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Kaunitz

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Everything posted by Kaunitz

  1. I concur with RockinHarry. It does make a difference. From my impressions, hit registry is indeed somehow linked to the actual models, and the animation changes where the model is. This doesn't help if you don't get any aiming point at all, as it commonly happens on flatter maps. Then the only means to fire your MG in a direction is to use a very close target area spot, which leads to very high ammo consumption and incredible spread of burts (for each fire action, the MG targets a random point in the action square. If the action square is very close, the angle of dispersion is huge...). Also, firing at point in front of the target may sometimes results in a bad (too high) trajectory. The trajectory runs roughly from the muzzle to a random point in the target square at about knee-height. If the target point is slightly "above" your muzzle height (as it often happens because you need to see the ground to spot it), and your gun is firing knee-height at a target point, the shots often go high. ---- And yes, there are also many maps that are marvellous and more realistically scaled. I appreciate that and it is by no means meant as a reproach to all the people who put their heart into designing maps. The problem is most severe for older quickbattle maps. I also have the impression that it's sometimes meant to give infantry a better chance against armor.
  2. The problem of infantry protection has already been mentioned. The benefit of fortifications is puny. It's a pity that fortifications are so neglected. Also, Pixelsoldiers tend to be too brave. They often continue to run under fire (default reaction of most move orders) and they also tend to kneel while under fire (I use an animation mod by ROckinharry (?) so that my men stay prone more often and survive much better). And Pixelsoldiers they don't make the best use of cover (which is understandable, as this must be a highly complicated issue to tackle). I'd also like to point out that I often get the impression that infantry often seems to move somewhat unflexibly and slowly - almost as if stuck in some jelly. But then again, this is balanced out by the bad shooting skills of many pixelsoldiers. ------------------- Another point which has not been mentioned in this thread yet is map design. While I understand that many other players don't share my opinion, I'm still convinced that the map design is one of the main culprits for the exagerated casualty rate in CM. Of course not all maps are the same and many maps are well researched and realistically scaled. But the big bunch of sandbox quickbattle maps are anything but realistic. Their landscapes resemble tabletop miniature landscapes. In general, the footprint of most terrain features (a forest, a field, a hill,...) is too small and there are too many terrain features in too little space. Exaggerated example: On a 1x1km CM map, you can often find 2 hills, 5 woods, 2 villages. In reality, such a space would comprise half a hill (sloping gently, not cutting LOS!), a village and perhaps a part of a forest. The main consequence of "too many small terrain features in too little space" is that lines of sight/fire are cut much too frequently. This in turn reduces the range at which combat typically takes place. For a combat mission player, a 200m LOF feels like a luxurious "long range". In reality, it's still well within rifle range and all too common! Now, if the combat distance is "too" short, it's no surprise that casualty rates are high. The attacker often has to move into what amounts to an ambush by the defender. Often, there is not a single position from which you could bring your support weapons like hMGs to bear on the enemy from a reasonable distance (outside rifle range! at a range at which you're not immediately spotted and shot dead and thus have time to set up!). On many maps, there is no way for the attacker to establish a "soft" contact and build up fire to suppress a position. Most contact in Combat Mission games is hard contact at point blank range. Hills are particularly critical, because going prone doesn't reduce your exposure that much when fired at from above at short range. On gentler, flatter slopes, things are different. --------------- Another issue is that weapons who are supposed to be very good at suppression often can't be used effectively. The main victims are machine gun teams. Not only are they handicapped by map design (as mentioned above), but also the way that area fire works makes their use very unreliable and fiddly. You need to have LOS onto the GROUND in your target-area spot. Needless to say that it is often impossible for a MG team that lies prone to see any spot on the ground. You're not allowed to fire in a "direction" if you cannot see a spot on the ground. Thus MGs are often unable to fire - reverse slope targets everywhere, no line of fire! Also, you can't fire through bushes. The only way around this is to have an elevated position. Another issue for MGs is that the game does not allow them to target more than 1 action spot (a front of 8m) in a single turn. If firing from a proper distance, the gun would hardly need to be traversed to cover an area much larger than a single action spot. There are reasons why MGs in Combat Mission are extremely underwhelming and don't have the suppressive effect they should have. Less suppression = more casualties.
