Help been so long - calling in artillery, hooking up guns, resupply

[japinard]

Hi everyone, sorry for so many questions lately.  I don't know if it's the quickbattles I setup, but I can't figure out the following:

* I have lots of artillery but can't seem to call them in.  I know many say they need a spotter, but does the spotter really have to actually see an enemy?  I just want to call in artillery support to a vague area.

* I want to move a AAA piece and I moved a truck to the front where the hitch would be, but I can't find a command to hook it up so I can move the gun somewhere else.  Is this even possible in the game?

* How do I resupply ammo?  Do the ammo bearers just need to be nearby?

* How can I make more points available in quick battle beyond huge?  I'd like to have unlimited so I can use like 12,000 points, but huge points just seems to be 5,000

Thanks for the help!

[MOS:96B2P]

1 hour ago, japinard said:

<Snip> * I have lots of artillery but can't seem to call them in.  I know many say they need a spotter, but does the spotter really have to actually see an enemy?  I just want to call in artillery support to a vague area.  <Snip> 

The spotter does not need to see an enemy unit but it does need to see the general ground area where you want the arty to hit at.  The exception is Target Reference Points (TRP)s.  The spotter does not need Line of sight to an area with a TRP.  The spotter can call in arty within 50 meters of the TRP.  

1 hour ago, japinard said:

<Snip> * I want to move a AAA piece and I moved a truck to the front where the hitch would be, but I can't find a command to hook it up so I can move the gun somewhere else.  Is this even possible in the game? <Snip> 

If the vehicle is capable of towing the piece of equipment like with an anti-tank gun you would click on the gun, select move and then click on the vehicle.  If they are compatible you will see a green arrow as when troops load onto a vehicle.  I have only moved AT guns ........ can't remember moving AAA with a vehicle ......... but if it is possible the above should work.  

1 hour ago, japinard said:

<Snip> * How do I resupply ammo?  Do the ammo bearers just need to be nearby? <Snip> 

Ammo sharing distance is two action spots so the ammo team would need to be within two action spots.  

As far as the last question about battle size I think a huge Quick Battle in CMBN is 5,700 something for the attacker.  However in the scenario editor you can create a very large battle.  I'm not sure the unit limit but some designers create multiple battalion battles.  It also will depend on how big a battle, with units, buildings, woods etc that a computer is able to handle.   

[japinard]

Awesome!  Thank you so much.  This helps a ton.  Do you have an NVidia card by any chance?  I posted another thread about terrible performance I'm getting.  Not sure if you have any additional suggestions besides what's posted there already. 

 

[MOS:96B2P]

51 minutes ago, japinard said:

Awesome!  Thank you so much.  This helps a ton.  Do you have an NVidia card by any chance?  I posted another thread about terrible performance I'm getting.  Not sure if you have any additional suggestions besides what's posted there already. 

 

I have an i7-4790K, 4GHz, 1TB SSD, Nvidia GTX 970, 16GB RAM.

I'm not much of a tech guru but I looked at your other forum thread and below are how I have the settings you asked about.  You can find better advice on tech issues than I can provide.  I think @Bulletpoint was recently involved in discussions about PC performance issues.  If he happens along to this thread he can provide some insight. (he is very detailed oriented)       

* vertical sync: Off

* Tree Detail: High

* Shaders: On

[Bulletpoint]

6 hours ago, MOS:96B2P said:

I think @Bulletpoint was recently involved in discussions about PC performance issues.  If he happens along to this thread he can provide some insight. (he is very detailed oriented)       

Seems like I'm getting a reputation around here...  

Anyway, yes. There are many people like you who get disappointing performance on very strong computers. As far as I understand, the problems are not due to settings, but due to fundamental way the game is programmed. There's some kind of bottleneck. I think it's a bit like a fast car stuck in the first gear; even with a powerful engine it won't go very fast no matter how hard you press down the speeder.

