Old platoon command structure 1960-70's

[delta6]

Is there any way to go back to the old platoon company command structure?? Platoon leader would be 16-26-36 and the Platoon Sgt would be 14-24-34, CO would be 66 and the XO would be 65...

[RedWardancer]

I believe this can be manually changed in the Mission Editor.  Open a scenario if allowed (passwords and such), then open Options at the top left.  next, you click on Unit Call Signs and choose either the existing template (PE generic) and change the call signs; or click New and create your own template to save.  The other way to Import a list of existing call sign templates.  Fairly certain a template for the 80s-90s command structure does exists.  

[Gibsonm]

Just ensure you replace /delete the generic one, after importing the one you want.

 

Otherwise you'll end up with two templates and the one at the top of the list will be used.

[delta6]

I looked at the form and honestly i cannot figure out how to use it..I downloaded the team yankee template, but no readme no instructions on how to use it or install it..All of the rest are for 2020 or german..

[Gibsonm]

27 minutes ago, delta6 said:

I looked at the form and honestly i cannot figure out how to use it..I downloaded the team yankee template, but no readme no instructions on how to use it or install it..All of the rest are for 2020 or german..

 

It is covered on page 76 of the manual.

 

This may also help: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZWSEqXZgLKi7BoVIAFfW85carfmlJKNuSAX

 

Happy to talk you through it if you like.

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Gibsonm

[delta6]

Could i ask you to put one together for me?? 5 tanks per plt..I would need it for the M1P- M1A1 HA and the M1A2 sep... 1st plt 16 plt leader 14 plt sht 12-13-15..2nd plt 26 plt leader 24 plt sgt 22-23-25..3rd plt 36 plt leader  34 plt sgt 32-33-35 Co cmdr 66 xo 65...If you want i can pay for your work...

 

[Gibsonm]

1 hour ago, delta6 said:

Could i ask you to put one together for me?? 5 tanks per plt..I would need it for the M1P- M1A1 HA and the M1A2 sep... 1st plt 16 plt leader 14 plt sht 12-13-15..2nd plt 26 plt leader 24 plt sgt 22-23-25..3rd plt 36 plt leader  34 plt sgt 32-33-35 Co cmdr 66 xo 65...If you want i can pay for your work...

 

 

No need to pay but I need some clarity - I'm not an American.

 

Also the vehicle type is irrelevant.

 

A simple list (down the page) as opposed to smashing it all together. I specifically don't understand how the PL Commander can be both "16" and "14" which the above suggests???

 

CO Comd = 66

 

CO XO = 65

 

I guess from above that the Pls are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, ...

 

Pl Commander (no 1 tank) = ???

 

PL Sgt (no 5 tank?) = ????

 

No. 2 Tank = ????

 

No. 3 Tank = ????

 

No. 4 Tank = ????

 

 

[TSe419E]

When I was in:  Armor 

     x11   Plt. Ldr.      | Heavy Section

     x12                     

     x13

     x14   Plt. Sgt.      | Light Section

     x15

 

                           Cavalry

     x10     M113

     x11     M150/M901

     x12     M113

     x13     M150/M901

     x14     M60A1/3 or M1/IPM1     Plt. Sgt. 

     x15     M60A1/3 or M1/IPM1     

     x16     M113                               Plt. Ldr. 

     x17     M60A1/3 or M1/IPM1

     x18     M60A1/3 or M1/IPM1

 

                  x - Substitute in appropriate company/troop letter.

 

This was before the reorganization that all units went through in the mid '80s.

Edited October 2, 2021 by TSe419E

[delta6]

Mine was in to 60-70's..The platoon leader was the 16 element and the platoon sgt was the 14 element in a 5 tank platoon..The rest of the company was configured as the 2nd platoon 26 platoon leader and 24 the platoon sgt and so forth thru the company of 17 tanks with  the Co commander being 66 and the xo 65.. I even made me a skin for the M1A2 SEP in od with white stars along with the M1P M1A1...In my platoon i was on the 14 tank and always pulled point the 16 was 3rd tank back of me...

16 plt leader

14 plt sgt

12

13

15

26 plt lrader

[delta6]

16 plt leader 1st platoon

14 plt sgt

12

13

15

26 plt leader  2nd platoon

24 platoon sgt

22

23

25

36 Lpt leader  3rd platoon

34 plt sgt

32

33

35

66 Company commander

65 XO

I look at the form in the sim and i cannot figure out what goes where, and that's why i need help..

[Hedgehog]

Ok

So open the callsign template before reading this.

