TacOps Gazette 02.04

[MajorH TacOps Developer]

TacOps Gazette 02.04

Hmmm ... I seem to have left the portable and transportable bombs out of the user guide. Portable and transportable bombs can be added to a scenario by use of the "Options/Add One" unit menu item. The power of the bomb is defined by the user (normally an umpire) when it is created. A portable bomb can be carried by dismounted personnel and by vehicles. A transportable bomb can only be carried by a vehicle. Bombs are activated by the owning player opening an orders window for the bomb and setting a detonation time. If an umpire opens an orders window for a bomb, the umpire may also specify or change the casualty radius of the bomb.

Bombs have the following attributes ...

A. Bombs do not spot. An exposed bomb marker will be revealed if/while any enemy unit is within 50 meters. A bomb that is being carried by a person or in a vehicle will not be revealed while it is being carried.

B. On map units will not engage enemy bomb markers with direct fire. Bombs may be coincidentally disabled or destroyed by indirect fire. An umpire can remove a bomb by using the "Options/Delete Units" menu item or the "Options/Kill Units" menu item. A US EOD/UXO Team or a Civilian EOD/UXO Team can disarm portable and transportable bombs. The unit is ordered to attempt to disarm a bomb by using a button in its unit orders window. There is a slight chance that an EOD unit disarm attempt will detonate the bomb. Disarming will take from five to ten minutes and the player will not know the exact time that will be required.

C. The power of a bomb marker is defined by its casualty radius. The casualty radius is defined at the instant of the bomb’s addition to the game. An umpire may also change the casualty radius of a bomb at any time. A bomb should not be given a casualty radius larger than 100 to 200 meters unless it is equivalent to a nuclear device. The special bomb markers are not really intended to represent nuclear devices but the following casualty radii are suggested if the user wants a gross approximation of the blast effects of a nuclear device: .5 kiloton - 600 meters, 1 kiloton - 700 meters, 2 kiloton - 900 meters, 5 kiloton - 1000 meters, 10 kiloton - 1100 meters. Note that crater effect, blow down, fire, and radiation will not be represented when the bomb detonates.

D. Armored vehicles located within the first 12.5% of a bomb’s casualty radius will be automatically destroyed. The risk to armored vehicles then declines linearly to zero at 50% of the bomb’s casualty radius.

E. Dismounted personnel in entrenchments within the first 12.5% of a bomb’s casualty radius will be automatically destroyed. The risk to dismounted personnel in entrenchments then declines linearly to zero at 50% of the bomb’s casualty radius.

F. Unarmored vehicles located within the first 25% of a bomb’s casualty radius will be automatically destroyed. The risk to unarmored vehicles then declines linearly to zero at the bomb’s maximum casualty radius.

G. Dismounted exposed personnel within the first 50% of a bomb’s casualty radius will be automatically destroyed. The risk to exposed dismounted personnel then declines linearly to zero at the bomb’s maximum casualty radius.

H. All surviving units located anywhere within the bomb’s casualty radius will be suppressed.

I. Any bridge has a 95% chance of destruction if a portable bomb or a transportable bomb is detonated on the bridge. The center point of the bomb marker must be located inside the bridge marker.

Battlefront.com has dedicated forums now for people who are looking for a pickup game. The feature is called the Opponent Finder Forums and there is a separate forum page for English, French, Finish, or German speakers. Go to your appropriate forum and post a "New Topic" note with a subject line that includes the name of the game that you want to play. Coordinating info goes in the body of the note. When you enter one of these forums, the notes are displayed in "reverse order" so that the most recent notes are listed at the top of the page. To the right of each note there is a box that shows the date and time that the note was posted.

All

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi

English speakers

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=24

French speakers

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=25

Finnish speakers

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=26

German speakers

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=27

> Is the Stryker in v4?

The "Interim Armored Vehicle" family is represented in TacOps by vehicles that have "XIAV" in their name. Select the "Options/Add One Unit" menu item. Look for the following vehicles in the US list. US APC, Ambulance XIAV, US APC, XIAV C2/TOC, US APC, XIAV Engineer, US APC, XIAV ICV AGL, US APC, XIAV ICV HMG, US ATGMV, XIAV TOW, US FSV, XIAV FSV, US Gun, XIAV Mobile Gun System, US Howitzer, SP 155mm XIAV, US Mortar, Carrier 120mm XIAV, US RECV, XIAV NBC Recce, US RECV, XIAV Recce AGL, US RECV, XIAV Recce HMG, US RV, Recovery Vehicle XIAV MRV.

> And you just know that some of your military clients are

> going to ask for a videocam view from these simulated UAVs.

> Then again, they can afford to pay for the code.

One of the problems that I have in getting more military work is that I will only agree to work on a prioritized list of changes and additions that I know that I can deliver in a reasonable period of time.

> We want to stock your products in [country name deleted].

> It would be nice to have a [country name deleted]

> distributor.

