Kwazydog

Not too sure what you mean Hellfish. If you mean are they kept track of seperately then yes I beleive so, but grab Steve when he is around to be 100% sure or if your asking anything further with regards to game mechanics that which isnt related to the visuals . If you mean visually then yes, unless time gets away on us we should actually be able to show the RPG gunner pull the warhead out of his back pack, attach the motor and load the complete unit into his launcher. When launched the motor will be spent and you should see the fins deploy. As always though, remember that until things are finalised any details can change, even what items we find are available to the Syrians and what time permits us to model. Dan [ July 14, 2006, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

What information would that be? All the best, John. </font>

Hi Guys, Just posting this here for those whom may have missed it in the other threads. Ill answer some question from those threads below, too... Another small update just to give you guys some info as to what has been going on behind the scenes. This week amongst other things Ive spent a bunch of time researching the various details of RPG-7’s and the types of rockets available for them. The RPG is a reliable and versatile weapon on the battlefield, and should prove to be an effective weapon for the Syrian player. What you see in the below render is what we currently have in the RPG-7’s arsenal. Following is a description of each… Larger Image The RPG-7 launchers, from bottom to top… RPG-7V – older version of the RPG-7 with plain iron sights. Whilst RPG’s usually come with the telescopic scope as standard these days there is a large amount in use without, as you have probably seen in many photos from Iraq. Whilst not as effective out to range is it readily available and should be a common sight on the battlefield. The last of a scope reduces its ability to attack distant or moving targets, but it is still a deadly weapon to be on the wrong end of. The 7V is limited to the PG-7V and PG-7VL rockets. RPG-7V/V1 with PGO-7 telescopic sight – RPG-7 with the PGO-7 sight attached. This sight improves accuracy out to a greater range and against moving vehicles. It is calibrated from 200 to 500 meters by intervals of 100 meters and has a magnification of 2.5x. It is equipped with polarizing glass which improves the vision of the gunner in bright conditions. RPG-7V1 with 1PN51 night scope – This is the newer RPG-7V1 capable of firing a wider range of rounds with the 1PN51 night scope replacing the regular telescopic sight. Don’t expect to see too many of these but they could give a US player an unpleasant surprise when encountered. The Syrians have been actively acquiring night vision gear for the past few years and this is a readily available Russian night vision device. It can be attached to pretty much anything from an AK-47 onwards using the standard Russian scope attachment, but expect to see is reserved for support weapons such as the RPG’s, PKM’s and possibly the SVD sniper rifle. It has a 3x magnification and depending on conditions can pick up an individual out to 400m and a vehicle out to 700m at night. The rockets, again from bottom to top… PG-7V – This is a standard HEAT rocket designed for taking out armored vehicles. It has been produced in vast qualities in one form or another since ’61 with an armor penetration or around 260mm and an effective max range of around 350m. Whilst there are now considerably more potent AT round available this type is still available in large quantities. PG-7VR – This is one of the most modern RPG rounds available. It had a tandem warhead designed for defeating vehicles with ERA (explosive reactive armor) or composite armor. Due to its weight its range is reduce to around 200m but it can penetrate around 600-700mm worth of armor after any ERA has been defeated. This will likely be the least common of the rounds available. OG-7V – High explosive anti-Personal fragmentation grenade with an effective burst area of around 150m2 and is designed to be effective against troops wearing body armor. It has an effective range of around 280m and is effective against troops in buildings, trenches or bunkers. PG-7VL – This is a standard modern HEAT RPG round. It is larger than the PG-7V and has a penetration of around 500mm. Its effect range is around 300m and due to its high explosive nature is effective against a range of targets. TBG-7V – This round is a thermobaric or fuel air explosive round. It is designed for use against infantry including those in buildings and trenches and is also effective against light armored vehicles. The warhead has an high explosive, fragmentation incendiary effect when detonated. It can have a devastating effect if detonated in an enclosed space. The RPG-7 should certainly be an interesting weapon for the Syrian player to use in a variety of situations. Ill try and get some more weapon info out to you guys within the next week or two, probably looking at the Syrian players small arms next. I hope you found that of interest! Dan

Bonxa, do keep in mind that currently these are renders of the in game models out of our 3D software. Lighting and shadowing may be different in game, but the texures and models should be pretty much idential. Actually Ill start a new thread on this and answer all questions there [ July 14, 2006, 04:01 PM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

Toleran, we have done a lot of research into the RPG's...a lot of info is harder to find than you would expect it to be! You might like to check out the little article I just posted in the Blogfront section of this web page for some more info on the RPG-7 and rockets which will likely be in CMSF.

