Two remarks about the first 90 seconds, if I may... a) Yes, as the tank commander your responsibility is, among (many) other things, to find targets for your gunner. But the way to do it is with independent sensors (in this case, eyes/binoculars). By constantly overriding the gunner you're putting the gunner out of his job. You'd be better off hopping into the gunner's place in that case and let the (computer-controlled) tank commander do his magic. b) The "edges of forests are smeared with feces", as the tacticians' saying goes. Being INSIDE a forest achieves several things - it protects you "somewhat" from incoming high explosive rounds (taht's about the only plus), it restricts your mobility, and it severely limits your effective field of view. In addition, in reality you can't rotate the turret without colliding the gun with nearby trees, which may damage the gun barrel or knock out the gun/sight calibration in the best of cases, both of which are not very desirable. Forest edges attract attention (in real life) and also your thermal signature isn't concealed much by tree trunks. So you can be seen from outside, but don't see much while you're inside. So, staying outside of forests offerrs more advantages than disadvantages. You still want to have a forest BEHIND you to conceal your silhouette, but you don't want to be on the exact edge of the forest or a few meters inside of it. Finally, forests usually offer very good concealment for (enemy) infantry with their pesky anti tank weapons. One reason more to stay away freom them unless you absolutely HAVE to go there.
Awesome comment, this is extremely helpful! Now I will look at a forest and imagine excrement smeared on the outside :-) But you are so right - it was the forest that got me killed in this session because I couldn't see the enemy but he could see me with thermals just fine.
Another one, @16:30 The sight is "jittery" because by default computer-controlled crews, when inside of forests, switch the stabilized mode off (and unless you're in the gunner's position, they'll keep the turret at roughly 12 o'clock) simply to prevent the collisions I mentioned before between gun tube and trees. All right, the damage doesn't actually occur in Steel Beasts, but that's what's going on here. One more reason to stay outside of the forests...
Thanks for clarifying this. I found that I could turn stabilization on in the woods and things would be less jittery, but I thought it was a bug! That's cool that the game models this.
Seems like a sound strategy at first... Always bear in mind enemy AI is as good as your own accuracy. So you basically go up against your own ability in terms of gunnery skill.
Thanks for the feedback. Do you normally run the tank from the commander's seat or do you like to sit in the gunner's seat? Or do swap between both, like I was doing in the video? Regarding enemy AI gunnery skill, I was under the impression that they were set at a constant gunnery accuracy of 75, whereas your own gunnery and the gunnery of your platoon is based on your personal best from the tank range. Regardless, an accuracy of 75, or whatever it is, is more than enough to hit a completely exposed flank from 1500m away :-(
i prefer from the gunners seat, i can put rounds on target once i ID the targets. also, i find it quicker to jump to the aux sight if i take a hit than fumble between positions and sights in heat of battle. remember to dump lead as gunner by pressing 'p' every time after a new lase. probably the reason you missed high when engaging that tank at 1600-ish. i usually lase, dump lead, re-lase then fire if time allows. lets me sanity-check the readings from the ballistic computer. also remember the difference between first lase and last lase: if its possible that a significant portion of the laser spot will be occluded, dispersed or miss the tank altogether (say a partial obstruction, smoke or a long range shot where the spot is larger than the tank),be aware of the option to take the first or last reading (the LRF fires two shots in quick succession and will give you the shortest or longest result depending on settings). good to know why your laser is/is not giving accuract data! Also, practice acquiring and using the GAS, its handy in short range and emergency situations.
Hmm, that's not what I understand. Check out grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=10673.0 - it seems that in offline mode, all friendly AI get your gunnery skill from the range, but in online mode, all AI (friendly and enemy) get a constant 75% rating. It mentions no "evolving" skill rate outside of offline mode adopting your best skill score from the range. For online mode, what I am taking from this is that it is really up to you to do your own gunnery if you want a high(er) degree of accuracy.
my understanding is that the offline mode is for single player environments and depends on range results, the multiplayer is scenario dependant but default is 75. but in either case, the winning move is not to get hit and put more rounds into the enemy :D
Two remarks about the first 90 seconds, if I may...
a) Yes, as the tank commander your responsibility is, among (many) other things, to find targets for your gunner. But the way to do it is with independent sensors (in this case, eyes/binoculars). By constantly overriding the gunner you're putting the gunner out of his job. You'd be better off hopping into the gunner's place in that case and let the (computer-controlled) tank commander do his magic.
b) The "edges of forests are smeared with feces", as the tacticians' saying goes. Being INSIDE a forest achieves several things - it protects you "somewhat" from incoming high explosive rounds (taht's about the only plus), it restricts your mobility, and it severely limits your effective field of view. In addition, in reality you can't rotate the turret without colliding the gun with nearby trees, which may damage the gun barrel or knock out the gun/sight calibration in the best of cases, both of which are not very desirable.
