Mud

Also depends what they're carrying. If you first loaded up with a CLU, 3 Javelins, and extra ammo... 'fast' still moves at the same speed, I believe, but with substantially more fatigue cost.

Heh. Imagine settings in the scenario editor for how recently troops have showered, or what they've recently eaten. :eek:

It's already been stated that movement lines are making their reappearance in 1.03, I believe. And the keyboard hotkeys/relative keys funkiness was a new feature in the last patch.

Lens flare seems a bit silly, at least when we're not looking through the eyes of a particular unit.

Some ATGMs -- those particular ones included -- also have a minimum effective range.

CM:SF wouldn't have to be open unless it incorporated software that had a viral license. Linux -is- heavily forked, however -- resulting in fun-fun compatibility issues and headaches from the multitude of packaging systems; and seems quite likely to have a user base that is disproportionately averse to buying software. Plus, due to the fact that most commercial games aren't available, gamers that use Linux also are fairly likely to dual-boot or use another system. Adding support for more OSes would also require finding qualified beta-testers who have those platforms.

Only if BFC knew how to model civilian behavior. Which means they'd have to cover the various motivations civvies might have for being in a hot battlefield, instead of seeking shelter or having already fled the city. It's a ludicrously hard problem for unclear gain.

The Javelins aren't meant to be fired from inside the vehicle. Select passengers. 'Acquire' -- Javelin command module. 'Acquire' -- 1-3 Javelin ATGMs. Disembark. Target tank with the infantry.

How about Ogres? http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/

Should work, provided there's no ambiguity -- theoretically, you could give Javelins to two teams which would both fit in one vehicle, I believe. Obvious non-UI-workaround is to move in one team at a time. *shrug* That leaves the case of ditching gear to live -- eg. not taking the time to pack up a currently-deployed machine gun or ATGM launcher system if bothering to pack it means you'll die, judging from the AH-64 that's currently strafing in your direction or the heavy spotting rounds landing right near by, or so forth. If I understand correctly, non-deployed heavy weapons systems aren't directly a problem when fleeing, because they don't reduce max speed -- just increased fatigue rates -- and dropping the system won't help fleeing unless you have to run far enough that the fatigue kicks in. A deployed system, however, reduces speed to zero while re-packing, which is a bit more immediately dangerous.

One observation: you are tasked with dislodging the enemy, but it is not specifically ordered to capture any of the buildings intact. If you don't want to go as far as leveling buildings, yes -- suppress more. Give time for suppressive fire to work. Look for approaches that minimize exposure. Consider smoke.

Ah, going for top-attack I see.

You can pick up to 3 in an Acquire. Once picked up, you can't drop them. If you don't know how many it's going to take to destroy a particular target that you expect to be fairly tough (ex. SF HQ in Mission 2... or a vehicle that you might actually *miss*), you have a few choices. -Pick up one at a time, making multiple trips in and out of the vehicle. This seems slightly silly, and is probably inefficient in WEGO. -Have multiple squads each pick up a CLU and Javelin, and likely burden some squads with an unused missile -- but at least it'll be only one. -Pick up multiple, and risk having to carry around 'extra' missiles until you either need to expend them, or until the scenario ends. -Magically guess the exact number you'll need to use.

Letting enemy troops take heavy equipment off your corpses seems to be a strictly inferior choice to letting enemy troops take heavy equipment from the location you just vacated. It's especially inferior if the equipment isn't as useful because it's out of ammo (ex. heavy AT-14 launcher, no missiles) or because you also set demo charges or called in 155mm before you left. There are options.

Health bars. There's room for informative add-ons, like using a colored border around the icon to indicate morale/condition.

Seems a 'drop equipment' option would also be useful in certain situations outside of returning items to vehicles -- notably, when it's time to hustle and you'd rather risk losing the Javelins, MGs, AT-4 et al then lose the people.

I had in mind things like the guns on an AH-64 for this, although it may make sense for AC-130's -- haven't checked that, or whether they're even available -- or, if they're added in at some point, UAVs. It'd also have to be balanced in terms of total endurance, so that a scenario designer could impose -some- limit if the player's forces aren't the only priority for the air assets.

For at least some of the aircraft models, seems it'd make sense to allow designation of an area in which the air support is to make a pass through (in terms of area covered, not in the strict sense of overflight) while engaging targets of opportunity, without designating specific target. Or to engage multiple point targets within a particular vicinity, but without actually directing them to obliterate all the area in between unless it seems appropriate.

Surely the "Americans" outside the base are merely Communist infiltrators out to destroy baseball, apple pie, and the purity of your essence. I'm slightly surprised I haven't seen any Uncon-Uncon city scenarios (think Lebanese civil war, say) or really silly concept maps (like two mechanized forces racing -- most points for crossing your own checkpoints, with intersecting tracks and perhaps a non-point detour to an overlook), but perhaps the crowd here has too much taste for that.

One could summarize quite a bit, and provide a reasonable allowance for estimation error (would an Uncon necessarily even *know* the weight of the warhead on his RPG-7, or how much of what type of armor is facing him on various parts the Stryker?), if there were rough indicators of hit/kill likelihoods. Doesn't have to be all that accurate -- in particular, untrained troops early in the conflict might plausibly over/under-estimate their own effectiveness, or that of the enemy. A scared, untrained soldier might think that -nothing- he could do would work. Doesn't have to be precise to be useful -- just enough to suggest that a shot probably wouldn't be effective (too close to arm, too far, too good cover/concealment, too effective armor, whatever) or whether the unit would think it'd be a reasonable shot to try. It's more important while units are either rarely or never auto-unhide, making ambushes a bit tricky, and when units will willingly obey even fairly stupid targeting orders, or continue them when they're no longer valid (ex. a dismounted squad targeting a buttoned T72 from 500m away, that just missed with their only Javelin -- continuing on to small-arms fire is largely pointless). An extension would be the opposite -- estimation of threat level (ex. querying your M1 crew as to whether they think the RPG team spotted 500m away is a significant threat to the M1) -- which again would be an estimation.

It's a military outpost with no civilians, isn't it? And with no orders placing any value on capturing it even slightly intact... Doesn't sound unreasonable to level the compound, and you ARE assigned those lovely 155mm assets...

Hm. I didn't see any problems sending Strykers or infantry through walls breached by MGS fire during the second campaign. Well, not pathfinding issues, anyway. So -some- breaching with cannonfire works. The pathfinding issues I've had so far mostly concern the middle of cities, with odd detours.

Reminds me of the 'Sherwood Fusiliers' scenario in CMBO. If you're willing to tolerate heavy initial losses as the Germans, and playing the not-quite-prepared-for-this AI, you can charge hard enough to shatter the initial British line -- and be in position beside the road where the column of reinforcements shows up. Not pretty.

And there's already code to select point / line / area on the map in CM:SF. "The enemy is probably going to come down that road in the distance. Advance up this slope until you're in position to shoot at 'em when they do" seems to be a not implausible directive. It's not possible right now, because LOS is abstracted (sometimes through terrain). So unless you're willing to babysit one unit, constantly check LOF (which differs from LOS), and abort the move order ASAP (in WEGO?), while losing all awareness of the rest of the battlefield...

Wrap-around maps would be interesting.