AI capabilities

[Scrapper_511]

I just wanted to clarify whether or not nationality has any bearing on AI behavior and capabilities in SB. Also, how do difficulty settings and gunnery ratings affect the AI?

[OnAlienware]

Pretty sure nationality is cosmetic only. Hard difficulty penalizes the response times of friendly AI gunners/units.

[Ssnake]

In single player, your gunnery rating affects the accuracy of your own side's computer-controlled gunners. The better you are, the better are they.

Difficulty influences the gunnery accuracy of the opposing force and also their reaction speed to emerging threats.

[Tonywjones44]

In single player, your gunnery rating affects the accuracy of your own side's computer-controlled gunners. The better you are, the better are they.

Difficulty influences the gunnery accuracy of the opposing force and also their reaction speed to emerging threats.

So does that mean that if I reckon I am a good gunner, I should drop into the gunner's seat during offline engagements as I will be better than the AI gunner? And if I am,will that will up the performance of my platoon's AI gunners too?

A secondary question emerging from that is: When I am in the gunner's seat is there any way I can select the ammo type? I ask because CR2 AI TCs seem obsessed with HESH - which makes life a lot more difficult than it need be, especially with long range targets that are not only moving across my line of sight but for which the range is either decreasing or increasing.

Thanks in advance.

[Gibsonm]

So does that mean that if I reckon I am a good gunner, I should drop into the gunner's seat during offline engagements as I will be better than the AI gunner? And if I am,will that will up the performance of my platoon's AI gunners too?

No. It means if you are a good gunner as opposed to if I reckon I am a good gunner [as determined by your score on the Tank Range] then the AI contolled gunners will be good too.

If you have a score of 90% then your gunners will too, if you have a score of 5% then they wont hit the side of a barn either.

It wont make much difference if you are in the gunner's seat or not as the AI will mimic your score anyway.

As for the second question, I thought that had been answered previously (on Sunday night / Monday morning).

[Tonywjones44]

No. It means if you are a good gunner as opposed to if I reckon I am a good gunner [as determined by your score on the Tank Range] then the AI contolled gunners will be good too.

If you have a score of 90% then your gunners will too, if you have a score of 5% then they wont hit the side of a barn either.

It wont make much difference if you are in the gunner's seat or not as the AI will mimic your score anyway.

As for the second question, I thought that had been answered previously (on Sunday night / Monday morning).

Re 1st issue: Mark - you are being pedantic again.

Re 2nd issue: I felt I should get a second opinion. That has often paid off for me in the past. And on occasion, led to some interesting fire fights between the two (or more) experts. :debile2:

Now for a 3rd question (don't worry I have plenty in reserve), the manual says: 'Tank range missions yield a 'Gunnery Score' which, in Offline Sessions, determines the gunnery skills of all friendly vehicles'. But I seem to remember another bit - that I can't find at the moment - that says that only applies if you are 'enlisted'. Which I was advised meant participating in professional classroom training.

If I'm mistaken, where would I find my personal gunnery score please?

[DrDevice]

The "enlistment" means that you have a user profile set up beyond "Lt. Default," I believe.

[Tonywjones44]

The "enlistment" means that you have a user profile set up beyond "Lt. Default," I believe.

Thank you Doctor. I'll go and have a look at mine. Since I posted in reply to Gibson, I've found this in my eSim Games SB brochure printout. 'The tank range allows REGISTERED USERS to test their gunnery skils and hereby (I think they mean thereby;-))set the quality of friendly computer controlled gunners'. I had always understood that 'registered' meant 'with an official training organisation' - but I can't tell you why. And, as ever, I'm happy - keen, in fact - to be corrected if necessary.

I'm sure Ssnake can answer this in a definitive manner.

[Tonywjones44]

OK, belay my question about gunnery rating. I've found it under Records in the main menu. (No? Yes!) When I first got the game I looked in there to find only Lt Default who had apparently joined some time in 2004. Clearly not me, then. But now a whole load of results have appeared and that one's gunnery rating is a result of automatic scoring in ALL offline missions - not just the Gunnery Range. Not sure I can be bothered to practice some more just to get that final 1%.

Apols for newbie question.

[Gibsonm]

OK, belay my question about gunnery rating. I've found it under Records in the main menu. (No? Yes!) When I first got the game I looked in there to find only Lt Default who had apparently joined some time in 2004. Clearly not me, then. But now a whole load of results have appeared and that one's gunnery rating is a result of automatic scoring in ALL offline missions - not just the Gunnery Range. Not sure I can be bothered to practice some more just to get that final 1%.

Apols for newbie question.

Tjay,

"Yes" that's the place.

You go there type in Tjay and then you have "enlisted" / "registered" as Tjay.

Then:

- Ideally do the tutorials (to learn how to shoot)

- Then go to the Tank Range as Tjay and be assessed.

- Then whenever you use the "Tjay" profile that gunnery rating is applied.

- The record will also show how many battle (and results) you have had as "Tjay'.

If you wanted to you can have several profiles on different machines but you can't merge them.

If "Tjay" has some rating of 99.9% then you need to copy that file to any other machine you want to run SB on.

If you don't you'll be back to "LT Default" again.

"LT Default" is surprisingly the default setting used if you haven't created a profile by enlisting / registering.

Also if you don't enlist / register (i.e. stay with LT Default) you gunnery rating wont improve over time as it will revert back to the entry standard the next time you start SB.

