Controlling infantry weapon selection?

[Apache]

Just a quick message wondering if anyone can help here. Waiting for CMSF and Nato to arrive so only have access to demo at moment. Had to go out just after this issue arose so I'm not sure if it's controllable.

Was playing the US 'Steel' mission and got to a point where I wanted a dismounted infantry section to K/O a Syrian MBT with a Javelin. Much to my surprise they left the Javelins they had on the Stryker when they dismounted!!

Messed around with the menus etc but couldn't find any way to 'force' a certain weapon load out? Is this possible at all? Wondering if it may just not be possible with the demo??

Also, IIRC, there was an option in CMBO/CMBB to hit 'Enter' when the cursor was on a unit to bring up a unit info screen. Is this still somewhere in SF? Modern warfare is not my thing really (will enjoy SF and NATO forces but mainly playing to familiarise myself with CMX2 pending the Normandy release) and it would be nice to be able to look up some of the detail around certain vehicles etc, some of which are very new to me, to say the least.

[DaveDash]

Load your guys back into the Stryker, go to the third menu across for orders, hit "acquire", and load up on ammo/weapons.

[Waycool]

Use the acquire selection for the infantry team/squad while riding the vehicle you can then arm Javelins, At4 ammo etc. Then debus the team squad and you will have weapons.

[SlowMotion]

About Acquire: does anyone else have difficulty remembering what kind of ammo each weapon uses? When you select a unit its weapons are shown in Team Info Panel. I think it would be very useful if ammo caliber was also shown somehow - in tooltip text or some other way.

[Boche]

Well use this as a guideline,

all western forces (US UK NATO...) mostly use 5.56 ammo for their small arms, mgs such as m240, GPMG or the Mg3 use 7.62

the syrians or uncons also use 5.56 for most of their weapons exept the RPD, Dragunov, and the ak47 (or akm) (NOT THE AK 74 )

[Apache]

Ah, thanks. Bit of a rushed start to the demo. I was wondering what the acquire command was for, thought it may be something to do with target acquisition.

Doubtless the full game will have the PDF manual so all will become clearer. Will have to leave most ammo choices to them!! Aside from APFDS, HEAT and 7.62 etc etc most will get lost on me. I draw the line on them leaving the javelin in the back though!!

Can you pull up unit/vehicle profiles at all now or is it just what is at the bottom of the screen now?

[DaveDash]

Ah, thanks. Bit of a rushed start to the demo. I was wondering what the acquire command was for, thought it may be something to do with target acquisition.

Doubtless the full game will have the PDF manual so all will become clearer. Will have to leave most ammo choices to them!! Aside from APFDS, HEAT and 7.62 etc etc most will get lost on me. I draw the line on them leaving the javelin in the back though!!

Can you pull up unit/vehicle profiles at all now or is it just what is at the bottom of the screen now?

What you see is what you got.

You can download the full manual off the BFC website I believe. If you go to the game page (CMSF NATO, or just CMSF) there should be a ' game manual' button on the left menu.

[Apache]

I can find a link which opens open a kind of interactive manual for both SMSF and NATO on the BF site but I find it too small to read on the laptop. Can't find PDF versions at all. Doubtless NATO has one in its install 'exe' file and (I hope) the v 1.10/1.21 will also update the Paradox base game manual to the relevant version in PDF. No great worries as I should get the boxed game tomorrow and I have the NATO module as a DL ready to be installed.

Shame about the unit stats/profile screen. Found that very useful in CMBO.

[DaveDash]

I can find a link which opens open a kind of interactive manual for both SMSF and NATO on the BF site but I find it too small to read on the laptop. Can't find PDF versions at all. Doubtless NATO has one in its install 'exe' file and (I hope) the v 1.10/1.21 will also update the Paradox base game manual to the relevant version in PDF. No great worries as I should get the boxed game tomorrow and I have the NATO module as a DL ready to be installed.

Shame about the unit stats/profile screen. Found that very useful in CMBO.

All that stuff from the unit panel is now detailed in the manuals.

[Apache]

Good, thanks. Must admit I plan to buy Normandy direct from BF for the manuals reason alone, regardless of whoever may or may not be chosen as a distribution partner. I do prefer manuals to PDFs :-(

[c3k]

Apache,

The official word, found elsewhere, from Steve was that they (BF.C) would leave it up to you to peruse web sources for more detailed specs on the weapon and equipment. The reasoning (if my memory is anywhere near correct) was that there is FAR too much detail for them to try to cram into the game manual. They had to stop somewhere.

As for tooltips, yeah, there's been A LOT of grousing about having a tooltip which tells you what ammo the weapon uses. BF.C has done a tremendous amount of support and improvement to their games over the years. The current tooltips are far better than the initial release. I can only hope that they will continue to add to this feature.

In the meantime, google is your friend. Use the internet to look up all those weapons you see in the interface. You'll eventually find the information you're looking for. After that, you just need to play to find out how effective (or not) the various weapons are.

Enjoy.

Ken

[LukeFF]

the syrians or uncons also use 5.56 for most of their weapons exept the RPD, Dragunov, and the ak47 (or akm) (NOT THE AK 74 )

5.45, not 5.56.

[hcrof]

AKM, AK-47 (dunno if that one is actually in the game), RPK, RPD and variants all use 7.62x39

AK-74, RPK-74 and varients use 5.45x39

PKM and PKT uses 7.62x54R

As others have mentioned before, keep wikipedia running and when you come across a unit you are not familiar with just Alt+Tab to look it up!

Wikipedia certainly helped me with some of the more obscure units

[Erwin]

"The official word, found elsewhere, from Steve was that they (BF.C) would leave it up to you to peruse web sources for more detailed specs on the weapon and equipment. The reasoning (if my memory is anywhere near correct) was that there is FAR too much detail for them to try to cram into the game manual. They had to stop somewhere."

That's a bit of an annoying cop out. 90% of the info provided in the manuals simply gives stats copied from heaven knows where, and is of little or no use whatsoever in playing the GAME.

Things like how ammo swapping works, or whether covered arcs improves spotting, and what gun takes what ammo, what sniper ammo can be acquired from what vehicle etc etc is critical to be able to play the game well.

One thing is certain - one can NOT rely on common sense, or knowledge of how RL equipment works as much of the time this is not reflected in how they work in the CMSF game.

Of course if there was a clear manual that stated all this info, it would cut down the posts on this board by about 95%! Maybe that is the real driver, hehe...