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stikkypixie

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Posts posted by stikkypixie

    Spotting still too easy!

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    Ok, had some time to run some tests.

    Here is the setup:

    - Conditions are default.

    - Axis: ONLY 1 regular (across the board) sniper team on a rocky + brush tile

    - Allied: ONLY 1 regular (across the board) rifle squad HUNTING across 680m of grass towards the sniper team

    - If the rifle squad hit the ground, I left them there.

    - No cover arcs for either squads.

    - I noted the time of the first shot, the time of spotting a <?> and the time for spotting the sniper

    - 10 tests until I got bored :)

    * On average it took 00:01:12 (HH:MM:SS) to get a <?> and 00:01:48 to get a full identification

    * There some deviation on the spotting times: 00:01:45 for <?> contacts and 00:02:01 for

    full contact

    * The minimum to spot was 12 seconds and the maximum time was over 6 minutes

    Although the sample size is quite small, I don't see evidence of spotting being too quickly. The brush and the rocky terrain hardly give any concealment, yet it took on average 1 minute and 48 seconds to spot a sniper. At about 20 seconds per shot, this means that the sniper team could unload 5 rounds before being spotted by a 11 man squad.

    I'll try with a higher concealment tile later :).

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    Why do players not want to change from CMx1 to CMx2

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Yes I agree "borg spotting" is absolutely unrealistic. :D Self contradiction? Purposefull?

    Anyhow I agree that FOW and spotting are a fun part of the game. I just wish it was more logicly programed so that close at hand armored cars wouldnt be invisible. As for my definition of Invisible please refer to the previous post.

    I agree that there may be a link to the way the game is played to how realistic it is percieved.

    I play exclusively single player vs AI turn based. I love to watch the replays over and over. Perhaps thats why CM2's flaws bug me more?

    I see them more. Also over and over again.

    Still waiting on the patches.

    Just curious, but why doesn't the bug in CMx1 where a tank that has just moved by behind cover can still be hit? That was always a game breaker for me, or artillery falling down at the end of the turn while everything on the map is "on pause".

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    Sherman M4 (Late) v PzIVH (Late) static v moving spotting test

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Not in exact figures, i only noted down who got the first shot off, but as i said in my original post, the Sherman was getting a confirmed sighting in the vast majority of the tests within 15 seconds of the PzIV moving into LOS, which i thought was about right.

    No problem, I know how much work these things are. Still have to do some myself. I was wondering because, it's a very binary thing spotting. And if say the Sherman spotted the Pz IV by about a second faster, it would seem less spectacular than 41 out 50 times, although not much ;).

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    Sherman M4 (Late) v PzIVH (Late) static v moving spotting test

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    I set up a test as shown in the attached pictures, the Sherman was static, and the PzIV was ordered to move fast onto the road into the Shermans LOS, stopping at a distance of 750m from the Sherman.

    The crews were Regular, the setting was Elite, the weather was clear, cool, no wind, and dry, and the time was 12:00 noon.

    Both moving tanks were given a cover arc and a 20 second delay to allow the turret to rotate to the correct facing, and to make the tank move onto the road at around the 30 second mark.

    I ran the test 50 times for the static Sherman then swapped the roles, and ran the test 50 times for the static PzIV.

    The results were telling.

    When the Sherman was static, it got the first confirmed sighting and consequently fired the first shot 41 times out of the 50 tests.

    When the PzIV was static, it got the first confirmed sighting and consequently fired the first shot 25 times out of the 50 tests.

    So, if further tests confirm these results, a static PzIVH has no spotting advantage over a tank that moves into its LOS, but the Sherman does.

    I will perform another 50 tests for each situation, but the initial results indicate that the PzIVH has to be tweaked somewhat, also i will try different Axis AFV's to see if the results are just specific to the PzIVH.

    I have put the two .btt test files in a public dropbox folder at the link below if anyone wants to test it themselves, if they do please publish the results on this thread.