Glad you enjoyed it Vincere! For those whom havnt seen it yet there is a article on the RPG-7 in the Blogfront news section. Youll find some renders of the in game models for the various RPG-7's and their rockets (click the image to enlarge), plus some information on each. Ill post it in a new thread here as well in the morning after some sleep Dan [ July 14, 2006, 04:42 AM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

Ill see what I can do

Glad you like the way things are shaping up guys Dan

You wont belevie how hard it is to track down accurate photos of the various RPG rounds...that sounds like something for anothe blog entry though And to answer the question yes, these are the soldier models/textures that have been photoshopped over an actual photo at this stage. We basically just wanted to see if the concept would look good enough and we got good results! Bring it on Hehe actually there could be a few tweaks needed as its a new uniform and they have gone through various changes since the inital batch. For instance I notice they are now wearing their valcro name tags on the outside of their vests, but overall I think we are very close even at this stage. [ July 11, 2006, 04:20 PM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

There is a thread in the General Forum on this one guys, which is probably a more suitable place for it...

Looks like the site is down Mikey Any chance you have a copy you could post? Dan

Heya Rewolf. If you keep an eye on military the news you actually do see an attack chopper going down every 2-3 months (this includes marine choppers too)...Ive noticed this as Ive found it suprising. I read an article a little while back that said that in general they had proven to be more vulnerable to small arms fire in the current situation in Iraq than was hoped, and Im betting mechanical failure has a lot to do with it too. On top of that the article noted that some 2000 shoulder launched SAM's were still unaccounted for (as an interesting note, that is the number considered unaccounted for world wide...pre-Iraq the number was apparently 9, though thats hard to beleive). Dan

[ November 27, 2005, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

I havnt read of any sich incidents, but Im sure it happens. Something to keep in mind is that the LAV as a significantly heavier turret than the Styker, which in turn would raise its centre of gravity and make it less stable. Dan

Hi Guys! Bil, M1 has given you a pretty good selection there but here are a couple more. The first one shows a guy wearing all ACU pattern gear... Picture 1 Picture 2 Yes, it will be very hard to mod out as it shares mapping with other objects, but not impossible I guess (Id have to check the mapping). We could very well make a version without though, depending on just how rare it really is down the track. To be honest I suspect that within a few months you will see almost all troops in Iraq using these and neck protection form what Ive read. Mazex, more screen shots will be forth coming with the new web site. The problem with releasing too many is just this, hehe, as we spend a lot of time letting people know that we are still in early development . Once we reach beta though you guys should be able to expect a nice bunch of movies and screen shots Im sure! M1, we are certainly considering adding the shoulder protection and possibly these too. It really depends on how common they become over the next few months Dan

Bil, many of the recent photos I have here from Iraq show troops using this protection, and I believe it is becoming standard issue. To be honest if I had the choice of a somewhat awkward groin protection or a bullet in the same area, I know what Id take If you have any info to the contrary though please pass it on as it wont be able to be 'modded out' as such....its not impossible for us to model troops both with and without this protection though, time permitting. Mazex, to be honest I cant see much difference between your examples, hehe. I suspect you are referring to the fact that the pants should be more 'baggy' though, which is correct and was something that was changed a few weeks ago now. Anything you guys are seeing in screen shots at the moment is several weeks old at the least and should not be considered final at this point . Dan [ November 05, 2005, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

Okey Dokey...bye bye

I would be very suprised if this turned out to be the norm as Ive even seen reports of even the M1's side turret being penetrated by RPG's on occasion. If we are just talking about them taking a hit and still functioning there are plenty of stories of the Styker doing the same. Dan [ October 28, 2005, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

