slug88

John, actually I realize you're quite right, the role of the Frogfoot is much closer to that of the F-16 than the F-15E. I'm not sure if there's much of a distinction within the game, however, besides total payload per aircraft. Anyway, I'll revise it as per your suggestion. edit: actually, now that I think about it, there was a reason that I chose those assignments in the first place. In game, the F-16 is labeled as 'Fighter-Bomber', which I thought would be a more appropriate match for the Su-24 than the Su-25. The Strike Eagle, on the other hand, is labaled as 'Ground Attack'. Oh, and Paper Tiger, it was actually your excellent Hasrabit campaign that inspired me to make this. So thank you! [ April 29, 2008, 10:56 PM: Message edited by: slug88 ]

Seeing as how a lot of designers are giving the red side air support, I decided to put together a quick mod that changes the names and pictures for all the air support to red equivalents: A-10 -> Su-25T Frogoot AH-64D -> Mi-24 Hind F-15E -> Su-25 Frogfoot F-16C -> Su-24 Fencer OH-58D -> Mi-8 Hip Find it at CMMODs!

I've noticed the same with roads; they look good up close and far away, but very blurry in between. Almost as if the LOD's for far and medium were switched. 8800GTS, best/best.

Waiting eagerly. Excellent work, keep it up!

Yes, I've noticed that most of the time my men are pretty good at hugging walls and corners. I was pleasantly surprised to discover this a few patches ago. Back to YD's suggestion, I think the ultimate system would be to dynamically highlight the action spot as one is setting the waypoint, and for squads that occupy several action spots, one would choose the connected action spots occupied by each team. I imagine something like holding down (rather than clicking) the LMB to set the 'primary' point for team 1, and then moving the mouse around to set the spot for team 2, with the order being applied upon letting go of the LMB. For squads with three teams, one would 'draw' a line starting from the primary point through three different action spots. I think this would help immensely to avoid a lot of the problems people face with infantry, without resorting to splitting teams. One-click ordering would still be available, by simply clicking to assign waypoints, rather than holding the button down.

I like the idea of snapping to grid. (I seriously do.) But YankeeDog's suggestion of dynmically painting the action spot is a really really really good one imho. [ April 22, 2008, 03:45 PM: Message edited by: slug88 ]

Well, if you agree that LOF is modelled as I described above, then *cover* would work in the most optimal way; that is, if it looks like PFC Syrian can hit PFC Jones, then he will be able to every time. (This disregards the awknowleded abstraction of 'micro-cover', which I suppose could be refined to give the player more feedback.) If indeed the system goes by action spots for LOS but true trajectories for LOF, then it is only *concealment* which could lead to discrepencies. Cover would always be WYSIWYG. And in my experience, for the most part it is.

Also, tangentially, the above reminds me of another issue that I think should be looked at, which is the durability of trees. I know that they are fully destructable, but each time I've seen it happen it took an overwhelming amount of firepower. I once had a Bradley expend at least a couple dozen cannon rounds on a tree, trying to hit a target far behind it, before the tree finally disintegrated. I'd think that for a medium sized tree, just one or two 25mm rounds through the trunk would do the job. Am I wrong?

Furthermore, if you try firing ATGM's or RPG's with intervening trees, you'll probably note that about half the time they fail to reach their target, it's because they fly right into an obstructing tree; otherwise they continue unimpeded. I'd imagine it's the same for all projectiles, be they bullets, guided missiles, or anything in between. [ April 22, 2008, 11:49 AM: Message edited by: slug88 ]

Dirtweasle, my observations, which I have made by scanning the targeting line across trees and various cover, lead me to believe that the individual tree trunks are what provide cover/concealment, rather than the overal terrain composition of the action-spot.

As Huntarr suggested, won't a face command at the final waypoint resolve this?

