Zveroboy1

Do we have any reliable figure on the size of the Ukrainian military? But really as far as loss ratios are concerned, while it is interesting, with the current level of losses attrition is not going to win this war or be a decisive factor. The media often repeats this rough number of 5k casualties since the start of the conflict. I don't know whether this includes civilians or not, I am assuming it does for the sake of this discussion. Now let's say the Ukranian loyalists actually have a positive casualty ratio, I am not convinced this is true but ok why not. So half of these could be civilians, that leaves us with 2.5 or 3k military casualties., between 1000 and 1,500 killed for each side? No matter how you look at it, this is a fairly low intensity conflict and at this rate, the war could go on for 10 years. Ok maybe this is a bit of an exaggeration but you get my drift. So basically there is no military solution to this war. The separatists are not going to drive all the way to Kiev and I don't really see the loyalists recapturing all the territory that is currently out of their control, unless they receive tons of arms shipments and the border with Russia is sealed by UN observers.

Cool I am getting these for sure.

What Kieme said. I have been wondering too about the level of protection offered by the different types of buildings though. Also I said concrete but it is really plaster over bricks. Anyway here is a picture of the vanilla barn/shed for comparison. And here are two examples of what it could represent :

Yes I think I will do the second small barn set, I can't leave it all plain looking like it is. Probably one version with bricks and the last one, I don't know yet but I'll find something. I also got one big barn almost finished, I am just not entirely happy with it but it will probably be next. One reason why I started doing this is that I am working on a map based on a village in the Debaltseve pocket (yes I obsess a bit over it) and looking at pictures, it feels like almost every single house has one little shed close by.

Ah yes indeed thanks, the recoiless are already in the game.

Nice. For the red side right? Also some recoiless rifles please. I don't think they are in the game now or are they? But they seem pretty ubiquitous.

Thanks, coming from you it means a lot. I just fixed a tiny detail on the windows of the concrete shed, probably not worth downloading it again if you already have though.

Also why haven't the Ukrainian forces counterattacked? Are they bidding their time, (maybe there is one counterattack in the making I guess time will tell), or simply overwhelmed? And I don't think you can use the proximity of the Minsk deadline as an explanation for their inaction and passivity because really the separatist offensive hasn't been exactly lightining fast. This stage of the offensive began with the taking of Uglegorsk or Vuhlehirsk and that was what a month ago? So what gives?

Here is a mod for one of the small barns : one concrete and a wooden one. The building uses two different sets of textures that you can swap in game. Just copy the folder in the usual spot. They're not perfect but I am getting tired of working on it. Oh yes, I didn't bother modding the interior, didn't seem like it was worth the hassle. I hope you enjoy them. Zvero Here is the link : https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngoeuxd9hqepacc/Zveroboy%27s%20barn%20203.rar?dl=0

Yes I don't know, I hope you are right. I am just not as confident about the Ukrainian military capacities as you are.

Yes perhaps. I guess it depends on what their political goals are. If they aim to become fully or even partially independent as the word separatist implies then being in control of a contiguous coherent territory probably has some value to them. Care to share some of your casulaties figure by the way? It'd be of interest to me.

Yes this isn't exactly helping my case but thanks for the insight.

Hmm I am definitely not a Putin fan, but I don't see why it is so hard to admit it when the Ukrainians suffer a blow. I mean you can have sympathies for the Ukrainians without letting it get in the way of an objective military assesment. Basically when the separatists fail to take Debaltseve, they are useless and incompetent and weak. When they seize the town, they are equally as hopeless and it somehow becomes a tour de force achieved by the Ukrainian military. I don't know I am just thinking you maybe rate one side a bit too highly as far as military capabilities are concerned and the other side too poorly.

There is a bit of a double standard here. I know it is probably not wise to argue about such matters with the site's owner but with all due respect Steve, I don't think you are applying the same standards of critical analysis to reports coming from the Ukrainian government as you do to the Russians or separatists reports. And your understandable disliking for the separatists is maybe clouding your judgement a bit about the true situation on the ground. Before the separatists captured Debaltseve, people were saying : ok their offensive is a failure, they are not making any progress, they suffer horrible casualties etc. Now that they took the town, it is becoming : oh we were not forced to withdraw, we chose to, and the town was not strategically important even though it basically provides a direct road link between Donetsk and Luhansk and gives the rebels a coherent contiguous piece of territory. Basically both sides were being disingenuous about the true situation on the ground but yet you appear to dismiss the separatists' claims and trust at face value reports coming from the Ukrainian government. The separatists were being overly optimistic when they claimed there was a cauldron because it was never totally sealed but the Ukrainian government was lying too because it is obvious the road between Artemivsk and Debaltseve wasn't secure and that was the reason for withdrawing, not to shorten the frontline, this appears to be more a consequence than the true reason really, but because supplies couldn't get through. As far as the withdrawal is concerned, well I'll just quote this BBC article : "President Poroshenko says the withdrawal was planned and organised, but on the ground it looked like a hasty retreat in the face of overwhelming odds." http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31519000

Yes but for the past two weeks the separatists have been talking about the Debaltseve cauldron, gloating about how it was doomed since they took Logvinovo astride the Debaltseve - Artemivsk road. Meanwhile the Ukrainian government kept flat out denying it, saying the situation was under control, the separatists were taking heavy casualties, their offensive a failure etc. Therefore while the encirclement was probably not completely tight, otherwise there could have been no withdrawal, there was indeed an encirclement in the making. So yes it is not all that surprising to see belligerents sides lying in a war, but it goes to show you that both sides do it and if you want to be well informed you need to read what both of them say.