> ...having difficulties convincing them this is a good idea.

My past experience is that distributors and publishers/developers usually have very different views on what "a good idea" is as well as on what is "a good deal". The first thing that always pops into my mind when I read the word "distributor" is the phrase "roast in hell".

>So I take it you don't really like distributors then ...

Roger that. You can also add traditional publishers and retail chain stores to the list. There is a reason why I am with Battlefront. The folks at Battlefront are honest and fair - as ordinary people would define those words rather than according to the slippery ethics exhibited by so many others in the game business.

> regarding a class I'll be conducting in Feb on Combat

> Service Support operations at battalion/squadron level. I

> was going to use a sand table to show how the trains would

> be echeloned & how the echelons would interact. Then I

> realized that I can probably use TACOPS 4 to show this

> since it's got all the medics, recovery vehicles, etc.

> ...can I run a Blue only scenario?

Yes. In the "normal" scenarios you can use the umpire tools to delete any Red marker once it appears on the map. Or you can start with "Custom Scenario US Army.sce" (or its USMC or Canadian equivalent), pick any map, and add just Blue units via the "Options/Add One Unit" menu item or the "Options/Add Optional Units menu item".

> Also, can I edit a vehicles weapons? Our trucks mount M2

> .50 cals, not just the crew's M16s.

You can not edit weapons. However, I was working on an update anyway so I added the following vehicles to v404AA for you - Truck M977 + HMG, Truck 939 + HMG, Truck M923 + HMG, Truck M35A2, and Truck M35A2 + HMG. You owe me a unit coffee cup.

> I noticed that amphibious operations can be done. What kind

> of amphibious craft are available in TacOps? LCACs?

> Amphibious support ships?

Maps can have water terrain. The unit data base includes many swimming vehicles, rubber boats, and four sizes of landing craft - small, medium, large, and LCAC. There are no amphibious support ships other than the landing craft.

> I recently purchased TacOps because of interest in the

> Army's new medium brigades. Unfortunately for me, the

> scenario downloads from team trackless claim to be

> incompatible with v4. Have I made some silly error?

Assuming you are using Windows. The Team Trackless file that ends in ".sce" is an actual scenario/custom template file and it still works with v4. However it must be named "Team Trackless 001.sce". The "Team Trackless 001.sce" file has floated around a lot over the years and some people changed the file name not realizing that would create problems in the future. If you are talking about files that end in ".tac" then those are saved game files. If those files were saved by TacOps v3 then v4 can not load them. "Team Trackless 001.sce" uses LAV 25s armed with 25mm auto cannons in the optional unit OOBs because it was created for v3 before the Stryker family of vehicles was added to v4. Thus the units in Team Trackless have much more firepower than what was actually implemented with the Stryker family. In other words, the Team Trackless scenario is largely obsolete. If I had remembered that detail I would not have included it on the v4 CD.

> I use WindowBlinds (actually the entire object desktop suite

> StarDock Systems) for customizing and increasing my

> productivity. Unfortunately, when running TacOps with

> WindowBlinds the game speed slows to a _crawl_, with each

> 15 second tick taking about 15 REAL seconds. Disable

> WindowBlinds, and it works fine. It's the most annoying

> thing, especially as MS uses Stardock technology to handle

> the skinning process. Any idea what could be causing this?

Windowblinds may be trying to change the size, color, and look of the TacOps windows, dialogs, and buttons a zillion times per second and if so TacOps is telling Windowblinds to go to hell with equal ferocity. Your CPU is probably being drug down by the battle. Or Windowblinds could be looking for some standard, slow, white flashing, Windows screen update and redraw routine that isn't in TacOps. I spent quite a bit of the last two years getting the TacOps code to effectively hide its windows, buttons, and controls from damaging mods/interference from the Windows OS and third party hackers. A lot of TacOps windows are overloaded with small buttons and controls - many of them located very close together. And all designed so that they are easy to find and use with minimal chance of missclicks while still enabling the dialogs to be as small as possible so as to obstruct as little of the map as possible. The text labels, button colors, etc are standardized for maximum clarity. (Well actually they would be clearer if they could be black on white but users will not accept that kind of display anymore. The whole thing would fall apart if a user could change the size, shape, and color of all these details.

> keep in mind that the civilian version of

> civilian TacOps will only handle 20 participants

Internet play is much slower than LAN play. Having 20 players/spectators in an Internet game is likely to produce very long times for sit updates and orders exchange, especially if some of the players are using 56K dial up connections.

> I WANT ADD ON MAPS!

Look in the "TacOps Extras" folder in the TacOps4 folder on your hard drive or on your TacOps4 CD. Inside you will find the "More Maps" folder which contains 50+ additional maps.

> Does Tacops 4 allow two players against AI?

