A couple things I noticed that could be improved

[Crispy129]

After playing for a little while (I'm only done with Ash Shammas, the 2nd mission in the campaign), I've seen a few things that could/should be improved with some sort of patch that may not have been mentioned yet. Here is what I've found so far:

1) US snipers need to be improved. Our snipers are damn good IRL, but in the game they seem very underpowered. In Ash Shammas, I had a sniper team on top of an Air Traffic Control tower facing a huge clearing where they had view of over half of the map, a perfect spot. My sniper was consistantly missing the gunner on a stationary technical 640m away. On top of that, he was unable to see an RPG soldier, 300-400m away, come up to a window and fire at an MGS after I specifically gave him a targetting arc over those buildings. He also couldn't see any of the enemies in the complex I was raiding (where he had a PERFECT LOS) despite a major fire fight going on in the complex.

2) Artillery barrages should do way more damage on targets inside of buildings. I did full barrages from 120mm mortars on a large half destroyed complex (would've been very little cover) and a small circular complex of 1 story buildings (1 or 2 shells from a 120mm would have leveled one of the buildings). I scored several direct or near direct hits on the buildings, but when I checked the map afterward, the enemies inside were almost completely untouched (and still managed to fire off RPGS at some of my Strykers).

3) Larger weapons still need to do more damage to buildings and units inside them. Sometimes I haven't had a problem, and an MGS round has torn up a squad of enemies inside. Other times, I'll pound away, doing no damage. The MGS's also need to do more structural damage to the buildings (it shouldn't take more than 1-2 shots to knock a LARGE hole in a building). The 40mm's and .50 cals need to do WAY more damage to people inside. I've had MK19's and .50 cals UNLOADING on enemies inside of a building and done little more than scare them a little.

4) Room clearing AI needs to be improved, or there needs to be a specific command to clear rooms. I know this has been mentioned before, but I'm taking way more casualties that I should be when clearing rooms, and it needs to be stressed. My men are deleting their waypoints in the buildings, so I have to repeatedly tell them to get in there and clear them which wastes a lot of time. They refuse to stop and shoot enemies they see even though they are on "Hunt". Enemies also seem to be able to fire at them from 2 floors up, sometimes even from connected buildings.

5) I noticed the manual mentioned cooperative multiplayer. This would be a very nice addition to help limit the amount of micromanagement that needs to be done and allow for a realistic chain-of-command style battle. A multiplayer version of the campaign would be really cool. Maybe you could have each player pick which officer(s)/elements they would control, and the higher up officers could attach/detach other units to them (like detaching an MGS for 1st platoon to use) and have priority of support fires for each unit. Maybe higher up HQ units (Company CO's and such), if they're not directly controlling units, can send commands to the other players commanding lower units which would show a visual waypoint, target, or order to that subordinate leader.

Those are my suggestions for now. I'm not trying to rant or anything, those are just some things I noticed.

[ May 19, 2008, 09:11 AM: Message edited by: Crispy129 ]

[M1A1TC]

Very good suggestions, agree 100%

[MarkEzra]

Welcome to the forum

[Pandur]

to 1-3, when reading your topic in the tactics part of the forum, i just think you suck playing

no, i find the weapon effects sufficient, given the aplied amount of abstraction. after all if you place a100mm-125mm HE right in the face of some US trooper in a house he doesnt die all the time too(titanium face!?).

also you dont need to put massive amounts of whatever into buildings, you just need to make em shoot/show themselfs and kill em. thats much more ammo efficient.

4; if your man delet waypoints you get shot at too much or you use HUNT or both, thats not good to get in a house.

i got some of these problems when playing RED(you should try that)but when i have BLUE under command everything works very well as these are inhuman in the game.

5; it would be a nice addition if TCPip WEGo with replay would be there befor anything else much more fancy drops in. after all most people report a big lag fest in RT playing. i cant imagine it gets better with more players.

[Crispy129]

I'm not really understanding all of that post.

Not all of my men can see the enemy when others can, so I use area attack to suppress them. Usually they will get a few shots off and wound or kill your men if you wait until you can see them completely. You don't lose as many men if you pin them down so they don't shoot back. I also don't care if a 120mm HE round doesn't hurt my men as much as it should either. 90% of the time, it will be a US round going into the house considering the Syrians are almost always on defense and rarely have a big gun to fire into a house. When going into houses I AM using "Hunt". They were not getting shot at and deleted their waypoints about 4-5 times before I could get them to go in.

BTW, I HAVE played Red. It is more difficult to actually win the battle as Red, but it requires much less micromanagment and tactical reactions, and the objectives for Red are about equally as challenging as they are for the US, maybe a little less. As Red you don't need to have very coordinated movements and worry as much about covering all directions and keeping vehicles safe from RPGs in an urban area. Anyway, this is not a Red vs Blue discussion, it's a suggestion post.

