Maj.Hans

The closest I got was climbing around inside a pretty stripped down M60A1. But I did work the night shift for a private security company for a while. Occasionally I'd have a partner in the passenger (or driver) seat that I would need to whack to get him to wake up (or shut up).

I sense a need for two new keys... One key to allow a human TC to reach down and beat on his AI gunner until he wakes up, and another to allow a human gunner to turn around and sock his AI TC in the crotch to get him to take a hike for ten minutes. :ANI_DI:

Using smoke offensively is something that I find is done far better with artillery than with your own smoke grenades. If I pop smoke in a defensive position, I am gone from that position within 30 seconds because I assume the other guy, even if he can't see me, is in his menu screen adjusting the settings on an artillery mission... On the other hand, you can use artillery to call smoke on an enemy position and blind him without worrying about attracting attention to your position.

Running the current version on XP Pro 64bit, SP2 here. Like I said before, runs great, generates an error after the end credits/slideshow which isn't really a problem.

Yes, that's exactly what they wanted you to think... Then you open up the envelope, and suddenly the entire Wehrmacht springs out and blitzkriegs your country from within!

My copy of Pro PE has a crash error every single time I play it. Every time I press a key or click the mouse to skip the end credits slide show, the application crashes to my desktop and I get an error reporting window. I haven't mentioned this problem until now because, well, come on, if an application is going to crash this would be the time to do it!

And suddenly, I am even less worried about the Chinese army.

IMHO, fully up out of the turret is exactly where you should be, unless people are shooting at you. The trade off in exposure is well worth the better visibility. Now if you're taking fire and can't move to a new position, then you should be taking cover.

The overhead cover feature of the M1 hatch is activated by first buttoning up (press the "B" key if the hatch is open) and then by moving up one level in your seat (press the "Q" key once). The TC pushes the hatch up so that it is horizontal over his head, but raised up over the top of the turret and vision blocks so he can still see out. The upside is that you aren't exposed as much as you would be standing all the way up, and you have some protection from artillery and stuff. The downside is that if you are parked on a slope, you might not be able to see anything, and you've got a bunch of supports and junk in your way limiting your vision. Really only useful if you're stationary in a defensive position, otherwise you're better off just popping the hatch.

With the M1/M2 you're basically going to want to switch between your binoculars and normal view, and keep scanning around. It will take you time, but eventually you'll start spotting targets easily. When stationary I find it best to get into the binoculars, and scan mostly from there. The faster your vehicle moves, the harder it is to use the binoculars. At full speed over rough terrain you might be spending most of your time in the normal eye view hoping to spot dust, smoke, or even a muzzle flash from enemy vehicles firing at you. The muzzle flash would be the least preferable thing to see, but it can be enough to point your gunner in the right area and to start reacting to taking fire. In closed in terrain, the eye view might be plenty to spot targets and your binoculars might just be a pain in the butt. Remember also that your gunner has thermals and stabilized optics, those give him a huge advantage in spotting targets visually. Don't forget to use ALL of your senses when you search for targets! You've got stereo sound (and hearing, I hope), so use it! In close in terrain you might very well be able to hear enemy vehicles before you can see them, particularly if you're stationary. It's unwise in a turbine powered vehicle (which is quieter anyway), but in a diesel powered vehicle your might even shut the engine off for just a few seconds to have a listen. Learn to recognize engine noises. By turning your "head" left and right, you can get an idea of the general direction they're coming from and what kind of vehicle it is. With a little practice soon you'll be able to tell the difference between a Leopard 2 or a T-72 or T-64. Sound alone isn't enough to spot targets, but sometimes it tells you to start paying more attention to a certain direction. Edit: Also, don't be afraid to get up out of your hatch to scan. I like to get all the way up as high as I can and scan around. The increased risk of getting shot or exploded is more than offset by my better ability to see the other guy first. Another player I know likes to use the overhead cover mode on the M1 hatch and scan from there. Personally I only find it usable if my tank is stationary and the terrain is mostly level since the area you can see from is so narrow.

Things much beyond 400m would be pretty much a non issue for me, and honestly even 300m would be considered to be pretty darn far. I might send you a PM in the future, I've been window shopping for some optics lately but I won't be buying for a while.

@ Invader ZIM - Slightly off topic, but on the subject of optics and such, if someone were purchasing optics on a limited budget (I have "X" number of dollars to spend), do you get better optics by sticking to lower zoom and fewer features?