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yc57ofm5n8d75uo/tUxIPPodjI

    p.s.

    The Sherman usually missed with it's first shot, but consistently achieved a confirmed sighting within 15 seconds of the PzIV coming to rest.

    When the Sherman failed to get the first shot off, and was not hit itself, it fired within 5 seconds of the first PzIVH shot.

    Do you happen to have the spotting times itself?

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    Spotting still too easy!

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    I did some "test" tests (:)) to see what can be influencing factors and here some observations on the infantry squad spotting the sniper:

    - The spotting time can vary a lot

    - Successful spotting is probably influenced by the aim of the sniper

    - Snipers that hit their mark, or that make the infantry squad duck for cover are not spotted easily

    - Snipers that fail hit suppress their targets, i.e. the squad doesn't cancel its HUNT command, can be spotted almost immediately in the extreme cases

    This done with the rocky+brush tile. And again it seems logical to me. I don't have the time right now to do full testing, but this should be kept in consideration I think.

    0

    Spotting still too easy!

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    To me 10 seconds seems fast...you gotta think most on the receiving end would have their heads down hoping they weren't visible to the sniper. Also the really rocky terrain CMFI is much more rocky than roughest terrain in CMBN. Looks more like boulders than rocks.

    Well there is muzzle flash, sound report and dust being kicked up. Using hunt also tells the guys to be extra on the look out. So it does not seem *too overly excessive*, although it does does feel quick. Also remember that besides the sniper team, there isn't much to distract the squad.

    Anyway, it's all a bit academic really as we don't really have real life numbers to compare, other than stories of squads having trouble spotting snipers or stories of how snipers have to relocate after every shot, but I'll run some tests anyway for the heck of it :).

    I'm planning to do 3 variations: the one you described, one with a wheat tile instead brush and using quick instead of move. That way we should be able to know the influence of having really good concealment and the Hunt command.

    0

    Spotting still too easy!

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    I did a quick test (no repeats) to get a feel of the situation. This is done in CMBN mind you.

    I place my sniper team on rocky + brush (in contact with its HQ).

    I placed the US rifle squad about 600m out of a perfectly flat map (in contact with its HQ as well).

    The first thing that struck me is how bad the spotting is:

    - At first I didn't give any orders to the rifle squad or the sniper squad and neither one of them spotted the other. Mind you this is on a perfectly flat, grass plain. I waited five minutes before proceeding and still no contact.

    - Then I gave a single Hunt order to the rifle squad, moving straight to the sniper's location. The sniper team spotted the rifle team right away, but the rifle team was still oblivious to the presence of the sniper team.

    - It is only when the sniper team started firing that they were spotted (about 10s after the shot hit the dirt). However if the lull between the rifle rounds was long enough, contact would be lost and only the marksman was spotted, not his assistant. Although on the fast side, this did not seem too out of the ordinary to me as visually the combination of rocky + brush does not seem to offer much concealment.

    I'm curious what you guys think. I'll definitely do something more extensive the coming days.

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    Spotting still too easy!

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    My math was off... I wrote down 107 seconds instead of the 1 minute 7 seconds it was supposed to be. So it is 33.1 seconds from the start to spot and 11.1 seconds after first shot. I changed it above but not the other numbers.

    I would like to give your test scenario a go, but you need to provide me with a copy of CMFI with it :).

    Do you have a similar one in BN?

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    CMBN Mac App Store - PDF Manual

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Hi all!

    Before any flaming starts:

    - Yes, I have registered in and searched from the FAQ. Single related hit, which I can't open.

    - Yes, I have searched Forum for App Store - no related hits.

    - No, I haven't read the manual because I don't have one.

    My background:

    I'm an old fan of CM series since 1999. Now few weeks ago I returned to the marvelous CM world by downloading CMBN via Mac App Store (btw it was my first ever purchase through that - just to honour my long-time gaming favourite).

