Ryujin

Check the suppression, sometimes Syrian armor crews will freeze up or panic under fire, even if it's pretty light. Being a T55 it was probably a reserve crew who would panic if the BLUFOR so much as look in their direction. Not to mention the T55 has horrible situational awareness when buttoned up. The large caliber auto cannons should be used with the same basic principles as the ATGMs, ambush weapons where you can get the first shot off at weak armor. Though the ATGMs are obviously much more effective.

I'm not so sure it works like that. Most likely the day optics will be fine and unless the IFVs get the drop the tank, not the other way around, odds are very much not in their favor. One shot from the tank will obliterate the IFV, one burst from the autocannon may take out the thermal optics if presenet, but the day optics are a very small target and likely still functional. So chances are good the IFV will get blown away anyhow. I haven't played as the Syrians with tanks vs IFVs much, but I think the day optics should be fine. Really, really small target. This tactic never seems to help BMP-2s vs my Abrams at least. Just scuff the paint and maybe damages the thermal. I think they could damage the tank and maybe escape, but it would probably be better to just escape in the first place. I think a lot of countries use IR blocking smoke with the CV90s, best to fire that and throw it in reverse.

My impression would by why even bother making it elevate independently? Nothing much to be gained, only makes it more complicated. The 20mm can elevate up/down really far due to the design and there would be no reason to move them independently in elevation, you would be limited to aiming at one target anyway. Not to mention, check out how it's mounted. It's bolted to a piece that is in turn bolted and what looks like sealed/welded to the main turret. I can't see that rotating. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/TMG_MG3_Marder_1A3.jpg

I don't have hands on experience, but I think I know where the confusion may be coming from. Early Marders, 1A1 and earlier, had a MG3 RWS on the back of the hull controlled by the dismount commander. http://www.panzerbaer.de/types/pix/bw_spz_marder_1a1a-01.jpg If it's any help, the company sight lists it as coaxial. http://www.rheinmetall-defence.com/index.php?fid=1415〈=3&pdb=1 Would it being elevated separately from the cannon, but controlled by the same FCS/optics as the cannon really make it an RWS? It's not like you could practically engage two targets with it, you use the cannon OR the MG (based on interior pictures of the marder turret and the fact there is one day optic, one IR optic on the turret, nothing separate for the MG3. ).

Usually the IFV has more than enough ammo in it. I also just noticed the Canucks get the nyala (RG-31). Will we see US army/USMC TOE with the RG-31 or will we have to "cannibalize it" from the Candian TOE?

I wonder how they plan to implement airburst rounds (command-wise). I don't know if the 30mm/35mm guns are like the 40mm and use special rounds (i.e. limited number of programmable pre-fragmented rounds) or if it's every HE round. The question is with target and target light, how do you tell it to use airburst (as light tends to be coax)? So I'm still advocating the addition of "target special" on some units (like these and snipers).

I opened up the bradley sound in windows media player, didn't hear it there. It might just be looping weird?

Excellent! It certainly needs a good campaign or battle. Maybe an extra long (4 hour?) battle as a stand in for a CMx1 style operation. I'm also curious about the performance, CMSF isn't too smooth on huge numbers of units/structures. I'm wondering how this map would handle for people with mid to low end PCs, especial if you populate it with units.

Let me know if you want any tweaks or changes

2 and 3 are correct. I think if you give buddy aid the red based guys will never be KIA. If not given aid, it's something like a 25% chance they will die.

Yeah, but I don't think you could look at the status of individual parts. Now you can look at the status, but you get no prompts. For turn based I don't mind it too much, I just check the status of any vehicles I saw get hit. (you shouldn't get info on enemy tanks though like you did in CMx1). @waffelmann: Sure, I can make you one. Do you mean flat green or 3 color NATO? Do you want it sandy like it's been in the desert?

However I've seen diagrams of the MR with no cable http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/images/spike-mr-image2.gif How does the MR CLU communicate with the missile to manually guide it onto the target if there is no wire though? (radio?) So I'm a bit confused now

Same as above, I haven't seen soft launch mentioned anywhere else, even on the company's page. I think only the Spike-LR has the target update ability (fiber-optic cable linked to the missile). MR appears to function like the Javelin, cannot communicate with the missile after launch. With the LR I think you can see what the missile sees (and I geuss in theory shoot at something you don't have direct LOS on, but know is there). With the MR you'll probably just notice improved accuracy and maybe lethality, I think it may have a bit more punch, not that I see that making a big difference with top attack. Spike-LR The SPIKE-LR is a lightweight, Fire and Forget and Fire, Observe and Update, multi-purpose missile system with a range of up to 4,000 meters. State-of-the-art seeker and fiber-optic data communication link provide SPIKE-LR with the unique ability to: * Update or switch targets after launch * Achieve real-time intelligence and identify friend or foe * Perform battle damage assessment * Achieve extended range and pinpoint accuracy * Minimize collateral damage

Keep in mind you cannot actually order them to do buddy aid. If you move them on top of of a casualty, they will do buddy aid at their discretion and will not do it under heavy fire or sometimes if they see an enemy and start firing (I've occasionally seen them do aid while other team members were firing). Also, difficulty level will drastically affect how long it takes to give aid. But as a general rule it takes much longer to give aid to a WIA vs a KIA. Also note that with one of the newer patches, they made it so that if a soldier gives buddy aid to a soldier from another squad, he will not retrieve any heavy weapons (like an RPG). So you can't make rambo squads with 2 RPG-7s and a DshkM.

