Strategy for new players

[Lance Sharp]

Well I figured out FINALLY how to win Team Hall. I just laid smoke all the way to the exit doors.

NOW I have to turn back on the options that give OPFOR Thermal sighting. (sigh....)

BTW what is the preferred screen resolution that most people play at. An option to zoom in and out would be really nice. I'm sure this wish has been asked for more than once on this board. Thanks for the great game, it seem that this is all I play anymore. It even took me away from "The Ardennes Offensive".

[Trooper]

Simple.. as big a resolution as your monitor and eyesight can handle!

Remembering that the markers represent platoons, and thus approximate positions, there's no particular need to zoom in for greater accuracy. Besides, even at 1024x768, I can still get pixel-correctness if I take care. As the honorable Major (May the world throw good fortune his way) once put it, the reason he bought a bigger monitor is so that he could see more map at once, as opposed to the same map zoomed in, which is, frankly, pointless.

It should be pointed out that a 15" monitor running at 1024x768 will show more map than a 19" monitor running at 800x600, since the map zone shown is measured in pixels. The difference is that the image itself will be much bigger on the 19", (Or less tiny, depending on your eyesight) effectively providing the 'zoom' feature. Since the game works in pixels, there is no real extra fidelity provided by this, except insofar as it's a little easier to hit the right pixel.

Personally, I think if you're going down to ordering at the pixel level, you're a little insane anyway!

Take care..

Manic Moran

[Lance Sharp]

I have a 19" monitor. I normally run my desktop at 1280x960. I have to switch my resolution down to 640x480 in order to see my units at a decent size. I have a AGP V3 3000 graphics card. Is this the normal?

On small battles like "Team Cahoon" I can't get the game to fill the entire screen even at 640x480. Sorry if this seems like a dumb question.

How do you know where your units center point is and what terrain it is occupying?

[Guest MajorH]

> On small battles like "Team Cahoon" I can't get the game to

> fill the entire screen even at 640x480.

If you want a different screen resolution for a particular map, use the monitors/screen properties control panel in the Windows operating system before running TacOps.

TacOps does not take over the user's operating system. Thus TacOps does not automatically expand or contract its map art to fit the user's screen size. I prefer to have the game accept what the user has previosly chosen for his system screen resolution via the Windows monitors/screen properties control panel.

I want TacOps to peacefully coexist with Windows background operations and I want the user to be able to easily switch TacOps into the background so that he can do other tasks on his computer without having to quit a game in progress. This system cooperative approach is very important for PBEM and CPX game play and for military training use.

> How do you know where your units center point is ...

Visualize the center pixel of the unit marker. That is the map point that the game engine uses for almost all game abstractions dealing with unit position.

> and what terrain it is occupying?

There are several ways to determine the exact terrain under a unit.

Select the Line-of-sight tool and move it around the map while looking at the text info line at the bottom of the TacOps map. As the cursor moves, the type of terrain under the cursor is shown in the text info line.

Select a unit marker or open its orders window. The type of terrain under the unit marker is shown in the text info line.

Press the F9 key and move the cursor around the map. The type of terrain under the cursor is shown in the text info line. Press the F9 key again to return to getting the regular transient game play hints in the text info line.

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Best regards, Major H

majorh@mac.com

[Guest MajorH]

From an old issue of the TacOps Gazette ...

There are two basic ways that a Windows game can choose to use the screen. A game can (1) accept the screen resolution that the user has chosen via the Windows desktop properties control panel or (2) a game can arbitrarily specify a standard resolution (typically 640 x 480) and force all users to live with it regardless of the screen size of their monitor - TacOps uses the first approach. In the first approach, the user is free to choose how big the game art should be drawn based on his personal preferences - in my opinion this is the better approach for a game that has large maps. With the second approach, the user can not choose the size of the game art and a user with a large monitor will usually see game art drawn so large that it is unsightly - not to mention the annoyance associated with spending big bucks for a large monitor and then finding that a game was scaled for users with small monitors. The second approach is mostly an artifact from the limitations of old DOS and from a period when most users had monitors that were so small that they could only reasonably use a screen resolution of 640 x 480. With today's greater variety of monitor sizes, I think the second approach now offends more people than it satisfies.

Even though TacOps uses approach one, I could have coded it to allow the user to "zoom" a map to a larger size so that even a small map could be enlarged to fill the whole screen. I did not do this because enlarging small maps would have distorted the art and made it more unsightly than it already is and because I felt that keeping the same scale at all times was important for enabling the user to rapidly learn to intuitively estimate ranges and movement distances. I focused on keeping the UTM grid squares consistent across all maps (given the user's screen resolution preference).

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Best regards, Major H

majorh@mac.com

[This message has been edited by MajorH (edited 03-12-2000).]

[Guest Mikeman]

Lance,

It almost sounds to me like you're using the default unit size the game boots up with.

There are four different unit sizes. Try hitting F4 and see if you don't get a pleasant surprise.

At 1024x768 on a 19" monitor I have quite large units after hitting F4. F1 will give you the smallest, F2 and F3 is in between. The game defaults to F2 I think.

Mikeman out.

[Lance Sharp]

Thanks guys for the quick responses and helpful hints.

I'm getting pounced in Team Cahoon with the game's default settings. Any tactical insights specific to the above scenario, or any others that you care to add will be duly printed out and saved with hearfelt appreciation. I am losing miserably not having any military background.

[Lance Sharp]

Ok It is my understanding that movement is done pixel by pixel.

Can you actually move a unit one pixel? How do you do that? Am I missing something? Thanks for the help.

[James Sterrett]

Very carefully. [grin]

You can move a unit that short a distance, but it takes a close understanding of where the center of the unit is, and where the next pixel begins.

If you have to do it, use the LOS tool from the unit's orders bar, and try to find a spot that is 15 meters away (100 meters = 10 pixels). Then double-click wityout moving the mouse at all. That will cancel the LOS tool and place the waypoint.

[Lance Sharp]

Isn't it best when moving to make contact with the enemy, for example a rifle platoon in a town should be moved pixel by pixel?

[Lance Sharp]

Well I finally won Team Cahoon. It only took me 6 tries at the default level. Final score was Blue 819, Red 760.

At this rate I won't be ready for TacOps 4.0 for years so you can take your time MajorH.

No one can complain about the longevity of this game.

Now on to Team Hill.

[Guest MajorH]

>No one can complain about the longevity of

>this game.

Set me to thinking ...

Is there another computer wargame title that has stayed on the market since 1994 - with continuous support and maintenance?

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Best regards, Major H

majorh@mac.com

[jasoncawley]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MajorH:

Is there another computer wargame title that has stayed on the market since 1994 - with continuous support and maintenance?

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Different genre, only one I can think of is the space strategy game "Stars!". Started in shareware and has had continual upgrades and revisions, with a serious-gamer following because of its depth of play. War-economy strategy things mostly.

Sincerely,

Jason Cawley

[Lance Sharp]

MajorH,

The scenario briefing for Team Hill in the PDF file, I believe has the wrong map attached to it. No big deal but I thought you might like to check it out. Being a newbie I could be wrong too.