SlapHappy
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Posts posted by SlapHappy
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I didn't know about the waypoint limitation.....that's good to know.
One useful gap-filler (since the TAC-AI lacks the capability) would be to use it to have enemy AI BLUE troops equip their Javelin launchers and pre-deploy to overwatch positions.
Also, convoy movements. This is actually what I experimented with, and it's tricky. I was able to get a line of 4 humvees to move along a pre-programmed path by using baked movement and pause features. But if anything goes awry, the units will abandon their pathing and eventually stall...permanently.
I also didn't realize you couldn't combine it with regular AI stuff, which REALLY limits usefulness except in very simple scenarios (as you mention).
I have to agree it does feel sort of like an afterthought. It sort of makes me wonder what BFC's intentions were with this particular feature. Was it something other than the things others have already done and the things I mentioned above?
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Helicopters don't really seem to loiter to me. In fact they get treated very much like strike aircraft in the game. They "come around". I'm sure they can be used like that, but I can see how it would be useful if they had a longer term presence in an area instead of just an "in and out" maneuver. Otherwise the substantive difference between the jets and the copters is simply that the jets pack bigger bombs (OK, that's a fairly big difference when you've got 2000 pounders to play with). Think of the target of opportunity possibilities with that capability.
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Could you describe in a little bit of detail what parts of your mention use BAKED commands in the Ranger Run scenario?
I've played around with this feature a little bit, but want to know your impressions on working with it.
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Wow....the number of PZ IV and V inclusively outnumber everything else combined.
Would have expected a higher number of STUG's......
Numbers of PZ III are lower than I expected too...but it makes sense when
the organizational structure of the Panzer divisions is taken into account at the time.
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I like it. Makes a lot of sense.
If you're performing poorly as a group commander you would be sidetracked to auxiliary tasks rather than be given the lion's share of the critical ops.
It's similar to other games downshifting difficulty level in ongoing battles where the player is performing poorly - but with a foundation of realism to back it up. It simulates the "higher ups" over-viewing and critiquing your results.
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My bad, v. 1.11 came out in December......
So much for patterns.
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I know the official mantra for releases has been "when it's ready"....
But has anyone noticed that so far the release schedule has followed a very close semester pattern?
CMSF Base Game - Late July (the 27th I believe)
CMSF Marines - Late December
CMSF British Forces - Late July again
And now we have heard that CM Normandy is slated before "the end of the year".
Well, what's the latest one can push back the release and still fall in this year?
Late December.
Earlier would be good, too, BFC.......
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Heh heh....sounds like Dave's train has sailed.
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I had a lone survivor from an HQ troop in a silly little MOUT test I just got through conducting. He was an Elite Brit with an L85 still slugging it out with an entire squad in a building about 60-70 meters away. Once he ran out of ammo I had him pick up a minimi via buddy aid to one of the many fallen soldiers. After he ran through that, I sent him back to pick up another weapon (or ammo) from another group of dead/wounded.
But he wouldn't pick up any other weapons after that. He still clung to the minimi despite having no ammo. He passed on 3 other L85's as well as an L86. I know for a fact these weapons were never fired in the test, so the troopers had ammo available.
Can soldiers only pickup replacement weapons/ammo once?
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Perhaps he was carrying a DIE HARD battery?
Oh, guffaw, guffaw, I do crack myself up........
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Theater of War - 1C's WWII game published by Battlefront.
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Personally, I think cover arcs only concern themselves with where to direct fire vs. any spotting bonus.
Still, would be interesting to test it out and see!
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Perhaps Taki means is it modelled in the sense of an accuracy advantage it gives when actually using the weapon, which is more important than whether or not it actually shows the soldier firing a spotting round.
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Ok, just after posting, I realized how stupid part of the above comments sound considering some modern vehicles have optics and electronics which blow the doors off even the best sniper scopes.
But I hope you follow my point regarding the sniper's seemingly limited spotting abilities.
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Regarding sniper fire against enemy troops in buildings:
It seems overtly hard to get target acquisition on enemy firing out of windows for snipers. And by that I mean that they don't seem to have any comparative advantage vs. even crew men inside vehicles. In fact, I have seen situations where MGers in vehicles even buttoned have spotted firing enemy in buildings that my snipers could not. I feel that snipers with their optics should have an increasing advantage to spot enemies especially in localized areas where they may have spotted enemy fire previously. The more the enemy fires, the quicker he can be zeroed in by a sniper who has LOS to that area. Instead, the snipers seem to be "looking all over the place" in their spotting routines like normal troops. Once an area exhibits fire, the spotting should go from generalized "eyeball" spotting to scan with the scope and acquire.
