Squatdog

"Combat Mission's spotting system is completely infallible. Nothing to see here." -Womble

I find Berlin-Barbarossa plays much better than Red Thunder; which struggles to realistically model soldiers on a 1:1 basis. The degree of abstraction in the original games actually added to the realism IMO.

Japanese schoolgirls driving WW2-era tanks? Perfectly normal.

In other news, Russia's mechanised forces will be riding unicorns into battle. CGI rendering:

I blame the Rote Kappelle.

Tactical bicycles. Tacti-cycles.

Perfectly capable of knocking out any tank in service. Fear the Sturmbicyclejager.

This sums up every post. You can clearly see that the tree is modelled 1:1 because it detonates the Panzerfaust and first grenade.

They were completely incapable of seeing a 35 ton tank sixteen metres away, directly in front of them, in the open, under bright sunshine, even after one of them pulled out a pair of BINOCULARS. After the obligatory 10 seconds of 'realism', they suddenly COULD see it. If the brushes and trees are abstracted as you claim, why did the grenade and Panzerfaust get detonated by the tree directly in front of the tank?

The tank is SIXTEEN METRES AWAY and unobscured by foliage. One of the section PULLS OUT BINOCULARS, yet is still incapable of seeing a 35 ton sitting tank directly in front of him. After the magic 10 seconds of 'realism' pass, the sections in both clips can suddenly see the tank sitting directly in front of them, which was previously invisible. LMFAO!!! The tank was sitting DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THEM in both clips.

Clearly an amazing coincidence.

The spotting mechanics determine an aggregate vision radius for a unit and checks yes/no to whether an enemy has entered that vision radius. Very straightforward and not something that will overwhelm the humblest of PCs. "You disagree with me, therefore troll"

The ISU-152 idled for roughly 10 seconds almost directly in front of the Hetzer, yet somehow remained invisible Instance 2: foliage. The Panzershrek was INSIDE the bush and otherwise had an unobstructed view. Instance 3: Smoke. As soon as the smoke cloud dissipates the Hetzer spots its target. You can clearly see that smoke didn't obstruct the target. Even when the ISU-152 was covered with heavy smoke after being knocked out and pelted with grenades, it was STILL VISIBLE to the Hetzer. Instance 4: There are two trees that are "trunks only" between the T-34 and the Hetzer. The T-34 got lucky and spotted the Hetzer before being spotted in return. What a LOAD OF CRAP. The Hetzer was completely incapable of detecting the T34 from when it slowly lumbered into view, right up to the moment that it was knocked out by the T34s third shot. FORTY-THREE SECONDS LATER. * take two companies if infantry. Call it 150 eyeballs a side, and 150 targets. That's 150^2 potential spotting checks per cycle. For round numbers, let's say there's an average of 10 cycles per minute, so in an hour, 600 cycles times 22500 = 13.5 million potential checks per hour. And that's just one company a side. Many, many of those checks are handled "in summary" by the LOS table, but it's all part of a system that, generally, works. What a LOAD OF CRAP. Out in the real world, it's a simple matter of coding an algorithm that extrapolates a basic vision radius and checks yes/no to whether an enemy is visible.

So at first you claimed that you personally experienced "none of those issues"...and now you actually HAVE experienced these issues. I see. ...and it's an absolutely LUDICROUS assertion and a mealie-mouthed excuse for broken mechanics that might require extensive re-coding to fix. The engine can't handle spot-checks more than once every ten seconds? Really? REALLY??? Driving your hetzers into face to face conflicts where they don't belong and stressing the engine in the bargain. LOLWUT??? The Hetzers were ambushing enemy armour by enfilading them from concealed oblique positions, while protected from close attack by infantry. That's TEXTBOOK use of tank destroyers in an urban environment.

Oh please. This is quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Yet I managed to record no less than FOUR separate instances in ONE GAME??? Let's face it, the reason it 'works pretty darn good for you' is that you are the milsim equivalent of a role-player and will practically turn cartwheels in an effort to explain away any discrepancies. The two later clips have the Hetzer being unable to detect enemy armour DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THEM at close range. The first clip shows a 45 ton assault gun slowly lumbering around the corner directly into the field of view of a Hetzer (specifically located to ambush enemy armour) yet manages to remain completely invisible. It's interesting to note how 'Fry's' Email address is remarkably similar to your user tag. Things that make you go hmmmmm...