    Mac experience:

    Installation was very easy, which was surprising. After the hard drive swap re-installation was also painless, which was even more surprising.

    But:

    No PDF manual, I have to rely on online version - needless to say how much that su**s.

    - PDF manual is not available via App Store. On the hard drive I have only the game file. When using "Show contents" I still can't find any manuals.

    - When searching from FAQ I found a page http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=29 which promisingly says "CMBN manual PDF for AppStore" - this is also the ONLY related result I get.

    - Instead of manual download I get "ERROR: You do not have enough permissions to access this page. Please log in by entering your e-mail address and password." And yes… I have created an account AND I am logged in.

    As I bet I can't be the only App Store user, this can't be a "bug" for 2 years either. Could you kindly give some advice?

    Thanks in advance,

    geekuma

    Have you tried looking in the game folder itself? That is where it is on Windows.

    0

    multiple units selected

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    I have a problem which is probably not common here (at least I cannot remember anyone else complaining):

    I very often accidentaly select several units through doubleclicking while I only want to move one. Because I often only have one unit on the screen I inadvertently plot the moves for all units. This is very annoying obviously. The cause is probably that I play with a trackpad and the right-click gets lost.

    I would like to ask for a small change: when more than one unit is selected change the cursor so that it shows an additional small '+'. That would help very much.

    I've tried to make a mockup (see attachment) but I'm not much of an artist.

    A small workaround maybe, if you don't already do this, is to set the game to show all movement paths, and if you see that you are plotting moves for multiple units, simply press back space to delete all the move orders at the same time. But it does indeed sound annoying :)

    0

    New features wish list!

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    I would like a HOTKEY option to

    - REMOVE FORTRIFICATION FLOATING INCONS

    I feel that especially in larger battles they really clutter up the screen and make it more difficult to see your other units.

    There mods that help unclutter things a bit. One makes the icons smaller and the other (mine ;)) makes them more transparent. It's not the same of course, but it will have to do for now.

    0

    Skill Level Iron Distinction?

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    The Manual notes one difference between Skill Levels Elite and Iron:

    Friendly units need to be spotted just like enemy units. If you have a friendly unit not in line of sight or in contact with another friendly unit, then the only way to find this unit is by either re-establishing contact with another friendly unit or by clicking through the chain of command in the game interface, jumping from unit to unit.

    While friendly units may not be spotted when the player has a particular unit selected, all friendly units are visible when no unit is selected. Is there something else going on that makes Iron a step up in difficulty? Something with the Tac AI, perhaps?

    TIA for responses.

    The biggest difference is I recall correctly is the increased difficulty in keeping your troops in command. On elite difficulty the visual contact is much more generous than on iron.

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    Comments on Combat Mission Afghanistan

    in Combat Mission Afghanistan

    Posted

    Combat Mission was/is conceived as a tactical wargame, not an operational wargame. It gives you the flexibility to scale up somewhat but that's not what it's good at.

    10 by 10 km maps or "missions" that last more than a couple of hours are not on a tactical scale any more. Things like fuel, fatigue and supply lines then become a factor.

    It would not be realistic to have them in otherwise. They are other games which are more suited for that :).

    I would like to note though, that if you play scenarios that are set at dusk and last long enough, the skies will become brighter. So day/night cycles are in.

    I do agree with you that the game could use some bells and whistles. I do not agree with being to see aircrafts on the map when in reality they are several km away from the action. And as for civilians, that's just one big can of worms.

    Just my two cents.

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    The Enigmatic C2 Strikes Again

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    In my test and the original scenario I have platoon HQs with radios and not under fire, unable to call for that mortar once the MG HQ moves away from the mortar team. Test it yourself if you think I'm not doing it right. If you get different results then we will need to investigate further.

    Having radios is not enough, they need to C2 as well. Your mortars lost C2 to the higher up parent HQ because they were linked via the MG HQ to the Company HQ.

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