c3k

Hmmm, I'm thinking, or WAS thinking, about the various situations which have popped up in recent years, especially in Afghanistan. In these, the SF units were surprised by an adversary which was quite tenacious and arrived unexpectedly. There have been several very tough firefights resulting from these encounters. As for the Modadishu reference, a Ranger company supporting a Delta Force team versus a large uncon force would be of interest. I am not thinking about a Rambo-esque style FPS. Regards, Ken

I'm thinking about small teams, two men or so, with special weapons. I'd be interested in seeing how a small SEAL detachment could handle itself. Suppressed weapons, excellent camo, every man linked with a comm system, etc. This seems doable in the CMx2 engine - which is my way of complimenting BF.C on creating a flexible game system. (v1.08 is playing very well.) Thanks, Ken

Gents, Both Strykers and M1's have remote fired .50 caliber machine guns. (M2's?). However, the reload algorithms are very different. One will run out of ammo and never be used again while the other will reload without user intervention. Assume both units, an Abrams and a Strkyer, are not "Open Up". (The lack of a "Button Up" command or toggle between "Open Up" and "Button Up" is a minor annoyance in the UI.) Next, use "Target Light" for both. They will fire off the ready ammo for the .50: 100 rounds. After that, the Stryker TC will automatically pop up and reload the ammo. The Stryker will be ready to fire another 100 rounds, whilst remaining buttoned up (oops, I mean not "Open Up"). The Abrams will never again use its .50...unless the player directly orders it to "Open Up". At that point, the TC will pop up, reload the .50, then stay up. (Now, if you order the Abrams to "Target Light" while "Open Up" is active, the TC will use the .50 and continually reload automatically. Additionally, the loader will pop up and man his 240, adding the fire of that 7.62MG to the target. The ONLY time the loader will do so is if two conditions are met: "Open Up" AND "Target Light".) The issue, in my mind, is the behavior of the Abram's TC. Unless you're under fire, or about to fire the main gun, why wouldn't he pop up to reload the .50? The Stryker does it. Why the dissimilar behavior? Right now, an "Open Up" Abrams will automatically have the TC duck down prior to firing the main gun. That's great. So, there is some level of automatic behavior programmed in. Any thoughts? If you're interested in more details, see THIS thread. (A graphics bug exists with Abrams tank commanders. If the Abrams is on a steep slope, the TC will clip throught the turret roof. It appears that the TC is programmed to start at his feet and then elevate straight up. If the hatch is directly above his feet, that works. If the hatch is offset due to the tank being on a steep slope, that does not work. Savegame available.) Regards, Ken

Huntarr, The shortcomings of anti-armor artillery has been discussed HERE , back in November. Unfortunately, this was never addressed publicly by BF.C. I'm not sure if they didn't see it or just didn't have anything useful to add. There is a lot of "reinventing the wheel" syndrome on these forums. A lot of it is due to the lack of a rigorous approach by BF.C to open issues. If something pops up, gains some thread-life, and is noticed (seemingly at random) by BF.C, then there is a chance it may get addressed. (Note that I am not stating that every issue is correct and needs to be changed, or anything like that.) Regards, Ken

Yes, that does seem to be better. (I have seen my men enter, continue to area target the very building they're in, spraying fire all over. I shudder to think what would've happened had there been enemy there, or nearby, targeting them. Also, the long duration area fire depletes all the grenades. Not what I wanted...) Thanks, Ken

Yes, "face" will stop the shooting. I thought since "Target Light" was ordered at waypoint 1, once the squad got to waypoint 2 the "Target Light" command would be dropped. It is not. Thanks, Ken

Hmmm, I'm not sure. Time to run some tests.

