SeinfeldRules

Hi all, I've been working on a whole bunch of scenarios for CMRT, and finally got around to finishing a couple. I'll use this thread to post whatever I manage to finish. I have 4 for today (though one has already been posted before, just tweaked it a little), and hopefully I can put the finishing touches on 1 or 2 for tomorrow. Most of these have had barely any playtesting, beyond what I could do by myself. That's where I need feedback from you guys. These are not 100% tested. Please let me know what I can change to make it better! I like small, company sized engagements. All of these have 2 companies or less. These may be suitable for H2H, do not have anyone to test them with though. All my maps are "hand made" originals. They look best with my terrain mod IMO! Interlock OP v1.0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/bs581b72xj6n96s/AD%20Interlock%20OP.zip?dl=0 You are in command of a German Grenadier platoon in Estonia. Soviet forces have secured an interlocking tower overlooking our forward positions and are calling artillery on our forces. You have been tasked with securing the tower by force and securing whatever intel you can. Axis vs AI only Pastureland v1.0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/pq48lgx5c1tokfe/AD%20Pasture%20Land.zip?dl=0 The Germans are falling back in confusion. Our tank corps and mehanized infantry have pushed far foward, leaving us, the dismounted infantry, behind to mop up the remnants and widen the corridors. Your company was doing exactly that when you came out of a small copse of trees and immediately started taking machinegun fire. A large, open pastureland sits between you and the incoming fire. On the far side, a group of buildings on the outskirts of a village. You determine that is where the enemy fire is coming from, and you immediately decide to attack. Allied vs AI only. Gorbatzewich Roadblock v1.0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/zsmkvq4hfcr09ms/AD%20Gorbatzewich%20Roadblock.zip?dl=0 You are in command of a Soviet Cavalry Squadron southwest of Babruysk. After several long days of fighting, we have finally managed to capture the vital city and open the road to Minsk. Remnants of German forces still remain around the city, occupying blocking positions and doing their best to prevent our forces from rushing into Minsk. One of these blocking forces is located in the village to your immediate front. Allied vs AI only Amongst the Ruins v1.0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/wo11fj4zcq3h2au/AD%20Amongst%20the%20Ruins.zip?dl=0 You are in command of a German Pioneer Company somewhere within a large city inside Belarus. We have been fighting with the Soviets for control of this vital city for several days now. Your company has been tasked with taking back a bombed out industrial area. Axis vs AI only

Mortars generally have a much higher range dispersion then cannon artillery. Artillery is generally much more meticulous when it comes to accounting for varying conditions, and benefits from rifling, more stable rounds, a more even burning of powder, and probably the biggest factor of all, low angle fire. The high angle mortar spends 2 or 3 times longer in the air then a low angle howitzer, which means met has that much more effect. The effect can be quite noticeable, especially when trying to do "precision area" fire, like registrations. Whether this effect is modeled in game, I do not know. The disadvantages of a high range dispersion is offset by its responsiveness, which is orders of magnitude faster then artillery. On the topic of digital FCS - overall they don't make a howitzer more accurate, a gun's FCS just ensure it is layed on the correct data provided by the FDC. A good howitzer crew can do this degraded as well, using WW2 level technology. The digital system truly makes a difference in the FDC, where computers can calculate accurate data for each tube using the latest met. The old system, before computers, had FDCs creating generalized "corrections" for a certain slice of their azimuth and range fans. Rounds outside that slice would require a different set of corrections. Rounds using a different propelling charge or lot would require different corrections as well. To top it off, when the FDC received updated met they would have to re-calculate of ALL these corrections. If the battery moved - new corrections. If you shot a different type of round - new corrections. When you are doing this by hand 3 or 4 times a day it can become quite difficult. Computers now do this for every round fired, no matter the situation. It's come to the point where the greatest factor in accuracy of artillery in the modern war is target location error by the FO.

