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Problem firing smoke at chosen waypoint


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Also, the smoke mortar doesn't have the range that the tank gun has, it seems to me. So don't expect to be able to fire tank smoke a very long way.

There's "Pop smoke" in the special orders pane, which would be what you're referring to, that uses the smoke mortar. There's also "Target Smoke" in the combat orders pane, which uses a smoke round through the tank's main gun which can fling a smoke puffer a couple of clicks. Either will require a 'Pause' at the waypoint you want to use 'em (about 10-15s in my estimation, for a main gun; less for the mortar). The LOS/LOF thing will only affect the "Target Smoke" command.

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People are forgetting the Geneva convention :)

WP smoke is considered a chemical ordnance and tanks are prohibited from firing on buildings in the game. Officially this applies to WP shells but HC smoke has been caught up too. Yes, it seems like an arbitrary decision but they did it intentionally, that's all I know about it. If I were to guess, and it would be only a guess, perhaps after they've eventually got flames all coded-up for the game firing WP into buildings would then be allowed. Just a guess but it seems logical. :)

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Hmm. What you have pointed out is definitely things to consider, which I to some extent have done also - with the exception of the Geneva convention :D The situation I am referring to is a certain crossroad at the Ecoquenueville scenario in 'The Road To Montebourg' campaign. POSSIBLE SPOILER following.....

I was trying to sneak up with a tank from the western road, pop out just enough of the tank and fire a smoke shell up the northern part of the road to block out the danger there.

tried mainly these variants:

- quick waypoint - target smoke from that waypoint (initially out of sight, but still eligible), pause 30 sec, then reverse

- target arc, quick, target smoke from waypoint, no pause, reverse

- target arc, quick, target smoke from waypoint, leave further decisions for TacAI

It seems the problems might have arisen from either no line of sight initially (which is strange because shouldn´t it be possible to issue a general order of "fire smoke at the road when you arrive"?) Or nervousness because of the perilous spot? The damn tank had the main gun swung in the right direction, line of sight once in place, and still it just found it proper to niggle about it's position and then reverse.

At another time I ordered a squad to pop smoke from a waypoint and then continue, which they didn´t do either. Don´t remember if I told them to pause for awhile before moving on, though.

In case you wonder, I finally managed to solve the situation by having a platoon pop smoke further up ahead the road. That was an as sudden as welcome insight, I can tell you!

Maybe this has been concluded well enough before, but for both good and bad, in CMBN (as opposed to CMX1) you seem to have both greater control over your units and a lot less so, with some frustration following. The irrational autonomy of the units surely puts you into a perhaps more realistic company commander's/battalion commander's position; you declare what you want to be done, but can only hope someone will be able to carry it out!

On the other hand, one seem to forget how long time it took to hone the skills in CMX1 to never be able to blame the game for shortcomings...

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It seems the problems might have arisen from either no line of sight initially (which is strange because shouldn´t it be possible to issue a general order of "fire smoke at the road when you arrive"?)...

The LOS from your initial position isn't taken into consideration if the Target Smoke order is issued at a different waypoint. It's the LOS/LOF from the waypoint that's considered. There have been numerous cases where the target line looks fine, but the unit sits there wobbling about for ages because the LOF is marginal. Can be foliage or an elevation 'fringe effect'.

Or nervousness because of the perilous spot? The damn tank had the main gun swung in the right direction, line of sight once in place, and still it just found it proper to niggle about it's position and then reverse.

That certainly sounds more like LOS/LOF issues than 'nervousness'.

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