Rex J.
-
Posts
49 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Rex J.
-
-
But do you hear it from off-map mortars? You shouldn't because mortar bombs are more streamlined (most of the calibers, anyway) and travel at a lower velocity.
Michael
Shouldn't, but nevertheless do. So far I haven't noticed any exceptions. All on map guns produce no incoming artillery sound. All off map guns – including 60mm and 80mm mortars – do produce an incoming artillery sound prior to the explosion.
On a side note, the idea of replacing all the incoming artillery wav files with wav files of cats meowing is awfully tempting.
-
how do you know if an incoming barrage is generated by an OFF MAP enemy Art/Mtr unit ? Jim
On map artillery/mortar rounds don't trigger an "incoming artillery" wav file before they land. So if you hear that roar or whistle before the shells land, then you know it's from off map guns.
-
What about engineers sharing demo charges? I split a squad of engineers and one of the teams used up all of their charges. I recombined the teams into one squad and then split them again and still one of the teams had zero charges and the other had four charges. Is there some thing that I am not doing correctly?
Demo charges and hand grenades are never shared. Rifle grenades are shared.
And yes, individual soldiers will grab one clip, magazine, round, etc at a time when they are completely out of ammo from a unit (in the same platoon that has ammo) right next to them.
One exception to the platoon rule is that in platoons with section HQs below the platoon HQ, the sections will only share within the section (i.e. 80mm mortars in section 1 won't share with mortars in sections 2 or 3 of the same platoon).
-
One time I had the camera locked on a newly arrived tank as it approached an infantry squad. When it got within a few meters of the squad, the map suddenly filled with contact icons as it got all the latest spotting information. Then the tank rotated even though I hadn't ordered it to. When I replayed the turn, I saw that the tank was turning its front towards a contact icon that turned out to be an anti-tank gun. Another infantry squad further over had spotted it earlier in the turn for just a couple of seconds while it was moving.
So the first squad saw the gun, told another squad (not in its platoon) about it, and that squad then told the tank, which responded to the information by turning its frontal armour to the threat. All in the course of one wego turn.
-
the german 81mm mortar teams i attached to a platoon run out of ammo in 2 minutes how can the ai resupply them. are there any vehicles with mortar ammo i can park next to them?
Permanent, if this is for the amazing looking Dog Red, Easy Green scenario you're working on, then have a look at this thread on ammo stockpiles. It'll work for German mortars, infantry guns, AT guns, and small arms. Pretty much everything but vehicles.
-
I was playing a scenario yesterday (name of scenario given below under spoiler alert) and I discovered a bit of an issue with anti-tank guns. My infantry had an ATG under observation (calling in mortars) and I moved my tank up to a position where it should have been safe from fire from the gun. It didn't turn out that way, and when I replayed the turn I noticed that the offending round was passing through the corner of the building that the gun was positioned behind.
Moving the camera to the gun itself, I could see that the LOF from the barrel of the gun to the tank was blocked by the building, but the LOS from the AT gunner to the tank was clear. The distance between the tank and the gun was about 900m so the slight distance between the gunner and the gun barrel and the resulting difference in LOS was all the more pronounced.
Is the LOF for an ATG calculated from the gunner, not the gun itself? If that is the case it's something for players to keep in mind.
***Spoiler Alert*** The scenario was: The Crossroads at Monthardrou and the gun was a German 75mm. (highlight the light coloured text to see it).
-
I have done a little more. If the men hide behind the wall and each of the three platoons fire at a singly point on the waal there was a total of 6 casualties. 3 at ech aim point. The third platoon were firing light and caused no casualties. Therefore my belief is it was the rifle grenades that did the damage.
The test ran for three minutes and the damage occurred in the first minute, after that the two platoons with target orders were out of rifle grenades. It is quite possible if I had spread the fire out equally along the line the casualties may have been lighter.