Forest edges attract attention (in real life) and also your thermal signature isn't concealed much by tree trunks. So you can be seen from outside, but don't see much while you're inside. So, staying outside of forests offerrs more advantages than disadvantages. You still want to have a forest BEHIND you to conceal your silhouette, but you don't want to be on the exact edge of the forest or a few meters inside of it.
Finally, forests usually offer very good concealment for (enemy) infantry with their pesky anti tank weapons. One reason more to stay away freom them unless you absolutely HAVE to go there.
Awesome comment, this is extremely helpful! Now I will look at a forest and imagine excrement smeared on the outside :-) But you are so right - it was the forest that got me killed in this session because I couldn't see the enemy but he could see me with thermals just fine.
Another one, @16:30
The sight is "jittery" because by default computer-controlled crews, when inside of forests, switch the stabilized mode off (and unless you're in the gunner's position, they'll keep the turret at roughly 12 o'clock) simply to prevent the collisions I mentioned before between gun tube and trees. All right, the damage doesn't actually occur in Steel Beasts, but that's what's going on here. One more reason to stay outside of the forests...
Thanks for clarifying this. I found that I could turn stabilization on in the woods and things would be less jittery, but I thought it was a bug! That's cool that the game models this.
Great video buddy! Love it. Keep up the good work. Maybe we can do a mission some time in the future together!! All the best
Thanks for watching. And I am all for doing a mission, although I still have a lot to learn. Feel free to add me on Steam: DarkFib3r
Seems like a sound strategy at first... Always bear in mind enemy AI is as good as your own accuracy. So you basically go up against your own ability in terms of gunnery skill.
Thanks for the feedback.
Do you normally run the tank from the commander's seat or do you like to sit in the gunner's seat? Or do swap between both, like I was doing in the video?
Regarding enemy AI gunnery skill, I was under the impression that they were set at a constant gunnery accuracy of 75, whereas your own gunnery and the gunnery of your platoon is based on your personal best from the tank range. Regardless, an accuracy of 75, or whatever it is, is more than enough to hit a completely exposed flank from 1500m away :-(
i prefer from the gunners seat, i can put rounds on target once i ID the targets. also, i find it quicker to jump to the aux sight if i take a hit than fumble between positions and sights in heat of battle.
remember to dump lead as gunner by pressing 'p' every time after a new lase. probably the reason you missed high when engaging that tank at 1600-ish. i usually lase, dump lead, re-lase then fire if time allows. lets me sanity-check the readings from the ballistic computer.
also remember the difference between first lase and last lase: if its possible that a significant portion of the laser spot will be occluded, dispersed or miss the tank altogether (say a partial obstruction, smoke or a long range shot where the spot is larger than the tank),be aware of the option to take the first or last reading (the LRF fires two shots in quick succession and will give you the shortest or longest result depending on settings). good to know why your laser is/is not giving accuract data!
Also, practice acquiring and using the GAS, its handy in short range and emergency situations.
as for accuracy, it defaults to 75 but evolves as you improve/get worse. that way, you're always appropriately challenged.
Hmm, that's not what I understand. Check out grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=10673.0 - it seems that in offline mode, all friendly AI get your gunnery skill from the range, but in online mode, all AI (friendly and enemy) get a constant 75% rating. It mentions no "evolving" skill rate outside of offline mode adopting your best skill score from the range. For online mode, what I am taking from this is that it is really up to you to do your own gunnery if you want a high(er) degree of accuracy.
my understanding is that the offline mode is for single player environments and depends on range results, the multiplayer is scenario dependant but default is 75. but in either case, the winning move is not to get hit and put more rounds into the enemy :D