 

The Text section is how the unit's call sign will be represented in the small bopx in the lower left corner

The Maps section is how the unit's call sign will be represented on the map

 

The bit you want to concentrate on is the Section part of the "Call sign symbols" (Lower part)

 

Open the default Callsign template (it will open by default when you open the editor)

 

Edit the "Section" part to what you want as per above

1

4

2

3

5

 

Export as "Old Platoon"

 

Done,

 

Play around and see how things change, you won't break SB by messing around with templates.

 

 

Edit:

Or you could use the "US-Generic" included with SB as standard.

 

Edited October 2, 2021 by Hedgehog

[Gibsonm]

  

On 10/3/2021 at 4:05 AM, Hedgehog said:

Edit:

Or you could use the "US-Generic" included with SB as standard.

 

 

No he can't because its wrong from his point of view. He wants the platoon commander's vehicle to be "6", not "1".

 

I've already sent him a PDF and a reference to the place in the Manual, but he asked me to build him one and I've done it.

 

@delta6

 

I've attached a template and a sample scenario.

 

Please download these and;

 

1. Place the scenario is whatever folder you use to store your scenario files (its likely to look something similar to "C:\Users\XXXX\Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\My Scenarios". The part in red will be something unique to your machine.

 

2. Place the "Delta6.cst" in something similar to "C:\Users\XXXX\Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\My Callsign Templates". That way the template is available for future use or modification.

 

Assumptions:

 

1. I've assumed you are happy with a "-" between the Platoon number and the vehicle number?

 

2. I've assumed you are happy with the letter "A" as the Company designator? If you want "A Co", or "A Coy", or A Company" it is straight forward to edit it.

 

3. I've assumed that the 5 vehicle platoon splits into a 3 vehicle section commanded by the PL commander and a 2 vehicle section commanded by the SGT), as shown below with the vehicles listed in call sign seniority?

 

 

If you need to change this you need to:

 

1. Open the file "211003 Callsigns for Delta6" in the Mission Editor (which you should be able to see on the initial Steel Beasts Pro PE menu screen).

 

2. Select the "Delta 6" choice from within the Unit call signs options:

 

 

3. You should now see something like this:

 

 

This, like many other features of Steel Beasts Pro PE, is powerful yet not incredibly intuitive.

 

What I'd like to do is work my way down the sections, one at a time, to give you an overview ("teach a guy to fish" if you like as opposed to just giving you the fish) and address the three assumptions I made earlier as we go through.

 

Top section:

 

 

Apart from the the five buttons on the top area that should be pretty straight forward, the "Apply if " box allows you to use different templates for different units / nationalities.

 

SB Pro PE lets you have 16 Companies on the Blue side.

 

Using this section you could have 4 countries say:

 

US = Companies 1 to 4

UK = Companies 5 to 8

Germany = Companies 9 to 12

Australia = Companies 13 to 16

 

All using a different template. You'd have four templates loaded but with the "Apply if" section adjusted along national lines.

 

The US template would have "Apply if 1 <= Company <= 4"

The UK template would have "Apply if 5 <= Company <= 8"

The German template would have "Apply if 9 <= Company <= 12" and

The Australian template would have "Apply if 13 <= Company <= 16"

 

Usually though you only have one template included as all of Blue is from the one organisation.

 

Second Section:

 

 

This section determines the display of information in the scrolling text box at the bottom of the screen. This values for these boxes is provided by the information in the last section (this is part of the counter intuitive bit, in that it is not a simple case of work your way down the screen, its "bottom up").

 

Using the "pull down boxes" (downward facing triangles) you can change the order:

 

 

Here clicking on the first pull down box lets me choose nothing / blank, Platoon, Company or Battalion as the first character in the text label.

 

You can also replace the "/"  with anything you want ("-", ".", nothing) as the separator.

 

Using the default, a message relating to 1 Platoon, A Company will be displayed as: "1/A"

 

Assumption 1. I've assumed you are happy with a "-" between the Platoon number and the vehicle number?

 

If you don't want the dash "-", change / remove it from the small box between Platoon and Section. Make sure you do this in the Map callsign section as well.

 

Ideally this is consistent with the information in the third section or you'll see something like "1/2/A" in the text versus "2/1/A" on the map because the ordering is not the same in both sections.

 

Third Section:

 

 

This is where the you determine what the map icons look like and works just like the second section above, with the added option as to where you display the map icon / Mil Symbol.

 

Here the default is:

 

But you can change it to:

 

Just by rearranging "Platoon Map Icon Company" to "Map Icon Platoon Company"

 

Fourth Section:

 

 

This drives the rest of the template by providing the raw information.

 

By default the Company label is "A".

