Aquila-SmartWargames
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Posts posted by Aquila-SmartWargames
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28 minutes ago, Lethaface said:
If Berlin gets hit with a dirty bomb (part of the back story iirc) I think certain fine prints are either rather unbureaucratically fast changed, interpreted in flexible fashion or just plainly disregarded. Also, tax payers wouldn't mind the bill that much I'd say.
I didn´t know that Berlin got also hit, long time since I´ve read it. It very likely wouldn´t require constitutional changes at all as in the case of a direct attack the Bundeswehr might already have legitimization by Art. 115a GG alone.
However Article 5 NATO would be very likely activated aswell and thus there would be more then enough reasons for the government to give green light and enact a combat focused mandate.
28 minutes ago, Lethaface said:Anyway, still it would be most logical to send a professional force to do the 'wet work' compared to the greenhorns. It's not like they are defending german territory by all means.
Exactly
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1 hour ago, DerKommissar said:
Considering the German constitution forbids invasions, they'd probably have to do it under the auspices of peacekeeping.
Things become different when NATO´s Article 5 is activated and collective defense is declared. This was the case with the 9/11 attacks and allowed German special forces and other units to operate in OEF which in contrast to the ISAF mandate was not a stability/peacekeeping mission. According to CMSF´s hypothetical background it can be assumed Article 5 would be activated aswell.
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17 hours ago, potato4212 said:
I thought the Bundeswehr would send a good portion of its army including some of the lesser quality units.
The Bundeswehr wouldn´t have sent basic conscripts (Grundwehrdienstleistender, GWDL) into an operation like CMSF Syria. It is theoretically possible for volunteer extended-time conscripts (Freiwillig Wehrdienst Leistender, FWDL) to participate in deployments abroad but you definitely won´t see many of them aswell. There are some exceptions like special qualified civilians undergoing shortened training and contract time, who then receive a temporary equivalent of an officer rank but they almost exclusively participate in rear-area/build-up" operations or other non-combat related activities.
The absolute majority of the force you would see in such a situation would be professional volunteers with contracts ranging from several years up to decades (Soldat auf Zeit, SAZ) or even lifetime contracts (Berufssoldat) bringing with them what was stated in the previous post, in game words: high quality.
Hard to precisely predict how the German government would respond to CMSF´s backstory and conflict but it would be a good bet that they would sent in rather a smaller but highly professionalized portion of its army which I think is also what CMSF is portraying.
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Using the quantity of a nation´s wordwide military activity as the prime factor in order to evaluate the proficiency of (all) soldiers and units of said nation while neglecting all other factors is rather flawed.
Despite this just because an army has conscription in place doesn´t mean that every soldier in said army is a conscript. German soldiers that are dispatched on tours to the Balkans, Afghanistan etc. are 99% volunteers with years long contracts and experience which underwent selection and extensive training.
For a even more demanding operation like CMSF´s hypothetical Syrian Conflict you can be assured they would sent in personnel that have enough soft factors packed with them and many of them would rather disagree about that "little combat experience" claim. I am pretty confident that similar applies to NL, UK, and CAN guys which bear excellent leaders and soldiers aswell.
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While designing the Temple addon I´ve run a quick test on big model parts of buildings/walls/roofs:
This is a roof filling a big part of the H&E Year of The Rat campaign map which is a quite huge map thus it seems there is no size limitation when model modifying buildings.
Mods:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
Video Playlist for CM 3D Model Editing with Showcases, Workflows, and Tutorials (latter with commentary)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUX4ALH7zTNgpWGBYSFUCnZK-Sf7SCcl
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6 hours ago, 3j2m7 said:
I supposed that you were working on the mdr files isn't?
No 100% but I think what @MOS:96B2P did here is using "blank" .bmp textures for some of the helmet texture versions. By using these blanks the object/model ingame becomes invisible. It is an handy workaround for many ideas.
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5 hours ago, ishfar94 said:
So i saved my game right before my bmp begins the whole engagement process and loaded repeatedly to see if anything changes. Did that about six times. Now out of those six times, twice the bmp behaved like how i expected it to behave originally. it stopped, a slight delay( which i am guessing was the dudes loading the atgm) and then ko'ing the bv in a single shot. Now mind you all i did was just load the game and let it run six times and so the engagement range, situation etc was all the same(mind you tank never spotted me on any of the runs, at least not before i took my first shot so there can't be a situation where the crew panicked and let fly with whatever they had). i feel like there's some other variable that influences the choice of weapons at mid to close ranges. And yeah you are right at long ranges the tacAi works much better. It loads atgm to deal with tanks, autocannon to deal with apcs and such and autocannon/100mm to deal with infantry
So twice it did not use the AC but ATGM-only and the rest it approached the situation like in the 1st post while nothing was changed, that´s interesting and indicates that there is something else involved or some sort of TacAI randomization. Did you try if a hide command changes anything?
