Hugely difficult...

[Horrgakx]

Hi - am enjoying the game so far but I find it just massively difficult. I've got to mission 4 now but all my missions so far have failed.

I just can't see how to avoid getting hit - I've even tried skirting round the edges of the map, hugging the hills, but my tank seems to spontaneously erupt in flame, as if something hits it or I run into an (unmarked?) minefield (surely not on the side of a hill??!).

And those RPG soldiers - they sneak up and hammer a round into the tank the buggers

I've tried one mission 10 times now and just can't do it. Any advice would be welcome.

Oh, and how do I activate the AI for the commander/gunner? For example, I'm driving, and I can drive right up to another tank or an RPG soldier can be beside me and my crew are obviously playing cards or something because I get the hell blasted out of me without my crew calling out and shooting at the target....

Dave

[Pandur]

hm, i dont know how deep you are into this sim but if you just started i give you some general tips first.

1.

when you start the/a mission ALLWAYS press "3" emedeatly. its the "scan/cease scan" command for the AI crew and they will spott enemys in AI like fashion.

i allwas press it instant becouse otherwhise i forgett somethimes this mostly get me into an unpleasent situation.

the nuber "2" button would be "open fire/cease fire" command but its just usefull up to mission 7 i found. the mass of of targets combined with bad AI aiming makes it a bit tricky to manage your ammo amount.

2.

when you have some units atatched use them as decoys(in fact as shooting decoys) to distract the enemy shortly bevor your tank comes in LOS.

but this can be tricky, though.

3.

verry important!!!

when you sit down and play one or two mission(s) bring some tobacco product(if you smoke) and some favoured cold drink. AND time!

when i start any mission, i make sure i got as much time it will need. also if it takes me 5 houers(never happened but if...).

if you rush into somplace where the enemy is you can sooner or later start teh mission over. so just dont rush at all. mostly iam also focused on a slow and sneky advance becouse i dont want any of my crew members killed, they degrad in abillity when they are replaced.

and last but not least try to imagine yourself in this tank(and the fear of getting hit) and you will mostly take a, at least, usefull aproch at the enemy. EDIT2: and dont forgett your "reverse" gear; best used with smoke pots left+right( , and . buttons by default). its allways good to back up behid the crest you looked over when something goes wrong...and try meybe an other place...

4.

i dont know how familiar you are with tanks, so i try it first without explanation;

dont let your tank get hit from the side or behind and try to stay "hull down" when engaging anything wich can hurt you.

5.

if you wonder why you get shot from position "A" in a mission, start it over and watch point "A" closly you get shot from point "B".

its becous some or in fact many paths of the AI tanks are on some maps somewhat random. i noticed differences of up to 800m. means point "B" could be up to 800m away from the same spot you got shot bevor. so the missions arent the same exactly.

so i think thats the most general tips i could think of...

if you got some specific problems just post it.

EDIT: i posted some things about mission4: commando, in the "arghhh mission4: commando any tips?" thread(the last post right not. but ofcourse it not the only solution to this mission)

this mission is a though cookie for some other people too

heres a link to it...

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=46;t=000394

[ May 09, 2006, 05:44 PM: Message edited by: Pandur ]

[Horrgakx]

Thanks for all that! Useful.

I've just tried the first "defend the village" mission and I found a nice hull-down positon but of course my gun wouldn't go low enough. I moved forward and got hit by a shell from a tank

Just can't do it

[Pandur]

isnt the "defend the village" mission the 2nd mission?(do you talk about campain or single missions)

the first should be the mission where you have to bring the tank to the serb base and killing a super sherman on the way...

anyways in mission "2" where you have to defend the/a village from an attack consisting of some INF and a SU-100 and T34/85, there are allready 2 "pre-made" hull down positions(position 1 and 2 marked blue on the map). if you cant find the propper position there(like me) just drive into the infantry trench. its big enough at some spots and serves well too.

about the hull down position;

the tricky thing is to find a spot wich is that flat behind the crest that you can lower your gun in a usefull way and fire down at something.

thats why i prefer "lower spots""ditches next to a road" or such ravines shown in the screens in the "arghh-mission4 commando" therad. in such a position you can use your gun down to the lowest lvl and your enemys are allways above you and with a bit luck they have to come over a crest,like you, becouse you are to low positioned for their gun to hit you.

but what is the excact problem why you allways get hit? do you spot the enemys late and so they can allready shoot at you while you are searching them? or do you dont hit with the T34/85 gun without rangefinder and FCS(not kidding, it can be tricky when you are under fire)?

are you maning one position(driver,gunner,commander) and let the rest do the AI or do you switch between the stations when needed?

in short whats you style of play? how do you "try" to compleate a mission?

i mean everyone here has some tries where they drive into position and get hit with one shot and are knocked out. that can happen even if you do everything to avoid it. "if the enemy is in sight/range, so you are"(nearly a 100% true for this sim).

but you must do someting "special" to get hit every time. do you even start to shoot? or are you killed imedeately?

greetings,

Pandur

[Horrgakx]

Thanks for the reply, I'll take you through a mission (second one, defend the village).

I go to position 1 and sit in the hull-down position, but my hull is definately still exposed from the front but probably not so much from the sides. Very soon after a tank appears in the distance (1000yds) almost dead ahead.

But then I can't hit the damn thing! My tank doesn't seem to have a range computer so I use the incremental sights. A confusing thing though is that say I have the SABOT selected (top ammo choice) the terminal point on the shell is nowhere near the 1000yd mark on the sight!!

It only took 1 hit from that tank to kill me and I fired 4 times at it missing every time.