What is the name of the map? And is it one of the stock QB maps?

The BBC is reporting Ukrainian troops withdrawing from the city : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31519000 And the interactive map at http://liveuamap.com/ which is a pro Ukrainian news site shows the whole pocket under separatist control. How much of the whole thing was a breakout to punch out of encirclement or a withdrawal which implies a the presence of a corridor is not clear, neither is how organized it was, but it appears the separatists have managed to capture this strategical location. Pretty big development. Quoted from the Guardian : "But the withdrawal seemed anything but orderly, and Prekharia said the decision to pull back had been made by the senior commanders on the ground when they saw that the situation was becoming catastrophic. Other soldiers said artillery and ambushes had been waiting for them on their way out." Previously the separatists has claimed to have seized a small village astride the road leading out of the pocket but the Ukrainian government denied it. Another quote from the Guardian : "The Ukrainian authorities insisted that Debaltseve had never been surrounded, but army medics and soldiers who escaped the city told the Guardian that shelling and mines along the road had cut off the flow of ammunition, supplies and ambulances to Debaltseve for more than a week." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/18/ukrainian-soldiers-share-horrors-of-debaltseve-battle-after-stinging-defeat Yesterday there were reports of heavy fighting around the railroad station in Debaltseve proper. But this was a bit unexpected. Quite a setback for the Ukrainians it seems.

Use this : http://community.battlefront.com/topic/117881-visual-guide-to-flavor-objects/

Nice, I have been waiting for this one. I love it how it gets rid of the patchwork effect when zoomed out with the green and the yellow grass. They blend together nicely.

I am all for BF updating it don't get me wrong, just saying it is still an enjoyable game and doesn't feel as archaic or obsolete as some comments suggest. I have read people call it CM 1.5 but really it is basically the same engine, it is more like SF is CM 2 and what we have now is CM 2.3.

It would be nice if BF upgraded Shock Force's engine but really it is entirely playable as it is now. You will miss a bunch of features compared to the latest games like no shaders, no armor covered arcs or target quick commands etc.... but the game hasn't been rendered obsolete imo. In other words the differences between SF and BS aren't as big as some people make them out to be. The game was really rough around the edges when first published but with all the patches and modules, it was pretty solid and it still is. That doesn't mean I don't want an upgrade if that's possible , all I am saying if that it is still an enjoyable game, just missing a couple of features that are no show stopper. So if you have skipped it or someone is considering buying it because they like modern warfare, or revisiting it, go ahead, it is still a fun game, just missing a few bells and whistles.

I don't know, they looked fairly close on my end but it is really hard to have the color match exactly.

There is indeed a bit of a disconnect between some of these vids on youtube showing convoys with hundreds of vehicles, AFV, tanks or trucks loaded with troops and low intensity fighting like the example in this thread where all you see are mere platoons of ragtag infantry just taking potshots and blindly firing vogs in the general direction of the enemy. It is hard to reconcile the two. But there is no doubt that there has been some heavy fighting going on in the last two weeks. The separatists are trying to pinch off the Debaltseve pocket. They actually claimed to have done so and have allegedly seized the small village of Logvinovo astride the highway from Debaltseve to Artemivsk with a night attack under the cover of artillery. There are reports of Russian jets' strikes and you only need to look at some pictures of villages where combat has taken place to be convinced there is indeed some hard fighting going on very different from the skirmishes in the vids in this thread. Some of these villages, small towns look absolutely trashed, like wasteland really. I think this is due mostly to two factors, first the very nature of war news and reporters activity. They rarely get to be where heavy combat is taking place, they usually only go there when it is over for mopping up operations. And secondly, this war from what I understand could be described as an artillery war where the bulk of the work is done by artillery pounding areas which forces them to be evacuated if you don't want to be anihilited. Modern artillery is so deadly and both sides have some that it shapes the way the fighting is conducted significantly. So the way I see it, there is probably little of the traditional assaults that we expect to see. Instead it is mostly arty strikes followed by withdrawal and mopping up and counter barrages.

I am not seeing this thing where units get suppressed more easily than in previous games, unless you are talking about Shock Force where mgs were neutered and had a lower rof. Compared to Red Thunder it looks exactly the same to me, only difference being that firepower and lethality have increased.

The other folders only have ground textures in them, it shouldn't change the lod issue, which by the way should only appear on big maps. If you just load a small map, you might not see it. Oakheart, it is also possible that you are using both autumn mods. The second one, Early Autumn Foliage.brz, actually has working lod bmps for the trees but I found the color doesn't match. So if you have both installed in your mod folder, you won't see the absence of foliage at a distance. Anyway I made this quick fix for the lod issue for trees number 1,3 and 4 in the Autumn environment mod. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4m5x8m6k0e7lmxm/autumn%20foliage%20lod%20fix.rar?dl=0 Tell me if it works for you guys.