My first post with some questions

[tinkthank]

Hello,
I just DLed the "demo" (that is, I have not yet ordered the CD), just looking for something new (I know shrapnel from Dom2), and this game looked appealing. I am having some difficulties despite the documentation that came with the game. Some questions, if I may:

1. I am running the game in a window on my laptop, no problems, at 800x600. I am having difficulty deciphering the icons and reading the text, everything is so small. I dont know much about computers, so I would like to know: in the full game, when I set the resolution to 1180, will that fill the screen with larger text or just make it crisper but stay the same size? (I like to play in a window since I switch between music apps and internet often.)

2. Some parts of the interface seem counter-intuitive to me. In the couple of hours I have tried so far, I find I accidentally move my units god-knows-where quite often by having them selected and accidentally clicking somewhere on the map. I suppose I just dont know how to use the buttons as most others do, or am used to a different system. Can these be customized somehow?

3. Although there is this "encyclopedia" feature, I see that it contains lots information presented in the same way that it is in-game. That is, I find it difficult to decipher, and am not sure what most of it means. (Additionally, finding a unit about which you want to know more seems quite a challenge -- I just tried looking for an American unit, but was baffled by the numbers entries all sorted in a way that escaped my knowledge and by the number of seemingly identical entries.) I browsed these boards a bit more, but it seems all of you here are near-experts and dont have my problems. In the CD version of the game, is there some documentation which can be either sorted better or more revealing to people who need full text descriptions of what certain features mean and do (not just numbers)?

4. I am not the big PBEM or MP player that most others probably are, and have so far not understood this game well enough to judge the quality of the computer AI. Is there any consensus as to how well it stacks up? I know it cannot be as good as a decent chess program can be, but is it at least better than, say, the otherwise fine Dominions2?

Any additional tips for decent newbie guides would be appreciated. I would like to enjoy this game more than I am now, and have so far found it somewhat off-putting. (Similarly, I felt this way about dom2 some time ago, but did get over the learning curve and enjoyed it for quite some time.)

Thank you very much in advance.

[Cameronius]

tinkthank,
The DL version of the game is not a demo, it is the entire functional game. The extras taht come with the CD are just that, extras. Take your time to decide if you really like the game before you buy the CDs just for the extras.
Try playing the game in full screen a few times to give you an idea how full sized window resolution will look on your lap top.
I find it easier to use the battle generator to make a test purchase and find info about specific units that to use the encylopedia. Also by simply right clicking on a unit (enemy or friendly) you will get an info screen.

Cheers,

[pdoktar]

2.

Be very careful as a newbie with your mouse-clicks when the cursor is on the map. During my career i´ve lost hundreds of teams to bad-clicking. After playing a while you´ll get the hang of it. Click on the unit and click on the hex where you wan´t it to go. Avoid accidental clicks. Mean your click!

3. Browsing the encyclopedia for a single unit can be a challenge. I find it so fun, that in the heat of battle, I can start comparing totally different units and even nations in the encyclopedia. It is HUGE and getting bigger and better all the time. In the Mobhack you can search a given unit or weapon system typing it´s name on the search bar. Can be done when using windowed, not when using full screen version. (I´m not sure about this one though)

AI isn´t creative, but can handle it´s fights. Watch out for it, it is getting better and can deliver serious surprises. If in need of real challenge try the scripted campaigns. AI has waypoints etc. features scripted by humans that make it a lot more challenging. Check out the strategy/tactics posts in this forum to learn to fight.

[Mobhack]

1)

A) In windowed mode, if you set to desktop size or more, you will have the same text and button sizes as with 800 windowed, but more map area. You will have the windows taskbar available. This is described in the tuning your machine" section of the "Game Installation" section of the manual.

B) in full screen mode, you will get the screen size specified (say 1024 by 768) - buttons and text will be relative to that. if your graphics card does not "scramble" the palette, you can happily ALT-TAB in and out of the game to the windows desktop.

2) The interface is as it is, as it dates from 1995 or so. Just remember that your mouse is always "live" if a unit is selected. The N and P keys are sometimes a useful way to navigate to particular units, or use the unit list. See the Game Guide for details, hot keys etc. Once learned there is no real problem. The "undo" button can be handy if your mis-click did not cause the state of the game to change (someone fired at you or your move exposed previously unseen enemy etc).