  3. Last game a trooper of mine fired 4 RPG7-shots into a tree right in front of him. The tank was 20-25m away... I'm also a bit disappointed about how easily tanks seem to be allowed to manoeuver (and turn their turret/gun) in woods. It would be great if more map designers made use of small patches of heavy wood (impassable to tanks, afaik?) to make tank movement more complicated and less predictable in woods. Tank manoeuverablity in dense forest is one of my main gripes. As LongLeftFlank also mentioned, very few CM map feature the thickets at the edges of woods (a gently rising canopy, so to speak), which would cut LOS into the wood. Of course this would also depend on the type of wood - there are many woods without that typical thicket. Most woods on quick battle maps are way too small. As a result, these woods can be traversed very fast, they can be easily saturated by artillery fire, and defending them doesn't take a lot of troops.
  4. Interesting stuff, holoween! Indeed in larger battles I think that some fortifications can be more worthwhile in terms of cost/effectivenes due the relation between point budget/mapsize. May I ask how the battle went/why it did take longer for your opponent to clear the position? Was the opponent unable to hit or were his hits less effective in taking your pixeltruppen out? I wonder if part of the perceived protection might have been due to the very flat terrain (hitting close to the target requires more accuracy in this case)? Did he have no artillery? You say it was more difficult to scout out? Aren't foxholes spotted very easily?
  5. Hm. Never thought of it this way. I find it a bit strange if "more tolerance for casualties" benefits the defender rather than the attacker. So a better name for the assault missions should be "search and destroy". In my opinion assault missions should feature a big separate point budget for the defender to buy field fortifications. Unless you put them into a separate budget, noone is ever going to buy them because they're ridicolously overprized. Would you rather buy 2 squares of barbed wire or a full squad? Field fortifications are supposed to funnel the enemy into killzones, not to be more expensive than the troops that constitute your killzones! Also, field fortifications are still underpowered (CM:BS doesn't even feature "bunkers" - so you get no overhead protection whatsoever for infantry positions in the title which has plenty of airburst HE ammo....for me this is a major issue that totally messes up the balance. No wonder everyone is astonished by the "lethality" of the modern titles...)
  6. What often drives me nuts is that you cannot area-target reverse slope spots (exception: mortars). This basically means that your line of sight (onto the ground!) is identical with your line of fire, which sometimes leads to rather ridicolous problems: For example, I cannot order my heavy MG to spray some bushes. I can only order the MG to target the ground in front of the bushes, but I cannot fire at the bushes themselves. For this reason alone, vehicle-mounted MGs are often more usefull as they are better at "spotting the ground" because of the elevated position of the MG. But then again, the fire from mounted MGs is often not as effective (depending on the distance, the angle between the ground and the trajectory of the shots is bigger, so the bullets don't graze that well/travel that far - the effect of the fire is extremely limited to a very tight spot). Generally speaking, I think that MGs have a lot of problems in the current engine. Effective fire is very hard to achieve because of the LOS=LOF issue described above, because of map design (very steep elevations, lots of cover --> very few opportunities for effective long range and/or grazing fire), because players have no influence on the spread (only 1 spot targeted per round/minute) and on the rate of fire (which depends entirely on the range) and because combat mission pixeltruppen tend to be rather unimpressed by fire (unless it kills). To a lesser degree though, these problems affect all small calibre fire. It's very hard to direct fire in a way in which it is effective (sweeping/covering ground effectively). It would also be nice if MGs were more trigger happy. If they see a single enemy soldier who drops to the ground, they should continue to fire at the spot where he went down and the surroundings. Exclusively firing on sight defeats the purpose. PS. Example of grazing fire in CM: https://youtu.be/KrY135AV6tg
  7. Okay so it seems that point 1 is not true for most QB maps. For probes/attacks/assaults, the location of objectives and the deployment zones are identical. So the only difference between the battle types is the difference in the point budget and the allocation of victory points to terrain objectives and casualties, as described in the v.4 manual, pp. 27, 119. To me it seems as if the more you go towards assault, the easier it will be for the attacker. The attacker gets more points and more tolerance for losses (and some info on enemy positions). The defender gets ... nothing? Players could agree on using progressively shorter time limits for attacks and assaults though.
