discussed what the real tanks could do and how the game is currently wrong. Im not going to sit here is justify myself by playing a ring around the rosy of "who is the biggest grog in the room." If you have a contrary opinion, post your opinion and we can have a discussion about it. But this knowledge base **** is pure rubbish. Instead of actually discussing the issue at hand you are taking a back-ass ward approach to trying to discredit me instead of posting some kind of fact-based counter or support yourself. 

    As to game limitations: DO YOU know? Up till now we were discussing the nature of the problem. I dont see BFC in here saying this inst possible to be fixed. And the game engine would be rather hamfisted indeed if it couldnt have alternate rates of fire at different ranges. Something I find hard to believe since the ballistics system in game is extremely complex. 

  19.  I stated what I think it should be. Twice now. Perhaps even thrice......Im not going to say it again. Please stop asking questions you could have answered for yourself by reading the thread. At this point all you are doing is asking increasingly redundant things instead of actually offering an opinion. 

     

    1000m....really? 

  20. 10 hours ago, ASL Veteran said:

    Okay so what, exactly, do you think the time between shots should be in the game and what are the times in the game now?  Please be precise.  I, shift 8, have tested a Sherman in game and the time between shots for each crew experience level is X at range Y.  I, shift8, have studied the available evidence and data and I have concluded that these times should instead be X at each crew experience level at range Y (times listed).  Can you do that for us so that your position is clear?

    Yet again, already been gone over. But since you missed this: The average ROF for the sherman is about 8 seconds, at point blank. This is about 7.5 round per minute. This make the in game rate of fire about twice as long as it should be for brief shooting, especially up close and personal, when you consider that modern 120mm cannon which much heavier projectiles could do better than what is occurring in game. Other people mentioned some of the historical methods for quick shooting, and some data on ww2 gun rof. 

    Have you actually read through this thread? You may want to if you are going to start make patronizing accusations on one thing or another. There was already quite a bit of back and forth on the actual reload times of tanks. Then there was some conversation on how tanks react to being penetrated irregardless of rate of fire. Then there was conversation on how long it takes for tanks to aim and generally react. 

     

    And now we are seemingly the at point of the thread where meaningful conversation of the issue at hand disintegrates into deflection finger pointing at the OP's methodology. 

     

    To be clear: I generally give CM the benefit of the doubt on most things. It has a ballistics system that is 99.9% accurate regarding armor penetration and its general realism and historical accuracy unmatched in gaming. However, I do not consider that carte blanch to simply make excuses for the game when it is particularly wrong. This is not a single mechanic problem. It is issue affected by several different game play mechanics that leads to some rather extreme errors of outcome. 

    We can debate all day how this should be fixed etc, but this is what has been mentioned so far to contribute to the general problem.

    1)Tanks shoot too slowly at close range.

    2)Tanks take far too long to acquire targets and shoot at close range (for one reason or another)

    3)Tanks under certain circumstances do not suffer appreciably to either mechanical or crew function after being hit once or even several times in sensitive areas. 

     

  21. 5 minutes ago, ASL Veteran said:

    Well the 'real' solution would be to code in hard restrictions where the gun cannot go beyond what is specified for each vehicle and in that case then your vehicles simply wouldn't fire at all if the gun couldn't align with the target.  It seems to me that the 'real' solution is a lot more heavy handed than the 'phony' solution of applying an aim penalty.  If you are worried about micro maneuvering your tanks to avoid the aim penalty now then imagine how hopping mad you would be if the tank didn't fire at all.  Try to keep things in perspective and you will do a lot better in the game.  In case anyone is worried, no, there is absolutely no chance that elevation limits will ever be hard coded into the game and the aim penalty is probably carved in the stone tablets located at BFC HQ. ;)

    That doesnt mean we cant have other solutions, or that the aim penalty couldnt be toned down or have conditions added to it. And I do just fine in this game thank you. The capacity on this forum for people to reduce every complaint down to "the op doesnt know how to play" is absolutely incredible. 

    Not to mention that stunning mechanics and reload times would change things for the better and have nothing to do with aim penalties. AND, it has not been established that the 2nd video even involved said mechanic. 

  22. 9 minutes ago, snarre said:

    this gind situations are wery rare , like we soo on 2 nd videoa and i expect this penalty was reason why it wend that way in this case. 

    They are not all that rare. Both those video happened on the same day (in the same battle even). I wasnt even looking for it, I just saw it happen and went back an filmed. Ive been noticing this for about a year now and havent said anything until now because I usually give CM the benefit of the doubt. It happens at least 20% of the time, and it the most crazy situations. It happens often enough that it can be battle changing. It affects all the tanks, but it really hurts the smaller ones since they cannot afford for their flank attacks to fail. It takes alot of proper handling to get a tank into the position and is not a small issue when a significant amount of the time the tanks at that range do not behave reasonably. Not to mention the situation itself is not all the rare, especially in the bocage. 

  23. Ok so there is a gun depression penalty. I dont know how precisely it fits into this, but one way or another a fix should occur imo for the issue this thread is about. There are probably several game mechanics contributing. Perhaps the gun elevation penalties should only be in effect when the tank is engaging infantry. It seems like that was the reason that mechanic was introduced. It seems to me that while there may be reasons for certain mechanics, that does not necessarily mean that they werent heavy handed. Or that there might not be a better solution. It certainly seems to me that something should be done, because this appears to be effecting the tank combat so that  rather silly things occur. 

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