Hehe, true, thats one way to look at it but my main point was to actually comment on their survivability as the above articles (mainly the second) go out of their way to criticize this. There are actually a lot of articles out there which tend to show the vehicle has proven itself quite sturdy when need be...here is another I came across yesterday I thought may be of interest here... The picture is of a U.S. Army Stryker that was hit by a 500 pound roadside bomb in northern Iraq on October 8th. The Stryker was hit on the right side while travelling down the road at about 60 kilometers an hour. The bomb was in a car parked by the side of the road, and went off as the Stryker drove by. The Stryker flipped over one and a half times and skidded about 30 feet. This bomb was so powerful that it knocked out lights in the rooms of soldiers at a base 2400 meters away. There were four soldiers in the Stryker, and none were hurt (aside from a ringing in the ears...). When the Stryker was flipped back upright, it was still able to move under its own power. Dan [ October 24, 2005, 02:34 PM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

Hehe, yeah that second site has been floating around for a long time, you only have the read the first paragraph or so to conclude it certainly its written by an impartial third party...actually I think most of it was even written before the Stryker was even in service. Bottom line is that many of these concerns were real concerns, but have be proven pretty much invalid by actual combat experience with the Stryker. There are many articles coming back from Iraq that show the Stryker is actually performing very well for the guys using them...I did a quick search and found the example below for instance. Stryker Crews Find New Vehicles Can Take A Punch By Michael Gilbert, The News Tribune SAMARRA, Iraq - Like many soldiers in the Stryker brigade, the crew of Charlie 1-4 had their worries about how their vehicle would hold up if it were struck by a roadside bomb. Count them as big believers in the Stryker after their encounter with an improvised explosive device on a dirt street a week ago. "If it had been a Humvee, we'd all be dead," said Sgt. 1st Class Mike Farnum, the senior man aboard Charlie 1-4 when it was struck by the IED the afternoon of Dec. 13. Only the driver, Pfc. Chris Hegyes, 21, was injured, suffering a broken right foot and ankle. The rest of the crew was unharmed. Their vehicle was destroyed - not by the blast, soldiers said, but by a fire in the engine compartment that spread throughout the vehicle and ignited their ammunition. A second Stryker was hit by an IED on Saturday en route to a raid in Samarra, not far from the location of the Dec. 13 attack. Soldiers said it knocked off the left front wheel and damaged the hub, but no passengers were hurt and the vehicle continued on under its own power. An OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crew spotted a pickup driving away from the scene and radioed its direction of travel to other Strykers in the raiding party. They maneuvered on the truck, surrounded it and detained five men armed with four AK-47 assault rifles, said the brigade spokesman, Lt. Col. Joseph Piek. That the Stryker was able to continue after the bombing, and that the others could move quickly to catch the pickup, demonstrated the vehicle's agility and ability to take a punch, Piek said. "That's very good news for us," he said. In the Dec. 13 strike, the crew from Crazyhorse Troop of the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment were at the end of a seven-vehicle convoy. The scouts were showing infantrymen around town in preparation for the brigade's Operation Arrowhead Blizzard, which was to begin in less than 48 hours. As it turned out, the news the next day that Saddam Hussein had been captured postponed the start of Blizzard by two days. The convoy had been riding around the city for a few hours when they headed out at 1 p.m. to return to a staging area outside the city. "We caught some slit-your-throat signs, but that was about it," Farnum said. They were passing by a dirty two-story brick house - like all the other dirty mud-brick houses in Samarra - when the blast occurred directly under the center front section of the vehicle, crew members said. "That was the loudest damn explosion I ever heard in my life," said Sgt. Johnathan Vines, 23, who was standing in the rear right-side hatch. Soldiers said the front of the vehicle lurched upward, then bounced back. Farnum, 37, who was riding across from Vines in the left rear hatch, said a great cloud of dirt and smoke instantly flew up around them. They didn't know whether it was a bomb or a rocket-propelled grenade, but immediately the soldiers opened fire in all directions. They call it suppressive fire, and it's meant to kill or chase off anyone who might be waiting to follow the first explosion with another attack. Inside, their medic, Pvt. James Nguyen, a 20-year-old from Seattle, went to work right away on Hegyes. The blast occurred almost directly under the driver, whose compartment is at the left front of the Stryker. "I kept yelling at him. I thought maybe he was unconscious," Nguyen said. "I heard him making these moaning sounds, and I knew he was hurt." Hegyes managed to crawl over his driver's seat but then stopped moving in the tight space between his compartment and the rest of the vehicle the soldiers call "the hell hole." So Nguyen grabbed him and pulled him through. "Then I put him on the floor and laid on top of him because I thought we were under fire," he said. Instead, he saw his teammates laying down suppressive fire in all directions. "Then I took him to the nearest building, found a corner and put him down and told him to stay there. I was pointing my weapon out in the street. I fired three or four times. "Then Tillotson (Spc. Cody Tillotson, 20) came over and helped me pick him up and take him to another Stryker." Spc. Clayton Womack said Nguyen began treating Hegyes right away. "He had his boot off and ankle and foot wrapped in like 30 seconds," Womack said. Womack said he used the fire extinguisher on the flames that were licking from the engine compartment, but to no avail. The fire spread and set off secondary explosions when it reached the two antitank rockets, 40 mm grenades, 15-pound shaped charges and other ammunition. All the crew members' belongings were in there, too - their clothes, their personal photos, all their snacks, a PlayStation, everything. "We lost all the things that make us comfortable and remind us of home," Farnum said. Soldiers from their unit and the 296th Brigade Support Battalion rounded up replacement clothes, some poncho liners the soldiers call "woobies," and sleeping bags. They haven't had a chance to tell their families back home about their ordeal and put in orders for care packages. Likewise they haven't been able to send best wishes to their driver Hegyes, a Sacramento native who they said served as the crew's deejay, serving up everything from Sinatra to rap. "He's a good kid, a great soldier," Farnum said. "He was all worried that it was his fault when it happened." Crew members were cheered, though, by the news that their comrades in the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment on Saturday bulldozed the house where the IED had been set. After the blast the crew found wires running from the crater to the house and up to the rooftop, Farnum said. Their only regret was that they weren't there to watch, the soldiers said. Farnum said the crew did a great job reacting to the explosion, getting everyone out of the vehicle and getting medical care for Hegyes. If there's a next time, he said, they'll be better at catching or killing whoever sets it off. "Oh, we'll get the guy," Farnum said. "Unless he's a world-class Olympic sprinter, he won't get away the way we've got it set up." And for the folks at the Stryker factory, he said, "Tell 'em thanks. They did their homework." Dan

