Ammo use and distribution in v1.11

[c3k]

Gents,

I've tested (once) ammo use and distribution after resupply and am glad to report that v1.11 seems to have fixed the issue of team ammo distribution. My quick test did show two small oddities though. More on that later.

The test was with a 9 man US engineer squad. I split them into teams. 2 teams each had 2 m4's and one m203. The other team had two m249's and one m4. I ran them totally dry by TARGETing some nearby empty ground, WeGo. (Crack, fit, etc.).

After they ran dry, I ran a single team back to a Bradley and had them ACQUIRE 2,000 rounds of 5.56. Then they, and the other two teams, reformed into a squad. The squad information panel showed full ammo. I then split the squad back into 3 teams. In v1.10 this is where only the re-ammo'd team would've kept the ammo and the others would've been back to empty. Happily, v1.11 fixes this; all three teams had full ammo bars.

Thanks.

Now onto the oddity (or two).

I was watching the teams burn through their ammo. The two rifle teams used ammo in a linear manner. As they fired, I could see a bar of ammo disappear every now and again. That seems fine.

The M249 team did not exhibit that behavior. They kept a full ammo bar for some time. (Fine, they probably have more 5.56 for the M249's.) But, when the ammo bar finally decreased it did so suddenly with no linearity. In fact, it went from full to missing about 5 bars in one second. Then, within the next few seconds about 5 more bars disappeared. Each of these ammo bar usages appeared all at once, not one at a time. "Zap" 5 bars gone.

Why is this so? Is this a minor bug, or does it reflect a purposeful decision?

Secondly, the teams fired for 2 turns after running dry. For all but the last half of the second turn the rate of fire continued unabated. So, after using the final, red ammo bar, the teams would keep full firepower for about 90 seconds. I fully understand each soldier keeping a few extra last-ditch rounds available, but 90 seconds worth?

Regardless of the answers to the above two issues, I'm glad the ammo distribution issue has been fixed.

Thanks,

Ken

[flamingknives]

Could it be that the rifle magazine use up 30 rounds at a time, while SAWs use 200 round boxes of link?

[c3k]

flamingknives; you may well be exactly right. My question (and it is so very minor, mere curiosity, not even a quibble) is why 5 bars at a time after a long time of firing and then an almost immediate additional 5 bars?

Hmm, you may have just given me the answer: if 5 bars - or whatever the large increment was (it was NOT more than 5 and was probably less) - if that increment represents the large 200 round box on an M249, then, since the team had TWO M249's firing, perhaps the first increment disappearing was one M249 reloading, and the second increment was the second M249 reloading.

If so, then the ammo bars do not represent TOTAL ammo availability to the unit, but unallocated ammo. Any ammo currenly loaded in a weapon is not counted (a 30 round magazine inserted in a magazine well would be considered loaded for this calculation).

That would also explain the continued firing after all the ammo bars disappeared.

If all weapons had a fresh magazine, the unit could pour firepower for a very limited time and THEN run out.

(I had always considered the bars to represent total ammo state: if what I've somewhat postulated is true, then having a lack of ammo bars does NOT mean that the unit cannot fire. You'd have to keep track of the unit and see whether it's used its last load of ammo.)

Regards,

Ken

[Battlefront]

You're right - it shows unallocated ammo. But it ought to show total ammo, so this is a minor bug. I'll fix it.

[c3k]

Thanks!

(Does that mean I can add it to my v1.12 thread? )

As long as I have your attention, Charles, I'd like to mention two things: First, thanks for all your hard work. Secondly, um, about that ammo use thing - does the big jump in the ammo bars reflect the loading of M249's? If it does, and you're going to change the ammo bars to show TOTAL ammo, not just unallocated ammo, I would think that would fix the jump from occurring. Therefore, after this is fixed, the ammo bars won't jump, just get incrementally reduced as weapons are fired. Is this correct?

Again, thanks.

Regards,

Ken

[Pvt. Ryan]

I've noticed that if you split a sniper team one half gets nearly all of the .50 cal ammo while the other half, the half with the sniper rifle that uses the .50 cal, get almost none.