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newbie question


Berkut

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My first proper post here since I got the game last year.

I find myself with the time to learn how to play tac-ops and after the tutorial played task force craig variant 1.

Now, the game ran the full 120mins. I had suffered a 62% casualty rate with opfor suffering 75%. It does have to be said that 50% of my casualties occured in the last 60 mins as enemy T80's appeared on the scene. Air power was largely ineffective.

It was a good battle and considering what I was facing, feel it was a good first result...you are free to disagree of course smile.gif

But now I come to the real reason of this post.

I may be betraying my ignorance here, but I have some issues with LOS.

I kept coming across situations were opfor units simply vanished from sight, only to reappear later on. One particular unit of mine in a nice ambush position was suprised to find 3 T80's and three sqds of infantry appear right on top of them, how these units managed this feat of stealth, when my units had all round LOS up to a 1000mtrs escapes me.

Easily to explain thefore a pointless rant or some odd quirk of the game code?

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Not sure which map you were playing on but here are some hints:

1) do you understand the different elevation levels? The enemy units may have moved on high ground. If you are on low ground, you can only see the first 100 meters of the high ground (even if there are no trees on the high ground).

2) on some maps the graphics are not precise enough to really figure LOS details. Use F8 to go into terrain view mode to see what the engine really thinks.

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Originally posted by redwolf:

Not sure which map you were playing on but here are some hints:

1) do you understand the different elevation levels? The enemy units may have moved on high ground. If you are on low ground, you can only see the first 100 meters of the high ground (even if there are no trees on the high ground).

2) on some maps the graphics are not precise enough to really figure LOS details. Use F8 to go into terrain view mode to see what the engine really thinks.

I should have made the post more detailed, apologies in advance.

I do understand the elevation rules and the impact it has on LOS. Yet these situations occured in areas that I picked because they had clear LOS to were I expected OPFOR units to appear.

I have to state that I did not spot this happening all the time, just towards the end of the game.

Units were constantly appearing as they moved forwards. They would retreat from LOS and reappear in other areas were I had units nearby, as you would expect.

I did notice some odd LOS quirks....

The first time it happened, it occured on level ground between the two large hills that dominate the map in TF craig. I had several units that all had unrestricted LOS to these OPFOR units. I was also pounding the area with arty HE/ICM and I did a lot of damage. Some OPFOR units that survived the onsluaght (consisting of APC's with infantry on board) approached the small village constantly uunder fire, they then disappeared at the end of the combat phase. At first I thought they were KO'd, then during the next phase these units with unloaded infantry had advanced into the outskirts of the village.

I thought it could have been smoke being popped but there were no smoke graphics on the map. It was a suprise.

The second instance was on the second hill. OPFOR had decided to cut across the hills rather than chance the roads. I had a number of units in place with LOS going out to 3000+ metres in someplaces.

I spotted a number of tanks, APC's coming across the center of the hill. Using the lOS tool I could see past them some distance. I targeted the tanks first and then clicked on begin combat phase. The tanks and APC's vanished from sight. They reappeared during the combat phase of the next turn, having moved a little more forward than when last sighted.

The third instance was the suprise appearance that I spoke of in my first post. My troops were so suprised that they never fired a shot during the initial encounter!

I rechecked LOS and later clicked on F8, it shows no features on the map that could have obstructed LOS.

Now LOS is constantly readjusted as enemy units come into view of your forces and then pass from sight. I accept that. To have units in clear view with nothing nearby to retreat to or that would obstruct LOS does strike me as odd.

I am not trying to attack the game. I really do enjoy it. But felt I should point this out.

This feels slightly lame, but it did happen and I did not imagine it.

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It takes a successful combination of LOS and spotting (or visibility) for an enemy unit to be drawn on your screen.

There can be a clear LOS to a particular spot on the map that contains enemy units but because the units are not "spotted" by any of your units at the current ranges they are not drawn on your screen.

Spotting becomes harder the greater the distance between an enemy marker and the closest of your observing units.

Units become harder to spot at a given distance when they pause or stop and they may disappear from your screen.

Terrain roughness also affects spotting. The rougher the terrain, the harder it is to spot a unit at a given distance. As units move to a higher level of rough terrain they may disappear from your screen.

Generally a unit is the most visible and the most easily spotted on roads and clear terain or while firing in any terrain.

For example a unit could be spotted in a given type of terrain while it was moving but then disapear within a few seconds of stopping.

In another example, a unit could be firing in very rough terrain. It could be that the range to your units was so great that the enemy unit only became visible when it fired. If it stopped firing for 15 to 30 seconds, it could well become unspotted and then disappear from your screen.

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Well I had a closer look at the replays. In the two examples there was a combination of extreme range and terrain. The other examples a number of firing units did get supressed...so it appears to be a newbie rant after all smile.gif

thanks for being patient.

I'll try a few more before attempting pbem!

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