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Drawde79

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Everything posted by Drawde79

  1. What do you think should be done regarding fixing the grenade effects, assuming these aren't going to be fixed in an official patch? Should other AT grenades/charges (Geballte Ladung, Gammon Bomb etc.) be given similar blast power to the RPG-40 or is it possible to improve the damage calculation system via editing damage.ini? I've also found that regular fragmentation grenades are still near-useless against unarmoured vehicles, other than sometimes killing the crew, even when their armour value is reduced.
  2. Thanks for the information and links! I didn't realise that you don't have the game (ToW) yet, otherwise you'd probably know what I mean. In the early-war Russian scenarios you are invariably outnumbered and often (though not always) are unable to get much of an an advantage in range. By the time you're allowed decent numbers of T-34s (e.g the Kursk missions) the Germans have plenty of things capable of taking them out at range! Seems like the problem is as much due to scenario design as anything else, it's rare (in any campaign mission, regardless of side/theatre) that you aren't outnumbered at least 2 or 3 to 1. My "30 rounds a minute" comment refers to the fact that the default reload time in ToW for the ZiS-3 towed gun, as well as a number of other AT guns of similar calibre, is 2 seconds! (though low crew skill will result in a slower reload time than this) I think I made my last post before you edited your post to add the comment on the ZiS-3, so I wasn't referring to your post.
  3. Are you saying then that the armour penetration values in weapon .ini files don't actually affect the in-game behaviour of the weapon? What's the name of the file where the penetration table is stored? (data\settings\damage.ini contains data for HE effects, but not AP) - or are you just referring to HE/HEAT rounds, not AP? Data for vehicle armour thickness is definitely the same in-game as displayed in the encyclopedia (though angle/slope is calculated from the 3D model, not stored in the .ini files). Reducing the "armour thickness" of trucks to 1-2mm has made them noticeably more vulnerable to small-arms fire.
  4. I thought that might be the reason for the T-34's low rate of fire, but I wasn't sure how much this would affect the rate of fire during a combat situation, and whether the KV-1 had the same problem or not. Reducing the rate of fire seems like a good way to represent the T-34's cramped and inefficient turret (also for French tanks which had similarly overworked crew) but I'm not sure the scenario designers took this into account when designing the missions for ToW! When you have only one T-34 vs. half a dozen Pz.IVs and IIIs, which can fire less than 6 rounds a minute (at least half of which miss) it tends to get knocked out very quickly no matter how carefully you use ambush/hull down positions or flanking manouevres. Maybe a reload time of about 8 seconds would be a good compromise. Towed guns should certainly have an advantage in rate of fire over tanks, but I'm not sure a 75-76mm gun could fire 30 rounds a minute even with a very skilled crew (correct me if I'm wrong though)
  5. Anyone have any suggestions for improving this mission? I don't really want to remove the Ferdinands or Tigers, so giving the player more firepower seems like the best option. Did any T-34/85s, SU-85s and/or SU-100s see action at Kursk? The main problem with the difficulty of this mission seems to be that, other than the SU-122's HEAT shells (only 4 rounds per vehicle, most of which seem to miss) you have absolutely nothing that will penetrate the frontal armour of Ferdinands and Tigers, and even side/rear shots with the 76mm (T-34s and ZIS-3) only have a chance at close range. Unlike many of the missions in ToW, you aren't significantly outnumbered by the enemy in this one, but this doesn't make much difference when the enemy armour is near-invulnerable to anything you throw at it!
  6. I remember in earlier posts regarding inaccurate statistics for vehicles, weapons etc. in ToW's unit encyclopedia, that a developer stated that the values shown in the encyclopedia are not those used in-game. However, my experiences with modding ToW seem to indicate that this isn't the case - change the data for a unit or weapon, and the altered values show up in the encyclopedia as well as in the game. There certainly doesn't seem to be a seperate database for the encyclopedia.