A single map would be impossible, the training area is far too large (50km by 40km). I already have a terrain mod that simulates the type of desert you find at NTC, all we would need is maps of the specific areas that the "battles" typically revolve around. Bil has posted screenshots of a map of the Red Pass area in my thread: http://community.battlefront.com/topic/118338-national-training-center-terrain-mod/

If that were to happen, we would just switch to time fuzes - not as consistent, but just as effective if properly adjusted (or proper altitude is given by the observer initially). I would be interested to hear more about these "fuze poppers" though - never heard it talked about once in the artillery community, but that could just be a general lack of knowledge across the board. Also keep in mind, US VT fuzes do not activate until they are seconds away from detonation - you would need to have good placement of these jammers I imagine, and the results would probably not be consistent unless the jammer was right at the target area.

The texture is the color that it is because as you start making it lighter/yellower, it starts to form a patchwork effect from higher viewpoints (where we spend 90% of our time playing this game) that looks completely wrong. Looking at satellite images and photos of Ukraine in the summer, the yellow parts (really light brown) blend subtley with the surrounding healthy grass and isn't that distinct. Look at the standard maps in CM with a yellower grass tile and it looks like you have 8x8 clumps of dead grass everywhere. Accurate for the fall months but not June and July. A grass and yellow grass tile that are similar in color and tone allow for these maps to have fields that are full of smooth and sutble tonal variations that is pleasing to the eye. It looks far more natural and is better representative of a world that does not have uniform, distinct color tiles. On my monitior, I can still clearly see where green grass is and yellow grass is, and when you get down to the ground level the grass itself is quite brown and dry looking. But from afar it looks like a natural field with color variations that are realistic, and most importantly, good to look at. There is nothing stopping you from including someone elses yellow grass tile from another mod, and putting it in a Z folder within the mod folder, so it overwrites my tile. Make sure you include "mini grass yellow", "mini grass yellow 1" and "mini grass yellow 2" to prevent strange transition issues.

Your trees look great, definitely going to be using them!

If you can't get an accurate grid from the observer (due to GPS jamming intefering with his target location equipment), then the round will still miss it's target. That is what it is most likely representing. Excal may be a precise round, but it will just miss it's target very precisiely if your target location is not accurate.

I've put a VS-17 panel on top of my Stryker FSV to help CAS and CCA indentify which vehicle they are talking too. Also seen a VS-17 panel on the ramp of the PSG's Stryker to indentify it as the CASEVAC vehicle. We only used it when we wanted to mark specific vehicles as important... if every vehicle had it, then it wouldn't serve any purpose as being a unique identifier. That is just my experience, don't know how the armor guys roll. I don't think the worry anymore is about identifiying yourself to friendly aircraft, their optics are so good they can tell the difference visually.

Bil, that looks great! Would love to have a crack at a scenario on that one. I was thinking about the other notable places in NTC that would have to be re-created, and how they would be pushing the limits of the scenario editor in terms of size... very cool to see someone has already tried to do it!

It's not outside the realm of possibility. For the longest time the US artillery had a contact fuze that would go off in heavy rain or hail! A thick enough branch would be more then enough. As for precision artillery missing the target - what we have simulated in game is vastly simpler and faster then using it in the real world. It's not as simple as an FO whipping out his equipment and pulling a 10 digit grid on the fly. The process required to get an Excalibur's 6m bubble of CEP on an actual target is not a simple one. And laser guided rounds are no different, considering heavy, low cloud cover could ruin your fire mission! You certainly won't be using it on tactical level targets in a high intensity situation, as we do in game. But that's ok, it's only a game and we play to have fun, not curse out the FDC for taking too long.

Well I feel bad that you spent all that time, because there is no scenario that currently uses my mod! I am working on one that will use it but I don't know how long that will take. If you want to see it in the editor, you do need to use the mod tag [NTC]. To do that, create a text file in the game folder under "Documents", where the scenario and mods are. In the text file, put a single line at the top: "ntc" (without the quotations). Save and go into the editor. Go down to Mod Tags on the left hand sidebar and import the text file you created. Then you will see my mod!

Thank you Kieme - I will actually use those to replace some of the weed/flower doodads that currently look very out of place! You'd be suprised at the lack of Palm Trees in the deserts of California - it mostly consists of miles and miles of dirt and knee high bushes, with not a tree in site!

