"Hiding" vehicles.

[GreenAsJade]

Originally posted by junk2drive:

do you ever wonder if the bfc boys read these posts, then laugh amongst themselves, at our speculations? since they must know how the program was written, i wish sometimes they would jump in and tell us how things should work.

If folklore is to be believed, the only BFC person who knows how things are coded is "Charles".

The others have certainly showed us that from time to time they don't know better than we do

[SKELLEN]

When I first purchased the CMBB/CMAK bundle pack in December last year, I tried to give a 'Move to Contact' & 'Hide' order for Tanks, only to discover this isn't possible.

It works fine for infantry though, anyway I sent an e-mail to BFC and here is the reply regarding the 'Hide' command from Matt himself:-

"Hide for vehicles is a bit of a misnomer. It really represents the unit taking precautions such as ideling the engine at low RPM's to reduce noise and other such measures. For a vehicle, it can only be given as the "only" command, it can not be combined with other orders.

Personally, I would have preferred that it be removed for vehicles alltogether (since its effect is minimal), but it was decided to leave in."

I would like to see a proper camoflage feature for vehicles in a future CM, which could perhaps replace the 'Hide' command with a 'Vehicle Camo' or 'Camo Net' command, or some other name.

[Sergei]

I don't think you'd really want to start applying camo DURING combat! It would take time to cut some trees to support the camo net and then arrange them properly so that it doesn't obstruct firing.

[SKELLEN]

Originally posted by Sergei:

I don't think you'd really want to start applying camo DURING combat! It would take time to cut some trees to support the camo net and then arrange them properly so that it doesn't obstruct firing.

Forgive any ignorance I may show here, but I would have thought that using Camoflage whether for Tanks/Vehicles/Infantry etc, is a must in any Combat situation surely?

After all, your men need all the help they can get on the Battlfield, and not revealing positions to the enemy and cover and concealment/camoflage is a must, as not all of your force is exposed to the enemy or shouldn't be if the Commander has any any ounce of sense at all.

[Sergei]

Yes but, as I mentioned before, at the beginning of a battle all units (also attacking) are camouflaged. This camo bonus is lost once they leave their positions.

Creating a new camo'd position for a vehicle or a gun would require the fighting to cease for a longer period.

[SKELLEN]

Originally posted by Sergei:

Yes but, as I mentioned before, at the beginning of a battle all units (also attacking) are camouflaged. This camo bonus is lost once they leave their positions.

Creating a new camo'd position for a vehicle or a gun would require the fighting to cease for a longer period.

I catch your drift now, as it would defeat the object of having Camoflage once you have moved from position, and are most likely to be spotted or seen as a sound contact.

[farmerch]

I am a driver in the swiss army. We were supposed to camoflage our vehicles when waiting more than 5 minutes somewhere.

in a real combat situation, well... i guess you do it when beeing told so. and in cmbb/cmak the player is the one in charge.

[Sergei]

Driver of what, a truck or a combat vehicle? What kind of camouflage did you use? Was it meant to camo you from surveillance from air or from ground? How long did it take? Sorry for asking all that, but otherwise it's too vague.

[With Clusters]

Plus it would be usefull to know exactly what purpose vehicular camouflage is/was supposed to serve, from someone who has practical experience (like Sergei said, meant more as a counter to air attack, ground, etc.?).

[Redwolf]

Originally posted by Sergei:

Yes but, as I mentioned before, at the beginning of a battle all units (also attacking) are camouflaged. This camo bonus is lost once they leave their positions.

I only did a short test but it implied that this feature is not actually in CM.

There seems to be no bonus of not getting spotted in the original setup position as opposed to positions you move in (unobserved) later.

[Sergei]

Hmm. I wonder where I got the idea from, then. Mushrooms?

[Joachim]

Must be the same mushrooms as over here.

Gruß

Joachim

[Aco4bn187inf]

Even if you are hiding at the beginning of the game, your vehicle may still be spotted anyway. One thing to be aware of is that, as I recall, unless it is summer, scattered trees provide only limited concealment. In winter it's just trying to hide a tank behind some sticks.

[junk2drive]

bump for Phillipe

[dieseltaylor]

Much to my surprise I was able to use a platoon of Hornets[Hornisse] against the Russians and because of the range and the fact I was in trees he never got an ID on my firing positions. Range about 1000+.

Possibly him travelling fast and the fact they only needed to fire about once each to kill and scare him away : ) Still left him with 11. He did try to race a Halftrack with the quad AA along a road towards me at top speed - amazing what a 88mm L71 shell does to a vehicles momentum. : )

[Achtung Baby]

Hi, I'm new to the forum, so please be kind.

I've been playing CM for three years. Reading your points on the hide command for vehicles, I'm horrified as I was under the delusion it made a difference to being spotted by aircraft!

Which is known as passive air defence, is this not the case in CM then. I play the Germans mostly, gives me a bitter pill to swallow in the late war. Jabos! :eek:

[slysniper]

All I can say is that this is a real injustice. War accounts abound about how good the germans were at hiding armoured tanks, troops would survey and scope areas to be attacked, but not until in the assault would they start receiving fire from a tank that might look like building rubble or a hay stack or something of the sort when the hidden tank would be discovered

[Sven]

It sucks, really. (In bitterness, having lost my two remaining T34/85s in a campaign, to my friend's Panthers.) I was living in an illusion, where I could hide them behind a stretch of woods in the summertime. Boom, Boom, gone. :-(

[imported_no_one]

Stick to using the hide command for when your vehicles are in some kind of cover.Whether it be scattered trees,or brush--possibly,but doubtfully, even steppe and wheatfields.

Hiding in the open ground is just a waste.It may also lead to losing vehicles because of a hiding vehicles tendency to not want to engage a target unless being targeted.

You will find that there are times that it can work well.Hiding vehicles in sct trees isnt too bad during the day,they make it hard to get a good ID on the shooter,and can easily break LOS contact.

Now,picture vehicles hiding in sct trees at night :evil grin:

[junk2drive]

Bump