Two players can play each other via LAN or Internet without needing an umpire. More than two players (multiplayer teams play) requires an umpire to establish the game network and to admit players to the group game and it requires human players to run opposing forces. Technically, the umpire can also command units in play but that would not provide a fair fight since the umpire can always see all unit markers with no fog of war.

> What is a tprf file?

> What is a tac file?

Files that end in ".tprf" are temporary, user preference files. These files are used by the program to remember how the user preferred certain interface items to look and work in the last game session. These files are automatically loaded by the TacOps program each time that it is started and these files are saved each time that TacOps is closed. They should never be opened any other way. Doing so will likely damage them which may cause odd program startup behavior. If you ever encounter odd startup behavior you should trash all files that end in ".tprf". Files that end in ".tac" are saved game files. They should never be opened except via the TacOps startup window. Opening them any other way may damage them. There is more information in the User Guide on the various file types and file extensions that are connected with TacOps. See Page 2-12 through 2-14, section 2.2, TacOps Files in the TacOps User Guide.

> Major H has more or less hinted that Map001/015 and similar

> were made for monitors that could display only limited

> colors

The original map patterns were developed when 256 colors were a big deal and many people were still limited to 16 colors. In the 16 color days, one did shades of color by developing a pattern that varied primary colors in adjacent pixels so as to fool the eye into seeing shades other than the basic 16. In my opinion, information communication is more important in a map than color and detail. If a map maker can use more color and more detail without decreasing the information provided to the user then fine. However, if more color and more detail actually makes it harder for the user to rapidly recognize terrain type then I think the map maker is off target.

> Blade teams, currently Blade assets (M-9 ACE for example)

> cannot be teamed up. Our TTP's normally call for using

> two ACEs or Dozers in a team. They normally finish a job

> in roughly 40% of the time required by a single blade

> working alone.

That feature is already in TacOps. An ACE unit marker (as well as the unit markers for other obstacle clearing vehicles) can only represent one vehicle per marker but if two ACE markers are directed to work on an obstacle then the game engine will notice and reward the team effort. Similarly, team assistance by dismounted engineers is also noticed and rewarded. The game engine also enforces a ceiling on the reward for team work under the principle that at some point adding too many people and or too much equipment becomes counterproductive. The teamwork ceiling is specified when the game umpire creates the obstacle marker.

> I can connect to others that are hosting, but am unable to

> host myself. Very frustrating. Any further help would be

> much appreciated.

The IP address that is shown in the TacOps host network logon window is the IP address of your computer - which will be different from your router/modem IP address. The IP address that is shown in the TacOps host's network logon window is usually only valid for LAN play. For hosting an Internet game you need to discover the IP address that is your actual gateway onto the Internet and give that address to the people who you want to join your game session.

Before running TacOps, run your web browser and enter the following URL ...

http://www.ipchicken.com

You should immediately see a web page which shows your actual Internet gateway IP address. That is the IP address that you should give to people to join your hosted game session.

> Was the theme playing during installation the old horse cavalry song

> "Gerry Owen"?

Yes - as played and recorded by the Army band at Fort Knox.

> The start-up theme continues your old practice. Is there any

> way to choose Gerry Owen as the start-up theme?

1. Open your TacOps folder.

2. Open the folder named "zSounds".

3. Delete or rename the file named "zFanfareB.wav".

4. Make a copy of the file named "Band - Garryowen.wav" and rename the copy to be "zFanfareB.wav"

Garryowen will now play when TacOps starts up - unless you have used the Preferences window to disable the splash screen. You can change the end game music to something else by following the same procedure for "zFanfareC.wav".

> Could a digger/dozer unit be given a command button

> [create entrenchment]?

That may be explored in a 2003 military contract.

> How long does it take in real life to dig a position

> which gives the level of protection as abstracted in

> a TacOps entrenchment

12 to 24 hours or more, assuming plenty of mechanical help and construction supplies - and no enemy fire. The current generic entrenchment marker in TacOps represents a 100 meter by 100 meter area that is moderately fortified with a combination of open connecting trenches, infantry fighting positions with moderate overhead cover, and ramped vehicle pits without overhead cover. I would be glad to have the data if someone would like to translate 100 meters by 100 meters into meters of connecting trench, number of dismounted fighting positions, and number of vehicle pits for a platoon or platoon (-) defensive position - and then translate that into man/blade hours.

> Ouch! That's a lot longer than I was expecting.

I invite anyone to try the following experiment. Find shovel and pick. Go into backyard. Note the time. Dig a hole five feet deep, five feet wide, and four or five feet front to back. Add grenade sump. Find steel pickets or find and hack timber to size and use it to build a frame to support overhead cover. Fill bags with dirt from hole sufficient to stack bags two high on top of and around the overhead cover frame. Move all remaining dirt far enough away from the hole so that it can not be seen from the enemy side of the hole. Camouflage the area around the hole to include breaking up the outline of the overhead cover. Note the time. Take a brief break, congratulate yourself, and then start work on a communication trench.