My most frustrated is when normal infantry can target an enemy chappy and the big bad sniper next action spot over is totally oblivious. I first noticed this in the Brit demo. Makes me wonder about how the details of the spotting routines actually work. Is it possible that troops who are being fired upon have a much higher probability of spotting than the squad or sniper next door? That doesn't make much sense on the face of it, but could be a limitation of calculation power in the engine overall.
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I tend to like to play the same way...slow and deliberate. However, that seems to work best in WEGO mode vs. Real-time where turn-based play is more efficient time wise.
Unfortunately, I prefer playing real-time...which is an interesting dilemma.
Lately, I've tried a hybrid approach where I issue several commands while in paused real-time mode and then let things play out a bit before making adjustments. That way I can intervene at a time of my own choosing rather than being fixed by the one minute increments. A LOT can happen in one minute.
This is where the DELAY command comes into it's own. If you practice you can coordinate several units together using the above methodology.
This could also possibly be a method for an "Iron Man" type of play where you are required to plot long-range orders for your troops and then maintain a hands-off until several minutes of play have passed. This would represent a higher-level commanders inability to immediately influence events on the battlefield. Of course, it puts you more at the mercy of the TAC-AI, which could spell trouble
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....like the Scimitar?
Will the Warrior have a similar loadout for its Rarden cannon?
I hope not. The lack of anti-infantry capability will be noticed with only 30-40 rounds available when facing large enemy infantry formations.
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A little more back on-topic, the Scimitar seems to be loaded-out to fight mostly armored units, but I can't see this thing going toe to toe with anything but maybe a BTR.
The insignificant amount of HE ammo makes it less of a threat to the soft-skinned targets it could face down. The integrated MMG helps, but is everyone else than impressed with capabilities of most vehicle MG's in the game? They do seem to suppress better than small arms, of course, which gives some merit.
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Might be that in your average CMSF size map they are too close to the fighting. Guess most recon stuff is done by stealth and perhaps at longer distances. Or screening the main adavance/line and bugging out when the bad boys show.
Which would be great if this had some practical purpose in the actual game.
I just had a thought though....isn't their a little-used point value capability for simply spotting enemy units? Couldn't you simply augment your points that way with these units without engaging at all? Then bring in the big boys to rack up enemy kills? Of course, I would want to have the ability to move these units off-map in this case, which is something we can't currently do.
Of course, there is still the problem that most of my recon units don't seem to spot better than the enemy non-eyeball guys......
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In one scenario in particular I got into the habit of racing my Scimitar to the back of a nearby 3 story building, bailing out and dashing to the roof to have a look around! Recon is as recon does.
You could do that with a Volkswagen
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I think the fundamental difference between some of these concepts is overlay/gui notifications vs. on-map notifications. You always can see the overlay/gui - the map...not so much. I think we need both, even with the argument of replication of information
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Yeah. I've been pretty measured in my criticisms of CMSF, because all in all I think it's an incredible simulation, but this question of spotting and effective use of recon units is still puzzling me. Either their advantages aren't fully fleshed out in the system, or I simply can't figure out how to exploit them.
Right now, I can only regard recon units as "less effective" combat units because of my lack of ability to understand their role in the actual game engine.
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Its just the learning curve. In no time distinguishing 5.56 weapons from 7.62 weapons becomes automatic. For the a short while it might be useful to occasionally move your cursor over any strange weapon icon to get its name, then drop out of the game and Google it. Within 10 seconds: Ohhhh, so THAT's what a L115A3 sniper rifle is!
Heh. Except that's a bad example because the sniper rifle guys don't draw their ammo from the common squad/vehicle pool. Or has that changed since the newest patch?
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How about a fade-in, fade-out graphic in the upper right corner that consists of the floating icon for unit type, followed by a number of soldier icons equal to number of casualties which are individually color-coded with the injury type (Red, Yellow, Brown).
You could also have vehicle/tank icons with color coding. This way you get very exacting information with out having to stop and read text. If you see an infantry icon followed by about 6-7 red and brown soldier silhouettes, you know you better be hitting the pause button!
Looking for legend of printed map that came with game
in Combat Mission Shock Force 1
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Just curious, why the decision to go with Dutch forces as opposed to say, the French?