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The fact that the Hermes doesn't target shots going faster than 1000 is often what makes it desireable to deploy against ATGM and mortar fire. It is interesting to note that 20mm HE is fired at 900 and the 14mm coax is fired at exactly 1000. I'm guessing (I haven't tried) once air resistance gets through with either they'll be viable for distracting the Hermes.

A replay would be useful for finding (serverside) bugs but would for the most part be uninteresting. Usually it's pretty obvious how a team won or lost. And in a game with 9 players and half using infantry, I'd much rather have as much CPU power as possible to spare for the poor server. I'd prefer simpler trackings of stats.

The bots certainly have to be more receptive to sounds, and they don't seem to consider 20mm much of a threat even if they know about it. If the 20mm isn't the only vehicle in the fight, that is. 20mm under 1500m in particular should be getting a very high destruction/facing priority.

I've seen this in multiple places. I have a theory. There's a value in the XML known as 'spottable points' - what I think they're for is figuring out if you can see the paladin or not, but it might not account for flipping. If all of these are on the top of the paladin, and they end up underground, you can't really see it, can you?

The term is wrangling. Gotta let the bots know thier place, otherwise they get all uppity. Pull trigger. Optionally, aim. You can get some good extra range out of it, just bear in mind the nade will be coming down at a very hard angle and your target surface area will be diminished. I ask because of Montard*, he seems to have this overstock of HE he's looking to unload. Not to push the envelope of overexpectancy or anything, but is there any word on the different ion physics?

Sure. Don't know if this will work after the next patch, though. In your dropteam\mods folder, make a new folder. There already should be one in mods called 'Base'. Don't mess with that one. In your new folder, make another folder called data. You now should be sitting in your dropteam\mods\newfolder\data directory. Put the three files I have included in there. What is required to have a mod is a simple text document called Description.txt. In that file, just stick a little line for whatever your mod should be called. Now start up dropteam, go to the mods tab, and select your new mod. It's titled whatever you put in your descriptions.txt, and will currently stay active no matter where you connect to. It is a useful fact that this new directory uses the same structure as the dropteam\data folder - nearly any file you put in your mod folder will take the place of the same named file in \data. This is useful for more than just textures - I recommend putting the Profanity.xml file in here and editing it to get full 'color' for the next time you play. You can also make another directory called \sound (inside data) to put something in place of that godawful BackLoop.wav - never put up with that mind-melting loading loop again. I use a re-named ControlRoom.wav for this purpose.

I agree. Camera should probably just approach the attached object rather than getting punched upwards.

It's too simple a thing to get all excited about, but it's too simple not to do. Decrease the size of your minimap dots. You can use these as replacements for the original textures. Good for ctrl-m fire or figuring out how powerful that blob on the map really is. Included is a counterbattery indicator that's easier to see through. Of course, all are optional. Either make a mod or replace (after saving) the original files in /data.

The computer, probably. In the commandtrack and mortars it's used for the counterbattery indication and for calling fire missions and the like. On the hermes it's the jammer. The other vehicles have one as well, but I'm not entirely sure what happens if you lose it.

Yeah, it's far better without the really hard dark browns. I might have to drop my settings if I want to keep foliage though, gets a tad hairy in the center...

I'm terrified. Are these quicker dropships still going to sport 75 armour ratings? Can the old air defenses even keep up with them? Can the pods be shot down at all?

Will this then disallow the 'client side' mods? Custom textures, sounds, ect (additional particles...). Sure, you could just replace the ones in /data, but it's a matter of convenience not having to re-do your swear filter, replace the annoying map loop load sound, and re-replace textures every patch. Then again, I suppose this matter of convenience would be a rather large inconvenience to implement. Nevermind me, thinking aloud.

Well, even with green you'll have the discrepancy. Raid, for example, seems to put green texturings under most or all of it's foliage areas. Of course, I'm operating under blissful ignorance of how much work adding those texture masks are.

The coloring of the foliage and terrain differs a bit too much. This isn't a problem in reality, but in DT it kind of is. Case in point, you have those dark colored patches of dirt covered in the yellow grasses. With the way foliage is rendered, the patch looks dark, almost black, from a distance, and it gets progressively more yellow as you get closer and foliage is rendered in. I find this a bit trippy. It's also a bit unintuitive on the minimap too, I guess. Perhaps you can throw some splashings of the foliage texture/coloring into the terrain, however it's done?

