Oliver

Read my own post above. Didn't mean for it to read like "no one gives a rip". I really meant that anyone trying to make a map, drop a line and I can walk you through what I did. My Training Officer was pretty happy today when I walked in with it. He spent the day setting up the terrain/move cost factors with the map editor. We plan on testing out the map effects with a practice LAN tomorrow.

Whew.... If anybody gives a rip, I just made my first map 28k by 26k of a southeast corner of North Camp Grayling. It's being used for a TOCEX this summer. It is not quite finished... I have to describe the terrain and movement costs. But, getting the map to show in the map editor, square, and to size was an acheivement for me. I got the map consolidated the hardway, I think. I used terrabase to make the screen saves to a bmp format. That put it almost the correct size, and half way clear. That gave me 9 bmp files of x by x grid squares. With lack of a better idea, I opened each bmp file in powerpoint, copied the pic, and pasted it in the adobe photoshop. I then proceeded to follow the steps mentioned in the article in the reply above. Good or not, I'm happy. Whew again. The file size is 8meg (at the end of the process, it was a lot bigger before indexing).

I found my answer, I think. After searching, I found an earlier posting, "Using Photoshop LE to Make Map Art" dated 20 Feb 01 by MajorH.

Anyone have luck importing a 1:50,000 map into the map making tool? I've used scanning and terrabase to capture *.bmp files. I can get a clear map picture, but it never lines up correctly for the map tools grid lines. And, it is never the same scale. I have to stretch the *.bmp file to the size of the map tool grid lines. Which distorts the quality of the map picture some.

Are the movement rates published somewhere? It seems that game movement rates are a little different than published rates used for military planning. Infantry units can travel X meters in X minutes on X terrain, etc... Thanks.

Glad to see this problem here. We had the same problem when experimenting with it on the network here in Michigan. I was pretty bummed at first. We'll try the work around until 401 is published. Thanks. SGM Oliver 46th Bde

I was thinking the same as Rocket. Since you can't make a Combined Arms Team (Company size element), it would be great to assign platoon level elements (2 platoons of Mech Infantry and 1 Platoon of Tanks as an example) to a higher hqs. Then, the hqs could be given missions/tasks.

Used TACOPS as a simulation engine to exercise the Bde staff this last summer. We selected a couple of the Army's Small Group Exercises (SGE's) Training Support Packages to use for the Division/Brigade background for the MDMP. Using Terrabase and the DEM files for NTC, we created our own TACOPS map to support the SGE training area. From there, we plugged in the OPFOR based on the Intel in the SGE's, and the ran the Brigade attack based on the MDMP process of the Brigade staff. We ran a "simcell" in a frame tent, with a TACOPS operator, Battle Captain, OPS NCO that representated input from the Battalions. In the Brigade Main CP, we mustered one shift to monitor the TACOPS battle by FM radio. We are on our way to preparing for our next simulation in preparation of our next Staff exercise this summer. Using the Terrabase and DEMS (using reflectance) gives you a 6mb color map for a 15k x 15k area (depending on the kind of bmp file you want for color effect). You end up drawing in major roads/cities. I'm not a GO at using Terrabase scanned maps yet. I end up with 5k X 5k maps that I have to patch together to get a larger playing field for Brigade Ops. SGM O.

One shot one kill. If you can't hit it, you cant suppress it. It takes well aimed fire or you are just expending ammo useless (in most cases) and the enemy can figure that out, ASAP. Now, I have seen the rate of fire jacked up in the attack or defense, in order to gain fire superiority. But, there is a penalty to this, higher rate of ammo expenditure. If TACOPS emulated this increased rate of fire, there would have to be a draw back to it, and that would be a much more depleted ammo supply.