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Gents, Playing the Marine campaign, "Semper Fi! - Syria" and I managed to kill off a platoon commander in one of the battles. In the next battle, that platoon starts on board. It has, er, two men left. One is in the HQ, the other is in a squad. (The saying "An army of one" springs to mind...) The squad has a RED in command icon, etc. See this: The HQ looks like this: After thinking about it, I have come to the conclusion that the squad is not in command because the CO is not present. Is that correct? The fact that there is an HQ element/team present, but no in-command icon is interesting. I'm not sure if I should be awed at the level of detail in this, or not. If there WERE a CO or XO present, would my squaddie have a green light? Does the lack of a green in-command icon represent any performance degredation? Thanks, Ken

Gents, I just noticed this; I hear the tearing sound of artillery rounds overhead. Cool effect. Then I see the impact. Then there is silence. The length of silence is dependent on the distance of the impact. Then I hear the impact. There should not be any silence between the in-flight sound and the impact, should there? If I can hear the in-flight sound for the duration of the shell's travel time, it ends with the impact, so the in-flight sound should segue directly into the impact. Or, the in-flight sound should be LESS than the length of time the shell travels; it should only be audible for a brief period based on distance/delay from the shell's visible path marker. Anyone else notice this? Thanks, Ken

Gents, I've noticed the variant of the amtrack which is a command vehicle. More antennas, less weapons. Other than absorbing enemy fire meant for my amtracks which can shoot back, does it have any other use in game? I ask because some uses are not obvious. The ability to use a FAC/FO with better abilities if they are IN a FISTV springs to mind, versus the total inability of THAT vehicle to call in arty without the FO as a passenger. So, am I missing something with the command track? Thanks, Ken

dischord, For what it's worth, in my opinion, this game is THE single best modern warfare simulation game. It's the "simulation" part which can cause difficulties. The level of nuanced detail is unbelievable. It takes effort from the player to try to grasp some of these details. There is no simplistic shooter twitch play here. Put in the effort and you will be rewarded. Nothing else out there can touch this game. Post here, read the manual, use google (or your favorite search engine). Welcome. Ken

OK, I'll try that, but this is one of the scenarios from the USMC campaign, "Semper Fi! - Syria" battle number 6 (the one after pooh). These guys are part of the second group of reinforcements. All elements of group 1 and 3 have entered normally. All other elements of group 2 entered normally. Thanks, Ken

Gents, I think this cropped up awhile ago in an earlier version. I thought it got fixed in a patch. Anyway, I've run into the situation where some of my reinforcements are stuck. Two units; a Marine rifle squad and a Marine smaw squad. Both came in as reinforcements near the board edge. The nearest man from each unit has several meters to the edge, so no obvious issue there. Other units were just as close. When I select either unit, the menu screen is totally blank; no movements, to targeting, no special, no admin. That's okay; they've probably heard about my leadership style and are sheltering themselves in a bid for self-preservation. If this is a known issue already addressed in the upcoming v1.20 patch, fine. If this is an old issue we thought we put to bed, I have a savegame if that will be of use. Post here and let me know if you want a link. Thanks, Ken

Well, here's a thought: CM: post-Modern should include MBT's (of whatever variety) with wading/snorkelling gear. Since water will be modelled (included in CM:N) we have the perfect combination! No, silly men, I'm not talking about merely fording rivers. No, something more diabolical than that. I want to be able to set up my tank platoon UNDERWATER! Yes, that's right, underwater. I'll need a small, innocent looking pond on the flank. When the enemy advances past the pond, my submerged platoon will emerge and destroy them all!! Mwah, ha, ha! Okay, maybe I got this idea from watching too many zombie movies, but still, it'd be sweet. Ken

akd, great find! I like how you experimented to find the relationship between yaw and pitch. jjhouston; that's interesting information. Thanks, Ken

That part is waaaaaay beyond what I suggested. I'd just like to know HOW to use some of these weapons. Bradley "TOW: Vehicle must be stopped for 15 seconds before weapon can be fired. Vehicle must not move before missile reaches target." is far different than that little part I just quoted. Sure, you CAN learn all this stuff. But, usually the manual doesn't tell you, and finding out you totally misused a weapon system in-game means you probably didn't do as well as you could've. This can drive non-grogs away. This game simulates sooo much and has sooo much detail (friggin' accuracy based on TYPE of scope?) that a newb has no chance when they hit that learning curve. More like an upward learning cliff. Just my .02. Regards, Ken