Hello all, Here is my much requested mod for CMBN's terrain. Again, almost all tiles are either from CMBN or CMFI, but I processed each to give a more even color scheme and retain color vibrancy while avoiding the fluorescent look of the original game. I have done my very best to ensure that no work from other content creators has sneaked into my mod, but as this mod is really years old, I can not be 100% sure. If you find your work in this mod, please let me know and I'll either give you credit for your work or remove it from my mod entirely. This mod is also not nearly as comprehensive as my other mods, and a lot of original tiles remain untouched. I focused on the main tiles - grasses, dirts, forest tiles - as they make up the majority of maps and have the greatest effect on the overall look. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ldmxvwmzosk4rrl/AD%20CMBN%20Terrain.zip?dl=0

The z folder was their originally because CMSF and CMBN didn't have a mod folder. The way the game works now is that it loads all the files in the "Data" folder first, then looks in the "Mod" folder and loads all the data alphabetically, replacing any files that was loaded previously with whatever new file was found. The reason the Z folder came about is because originally when we didn't have a mod folder, the game needed to load our mods last to overwrite the default data found in the actual brzs. Since Z is the last letter in the alphabet, any data found in that folder would be loaded last and overwrite the default files. Within the mod folder you can do the same thing though - let's say you have a really cool dirt tile that you love and want to use instead of mine - create a "z" folder within the mod folder and put the tile's .bmp in there. Since it's loading things alphabetically, anything in that folder will be loaded last, and show up in game.

Hi all, I've been plugging away at a National Training Center terrain mod over the past couple days, and I finally feel complete enough to post it and get feedback. Even though CMBS is set in Europe, with the magic of mod tags we can take our M1s and T-72s and throw them against each other in the desert of California. For those not familiar with what NTC is, it's a US military training center in the desert of California, and for the last 25+ years has been the premier center for armored manuever training. For many years an NTC rotation was the "superbowl" for manuever commanders and a poor showing could end careers. Literally hundreds of battles have been fought over and through the manuever corridors of NTC, and almost every major pass, important terrain feature or passible wadi has a unique name that is unforgettable to those that have been there. A quick google search can pull up a myraid of "war" stories that are prime material for CM scenarios. The terrain is mostly a mashup of tiles from CMSF, CMFI, CMRT and my own terrain mods. I've tweaked the colors so they all blend. You can also obviously use this to model any sort of desert type environment, but it's intended to replicate NTC. It's not 100% complete, but enough is there to create something that hopefully looks like the California desert. As I'v'e only had the pleasure of visiting NTC once, I'd love feedback from those who've spent more time in the box on how close I've replicated the look and feel of NTC. This is not complete! There is more I need to polish up. The mod tag you need to use for scenarios is [NTC]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/raeujlvb8rxog1y/AD%20CMBS%20NTC%20Terrain.zip?dl=0

I have a CMBN terrain mod that I will put out tomorrow

Hello everyone. Here is a new terrain mod you can all try out for CMBS. It is essentially the same terrain mod I made for CMRT, with some minor differences in doodads and without some older terrain tiles not suitable for the modern time period. I recommend Kieme's foliage mod to be used along with this mod. If you tried out my CMRT mod, then you know what you are getting. If you haven't, check out this thread here: http://community.battlefront.com/topic/114363-new-terrain-mod-for-cmrt/ for screens of the terrain in CMRT. https://www.dropbox.com/s/zgg7tdoumr534bz/AD%20CMBS%20Terrain.zip?dl=0 And here are two pictures showing off what the new terrain looks like in CMBS itself.

I would think that you would be hard pressed to find 3.75km of terrain in Ukraine that has clear line of sight for the path of the whole missile... there are so many trees and undulations that a moving tank so far out would be a fleeting target at best. This is not the desert. Besides, just because the missile can reach 4k doesn't mean it has 100% accuracy at that distance. In such a high intensity conflict, I imagine man portable ATGMs would be at such a premium that you couldn't afford to waste your precious few missiles at a target so far away.