No, you do not understand correctly. AFTER the Light Target command during the 15 delay, the two (or three) elements enter. AFTER they have entered (via "Assault") they continue to area target the building they are now in. They continue to area target (via Target Light) the entire time they are there. This is not the intent of the order. I would have thought the "Target Light" would only last as long as the waypoint delay. I may have a savegame. Regards, Ken

Gents, I've been using a method Huntarr posted when I enter a building. I halt my squad by the entrance with a 15 second pause. I use "Target Light" into the building from the paused waypoint. Next is an "Assault" into the building. From the waypoint IN the building, I will continue the assault or create a "Face" command. My casualties are quite low. But... The "Target Light" action goes on forever. After my men enter the building they continue to "Target Light". And continue. How do I limit the amount of time they "Target Light"? Thanks, Ken

You're welcome. And thank you for not mentioning my labelling error in that last picture. Oops. Regards, Ken

I want to float mines downriver to blow up bridges...

YD, I agree with your preferences: selected unit in replay should be seen with all points. If it's not selected, enjoy the show. I'd also add a "Show all Targets" toggle. Thanks, Ken

Gents, As referenced in this thread, I've noticed some waypoint plotting and playback oddities. The first screenshot shows the Command Phase. All seems good.... Now, in the action phase, it still seems okay.... But, the oddity creeps in the replay phase. Now do you see what I mean? I'd think either the entire path should be shown, or none of it. Any thoughts? Thanks, Ken

Hmmm, it worked correctly for me. Battlefront copy of CMSF v1.08 all-inclusive patch. Add this to the data... Ken

Ahh, so you HAD it, and then it stopped occurring?

M1A1TC, Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought (loader out and manning MG, TC able to fire while up). So, is it important to get those behaviors modelled in game? Ken

Other Means, Well, if you're running XP and I'm running Vista, perhaps we can eliminate the OS as a cause for this glitch. (I assume you still have it.) Post what you've got... Thanks, Ken

Gents, The continued updated to CMSF are improving the game significantly. v1.08 brings a further level of refinement to CMSF. (I had tried to play v1.01 and then put it away until v1.05 or v1.06, due to the various issues.) All these issues were in WEGO. Blast damage to a building wall was visible in playback prior to the "Blast" occurring. In game, the explosion took place about 50 seconds into the turn. In the replay, the destroyed wall was, er, destroyed immediately. The explosion took place at the correct time in the replay. Similar issue with an ATGM impact crater. The crater was visible in the playback prior to the impact. Another graphics item: if I plot a series of points for a squad and add commands to the waypoints such as "Face" or "Target Light", those commands are visible, but not the pathing, during replays. With "Face" or "Target Light" impinging on a building, the free floating blue or yellow line will turn the building transparent. These lines are visible, but the waypoints are not. The next section shows the incredible detail in this game. I thought I found a problem, but it was me.... I've left this section in, with an addendum, to show how incredibly complex the game engine can be. BF.C has done a very good job with this. What follows is the original message I drafted: Original draft follows: Finally, using an M1A1SA and "Target Light" an anomoly popped up. I had a pair of them; one was unbuttoned, the other buttoned. Remember, "Target Light" for both. The unbuttoned M1A1SA showed the loader up out of his hatch. (I did not check the driver.) He operated his MG. The coax operated. The tank commander stayed buttoned up, but the .50 did engage the target. The buttoned M1A1SA only used the coax. With the M1A1SA, I thought the .50 cal could be operated while buttoned up. The graphics/game support that with the tank that was UNbuttoned. Why would the buttoned tank NOT use the .50 when using "Target Light"? Addendum Further testing....Okay, some more information: using the maintenance status tab for the two tanks, I noticed the buttoned up .50 was greyed out, indicating it was not operational. I then ordered that vehicle to "Open Up" and "Target Light". I ordered the other tank to button up and "Target Light". Tank "A" was originally buttoned up with the greyed out .50 cal. Tank "B" was "Open Up"-ed with the working .50 cal with the loader up and the tank commander buttoned. The newly "Open Up"ed tank commander (tank A) popped up, charged the .50, then ducked down. The maintenance indicator for the .50 changed from grey to white. Then the .50 fired while the TC was buttoned up. The original unbuttoned tank (tank fired the .50 while buttoned, then stopped. I did some ammo counting and found out what is going on. The .50 can only be used while loaded. The TC will load and charge the .50 when ordered to unbutton. That gives the .50 100 ready rounds. If ordered to "Target Light" the .50 will fire and its maintenance status will be white, until it fires off the 100 rounds. Then the status turns grey. It cannot fire again until the TC unbuttons. If ordered to stay "Open Up" the TC will automatically reload the .50. If ordered to stay buttoned, the TC will NOT expose himself. If ordered to "Open Up" but with no "Target Light", the loader stays buttoned. This behavior is outstanding. Fantastic detail in an unexpected area. (Edited to add: can the tank commander fire the .50 while he is unbuttoned? In game, this does not seem possible. Would there be target acquisition or situational awareness benefits to doing so? Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to have the loader man his M240 without actively targeting something. Would it be useful to be able to have the loader stay unbuttoned nand manning his MG in some situations in game?) (Okay, now toss in a request: it would be great if there were some sort of unit info screen available so I could've looked up this kind of operational info.) (Another item: looking at vehicles' ammo loads, they are in green for the vehicle. Any ordnance carried that the vehicle cannot use seems to be shown in white. Is this correct?) End addendum As I said, these are minor. The tank anomoly perhaps having a chance to impact gameplay. Thanks, Ken [ April 04, 2008, 01:23 AM: Message edited by: c3k ]

