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Discussion: Is it okay to play on easy?


Mousie

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I started playing the "Tanks!" scenario, and while I love it, it kicks my ass, saws it off, and hands it back to me for dinner. One of my main objectives during the 28 more days (waiting to buy the game on Christmas), is to be able to play with this amazing community some day. The reason I ask about easy is because of complacency -the learning of bad habits, and then having to break them in order to improve. While skylining on easy provides nothing but a better observation point, on hard you are easily outflanked, spotted, and destroyed within moments, especially after you stop to survey. The biggest thing I've learned so far trying and failing on hard is that because you think you're hull down from one direction, you may not be from the flanks, and that's the biggest reason why I haven't been able to survive one engagement in this scenario yet in the m1a2 or Leopard. While the shooting range has helped me work on shooting at vehicles in open spaces, surprisingly, tanks don't like to get seen at all, and won't be waving at you through the sight posing for a picture. So yes, while I can't last more than six minutes, it's for a good reason. On the other hand, I have no time to learn how to spot targets and find better positions when I'm staring at the "destroyed" screen. Any thoughts?

Tanks_v3a.7z

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You'll note that I did upload that in the Difficult section, not the Easy one. I'd suggest opening the scenario in the mission editor and removing the enemy infantry and missile teams, and swapping out the tanks for much weaker ones. Give me a few minutes and I'll get a short little tutorial video up to show you how to do that.

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Sorry, was having some problems and ended up with duplicate posts of that last message.

 

I think the main thing the difficulty setting changes is the enemy gunnery skill, making them less accurate at lower settings. It may also boost your own units gunnery accuracy too, but I'm not certain about that.

 

Below is the video showing how to edit the mission to give yourself unlimited ammo, remove ATGMs and infantry, change enemy units and ammo, optionally make them impotent or blind, and/or remove the random minefields.

 

 

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Oh, and I forgot to mention: your gunnery score in the Tank Range effects how good the AI on your side is when playing scenarios in single-player mode. Make sure you've made a profile for yourself in the Records menu, don't just use Lt DeFault. The game will use your best score in the Tank Range (with any vehicle, it doesn't matter which) to set friendly AI gunnery skill.

 

And as far as the difficulty goes, part of the point of that scenario is practicing situation awareness, so having them actually kill you may be less relevant than you just knowing that you got shot in general, so giving the enemy weak ammo can keep you alive longer so you don't have to restart as often.

Edited by Rotareneg
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You'll have to use the mission editor as shown in the video to change the units and/or change what ammo they have, there isn't any over-all difficulty setting for the sim as a whole that'll change units to easier/older ones.

 

It is possible to make a scenario that uses mission triggers to allow the player to select different groups of enemy units, but that adds more complexity to the mission and I wanted to keep those really simple to make them easy to edit.

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Easy makes the enemy react slower, and shoot with less precision

Normal places your own units and enemy units on an equal footing, save for your profile's gunnery rating

Hard gives the enemy an advantage in how quickly they spot you, and the precision with which they shoot at you.

 

Your user profile's gunnery rating will set the quality of your own computer-controlled units - in single player mode.

 

Realism settings change nothing, except additional helpers at the lower levels.

 

I think it is very advisable to start on Easy, as long as you don't forget to up the difficulty level later on. But scenario design has a vastly bigger influence on the outcome of your missions. It is very easy to create a scenario that is too hard, or no challenge at all. Getting the balance right is actually rather hard to accomplish for a mission designer. Generally you should try and start it slow. First, familiarize with at least one vehicle model so that you know it in and out. Then pick platoon scale scenarios with only one or two maneuver units to manage, and gradually progress to scenarios where you control more units.

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3 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

Easy makes the enemy react slower, and shoot with less precision

Normal places your own units and enemy units on an equal footing, save for your profile's gunnery rating

Hard gives the enemy an advantage in how quickly they spot you, and the precision with which they shoot at you.

 

Your user profile's gunnery rating will set the quality of your own computer-controlled units - in single player mode.

 

Realism settings change nothing, except additional helpers at the lower levels.

 

I think it is very advisable to start on Easy, as long as you don't forget to up the difficulty level later on. But scenario design has a vastly bigger influence on the outcome of your missions. It is very easy to create a scenario that is too hard, or no challenge at all. Getting the balance right is actually rather hard to accomplish for a mission designer. Generally you should try and start it slow. First, familiarize with at least one vehicle model so that you know it in and out. Then pick platoon scale scenarios with only one or two maneuver units to manage, and gradually progress to scenarios where you control more units.

