CMSF: Pretty please with sugar on top

[SelfLoadingRifle]

Dear Battlefront people,

I was delighted to read that at long last, CMSF was being recoded and brought up to date.  Now, I don't know how far along you are to completing this, but if your work is still in the early stages, I have two small requests to put before you.

1)  Would it be possible to redo the artwork for snipers and show them wearing ghillie suits?  Also, I feel that a bit of tweaking to the codes is required.  The snipers in the game are far too easy to spot.  Also, their marksmanship is definitely not up to real life standards.  In the real world, snipers would be taking headshots at 300 with complete confidence.

2)  Pistol marksmanship standards are way too high in the game.  Most soldiers are lucky if they shoot a pistol once in an entire year, and this is completely insufficient to develop any skill at all.  In the real world, 20 yards would be accounted extreme range and at that sort of distance, the soldier would miss 90% of the time.  At 10 yards, less than 50% of rounds fired would be on target, and it would only be at ranges of five yards or less that most of the rounds would be on target.  Take particular note that the stress engendered in a combat situation has a highly detrimental affect on accuracy.  What is achievable on a gallery range is one thing.  What is achievable in close quarter combat is quite another.

Looking forward to all the new stuff as and when it is released.

SLR

[DerKommissar]

I am okay with the lack of gillie suits, because they would have to match the terrain to make sense. I do not believe I have ever witnessed effective sidearm fire. Only people that use sidearms are disembarked crews. Crews are usually trying to pull back, after their vehicle/weapon was taken out. Even then, many crews are issued with carbines.

Every time I used snipers, I was entirely disappointed in their marksmanship. Their trigger discipline and spotting was also nothing special. I had a comedic situation where a sniper team on a roof could not take out a stationary technical. They would continue to shoot at the driver, only to keep hitting the side of the roof.

Edited May 9, 2018 by DerKommissar

[SelfLoadingRifle]

"I do not believe I have ever witnessed effective sidearm fire." 

Unfortunately, I have.  I remember an occasion when a solitary crewman turned out to be the reincarnation of Wild Bill Hickock, taking out a complete fire team!   Take particular note of the effective range of 50m given in the manual for the M9 pistol.  This is completely OTT.  20 yards max under combat conditions would be more than enough.  Also,  it should be noted that pistol ammo has very low stopping power, particularly when compared to any kind of rifle round.  Unless the pistol round connects with something vital such as head or heart, not only will your target still be on his feet, but it can be guaranteed that he will also have a bad sense of humour failure.   Even worse,  he will probably even be  in good enough shape to return fire.  If he is armed with an assault rifle and the change lever is set to A, this is likely to wreck your entire day!!!

"Every time I used snipers, I was entirely disappointed in their marksmanship."  Totally agreed.  A long time ago I was a sniper.  I know EXACTLY what can be done with an L42 or an L96, both of which are now out of service with the Brit Army.  Let's just say that the pixelated Battlefront snipers couldn't hit a barn door from inside the barn.  Their field craft sucks as well as they are far too easy to spot.  If it was me - the young me that is - I would using cover in depth.  You wouldn't see me at all.  In fact, I would be so well cammed up that the only way you would discover me would be if you tripped over me!

Happy days.

SLR

 

[Erwin]

+1    Have been saying for years that designers need to give snipers (and any specialized troops for that matter) extra experience and other factors so that they function better.

[LukeFF]

17 hours ago, Erwin said:

+1    Have been saying for years that designers need to give snipers (and any specialized troops for that matter) extra experience and other factors so that they function better.

It's called setting their skill level to Elite and +2 Leadership.

[Erwin]

Yes, exactly...  designers seem loath to do that in the vast majority of scenarios.

[MikeyD]

If you DO NOT issue target orders to snipers/sharpshooters but allow them to select their own targets they perform better. Officers, heavy weapons crews, tank commanders... the sniper will pick out the men that ought to be shot. Its my (untested) perception that if you manually assign a target for the sniper to shoot his chance of hitting it goes down.

Be careful about upping motivation too much. If you make your sniper 'fanatic' he's likely to die in place rather than ducking down and relocating after coming under fire.

[Erwin]

Yes let them choose their own targets.  However, generally regular snipers can miss a lot.  Having a Crack or Elite sniper can be a lot of fun.  I recall having one Pause in place for 5-10 secs which was enuff time for him to shoot a guy, and then SLOW MOVE to a 2nd position and successfully repeat the procedure several times.  Am simply suggesting that specialized troops should usually be given extra expertise by the designer (unless it's a design decision to have them less effective).

Edited May 12, 2018 by Erwin

[Sgt.Squarehead]

So did you play Mosul yet?

I put something in there for your amusement.....Just don't get him killed.  

[Erwin]

Thanks...    Busy prepping for hopefully final, final playtest of MOS's TOC.  BUt after that looking forward to it. 

BTW:  The sniper eg I gave above was from one of your early (CMA?) scenarios which was very enjoyable but am not sure you ever completed. 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Yeah, figured as much.....I put a sniper based on Abu Tahseen in Mosul, but sadly he was martyred shortly after I competed it, so it's become my small tribute to him:   

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Tahsin_al-Salhi