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While I'm perusing threads, I thought I'd bring this back up to the first page. Thanks, Ken

More testing. I used the sole survivor of an M240 weapons team as the buddy aid guy for the red-dotted M249 gunner. The M240 soldier only had an M4. As a weapon specialist, and not equipped with an M203, I thought that would bias any internal coding towards him gaining the missing M249. It didn't happen. He went through the buddy aid routine, but was still left with his M4. I then TARGETED a nearby empty building. He went through his magazine in the M4 and reloaded...the M4. No M249. I also ran the buddy aid with the original 6 man squad, with only 5 guys left. To preclude one of the two M203 gunners from doing it again, I split of the AT team. That was two men strong: one was the designated marksman, the other was the designated AT specialist. Both had M4's. The marksman was the soldier who enacted buddy aid. Same results as the previous tests. No M249. So, I do not think the M249 exists in some sort of cached, hidden weapon status. I think it is gone. But why? Can anyone else think of a way of testing this that I may have missed? I believe I have tested enough to disprove the ammo theory. I believe I have tested enough to disprove that a buddy providing aid will gain the M249 which is not listed anymore. I am intensely curious about this. Obviously the M249 was removed from the game by the software. The reason it was removed has been postulated as being because it was out of its special ammo unit. Resupplying with ammo did not make it re-appear. It was stated that the M4 which replaced the M249 was probably carried by the soldier due to a possible previous buddy aid. I will investigate that possibility. If a soldier has weapons which the player is unable to see, would replacement of the visible weapon, the M249, by the invisible weapon, the M4, result in the M249 being carried invisibly? Essentially, do the two weapons exchange places? If so, how do you regain the previous weapon? Does buddy aid track invisible weapons? Thoughts? Regards, Ken p.s. I recognize this is not a huge issue. It does point out many programming details about this game and highlights the 1:1 coding and visuals. Thanks.

Yeah, that's another possibility - that TARGET will fire something which negates the effect you wanted. That would require holding fire on an organic weapon, which is different than Special Equipment. In another thread I've got an M249 gunner who apparently picked up an M4A1 while conducting buddy aid. Although a standard issue carbine is NOT Special Equipment, it would be nice to've seen it listed on that menu. If a HOLD command is ever considered by BF.C I could HOLD the M4, forcing the M249 to be used. If we can HOLD organic weapons, that would force some interestin behavior. In your case, let's say there were 4 soldiers, one of which had a Javelin. If you put HOLD on 3 of them and only allowed the Javelin to be free then placed the TARGET, it would seem that only the Javelin would be fired. All is good... However, you're a sloppy player. (Hey! I'm not making this up. Everyone in the Peng agrees. ) Because you're sloppy, you inadvertently placed HOLD on all 4 men, THEN placed the TARGET command. Now what'll happen? Will the TacAI withhold all fire from the organic weapons? Would that lead to a charge with knives and brass knuckles? I'm sure there'd be a lot more testing/coding/unintended consequences from HOLDING organic weapons. I'd love to see BF.C start with coding a HOLD on Special Equipment. Just some food for thought. Thanks, Ken

Steve, Further testing did not support your post. Here's what happened: the initial 6 man squad with the disappearing M249 had these ammo bars: 1 red; 2 orange; 3 yellow; 4 green. This was AFTER the M249 disappeared. Although, seemingly, plenty of ammo, per your post about internally tracked units of ammo, perhaps the M249 gunner had fired off all his ready units. There is a Stryker near the squad in the savegame. I drove it up to them and loaded them into it. It had 2360 rounds of 5.56 ammo. I ACQUIRED 500 rounds. This brought the ammo bars all the way up, by adding 4 bars of light green. There was no change in weapon status. I then unloaded the men and had them run around. No change. I then reloaded the men into the Stryker and ACQUIRED the remaining 1860 rounds. No change. I ran them around outside again. Still no change. Now it got cool. Those Syrians they were shooting at? Well, since I ran my men into a Stryker, instead of finishing the fight, some were alive. As luck would have it, the Syrians nailed the M249 gunner. Red dot! Excellent. I eradicated the Syrians. The remaining 5 men rendered buddy aid. Remember the whole, collect your buddy's weapon? Didn't happen. The man rendering aid was the 1st team's M203 rifleman. (Note: the mouse hovering over the M203/M4 combo only lists it as an M4.) After rendering aid, he maintained his M203, not either of the M249 gunner's weapons; the currently carried M4 or the retained M249. Of course, an argument could be made that the M203 is thought of as being a "better" weapon by the TacAI then the M249. In summary; acquiring 2,360 rounds of ammo did NOT get the M249 back in operation. Buddy aid to the M249 gunner who was red-dotted did NOT show the M249 back in operation. Any thoughts? Regards, Ken