That corresponds with what I found in a similar test:
I set up a test map with squads hiding in buildings, and platoons outside firing at the buildings from 30m to 80m ranges. Using just rifle and LMG fire (both German and US) there were no causalities among the 20 test squads (10 each German and US).When I ran the test again using the regular target command (as opposed to target light) and the platoons started using their rifle grenades and bazookas and panzerfausts, well that was just a bloodbath.
So the buildings seem to provide perfect cover to prone soldiers from light arms fire, but not much from even light explosions.
I also ran a rather small test comparing the effect of troops in the open to those behind sandbag walls (as well as in foxholes, trenches, and medium and large shell holes). Based on limited observation it seemed the sandbag walls were beyond suicidal for troops.
If what was posted up thread about most of the casualties behind the wall being from rifle grenades is the case, then most of this discussion is pointless. Being behind a wall may in fact be excellent cover from incoming bullets, but no cover at all from fragments of grenades exploding on the same side of the wall. And since, as has been noted, the soldiers behind the wall are in a more upright position, their vulnerability to such fragments is actually increased.Michael
True, but in my test, all the explosions were on the opposite side of the wall (outside the building) and the damage was still severe.
My guess would be that part of the reason for higher casualties for troops behind the wall is that it's easier to hit a wall with a rifle grenade than to land one among troops in the open.
-
I'd be very cautious about designing scens around this though. It's a feature that's like to disappear sooner rather than later.
Nooooooooooooo. But, but... there are so many other things on the to do list and this is a bug that is actually kind of fun.
Nice find! I can already see the low on ammo paratroopers having to fight to get to their airdropped ammo caches...Hey, that's the spirit. Set it on June 6th, and have the freshly dropped troops trying to find their lost leg bags. Small groups of paratroopers scrounging ammo from one lost leg bag to another as they fight they their way through German patrols to reach their intended drop zone might be a little more CoH than CMBN, but what the heck! It might be just the thing to ease the twitch crowd into the game.
Plus it would give us confirmed wegoers a chance to play a real-time scenario small enough that our heads won't explode. Start with one half squad (with "severe" ammo restriction) and add a freshly dropped squad every 5 to 10 minutes, scattering them all around the map.
I'm only half-joking BTW. Such a scenario would probably be quite fun. I might even make one myself and see how it goes.
-
Is that what we are asking BFC to code now, following the firing mechanism for each gun to insure who has it?
Well they do follow tank crews to make sure they have the right set of keys.
Seriously though, if they're able to have tank crews leave and return to their vehicles, and make the 2 mutually exclusive, then there's no reason why they can't have gun crews do the same... at least in theory.
I'm more than prepared to accept the "we're a small company and have too many other things to program before that" explanation because it's very true and the game is already infinitely better than we wargamers could have even dreamt of way back in our cardboard counter surrounded youth.
But if it can be done, I think the reasons why it should be done are better than the reasons why it should not be done.
-
have you tried it with regular infantry weapons? (like hmg and such, i mean)
I had a chance to look at it some more today, and yes "ghost replacements" will share all types of ammo - with the exception of hand grenades and demo charges - with on map units. Regular sharing restrictions apply – units will only share within their platoon (or section), vehicles don't share with other vehicles, out of ammo units pick up one clip/magazine/belt/round at a time (per soldier) from the sharing unit, etc.
So if you wanted to give an infantry platoon a stockpile of ammo, you would add a few "specialist teams" to that platoon – a MMG for .30 cal and rifle grenades, a scout for .45 cal (or a truck if you're not putting it in a building), an M1A1 and an M9A1 (the ammo for the two types isn't compatible) team for bazooka rounds – designate the teams as reinforcements, make their arrival time after the scenario's over, then lump them together on the map where you want the stockpile.
The tactic is probably most useful when you want on map artillery with fewer guns but the same number of rounds in total. Right now there aren't that many places where infantry in a static defensive position would last longer than their ammo supply. Still, I suppose it's nice to know the option is there if you have the imagination to put it to good use.
-
I discovered a minor bug that scenario designers can use to create stationary stockpiles for the US 60mm mortar – and possibly other weapons, though the 60mm is the only one I've tested so far.