I was no tanker but from what I know AFV usually don´t ride around with "ready rounds" in the cannon breech like portrayed in many video games but it is loaded before the attack. Augmenting this is the claim that AFVs usually don´t "unload" ordnance once it is loaded into the breech no matter if it takes longer or not. Could be that it involves certain hazards to crew and ordnance, too complicated, and that some autoloader systems not even have the ability to (easily) extract loaded ordnance again.
I am talking about the "big" cannons here such as 120mm or the bmp3´s 100mm here and it might be not true for specific (wartime) conditions and might be not true for how all armies and vehicles handle things in real life.
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On 2/25/2020 at 7:28 PM, Xorg_Xalargsky said:
It's possible to design a map so that trenches are sunk appropriately. I assume that makes them far more defensible, albeit with the disadvantage of revealing their position through the depression in the ground.
I´m currently in a playthrough of dragonwynn´s CMRT Kursk campaign and I believe he did something similar in the 2nd scenario. Even with plenty of AFV support it was some of the hardest trenches I had to overcome so far.
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A possible explanation for this observation without guarantee that it is true for the CM simulation here or reality:
1) The BMP-3 has a 100mm and the 30mm. The 30mm is loaded with belt(s) and ready to engage before the engagement, the 100mm is not
2) The BMP-3 crew identifies the tank and starts to engage the tank right from the beginning with the 30mm while the ATGM is now ordered to be loaded into the 100mm and made ready. This might take some seconds.
3) when this process is finished, the crew aims and fires the ATGM
For most situations this "maximum firepower" approach of the TacAI is also what I would prefer as AC fire even without penetration can severly surpress enemy tanks despite causing significant damage to optics etc. In my playthroughs in several similar situations the enemy tank was suffering from a combat-ineffective some sort of "stunned" state, buying time for the BMP-3 or others to take out the tank.
However true is that for some situations especially when an "ATGM-only" approach might be preferred, opening up with the AC can be semi-optimal and enable the target or other enemy vehicles to identify the BMP-3 faster before it even can bring its ATGM to bear or deny its option to retreat. At long ranges the BMP-3´s TacAI seems to handle things this way. I imagine finding a general sweet spot distance between TacAI "maximum firepower" and "ATGM-only" might be hard if not impossible as it is very situation and tactics dependant.
One could experiment if issuing a "Target Armor Arc" and/or "Hide" command to the BMP-3 might change something. I suspect not but I didn´t test it out.
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One of the best mods I´ve played so far.
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Year of the Rat Temple Addon
- works like regular "skin" mods, place it in your z folder and they will appear
- designed primarly for the Heaven & Earth Year of the Rat campaign, replaces the two monastery domes with temple roofs
- damaged versions included
- also works in regular CMSF2 and with other HE scenarios, however not all domes have been replaced, only the 17x17 roof and the 16x8 roof
- unique textures for intact and damaged included (currently copies from the H&E dome texture), they don´t interfere with the regular dome texture, can be modified by liking
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
Creation & Custom Buildings Tutorial (works for all CM2 games):
- I by accident also did a 16x16 roof with the temple from the 2nd screenshot (not included) if one wants the files contact me on YT or Twitch.
Video Playlist for CM 3D Model Editing with Showcases, Workflows, and Tutorials (latter with commentary)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUX4ALH7zTNgpWGBYSFUCnZK-Sf7SCcl
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Other (fun) example idea, 30 sec edit:
But there are infinite other ideas
Either as seperate model or included in the model there are damaged or collapsed building parts which are only shown when the building receives enough damage or the designer has set the building to this state. These parts can be edited seperately. For example more debris could be added which is then only shown when the building part is damaged/collapsed.
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Roof Building Walls Model Editing (All CM2 Games):
This was just a proof of concept test. With more work this could add alot to the detail/diversity of WW2/Modern buildings or when modtagged allow for specifically designed buildings for scenarios or campaigns:
Reality comparison in Syria:
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/CTJW02/rooftop-aerials-and-satellite-dishes-in-damascus-syria-CTJW02.jpg
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/DF27YA/syria-aleppo-satelites-tv-dishes-on-the-roofs-DF27YA.jpg
CMSF2 Roof Objects Test 8x8 Roofs with Objects, with no randomization, as in screenshot. Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
Video Playlist for CM 3D Model Editing with Showcases, Workflows, and Tutorials (latter with commentary)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUX4ALH7zTNgpWGBYSFUCnZK-Sf7SCcl
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Is there a flavour object/vehicle etc. model part in any of the CM2 games that looks like a TV antenna?