Guys, comments like this are only going to be disruptive to the forums. As we have mentioned, we do understand if you and others are not interested in modern warfare, but please dont make our jobs harder because of it. Dan [ October 17, 2005, 10:39 PM: Message edited by: KwazyDog ]

Well it depends what you have at hand really. I saw a power point presentation a while back discussing the vulnerabilities of the M1 during the initial phase of the war in Iraq. If I recall correctly the summary was that they felt the armor on the front turret and hull proved sufficient, with no penetrations being made on any of the vehicles from this direction, but it was possible to penetrate the side and rear hull and turret of the vehicle (and of course top). The examples they used were of 25mm rounds penetrating from the rear (from a Bradley Im guess) and of RPG's round penetrating from the sides. In fact one vehicle was penetrated through the side skirt and side armor with the round passing through the vehicle, several components inside (injuring the gunner I believe) and then imbedding itself in the opposite turret side. It wasn't known what did this at the time but I believe it was suspected to be a RPG-7V1. Dan

Guys, Im going to lock this one as unfortunately it looks like its going to head down hill form here. The link will still be there for those interested. Dan

Thanks for you comments. If you are interested in learning more about modern combat and the types of warfare you may see in CMSF, please read the AAR and cehck out some of the reading material above. From our point of view CMSF is a tactical wargame based on a reasonably possible near future conflict, not a political simulator. There are other games on that subject though if that is what interests you. Dan

Thanks for you comments. If you are interested in learning more about modern combat and the types of warfare you may see in CMSF, please read the AAR and cehck out some of the reading material above. From our point of view CMSF is a tactical wargame based on a reasonably possible near future conflict, not a political simulator. There are other games on that subject though if that is what interests you. Dan