VIED's & Campaign Mission 2 (Spoiler)

[Lanzfeld]

I am playing the Thunder (Army) campaign. I am on the second mission (the one at the airfield).

After studying the map I brilliantly choose to go hard left and blow a hole in the wall near the barracks and push through there to set up a nice base of fire. All is going great. My troops waste several technicals back there and make their way into the two back barracks in great overwatch positions. There is a third barracks that I am sure is empty as I have drawn no fire from it at all so far. Still, I play it safe and first send a 4 man assault team across the long, empty courtyard that seperates every barrack from the next while the rest of the platoon overwatches. The half squad "quicks" without incident untill about half way across then BOOM!!! All 4 guys exist no more! HUGE crater and in the middle of it is a car with the VIED symbol above it. NOTHING WAS THERE BEFORE THE BLAST.

1. As you know there are several empty taxis and pickups all over this map but there was NO vehicle there before the blast. Are VIEDs invisible until they move or something? No parked car....nothing. If so...did I manage to run to the exact spot the AI had a VIED that had not moved??????

2. I saved the turn before this happened and replayed it to confirm nothing was there and also to experiment a little. Something strange happened. I sent my troops up the courtyard but not all the way to where the explosion happened and held them short. Now even though there was no vehicles in sight, my guys kept on repeating "vehicle sighted" over and over but nothing was there. Is this a bug? Is this some way of cheating if you listen to your guys up close and hear them talk about a car I cant see?

Any VIED info you have I would love to hear it!

[Jonny(FGM)]

VIEDs are one of the few units that get a stealth bonus depending on the civilian density.

As civilian units are not displayed in game units that are disguised as civilians (spies, IED teams etc) are invisible until spotted (like any other unit really) however in high civilian density scenarios spotting them becomes really difficult.

Having said that in that mission really civilian density should be nil so I think you must have just got really unlucky by not spotting it beforehand

[Lanzfeld]

Okay....finished the mission. I cant believe how many bad guys there were! Every single pile of rubble held 2 or 3 squads! You would clear a pile just to discover 10 minutes later a single bad guy was left hiding in there. UGGGGG!

Anyway...about the VBIED, so it seems that if the AI never actually MOVES the VBIED then you have zero chance to discover it until it goes boom. Correct? That is what happened to me on this map. Never saw the car despite having overwatch 20 meters from it. I guess this makes sense. Still would be nice to have a chance to see a VBIED car even if it doesnt move.

[Lethaface]

You have chances to spot it if I am correct, just think of it as a very well camouflaged enemy vehicle. Disabled taxi's etc are always spotted, so I'm afraid they aren't comparable.

[Boche]

i for example spotted them within the first 10 min

[Lanzfeld]

i for example spotted them within the first 10 min

Did you spot it because it moved???

I never spotted mine. Even with multiple overwatch.

[Boche]

Cant remember

[vincere]

I have only ever spotted them when they move.I think that I read somewhere that Bradley's have electronic kit to help with IEDs but I don't know how effective they are in game or what other vehicles have the enhanced capability.

Hmm come to think of it, was it Warriors...

[JonS]

I never spotted mine. Even with multiple overwatch.

Yes, exactly, because you're not supposed to. It's not the overwatch that's important, it's that a civilian vehicle IS for all practical purposes 'invisible' in a civilian environment.

[vincere]

Yes, exactly, because you're not supposed to. It's not the overwatch that's important, it's that a civilian vehicle IS for all practical purposes 'invisible' in a civilian environment.

There should be a chance to spot, even if v small chance.

Vehicle low on suspesion, package in the back, just out of keeping with the area or even a Blue soldiers intuition etc.

[JonS]

There should be a chance to spot, even if v small chance.

Do you know if this isn't the case?

[vincere]

Do you know if this isn't the case?

To be honest no. I've always assumed that it is based on a v old explanation from Steve, I think before SF was released. Some more tests would be good, will post back if I get time to do them.

Also I'm being a little jaded towards spotting in relation to this specific battle. Generally spotting seemed ok to me. But this battle, holy cow. Snipers, jav teams, FST, JTAC, HQs all looking out and on AAR map and bloody loads of uniformed units prone in the open on the aircraft pan amonst other places. But I digress.