Ok, so what can we do about it:

I've played around with detail settings in game and in the Nvidia control panel quite a lot, and there are only two settings that help performance on a strong computer: Graphics detail (the in game setting) and forcing vertical sync to half refresh rate (in the nvidia control panel).

The good thing about graphic detail is that you can change the setting easily while playing the game, using the hotkeys, so when you are playing small maps, you can quickly bump up the detail, and turn it down when playing larger maps.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Bulletpoint

[Michael Emrys]

16 hours ago, japinard said:

* I have lots of artillery but can't seem to call them in.  I know many say they need a spotter, but does the spotter really have to actually see an enemy?  I just want to call in artillery support to a vague area.

You can call in arty anywhere on the map during the set-up phase/first turn.

16 hours ago, japinard said:

* How can I make more points available in quick battle beyond huge?  I'd like to have unlimited so I can use like 12,000 points, but huge points just seems to be 5,000

I don't know anyway to get 12,000 points in a QB, but you can bump up the maximum points in the first screen of the QB selection process. You can add as much as +150%.

And BTW, I'm beginning to get an idea of why you might be having a performance problem.

Michael

[womble]

18 hours ago, japinard said:

* I have lots of artillery but can't seem to call them in.  I know many say they need a spotter, but does the spotter really have to actually see an enemy?  I just want to call in artillery support to a vague area.

As has been said, you either need to plot a "pre-planned bombardment" in the setup turn, have a TRP within 50m of the one or two loci that define the mission's area (doesn't have to be the same TRP for both loci if you're doing a line or area), or actually have LOS to the target area with the observer.

18 hours ago, japinard said:

* I want to move a AAA piece and I moved a truck to the front where the hitch would be, but I can't find a command to hook it up so I can move the gun somewhere else.  Is this even possible in the game?

IIRC, none of the AAA "towed" pieces are actually towable. If you want mobile Ack-Ack, you have to buy it on a vehicle.

18 hours ago, japinard said:

* How do I resupply ammo?  Do the ammo bearers just need to be nearby?

If you're on v3 and the right ammo bearers for the weapon are within a couple of AS, the weapon will use the ammo bearers' load first. And when they're empty you can send them back to a vehicle in the rear that has more ammo of the right kind, which they board, and "Acquire" and then return to the firing position, after which the TacAI will preferentially use the bearers' ammo again. If the right vehicle is within about 2AS, it will "share" its ammo with the weapon team too, but I'm not sure it'll be preferentially used like the bearers' is.

"But what is the 'right' vehicle or ammo bearer?" I hear you ask. Simply, it's any that highlight when you single-click the weapon you're trying to resupply. Sometimes that'll be a whole platoon, other times it'll be a "Section".

It is worth noting that ammo sharing occurs between all subunits of a "highlight group" (as described above), not just for crew-served weapons. Also, any element that can board a vehicle can do so and acquire the available assets that vehicle carries. So if there's resupply nearby, you might want to hop the MG on board as well as the bearers (or instead of, if the bearers have suffered some mishap or been told off to do rifleman things).

Another method of resupply for "plain squads" is to split a small team off and send it to fetch ammo from a store.

18 hours ago, japinard said:

* How can I make more points available in quick battle beyond huge?  I'd like to have unlimited so I can use like 12,000 points, but huge points just seems to be 5,000

The option of a "custom" battle size is an oft-mentioned suggestion for an enhancement by BFC. No joy to date, though

[womble]

18 hours ago, japinard said:

* I have lots of artillery but can't seem to call them in.  I know many say they need a spotter, but does the spotter really have to actually see an enemy?  I just want to call in artillery support to a vague area.

As has been said, you either need to plot a "pre-planned bombardment" in the setup turn, have a TRP within 50m of the one or two loci that define the mission's area (doesn't have to be the same TRP for both loci if you're doing a line or area), or actually have LOS to the target area with the observer.

18 hours ago, japinard said:

* I want to move a AAA piece and I moved a truck to the front where the hitch would be, but I can't find a command to hook it up so I can move the gun somewhere else.  Is this even possible in the game?

