RockinHarry
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Posts posted by RockinHarry
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Cool thing!
Hope I´ll find time for checking that out anytime soon!
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3 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:
It's mostly an effect of the 8m square system rather than the 1m subsquare system - soldiers don't understand how to place themselves in a "hull down" position inside that square. They only find cover such as walls, shellholes, and trees.
yep, that I´d meant to say. For learning on the 8x8m node system I recommend toying around with my gridded grass mod and then test play a couple terrain types on it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3q66fac1no7uytz/ground grass.bmp?dl=0
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2 hours ago, chuckdyke said:
There is no evidence, Veteran up to Iron the manual doesn't say anything how it influences Combat Shock and Combat stress. What plays a role are the Soft Factors and the C2.
Yup, what I´d said. Though what do we know about the games under the hood features that BFC never tell us about. I hate all these superfluous discussions just because BFC keeps up this totally unnecessary secrecy on many issues. But oh well.... It may be time to move on.
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4 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:
You will get attrition, and if they take out a team, we take out a squad, if they take out a squad, we take out a platoon. Inspired by the Godfather for that one. It is called escalation, the only thing you can do. If you do that most units are not panicking
yeah, meant something more specific. Likely deserves a seperate thread, but anyway... I know how to deal with all that (in context of general tactics application). More or less lol
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think it´s to do with the overall force morale that is used for the games strategic AI, determining when a force becomes more incapable for further fighting or achieving goals. Mainly an AIP thing I´d guess. It´s likely bits of complicated programming "local area" morale levels and then let the AIP make something of it. Less so for human players normally, but he´s affected by the overall force morale drop as well, but can deal with that better. Maybe game mode ( warrior, elite, iron etc) has an influence as well, IDK.
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6 hours ago, chuckdyke said:
Rattled is the first stage of recovery from a shaken morale stage. My hypothesis is this, if the AI generated the move during a panic or shaken state, we can't probably change it.
Yeah, I´d guess something like that. There's not much we can do if pixel troopers panic, other than help them with other friendly troops, giving cover fire, throwing smoke, and so on. I think the more interesting question is how to prevent troops from panicking in the first place (outside of more random, uncontrollable circumstances). Influence of soft factors, C2, terrain and placement/movements, fire tactics, etc.
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2 hours ago, Erwin said:
Am also curious. AFAIK one cannot cancel a panic move - just change it.
chuckdyke said the unit was rattled, not panicked. Yeah, just movement plot change (not always) as emergency measure.
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14 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:
Here we move to tips for the soft factors. I would suggest screenshots of scenarios played. Yesterday I couldn't cancel the move of a 'Rattled' unit when it was time to plot moves.
how do you cancel the move? I grab-move the movement plot to a different AS, then change move type to crawl. Not reliable as well. Indefinite pause does the trick most the time.
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8 hours ago, chuckdyke said:
I don't think it will, for infantry their marksmanship remains the same when exhausted. To model unfit crews in my opinion they would lose their cognitive abilities after a time. Possibly the status would be green or conscript for the scenario.
very likely, yes. What I´d in mind is that when bailed crews are unfit that they don´t fast move (panicked or broken state) into the landscape. If they can´t "run", then alternatively the TacAI got to force them to slow/crawl instead. That´s the idea. I think dependent upon circumstances this should keep more crews alive. Still haven´t tested yet.
EDIT: Now tested. No, doesn´t work (of course). Erroneous thinking of mine. Crews start in "ready" state so are always free to fast move initially. But maybe have better survival chances once they run away a bit. A bailed test crew (their tank just got shot off under their a**es, with 2 survivors) immediately fast moved (panicked) 30-40 meter or so, then stopped in "tired" (or tiring) state. Got to test that some more. Still find this can be usefull for certain mission design situations. -
Wow! ER2 is definitely a hell lot of fun FPS with fairly good sim elements!
Now bits of busy in both map and scenario editor which is fairly easy to learn and work with. Ground mesh resolution seems 1m, like CM but it´s smoother looking. Very interesting possibilities for map creation in there. Mission design is rather limited but seems it gets fleshed out later.
Found another interesting game (Q4 2023 release) which is labeled beeing more arcade game play. But see how it looks like?
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5 hours ago, chuckdyke said:
Experienced +45C I can tell you after 30 minutes you're finished. I would make a scenario on this guideline alone. Any longer fighting from AFVs only, imagine serving in a Soviet tank. JS3s were outclassed by Israeli Shermans, the Shermans could maneuver, the JS3s were in static defense.
good point, thanks. Though the crew will be effected only if disembarked (voluntarily or not so). I´ll try making tank crews "unfit" and then see if it changes their (TacAI) behavior considerably once forced to bail out. (in panic, broken or routed)
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2 hours ago, chuckdyke said:
That should depend on weather conditions, or previous battles in a campaign. It forces the player to become efficient with waypoint stacking and splitting. Which is a good thing. You can move for most of a turn with some hunting breaks.
yup, normally. Though I´d rarely seen any mission designers making use of the fitness tab. But I also play user made missions very rarely. Use of "weakened" for troops on extended frontline service, unrested, with previous forced march, or for regular troops more generally. "Unfit" mostly for conscripts or special purposes mentioned.