When a US 60mm mortar is scheduled to arrive as a replacement, its ammo is already considered to be on the map at the beginning of a scenario and shows up in the total ammo available to any on map mortars that are close enough to share its ammo.
So to create an ammo stockpile for a company's mortar section, all you have to do is add a few extra mortar teams to the weapons platoon, designate the extra mortars as reinforcements, schedule them to arrive after the scenario is over, then place them on the map and voilà! When your on map mortars move to the area where the future replacements are, the extra rounds show up in the on map mortars ammo count.
*edit* it also worked for the PaK40, so it should work for just about everything.
-
Yes. I have petitioned BFC for stationary stockpiles of ammo that could be purchased for mortars, etc. The solution they currently have is vehicle stockpiles that can be accessed using the Acquire command.
It just occurred to me, with the bug you can do exactly that. I tried it out in the editor and it works perfectly.
Just add a few extra mortar teams to your weapons platoon, designate the extra mortars as reinforcements, schedule them to arrive after the scenario is over, then place them on the map and voilà! When your on map mortars move to the area where the future replacements are, the extra rounds show up in the on map mortars ammo count.
I've only tried it with the US 60mm mortars, but so far so good.
-
* Add a "Target Heavy" command for tanks, mortar, and arty crews to fire main armament only and not MGs or the crew's small arms (which rapidly gives away the mortar's position).
+1 to that idea.
It would also be nice if target heavy/normal/light were "states" that units could be set to.
Being able to set other "states" too would be nice, such as move to contact, retreat on being spotted, etc – and having hunt as a state rather than a separate movement order, so that you could have the behavior regardless of the movement speed. Rather like the difference between having to use the crawl movement in order to hide versus clicking the hide command so that the unit goes into hide mode as soon as it stops moving.
So instead of setting a 3m target arc for your bazooka team, clicking hide, and then ordering it to hunt to a location, you could set hunt, target heavy, armor only, retreat on taking fire, etc as states separate from the actual movement orders and assigned targets.
-
The mortar didn't lose the ammo. It was close enough to another mortar to share ammo and so the total rounds for BOTH mortars is shown. If you move one mortar away, they can no longer share, so each mortar shows only its own ammo.
This was the Road to Berlin scenario in the demo, where only 1 mortar started on the map.
Interestingly, before posting this reply I decided to run the demo again just to make sure. What I found was that the extra ammo for the mortar that started on the map was from the mortar that was due as a reinforcement on turn five. What's more, you could fire all the reinforcement mortar's ammo before it even arrived!
So it appears there's a minor bug in that a unit's ammo starts on the map where the unit will arrive later.
-
I frequently see these "mortar mimes" loading invisible rounds, sometimes several feet away from the mortar.
-
Yes, before i moved the AT gun it had 48 AP rounds (at work, I'm guessing atm). After I moved it (and the bearer) the gun had about half the ammo (24 AP rounds).
I had that happen too the first time I played the demo. The mortar team that started at the farm had double the usual load of ammo for a 60mm. As soon as I moved them more than a few feet, that ammo was lost. I assumed it was some sort of "stockpile" bonus ammo that couldn't be transported.
-
I suppose he's talking about the accuracy when the unit has been spotted but not the building againest the area fire.the issue seems long exist from the CMSF era,the small arm's area fire nearly can do little harm to the enemy except the surpressing effect but when a unit in building has been spotted and be targeted then,the incoming fire become deadly effective even the targeted unit has prone and seeking cover.
Yes, that's true, I was using area fire. I didn't realize aimed fire would be different. Thank you for pointing that out, it does explain a lot of what people have been seeing.
-
The demo scenarios are a modified version of part 1 of the TF Rask campaign, plus Busting The Bocage and Closing the Pocket, both of which can be downloaded from the repository.
-
Would be nice...
Some sort of indication at the very end of a WEGO turn of which units took hits/casualties that round, for those turns when you want to watch just once and not from a zoomed out vantage. Maybe the icons flashing at the end of the round or a text log type of thing.
