Skidding or lack of traction due to ice on road?

[Tempestzzzz]

I was playing the training mission again. I think I have a handle on driving Sherman's snow. But when I went fast on a road and then wanted to make a turn the Sherman seem to struggle like it couldn't get bite on the road to make the turn. Am I imagining this?

[Baneman]

Probably.

It's an unavoidable thing in the game engine that turns tighter than a certain amount will cause the vehicle to pause and swivel a bit before continuing.
Somewhat annoying, but it is what it is and unlikely to change before the game engine changes.

I suspect this is what you experienced.
The only workaround is to plot smoother turns - I use multiple waypoints to smooth things out around bends. With a little practice you can (almost) eliminate the problem.

[A Canadian Cat]

But pretending that the tank is slipping in the snow is a good thing to do- for your sanity

[Michael Emrys]

2 hours ago, IanL said:

But pretending that the tank is slipping in the snow is a good thing to do- for your sanity

Sanity is a rare and precious thing and deserves all the protection it can get.

Michael

[General Jack Ripper]

5 hours ago, Baneman said:

It's an unavoidable thing in the game engine that turns tighter than a certain amount will cause the vehicle to pause and swivel a bit before continuing.

Way back in the earliest days of Shock Force, vehicles did drive around more realistically.

Then everyone bitched about vehicles not following waypoints closely enough, so vehicle path finding was changed to the current "point and shoot" model.

You can either have realistic turn radii, or precise waypoint following. Not both.

[user1000]

Most of the ww2 stuff handled ice well being tracked vehicles even the armored cars had multiple wheels for off roading. It was the deep snow and mud that made a lot of heavy tanks stick so they had to be one hard ground.

Edited April 4, 2016 by user1000

[Wicky]

1 hour ago, user1000 said:

Most of the ww2 stuff handled ice well being tracked vehicles even the armored cars had multiple wheels for off roading. It was the deep snow and mud that made a lot of heavy tanks stick so they had to be one hard ground.

On the contary in the campaign when road conditions were freezing on the road esp up in the Eifel  or where roads froze after rain - tanks and other vehicles skidded off road and struggled to climb slopes often sliding back into each other. Metal tracks and large masses effected both sides in ice rink conditions.

"After midnight, in a freezing rain, our column reached the hilly Ardennes.  We had to traverse down an earthen road cut into the hillside, which was as slippery as wet glass.  On one treacherous turn, through the faint, yellowish mist of night, I saw a tank and two trucks slide off the road and crash down through the trees. 
 
The vehicles towed artillery pieces or caissons that flopped crazily against the trees as they fell.  I could see some men jump free.
 
Several times our half-track slid toward the edge, and had it not been for a few pebbles in the center of the road that caught our rubber track and held, we too would have gone down through the trees.  And that's how we got through the hills that night: by finding needed traction on pebbles."

 

"By Jan. 12, 1945, the hard-fought battle line had moved slightly north of Bastogne, and Hartman and his tank crew were contending with freezing rain and ice that made the tank slide in all directions. In his book, “Tank Driver,” he wrote, “It took us 14 hours to go eight miles.”

"On one occasion my tank went into a slide and hit the tank in front of mine. Driving continuously, night and day, we made it to Chaumont just 16 miles from Bastogne."

Edited April 4, 2016 by Wicky

[panzersaurkrautwerfer]

Speaking from experience, tanks do not like ice.  The Germans ultimately built some cleats to augment traction on slippery surfaces, but from what little I know of them, they were not especially effective (or had very short service lives).  

I do totally understand the simplification of the movement though.  In a perfect world it'd be a toggleable option though.

[Michael Emrys]

2 hours ago, panzersaurkrautwerfer said:

 In a perfect world it'd be a toggleable option though.

Hmmm, how would the game deal with a situation of two players in an e-mail game and one has opted for realistic turning but the other for precise WP following?

Michael

[user1000]

Or fall in line behind one of these

[Wicky]

While bulldozer Sherman great for clearing snowdrifts and crap off the road but useless for removing black ice.

Don't think they had dedicated salt gritting lorries...

[Warts 'n' all]

One wonders who daubed green paint all over the Cattle Grid sign.

[Wicky]

1 hour ago, Warts 'n' all said:

One wonders who daubed green paint all over the Cattle Grid sign.

I bet it was that dastadly Otto Skorzeny and his Einheit Stielau commandos playing diry tricks ;-)

[Warts 'n' all]

Either that, or the cows have learnt how to paint.

[panzersaurkrautwerfer]

16 hours ago, Michael Emrys said:

Hmmm, how would the game deal with a situation of two players in an e-mail game and one has opted for realistic turning but the other for precise WP following?

Michael

Dunno.  Maybe in the game setup vs the program setup, like where you'd usually set difficulty rules, "true" turning vs "precise" turning.  

[Michael Emrys]

No, I think you might have misunderstood me. I meant how would the game resolve compatibility issues with one player seeing one kind of behavior and the other player seeing something different. I suppose it would have to detect that before start of play and send a message that one or the other player would need to change his choice.

Michael

[panzersaurkrautwerfer]

1 hour ago, Michael Emrys said:

No, I think you might have misunderstood me. I meant how would the game resolve compatibility issues with one player seeing one kind of behavior and the other player seeing something different. I suppose it would have to detect that before start of play and send a message that one or the other player would need to change his choice.

Michael

I haven't actually played PBEM, so I've honestly got no idea how the setup works.  I'd just assumed if you were playing QB style it'd have the same sort of "difficulty" or "electronic warfare" settings.  

[Wicky]

2 hours ago, Warts 'n' all said:

Either that, or the cows have learnt how to paint.

or even fiendish Nazi's dressed as cows behind enemy lines.

Edited April 5, 2016 by Wicky

[Warts 'n' all]

3 minutes ago, Wicky said:

or even fiendish Nazi's dressed as cows behind enemy lines.

Hahaha.... Not even Perry and Croft could have come up with that one.