  8. That only works in PBEM if both players have a gentlemens' agreement and trust each other.
  9. Infantry guns are almost useless in Combat Mission because most of maps are too small/too hilly and crowded with terrain. For Normandy, that's okay, but for the other titles, I think it's a big problem. You rarely get LOS beyond ca. 250m. This is too close for comfort even for heavy MGs, let alone an infantry gun. Most reasonable "support positions" would be somewhere behind the attacker's deployment zone off map on a hill/ridge (which would also allow some spotting and help get rid of the CM scouting claustrophobia).
  10. In case you didn't know: John Tiller's Panzer Campaigns Series inclues a "Sealion" game. These are usually very well researched games that come with designer notes if you're interested in the conflict. Oddly, this one seems to be missing the "planning map" (a huge hex-map file): http://www.johntillersoftware.com/PanzerCampaigns/Sealion40.html
  11. Thanks a lot, that's very usefull! The follow-up question we could try to answer concern the differences between the different types of quickbattles, apart from the point budgets. I will try to investigate the differences, but maybe someone already knows more than I? As far as I know, the more you lean towards "assault", the deeper in the defender's deployment zone the terrain objectives ought to be / the further the defender's deployment zone reaches? the less weight casualties should have compared to the terrain objectives for determining victory (in an assault only, the attacker gets some information/contact markers on the defenders' positions)
  12. This. I think one of the more interesting points in the "tanks op?" thread was the question whether the coordination between tanks and infantry is too easy in CM. And I'm still of the opinion that it is. Mind you, this is not neccessarily about borg-spotting (letting tanks area-fire at targets that they can't even know about), but also about reaction by movement. If I spot a Panzershreck team with my infantry over there, I can let my tanks stop/reverse very quickly. Tanks can react to things they shouldn't be aware of. An interesting but purely hypothetical "solution" would be to increase reaction intervals for tanks, so that - for example - you could only give new orders to a tank every 3 minutes, not every single minute. Also, I still think that the lack of proper defensive works in Combat Mission increases the tanks' power against infantry. On the other hand, quickbattle-map-design tends to make tanks more vulnerable to infantry (and also to other tanks). Most quickbattle-maps are extremely compartmentalized, which means that tanks are too close for comfort most of the time. (It also means that heavy MGs aren't even remotely as usefull as they should be, but that's another issue)
  13. Most Combat Mission scenarios are pitched assaults (without any recon info for the attacker...*sigh*) on maps with relatively short lines of sight. Also, both sides usually have at least some (anti) tank capabilities. These are big handicaps for Stummels (and other non-armored infantry support assets). I suppose that Stummels would be much more usefull in those types of engagements that cannot be translated into Combat Mission scenarios that well/easily: asymmetrical delaying/rearguard actions. E.g. the enemy - let's suppose it's an infantry battalion - is on the retreat because tank formations have broken through his main line of resistance in some other sector of the front. In order to secure his retreat, he leaves behind small detachments (most likely MG nests) in strongpoints/villages along his path of retreat. It's rather unlikely that anti tank guns are part of such detachments. Now, your task is just to "work" your way through the enemy delaying efforts: push through minefields and road blocks, clear the villages. This is WWII day to day business. Such scenarios would be rather frustrating and dull to play. Most of the time, the enemy would just fire from a distance, forcing you to deploy from marching column to battle formation (which takes time) and once you enter the village, the enemy is already gone. I suppose that Stummels would be quite usefull in these situations (knocking out enemy nests of resistance "on the fly").