Is this online or off? If it's online, it could be related to the "magic flying paladin" problem in this thread. Was it near concrete or some other non-modifiable terrain?

In a universe where everything is depositied by aircraft, you'd better be contemplating air defense. Without their various air defense towers, defenders are the same as attackers, just with some extra turrets. Operationally, they're really no different. Same armanents, same numbers, same rate of reinforcement. This is why the point advantage almost always works out very well for the "attackers" when towers aren't involved. With the towers, it's different. This game is extremely fluid, and the only practical way to limit reinforcement rates (through driving time) is through anti-air coverage. With the superior coverage of the towers, attackers now become the slower-reinforcing team, (for all practical purposes) and the objective point advantage in theory offsets that. I don't quite think this dynamic is quite right yet, but that's how things are currently working. Our air defense in general is kind of goofy, and shifts from outright guessing game to complete nonthreat with a single jammer. I've suggested messing with it before. This has absolutely nothing to do with the strength of the various antiprojectile point defenses, which appears to be the main complaint lately. I ask that people stop refering to the use of point-defense-anti-projectile stations in combat as just "AAD". It's confusing the issue. The current ion towers don't bother me that much. It shouldn't be that much of an abstraction for a wargamer to consider it a circle of units with very well chosen hull-down positions or something. This circle doesn't move. I can definitely see people having problems with the mobile versions. If there's a problem with the galaxy, then focus on the galaxy. If there's a problem with the hermes, it would be best to think about that. This generalized nonsense gets nowhere.

I'm having difficulty importing objects with blender 2.42. The command track and apollo (so far) have weird problems. The 'track is importing as two huge tracks with a giant clipping and unworkable version of the vehicle off in the distance or something. The apollo is doing the same thing with it's tracks, but instead of the distance thing the chassis is rendered in the center, wheels nowhere to be found. The thor appears to import just fine. The track is thicker than normal, though, and seems to protrude through things.

I'm sorry, I have to ask: The (120mm)thor has a 20mm coaxial. Did you try pressing R?

Units that are killed during the extraction process can still be returned to the pool. For clarification: call the dropship, die somehow. The dropship will pick up your smouldering craptank, and it will return new and shiny to the pool, later. I've seen this numerous times with the Hurricane.

Well, only if you're so inclined. Modding, I know, is very ego-oriented, and I've certainly had my fair share of egoBattle. Since we really only have one full-version sever up and working, I'm interested in units that everyone can enjoy, even making them slightly underpowered if necessary to avoid disrupting normal play. If you want to do your own thing, that's okay. No need to let that Clay guy push you around. I can help with the XML, design critique and - maybe - a tiny bit of animation. The basics of modelling, skinning, and rigging are lost on me, though.

I don't know how to specifically define a jamming or sensor radius. There may not be a way to... yet. A glance at the sensor/jammer/hermes just has them possessing certain subsystems. At any rate, the standard sensor sees through hills, if we want a long ranged version, we might not want that.

Oh, that. That doesn't particularly bother me all that much as they're stationary, and I know where I can go to avoid those who are hiding by them. It's the galaxy surprise that really gets me. Another thing that should probably go in this thread is an emphasis on patience. Yes, we are pressed for time, yes, that AT 'nade kill is cool, and sometimes we're just tired, but a little patience saves a lot of time - and your ass - in the long run. We're all guilty of it, of course, from time to time. Especially for infantry. Save those jets for when you're not near enemies or for when they've already seen you. The first thing I do in a tank when I see/hear those jets (or other infantry activity) is chamber a HE round and punch the throttle. Even if I don't survive I'm taking half your squad with me. Yes, there are circumstances where the jets are neccesary or preferable (mid-air grenade shots are quite doable) but many of you are firing those jets off every time. Player's mindsets and behaviors will change the moment they think infantry is nearby. Hide the rest of your squad or stick them on hold-fire, and consider yourself a slow-motion hermes. I've followed whole groups of enemy tanks around for minutes at a time waiting for that shot. While you're walking, you can at least give your team uncomfortably detailed information about whatever the enemy is doing. If this sounds too slow or too boring, perhaps you should reconsider deploying infantry at all. Other situations include useage of weapons like the 76mm or the 20mm, and generally every attack weapon that benifits from armor facing (all of them). Players circle the Thor group or base looking for an opening, and eventually end up drawing closer and closer out of impatience... There's no need for this. Wait for a teammate (or berate one into doing so) to serve as another target for thier attention. This could be another 76mm, a friendly Thor, or even an infantry squad. The damage you save yourself from taking means you'll still be nearby later to intercept enemies and enemy drops. And speaking of intercepting drops, there's no finer way to help your team then that. Sometimes it pays to sit there with a disabled engine next to the flag or objective, just shooting down dropship after dropship. No need to suicide until they're dropping half thier team outside of your effective range with the sole purpose of furiously rooting you out.

