Some strange ammo and a bargain truck

[Erwin]

Beautiful paint job. Yours?

[Rickusty]

Beautiful paint job. Yours?

Nope Erwin, I wish I was that good.

[Sublime]

Rickusty the reason is an AI problem. BFC has commented on this before, with the US H/Ts that have MGs on either end. The AI would often turn the rear of the vehicle towards an enemy to engage, or make weird decisions because there were guns on either end, so preference had to be assigned, since the AI (similar to tank AI) will automatically also try to turn the front of vehicle's hulls towards enemies - to minimize profile and present the strongest armor. Thus the behavior you see now, it also means the gunners on the rear of certain US H/Ts (the one with 3 30 cals) often will not engage, etc.

Since people would complain more of vehicles turning their @$$es towards the enemy frequently, or having difficulties (more than it does already sometimes) they changed the behavior.

[Baneman]

Rickusty the reason is an AI problem. BFC has commented on this before, with the US H/Ts that have MGs on either end. The AI would often turn the rear of the vehicle towards an enemy to engage, or make weird decisions because there were guns on either end, so preference had to be assigned, since the AI (similar to tank AI) will automatically also try to turn the front of vehicle's hulls towards enemies - to minimize profile and present the strongest armor. Thus the behavior you see now, it also means the gunners on the rear of certain US H/Ts (the one with 3 30 cals) often will not engage, etc.

Since people would complain more of vehicles turning their @$$es towards the enemy frequently, or having difficulties (more than it does already sometimes) they changed the behavior.

To be honest, I'd like to have a FACE command that affected the hull independently of the turret or weapon facing. All too often you miss a snapshot because before you shoot the hull starts to rotate and pushes the turret off facing, then it corrects, then the hull moves again, rinse repeat.

Ideally you'd want the TacAI to take the shot, then rotate while reloading, then shoot again etc.

With Halftracks and the like, is the front armour even any better than the sides ? Maybe they just shouldn't rotate at all if their weapon can. The German Halftrack MG has only a limited arc I imagine ?

[womble]

Ideally you'd want the TacAI to take the shot, then rotate while reloading, then shoot again etc.

That's well-put. Though I find myself watching the enemy suffer from the "can't train gun cos hull rotating it away" problem more than I find myself tearing my hair out about it, so I don't mind it the way it is

With Halftracks and the like, is the front armour even any better than the sides ?

WRT german vehicles: considerably. WRT American ones: a bit. Not that it seems to make enough difference a lot of the time... (see other threads...)

[Rickusty]

Rickusty the reason is an AI problem. BFC has commented on this before, with the US H/Ts that have MGs on either end. The AI would often turn the rear of the vehicle towards an enemy to engage, or make weird decisions because there were guns on either end, so preference had to be assigned, since the AI (similar to tank AI) will automatically also try to turn the front of vehicle's hulls towards enemies - to minimize profile and present the strongest armor. Thus the behavior you see now, it also means the gunners on the rear of certain US H/Ts (the one with 3 30 cals) often will not engage, etc.

Since people would complain more of vehicles turning their @$$es towards the enemy frequently, or having difficulties (more than it does already sometimes) they changed the behavior.

Hello Sublime,

I understand the problem with the AI.

In fact, as with the US H/T with their MGs on either end, there is the same problem with the 2x Breda 37 on either end of the AS42.

The frontal pointing gun in fact fires only straight ahead, and the back facing one only fires on that direction.

These 2xMG could maybe remain like this and not move around too much for the reason stated above.

For a fast comparison: with the American M3 GMC it is basically right to have the vehicle turn itself toward the target to fire, as the main gun could not rotate indipendently all around the 360° arc, but just in the frontal arc of the vehicle.

In the AS-42s instead, the main weapons were installed in the middle of the vehicle in a pivot mount in order to give them a 360° arc of fire, to be able to fire in any direction and against enemy aircraft. (which was a useful solution in the desert warfare)

This was maybe the biggest advantage of this vehicle.

It could be considered like an armoured car without the armor around it. (and in fact it was, as the AS42 was directly based on the AB40-41 series, without its armour)

In the game, the main gun acts like it is fixed and it then can be fired only ahead.

I tried to make a small test to compare it with a (somewhat) similiar vehicle, the german Sdfkz 7 with the 37mm flak36 or the famous flakvierling 38.

The weapons in these vehicles can fire all around an 300° (or so) arc of fire, and it is possible in fact to just point the vehicle in one direction and make the weapon fire in the rear, or in the side, as it was in real life.

Maybe we could simulate the same for the AS42?

I tried to set up a small scenario with both vehicles (the italian and the german ones) and it really is a pain to see and wait for the AS42 to rotate all the vehicle to point its main weapon towards the rear.

It really takes a long time and it is somewhat irrealistic.

With the german vehicles it is different.

Some pictures

Here the german gins fire directly on their 6 o'clock, while the vehicles are facing on the other direction.

Here, the only possible solution for the AS 42. They have to turn themselves to fire their main weapons

I found some other pictures to show the layout and how these vehicles were built and used. (sorry if some of them are taken from model kits... not many pictures around about the AS42s and no surviving examples left unfortunately)

[Rickusty]

I made another small test, to see if in fact the main weapon of the AS-42 is somehow "fixed" and can't rotate.

If I issue the "cover arc" order to one of the vehicles, and I make it face on the opposite direction, the main gun (in this case, the 20mm Breda) doesn't rotate towards the back of the vehicle, but it gets "stucked" pointing toward the front of the vehicle.