Smoke Direction

[legend42]

How do you put smoke where you want it from the squad pop smoke command?

[stikkypixie]

Use the face command first. Hopefully one day, they will implement smoke as a target order.

[legend42]

Hit face command first, then pop smoke, the smoke went in front of the unit, not to the 90 degree position I chose with the face command.

[Rocky Balboa]

If your playing wego then you need to change facing first then pop smoke ... I know it sux but you will need to wait 60 secs before poping smoke after changing facing

[Darkmage]

that's why you want to play RT

[SgtMuhammed]

One good technique is to face your units upwind from where you need the smoke. That way when the cloud builds it will give you continuous coverage rather than leaving a big gap since your guys will throw their grenades about 20 meters from their present position.

[TheVulture]

If your playing wego then you need to change facing first then pop smoke ... I know it sux but you will need to wait 60 secs before poping smoke after changing facing

Has anyone tried using a very short movement order in the direction you want the smoke to go, and then firing smoke from the end waypoint. Don't know whether it works or not, but it might.

Also, changing facing with cover arcs might be different to changing using the face command. It used to be in CMx1 in certain circumstances - changing facing in a building manually could get you spotted due to the movement, while changing it with a cover arc was 'free' and didn't get you spotted.

[TheVulture]

Okay, did some quick tests on infantry smoke. If you have a target arc, an infantry unit won't lob smoke. I haven't found any way to make a stationary unit pop smoke in a specific direction aside from the obvious face command, and then smoke the turn after (in WeGo mode).

If you have a little freedom of movement you can control smoke direction. BUT the smoke command won't trigger at the waypoint where the command is issued, but at the one after. If you put a smoke command on the final waypoint, it will be ignored (not 100% sure of this - I might have used a face command which cancels it, but I think I am right). Smoke commands only show up when issued to the unit in its current position (no waypoints selected), when it shows lines at every waypoint but actually triggers at the first one.

Since this all seems rather convoluted, I can only assume it isn't working as intended, even though it is possible to get what you want.

But the obvious solution is for a smoke command at a waypoint to generate it at that waypoint, and to be able to specify a direction (for infantry units at least) for the grenades to be thrown in.

[stikkypixie]

The face command cancels the smoke command. You can have units pop smoke at any waypoint. You just need to highlight the desired waypoint and then select pop smoke.

[TheVulture]

The face command cancels the smoke command. You can have units pop smoke at any waypoint. You just need to highlight the desired waypoint and then select pop smoke.

'cept they pop it at the one after that...

[stikkypixie]

Not in my experience. If you want to pop smoke where you are, you just select pop smoke. If you want to pop smoke and the end of the selected waypoint, highlight it and select pop smoke. Unless there is a bug, this how it works.

[purpheart23]

They should make the pop smoke command just like the area fire command,(which is used for non-los i.e. grenade attacks) that way we can just put the smoke where we want it? If feasible of course.

[Inkompetent]

Until we get good working smoke popping, why not turn the units facing with a 'Face' command, pause 15 secs, do a minimal slow move in the direction you want the smoke, and then 'Pop Smoke'? Should give you smoke in the direction you want that is thick enough by the next round. Ought to work, no?

[TheVulture]

The only limitation on that approach (which is the only way to do it in WeGo) is that you have to move at least one action spot, and that isn't always feasible.

Maybe you could use 'hunt' - not sure if, in the presence of enemy, they'd even change direction before cancelling the command though - but that might stop them before they actually move anywhere out of cover and get them throwing smoke the right way.

[c3k]

I'm with TheVulture on this one. The inability to target the smoke location can be frustrating. I play WeGo, so it is a bit of an experiment to see where the smoke will end up.

As well, I'm never sure how many times a squad can throw smoke; is that information available anywhere on the UI?

Thanks,

Ken

[Rocky Balboa]

Steve has officially announced that the "Brain in a Jar" is currently working on CM Normandy full time. So what does this mean? It means that your not likely to see any changes made to CMSF that cant also be used in CM Normandy. Since individual squads deploying smoke in WWII was not very common, I doubt they will spend much time implementing this.