Lee, Don't forget to add, they also included the animations so you could SEE all that happen (most of it, anyway) in cool detail. Steve, Thanks for the replies! (Now I'm going to reload that turn and run that squad into a vehicle for a reload and see if the M249 pops back up. Trust but verify. ) Wow. Thanks, Ken

Yeah, I agree with your points. I'm following up on this for the interest, not any gripe about playability. If M249 ammo is tracked separately, as it appears from your post that it is, that is news to me. I try to ensure all my squads are full up - all green bars in their ammo status - before they dismount. How does the linked M249 ammo get distributed? Is it a ratio of the total rounds? I.e., if I grab an extra 1,000 rounds, is that 800 loose, and 200 linked? How would I, the PLAYER, know that my squad support weapon is getting low on ammo? (By the way, I've NEVER seen a squad with an M249 not fire it while it had ANY ammo left. Are you sure linked ammo is tracked separately?) I agree that coding at a hard ammo count would create many more problems than it would solve. Adding a button for the player to do so wouldn't really be worth while either, IMO. So, for my curiosity, if nothing else, I'm still a bit mystified about losing an M249 for the rest of the scenario. If the ammo count is the reason, how come there is no feedback to the player? Of course, if you just tell me that the game codes for jams, broken firing pins, etc., and that the gun got busted, well, it's all moot. Thanks, Ken

Addendum: The other BIG issue, why, in the many turns since the firefight has my SAW gunner not started using the M249? I'll grant the TacAI a win in the conditional firefight's immediate need for firepower: the time taken to reload a belt-fed M249 compared to unslinging an M4A1 may have been too long compared to the relative firepower differences. So, I'm not arguing about the use of the M4A1. I will argue 2 points. 1) The gunner never again got his M249 into operation. The game lasted 10's of minutes more. The ammo bar never dipped again. That seems to be a legitimate coding concern: once a weapon is grabbed, it is never un-grabbed. 2) And this is minor, but, as I touched on in my post above, is ALL reloading based only on an open-bolt weapon status? Meaning, the pixel-troopers will not reload until the weapon is empty? There is no interim, reload when you have a moment coding? (I must also give credit for the coding that produced this weapon change. Very cool. Very detailed. Even if I do think the underlying reasons causing it need to be examined. Also, I note that the animations would show if there WERE interim reloads. That's cool too.) Any thought to items 1 and/or 2? Thanks, Ken

Steve, Wow. Thanks for the speedy response. If my gunner did choose to toss the m249 down in exchange for an M4, I guess he needs better training. Hell, how long was he running around with a 200 round magazine which was almost empty? His lack of reloading cost his squad a lot of firepower. I think I'll jump his **** when they get back. What kind of gunner lets that much time go by during a battle, is told to assault a building, and doesn't ensure he's got a full mag? Which, begs the simulation question: does reloading ONLY occur when the current magazine is empty? Obviously, a lot of short-changing occurs in real life; if _I_ were about to enter a building, I'd put in a fresh magazine, regardless of which weapon I had. Thanks, Ken

PaperTiger, I think you posted earlier about the situation which prompted me to start this thread; the destruction of a Bradley. You (if not you, I apologize) stated that in real life if a Bradley were destroyed in isolation, I would not know about it for a while (acting as commander): as vehicle driver, I would be dead. Same effect. I would be fine with the system if that had been the situation. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The Bradley was in a compound, facing another Bradley. 3 other vehicles were behind the Bradley, well within 100 meters (more likely 20 meters), there were 2 squads of 9 men in front of the Bradlely, one squad of 9 men behind it, and the platoon HQ was behind it. All looking towards it. And 2 crewmembers survived. Somehow I think the command net (hey, that's me) should've known about it. Instead, I focussed on the two front squads for 5 minutes. Ach. I still think a simple icon color change would be a very good clue that something is happening to the unit. (An intuitive long-range visual prompt incorporating TheVulture's list would be fantastic. I haven't the foggiest how to implement that much information in a simple visual manner.) Regards, Ken