 

Assumption 2. I've assumed you are happy with the letter "A" as the Company designator? If you want "A Co", or "A Coy", or A Company" it is straight forward to edit it.

 

If you want the map and text information to display say "A Company" then click in the box that currently displays "A" and add the additional information. If A Company is known in your old unit as say "Apache" then replace "A" with "Apache". Make sure you make this change in both the "text callsign" section and the "map callsign" section.

 

You wanted the Platoon Commander's vehicle to be identified as "6" (16, 26, 36, etc.). To achieve this we put a "6" in the top box of the Section column (SB Pro PE identifies a single vehicle as a Section).

 

The second in charge of the Platoon in US circles is identified as "4" (no idea why it isn't two but that's not important now) so in the 2nd highest box in the Section column put in "4".

 

This is important when you spilt Platoons up so the correct information is displayed.

 

You need to click on "OK" for your changes to take effect.

 

Hopefully that is a bit clearer than the manual.

 

 

211003 Callsigns for Delta6.sce Delta6.cst

Edited October 11, 2021 by Gibsonm
Typo

[delta6]

I am so used to the "old way of doing things"...Things were much simpler..DRIVER STOP THE DAMN TANK!!! GUNNER SHOOT THAT S.O.B. BEFORE HE SHOOTS US!!! so much simpler....I will try and figure things out and thank you for the help...

[Ssnake]

You can still do that in SB Pro. It's just that you can do so much more, in addition to the simple things.

(...and if you didn't mean SB Pro, because not everything revolves around us (surprisingly as it may be) - it's still true, but think of all the things you couldn't do when life generally was simpler. No computers for the masses. Lead in the gasoline. No fish in rivers with adjacent industrial plants (and what was still there, you couldn't eat). No cure for any cancer. Stagflation.)

[Gibsonm]

On 10/3/2021 at 12:38 PM, delta6 said:

I am so used to the "old way of doing things"...Things were much simpler..DRIVER STOP THE DAMN TANK!!! GUNNER SHOOT THAT S.O.B. BEFORE HE SHOOTS US!!! so much simpler....I will try and figure things out and thank you for the help...

 

The scenario I attached to my earlier post uses what I think is the callsign structure you are after.

 

If it is correct, then you can use the call sign template file also attached (the one ending in ".cst") to adjust the call signs in the scenario you want to use to the structure you are after. 

[delta6]

Please don't laugh at me, but i can't get it to work..I got so pissed at it that last night i deleted the sim and now i am kicking myself and my short temper right in the ass..I am now redownloading the sim and will try again...

[Gibsonm]

OK.

 

Please send me a PM (easiest is probably to reply to the one I sent you) and I'll talk you through downloading the files.

[delta6]

I think i have it figured out..It seems to be working in one scenario but the plt leaders are still the 1 tank, and the Co Xo are still Co Xo..no 16-26-36-66 -65...

[Gibsonm]

Well if its "XO" and not "65" you haven't loaded the template I sent.

 

Does it work in the scenario I attached earlier?

 

If "yes" then we need to confirm how you imported the template into the other mission.

 

In summary you need to:

 

1. Download the template file and put it in the correct folder. As per above:

 

Place the "Delta6.cst" in something similar to "C:\Users\XXXX\Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\My Callsign Templates". That way the template is available for future use or modification.

 

2. Open the scenario you want to edit in the Mission Editor.

 

3. Import the call sign template above.

 

4. Remove / delete the pre- existing template, so it looks like this (only one template listed):

 

On 10/3/2021 at 7:56 AM, Gibsonm said:

Select the "Delta 6" choice from within the Unit call signs options:

 

 

The save the adjusted scenario.

 

I'm sorry but without Teamspeak, Discord or similar audio option where I can talk you through it, this is very laborious.

 

[delta6]

I finally got it to work..My units are now marked in 1960-70 call signs...Thank you EVERYONE for getting my head straight...This is a M1A2SEP...

[Michael Ramsey]

On 9/28/2021 at 6:21 PM, delta6 said:

Is there any way to go back to the old platoon company command structure?? Platoon leader would be 16-26-36 and the Platoon Sgt would be 14-24-34, CO would be 66 and the XO would be 65...

 

[Michael Ramsey]

You will see in the lower right that the Icons have changed names.  Though crowed, it helps in the play back AAR.  Simply go to the template and enter your "Cold War" platoon call signs. When building your platoon give it a strength of 5.  If I remember correctly the XO was designated 45 and was normally the blade tank BTW a nightmare in design as the PTO ran from the transmission through the grille doors and piped under the hull.  

[delta6]

Do you think it would be possible to put this system into the download section, for the "older tanker generation"???