- Slight differentiation in the floating icons for unit types so we can see at a glance which are infantry, ammo bearers, XO teams or pioneers.
- When a squad takes casualties, the floating icon could flash a different colour to the flashing when the unit is selected?
These, plus have icons shaded differently depending on their relation to each other – i.e. if you select 3rd squad/A team, have the rest of 3rd squad brighter than the rest of the platoon.
Scroll bars in the pre-battle GUI instead of the 'Next' button.+1
Have a "Follow Unit" command for columns down roads.This, or at the very least have a little extra space (programming, not visually) at the side of roads. As it is now if the lead vehicle goes even an inch off the road it slows way down and the convoy is mucked up.
I'd like to add my idea (from a previous thread) to be able to click on an HQ unit and see which subordinate units are within C2 range. See image.http://www.combatmission.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=966&d=1307041444
+1 but URL isn't working for me, did you mean this one:
http://www.battlefront.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=966&d=1307041444
- Slight differentiation in the floating icons for unit types so we can see at a glance which are infantry, ammo bearers, XO teams or pioneers.
-
Case:Building provide very little cover to inf.
Status: Unknown?
I set up a test map with squads hiding in buildings, and platoons outside firing at the buildings from 30m to 80m ranges. Using just rifle and LMG fire (both German and US) there were no causalities among the 20 test squads (10 each German and US).
When I ran the test again using the regular target command (as opposed to target light) and the platoons started using their rifle grenades and bazookas and panzerfausts, well that was just a bloodbath.
So the buildings seem to provide perfect cover to prone soldiers from light arms fire, but not much from even light explosions.
I have no idea if that is historically accurate or not. Can anyone enlighten us?
2) Crew members of crewed weapons firing their small arms at random targets and giving away the position of the crewed weapon (bazooka, mortar, AT gun, MG) is definitely a frustration (as mentioned by others in this thread). The AI should limit this behavior to firing back when fired upon or to firing at VERY close enemy, not at enemy 100+ meters away.
+1 to that
A possible issue: from what I've noticed, submachine guns seem to be causing a lot of casualties at ranges over 100m - that is, beyond their effective range. Has anyone else noticed that?
-
You can hear when the tank becomes immobilized, at the same time when the first tank shell hits it. The .50 cal has nothing to do with that.
You're right. Looking at it again (and using headphones) and comparing it to the test map, what happened was that the driver must have been killed by the .50 burst which caused the tank to stop (not immobilized per se but stopped), then the 75mm shell knocked out the engine.
BTW, the "23 second mark" I'm referring to is in the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpbSkVNkR3U, not the original video.
-
It looks to me like the 75mm main gun is what really immobilizes the tank, though... at 0:25.
The main gun certainly finished the job, but I'm sure it was the .50 cal that caused the tank to stop abruptly – as opposed to a dumb decision by the AI (or a second dumb decision at any rate).
Anyway, I decided to test my theory. I set up a shooting range map with 12 M2 s v 7 Pz IV s, rears to the guns at short range.
Note: there were no AT weapons on the map – no bazookas; no rifle grenades; just the .50 cals.
The details of this game are amazing at times (all the time really, but sometimes more so than others). Check out the 23 second mark of the video. There's a hit on the rear upper hull, a penetration is noted, "engine shutdown 0.wav" plays, then 2 seconds later the panzer explodes.
-
...in the rear engine louvres, the only place a .50 might conceivably penetrate...
In a game I was playing, a Panzer IV tried to pull away fast from a flanking Sherman, turning its rear to it in the process. The gunner missed twice but the commander put some .50 rounds through the engine immobilizing the Panzer.
-
I believe units will move faster to their destination when they come under heavy fire. So perhaps what you're seeing is the units changing from a "quick" movement to a "fast" movement which will definitely cause them to be tired after less than a minute.
Managing complexity.
in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Posted
No. Units only share ammo with units in the same platoon – or in the case of mortars arranged in sections, the same section.