3) The encycloaedia contains all the unit info just like in the game, naturally. It has the info for all units, including the OPFOR. The CD version has extra filtering - e.g. for just the units available at the curent battle date.

4) The AI is far better than the original SSI "tin lemmings horde" which simply rushed the mearest V-hex at full speed. We have removed the various SSI AI cheats (with arty etc) as well, so the AI has to play like a human player.

The best newbie guide is to read the Game Guide. You can find this by running the game Options programme, then going to the Help tab and selecting the "Game Manual" button.

The GG is an HTML document that opens in your browser.

The GG tutorial is a must read for new players, even if you do not actually play the tutorial scenario, you should read through this section. Then the "Game Play Notes" should be useful reading.

These games take some getting into, and generally the best way to learn is by building up experience.


Cheers
Andy

[tinkthank]

Thank you for your replies.
If the learning curve is somewhat like Shrapnel's Dominions 2, that is ok.
Before I posted, I DID read through the tutorial and the Tips sections of the GG; in fact, I think I read the whole thing by now. But there is so much that is unexplained; let me briefly say what I mean.
In every single game I have ever played, there has been some form of quantified abstraction relating to the health of a unit -- usually called "hit points". In every single game I have ever played, there has been some form of quantified abstraction relating to the damage a weapon or other damage-dealer does to subtract from that health. I havent found that yet in MBT. In other words: I read and reread and re-reread all those text boxes on all of these units, but I don't feel smarter. This unit has a Mblahblah gun, and that unit has a Mwoowoo gun -- fine. When I check out those guns, I still dont know "how much they hurt"; I am used to that. I see that this unit is an APC -- but without a glossary I don't know what these things mean.
So I feel lost, despite the documentation that I read.
I have never played any other game in this SP series, so I have no idea how bad the AI was before. I suppose I will see soon.

[narwan]

There's no hitpoints here, just men in units. Units can lose men which reduces their combat effectiveness. You can check each individual unit to see how much men they have left (and how many they lost).

Vehicles can sustain damage due to hits received. That also reduces their combat effectiveness (and can take out crewmen). Again, the specific units infoscreen will show damage. Much more common will be the 'destruction' of a vehicle when hit though.

Likewise, damage dealt is not factored in anything like 'hitpoints' damage to the enemy. A round that hits a tank either penetrates or not, if so it'll damage or destroy the target. The stats you see for units show things like armor thickness, penetration capabilities of guns and for weapons against soft targets (like infantry) the relative damage done if they hit. There is always an amount of uncertainty though, you are never garantueed a kill or certain you'll inflict damage (even when hosing down an infantry squad from 50m with your tanks mg's).

Narwan

[tinkthank]

Thank you.

Are you saying that ANY round may damage or destroy any other unit? What are the odds? (I bet that a pistol round has different odds than, say, a howitzer round, right?)

WHen I inspect one of my tanks, I can see something like this(which I cannot copy and paste here, unfortunately, so this is from memory):

120mm M26 91
7.62 mm M240CMG
50cal AMG
7.62 M240 AMG

Then there are ratings for Acc (Accuracy, I think), Kill (What's this 8:0 mean though?), Pen (Penetration?), HEAT (no clue), APCR (no clue), and range.

Now unlike everyone else here, I dont know what these guns are, really; I suppose "MG" is "machine gun", but I dont know what AMG or CMG is or if there is a difference. I just cant seem to glean enough info from these screens to tell me what the purpose of these things are.

I am not a modern "war buff", so I dont even know what those "classes" mean. I did, I really did try to check this up, but when I see that somethng is an "LMG" or an "SPAA", I dont know what that is.

When I select a target and hit "fire", my unit seems to use all of its weapons on that unit. I read the tutorial and other texts in the Game Manual, and they say (doh) to use larger guns on the tanks and machineguns on the infantry -- but I seem to be shooting my cannons at the infantry too. How does one control this fire?