Steve, Thanks for the response, but you've missed the point of my post. My SAW gunner was actively engaging an enemy unit approximately 20 meters away with his M249. They were returning fire. It was a close range firefight. He had the ONLY M249 in the squad. Here is the salient point: WHY did he switch from his primary weapon (belt-fed, excellent close range effects) to a weapon he may or may not have picked up from a wounded buddy? He was an M249 gunner, firing his M249 in the midst of a firefight, and somehow switching weapons was the TacAI solution. What happened? So, to beat this down, thank you for postulating how and where the M4 may have come to be part of my M249 gunner's equipment, but the please let me know why he switched weapons. Thanks, Ken

MarkEzra, You're welcome, and THANK YOU! Regards, Ken

Paper Tiger, I appreciate your point of view. (I also, very much, appreciate the campaigns you've made: both on my hard-drive awaiting patch v1.10.) I've got a thread about one of my M249's changing into an M4A1 with 2 seconds left in the turn. That should show you that I am a very detail oriented player. Please give me the benefit of the doubt. Yet, I do incur casualties, vehicle damage, and lost vehicles without knowing about them! So, on the one hand I notice a single individual changing his weapon, and on the other hand I do NOT notice a Bradley being destroyed. I place that squarely at the foot of the developer and the choice in user interface. (Note the PCGamer September magazine review of Theater of War by Tom Chick. In it he chastises the user interface. There is a trend here.) As a vehicle commander, I would know if my vehicle were destroyed. Obviously. As a game player, the INFORMATION about the vehicle is there; I must SEEK the information. There is no Fog of War, there is only an interface which does not actively transmit status information. So, as we've said, I - the player, the vehicle commander, etc. - must check every single unit at time 60 and then check it again at time 00. If there is a change, I must find out where and when and why. Of course, the beginning and end snapshots are only of utility IF there is a PERMANENT change in status, i.e. damage, wounding, death, destruction. If there is a TRANSIENT change in status, i.e., pinning, increased suppression, smoke dischargers firing, reversing out of sight, etc., then I am forced to watch every second of replay for each and every unit. I will watch some units as a matter of course. These are the ones advancing up front, leading an assault, etc. My complaint, gripe, suggestion, revolves around the issue of the OTHER units. A Stryker platoon has 4 vehicles, 3 squads, 2 MG Teams, and 1 HQ element. 10 units in toto. A company has almost 40 units. I've been playing with scenarios containing 3 companies or so. That's well over 100 units. There is no way I can poll each unit each turn. I am NOT the overall commander; I am also the various sub-commanders. THAT is my argument for requesting a tweak to the user interface. Now, if all I did was play as the overall commander, I'd agree. In that case, I'd sit on my hilltop and give commands. I'd wait for the feedback, all audio files, from my subordinate units as they radio in (maybe visualize a blue force tracker) and make adjustments. That would not be this game. It would be a boring company/battalion command simulator. If I can DRIVE a Bradley, why cant I be notified (actively) when it is DESTROYED? Regards, Ken

flamingknives, , no, not grinding an axe. Sharpening several hatchets, but not grinding an axe! Regards, Ken

Different colors for different levels of "stress"? That's a nice idea. I like the flashing icon idea due to simplicity. A "Hey! Look at me, boss!" kind of effect. Right now the unit you select has their overhead icon flash green. Just using the same coding (right, like I know what I'm talking about) seems like a fix which is simple to plug in. Of course, I can imagine a firefight in which the strobe effect of all those flashing yellows would cause issues, if not epileptic seizures! Regards, Ken

