jasoncawley Posted February 12, 2000 Share Posted February 12, 2000 Gentlemen: No, the two aren't really related, but the former is a real question and the latter an afterthought. The afterthought is about expected delivery times for TacOps. I ordered via the web ~2 weeks ago (have the demo of course) and wonder when to expect it. Is this a 4-6 weeks thing? I received one email that led me to expect it would be faster than that. But nothing since. The substantive question is about artillery effects. I haven't noticed any differences in the effects vs. infantry of 155mm howitzer or 81mm on-map mortar. Is that supposed to model something like rate of fire (the mortars do seem to use ~3 rounds per "shot")? In addition, I haven't noticed differences in the effect of full batteries and gun sections or mortar sections (expect that 3+ tubes of either type give a larger smoke pattern firing that). ICM vs. HE I see serious differences in effect, of course. But are all other HE FFEs treated basically the same? Or vs. infantry? What are the general chances of 155 mm or 152 mm HE vs. light armored vehicles? I haven't seen much more than suppression results there, and the occasional but rare 1 hit vs. brdm or bmp. I thought perhaps the effectiveness would rise considerable vs. the very thin-skinned BTR80s, but didn't notice any difference really. As previous articles have pointed out that BTRs where knocked out by Afghans with MGs, the idea a 155mm HE wouldn't have a better/decent chance of knocking them out seems a bit thick. Is there any reason not to split up mortar or on-map howitzer into gun-sections, to get more fire missions? How far can this go - will single tubes hit as well as batteries? A related issue is ICM use and on-map arty. I seem to have the same ammo whichever I fire, as though the on-map can fire ICM from start to finish. Does that make sense? Or am I overlooking something? (Former arty guy...) Sincerely, Jason Cawley 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MajorH Posted February 13, 2000 Share Posted February 13, 2000 > ...expected delivery times for TacOps. I ordered via the > web ~2 weeks ago (have the demo of course) and wonder when > to expect it. Is this a 4-6 weeks thing? I received one > email that led me to expect it would be faster than that. > But nothing since. If two full weeks have passed and you are in the US then you should probably have received your order by now. Send an email to sales@battlefront.com and or to steve@battlefront.com and ask for a status check. > I haven't noticed any differences in the effects vs. infantry > of 155mm howitzer or 81mm on-map mortar. Is that supposed > to model something like rate of fire (the mortars do seem > to use ~3 rounds per "shot")? The Combat Results Tables for resolving 155mm howitzer HE and for 81mm mortar HE salvos versus infantry are very similar. The significant game difference between them is the radius of effect of the salvo. 155mm HE salvos effect much more ground area per tube. > In addition, I haven't noticed differences in the effect of > full batteries and gun sections or mortar sections (expect > that 3+ tubes of either type give a larger smoke pattern > firing that). > The point casualty effect assessment remains about the same. What changes as you reduce the number of firing tubes is that the radius of effect is reduced. > What are the general chances of 155 mm or 152 mm HE vs. > light armored vehicles? About a 10% chance of killing per salvo. About a 70% chance of transient suppression. The percentages are reduced by rough terrain, entrenchments, etc. For HE the chance of killling per salvo goes down to 1% and 2% with the addition of just a little armor. > As previous articles have pointed out that BTRs where > knocked out by Afghans with MGs, the idea a 155mm HE > wouldn't have a better/decent chance of knocking them out > seems a bit thick. The TacOps arty tables were originally based on publicly available information about the probabilities used in US military tactical sims and from publicly available info about Soviet arty norms of the late 80s. > Is there any reason not to split up mortar or on-map > howitzer into gun-sections, to get more fire missions? How > far can this go - will single tubes hit as well as > batteries? Splitting mortar and howitzer batteries in TacOps is usually counterproductive because of the greatly reduced radius of effect of an HE or ICM salvo that is fired from gun sections or single tubes. Splitting can be useful for laying a longer line of smoke. > A related issue is ICM use and on-map arty. I seem to have > the same ammo whichever I fire, as though the on-map can > fire ICM from start to finish. Does that make sense? Or am > I overlooking something? Its an abstraction that was done to simplify coding and reduce memory usage. The game engine assumes that the commander makes a perfect decision at scenario startup as to the ammo type load for on map arty units (i.e. number of rounds of HE, ICM, and smoke). I originally did not want to provide any on map arty. I was talked into it by playtesters and at the time I could not afford the coding time and CPU memory usage to track more flavors of arty ammo for on map units. The liberal on map arty ammo abstraction satisfied the playtesters and it has not been severely criticised since. ------------------ Best regards, Major H majorh@mac.com [This message has been edited by MajorH (edited 02-13-2000).] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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