PS - If I press CTRL-W in the Gunner position, a light appears. What is this for?

Dave

EDIT - I've added a screenshot - how unlucky can I get?

[ May 11, 2006, 10:14 AM: Message edited by: Horrgakx ]

[Pandur]

hm, there is somewhere a thread wich explains detaild how to aim without FCS(FireControlSystem). ill look for a link.

(here)

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=46;t=000355

(and there)

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=46;t=000440

in fact its verry easy.

imagine;

you, while throwing a empty beverage can into the trashcan. the further you are away the higher you have to "aim" with the empty can.

and the important thing you allways "look" at the trash can while aiming in the air with the empty can.

with your tank you got mostly 3 or 4 sorts of "empty cans"(your shells) wich all have different flight paths/ballistics. you want to "throw" em far and near, but allways "have to" look at the trash can(enemy/tank/target whatever you want).

now there come Strg+W!!!

you hit it, the red light flashes up und now you can move your arm(gun) in a "vertical" way, independent from your eyes(gun sights)!

("u" and "i" buttons i belive)

you do this after you found the range eiter with the (non laser)rangefinder or the commanders target box wich displays the exact range, you hit Strg+W if not allready active and input that range with the "u" "i" buttons.

i hope it sounds understandable in the end!

its not much more than trowing stones at a distant target or the beverages can example. just the system in a tank needs to have more range while still being accurate. thats the only big difference beside that you need a machine for this typs of "cans".

the treads wich are linked above provide screenshots on how to find the range and also how to shoot.

my example is just to imagine how the system works, so its not so hard to get whats going on while you hit Strg-W and manipulate "something" with the u and i buttons

so this should help to get ths basics of shooting.

ovcourse iam talking exclusively about the T34/85 wich has NO fire control system nor laser range finder.

if you play a mission with t55 or t72 you will find that you can activate the FCS with the "s" button and have some tech goodies available.

if FCS is broken, than T55 and T72 also have to use manual range input.

Pandur

EDIT: hehe, unlucky hit

but what happened to the background of the image?

it looks somewhat unnatural, but meybe thats why the pic just has 35kb

meybe thats why i never found "position1" becouse its a lousy "unnamable thing" like the picture shows. it better to dive into the infanty ditch.

oh, and meybe download the both missionpacks available at the mainpage/downloads

there you have a T34/85 fireing range mission(where noone shoots at you), and a verry decent and beginner friendly desert mission.

desert01 includes you in a t72 vs 4 t55 in more or less open desert terrain. easy to aim and spott and everything...

desert02 is a bit confusing i found

greetings

[ May 11, 2006, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Pandur ]

[Horrgakx]

Thanks for the reply, I'll try it again later tonight. The picture, by the way, just has its brightness increased and it is cropped; just to show it better.

[Horrgakx]

Yay! Managed to complete mission 2!!

See what you mean about the manual sighting and U or I - I assume that the scale on the left is for the sabot, scale in the middle is for the explosive rounds and the scale at the right is for AT HEAT rounds?

However on the second mission I found two problems;

1) I had a digital sight, but no amount of right-button pressing would change the display. I just could not get a range! (I had pressed the S key and the light came on).

2) My commander would not spot things quick enough. He did see one of the static guns, but while I was lining it up I got hit by a tank which I didn't know about! Is this to be expected?

[Pandur]

damn damn damn, i just lost a long post becouse a friend of mine closed "all" pages in my opera window. *grml*

so i do it the short way...

I assume that the scale on the left is for the sabot, scale in the middle is for the explosive rounds and the scale at the right is for AT HEAT rounds?

yes thats correct! by the differences in the scales you can see the differences in the flight paths of the ammunition(more or less).

when i remember correctly you dont get these scales in the master sights of T55 adn T72.

you need to cycle to the backupsights.

However on the second mission I found two problems;

you mean the mission after the 2nd mission? where static guns are plenty and you got a T55 with FCS?

T34/85 never has a FCS in this sim.

1) I had a digital sight, but no amount of right-button pressing would change the display. I just could not get a range! (I had pressed the S key and the light came on).

if you are in mission 3 now where you have a T55 with FCS and the weather is verry bad you can use you laser just between 300m and 500m-600m. 300m is the minimal distance for the laser and 500-600 is the limitation of the bad weather conditions.

try you nightvision and the "backup sight" with T55 with the "pageup" "pagedown" buttons.

leasing is done with right click...

2) My commander would not spot things quick enough. He did see one of the static guns, but while I was lining it up I got hit by a tank which I didn't know about! Is this to be expected?

hm, sometimes yes BUT where are static guns and tanks combined in mission 2 or 3?? iam puzzled right now. i tell you what i killed in the first 4 missions.

1. mission

1x super sherman / +some infantry

2.mission

1x T34/85 / 1x Su-100 / +some inf

3.mission

2x SPUTR(sp?)-B / 1x of those recoilles guns / 1x shuturm(sp?) those APC type vehicle / + some inf

4.mission

2x T55 / 3xT34/85 / 1x shuturm(sp?) / + some inf

and i thought i killed mostly everything there is...!?

how good your commander spots is also governed by the "status" of your crew. when you are knocked out next time go to the statistics and move the camera to your own tank. ther press the button betwenn the << and >> buttons at the upper part of the screen. you get an detaild statistic of your profile...

your crew can be untraind, traind, veteran,(i didnt had them better than vet so far).

if you loose one crew member but noone bails out and you compleat the mission you lose mostly an rank bacouse the member get replaced with an untraind guy.

Pandur

[ May 12, 2006, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: Pandur ]