Again, I think the best solution is an externally mounted HMG coax. Something like that, but perhaps with a mount that keeps it a bit "tighter" in with the main gun and etc. I realize it would be a PITA to reload under fire, but of course you always have the option of simply NOT reloading it once you run out of rounds and going back to the old 7.62mm Coax. But if you have it at least you have another option for those instances when you need long range MG fire or want to save a main gun round and chew up a BRDM or something.

I'll try to address these... The Leopard 1 periscopes combine the function of a target acquisition periscope with an optical rangefinder. I forget the name for this kind of range finding, but it's also used on some rifle scopes. You adjust the zoom until the target fits in the brackets, and you have a rough range. That's why they have a wide range of zoom instead of just a few settings. This is only a guess on my part, but the Leopard 2 may only have two settings in order to keep the zoom mechanism simpler. Fewer parts to break, etc. It may have a lower maximum zoom because higher zoom settings were thought to be unnecessary or of limited utility. Remember, the Leopards were designed primarily to fight in Europe. Ranges are shorter there than in a desert, for example. About the TIS sights in the 2A5 and others, it is my understanding that the commander's TIS is a better and more expensive model. It was thought that the commander would be more responsible for target identification, so the gunner was not given the more expensive TIS sight in order to save money. About the M1A2 vs. Leopard 2 vs. Challenger 2, again, the M1A2 may have a better thermal sight because a more expensive model was installed. I don't really know the details about this one though. The Challenger 2 is a tank I don't understand in general. Now, a tank doesn't necessarily need to be better, or have better fire control, in order to secure the longest distance kill. Terrain, ROE, enemy actions, all are a determining factor. It seems that a Challenger was in the right place at the right time to get a long range kill.

Personally, I like the idea of having a .50 cal coax, but I don't think it should be the primary coaxial weapon. You probably won't need it a whole bunch, so why not go the route of the Israelis or the M1 mods that mount an M2HB above the main gun. You can have a .50 externally for situations when you need to engage a truck, BRDM, BTR, or other equipment such as a back pack, pistol belt, suspenders, etc at long range, and still have plenty of internal space for the usual 7.62mm stuff. As for the legality of using .50 caliber / 12.7 against troops, I don't know of any international laws that ban you from engaging troops with .50 based solely upon caliber. However, it may be technically illegal to engage troops using explosive, expanding, or incendiary ammunition, so you've basically got to load it with normal FMJ ball rounds or AP.

I'm no expert on the subject, but explosives certainly do some strange things over time. I guess if the bomb was water tight and didn't rust through over the years, the fuse mechanism might still work. On the other hand, some explosive compositions can become more or less powerful or more or less stable over the years. I guess if a bomb was filled with a mixture that became more sensitive to shock over the years, for example, and whacked it with an excavator, it might go off even if the fuses were inoperable.

Oh I know! I just think it would be interesting to have some western vehicles with earlier style night sights to match up against the current crop of playable Soviet vehicles. Currently a night fight is horribly lopsided since most western vehicles have a their TIS sights, which may as well be supernatural night vision compared to the T-72...

Might I propose an even earlier version of the Leo2? How about a plain old 'vanilla' Leopard 2, with the image intensifier night sights instead of thermals?

"Battlecarry Earl Grey!" "Loader ready, boiling vessel loaded!" :drink:

I'm part of the "not really" crowd. I should state, I haven't bought the DVD so I have no idea what it or the disk looks like. However, I am more about the functionality of the packaging. When I spend cash on software, I want to see that it comes in a nice protective jewel case. I sure as heck don't want to spend $100 on an operating system and find out that the disk comes in a flimsy paper sleeve...Thaaaaanks, Microsuck!

I meant purely for the purposes of the simulator that I wouldn't gripe about having an AT-3A/B that functioned as a SACLOS missile if it meant that we had an option for the BMP-1 for the 1970s.

I don't think you can unbutton the gunner's seat on the M2/M3 series in Pro PE.

I was in the F8 view watching it, and the AI was closing the TC's hatch before firing.

I just noticed that the M2A2/Eng has a small problem when fitted with the MICLIC trailer... Firing the line charge seems to kill the gunner. Every single time. Or at least both times I tested a full scale scenario I'm working on, and four times in a row when i made a small scenario specifically to test that.

One or two earlier versions of the AT-3, or at least with the speed/range/penetration characteristics of earlier missiles, I don't think it matters too much if they're SACLOS or MCLOS.