While I agree that smaller scenarios need better, more detailed maps, in the end you're spending the same amount of time as you would on a larger map, and most of the time produce a better product. The map can be a deal breaker for me on a scenario, and a poorly made map kills imersion for me. I much rather have a detailed 800x800 map that is made with love and an eye for realism then a 2kx2k monstrosity that looks ugly and nothing like a plausible piece of terrain. Furthermore, small scenarios don't require AI plans, if you just make the player the attacker and are willing to accept a static AI defender. I do understand that Battlefront requires official scenarios to be 100% playable from all sides, but there is no such constraint for user made scenarios. You could make a small 30 minute, 800mx800m scenario with briefing, graphics and full playthrough in a weekend. You'd be working on it all day, but it's possible. I think a lot of people worry about making scenarios that are replayable and extremely challenging, but let's face it, most players will play a scenario against the AI once and expect at least a minor victory if they don't make any agregious mistakes and use basic tactics. These scenarios can be very fun and relaxing. People just need to be willing to make those kind of maps. I much rather have four 30 minute scenarios that I can play over four weekends then a 2 hour slugfest I need to spend all month on. Maybe I am in the minority though.

I'm assuming he meant 20mm cannons.

Most of the weapons in my units have had CCOs on them, non magnifying red dot sights. Tremendously useful at short ranges, easier to use at ranges up to 300m (in my experience on the range) but not a game changer at that distance. Only key leaders had ACOGs, which is an actual magnified sight. I think the benefit for US troops with standard M4s would actually be at short ranges where the CCO excels and not at long ranges, given the lack of ACOGs.

Ground/vegetation/building/vehicle temperature is not the same as air temperature. Everything absorbs and retains heat at different levels. Take for example the beach. It could be 80 degrees outside, but the sand is 110 degrees and the ocean is at 50 degrees. When the sun sets the sand gives off all its heat and its temperature drops. When the temperature of the sand drops to the same temperature as say, a person lying the sand, the person begins to blend in with the sand, because the temperature is essentially the same. And consider that for vehicles, at the night the metal armor cools down toward the ambient temperature, and that the only distinctively warm parts of a stationary vehicle is the engine and exhaust. If you have a tank facing you head on, the turret and hull could block your LOS to those warm areas. The tank won't just disappear, but the contrast between the tank and the background is much lower.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the effect doesn't produce total invisibility - but what could be a well defined tank during the middle of the day becomes a blur that is "lost in the background" and makes identification or target location extremely difficult. Ukraine is not the desert, and there is plenty of intervening vegetation/terrain and background vegetation/terrain that can hide a vehicle. Have never used a javelin, but I could also easily see an infantry man targeting a tank knowing it's a tank, but the CLU has a hard time locking on and identifying the target from all the other thermal radiation.

I can also personally attest to the thermal inversion crossover effect, even with the latest thermal imaging the army has to offer (to line troops, that is). Multiple time have I been on the OP looking down into a valley and witnessed what is best described as a barrier of cold air that hides everything on the valley floor from view. I've also seen active, moving vehicles blur together with the backdrop environment during the dawn and dusk hours, and when behind terrain features/vegetation in stationary positions (engines still on), become almost invisible to thermal viewers. It's really quite remarkable and makes you realize even today's technology isn't the end all be all we like to think. Take for example smoke screens - something thermal imaging would see through like it wasn't even there - but if you're using WP to produce that smoke screen, the heat given off by the WP burning can produce a very effective thermal smoke screen given the right conditions.

Another thing to consider about all the high tech equipment we have - no longer is the mechanic with a wrench, lathe and welding torch able to repair the knocked out tank that just came from the battlefield. A piece of shrapnel through a sensor head could results in days or weeks of downtime till it's replaced by factories on the home front. No military is ready for the logistical requirements of sustaining a modern, high tech fighting force in a fast paced high intensity conflict. Thermally guided, top down attack missile systems have a lot more complicated parts then a missile you guide through an optical scope with a wire and joystick. Active defense systems are cool until the first artillery strike knocks out your fragile radars. And integrated digital systems are amazing until suddenly your vehicle's system stops booting up and you need someone with a college degree in computing just to tell you why. Modern systems have great capabilities that look amazing in powerpoint presentations, but don't always take into account the friction of the battlefield and its effects. Sometimes you just need a tank with thick armor and a big ole gun on it that you know works even if your computer systems go down.