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27 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:
Tired is not that bad it means you can't run fast
Fatigued means you can't run fast or hunt.
Exhausted means you can move or go slow. I found no evidence that it affects marksmanship.
Your FO for example can crawl to his position as long as it takes. I gave up after five turns in an exhausted state. Yes losing the ability to hunt and run is not ideal for a combat unit.
Sorry, I bits of was unclear re "tiring". I meant a tiring game play experience when you wait for some real action to start in a game.
"tiring" infantry units sometimes ain´t bad for AIP play. BFC geared the AIP for "quick", cover avoiding moves. (cover terrain slows down usually). So it´s sometimes not "bad" enforcing AIP units to move into and through cover terrain for some time. AIP units then can "move" (beeing enforced to) towards next objective area if it gives benefits (mission testing reveals if this could be desireable). I also give player units some lesser degrees of "fitness" occasionally. Both for more "realism" (players likely hate that) and if I want denying some units fast move capabilities for special purposes.
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2 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:
Imo the two men are not for finding the enemy, but to find a route where the enemy is absent. I put the guys with binoculars and radios on station. Have a platoon moving to contact.
I find part of what we´re all doing at the start of battles, is actually part of pre-battle recon and intel. In my own missions I almost always give some pre battle intel to both player and AIP. Maybe 10 to 30%, depending on what I´d imagined the RL battle would´ve been. While it would be desirable to have just certain units apply to that "PBI", one can also use Reinforcements (past T5 at the earliest) for same effect. Just have particular single units placed on the map at start of the game and set PBI to 100% generally. All reinforcements coming in at/after T5 wont apply to PBI and must be spotted normally. Much more realistic than adding a long recon phase to the mission, particularly when mission designer gives too little time for mission completion. But I like GeorgeMC´s way as well, or generally mission times beeing longer ones. Recon is fun, but can also be tiring.
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19 minutes ago, Erwin said:
I wouldn't sacrifice for no reason deliberately. But, in the vast majority of scenarios one doesn't have time to have guys with binocs sit around for 5+ minutes to spot things. My experience is that it's faster to send out numerous 2-man teams all over the map to quickly get a sense of enemy locations. However, it's very very hard to keep em alive. I always move em with numerous waypoints with 5-20 second pauses and HIDE commands. However, usually, if they spot an enemy, they are already quite close and tend to get shot up even when hiding.
well, for me it´s more the net effect of getting intel where I planned for the main effort. So no need for me to need knowing everything of the enemies dispositions. A few well supported eyes (binocs) at key locations (oftentimes one got to fight for them beforehand) does the trick and helps on preservation of own forces. But that all goes now more toward general attack and defense plans for which there´s no panaceas of course.
For mission design I usually apply similar techniques when it comes to AIP scripting. Much of what we do can in fact beeing applied to AIP scripted plans as well which is fairly cool actually. But that just as a side note (deserving a different thread).
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1 hour ago, chuckdyke said:
The manual is very vague, in all honesty I must say the pre play analysis can take a lot of time. It varies from scenario to scenario. Take Hammersflank for example. The Regimental HQ has the only radio in its formation. The only way units can contact him is by the Company HQ mounting an SU76. But is this realistic? We have the hypothetical field telephone which enables a single guy HQ of the engineers to call of map mortars. The field telephone can pop up anywhere as the player sees fit. Reading plenty of books re Soviet Army WW2 preplanned is the only realistic way to go. I select usually one platoon to act as FO for the off map. On the map I have a very hard look for enfilade positions for direct fire. It is fine but a manual should be more detailed of how to play each game correctly.
a feature that I like in GT Mius very much. (field telephones)
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7 hours ago, Erwin said:
I wouldn't argue with that. I was thinking of the HQ Support, XO's, Co CO's. Some battery commanders are required to be close to their mortars to enable C2. Not sure why since other units with radios should be able to keep the mortars in C2.
Mortar Plt HQ was just an example and in fact I very rarely use them for mentioned recon purposes, unless scouting for a good mortar combat position during mobile battles. One their historic purposes as said. (I´ve couple regulations and manuals on historic use)
Of course I just can make use of what´s available in a given scenario ORBAT. HMG Plt HQ is always a good choice and then I subordinate (put into C2 range) its single HMG teams to Coy or Btl HQ´s. But much more frequently I send forward the split off part of a squad carrying the Binocs (leader section) and keep the support part for overwatch roles. And I never "sacrifice" a 2 men scout team for drawing enemy fire type of recon. Waste of resources and weakening the parent squad IMHO.
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12 hours ago, Thomm said:
Maybe this link works:
Thanks again! Just read through that guide and found I´d have missed half of ER2´s key commands and associated functions!
Marco´s such a cool and talented guy! Hats off to him! 
