V3.12 and pillboxes - possible bug

[RockinHarry]

To make it short. US 60mm and 81mm onboard mortars do now somehow penetrate to the interior of concrete pillboxes and wreck havoc on crews. During one test run, I was able to completely obliterate a full strength german squad of 9 men with 2x 81mm mortars in less than 2 minutes. As related issue, sometimes depleted pillbox crews disconnect their passenger/crew status from the pillbox and remain in place in an "empty" pillbox. Both issues can be observed in the replay save game file (CMBN no modules, V3.12). Just load, select first pillbox nearest to camera (scenario author mode) and unpause.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xjioe467vdz6dws/%210_V312%20Bunker%20Test%20002.bts?dl=0

[user1000]

some of the US 81mm have fuses that explode after penetration. The 81s could smash pillboxes easily.

maybe one of these I looked at it on wiki

M45, M45B1 Heavy HE: 10.62 lb (4.82 kg); range max 2558 yd (2064 m); bursting radius comparable to the 105 mm howitzer. Equipped with a delay fuze so some penetration is possible for demolition use.

[RockinHarry]

8 hours ago, user1000 said:

some of the US 81mm have fuses that explode after penetration. The 81s could smash pillboxes easily.

maybe one of these I looked at it on wiki

M45, M45B1 Heavy HE: 10.62 lb (4.82 kg); range max 2558 yd (2064 m); bursting radius comparable to the 105 mm howitzer. Equipped with a delay fuze so some penetration is possible for demolition use.

These surely penetrate some rather thin log & earth cover put on top of foxholes and the like, but we´re speaking of concrete pillboxes of the shelter and MG type. I assume the walls to be of 1-2 feet thickness, with the top layer probably 3 feet something. With some the 60mm mortar rounds having equally devastating effects on concrete pillboxes in the game, considerations like that can be neglected I think. (just replay the save game and see. The foremost pillbox is beaten with 60mm and no craters around)

Further testing revealed that it also doesn´t help to turn the pillbox sideways towards the incoming rounds, so it doesn´t have something to do with rounds hitting or penetrating the aperture (an impossible shot anyway due to the high angle). Not every direct hit is a damaging one though. About 30% of the direct hits yield the damaging/penetrating effect now.

I caught a number of rounds during replay in midair and during explosion and could observe that some the rounds either detonated well in the pillboxes interior, some between the inner and outer wall mesh and others appear not even quite touching the outer mesh (judging from the center point of the explosion FX). All sides of the pillbox (front, rear, sides, top) are affected btw.

The onboard mortars shells fly sideways (not pointing downward along the flight paths), while offboard mortar shells show pointing downwards correctly. No possible ballistic effect, but rather a graphical glitch I think.

Heavily depleted pillbox crews (2-3 guys out of 9 left) as said disconnect as passenger from the pillbox. Just when it happens, the remaining crew (now directly selectable) turns from shaken/panic state to OK immediately. The pillbox shows as "empty" from then on with the remaining guys preserving their preceding positions within the pillbox. Last time tested this in 2 player hotseat mode, but couldn´t further test the state of this crew, as another mortar round killed them, before the turn ended. They were still shown beeing in the "empty" box and not moving at this point.

All tests were made in CMBN V3.12 (no stuff from the modules in play, of which I have all but the BP installed/registered). Play modes was US human vs. German AIP -scenario author mode and US vs German in 2 player hotseat - iron. Tested units in play: German Grenadiers in concrete shelter and MG pillbox types vs. 2x US FO´s, 2x 60mm and 2x 81mm onboard mortars, 1x battery 81mm offboard mortars.

 

[RockinHarry]

Can anybody else confirm that changed mortar vs. pillbox effects in V3.12? Just in case my patch installation went Fubar.

[Vanir Ausf B]

Confirmed and reported.

[Bulletpoint]

3 minutes ago, Vanir Ausf B said:

Confirmed and reported.

I love the smell of confirmed and reported bugs in the morning.

[RockinHarry]

1 hour ago, Vanir Ausf B said:

Confirmed and reported.

Thanks! Was already considering reverting back to V3.11, as the new "behavior" effectively breaks a scenario that I was working on for a couple of months and about to finish in v3.12.