Mike Zeares Posted November 4, 1999 Share Posted November 4, 1999 I've tried searching on this, but I didn't find what I was looking for. So I'll just bring it up here. Sorry if this has already been covered somewhere. When I lay smoke in the Last Defense scenario, the resulting smoke plumes wind up scattered literally all over the map. Some of them cluster around the target point, with a few scattered a little more widely. That's fine. What bothers me is that plumes will appear in weird places like behind the FO, way up on Hellcat Hill, or even up to a klick away off the map (seriously. I could only see it in the #8 view -- it was at least 1000 meters outside the map edge, and there were 4 others outside the map). Even given varying round quality or other factors, that seems way too wide of a dispersion. Are any of the beta testers seeing this? I can't believe that smoke rounds are that wildly inaccurate. I'm seeing this to a certain extent with regular artillery too, though not as much. I can accept the occasional short round, but with these smoke rounds it's more like half of them aren't any where near the target. That's with the 81mm mortar. Are they just hopelessly inaccurate, or could something need tweaking? -- Mike Zeares Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Los Posted November 4, 1999 Share Posted November 4, 1999 I've had some odd experiences similar to yours and sent it up he food chain so they should be looking at it. Los Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted November 4, 1999 Share Posted November 4, 1999 Did you try calling in arty with the FO within LOS? I found that this reduces those widely scattered rounds a lot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Zeares Posted November 4, 1999 Author Share Posted November 4, 1999 Yes, the FO was in LOS. Heck, he was calling it down practically right in front of him, about 350 meters away. I'm not talking about normal dispersion. Actually, the plumes nearest the target point looked like a normal dispersion pattern (fairly tight, too). I'm talking about the plumes off by themselves all over the map and beyond. They weren't anywhere near the target point, although when I zoomed way out with the #8 camera, they still looked like part of the overall pattern. It looked like a wide shotgun group. I got the impression (without knowing anything about how this is programmed) that some randomness variable was set too high, or something. In one action phase, how many smoke plumes should appear? -- Mike Zeares Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted November 4, 1999 Share Posted November 4, 1999 That depends on the gun the FO is calling in. 81mm have a much higher "rate of fire" than bigger guns, so you will see much more smoke plumes. However, the smaller the caliber, the smaller the smoke, so a big 150mm will have only a few but big (wide) smoke "pillars". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted November 4, 1999 Share Posted November 4, 1999 I was playing Last Defence as the Allies and had destroyed all of the enemy vehicles but about 1/3 of the infantry remained. I wanted a Hellcat to put up smoke in front of 3 different locations( One location was very important - Battalion HQ pinned down). I told it to fire smoke at the first location(Not near the HQ). All I needed was one round but it fired all three!!!!! GRRRRRR!!! Too bad for my HQ unit!!! Too bad for a .30 cal that was pinned down!!! You really need to be able to choose how many rounds a unit shoud (not smallarms) fire. Especially smoke rounds. Another instance where this could be useful is when you only have a couple of round left and want it to fire one and then use MG's. Thanks ------------------ "I'm tired of quotes, tell me what you know" -Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel S Posted November 4, 1999 Share Posted November 4, 1999 Ummm..... Why are smoke rounds included in the total number of rounds? They are two completely different kinds of ammo. Does your graphics engine not allow a better representation of smoke and smoke dispersion? I know the calculations can get pretty intense, especially if you start using true alpha channel blending. ummm... that would require all you guys with older machines and graphics cards to upgrade..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel S Posted November 5, 1999 Share Posted November 5, 1999 Oh, and one more thing.... Are Engineers, Sappers et al, going to be able to use smoke, satchel charges etc. Will we be able to see this smoke and it's true effect on local visibilty. It's kinda important for assaults. [This message has been edited by Nigel S (edited 11-04-99).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Posted November 5, 1999 Share Posted November 5, 1999 Speaking of smoke, I have yet to see the AI use any to cover their assaults, they simply charge forward to their demise. Has anyone seen different? I think this would make a more challenging opponent if it was part of their tactical plan. Or is it too difficult to implement? I would be interested in any comments on the matter. ------------------ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Los Posted November 5, 1999 Share Posted November 5, 1999 There is definately somthing odd about smoke missions I've sent off some stuff to BTS about it so I'm sure they'll look into it. It nly takes a few seconds of fire to spread map all over the map and even off the edges. Regarding seeing smoke in a differnt format: I know a lot of us are used to seeing such beautiful smoke on things like unreal/Q3, PE, or some flight sims. One problem, I imagine is the sheer size of CM's 3d environment. It's easy to be lulled into a false sense about it since most of the game is played at a high level where the figures look like miniatures on a small board. Your average Quake level or Half life/Unreal level would take up what? About 100 0r 200x200 meters on a CM map. You can imagine the horsepower which would be required for true smoke (hey I want it too, but...well?) RE: Engineers yes they can carry and use satchel charges (you can even give them to regular sqauds. Los Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foobar Posted November 5, 1999 Share Posted November 5, 1999 i say code it. I've got a tnt-2 video card and I'm ready to squander half my processing on smoke columns! (tongue in cheek) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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