I've noticed that hiding units often DO stand up to take a look over their concealment for short periods. If you watch your men closely throughout a minute long turn, you'll notice that they will take turns standing up and peaking for a few seconds at a time. This is my experience, at least. The best place to put them is somewhere where they'll be completely concealed when prone, but will have good visibility when kneeling.

Regarding the second question, currently there is no way to trade ammo/launchers between squads, short of killing the men in the first squad and have the men in the second squad perform buddy aid. I think I've read that this is something that will be addressed in upcoming patches.

Yep. You can assign a pause for each leg of the waypoint; simply click on the white pyramid at the end of each movement path to select that waypoint. Similarily, you can assign targets, cover arcs, smoke, and other things I may be forgetting for each point.

I've never encountered a problem with this. Are you sure you're giving them a pause at the correct waypoint? It sounds like you may be intending for them to pause before they move, but you're mistakenly giving them a pause order at their last waypoint.

Beautiful!

Looked like a fair amount of recoil to me. And not too tight a pattern when he was shooting at the car.

I don't know. The Stykers have a ton of ammo. That is a lot of fire you have available. I agree that they should be on overwatch, but when you have that much ammo, you can afford to spray a position for while before switching to overwatch. At the end of the 2nd mission, most of my Strykers were down to under 100 rounds. A couple were out. I am a little confused about the HE strykers. I had thought they were one of my best assets, but truth be told, I never actually saw them kill anyone. I had one of them pull around the far right flank to attack the jeeps behind the special forces HQ. I also had a Inf carrier attack. 2 of 3 men in the Jeep were killed. The last one tho, I wanted to kill with the HE. Unfortunatley it wasn't his time to go. I expended over 40 rounds while he crawled from the jeep to the HQ, and the lucky bastard made it! If they can't kill an enemy out in the open, how does it really fare against fortified positions? *Edit* I guess the real problem is not spotting the enemy until he pops up and decides to kill one of my guys. Is there any way to spot an enemy hiding in a building besides giving them a squad to shoot at? </font>

Anyone notice weird pre-1.07 bugs popping up while playing this? Several times I've seen the annoying split-squad bug, where a split team given a move order will move in the opposite direction for an entire turn. Strangely I have not seen this in any other scenario, and I have been playing quite a few lately. This is Hammertime v4, btw.

Well, have fun, now's definately the time to get back in the game, it's come a very long way since 1.01.

Mark, I think that it may be a game problem, as per my post. You're not allowed to give an embark order for the first turn, it always displays a yellow arrow.

Not exactly that they don't start close enough. But you'll notice in that mission that there are two blue rectangles painted on the ground. One is occupied by the Strykers, and one by the infantry. These are the setup zones. Before the game starts, you can move units anywhere within their setup zone, but you can't move them to other setup zones. This is why it won't allow you to embark them before the game starts. However, there is nothing preventing you from giving preliminary orders to the infantry to move next to the Strykers during the setup phase; do this as you would give a movement order during any other turn. Unfortunetly, and inexplicably, it seems you can not give an embark order during the setup phase. I believe this is a bug. It may have been introduced since 1.01 1.02, I have no idea. Anyway, it's not terribly important, you just have to wait until the second turn in the training mission to make your infantry embark. I've never seen this be an isuse during the campaign or any custom scenarios, hence I was completely unaware of it. [ March 19, 2008, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: slug88 ]

Just tried it. It seems that you're right, it won't let you load in the first turn (yellow icon), presumably because the strykers and the infantry are in different zones. However, at the beginning of the second turn, I give each squad an embark order (each to a differnt stryker) and they all board within 30 seconds. When you've selected a squad, selected a movement type, and hover the mouse over the vehicle, does it show up green or yellow? You can only embark if it's green.

I think they do, barring an overcrowded vehicle or some strange anomaly with your install. Are you left clicking on the vehicle? It should be exactly the same as another movement order you give, except clicking on the vehicle rather than the ground.

Because it would be redundant when there are already 3 commands that do it.