  7. This is a problem I've also noticed, if a tank is set to hold position it seems to be very reluctant to fire on enemy infantry (and sometimes enemy tanks as well). The problem with giving manual targeting orders, apart from the increased micromanagement, is that you can end up targeting enemies which are in line of sight but not line of fire, which results in the unit ignoring targets that it actually can fire at!
  8. Thanks - this should be useful for calculating approximate reload times for the 75mm and larger guns in ToW. Does anyone know the usual rate of fire for smaller calibres (57-37mm)? One other comment about gun loading times in ToW - it seems like the skill of the crew affects the rate of fire. This explains why the loading time is often higher than the time in seconds shown in the unit information. Hence I think it'd be best to use the theoretical maximum rate of fire for the values used in the game - as only the most skilled tank crews will actually be able to achieve this rate. [ July 04, 2007, 04:20 AM: Message edited by: Drawde79 ]
  9. Are there any sources of historical data for WW2 tank gun reload times? This is something I have very little information on, compared to things like armour penetration and velocity. I assume the main factors involved are the weight of the shell and the design of the gun breech mechanism, also things like the design of the turret (ammo stowage locations etc.) must play a part. I also seem to remember that some guns, such as the IS-2's 122mm, had two-part ammo (propellant and shell) which must have significantly increased the reload time. Regarding my original post, the reload time for the ZIS-3 AT gun is actually 2 seconds, the 3 second value is for the SU-76! This must surely be wrong, as is the same value for the Polish and French 75mm field guns (explains why they're so effective...)
  10. I just set the "armour" value for most of the components to 1 or 2mm, other than the engine (4-8mm). This makes "softskins" a lot more vulnerable to small arms fire (including SMGs, which previously they were virtually impervious to) and 20mm HE shells. However, from my experiences testing the mod, these vehicles don't seem to be so vulnerable as to be useless - they don't die immediately, it usually takes a few shots/bursts to destroy or disable them. BTW, the new sounds in the patch seem mostly to consist of alternative sounds, with slightly varying pitch, for MGs and other automatic weapons. I'm incorporating this into my sound mod (rather tedious though as each weapon now has 7 different sound files)
  11. In ToW, the reload time for the 1941 model T-34/76's 76.2mm gun (F-34) is 11 seconds, compared to 6.5 seconds for the 76.2mm ZIS-5 (on the KV-1), only 3 seconds for the ZIS-3 AT gun (though I suspect this one is wrong, many of the AT guns have too fast reload times), and 4 seconds for the 75mm L/24 on the German Panzer IVC. Is this accurate? Currently it seems that it's hard to use T-34s effectively, due to their low fire rate. Since you're always outnumbered anyway, the enemy can usually hit the T-34 with 5-6 shots for every one it fires, and though early-war German guns can rarely if ever penetrate its frontal armour, sooner or later they'll knock out the gun or tracks, or panic the crew. If this is historically accurate, fair enough - but some of the gun reload times in TOW seem a bit suspect to me, especially the 2-3 seconds for AT guns (even 75-76mm ones). If they're wrong, it'll be simple enough to mod them!
  12. Could anyone clarify exactly what new sounds are added in the patch? (weapon sounds, unit speech?) As I'm currently working on a sound mod, I'd be interested to know. Also, are there any changes to the armour of "softskin" vehicles (trucks, jeeps etc.) and/or the armament and properties of aircraft? Both of these are areas I'm modding, it would be useful to know if my efforts are redundant!
