Elmar Bijlsma

No, they aren't thrown too far, technically. If you zoom all the way in you'll find that the grenades tend to land wear you ordered them. They then bounce a bit further, most times. This may seem an odd way to do things at first, preferring to see the grenade detonate where you clicked. But once you get down to some "trick shots" with grenades you'll find the scheme as it is very convenient.

If you haven't the supporting fire to take those in the trench out then at least provide suppressing fire of some sort. It might not kill any defenders, it'll weaken their fire. Anyhow, taking a trench solely with infantry can be a costly business. Just as you would expect in RL, why do you think people keep digging them?

AS for ATGs seeing through trees, check my posts in this thread for some detail as to what might be going on. There is the strong possibility that the ATGs have strong Scouting Skill, allowing them to hide better and spot better. A tank moving about isn't good at spotting anyway, and with a low scout skill he will spot even worse. That may why he might be invisible to you but you not to him.

It's not your hardware that's lacking or the game needing excessive resources. With an E6600, 2gigs RAM and 7300GS I can get smooth gameplay at 1600x1200 with max everything. That leads me to believe it's some sort of driver or setting issue that's causing the problem. Also, try to run as few things in the background, I found ToW to be unusually sensitive to such things. Keep reporting any problem you may find, it'll help track these problems down.

Could be all sorts of things. You may be mistaken about that LOS, or the gunners may have better spotting (scouting) skill. If the target was obscured by trees you were damn unlucky to be hit. Penalties for shooting through foliage are pretty severe. Without knowing exactly what went on I couldn't possibly say for sure what's going on. I recommend you keep playing till you get a bit more familiar Firstly, you can tell how far something is by selecting the unit concerned and if you move the mouse across the battlefield then in the unit screen (slightly left of middle) you'll see a distance counter. That's the distance between your selected unit and your cursor. I find infantry to be relatively save from rifle fire roughly 500m away or further. Of course, there's never a guarantee, bad luck or a skilled enemy and your men will be toast. As such I fear you may have gotten unlucky or misjudged the situation. Yeah, the leftie thing... Don't know what to say about that. The animation with the Garand and SVT is bad, I agree. What's worse, the guns aren't fired like semi-automatic rifles. Rapid fire and such. Never seen a problem with a P38, though I guess that may be because I never used them, the AI using it tended to get 'interrupted' before using it against me. THat's a puzzler, because you aren't the only one. However, if I ordering them to stay put, they stay put. You need to re-issue the stay put order after each desired movement is completed. Sadly, it's not a 'sticky' action. No argument from me, waypoints would be nice. I can manage without them but that's just because I'm always trying to stay on top of everything going on on the field. On one level I agree with you, driving over trees isn't really the thing to do for a tank. When a Kubelwagen does it, it's even worse. However, and it's a big however. My vehicles hardly ever drive through trees. If your vehicles do, it may be because some fool keeps ordering them to do so. I'm happy with most sounds, but it's become clear that many people aren't. I guess I'm easily pleased/deaf. Obviously, with so many people commenting on the sound, it will get looked at.

Oops! [ April 20, 2007, 04:55 AM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]

Drag and drop.

Sorry for the late reply, I got side tracked. Yes, BFC have recently created a lobby of sorts. Try here!

Yeah, I got that you got it, but I thought this place was as good a place as any to illuminate the subject as much as possible. And I do indeed agree with you that the system can lead to stuff that really shouldn't be possible. I have those 'WTF?' moments too. Though I think you'll find that LOS calculations is harder then you (or I, look at me talking like I know stuff) might think. Even recent FPS typically don't have shrubs or grass block LOS. Many are the times I got spotted and subsequently shot by Nazis/Mutants/Aliens/what have you through some kind of flora. If they can't pull it off, what's developer of a game with more units and terrain going to do? As you know ...fake it!

Though the shooting may be counted as such, I do not think a rustle amongst the grain is going to draw unwanted attention, nor (sadly) a tank engine at full throttle. Not 100% sure though.

Now an examble for a soldier asking for a Darwin Award. Running upright in the open we have a soldier with 35 scout skill, he fires his weapon too. 300m away stands a sentry with 65 scouting, nothing in between the two of them. +40 for running +20 for being upright 0 for being in the open -35 for the soldiers scouting skill +100 for shooting* -30 for distance +65 for the sentries scout skill 0 for not having obstacles in between + --------------------------------------------- +160 In other words, the sentry can develop a sudden, nasty eye infection and still spot the dude running. And since the soldier is so exposed the sentry will probably get a aiming bonus when shooting at the dumb fool, too. That is, to my understanding, how it works. In most cases it makes pretty good sense, but there are, as you have spotted, a few downsides to doing it this way. *yes, I realize you can't shoot and move at the same time, just illustrating all possible factors)

