James Sterrett

You cannot adjust the "atomic level" of the game -- the individual pieces of equipment, weapons teams, and squads. You can, however, build any force you want from those pieces provided. A company with a platoon each of light trucks, T-72s, and M-60A3 is entirely possible. The TacOps demo gives a very good look at the game, including both a training scenario and one reasonably large scenario.

Fair enough; the thing that seemed to be worring the SA types was that TacOps wouldn't "hand over" the CPU cycles - they got all a-twitter, and then calmed down when they figured out that other programs ran fine alongside it. Insert appropriate technical language, or explain it better?

This periodically gets out network/sysadmin people's knickers in a knot too. Note that in my/their experience, TacOps is a "good citizen" and hands over CPU cycles whenever other programs want them.

Delete or add off-map: No. Make new scenarios: Yes! Program the AI: No. But we keep begging Major H. for this. Not asked, but added to the reply: Make new maps: Yes!

Could you be a little more precise in explaining exactly what you're doing? It could be that you're using different maps, and it could be that you downloaded different versions of the map, but it isn't quite clear. Also, to have multiple colors on your teams, are you using a different computer for each color?

I'll see if I can find the WW2 symbology key I have. Also try these - the articles on the OMG by Bogdan Swita have some notes on Soviet map symbols and can be downloaded - Military Review is available online in PDF. Two sets of directions follow... The Big Link method, to the search results - this may not work! -- \]https://calldbp.leavenworth.army.mil/scripts/cqcgi.exe/@ss_prod.env?CQ_SAVE[CGI]\ =/scripts/cqcgi.exe/@ss_prod.env&CQ_MAIN=YES&CQ_LOGIN=YES&CQDC=Fri%20Jan%2024%20\ 08%3A38%3A31%20CST%202003&CQ_SAVE[GIFs]=/rware/gif8&CQ_USER_NAME=xxx&CQ_PASSWORD\ =xxx&CQ_SAVE[CPU]=Intel&CQ_SAVE[browser]=W3C&CQ_SAVE[browserVersion]=ie5_5up&CQ_\ SAVE[base]=calldbp.leavenworth.army.mil&CQ_SAVE[Home]=https%3A//calldbp.leavenwo\ rth.army.mil/call_pub.html The follow-the-breadcrumbs method: Use this link: http://www.leavenworth.army.mil/milrev/ Select "Past Editions" from the list near the top. Wait. Select "Filerooms" and tick the box for Military Review English Edition; then click "Query". Wait. Type in "Swita OMG", hit enter, and wait. The first two results should be Swita's OMG in the Defence and OMG in the Offence. You'll need something that reads a PDF file to view them.

Is that a WW2-era map or a modern map?

I'd guess the "gr" is an accidental direct transliteration of "gr".... "Gradusov/sek" in Russian = "Degrees/sec" in English.

That's odd - because I ran TacOps for years on a Win98 system with less memory. It's suspicious that TacOps fails to run after you've used other programs. Does your email program access the net? Are you always online, or do you have to enable the connection?

Keep in mind, though, that very careful use of the Change Units & Weapons feature may allow you to tweak the existing scenarios into WW2 variants. The AI will probably make somewhat odd use of some of the forces, but you can practice.

Keep in mind that the US is far from the only force to field UAVs - the could quite reasonably be a toy available to both sides.

The upshot answer: - You cannot make a scenario from scratch that has AI. HOWEVER.... - You *can* modify the factory scenarios that have AI, of which there are several dozen at least; and the modifications can be pretty extreme. As long as you alter the AI's forces so that units are replaced by similar units, it should work. Replace Red's T-80s with M-1s or T-55s, no problem. Replace them with mortars, though, and the AI still thinks they are tanks. This means you can completely turn a scenario on its head, playing Gallagher with Soviet equipment vs Red playing with M-1s (albeit in a Soviet organization). Umpire Tools -> Change Units and Weapons is your buddy in this, but be warned there is no undo feature.

I don't believe you get a quicker response (correct me if I'm wrong, Major H! ) What you get is a preference for firing on targets in that area. When set to "low priority" (yellow), the unit will choose to fire on any unit in the DFTRP before firing on any units outside of it. When set to "high priority" (red), the unit will ONLY fire on targets inside the DFTRP. The prefer/only distinction for low/high priority also works for the unit type and the target unit settings. If you want to hit only ATGM units, and preferably in a given area, and if possible a given specific BRDM-AT platoon, you'd use a High setting for ATGM and a Low priority on the specific area and a Low priority on the specific BRDM-AT. I'm not sure how TacOps would react if the BRDM-AT were outside the DFTRP and an ATGM unit was inside it, though.

Make sure you're comparing identical scenarios: Canadian Team Hague = US Army Team Hill = USMC Team Murray I just looked, and the OPFOR seems to be the same in all three. Perhaps you may have loaded US Army Team Hall, which does have a 20 minute limit, but the OPFOR is 4 T-80s?

Yes, I'm the same one - glad you enjoyed it. Never forget to keep track of a vehicle's Wombat Weight. Somewhere, I have files that puts TacOps Map 01 into Steel Beasts. Send me a PM with an email address and I'll send them along.