Just plugging away here, thought I'd quote myself from a previous thread: "As I have stated before, one of the strengths of this game is the ability for the player to act at several levels of command simultaneously: I am the vehicle commander, the team leader, the squad leader, the platoon leader, the company commander, the battalion arty FO, the battalion commander, all separately and all combined. I can dig down into which gear to drive a vehicle: SLOW, MOVE, REVERSE, etc. I can choose how many tubes of arty will fire when I call a fire mission. I can tell my squads to occupy the 6th floor of a building and look to the North. I can tell my tank to fire machinegun only at a target. I can move a team over to some casualties to begin first aid. But, I CANNOT keep my men from firing off every piece of Special Equipment ordnance they carry; I can either restrict them totally, or totally let them loose." So, in reference to PaperTiger stating, "...but WEGO players really do have all the time in the world to see what just happened and do something about it. If you miss something important, who's fault is that? Otherwise, anything that increases the fog of war factor in the game is welcomed by me.", I disagree. I, a WEGO player, do NOT have all the time in the world! My game time is limited by real life. If I devote some of my time to this game, I want to be engaged. If not, I don't play. If I don't play, I won't pay. If NOTHING is happening to my men (see my above quote about how I am the vehicle commander AND squad leader, etc.), I don't mind letting the minutes go by as I move. I DO mind being FORCED by the game design to select every single unit, every single turn, at both the beginning and end of the turn. That turns a simple 60 second action phase into a 30 minute torture. (Dear God, why can't I have an "advance to the end" timer button? >>| instead of the "have to click it 12 times > advance button to get to the end")? If you want ironman, I'm the commander and don't want to know what is happening, rules, please play that way. I will not post that you shouldn't. I don't care if I have an advantage over the AI side. I am the PLAYER. If I am forced to engage in mundane book-keeping tasks every turn the GAME stops being fun. A game which is not fun is not played. Regards, Ken

MarkEzra, Unable to email the 14MB file. Here is a link to where I uploaded it on mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/?mabwnndw420 The M249 belongs to 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, A Company, 2nd Battalion. The event occurs at 1:40:02. Let me know if you'd like any other information. Thanks, Ken

I don't recall an earlier turn with buddy aid. For the several turns prior to this event there was no buddy aid. Your suggestion could cover the additional weapon, but I would like to think slinging an extra rifle would count as an icon in the Special Equipment section. As I stated, the squad had six members. One was yellow. The M249 gunner was green. They were in a building and spotted an enemy squad in an adjacent building. Firing ensued. No U.S. infantryman was hit. In the midst of firing, with just a few seconds left in the turn, the M249 changed to an M4A1. There was no movement, there were no men repositioning. The icon changed. There were NO other units in the building. They squad had started with an M249. From that point forward they did not have one. Replay available. Thanks, Ken

Yeah, that's what I thought. But...I wanted confirmation. So, any BF.C rep or beta tester want to look at the replay file? Later, Ken

They MAY be special...if BF.C allows them to use LINEAR AIR SUPPORT ATTACK AXES (http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=83192), or to HOLD their Special equipment (http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=83224), or if they don't magically have their SQUAD LMG CHANGE INTO A RIFLE (http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=83271), or if BF.C allows them to NOTIFY THE PLAYER OF INCOMING FIRE OR CASUALTIES (http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=83193). Now, if BF.C includes the above changes into the Royal Marines or Paras, then they would be special. Or just more realistic? Thanks, Ken

Not just a mindless BUMP, but a rather, a reasoned BUMP. With the T-90 being announced, if there were a convoy of them moving along a road, an airstrike with a linear axis would be even more important. Regards, Ken

Gents, Since this game runs on OpenGL, is there any indication that the release of v3.0 will affect CMx2? Thanks, Ken

Gents, Watching through a replay I noticed something new. My 6 man US squad had a single M249 (plus the various M4's). With just a few seconds left in the turn a flicker on the Team Info Panel (the green or yellow weapon icons) caught my attention. The M249 gunner, in green, changed to an M4A1, in green. They were in the midst of firing on an enemy unit when this happened. Has anyone else seen this? Is this supposed to represent a weapon breakdown? If so, is it normal for M249 gunners to also carry an M4? If it's not a weapon breakdown, what was it? Savegame available. Thanks, Ken

tFS, Thanks for sharing real squad leader experience. Ken

Nice screenshots. Thanks!

At this point I'd settle for having the unit icon flash yellow when they take incoming fire which causes suppression increase or casualties. The yellow flash would, in WEGO, become solid yellow at the end of the action/replay phase. Thus, a simple scan would enable the player to see who is taking fire. When the player is DONE with the replay, all icons revert to normal blue or red. In RT, the yellow flashing could be on a timer, say 10-15 seconds. Thanks, Ken