[Tonywjones44]

Tjay,

"Yes" that's the place.

You go there type in Tjay and then you have "enlisted" / "registered" as Tjay.

Then:

- Ideally do the tutorials (to learn how to shoot)

- Then go to the Tank Range as Tjay and be assessed.

- Then whenever you use the "Tjay" profile that gunnery rating is applied.

- The record will also show how many battle (and results) you have had as "Tjay'.

If you wanted to you can have several profiles on different machines but you can't merge them.

If "Tjay" has some rating of 99.9% then you need to copy that file to any other machine you want to run SB on.

If you don't you'll be back to "LT Default" again.

"LT Default" is surprisingly the default setting used if you haven't created a profile by enlisting / registering.

Also if you don't enlist / register (i.e. stay with LT Default) you gunnery rating wont improve over time as it will revert back to the entry standard the next time you start SB.

Now THAT is most helpful. And if it's contained in the manual I will have to confess to missing it.

Penultimately, as there's a line under the gunnery stats, and the offline missions I've played appear beneath it, can I assume those are just for the 'record' and my gunnery rating is affected ONLY by my performance on the range?

And finally, is there anything to stop me improving my gunnery rating by only going on the range with - for example - the Leo2A5 despite the fact that online I am usually in a CR2?

[Gibsonm]

Penultimately, as there's a line under the gunnery stats, and the offline missions I've played appear beneath it, can I assume those are just for the 'record' and my gunnery rating is affected ONLY by my performance on the range?

Yes the list of missions is just historical data. The range score is what "counts".

So you might got to the range and have a bad day and get 20%. That remains with you until you go back and maybe get 80%.

Then though there's the risk.

If you go back a third time and drop to 40% (alternatively if could climb to 90%) that becomes your new rating.

And finally, is there anything to stop me improving my gunnery rating by only going on the range with - for example - the Leo2A5 despite the fact that online I am usually in a CR2?

No you can use whatever you want (but be aware your rating could go up or down).

There was even a "bug" with the CVs that one of the frag natures gave people scores >100% because a single round would destroy more than one target.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Gibsonm

[Tonywjones44]

Yes the list of missions is just historical data. The range score is what "counts".

So you might got to the range and have a bad day and get 20%. That reamins with you until you go back and maybe get 80%.

Then though there's the risk.

If you go back a third time and drop to 40% (alternatively if could climb to 90%) that becomes your new rating.

No you can use whatever you want (but be aware your rating could go up or down).

There was even a "bug" with the CVs that one of the frag natures gave people scores >100% because a single round would destroy more than one target.

So your rating depends entirely on your last Gunnery Range score? So after a really good session there's no incentive to revisit. Shame it isn't constantly updated from your off- and on-line sessions. IMHO, of course.

[Ssnake]

Yes the list of missions is just historical data. The range score is what "counts".

Correct.

So you might got to the range and have a bad day and get 20%. That reamins with you until you go back and maybe get 80%.

Then though there's the risk.

If you go back a third time and drop to 40% [...] that becomes your new rating.

No. We don't discourage people from trying again when they already have a decent score. You're not being downgraded, there's a "ratchet mechanism" that allows your gunnery score only to go up until you reach 100%.

[Ssnake]

Shame it isn't constantly updated from your off- and on-line sessions. IMHO, of course.

Well, the problem is that only the gunnery range is a somewhat controlled, standardized test for comparable results. All targets are presented in a neat, sequential order (a new one can appear only after the previous target was destroyed), they all die with the first hit.

In combat scenarios you are often confronted with a situation where you're facing a numerically superior force. Even if you manage to defeat them in the most efficient order, you'll need about 10 seconds per target. Say that you have 10 targets, you'll need 10+20+30+40+...+100 seconds to kill them all, with an average engagement time of 55 seconds by that logic since you had established line of sight for up to 100 seconds with the last target.

Likewise, maybe you regularly hit targets at 4000m range and with the first shot. That would make you an extremely good gunner. Yet because you're firing an obsolete round at a modern target, you fail to kill them on the first try, and end up with an average score of three rounds per target. Or you correctly employ a coax as an area weapon and spray a thousand rounds to suppress an infantry platoon, with just two or three soldiers actually killed from that - and your gunnery statistics would say that you fired 300 rounds per kill. That would give you a 0.3% gunnery rating.

I'm pretty certain, you wouldn't like the consequences.

[Tonywjones44]

I'm pretty certain, you wouldn't like the consequences.

No I wouldn't! Many thanks for all that most useful information.

'Obsolete round'? What would that be then?

[Ssnake]

It always depends on the context. But obviously a 120mm APFSDS like DM13 isn't suitable to frontally engage a T-80 at long range.

[Tonywjones44]

It always depends on the context. But obviously a 120mm APFSDS like DM13 isn't suitable to frontally engage a T-80 at long range.

Thanks Ssnake. I must swot up on my ammo and armour - just as soon as I've got some other rather more vital aspects fully sorted.

But briefly, would your comment above be because the APFSDS would have lost a lot of velocity by the time it hit the target?

[Ssnake]

Partly that, but the DM13 (and anything until the latest 120mm rounds) was never suited for the T-80 with its heavy ERA add-on armor in the first place - that's what the DM53 was made for.

[Tonywjones44]

Partly that, but the DM13 (and anything until the latest 120mm rounds) was never suited for the T-80 with its heavy ERA add-on armor in the first place - that's what the DM53 was made for.

Roger. Thanks.