Cyrrus

Sorry, habe been away for a while. Yes, tanks tarcks are quite different from those on bulldozers and other civilian tracked vehicles. Tank tracks are made for high speeds, civilian vehicles usually move at walking speeds. also, civilian tracked vehicle usually have to lug around great heavy loads, so the tracks are mostly there to prevent them from sinking into the ground, whereas tank tranks provide mobilty, the ability to jump small trenches, steep hills etc. The Castle Martin training area at Salisbury is great. Treacherous though, high grass makes it difficult to see rocks etc. usless there erected in some wierd druid fashion But flipped a Challenger, impressive. I once saw a picture of 2 challengers who drove into each other.

Beats me why I fell in love with tanks, but for some strange reason I did. Guess it started with WWII german panzers, which I still love (specially the Panther). Of course I also became a tanker so I must be insane.

Thanks. Thread closed me says.

I'm a proffesional tanker, so I'm quite familiar with "hull down". Hull down in all directions is impossible in normal terrein, however, tank tactics are based on keeping your front armor towards the enemy, so hull down is 1. minimising your profile and 2. extra protection on your front armor. In other words, hull down is always relative to your front armor. That explanation brings me back to the flawed AI, if I give the "hull down" order, the last thing I want my AI driver to do turn the weak back end of the tank towards the enemy or driving direction. That's a serious flaw in the AI. The other example I gave was in a ditch I'd driven towards myself, and the AI driver turn the tank 90 degrees... Jumping from seat to seat is great, and I realise that doing it yourself is best, I certainly want to do most things myself, however, in combat I really need the AI not to play tricks on me. The "hull down issue is certainly programmable as other sims have shown, therefore my question remains. [ September 20, 2005, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: Cyrrus ]

I'm running into stuff I hadn't really expected, meaning that I feel the AI is shaky at times. I'll give some examples.... When I issue the order "Hull down" my AI driver doesn't drive up to the mountain ridge, but turns the tank around and drives backwards towards the ridge. I was in a dug in tank position and all of a sudden my AI driver decided he wanted the front of the tank in a different direction, result was I had my side towards the enemy. These are two examples of highly irratating AI flaws. In my humble opinion these are the details that make for a good sims.... My question, is anything going to be done about this in a future patch?

It's realistic however... Although unlikely to break instantly when driving over a rock. It usually damages the track, so when you make a sharp turn the track breaks. Especially at high speeds that can be fatal. I've only seen it happen once during my 3 years as tanker....

Now imagine that you're outside the tank, working like crazy to repair the damage... I'd stay inside till I was fairly certain that I'm out of range and sight of the enemy and then start working on my track.

I'm a RL tanker and I suppose it differs per tank... First something on tracks. A RL track is made up of seperate track links. "Losing" a track can just mean that the track doesn't connect with the drive wheel properly. This is usually due to turning at low RPM's (sands pushes the track of the drive wheel). This can be repaired in about 2 mins, as it's just a matter of carefully driving the track back on. Actually breaking a track ( Disconnecting two track links) is a far more labourious task. You have to remove tension from the track, unscrew the bolts keeping it together, replace a tracklink, replace the track on the running wheels (A track can weigh anything drom 300 kgs (APC) to 1500 kgs (Leopard 2 MBT) and reconnect the track. This takes a trained tankcrew about 3 hours... Al this of course based on the Leopard 2, not a russian T series tank.

It's a shame that you haver to use the sight... AA mg mounts are more often used for close quarter defense than AA tasks....

If any of you can get their hands on it, there's a very nice tape of the 2000 Dubai Firepower show. I think Discovery Channel actually featured it once or twice. Great demos by the T-90, T-80 and T-84 MBT's

I agree, it's arcade like, and that usually sucks if you like realism... might be fun to toy around with though