...and players are going to drive cutters up those hills just for fortification? That's a long drive - is the objective area even cuttable? What you describe is basic game mechanics to give the attackers a chance and to keep the game flowing somewhat in normal circumstances. If there's a tower covering 78 square kilometers, attackers have little choice but to set up a jammer/galaxy reinforcement point. Otherwise they're stuck in an attrition setting where a defender can be fully replaced 3 times in the time it takes for a replacement attacker to drive back. Attackers can't bring in a superior strength force to defenders, through either unit quality or numbers, and generally are fighting with inferior strength due to drive times, enemy turrets, emplacements, ect. How's that for lack of options or tactics. Sun Tzu never had to wait for one of his soldiers to die to bring a reinforcement in, and he probably wasn't limited to 8-10 units at a time. This is a very unique and unintuitive constraint we're dealing with here. This would be less of an issue if attackers had a way to set up similar air defenses to likewise limit the enemy, but the best and longest ranged air defense - the plasma turret, generally sucks and requires a dropship in the first place. This assumes the ever present static deployable jammers aren't already covering defender drops. The hermes 20mm often outranges its tailgun for dropship work. My frustration however, isn't directed towards the use or counters of AA, it's the lack of options for it that get me. Without the emplacements, engagements are fast and bloody with reinforcements flowing in as fast as the dropships can be put down. Running out of HEAT rounds and getting Paladin 20mm's dropped on me repeatedly gets old real fast. The alternative is using the hermes or dropping a galaxy... To win, I need to sit on that objective, so give me some breathing room please! The dual-attacker scenario would work better, I think, if you used multiple missile towers for each team and possibly just do away with the hill. The hill and all that cover favors the use of jammers heavily. The jammer-drop techniques are most effective when the enemy can't see it happening, you need to be allowing players to spot the hermes-drop/jammer-highway activity while it's happening and to investigate. This will be the only way to get the galaxy in, too, if there's enough incoming missiles to overwhelm the thing. Remember the missile towers need LOS in order to target, so placing them on top of a large hill actually allows dropships to appear under its coverage.

"More than"? Like what?

The best defense I've witnessed involves the ions attacking the sides of valleys. Some guy lights up units 6k+ away on the other side of the objective - screened by the objective's point defense - giving the enemy advance of that area little choice but to die from ions or roll downhill recklessly into the infantry controlled base ahead. It's delightfully effective and I like the panic it causes. Attackers have to waste valuable time chasing down the ion carriers through the AA guessing game that jammed turrets provide. In this game, it's very hard to fight downhill, making valley objectives rather tough. Getting a shot on your current target usually means giving a top shot to some other guy 5k away you don't know about yet. This is the mistake most people make when trying to 'hull down' - they pick a hill, and then try to 'hull down' to some guy well below it by inching forwards. The Apollo is actually particularly bad for this, with it's rear mounted turret and subsequently poor downwards traversal. Reversing against something that tips your tail high enough to overlook cover up ahead is usually a better idea if you're looking to take a quick shot. The key part of the phrase 'hull down' is the down part. Try to stay somewhat level with your target. There are advantages to height or depth, but they are very circumstantial. Try to use a jammer too, that is, if Jung hasn't 'misplaced' them all already. It's also not enough to merely have your turret being the only thing exposed to the enemy. Depending on how close the enemy is, and how close your cover is, arcing HEAT rounds can be a problem. I've gotten many a kill by rangefinding off Apollo turrets that have worn out thier position's welcome. The Apollo is of particular interest, because it's got a 150 front armor rating and HEAT rounds do 240. Even with the sloping of the armor, that HEAT round is getting through. If you're stuck there, maximize the angling in whatever way you can, turning/tipping the front sideways, upwards, anything that doesn't expose the rest of the tank accidentally. Just remember you'll never really be safe versus this type of ammunition (and many others). The side armor of the Apollo is only 50 less. When the fecal matter hits the electic blowing device and you've got hermes or mortars or ions on top of you, move. Forget about trying to orient your front armor, because it certainly won't save you.