  13. Not sure why DrJones hasn't released his tool yet. I got it by asking him on the TOW Modding forums (http://tow.sieber-markus.de/). The tool probably needs updating now that the patch is out, I'm not sure the current version be able to extract files from the new .SFS archives added in the patch. I haven't tried this myself as I still have 115 megabytes and 8 hours to go downloading it :mad:
  14. Not sure why DrJones hasn't released his tool yet. I got it by asking him on the TOW Modding forums (http://tow.sieber-markus.de/). The tool probably needs updating now that the patch is out, I'm not sure the current version be able to extract files from the new .SFS archives added in the patch. I haven't tried this myself as I still have 115 megabytes and 8 hours to go downloading it :mad:
  15. Currently I'm only doing weapon sounds (cannons, MGs and small arms), not explosions, ambient sounds etc., but I do agree that the mortar projectile sounds are very odd! Replacing them isn't just a case of taking sounds from CM, though, as they are 3D sounds made by moving projectiles rather than (as in CM) a simple sound effect played when a mortar shell lands. Apart from the truck armour mod and the sounds, I'm also trying to mod the aircraft. I was surprised (considering that TOW was produced by the same developers as the Il-2 series!) to find when looking at the data files that all the fighters and ground attack planes are armed with Russian 20mm cannons (even the Polish PZL.11...) - in fact all the aircraft of each type seem to be virtually "cookie-cutter" copies other than having different 3D models. My attempts to give P-47s bombs have failed so far, so I'm trying to add an aircraft version of the US .50 cal MG instead. I also noticed that none of the aircraft have armour, even the Il-2 and Hs129 - not sure, though, if adding armour would affect gameplay by making them too hard to shoot down (I'll try it and see what happens) I will be away for a week or so from tomorrow, once I get back I'll continue work on my TOW mods. Maybe, though, some of the "issues" I'm trying to fix with my mods will be fixed in the patch... here's hoping! At least this is one WW2 game where a complete "realism mod" isn't necessary - just minor tweaks, fixes and additions. As I mentioned in my original post, I'd appreciate advice from French WW2 equipment experts/grogs on data for the 25mm gun. (edit: in reply to SlapHappy's post) I was going to wait until the patch release before doing any serious modding, let alone releasing anything, but the delay, and uncertainty as to what fixes and changes the patch will actually include, has made me rethink this! I thought that releasing even a small and basic mod like this might encourage others just by showing it can be done. Installing mods is fairly simple as the game engine reads data files outside the .SFS archives before it reads the ones packed into the archives, hence to install modded files you just need to put the files and folders in your TOW root directory. No different to installing CM graphics/sound mods, except that the original files aren't overwritten, so it's fairly easy to remove the mod by deleting the files. I haven't really looked at the data for grenades, partly as I rarely seem to get the chance to use them in missions, but from the times I have managed to use them it seems like Russian AT grenades are rather overpowered (they seem to be a guaranteed one-shot kill on early-war German tanks) [ June 25, 2007, 11:57 AM: Message edited by: Drawde79 ]
  16. (Due to lack of a mod/mission forum I'm posting it here - hope this is OK) This is the first mod I've created for ToW. It's a very small and simple "mini-mod" which changes the French 25mm SA-34 gun (on the Panhard 178 armoured car) to a single-shot, manually loaded weapon (as it was historically), rather than an automatic weapon. (This actually makes it a lot more effective, as it is more accurate and does not use up ammunition as quickly) Download link In the mod, the SA-34's reload time and accuracy is set to the same as the German 37mm PaK 36. The ammunition for the weapon consists of single rounds rather than 15-round magazines (ammo icon is also changed), and the Panhard 178's ammo loadout now consists of 150 rounds rather than 10 magazines. The sound script for the weapon is also modified to stop the sound effect from looping. Armour penetration and other data for the weapon is unchanged. This mod has been fully tested and I haven't found any bugs/problems with it. However, I'd greatly appreciate any feedback as to what the historically accurate values for the 25mm SA-34's reload time and accuracy/dispersion should be. Also whether the default ToW data for armour penetration, velocity, etc. is correct. I'm also working on an "unarmoured trucks" mod, which should be ready fairly soon, and a weapon sound mod (using both CM:BB/AK sounds, and modified/tweaked versions of the original ToW sounds) though this should take a while longer to complete. Feel free to host/mirror this file on your own webpage (CMMods included)!