  14. I'd like to volunteer as the stay behind man, yes, please! Interesting video! Thanks for sharing.
  15. BTW If you're looking for Red Army maps: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/splash.htm?scope=images/VAC9619 (you can activate a "interactive view" to zoom in, but there doesn't seem to be an option to download...) --> index map available here: https://iu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=098c42997ca441029b69f0597ff92ea6 - here you can also download the maps in high resolution Some interesting situational maps: http://armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/
  16. These are all very interesting points. I share the observation that in some situations the suppression bar takes quite a while to fill up if no casualties are inflicted. I think our last PBEM was a great example for that, when my 2-3 heavy MGs were firing at your platoon that was advancing over open but sloped (bad for MG, no grazing) ground and quite miserably failed to pin you down or cause any casualties at all. Now, in this case, the distance was very far (500-600m?) and the fire not too accurate, so I guess it was okay that my MGs did not stop the advance. However, I also wondered whether the fact that your soldiers were spread out quite a lot played a role here. I guess that the suppressive effect is smaller when the bullets hit close to only one soldier, with the rest of the squad being farther away? Generally speaking, it seems as if very accurate and high volumes of fire are required to prevent enemy movements in Combat Mission. I wonder whether troops should go prone immediately whenever bullets impact the ground anywhere close, except if they have an active "fast" order (and are thus highly unlikely to spot the source of the incoming fire). With a gradual build-up of suppression and the standard reaction to incoming fire ("quick") units are often able to make a lot of ground even if under fire and they have a good chance to spot the source of the incoming fire (in quick move, they're still upright, standing). It seems more plausible to me that you would hit the ground immediately (and then of course have troubles to figure out where the fire was coming from, with their eyes on the ground level...).
  17. Based on my readings of WWII memoirs and also a few Vietnam accounts, I fully agree with this. You can also watch very relevant videos of real combat footage of recent conflicts on youtube. The experience of modern fire combat often seems to be one of being exposed to a more or less abstract "volume of fire". Especially, but not exclusively in dense terrain (woods, jungle...). Troops couldn't always tell the direction from which it was coming nor identify/spot the source. Soldiers in WWII did also (and were sometimes encouraged to) fire without seeing the enemy. I suppose that being exposed to a high volume of fire - not neccessarily to any actual "suppression effect" (seeing the effect of bullets hitting close), just judging from the number of sounds/noise - would also be a psychological deterrent. Even if you're not acively pinned by the opponent's fire, you'd be less likely to risk any attack if the enemy "sounded" strong? I'm not sure whether fire fights in Combat Mission fully convince me in this regard. But it's generally hard to visualize the dynamics of modern fire combat and there is certainly a lot of variety. I sometimes get the impression that our pixel infantrymen might be a bit too brave when it comes to exposing themselves to enemy fire, and perhaps a bit too good when it comes to spotting the enemy when under fire. These two things are probably related, which is also why further experiments with modding animations might be interesting (forcing soldiers to stay prone more). Infantrymen in Combat Mission are very often able to fire on sight, with the result that casualties accumulate very fast and fire fights are decided comparatively quickly. For example, how often do you order a MG unit to move to an alternate fire position? In my experience, fire fights usually don't last long enough (by the time they would reach the new position, the engagement is already over) and 2) as soon as they move, they get shot. By contrast, if both sides were more affected by the "volume of fire", firing blindly to a greater degree, you'd expect casualties to accumulate slowlier, as a kind of "attrition". Soldiers would get hit by "anonymous" bullets more often, accidently, if you will. Partial cover would be more effective in this situation (it is of no great help when the enemy has spotted you...). I sometimes wonder why these situations don't occur in Combat Mission. As far as I know, Combat Mission does not take into account the more "abstract", indirect psychological factors. It does model the actual "suppression" effect, but not the psychological impact of a "high volume of fire". (Similarly, I think there is no tank shock/panic in Combat Mission). Depending on a unit's morale, the mere sound of intensive firing (within a certain distance/radius) could have an impact on morale and the will to advance. So this would be a more long-term "environmental" factor compared to the more extreme and direct "suppression" effect when the unit is targeted by accurate fire. I suppose that MGs are also part of the reason. They're quite handicapped by the fact that they can only area-target a single square per minute. They can only cover very small areas. Another point to think about would be the bonus for spotting units that are firing. And then of course the distance at which engagements take place also play a big role. Another rather weird thought: what about the lack of a "crouched movement"? Perhaps units would be able to advance closer to each other without getting spotted (staying below the height of the terrain type), so that both sides would be more likely to find themselves in a situation in which they can area fire at each other at closer distances? Also, when exposed to fire, a soldier's accuracy should drop drastically? Just very hypothetical brainstorming here, free of any considerations how it would affect gameplay as a whole ... So, for the further discussion, I would be interested in your opinions on these questions: 1) Should a perceived high volume of fire have a psychological effect, even if it's blind/inaccurate (not covered by the actual suppression mechanic)? 2) Does CM infantry engaged in fire combat spot too well? If so, why?
