Fragile buildings.

[Abbott]

I read that there will be some buildings in CMBB that are tougher verse HE fire, large factory buildings and such. Does anyone know if regular buildings have become any tougher? It appeared to me that buildings in CMBO were just a bit too fragile.

[Chad Harrison]

I dont know, I tested how strong the two light buildings are in the steppe mission by firing at each with one of my russian tanks at close range. In one turn, and under 40 or so seconds, both were destroyed. I think if anything, a light wooden building would only be able to take two or three shells before collapsing. A factory on the other hand . . . well, just look at pictures of Stalingrad!

What I would like to see in the engine rewrite is partially collapsed buildings. Like in SL.

Chad

[Ben Galanti]

From the Changes since CMBO page:

Destroyed buildings kick up smoke that lasts for a few minutes.

Buildings show damage graphically when they reach the "lightly damaged" state. This is when building is approx. 40% (or more) damaged.

Buildings have textured floors, stone and wood.

When the camera is inside, building sides are transparent so you can "see out".

Large stone and factory buildings are harder to destroy.

Small-caliber guns are less likely to cause significant damage to buildings.

Added "flat rubble" tile (without knocked down building walls)

For internal LOS calculations, rubble is considered taller than before.

I think the key issue is the Small-caliber guns one, where rapid fire guns would often bring buildings down in CMBO.

Ben

[MrSpkr]

From experience at the Sneak Preview -- the bloody factories are a pain in teh butt to destroy. It took two 75mm guns working one section over for about six to ten turns to bring it down, IIRC.

On the other hand, the smallest, weakest buildings, the peasant huts, come down very quickly.

Steve

[Abbott]

Originally posted by Ben Galanti:

From the Changes since CMBO page:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Destroyed buildings kick up smoke that lasts for a few minutes.

Buildings show damage graphically when they reach the "lightly damaged" state. This is when building is approx. 40% (or more) damaged.

Large stone and factory buildings are harder to destroy.

Small-caliber guns are less likely to cause significant damage to buildings.

For internal LOS calculations, rubble is considered taller than before.

Ben</font>

[MrSpkr]

What is going to be fun (IMHO) is developing new urban tactics. One thing I noticed in the Sneak Preview is that when you bring down a section of factory, you get a HUGE dust cloud that persists for several turns. In urban operations, it will be worth your while to makle strategic decisions centring around when you are able to drop part of a building so that you can use the dust as cover to get across the street.

I found out the hard way that the old CM tactic of 'swarm the man' does not work nearly as well -- it was a bloodbath.

Something else of note (though slightly OT)-- your artillery in urban settings will be a pain to handle due to spotting issues. I called in rocket artillery to an area to which I had no LOS (cause if I had had LOS, I would have been too bloody close). The rockets all landed about 3/4 of a klick away, off the map. Out of a battery with 40 shots, less than ten landed on the map, and none of those were within 200m of the targeted location.

Steve

[MikeyD]

I was just about to mention dust clouds from downed buildings myself. There's only one tiny building to experiment with in the demo, but I wonder if in the game you could knock down a building then use the dust for cover as you change positions (especially since Russian tanks don't seem to have smoke). CMBB has a 'wind conditions' feature now. I bet more than one person's going to be caught with his pants down trying to change positions behind a dusk cloud on a windy day! Haw!