John Kettler Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 In playing in RoW II, some of the games have forcibly reminded me of something I'd like to see addressed in CMBB and beyond. That something is the provision of ambush markers whose range is keyed to the weapons involved. Presently, it is impossible for armor, guns and certain HMGs to make full use of weapon capabilities where long LOS opportunities present themselves, because the ambush marker can only be placed about 300m out. This makes a certain amount of sense for rifle fire and such, bearing in mind that S.L.A. Marshall concluded in THE RIVER AND THE GAUNTLET that an unaided eyeball could only see out to about 600 yards, even observing dust puffs from bullet strikes, but when we start talking about German HMGs, most guns, and all tanks and assault guns, we are now firmly in the world of magnified optics. If a given weapon is capable of delivering effective fire out to its LOS limits, should it not also be able to place an ambush marker out to those same ranges? Why should a vehicle, gun, etc., be forced to needlessly expose itself, when it could in reality lie in wait, then open fire devastatingly? Since we have no turret down command in the game, players are prevented from using another real world tactic, keeping the tank in defilade until the last instant, while the TC observes for targets. I don't know how hard this would be to implement, but I feel it would considerably improve the game by adding greater tactical realism. Regards, John Kettler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 Amen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 The covered arc command is going to replace the ambush command. For AT capable units (such as AT guns and vehicles) there's even a covered arc command specifically for armor. These arcs can be posted out as far as you can see. While none of these covered arcs is geared towards a weapon's specific capabilities, your longer range weapons will engage out to the range you set the covered arc for. The original ambush command was geared towards fighting something that was relatively close rather than anything in view. Hence it was limited to 300 meters. I don't know of any commands that are intended for CMBB that are geared towards keeping you in defilade. The closest would be a shoot-and-scoot command. So there will be some manual work involved with that, but I assume that is as close as it will get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 Originally posted by Schrullenhaft: The covered arc command is going to replace the ambush command. For AT capable units (such as AT guns and vehicles) there's even a covered arc command specifically for armor. These arcs can be posted out as far as you can see. While none of these covered arcs is geared towards a weapon's specific capabilities, your longer range weapons will engage out to the range you set the covered arc for... Is the maximum/minimum engagement range user-selectable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameroon Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 Originally posted by JonS: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Schrullenhaft: The covered arc command is going to replace the ambush command. For AT capable units (such as AT guns and vehicles) there's even a covered arc command specifically for armor. These arcs can be posted out as far as you can see. While none of these covered arcs is geared towards a weapon's specific capabilities, your longer range weapons will engage out to the range you set the covered arc for... Is the maximum/minimum engagement range user-selectable?</font> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louie the Toad Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 A target specific ambush command would be good too. "Don't fire til you see the whites of their eyes" Toad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gredeker Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 Originally posted by JonS: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Schrullenhaft: The covered arc command is going to replace the ambush command. For AT capable units (such as AT guns and vehicles) there's even a covered arc command specifically for armor. These arcs can be posted out as far as you can see. While none of these covered arcs is geared towards a weapon's specific capabilities, your longer range weapons will engage out to the range you set the covered arc for... Is the maximum/minimum engagement range user-selectable?</font> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted June 26, 2002 Share Posted June 26, 2002 The covered arc command is applied to the entire unit. So if you set both of your end points in the covered arc 1000m out, your machine gun (assuming the squad has one) will be firing out to that range and I assume that the rifle/small arms fire will be kept at a minimum. Since CM abstracts all of the small arms/MG ammo into one number I assume that your firing rate/ammo consumption will be kept low in such a situation. Unfortunately you won't be able to set a range for the squad MG and one for the small arms. So if you set a 500m long covered arc, you'll have most of your weapons firing. Again, however the ammo consumption will be 'prorated' for the range to my knowledge (less shots from small arms since it may take longer to make an aimed shot at this distance - at least that would be my logic). I don't have the exact specifics of what is going on in the code, but I assume that I'm fairly close on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted June 27, 2002 Author Share Posted June 27, 2002 Schrullenhaft, Thanks for the detailed feedback on what sounds like a wonderful new feature. Regards, John Kettler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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