 

This was the kind of reply I was looking for! Thanks a lot for your advice; first I'll work on getting a new profile setup, then I'll try normal. Do you have any recommendations on Platoon scale missions? I think I like the Leo 2 a lot, although the fact that you need to change the targeting when you switch ammo is really fun :D, I just love how fast this tank fires, and the armor.

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Ah OK so some of the recommended scenarios above are already behind you. :)

 

Be aware though that there is a bit of a gap between single player Vs AI and multi player (your expressed goal).

 

While starting off at "easy" will give you a bit more longevity per mission, I'd suggest you not get too comfortable at that level and perhaps learn bad habits.

 

If you move fairly quickly (how fast exactly is up to you) through the difficulty stages you should be well prepared for multi player.

 

When to transition again is up to you and whether you are happy with perhaps dying early and often in multi player (many multi player sessions such as TGIF have a fair few vehicles so if one is shot out from under you, you can climb into a new one).

 

I think it is fair to say though that the sooner you transition and start fighting with / against human players (which regardless of their skill level are better / different to the AI) the sooner you'll start enjoying multi player.

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Right, that's what I've mentioned before. Do you have any advice on how to scan well, or for how long you should be in one position before you're able to say it's "clear"? I oftentimes find myself blindsided after scanning for 3 minutes and moving forward.

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Well two minutes is a good planning figure (basically the time enemy artillery takes to arrive - you need to assume you have been spotted).

 

But if you use fully concealed, turret down and hull down *, scan the far ground, the middle distance ground, then the close, use your binoculars and then reverse off the position (back into concealment, never drive forward over the top of the hill) your life expectancy should improve.

 

Don't skyline (try to have tress behind, but don't park next to the only tree) and never park on the top of a bald hill.

 

* In SB you can achieve this by:

 

Fully concealed = looking around from F8 view, Crew Commander shouldn't be able to see much.

 

Turret down = Gunner shouldn't see anything. Crew Commander can see (hit "Q" a couple of times so they stand up) and use their binoculars.

 

Hull down = Driver can't see but Gunner and Crew Commander can. Use Gunner's sight (switch between Thermals and natural light - thermals don't help much with shape, dust, etc.). Use any aides the Crew Commander may have (Peri, CITV, etc.) and still the good old binos. Also use F8 where needed.

 

By the time you have scanned the three zones (far, mid, close) from those three locations, it will be close to 2 mins and time to plan how you back off that feature and use the terrain (flow like water) to move to the next.

 

Then do it all over again.

 

Edited by Gibsonm
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You can definitely consider starting to get into multiplayer scenarios now. There is a LOT of misconceptions about how "hard" multiplayer is, or a general level of anxiety about how you don't want to mess up, etc. As long as you know the basic controls, you will do fine. 

 

There are plenty of options out there; the New Players Guide has plenty of info on VUs. Also, check the multiplayer engagements portion of the forum for the latest and greatest offering by the community.

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Hi 

To extend what Mirza said Kanium also gives any new guys/gals a spin with 2-3 other players as an intro to multiplayer so you know what to watch for and what to listen for , how the radio coms are etc.... where you need to be in a given formation all the stuff that you don't encounter in singleplayer which the first couple of times can be very overwhelming , just PM swordsmandk or me and we will find a time for you and just so you know its completely without strings aka you don't have to be a member to play with us and we only want to play with you if like too and family is more important then the sim/game :D.

You can even play with us while being in another VU.

The only requirement s are that you speak english or have one who can translate give responses and that you behave like a grownup (we are not politically correct) but behave like you want to be treated.

And try out the other VUs as well including TGIF and find the style that you like

Link to VU (virtual units) http://www.steelbeasts.com/online_play.html/

 

Best regards and hope to see you on the battlefield   

MD

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If you try to hunker down the east side of the hill you start on, at the isolines less than 80 meters, you just have a fully protected tank. You just shoot the east any vehicles crossing the northeast to southeast. They wont come to your hill. 

 

A good tactic I learnt too was to switch off your engine and listen when in unbuttoned TC. I mapped my hotas hat to the four directions, so when I am looking back and hear their engines, I can tell left or right of back. Then from there slew to that direction to get the fore or aft quarter to look at. Once you find theyre coming from the front left, order gunner to traverse left once, then twice, then if he spots it, he will fire. I will produce a video to show you.

 

Here is an AAR where I killed 7 out of the 9 on hard difficulty.

 

I suggest you focus on my position and movement rationale when under fire, except for the one that got me.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yjey3qgac9e2u1f/Tanks! Again v1.0 AAR 7 of 9 taken.zip?dl=0

Edited by wildbillkelsoe
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