IIRC, none of the AAA "towed" pieces are actually towable. If you want mobile Ack-Ack, you have to buy it on a vehicle.

18 hours ago, japinard said:

* How do I resupply ammo?  Do the ammo bearers just need to be nearby?

If you're on v3 and the right ammo bearers for the weapon are within a couple of AS, the weapon will use the ammo bearers' load first. And when they're empty you can send them back to a vehicle in the rear that has more ammo of the right kind, which they board, and "Acquire" and then return to the firing position, after which the TacAI will preferentially use the bearers' ammo again. If the right vehicle is within about 2AS, it will "share" its ammo with the weapon team too, but I'm not sure it'll be preferentially used like the bearers' is.

"But what is the 'right' vehicle or ammo bearer?" I hear you ask. Simply, it's any that highlight when you single-click the weapon you're trying to resupply. Sometimes that'll be a whole platoon, other times it'll be a "Section".

It is worth noting that ammo sharing occurs between all subunits of a "highlight group" (as described above), not just for crew-served weapons. Also, any element that can board a vehicle can do so and acquire the available assets that vehicle carries. So if there's resupply nearby, you might want to hop the MG on board as well as the bearers (or instead of, if the bearers have suffered some mishap or been told off to do rifleman things).

Another method of resupply for "plain squads" is to split a small team off and send it to fetch ammo from a store.

18 hours ago, japinard said:

* How can I make more points available in quick battle beyond huge?  I'd like to have unlimited so I can use like 12,000 points, but huge points just seems to be 5,000

The option of a "custom" battle size is an oft-mentioned suggestion for an enhancement by BFC. No joy to date, though

[japinard]

You guys are AWESOME!  Thanks!

Another question.  There are a TON of maps.  Is there a way to quickly preview them?  Going into a quick battle one by one to look at them is super time consuming.  Basically what I'm looking for is a defend town map where I can be the attacker and devastate the town with massive artillery.

Are graphic and sound mods still recommended since I have 3.x?  I didn't know if they updated all the graphics in CMBN or not with that update.

[A Canadian Cat]

2 hours ago, womble said:

IIRC, none of the AAA "towed" pieces are actually towable. If you want mobile Ack-Ack, you have to buy it on a vehicle.

That is correct.  The reason is just one of programming resources.

 

35 minutes ago, japinard said:

Another question.  There are a TON of maps.  Is there a way to quickly preview them?  Going into a quick battle one by one to look at them is super time consuming.  Basically what I'm looking for is a defend town map where I can be the attacker and devastate the town with massive artillery.

Nope.  You have to open them up in in the editor or "play" a test QB with them.

 

35 minutes ago, japinard said:

Are graphic and sound mods still recommended since I have 3.x?  I didn't know if they updated all the graphics in CMBN or not with that update.

Pretty much all graphics and sound mods are compatible.  The one exception I know of is early uniform mods.  They changed the way uniforms were named in v2 of the engine so some early CMBN uniform mods will not work without you renaming files.  Just don't worry about it and try out what ever you want. The worst case with this change is the old mod will not show up but it will not hurt anything.

I am personally not fond of any of the terrain mods or sound mods but I do like Aris's vehicle mods.  Here are all the CMBN vehicle mods: http://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?page_id=5#search/category=CM%3ABN+VEHICLES and here is all Aris's work: http://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?p=2698

 

[A Canadian Cat]

21 hours ago, japinard said:

* How can I make more points available in quick battle beyond huge?  I'd like to have unlimited so I can use like 12,000 points, but huge points just seems to be 5,000

This is only helpful for playing really big battles with human opponents:

First post describes how to setup a really big battle using the QB points system.

[Michael Emrys]

31 minutes ago, IanL said:

Nope.  You have to open them up in in the editor or "play" a test QB with them.

Just to clarify, you don't actually have to play on a map to see it. There is the Preview function in the unit selection screen.

Michael

[A Canadian Cat]

Yeah thanks that's important to know because you can check out the map before you buy forces even if the game is set and moving forward.