NATO is coming out relatively soon-ish. CM:N is slated for something between not so soon-ish and when it's done. That's schedule as far as I know. They've been stepping up the NATO screens, so it shouldn't be too far off. CM:N is anyone's guess.

Also the full advantage of maneuverability isn't really shown in the small CMSF maps (only a few km to a side). In say a battalion level battle Steel Beasts Pro, you can really see the advantage of maneuverability and using the terrain to flank and maneuver around static defenders (you can maneuver around whole companies of infantry) while calling down artillery (like the ever deadly ICM and FASCAM, which really should be in CMSF, though it would make battles vs BLUFOR even more one sided ). The smaller maps make it much, much easier to set up ATGM ambushes and know where the enemy will come from. Where as the few times I've played as a OPFOR commander, using the ATGMs was pretty tricky in SB Pro, you really had to figure out where the enemy would be and what they were going to do (though on the flip side, your ATGMs were really hard to find in the vast maps).

The purpose of tanks isn't always to kill tanks. Soviet tanks I think were mostly meant to kill softer targets, with tank killing as a secondary role. As for western tanks, probably one of their best abilities is killing multiple tanks fast. Very, very fast. They're mostly fulda-gap inspired. No set up time, more ammo, shorter flight time, and faster reloads than ATGMs while being much harder to kill and much faster makes tanks a bit better on the offensive. Tanks for most part rule open ground on the offensive if employed properly and can be key in urban warfare, like anything else it's best used as part of combined arms. Infantry kill/supress the ATGM/AT teams and the tanks kill everything else with all the firepower they carry. It's all about how you use the tank. The amount of armor lowers the number of threats you need to kill/suppress to employ your tank. In open ground you should be finding hull down positions and popping up and down (if you don't stick your head up long enough to be hit, your tank becomes very hard to kill. You need to maximize the effectiveness of the tanks mobility and firepower vs pretty much anything, the armor is there as a backup, as with anything in modern warfare it's better to not be hit in the first place. (speaking mostly of western tanks vs Russian ATGMs, the Syrians have nothing to effectively defend against the javelin except for employing local numerical superiority). As always, its easier to kill something than protect it. Things seem to be now shifting towards active defenses as a missiles get more advanced, shooting them out of the air and stuff. Sorry if that's a bit of a disjointed rant

Here you go, http://www.filefront.com/16625105/background%20night%20combat.wav Seems ok, though it does feel a tad faster ingame. Should match the stock background sound file format exactly, so I don't know if you just have me hearing it now .

Yup, should be simple enough, I'll set it up when I get back tonight.

I can whip up a quick night cricket mod for you. It'd be no trouble at all.

Ah ha, thanks.

A few more questions: Strykers. Tan or green paint job? The textures already have good markings and dust, don't think I'd do anything other than maybe change the paint job. However tan strykers still don't seem common as far as I can tell. Brits. any requests for certain units? I'm looking a 4 Scots, the campaign unit and maybe some paras. Gonna stick to desert DPM for now, maybe make a new MTP version at some point. Also, I assume this pattern isn't in wide use, especially for the desert? http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt104/vor033/Tanks/Challenger2MBT13.jpg USMC, desert tan or keep the woodland paint and make it dustier? I've got some things to take care of before I can finish the US Army pack, but it's pretty far along.

It does need a bit of boost in some situations. As far as what vehicle is good for what, they're all very similar right now in terms of spotting. Almost every AFV has thermal and daylight optics (the IR optics can be damaged though, on a related note if you want to know if a vehicle has IR, check the damage panel and you'll see IR in there). Any vehicle with IR has vastly improved spotting in most situations (note that the field of view can be limited and I think this is factored in chance to spot, mk1 eyeball may spot closer targets faster). IR can also see through non IR blocking smoke and sometimes dust. IR blocking smoke is brown. Some IR systems offer more quality and magnification than others, but I haven't seen any noticeable spotting difference in CMSF, so any vehicle works. EDIT: in response to above, I think you should start to get more ?s after a few minutes observation, except maybe when they are set to hiding or are in really good cover. Though I don't think it needs too big of a boost overall, just with systems like the LRAS3 and scouts/snipers in general.

How detailed is the thermal modeling in CMSF anyway? Does ambient temperature matter? As I understand it people are much harder to spot if ambient temperature is near body temperature, like in a hot desert day. A cold night on the other hand will cause them to really stand out. Sometimes thermal might not help too much, which might explain some situations. I assuming the facing and what parts of a tank are seen don't matter. But it stands to reason that the turret will be a lot closer to ambient temperature than other parts (so harder to see in a hull down position). (unless the gun has been recently fired, the primary heat generating parts would be the engine/tracks). If that tank hunkered down between two buildings had it's engine off for some time, I think it would be really hard to spot on thermal. The only time I've seen real thermal optics in person was on a stryker at an auto show, but those cars across the show room didn't stand out much at all, they were almost at room temperature, if a bit cooler (but you could still make them out ok). People were very, very easy to see though. This was in a BIG convention center, but still only a couple hundred meters max. At 1 to 2 km, a cool, slightly concealed tank could probably be spotted, but I don't thermal would make it any easier to find. I think the spotting has been improved a lot in the patches, but sometimes there's situations where your LRAS3 is observing an area for minutes and doesn't pick up on a ton of guys in a tree line 700m away. It just seems like you should be getting at least ?s more often. While I'm playing I'll try to keep an eye out for specific examples.

Make sure the clip rate is at 44100 Hz, that's what CMSF seems to play back sound at. Or do you have a really short clip of sound? The normal background clip is almost 2 minutes I think, it constantly loops the clip, so a short one will sound odd.