Yeah, I know; tool-tips are on the "it'd be nice to put in once we have time" list. I'm not beating that dead horse. BUT, if tool-tips ever do get a chance to percolate up to the top of the list I'd like to see one more tool-tip (in addition to all the others suggested); Give me a menu about how to use the weapon, including limitations. This would be a few lines long. Why? Well, a couple of reasons spring to mind. It took me while to find out that the recce humvee is worthless unless it's OPEN UPed. A tool-tip hovering over the humvee image should include, "... and it's primary function of recce/spotting is dependent on the crew being opened up. If they are buttoned, they are functionally identical to any regular Humvee." Or something. Dress it up, but put the information there so a non-grog has a chance. Despite my familiarity with some of these things, I totally forgot to open up my TOW Hummer (whatever). They went up to a hill, had LOS to enemy vehicles, had a TARGET line (which I put there), but they never fired. My bad; after they were a burning wreck I remembered that they may've needed to be OPEN UPed. Next time, guys. Obviously this could be expanded to every other crew-served weapon and vehicle. Breakdown/deploy limits; Bradley TOW's needing to be stationary; number of smoke discharges; etc., etc. Thanks, Ken

I want roofs! Lots of roofs. I want mansard, gabled, hipped. I want slate, wood, straw! I want the ballistic properties of the different materials modelled! Does slate protect against artillery more than straw? How do the shells' fuses get affected by the slate or straw? Will falling slate injure my men sheltering under the eaves? Can I scale the gutters to storm the upper floors without going up the stairs? I won't even start on chimneys. Ken

The hatches in my AAV's tend not to matter; the men get blown through them regardless of the position. Note: do NOT assault with AAV's despite what the acronym means (especially in POOH).

I prefer the penal battalion style of mine clearance or enemy machinegun recce. Failing that, it's tough to find a good solution. If you put a TARGET ARC enclosing only the T-55 (and its likely movement area) you may not exclude the BMP-3. The specific geometries of the engagement would determine if TARGET ARC is more appropriate than TARGET. Other than that, I don't have any ideas. Good luck.

Stalker: Clear Sky working fine on my rig; vista64. See upstream post for the rest of my rig. May be something else there.

A simple solution would be to change the setup zones for the same map. That would add variability. Couple that with different forces and different victory conditions and the sense of repetition would be lessened.

I don't play RT, but I'd imagine the extra task of waiting to "Cease Fire" after a launch could be forgotten or overtaken by other events. In WeGo, well, there is a delay between launches, but why would I tell a guy who nailed the target to break it off? Isn't he trained? But I digress...

Indeed, the M40A3 animation is what I'm talking about (v1.11). In game, this is what happens: 1. Soldier has weapon ready and is aiming. 2. Soldier fires. Several actions occur; there is a visible muzzle blast, the rifle recoils and, _simultaneously_ with the recoil, ejects the spent cartridge. 3. The soldier's hand moves through the motions which would open and close the bolt. 4. The soldier is back to state 1. What should happen? 1. Soldier has weapon ready and is aiming. 2. Soldier fires. Several actions occur; there is a visible muzzle blast, the rifle recoils. 3. The soldier's hand moves through the motions which would open and close the bolt !!! and, _simultaneously_ with the reward hand movement, ejects the spent cartridge. !!! 4. The soldier is back to state 1. The difference is in state 3, set off by "!"s. The lack of actual _bolt_ movement is totally inconsequential. The hand movement animation simulating bolt movement is a very nice addition. (In all honesty, the out-of-order shell ejection could be deemed inconsequential to GAMEPLAY; its only impact is on IMMERSION/REALISM.) The weapon is not able to be fired until after the bolt animation. Early shell ejection does not enable early firing. As I said, with all the WWII bolt action rifles, nailing this animation down would be a nice fix. Regards, Ken

Lethaface, nice system. Pooh with all the bells and whistles and highest AA/AF runs smooth as silk at 1920 x 1200 on mine; Vista64, 8Gb Ram, nvidia 8800gtx video card, q6600 (at 3.0Ghz). And I usually have other tasks running in the background. (Piecekeeper; you mentioned 4Gb as a ram limit. Here's a thumbnail sketch. ANY 32 bit operating system has an upper limit of about 4Gb. Windows32 (any flavor) drops that a bit. The limit applies to ANY memory; RAM, video, cache, etc. So, in reality it's around 3 1/2 max usable RAM. Some tech guy will correct my nomenclature and numbers, but that's about right. Any 64 bit operating system can address a lot more memory. (2^32 vice 2^64) Then you run into physical limitations such as ram slots, available voltage/current, and actual memory sticks. nvidia vs. ati - both good, it comes down to user preference, comfort. (My only "comfort" item would be to check your motherboard. If it uses an nvidia controller, I'd lean towards an nvidia video card. My .02) A higher clocked dual core will give you better performance than a lower clocked quad core in almost any game. Get a big screen.

