Night Combat

[ASL Veteran]

I didn’t want to be the one to start a thread on this topic, but I did a search and found the last time this was discussed was almost a year ago. I’m a little surprised nobody has mentioned this once the game was released. Anyway, two things on night combat and one little minor observation. Where are the starshells? Every platoon leader should have a flare pistol that can fire parachute flares and mortars should be able to fire starshells. From the last post on this topic, I guess it was planned to be included but left off when the game was released. One other thing would be gunflashes. When a weapon (or weapons) open up at night a unit should be able to see the gunflashes of the firing unit beyond the Night Visibility Range. Naturally, engaging an enemy beyond the regular night visibility would be at reduced effectiveness, but this is necessary for such things as mortars and HMGs which are not generally marched up to within a few meters of the enemy. Of course “Firelanes” increase in value during night combat too (but that’s another thread). As it is now, night combat is basically the same as fog combat and a foggy night would be no different than a regular night.

My minor observation is that the German squads do not account for the fact that one of the squad members is actually firing the LMG (s) while another man is acting as the assistant gunner who is tasked with loading and changing barrels. A nine man squad has nine men firing in CM when in reality it would only be eight (with one LMG) or seven (with two LMGs).

[Bastables]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ASL Veteran:

My minor observation is that the German squads do not account for the fact that one of the squad members is actually firing the LMG (s) while another man is acting as the assistant gunner who is tasked with loading and changing barrels. A nine man squad has nine men firing in CM when in reality it would only be eight (with one LMG) or seven (with two LMGs). <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well actually it does. Take the volkgrenadier section vs. the heavy smg section; you’ll note how an individual MG42 in the heavy smg has a lesser firepower rating than the MG42 in the Volkgrenadier squad. This is because the smg sections Mg42 has the firepower of a MP40 subtracted from it. The Volkgrenadier section on the other had has the measly firepower of a K 98 subtracted from it.

[Count Sessine]

Concerning ASL Veterans comments on night combat he most definitely has a point... gunflashes, flareguns should be included, but hell, perhaps we could give the designers some slack LOL.

/CS

[ASL Veteran]

I feel that my comments are both reasonable and appropriate. The question is whether BTS plans on including these items in the future or not. If not, then why bother including night combat at all. Night combat right now is not even close to an accurate portrayal of the unique aspects of that type of fighting. They just reduced visibility, made the map a little darker, and made the AI perform friendly fire a little more often.

Since flares were discussed in an earlier thread, I can only figure that they had to cut a few things out to get the game released. If they have a wish list that they are working on, I would hope that they have placed this fairly high in their priorities. For a couple of designers who pride themselves on their attention to detail and the accuracy of their game, I should think that details like these would be important.

[chrisl]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ASL Veteran:

Since flares were discussed in an earlier thread, I can only figure that they had to cut a few things out to get the game released. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Here's a couple of relativly recent threads about the subject.

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/004915.html

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/000831.html

[This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-11-2000).]