Question for devs...

[Malakie]

Couple questions been nagging at me..

First I notice with vehicles using slat armor and/or reactive plates, boxes, armor etc, that RPG's and other weapons still routinely take out even tanks with little effort... Is this going to be adjusted or rectified at some point? Slat armor does a good job against RPG's on initial hit. Of course hit the same spot and it may go through the damaged area... Same with reactive armor... they should easily defeat RPG's and many other anti-tank missiles on initial strike..

Yet in game they do not seem to have any effect what so ever.. It would also be nice to have some damage modeling in this cases as well...

Second, just wondering what the next module for CMSF is? Would love to see China, Russia, France, Iran, Italy etc etc..

[LongLeftFlank]

1. Slat armour does have an effect, although I'm not an expert since Strykers were never of much interest to me (I'm a Marines player).

2. BFC has said that there will be no more modules or other adds (e.g. patches) for the current CMSF. BFC has indicated that they'd like to return to modern warfare at some point, probably with Eastern Europe (Ukraine?) as a venue, but they're fully committed with WWII at the moment, so you're probably going to wait at least 3 years. Best guess.

[Malakie]

1. Slat armour does have an effect, although I'm not an expert since Strykers were never of much interest to me (I'm a Marines player).

2. BFC has said that there will be no more modules or other adds (e.g. patches) for the current CMSF. BFC has indicated that they'd like to return to modern warfare at some point, probably with Eastern Europe (Ukraine?) as a venue, but they're fully committed with WWII at the moment, so you're probably going to wait at least 3 years. Best guess.

That sucks... The WWII market is way over saturated in my opinion.. You can only play the Battle of the Bulge or Normandy so many times before the story and playability does get old in terms of playable sims.

But the modern warfare market is wide open and not many are doing detailed sims like CMSF. They could make a killing by doing many many more modules for modern military hardware and nations...

[YankeeDog]

First I notice with vehicles using slat armor and/or reactive plates, boxes, armor etc, that RPG's and other weapons still routinely take out even tanks with little effort... Is this going to be adjusted or rectified at some point? Slat armor does a good job against RPG's on initial hit. Of course hit the same spot and it may go through the damaged area... Same with reactive armor... they should easily defeat RPG's and many other anti-tank missiles on initial strike..

Slat armor exploits a design flaw in the fusing of older RPG rounds. Specifically, if the round tip enters between the slats, the nose of the projectile gets pinched by the slats and the fuse gets shorted out. So it is often (but not always) effective against older RPG-7 rounds. But even against older RPG rounds, it doesn't work if the RPG round hits directly on a slat. There are newer RPG rounds with improved fusing that have fixed this design flaw, and IIRC, CMSF represents some of these.

The reactive armor issue is also complex. It is very effective against older, single-stage HEAT rounds. Against more modern, two-stage HEAT rounds, reactive armor generally has little effect. Many modern AT missiles and even RPG rounds have two stage warheads, including the Javelin, more recent Russian ATGM designs, and the most modern RPG-7 rounds.

[sburke]

That sucks... The WWII market is way over saturated in my opinion.. You can only play the Battle of the Bulge or Normandy so many times before the story and playability does get old in terms of playable sims.

But the modern warfare market is wide open and not many are doing detailed sims like CMSF. They could make a killing by doing many many more modules for modern military hardware and nations...

This is probably heresy as much as I am enjoying CMBN, but I'd agree. I would absolutely love to see a modern family based on a European conflict more than I would like to see the Eastern front in WW2. Would be even more interested if it was based in the 1980's.

[Erwin]

Well, Battle of the Bulge is a classic scenario that may have inspired the most cardboard games ever. And a pretty high % of the better tactical-operational computer games.

But, on the whole, East Front games have always been the big seller historically.

(Normandy = yawn, unless you're under 25 maybe and always like to be on the winning side.)

[Mord]

I like all of it....Modern. Normandy. Bulge. Market Garden. East Front. Italy. Nam. Korea. I'd take them all.

Mord.

[Schrullenhaft]

The current CMSF series has come to an end and will see no more modules or patches (as far as I'm aware).

However, I don't think you will have to wait 3 years for the next modern CMx2 game. It MIGHT take a year though. It will not be covering an '80's time frame unfortunately (as popular a request as that is). Instead it will be more like CMSF in a temperate climate. Where it will exactly take place hasn't been disclosed yet (or possibly decided). There will possibly be a bit more of an expanded arsenal on the 'red' side, especially with modules, if the game ends up popular enough to justify modules.

[Mord]

if the game ends up popular enough to justify modules.

IF? You mean when!

Mord.

[MikeyD]

I recall slat armor was said to be about 50% effective - and that was only with old-style Russian RPG rounds whose nose fuse contact to the base igniter could be shorted-out. If memory serves, the very first RPG fired at a Stryker penetrated and cut the engine's cooling line after impatcting the forward cage. It's been awhile since I looked, but I believe CMSF also models a Chinese (later design Russian?) round with improved fuse, not to mention those nasty tandem warhead rounds.

[Sakai007]

I was talking to an Army buddy of mine, he related these stories to me so I felt I should share them with you.

He was in a firefight, Iraq, 2007. While in a 2nd story window, he is providing overwatch for a Bradley parked down below. The characteristic sound of an RPG splits the air. This rocket traveled something close to 600 meter down a city street and hit the Bradley straight on. This Bradley didn't have ERA either. I swear that he swears this next part is true. The RPG hits the Bradley and bounces straight back the way it came. He swore it seemed to be going faster after the ricochet. When it hit the ground, it exploded. I say to him, "was it under minimum arming range maybe?" Nope, it traveled 600m before impact. the funny part was, the paint wasn't even scratched on the Bradley. No dent, no nothing.

Months later, Iraq, my buddy and his fire team on in a Humvee just leaving their patrol base. The area is an intense hive of enemy activity. It took two tried to even enter the city in an attempt to re-capture the IP compound that had been deserted in the face of forces financed by a radical cleric with a lot of money. He told me the name, but it slips my mind now. On the first attempt, they were driving fairly slow, and when they went through the city gate, all hell broke loose. They beat a hasty retreat, repaired vehicles, and two hours later went back in. This time the whole convoy at 55 mph! Wasn't a radical insurgent who could hit them, and they crashed through the gate and re-secured the IP compound.

The next day, the fireteam was in the Humvee, as mentioned before. They had just received the FRAG5 up-armor kits the day before, and this was the first combat for them with the upgrades. The Humvee is hit, behind right under the rear door, drivers side. This is the same seat where my friend is sitting. I don't know what god was watching over him, but this is what happened. The RPG didn't penetrate. It did explode though, and it had the force to crumple the FRAG5 armor on the door and the frame of the humvee. My friend was hit with some fragments in the left leg, and suffered some pretty nasty burns from the intense temperature of a HEAT round going on 1 foot or so from your leg. This was his first purple heart, but sadly it would not be the last. I remember seeing him at Ft. Benning, he was pumped cause he was going to Javelin school. I was like, ha u bastage, don't want to have fun in firefights I see (young and stupid version of me, I had no idea to say the least) and we had a good laugh about it. You just never know. I have even more crazy RPG stories, but this should do for now.