Negative, not fixed in v1.08. Edited to add: no mods, no skins. Everything is default files. This is specific to one or two camera elevations coupled with sloping terrain. Resolution: 1920x1200 evga 8800gtx (standard clocks)/nvidia 169.25 drivers (soon to try 174.74 (?)) Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Ken [ April 03, 2008, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: c3k ]

+1

Steve, Thanks for the detailed explanation. It makes sense if they were receiving sniper fire. Ken

v1.08 is an improvement. Thanks! Regards, Ken

v1.08 is an improvement. Thanks! Regards, Ken

v1.08 is an improvement. Thanks! Regards, Ken

Paper Tiger and Steve, Thank you for the responses. One quick clarification: the LOS down the road does not seem to be a bug to me. Paper Tiger, who seems to understand these things, says it may be. (I'd assume that guys can have some influence on the terrain in their immediate vicinity, barring a hard LOS block such as a tall wall.) Is the LOS which extends out of the road berm towards the town an anomoly? I'm speaking of the blue section of the LOS. It seems to be wrong: but, I have NOT tried to snap a target point down onto the road shoulder using that target line. My penultimate query: since the sniper team is prone in the crater, I assume at some point they will rise up on a knee? If so, what would trigger that? They do not seem to be pinned or under any suppression, yet they are prone. Addendum I ran some further tests on the sniper team. There was some odd behavior. The two team members are "marksman" and "soldier". It took a minute, but Soldier rose to a knee. He stayed for 6 seconds, then went prone with a call of "Down!" I did not see any evidence of incoming fire; the suppression meter did not change; there were no known contact icons. The immediately following turn, with no player commands plotted, the team self moved. The TacAI gave them a "slow" move to a point towards the edge of the wall to their front-left. (In fact, it is the exact point shown in the screenshot, above. I believe that the screenshot plotted move was also a TacAI induced command.) They did not get there. Soldier joined Marksman in the front crater, then stopped. Eventually, Soldier went back up to a knee. At a following point, within a minute, Marksman tucked into the fetal curl position. The suppression meter stayed blank; no incoming fire; no enemy icons. His position lasted a few seconds, then he went back to normal prone. Finally, 3 minutes after the screenshots shown above, both members were up on a knee. LOS was as expected. End addendum. And lastly - I claim official credit for prizing an admission out of Steve that there will be an update beyond 1.08. Thanks, Ken [ April 02, 2008, 02:12 AM: Message edited by: c3k ]