WP-Rounds

[Killkess]

I cant get my tanks to shoot WP rounds when in contact with enemy tanks. I tried several times to use WP to blind an enemy sitting on the next hill. My tanks just ignored my command to fire smoke and tried to kill the enemy armor instead. Which was a bad idea since it was a Panther head on. So how do i get my boys to obey my orders in this case?

[Lanzfeld]

am sure you could get them to "POP" smoke but not sure about fire smoke.

[Killkess]

At least there is a specific fire-order for smoke/Wp rounds. The 75mm Shermans have some WP on board, which would make a realy good way of blinding cats.

Anyone else have an idea?

[Chainsaw]

I think the AI self-preserving function kicks in and overides smoke firing. so they want to fire AP instead of Smoke. in the AI world AP works betther against tanks then Smoke.

[Broken]

Yes, firing WP rounds at the big cats was not an uncommon tactic. The German crews would sometimes bail out, thinking they were on fire. At the least, they were temporarily blinded, allowing the Sherman a chance to withdraw.

[gunnersman]

You are trying to shoot the Panther with a WP round? Or are you trying shoot in front of the Panther? If you are trying to shoot at and hit the Panther with the idea being to make the Panther crew bail out then that sounds like something that needs extra code. Sounds like extra work. But would be cool to see. But doubtful.

[BlackMoria]

I suspect the TacAI is overiding the smoke for AP rounds, since the AP round, in most circumstances, is the better choice.

Try doing a 'Target' area fire with WP selected and indicate a point just in front of the enemy tank.

[Cull]

I've only specifically ordered tanks to fire smoke a couple of times so far but it worked fine. One instance was to blind an AT gun. That said, my guys weren't taking rounds at the time, so.... *shrug*.

I'd agree though that they're just overriding your orders---for better or worse---just as all units will do in certain circumstances.

[akd]

Yes, you can only "area target" ground level action spots with "target smoke", so no direct targeting of vehicles, bunkers, or building floors. Also, WP incorrectly behaves as a "base-ejecting" smoke round, so even if you hit a tank, bunker, etc., the round will just bounce off (possibly landing quite a distance away) before coming to a rest and slowly building up smoke. WP should explode on impact.

[Antig3n]

Interesting, the TacAI loves shooting smoke at tanks it can't kill in cmx1. From what I remember. I guess your virtual tankers think they'll force the panther to withdraw with lots of damaged equipment and/or partial penetrations.

[Killkess]

No, i did not realy try to directly aim at the enemy tank. I tried to shot smoke/WP in front of the enemy tank. While i have no problems to get my tanks to shoot smoke in front of enemy infantry and guns it seems like the AI always overrides my "shot smoke" order when they face enemy armor.

I am not an expert on this topic but from what i´ve read i would say using smoke was a quit common practice.

[Killkess]

Noone else who thinks that WP rounds are kinda useless at the moment? Since its use seems to be a well used tactic its kind of a additionally disadvantage not to be able to use it against those heavy beasts,

[Magpie_Oz]

I guess it is a limitation of the system.

I know I would be equally annoyed if i had ordered a tank to fire a smoke screen but then suddenly an enemy tank hove into view and they didn't bother shooting it but kept going with the smoke.

I think it would take some pretty extensive and groovy programming to have an AI that acts as it should in all situations.

Guess that is why they call it "artificial" intelligence.

[Killkess]

The tactic worked in CMBB or CMAK with very good results, i dont see why it should be a limitation to the new engine when the older could handle the same situation.

Anyway not much people seem to be interested in this topic