[Pandur]

Not all of my men can see the enemy when others can, so I use area attack to suppress them.

right, but i think you want to also kill em that way not just supress em. at least thats what i get out of suggestion 1-3.

i found if you really try to supress them you dont get any straight shots to kill someone, so supression works. but now you move up to and enter a house wich is stills stuffed with enemies, instead of haveing killed em at long range how you are supposed to be as blue, and that will and should hurt.

again, with the given abstraction i do think that things work more or less resonable now.

You don't lose as many men if you pin them down so they don't shoot back

you loose many more man on short ranges than long, so forgett the few guys and make em fire on long ranges(give em targets) instead of prolly supressing them. if you come close there should only be a few left, not a whole unit.

They were not getting shot at and deleted their waypoints about 4-5 times before I could get them to go in.

i dont know what mode you play, but "one" shot(sniper or so is enough) can make the unit go down, so probably they got shot at or some fight was going on around, OR they saw a enemy unit close or far away, wich also cancels hunt. assault is the way to go if you dont want your man to go prone in front of the entrance to the enemy held house, and die. at least thats my expirience.

point is they dont stop becouse of "nothing", i never saw that.

As Red you don't need to have very coordinated movements and worry as much about covering all directions and keeping vehicles safe from RPGs in an urban area

just to add here, actually you need at least the same amount or more coordination, information and movement than blue, if not you get hit picemeal, with "super precise super weapons" and thats why you also work harder to archive it becouse your equipment and units are "crap", naturaly also in defense.

also you need to keep your vehicles safe from AT4´s and javelins. forgett the RPG´s, most time they hit it rains a shower of confetti

point is, if it would be so easy it would be a game about Syria owning the US. it isnt, and we know why.

[Childress]

This would be a very nice addition to help limit the amount of micromanagement that needs to be done and allow for a realistic chain-of-command style battle. A multiplayer version of the campaign would be really cool.

Yes, it would. I see Real-time blossoming in a multi-multiplayer environment. Unfortunately, this requires extra programming at the expense of other desiderata. Not to mention, perhaps, awaiting the next year's CPUs and video cards. Games like COD have functioning MMP, but there's a lot less processing going on.

[Crispy129]

If the AI knows what it's doing, it will wait for you to get close and not shoot. That's what it does for me. Whenever a point target makes itself available, I usually DO kill it. Normally if they are shooting, from what I've seen, they have a good enough shot to do damage. I've rarely seen them miss with RPG's because they normally only fire from close range. And YES, of course when I do an area fire with an MGS main gun, I expect the squad hiding behind that wall to be messed up. When a do a full-on barrage on a group of a few tiny connected 1 story buildings, I expect them and the men inside to be decimated. I would also normally expect a highly trained sniper/spotter team to be able to hit a gunner on a technical, in perfect view, from 600m away or watch a group of only 4 windows from 400m away before a WHOLE squad can get up, look out of a window, aim, and fire an RPG or automatic weapon at my men. I do area fire because a lot of the time a unit will be taking fire, but another won't be able to precisely see the unit shooting at me (which is of course required for a point target), so I will unload on the building to prevent an infantry squad from getting nailed by a PK. It also often takes forever to kill a person in a building even with a point target.

I have also not noticed a unit being pinned down by just a few shots. I was in a shootout in T shaped complex and had 1 squad start taking fire from one of the legs. As soon as it happened I told them to cancel movement and return fire and told 3 other squads to start firing (they all also had a point target) from close range and from 2 sides. It took a few MINUTES for them to put their heads down and only 1 or 2 died in the process, while they managed to wipe out a large portion of a squad.

[Pandur]

honsetly i think there is a problem with this mission. after you say it now i remember that the enemys in mission 2 here where verry reluctant to shoot. as if they would be set to "cautions" in the editor. in my earlier playthroughs they where more active and agressive.

i had to run right in their positions and dig em out there.

i dont know if that is intended to be like that.

And YES, of course when I do an area fire with an MGS main gun, I expect the squad hiding behind that wall to be messed up. When a do a full-on barrage on a group of a few tiny connected 1 story buildings, I expect them and the men inside to be decimated.

yes i also "expect" that when useing a T72 wich got 125mm HE, could lob it right in a window. they deal out great damage, but its never a sure kill.

we must not forgett the amount of abstraction involved. the houses we see as boxes are houses with invisible rooms and staricases and whatnot. so "probably" the round hit in a different room than the squad where!? or the room wher it hit had 2 soldiers in them, one dead on wounded though wall framents(yellow) others in different rooms unharmed. looks odd with the box house, but isnt nesseserily "wrong" witht he abstraction behind it.

given that, i say again it works pretty good. sometimes you just have bad luck, sometimes you nail 7 out of 9 man, with one guy yellow.

about the snipers;

did you tried snipers befor 1.06 or so. you would really be pleased about how efficient they got by now.