  18. I sometimes use wooden bunkers in my quick battles as ammo crates and "dug-outs" to offer some protection against enemy artillery. As it has been mentioned, they tend to get immediately spotted and knocked out by any non-small arm weapon. They can be effective against enemy infantry though, if you can place them somewhere 1) enemy tanks can't fire on them, 2) they can play the strength of their heavy MG (ideal distance to enemy 350m plus, i.e. outside the effective range of the enemy light MGs!) and 3) as long as you can protect their flanks/dead angles. So yeah, basically, never. Strangely, it seems that bunkers can't be supressed for some reason. As long as this is the case, it would probably be a bad idea to make bunkers provide a realistic level of protection...? Fortifications are in a very bad spot right now. Either they don't offer enough protection and - equally if not more important - concealment (bunkers, trenches, foxholes) and/or they're severly overprized in quickbattles (wire, mines, AT obstacles). But it's unlikely that anything will change. I'd also greatly welcome fortified buildings and the option to modify buildings in the deployment phase (barricade windows, add doors /blow gaps to allow covered movement to and from buildings).
  19. "Infanteriegruppe als Spähtrupp" (The infantry squad on a recon mission for the company) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJwEsfobXy8 @40:43, you can see a schematic presentation of the squad's retrograde movement (footage starting @32:18) upon contact. The distance between the german squad in the rivulet and the enemy heavy MG is said to be 150m. The distance between the german light MG (back in the wood) and the enemy heavy MG is 350m.
  20. @Zveroboy1 I've converted your map for Red Thunder and Final Blitzkrieg. Just had a quick look, everything looks fine. The only thing you might want to adjust are the flavour objects. I've uploaded the files here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/91wr3f203ub9ash/AABD8cAKYNLStBpusxo1yl_pa?dl=0
  21. Yay! Thanks a lot! I can never get enough realistic maps! I'm always searching for maps suitable for H2H play. Have you considered to port them to the other (WWII) titles as well? It's actually super easy.
  22. Do you know whether the "victory/defeat" differentiation means anything or is just an information on your "performance"? After all, as you say, what really matters is capturing squares.
  23. Some things I learned and noticed about GT during my first campaign playthrough that are quite impressive, I have to say: Persistent battlefields throughout the campaign: dead soldiers, craters, destroyed buildings, trenches, destroyed vehicles - everything is persistent. Campaigns are played on a map which are roughly at least 80km² big. Tactical battles take place on 3x3km sections of this map. If in your first battle a tank burned out at location X on the map, the wreck will still be there 5 turns later (the next day). Dynamic terraforming. That's right. Take a look at the attached video. At 09:37 you can see how the infantry gun slightly "condenses" the soft ground. Sounds! The great thing about the sounds is that GT differentiates close and distant sounds. It's extremely immersive and something that is sadly missing in CM. For some reason, armored battles play out "softer" than in CM. In CM, tanks are taken out of the battle completely very quickly when they start to get hit. In GT, you typically end up with a lot of "damaged" and immobilized tanks. (Those need to be repaired in the campaign) Of course it also depends on the pairing (armor versus gun*range*angle). GT has a pretty complex system to keep the player from micromanaging too much. Giving orders requires you to have command points and consumes command points. Units that have no communication links to their superiors or are in a bad shape in general need more command points to follow orders. Command points regenerate over time. (You can set the regeneration to fast if you want to "switch off" this system/restriction). Info sharing (about enemy contacts) works similarly to CM. By voice, wire/telephone, radio, maybe even flares (haven't quite figured this out yet). GT even has infantry telephones on tanks (haven't seen those yet ingame, but it is mentioned in the manual that they allow info sharing between infantry and buttoned-up tanks). Video of my second engagement in the campaign. Unfortunately, you have to play the game while you watch the action, so creating beautifull videos is not that easy. But I think you can get an overall impression of the relatively low battle intensity, realistically scaled maps, dynamic weather (note how it gets darker), and also the notorious "emptyness" of the modern battlefield.
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