Death Clock for TANKS

[Silvio Manuel]

I admit that I haven't played CMBB enough to really see this feature. What I don't understand is that from the tank-player's perspective, (1) does the Detailed Armor Text say "knocked out," and it just takes extra-long for the crew to bail out, or (2) do they keep taking hits and eventually the AFV morale gets low enough that they bail out? If (1), does the gap b/w "knocked out" and the crew bailing out ever cross the 1-minute turn boundary? Maybe it's something else entirely?

Thanks,

SM

[offtaskagain]

Originally posted by Silvio Manuel:

I admit that I haven't played CMBB enough to really see this feature. What I don't understand is that from the tank-player's perspective, (1) does the Detailed Armor Text say "knocked out," and it just takes extra-long for the crew to bail out, or (2) do they keep taking hits and eventually the AFV morale gets low enough that they bail out? If (1), does the gap b/w "knocked out" and the crew bailing out ever cross the 1-minute turn boundary? Maybe it's something else entirely?

Thanks,

SM

Mostly the 1st one. Detailed hits won't tell you if its KO'd if the target is an enemy vehicle. Friendlys it will tell you if it got KO'd. The tank will display a label of "bailing out" and some seconds later the crew will bail. The "bailing out" status will cross the minute turn line if the crew is taking that long.

[Bullethead]

The "death clock" is an FOW feature so you only see it when you kill an enemy tank. It comes into play when the target doesn't burst into flames when hit, so the only true indication that it's dead is when you see the crew bailing out, or the dust and smoke clears enough to show fatal damage has been inflicted. This takes a few seconds after the fatal hit, and it is these seconds that the "death clock" measures. The amount of time the "death clock" runs (ie, the time between the fatal hit and you realizing the target is dead) is variable and probably depends on the relative strengths of the projectile and target armor, and the amount of damage inflicted.

The process works like this: You achieve a fatal hit on the target that for whatever reason makes the surviving crew decide to bail. But you don't see anything that lets you or the tac-AIs of your units know this has happened. No damage info on the hit, no drooping gun barrel, no change in the target's unit info box at the bottom of the screen. So as far as you and your units can tell, the target is still alive. So your units keep aiming at it and will shoot at it again if they reload before the "death clock" expires. When the time finally runs out, the target's info box says it's dead, the gun tube droops, and you see the bailed crew (assuming any are still alive--the shots during the "death clock" might finish them off).

When one of your tanks goes into "death clock" mode, you know it immediately because it's your unit. When it gets hit, you see the words "knocked out" appear on the hit. Also, the unit's info box shows the crew as "bailing out", although they're still in the tank. Then you can gleefully watch the enemy continue to pump shells into the carcass while your other units blindside them .

[ October 14, 2002, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: Bullethead ]