Maingun won't fire during insta action

[Companion]

When playing instant action, maingun just would stop firing after a dozen rounds. (And my tank was not hit by anything)

I can lase, use aux sight and whatever but firing the gun.

Sometimes alternating between battlesight and lasing fixes it but not always.

I'm using ver. 2.328 (w/ hotfix)

[Ssnake]

When this occurs, please make a screenshot (Alt+F11) from the primary sight view and send that to me or post it here. In which Instant Action scenario (which vehicle) do you have that trouble?

[Companion]

I was playing with Leo 2A5, the attached shot shows everything is fine except "F" sign never comes back.

And.. I think I found the pattern out. I usually call arty smokes to cover me, and when fire mission is such that my Leo is "hit" by one of the smoke shells, main gun won't fire.

[desertowl]

I think that the problem is that because of the smoke, the LRF reads 00000, and then the ballistic computer prevents you from firing.

you can check my assumption by either manually entering range data or by pressing SHIFT + FIRE which is the manual override.

that should do the trick.

[GH_Lieste]

Or select Battlesight.

Though I think that broadly speaking if you can see it in Thermals you should be able to lase it?

So while smoke should grade image clarity to some degree it should only degrade laser performance to the same extent.

I assume as a WAG, that you would get a first return from the smoke if it is sufficiently dense, (which is a good arguement for range filters like on the T72 - it ignores returns of less than 0/1200/1800 depending on setting, but otherwise returns first range AFAIK), further effects of smoke might be increased spread of the laser, making accurate ranging difficult against small distant targets, and more energy is absorbed, limiting usable max range.

[GH_Lieste]

Oh and don't drop artillery that close... a 45kg shell landing on top of you could still ruin your whole day, even if it is 'only' smoke.

[desertowl]

Or select Battlesight.

Though I think that broadly speaking if you can see it in Thermals you should be able to lase it?

So while smoke should grade image clarity to some degree it should only degrade laser performance to the same extent.

nope - smoke can be multispectral and block several wavelengths, but it can filter laser radiation while not disturbing thermal radiation.

while LRF's are usually at the 1.06 micron wavelength, thermal imagers work on the medium nd far IR spectrum - which is about 3-6 or 8-12, give or take.

each spectrum band is blocked by other means - so you can have smoke that blocks IR,visual,laser,UV - all in one or any combination of those bands.

[Companion]

Oh and don't drop artillery that close... a 45kg shell landing on top of you could still ruin your whole day, even if it is 'only' smoke.

But crew reported no damage and my tank was "all green" (yes, except that lasing problem) so I assume it's ok at least in game...?

nope - smoke can be multispectral and block several wavelengths, but it can filter laser radiation while not disturbing thermal radiation.

while LRF's are usually at the 1.06 micron wavelength, thermal imagers work on the medium nd far IR spectrum - which is about 3-6 or 8-12, give or take.

each spectrum band is blocked by other means - so you can have smoke that blocks IR,visual,laser,UV - all in one or any combination of those bands.

So... is it normal to not be able to lase when my tank is "in" the thick smoke mass?

I have no problem lasing when smoke screen is between me and enemies and is not "touching" my tank.

[desertowl]

well, if the smoke blocks your tank's LRF wavelength, it will block it whenever you lase on it.

let's say there is a target 2 Km away from you, and a smoke screen 1 km away from you, between you and the target - if you look through your TIS you'll see the target (if the smoke screen does not block IR as well) but if you'll try to lase on it, you'll get 1 Km reading distance, and if you'll try to engage the target with this "false" data, you will miss.