  17. I positioned my starting troops and AT guns in the village - with the guns behind the trench - which was far more effective than the default setup as the AT guns were in a "reverse slope" position, and the enemy weren't able to concentrate their fire on them as effectively (in the default positions, once the enemy have spotted a gun, everything opens fire on it and the gun and/or crew are wiped out very quickly) However, this caused problems with the AI scripting, an infantry squad and about 4-5 tanks ended up waiting at the trench line. Taking these out with the TKS tankettes was a very difficult task and required a lot of saving and reloading. The AT guns were of no use as the enemy tanks spotted them the moment they were in sight, and usually wiped them out instantaneously with a single laser-guided 75mm round (I even tried bringing up the guns simultaneously with attacking with the TKSs, but to no avail)
  18. I definitely suspect it'll be the latter system. The first one, whilst more realistic, would be a nightmare to implement and debug, particularly from the AI and pathfinding point of view (just look at GI Combat/Squad Assault; order a squad to enter a building and half the troops, inevitably including MGs, bazookas etc., will be nowhere near a window or facing away from the enemy) (edit: just saw SlapHappy's comment on the same subject)
  19. Sounds like the speed controls will be a very useful alternative to the pause command for giving orders whilst still being able to view things close-up. 2x time acceleration will also be handy in some of the larger maps when waiting for units to move into position.
  20. Agreed! Though as I mentioned before I'll wait for the patch release before starting any mods, I'd like to have a look at TOW's file system and data structure ASAP to get a head start.
  21. Agreed! Though as I mentioned before I'll wait for the patch release before starting any mods, I'd like to have a look at TOW's file system and data structure ASAP to get a head start.
  22. Will you be hosting the patch file directly, or on third-party sites like FileFront? I (and I suspect quite a few other TOW players, in Europe at least) only have a 56k dialup connection - downloading 200mb is certainly possible if I use a download manager over several days, but only if it's possible to get a direct, permanent link to the file (which isn't possible with most file hosting sites nowadays)
  23. Great news! Will Dr. Jones be releasing his .SFS extractor/viewer now it is officially approved? There are quite a few areas of TOW I'd like to mod/tweak (though I'll wait for the official patch first to see what fixes and tweaks it includes) and I'm also interested in modding the weapon sounds.
  24. Great news! Will Dr. Jones be releasing his .SFS extractor/viewer now it is officially approved? There are quite a few areas of TOW I'd like to mod/tweak (though I'll wait for the official patch first to see what fixes and tweaks it includes) and I'm also interested in modding the weapon sounds.
  25. Any tips for this mission? (It's the winter mission where you are defending a railway station, with infantry and AT guns, and no reinforcements). I used the default unit selection, buying a Staff Squad with the extra 65 points (would have taken another HMG but there were no free slots) and more or less the default unit placement, other than moving my AT guns and AT rifles around to give them better fields of fire and more cover. I put 2 45mms behind the first trenches, and 1 45mm along with the Maxim MG behind the rear trenches, positioned to give them a good field of fire. I managed to deal with the Pz.IIs and first wave of infantry without taking too many casualties, only losing 1 AT gun crew who I replaced using regular infantry. (I was surprised to not get my AT guns wiped out early on as usually happens, I think this was due to the layout of the terrain and trees which prevented all the enemy tanks from spotting my guns at the same time.) By this time, however, my MGs (Maxim and squad LMG) and ATRs were starting to run low on ammo and my AT guns were running low on AP shells, and I wasn't able to withstand the heavier tanks and accompanying infantry which attacked in the second wave. With only HE shells, and facing Pz.IVs with 75mm guns, my AT guns didn't last long, and with low ammo and no MG support my infantry weren't able to hold out against the enemy troops. Any alternative tactics? I thought of replacing a couple of the 45mm AT guns with a ZIS-2 57mm, but since the 45mm is effective against most of the early German tanks anyway, it seemed to me like the extra firepower would be offset by the lower rate of fire and less ammo. Positioning my troops and guns around the rear trench and the railway station buildings (which would seem to be a better defensive position than the exposed forward trenches) is another possibility, but would the infantry be too vulnerable to enemy fire when not entrenched? (as they can't take cover in the buildings)
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