Guys, I'm playing a battle in which my Marines get some Cobra support. (I will NOT talk about possible air support user interface improvements in this thread. ) My infantry spotted some Syrian T-62's/BMP-3's. They called in the Cobras, targeted the vehicles and got a blue line which terminated in "Vehicle Target". I selected "Heavy" (No, I will NOT talk about the interface!). Several minutes later, the Cobras came in. In each of the 3 or 4 cases (I have savegames) the first "Heavy" strike looked like a Hellfire missile. It had an exhaust plume and actively guided to the vehicle targets. Cool. Direct hits each time. Result? In each case a huge impact explosion, the vehicle burst into flames, and a large, dense, plume of smoke erupted from the vehicle. Cool again. Oh, what did the Cobras do next? Well, they FIRED ANOTHER MISSILE INTO THE BURNING HULK!! Grrrr. Why? I mean, they only have so many on board. How many? (No, that's an interface question....) In actual use, I'd think that when they Cobras saw the target burning they would not fire a second missile into it. I'd be okay with firing a second missile if the kill were not confirmed; it seems that doesn't matter. BF.C, any chance of having air support only firing/releasing a single item of ordnance when the point target is labelled "Vehicle"? Then, only if it is not a confirmed kill (burning, dense smoke, secondary explosions), have the air unit come around again? Thanks, Ken (Ignore the thread by the same title I mistakenly started over in Tech Support.)

Ahhhhhh! I've posted in the wrong forum!! (How can I blame THIS on BF.C?) Guys, I'm playing a battle in which my Marines get some Cobra support. (I will NOT talk about possible air support user interface improvements in this thread. ) My infantry spotted some Syrian T-62's/BMP-3's. They called in the Cobras, targeted the vehicles and got a blue line which terminated in "Vehicle Target". I selected "Heavy" (No, I will NOT talk about the interface!). Several minutes later, the Cobras came in. In each of the 3 or 4 cases (I have savegames) the first "Heavy" strike looked like a Hellfire missile. It had an exhaust plume and actively guided to the vehicle targets. Cool. Direct hits each time. Result? In each case a huge impact explosion, the vehicle burst into flames, and a large, dense, plume of smoke erupted from the vehicle. Cool again. Oh, what did the Cobras do next? Well, they FIRED ANOTHER MISSILE INTO THE BURNING HULK!! Grrrr. Why? I mean, they only have so many on board. How many? (No, that's an interface question....) In actual use, I'd think that when they Cobras saw the target burning they would not fire a second missile into it. I'd be okay with firing a second missile if the kill were not confirmed; it seems that doesn't matter. BF.C, any chance of having air support only firing/releasing a single item of ordnance when the point target is labelled "Vehicle"? Then, only if it is not a confirmed kill (burning, dense smoke, secondary explosions), have the air unit come around again? Thanks, Ken

Whilst examining reloads for sniper teams, I discovered that the animation for firing/loading bolt-action rifles is off. In CMSF the shell is ejected automatically when the weapon is fired, THEN the soldier cycles the bolt. Obviously the sequence is off; the weapon should be fired, then when the soldier OPENS the bolt, the shell should be ejected. For CMSF this is pure nitpicking. Not so for WWII. BF.C, could you adjust the bolt-action reload animation for CM:N? The many Kar98's and other bolt rifles cry out for this! (Mosin Nagant anyone? I think I just heard the East Front calling...) Thanks, Ken

Grrrrr!! Now they're back! That should at least narrow down what is causing this rendering issue. Memory? Any technically knowledgeable folks have an idea? Thanks, Ken

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. Thank you, Dietrich. You are correct; the poor/fair equipment toggle produced the M82 snipers. On to the results.... Same test: severe ammo to start, followed by area target command within 200 meters (thankfully, no delay! ), continued until no one in the unit fires for two consecutive WeGo turns. Then I rotated the units into Strykers to load up with either 5.56 or 7.62. Multiple runs, multiple units, no variation in results. Any team with ONLY 5.56 ammo fired their 5.56 weapons (M4/M16) ONLY. Any team with ONLY 7.62 ammo fired their 7.62 weapons (M110/M40) ONLY. Note: once the .50 caliber weapons were dry, they could not reload. Their users did not fire any weapons afterwards. (No swapping to a backup weapon.) BF.C; it may be too late for CMSF, but for any other game/module, if we have a weapon with different ammo, can we somehow reload it? Thanks all, Ken

Quality was set prior to selecting units on the left screen (purchase screen). I'm reasonable sure there's some sort of randomizer in which types of weapons you get. However, before I redo the editor, has anyone had repeatable success in ensuring .50 cal. equipped snipers get purchased? If so, how? Ken

Hmmm, that's what I did. The only Army team I used was Battalion HQ. The Marines get the Sniper Scout Platoon. I used 4 Army Battalions, suitably whittled down to the Batt. HQ and sniper team. No M82. Settings were Elite/Crack? In other news, this test focused my attention once again on the shells being ejected. I posted over in tech support that the white shell casing issue is resolved for me. I recently updated to nvidia's 182.06 drivers. That may've cured it. Another item: and this is picking little baby nits! I noticed that the animations for the bolt action rifles had the shells being ejected at recoil, rather than during the animation for working the bolt. That just can't stay! The end is nigh! Okay, not really. But if it's not too hard, with all the Kar98's we're about to see, it may behoove BF.C to examine the shell ejection animations for bolt action rifles. (It's great that we can see details like this on a game which can scale up to such large battles!) Ken