PrezCartman

Louch about the VBIED, they shouldn't, but how close was the detonation? I created a dirty little scenario to test out all aspect of the unconventional warfare side as the Syrians and from what I saw of the VBIEDs they'll nail almost anything. However, I didn't use them against any Abrams only Strykers and dismounted infantry, but I know a VBIED will take out infantry 20-30m away from the detonation site and can still knock out Strykers 10+m away.

I'm not sure, sadly I don't know of any way to truly test it out since it's kind of hard to tell if you're getting the deployed bonus, but based on the rest of the game I would say, if it doesn't allow you to use the deployed command, then you're probably not deployed.

Nam, Actually with the MMG's there's a difference between being able to fire and being deployed. Deploying is actually a manual feature that the player has to activate. Basically it is deploying the MMG for sustained accurate fire, you can still shoot when it's not deployed however the rounds will not be as accurate as if the gunner was deployed. I do not believe right now that the deploy feature works inside of buildings, but I haven't really tried to test it out.

Javelins should never miss but you also have to keep in mind it is still a piece of hardware, built in a factory, which has a certain margin of error, now this may be 1 hundred thousandth of a percent, but no weapons system currently developed is 100% reliable every shot. Just be happy that most of the time the Javs hit and when they do, goodbye whatever was there. I just completed the first campaign mission, had to go back cuz there was a file error in my later saved campaign, completed it without a single US casualty, used the Javs to nail all enemy armor plus a few bunkers and proceeded to level every target I could with my 155s. By the time my troops entered the base there was only a handful of badly wounded squads left to mop up.

Massive, the city is going to slow down on any card, there are people with brand new 8800's saying the framerate goes about as low as it does for my X800. It's just a matter of having too much to process, try turning shadows off though, it definitely helps in the city and if you're shadows are all jagged anyway it actually looks better.

Skinned one thing I'd recommend is slowing it down to move while passing through the gap. I was playing the airport this morning used my MGS's to blast a section of wall open, tried to use the fast command to go through and it caused some stupid behavior by my drivers, went through with move then as soon as i was through hit the full gas to clear the choke point and had no problems getting my vehicles through, unfortunately one of my MGS Strykers didn't clear the area fast enough and got knocked out by an RPG in the gap, so just blew a new whole in the wall.

Spiny, I have the card itself set basically to the default settings, don't know enough to tweak it. I know someone on the forums posted a link to NGO drivers for ATI cards. I installed their latest version and seems to run fine. Before that I was also able to get it to run on just the normal drivers from ATI. And I'm also running XP SP2.

What exactly is the problem with ATI cards? I'm running a Radeon X800 XL without any problems.

Yea I was trying the Blast command on the Al Huf Engagement on the free standing walls to no effect, didn't try them on the regular buildings so may just be the map, but I'm not really sure.

Playing as the Syrians, particularly in an unconventional role can be quite entertaining. The only downside right now is that in order to have something that you like you pretty much have to create your own scenario. I made a rough one just to test out the IED feature more than anything, placed about 2 Platoons worth of irregulars along with a couple IED packages (they come in 4 sizes for each of the three detonator types), 3 VBIEDs, car bombs, a few snipers, and a couple RPG teams and they had to defend against 2 Companies worth of Strykers and Infantry Support. While the AI could be a bit more aggressive, I just used the stock AI on the pre-made map, didn't really tweak it because I don't know how yet, it was a pretty fun time trying to use ambush tactics and maximizing area firepower to blunt the US offensive. Car bombs are disturbingly powerful but very satisfying when you get a kill, have to try and come at the US troops from a blindspot to buy you enough time to get in close. Plan your kill zones, properly maximize the force balance in an area in your favor, and try to hide in built up areas as much as possible so that your guys can't get hammered by a dozen .50 cal's and it can be an interesting ride.

Alright I know this will sound stupid but can someone explain to me how to do the breaches with Engineers or Armor. I tried using the breach command with a group of Engineers, detonated 8 bundle of explosives on the wall, all in the same section, and it still didn't bring down the section. I also tried using 25mm fire from a Bradley but also to no effect. I'm not sure if I'm just placing it wrong or what but I would appreciate any help since obviously it is possible.

Lol just don't use a custom scenario in a heavily built city with a dozen RPG teams and 3 companies of Strykers attacking, even on a good system it will hurt the speed a bit.

Yes Mikey in the real world the Javelin can be fired either direct flight or a vertical trajectory, although I think last I read on the forums was that in CMSF right now the Jav is only modeled for the vertical trajectory, although this may have changed.

Jason, You make my point exactly, what matters is the tactics you use not just the weapons system, the tanks were exposed without proper infantry support and thus were vulnerable to fire. But suppose Hezbollah had been a major organized military force with the ability to launch a counter attack. As you said only 5 Merks were total writeoffs, but what if a Stryker company had only a single platoon of Abrams supporting it and 2-3 of those Abrams were knocked out, a T-72 or even T-55 platoon could shred the remaining Strykers and force abandonment of the advance. Keep in mind guys the devs pointed out that especially for things like the campaign scenarios, the US forces will have extra conditions besides just the advance, they also have to keep loses down so losing 5% of your heavy armor might be enough to still lose the scenario despite taking the terrain objective.

For those who worry about a one-sided situation. Look at what happened last year when the Israelis went into Lebanon. Hezbollah, using weapons systems far below what the Syrians are being provided in CMSF, were able to knock out Merkavas in significant enough numbers to cause real concern among the Israelis. Properly employed, M1A2s are pretty close to invincible, (although the US hasn't yet had to face an adversary with advanced ATGMs) but it's like anything else, it's the commander's actions that determine success, and besides any intelligent scenario designer is not giving you a brigade's worth of Abrams to roll across the battlefield and a T-55 is a match for a Bradley or Stryker by any means, particularly if employed effectively. I mean from everything I've read the devs are trying pretty hard to create a stuation where the asymmetric war will be enjoyable and not a one side slaughter. While pitting two equal modern forces against one another would be interesting, the CM series has always been based on reality and let's face it unless the Russians and Americans go at it, no nation is going to use the tactics Iraq tried in 1991 to stand up to the United States or any other major power and there won't be any massive force engagements because the technology of the US now would annihilate any massed enemy army. However, as a hypothetical, that has always been where the third party developers have created new things to see and that will undoubtedly occur with CMSF. I mean with the blue on blue you can even create a US Civil War scenario. Just be happy BF is giving us a new engine taking the CM series into the next generation and providing us another outstanding tactical simulator that can be customized to what we'd like to see. [ June 13, 2007, 04:59 PM: Message edited by: PrezCartman ]