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Despite playing CMBN for years I´ve just discovered that there is a Challenger in the game:
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76mm E8 Battle Shermans
Primarily CW tankers put/welded tracks on their tanks, AFAIK US tankers rarely did it and more often went for log or sandbag solutions. I made them for my Field of Tears campaign playthrough.
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
Video Playlist for CM 3D Model Editing with Showcases, Workflows, and Tutorials (latter with commentary)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUX4ALH7zTNgpWGBYSFUCnZK-Sf7SCcl
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DIY Camo Kit (for modders)
A Blender project that includes several camopacks. Might help others to design their own creations and camo models by copy and pasting.
How to use:
1) open Blender, import the vehicle/helmet/othermodels (import metadata) you want to edit
2) open the camopack kit in a seperate blender window
3) if textures do not show up (pink models) use "find missing files" (path shown in the screenshot above) and select the DIY Camo Kit folder as it comes with the needed boccage texture.
4) "select hierarchy" of desired components with right click on the right list and copy CNTRL-C and -V paste it into your blender vehicle project
5) move/resize/stretch/delete parts as you desire and drag and drop them into the corresponding vehicle section (hull camo -> hull, turret camo -> turret, cannon camo->cannon etc)
Optional) rename camo parts to "gear1, gear2 etc" or add "-optiona -optionb etc" to the name in order to utilize technques mentioned in above posts.
All of this uses a single specific boccage model but there are more models that work as vehicle/helmet/othermodels camo (located for example in extracted cm files\terrain\walls. Normal bush models dont seem work yet. @37mm made a post about the specifics behind it somewhere here.
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
Video Playlist for CM 3D Model Editing with Showcases, Workflows, and Tutorials (latter with commentary)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUX4ALH7zTNgpWGBYSFUCnZK-Sf7SCcl
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45 minutes ago, benpark said:
Are you randomizing them as "stowage", or alternate versions of the base model?
Exactly either a fullalpha/blank texturized camopack or simply a little placeholder model that is called camopack-optiona. I think latter would be the more perfomance efficient solution as I could imagine that invisible camopacks take more resources than some little invisible placeholder object. the true camopack could be called camopack-optionb, another alternate true camopack which appears to "overlap" in blender could be called camopack-optionc, a lighter true camopack could be called camopack-optiond. In blender the model would look quiet overcrowded but ingame exactly one option is called. In this example every option had a chance by 25%, one could artificially rise/lower the chance by creating duplicates. For example if he wants to have most vehiles without camo he would create duplicates of the invisible placeholder camopack add -optiona,b,c,d and then start with true campoacks with -optione this would bring the chance in favor of having no camopacks.
Naming model parts gear1 gear2 etc. on the other hand has always a 50/50 chance to show. When using alongside of camo you might end up with vehicles with alot of camo or you might end up with vehicles with little camo etc.
Both options or combinations out of it should offer whatever one wants to achieve with randomization but specifically option is more work intensive. I didn´t use it for the current releases but if one would to improve on it, feel free and welcome as for all other projects here.
There are posts in this thread where I wrote about this specifics:
Aris OT34/76-M42-Early T34/76-M42-Late PanzerIVG SNOWCAMO Addon (Experimental)
I´ve recently played the CMRT Stalingrad campaign "Rattenkrieg" which involves some winter missions. I used this gigantic Winter Mod Compilation alongside it but at least for my install there were still some vehicles without snow camo. So I decided to supplement some of them and created this skins which are based on the work of Aris. This is a experimental release and there might be better already released winter skins for them I am not aware of. The work and technique was minimal as I used this "poor man´s method" described here:
I played myself without tags but just added the [snow] tag to them. I didn´t test it with the tags.
This snow camo skins should work with all CMWW2 games where the vehicle versions are present and when weather is set to snow. I don´t know if this might influence other vehicles appearances as CM sometimes allocates the same textures to several vehicle versions. I also noticed that when using alot of other vehicle skin mods it might end up with mixed snow/normal appearance in snow missions which I guess has something to do with some mods coming with several (1,2,3,4) skin versions. Experimental addon release more meant to supplement existing winter mods or to be utilized in winter compilations.
