Questions, additions, quandrys

[Comanche]

Just received TacOps 4 Thursday after playing the Demo for about a week, and finished a "CPX" (didn't follow guidelines in user's guide, had 3 computers (500Mhz Desktop, 2 Laptops) LANed in separate areas of the house with largest room used for umpires' area with all the information used TacOps for resolution) Worked out great. Working on AARs for our group at beginning of the week.

Couple of questions about elevation and helo. As I understand the helo(s) are at the same elevation as a ground unit when they are landed or at NOE but are at a third elevation when at Medium Altitude. Shouldn't the Helo(s) at medium altitude be able to see units at both elevation levels.

Additions - saw a post about you adding UK equipment - Thanks, I was going to ask if and when you had any plans of adding any other countries like UK, Italy, France, etc.

Additions Pt 2 - wish list - I would like to know if there are any plans for a "Database engine" a way to add to the existing database.

Quandrys - saw in a post that Version 5 was due this year didn't realize that it was so near or I might not have purchased 4 when I did, oh well, it's a great system and I anticipate using it for time to come.

Quandrys pt 2 - saw in a post that latest update was 4.05am, this is the version that I have. But the post was a couple of months ago. Reason I ask is that w/ my 56k connection 6mb takes awhile.

[MajorH TacOps Developer]

> Just received TacOps 4 Thursday after playing the Demo for

> about a week, and finished a "CPX" (didn't follow

> guidelines in user's guide, had 3 computers (500Mhz

> Desktop, 2 Laptops) LANed in separate areas of the house

> with largest room used for umpires' area with all the

> information used TacOps for resolution) Worked out great.

> Working on AARs for our group at beginning of the week.

Thanks for buying TacOps!

Please post a copy of your AAR here when done. I would be very interested to get your perspective on the network play mode as a new user. Very few people move as rapidly as you did from day one to running a full blown multiplayer teams network game.

> Couple of questions about elevation and helo. As I

> understand the helo(s) are at the same elevation as a

> ground unit when they are landed or at NOE but are at a

> third elevation when at Medium Altitude. Shouldn't the

> Helo(s) at medium altitude be able to see units at both

> elevation levels.

Try your experiment again. I just set up a quick test and helos at Medium Altitude were able to see units at both elevation levels, but (correctly) not units well inside of town or woods terrain nor for a few hundred meters of "shadow" just beyond town or woods terrain. When checking LOS for helos at Medium Altitude, it is critical that you do the check by using the "LOS" button in the helo's unit orders window. The more often used menu item LOS tool does not know that you are checking LOS for a helo at Medium Altitude - it just checks from ground level.

> Additions - saw a post about you adding UK equipment -

> Thanks, I was going to ask if and when you had any plans of

> adding any other countries like ... Italy, France, etc.

On the wish list but with no priority. Not likely to happen unless a military contract is offered to do so. There are too many more interesting items on the wish list that would take the same or less work.

> I would like to know if there are any plans for a "Database

> engine" a way to add to the existing database.

On the wish list but unlikely to happen unless required by a military contract. There are technical problems with a user editable data base that make it too big of a project for now.

> Quandrys - saw in a post that Version 5 was due this year

> didn't realize that it was so near or I might not have

> purchased 4 when I did,

Buying now was a good decision. A retail v5 release at the end of 2004 is just a goal. I had the same goal for the end of 2003 and there is still much (perhaps too much) to do.

> Quandrys pt 2 - saw in a post that latest update was 4.05am,

> this is the version that I have. But the post was a couple

> of months ago. Reason I ask is that w/ my 56k connection

> 6mb takes awhile.

A version 4.05AN patch has been completed. It may take a day or two for the server jock to move it to the Battlefront downloads page. I will post a note here as soon as it is available and after I have confirmed that it downloads properly.

[Comanche]

Thanks,

Elevation question came because I was reading the Gazette from '99 that came with the game and I didn't fully comprehend that part of the elevation.

Is there a list of the "wishlist" and actual status of any of those projects.

>Please post a copy of your AAR here when done.

This is going to take some time. I was looking at some of your AARs and usually ours are quite bit bigger. I use StarOffice 5.2 (which has 'changed' to "Open Office" not a plug, but I don't like Microsoft, if I could get a better handle on Linux I'd use it) and create 4 AAR Blue, Red, "Neutral" and Umpire with what each side saw and what happened overall (Umpire). These get to be big (and this is where a miss replay mode in TACOPS. And then I convert the whole thing into a PDF and we go over it right before we plan the next Campaign. Usually we use table top games for our CPX (a master that shows everything and one for each side) such as Combined Decision by GDW(which is good for anything WWII to current) or one of the "print and play" games that we see on the internet such as Gator (MEUsoc), Airborne (82nd) (I don't know who wrote these) and we use computers to track maps and the equivilent of SITREP, LOGREP, Spot Rpt, etc. and then incorporate those into the AARs all of these games transfer into TACOPS well (except the WWII and some game mechanics) After spending a week learning the interface using the DEMO this is why I was able to go from "Basic Training" to a NEO - peacekeeping - nationbuilding multiplayer 10 hour campaign in a weeks time.

sorry if I ranted a litte

By the way I saw in other posts reports about how people didn't like having those "Useless" units cluttering up the game. I love them, they (medics, civilian, HQ, transport, etc units) provide a continuity (sp) from one scenario to another for campaign resolution and are important in real life.

Couple of more question.

1) additional HMMWVs with a little armor so they aren't 7.62mm MG Bait (ie M1114, M1109), I did notice that you used the uprated HMMWV M1097 v M998 and I figure that you did what you did to have 1 type of HumVee (with Tow, HMG, AGL, MMG, unarmed, varients (Avenger, etc) etc. etc.

2) At least one LMG (M249, RPK)in each 4 man team or larger as this would make the 4 man team a fire team (leader rifle with or without GL, rifle, GL, and LMG) as used as a basic block in both the US Army and USMC.

3) Overlays, I keep reading that there was a way using Umpire CPX mode of creating overlays. While creating them myself is something that I am used to having the computer do it for me (ie graphical Spot Reports, LOGREP, SITREP and orders overlays) would be great. Having to personally do these is the biggest time problem (but hey at least we get rid of over a hundred counters and having to keep track of them)

Once again thanks, and I know some of these questions have been asked I just havn't seen them yet.

[Comanche]

Oh, Yeah, Happy Independence Day, and a special thanks to the Servicemen, women and veterans who serve and have served their country with honor and dignity.

[Coyote]

Originally posted by Comanche:

. . . 3) Overlays, I keep reading that there was a way using Umpire CPX mode of creating overlays. While creating them myself is something that I am used to having the computer do it for me (ie graphical Spot Reports, LOGREP, SITREP and orders overlays) would be great. Having to personally do these is the biggest time problem (but hey at least we get rid of over a hundred counters and having to keep track of them)

...

If you are on the Umpire PC, try using the "Situation Map" Command under the "Map" menu. A screen capture of that might work for yyou.

Enjoy,