Infantry is quite capable of hiding, it's just depends under what circumstances. In an open field in full view of the enemy...? Good luck! However, in a wheat field, lying down, holding fire and with a decent scouting bonus (scouting not only adds to spotting, it also adds a concealment bonus) then you won't see them until you are practically on top of them, especially in a tank not looking directly at them. Let's illustrate that with (imaginary) numbers. Say having -100 is near invisible, 0 is baseline +100 is standing on a soap box in the open with neon signs pointing you out. Now imagine we have this situation: Sniper in a wheat field, behind two trees and a shrub, lying down, not moving and holding fire, with a 57 scout skill. A soldier with 27 scout skill, 200 meters is looking in his direction. -30 for the wheatfield 2x-30 for the trees -20 for the shrub -20 for not moving -30 for lying down 0 for not shooting -20 for distance -57 for the snipers camouflage skill +27 for the spotting skill of the soldier + ----------------------------------------------- -210 That means the sniper is not going to get spotted until something changes.

Yeah, I can see what you are getting at. It works (more or less) like this: A tree in the way doesn't so much block vision as that it degrades it. Thus the gunner can "see" through the tree even if you can't. For No.1 that seems okay, there's not that much in the way and the gunner seems to be looking over the brushes. For No.2 it does look more dubious, though I can't tell what's behind the first trees. If there is nothing behind those first 2-3 trees then I guess it's a bit off but not completely barmy. If there are a few other trees and stuff behind the others, yeah, that probably shouldn't be that way. Keep in mind though that spotting is also affected by the Scout skill. Someone with a high Scout skil will see through more concealment then someone with less. Sometimes this does lead to him effectively having x-ray vision. I fear that's pretty much the way the system works. In other words the multiple trees put a lot of negative modifiers to spotting (unlike houses and stuff, that block) so that the target should be counted as unobservable. If the positive modifier for Scouting is added though, the spotting calculations would allow this otherwise impossible shot. Effectively this is halfway between CMs abstract spotting rules and realistic 'what you see is what you get' spotting.

Oops, just realized that hiding behind tanks doesn't provide a guarantee you'll not get hit. If a big gun has enough power to punch through the tank and out again, anyone standing behind it is going to be discharged from the army in an abrupt and unexpected fashion. Still, better then nothing, huh?

There is no real user interface measuring how much cover you have, except the unit icons as explained in the last tutorial mission. Luckily, things work pretty much as you expect them to in reality. So houses, tanks etc, give you complete protection if you cower behind them. Park a big tank behind a low wall and that tank is bound to have it's turret shot through. An infantryman standing behind that same wall can get shot, one kneeling behind cannot. (unless he peeks over, as they are prone to do every now and then) Brush and trees make you harder to spot and harder to shot at, thus gives some cover. Though a brush won't stop bullets so if spotted you'd better find cover or hit the dirt quick.

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The three reticules are greyed out until you select one of them, so they may be tricky to spot unless you look for them. If you followed my previous guidance then after clicking on your target your tankers should hopefully put holes where you would want them on any target they engage, until you ask your crew to change their aimpoint. That's really all there is to it. It sounds more complicated then it is.

They should be there, Freeboy, on the right side off the targeting command button. (not the area fire button) No, you press {ALT}+{1} and then your mouse cursor will reflect that you have chosen to target the turret, then click on your victim of choice. When the AI has confirmed your fire order as valid the "Box" on the targeted unit will also reflect this choice. [ April 19, 2007, 04:44 PM: Message edited by: Elmar Bijlsma ]

I was first though. What did I win?

RTFM! </font>

No problem, I'm happy to help. That's why I hover on these boards these days afteral, to answer any questions.

Click on the smaller reticules on the right side of the bigger Targeting button. These will allow you to target a particular section on a tank. Or use {ALT}+ {1/2/3}

Yes, you can assigned groups. Either {control} or {shift}, I can't rightly remember from the top of my head.

Not asking for that at all, though if those are chocolate chip cookies... yes please thank you. Anyone reviewing your posting record may find that a little hard to believe. Yes, odd indeed. by all means bring up issues. OTOH, I'd prefer you not to be so uterly negative about features you'd unsderstand if you'd JUST RTFM-ed! But you aren't really asking questions, are you. Just moan, moan moan. And if you had some serious issues (there are a few) that would be fine. But you haven't, really. I'm not employed be BFC, I owe you nothing. If this game tanks it's no skin of my back. I'd be a little sad as I think it's one of the best games in it's genre, that's all. As a non-employee all I can do is alert the team to issues that come up. I'm all for customers making an informed and I'm pretty sure BFC does too. I must stress informed, something you fall well short off, despite best effort on my/our part.

Doh!