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
Video Playlist for CM 3D Model Editing with Showcases, Workflows, and Tutorials (latter with commentary)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUX4ALH7zTNgpWGBYSFUCnZK-Sf7SCcl
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I forgot one:
T-34 M1944 Early Camouflage Mod
- this was my final "design study" for vehicle camos. While the Panther/Halftracks represent heavy camo application, the M8 medium, this T-34 comes with lighter/one aspect camo only for the front facing. However it now comes with camo tied to the cannon, which also moves when the gun is firing. Enough space was left so that the camo is not squeezed into the cannon.
This camo mods should work with all CMWW2 games where the vehicle versions are present. The foliage camo also adapts to winter snow.
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
Light/random Camo idea:
I didn´t design a mod that follows this idea but wanted to publish it here as some might be interested to get their hands on this themselves. The final d/evolution of camouflage would be something even lighter similar to the Queen´s (2nd Dragoon Guards) Bay Sherman IIA schematics in this picture posted by DougPhresh here:
Advantages:
- wouldn´t cover vehicle skins/models that much while still offering some camo love
- On the full camo halftracks it would look rather strange when camo pieces would be displayed randomized. You could randomize it by designing whole different full camo packs and then using option-a option-b etc. model names. This involves some work. However with only light camo this could be used alongside the modelname "gear" to randomize camo without looking odd thus adding to the diversity and wouldn´t take much time.
- only slapping some bushes onto vehicles would take less time in general, with practice it could be done in a couple of minutes per vehicle
For more details or how to do your own camo check out the Youtube videos, especially this playlist:
Video Playlist for CM 3D Model Editing with Showcases, Workflows, and Tutorials (latter with commentary)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlUX4ALH7zTNgpWGBYSFUCnZK-Sf7SCcl
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The detailed work the game comes with already and also next level skins like these here is what for me makes CM vehicles to the best looking around.
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Absolute outstanding
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Bloody Ride Panther and Halftrack Foliage Camo Pack (CMWW2):
- was made for a Bloody Ride campaign playthrough in mind, so not all Panther and Halftrack models are done.
- should work with all WW2 games where this Panther and Halftrack models are present
- modular, you can remove vehicle version you don´t want to modify (for example only camo specific support halftracks etc.)
3D Foliage Camo German Helmet (Experimental)
- it seems there are some texture amount limitation when modding helmets, status quo is that the foliage adapts the helmet texture. Didn´t find out yet how to overcome. So only woodland/green/camo helmet textures should be used alongside it. See previous videos model tutorial videos for details. I recommend to stick with the "classic" texture based camo mods by other authors.
M8 (Mid) Foliage Camo
This camo mods should work with all CMWW2 games where the vehicle versions are present. The foliage camo also adapts to winter snow.
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
For more details check out the Youtube videos, especially this playlist:
Video Playlist for CM 3D Model Editing with Showcases, Workflows, and Tutorials (latter with commentary)
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On 2/19/2020 at 5:56 PM, Erwin said:
Are you planning to release a mod set for COUP that features the amazing work you've done making the ships look authentic plus any other magic you've created?
CMSF2 Coupdetat Ship Models Expansion Download
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0
It was planned as a personal edit rather than a release and I didn´t bother to align the ships in order to 100% perfectly cover everything and the visible part of the sunken ship was left delibaretly there to simulate broken-off superstructure. There are some helicopters on the flight deck, it was a test if you can quickly combine existing (custom) models and yes you can. The ship files are modtagged with [COUP]. This is only an mod expansion it still requires the other files and mods @MOS:96B2P recommends: https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-shock-force-2-2/cm-shock-force-2-scenarios/coup-detat/
Thats the mod folder I specifically used for this playthrough:
Most here are in the Dropbox, Oleksandr´s Chernorussian uniforms and MikeyD´s pickup can be found on CMMODS. This does not include the permanent mods I use for my CMSF2 playthroughs.
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47:52, nothing sophisticated:
I am looking for a ini, config, edit, mod to set the control scheme of the CM Classic games to something similar like tho the modern WASD one. I know I could use authotkey to get the numpad camera keys to wasd + qe but is there also a way to remove this little "lag" from the CM Classic camera controls.
Despite this I still looking for "must-play" narrative campaigns, I´ve made another thread for this question.
Different soft factors for different western armies?
in Combat Mission Shock Force 2
Posted
The 2003 Iraq War has not much to do with Article 5. It was only once invoked in the history of NATO.