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8 hours ago, benpark said:
They are working on the animations, starting on FPS weapon red-do's, then on to the ones that you see the AI using/3rd person.
Yeah, saw it in steam news.
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1 hour ago, ViperAssassin26 said:
So I noticed Durring the first scenario in the training campaign, I chose to line a squad along the hill to fire at enemies in the open. But they seem to want to stick their entire body over the burm. Has there been a patch released to fix that?
it´s how the game works and when dealing with 1m size terrain (mesh) resolution. Ground mesh is 8x8m nodes per action spot and single soldiers can only stop and position themselves on these 1m nodes. Unless BFC goes lower ground mesh resolution (half a meter or 1 foot maybe) in next game engine (V5 something), there won´t be a patch for that.
Among what you can try to do solving these situations is:
1. do slow (crawl) move into such an action spot (AS) and before the pixeltroopers reach the crest, hit "P" key repeatedly so they do an indefinite stop/pause in situ.
2. Don´t move into that last AS at all and remain one AS in front of it. This might give terrain cover for when soldiers are lying prone (hide command, H key), but can spot and shoot at enemies once some come into sight by standing up to kneel or standing stance.
There´s some more methods, but these are the ones that I´ve in memory ATM
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1 hour ago, Erwin said:
Scouting in CM2 is dicey. Yes, there are usually a lot of apparently extraneous HQ's. However, for "realism" sake I try to avoid sending out 2IC's and extra HQ's etc as I figured that in RL they would not be used like that. In RL one would send out the FO's as well. But, I find that whoever gets sent up front/scouts have a short life, no matter how careful one is (unless one has enuff time to SLOW move them and let them sit and watch for several minutes when getting close to a possible enemy). A few designers (looking at you GeorgeMC) are wonderful in creating 2.5 hour missions where once has enuff time to do very careful scouting. Most designers put time pressure on one, and in those cases, one has to run the scouts as (dangerously) far forward as quickly as possible so that one does not run out of time at the end.
Also, as previously noted, the more scouts, the more info gathered asap the better. I often will break 2/3 of my inf into two-man scouts to "saturate" the map. The problem with CM2 is that one is generally left with a bunch of 7-man teams which cannot be broken down.
That using small HQ´s is unrealistic is not quite true. German HMG Plt commanders, Battery commanders and staff personal from other HQ´s were frequently sent for recon. Of course it was more for scouting a particular units (new) combat positions, but other staff personal was oftenly sent for actual combat recon. Anyway... unless I want "sacrificing" a normal split off team, I keep prefering small teams that MUST have a binocular for watching at stand off ranges. Anything else of course is always situational dependent. And if given scenario doesn´t include spare HQ teams.
Yeah agree. Putting too much time pressure on a player by giving ridiculously short mission times, is more to hide a scenario designer´s unwillingless to put more thought into his design. It´s sort of an extra very artificial "difficulty" level.
There´s maybe cases where real time pressure is part of a particular engagement (grab a bridge, before it gets blown up etc.) but otherwise. The CM mission editor allows multiple ways to make a scenario more challenging and interesting.
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1 hour ago, Vacillator said:
I like this and will have to give it a try. Perhaps everyone else knew?
Anyway I'm becoming quite the acquirer of stuff like bazooka tubes which happen to be on quite a few of the vehicles in the CMBN game I'm playing at the moment. Hope my opponent doesn't read this.
I also do this when available (mostly for HMG teams, not so often for regular infantry). They are (7.92mm AP) better off in the hands of infantry, because if HT's shoot at something armored, it can probably shoot back. But I never completely empty HT's with 7.92 AP. Sometimes it is useful to "disembark" 1-2 HT's in the editor, so that some ammo boxes can be placed on the map that contain this special ammo. Standard ammo boxes unfortunately do not contain this. The same goes for hand grenades and rifle grenades. It's a complete mystery to me why BFC didn't bother to include them.
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41 minutes ago, Thomm said:
There is definitely an effect. Above a certain load you are no longer able to run and it is quite annoying (as it should be.) Not sure which realism setting is required for this.
that´s my guess as well. Likely highest difficulty. I´d started and remained with default and there I didn´t noticed encumberance.
29 minutes ago, Thomm said:Maybe this link works:
thanks! Didn´t have a look at steam guides yet.
Here´s some other interesting stuff Corvo Studio is doing! Unity 3D seems way to go it seems (BFC have a look at that!
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Second Front
in General Discussion Forum
Posted
Toyed around some more with ER2 map and mission editor. Thus far achieved good results incl. molded into terrain mesh trenches and other nice stuff.
Also terrain sculpting is fairly easy and intuitive.
Also did bits of tanking on my test map and that was much fun as well. Devastated my test map ...lol (with StugIIIG) and found they´d just recently added persisting hit decals on AFV and pillboxes as well. Haven´t discovered everything yet, but looks like this all keeps me busy for some time to come.
Great wargaming times (again) with Second Front, a tank sim (Gunner, Heat something lol) and Easy Red 2. With more on the horizon.