One final question: In playing the tutorial, I see that one of my units, H5 (a Bradley), is 2 hexes away from its commander (H0) -- I checked this in the overview screen. This unit H5 is listed as "out of contact" -- why? He's right next to his commander?! (I am attaching that game save here, if I can find it.)

One final mini-question: When I hit the "h" hotkey, I am taken to the unit overview screen, not the headquarters screen. Is there a different hotkey for that?

Thank you

[Mobhack]

For nuts and bolts stuff - you should refer to the Mobhack help, which goes into more details.

For standard military acronyms, like HEAT, HE, VIRSS etc - these are things that wargamers tend to know, being military history/technical buffs generally.

Google is a great help, if you dont know what an acronym is and also FAS , e.g Big Bullets

For game details - see the GG section "Unit Information Screen" and the related "Encyclopaedia Screen" as the details of the Info screen are the same as for the encyclopaedia.

(At the end of the weapon table in the encyclopaedia entry for the GG, and also within the table the ammo types are defined, in any case).

Weapons with an AP penetration value can defeat armour, and you need an HE kill value to have effect on soft targets. Anti tank rounds are generally AP, HEAT, and APDS/APCR but HE can have an effect on armoured targets.

To turn a weapon off see the "Unit Information Screen" section of the GG, table entry "Weapon Info", final paragraph.

To fire an individual weapon only - see the GG "Main Map Window" section which describes the main game action window, then refer to the table of hot keys, entry for "W" key. This brings up a sub-menu which allows you to fire only a specified weapon at the current target. pressing the 1 key fires only weapon slot 1 etc. For selecting a specific target - see the "T" hot key or the target buton.

Command and control is judged at turn start - not during the turn. If your guy was > 250 hexes away at turn start, and failed a radio check (assuming both had them) then he will be out of CC for that move.

The "H" key takes you to the headquarters menu - it is the "J" key now to go to the units screen, that does not sem to have made it into the documentation. (No idea why I chose "J" - possibly because it has a raised bar making it easy to find, like the "F" key - been a while !

Cheers
Andy

[pdoktar]

HMG -Heavy Machine Gun
AAMG anti-air MG - targets both ground and air units
CMG co-axial MG - targets only ground units
SPAA - Self-propelled Anti-Air (Vehicle)
SPA - Self-propelled Artillery
MBT- Main Battle Tank
APC- Armored Personell Carrier
IFV / AIFV / MICV / ICV - different types on Infanty Fighting Vehicles, usually with autocannons and Anti-Tank Guided Weapons/Missiles (ATGM or ATGW)
RR - recoilless rifle, a low velocity gun, usually anti-tank firing HEAT rounds

Acc - The general accuracy of the gun
Kill - how effective at destroying infantry units
Pen - basic armor penetration capacity of the gun first digit for High Explosive (HE) round, second for Armor Piercing (AP) round
HEAT - penetration capacity of High Explosive Anti Tank round
APCR - Penetration capacity of Armor Piercing Capped Round (or sabot or other special Anti-Armour munition)
Generally bigger is better

If a round has enough penetration when it hits a vehicle, then it will penetrate it´s armor and do damage. For Example 120mm Gun with Pen 32 will penetrate at 0 metres tank armor of 31 and sometimes 32, but not usually armor of 35-50,(APCR might penetrate maybe 70-90 for such a gun). As the range increases, projectiles loose velocity and penetration power (HEAT ammo does not). Remember to check out both armor value and HEAT armor value for a given unit. Reactive armor works differently and will try to defeat a HEAT round before it touches the main armor under it. These armor and pen figures are estimates and corresponde with centimeters of Rolled Homogenous Armor calculations (Armor plate).

In the unit info screen you can click at a weapon system to activate and de-activate it.

[tinkthank]

Thanks very much.

After another week of testing, rather infrequently, unfortuately, I see I still have so much I dont understand.
I still see some of my units "out of contact", even those that moved only 2 or 3 hexes that turn, and are pratically adjacent to their HQ. I dont understand Command and Control enough, apparently. The other thing is weapons -- is there a listing somewhere in "real language" as to what the weapons are -- such as "2x Hydra FFAR"?

When I posted my questions above, by the way, I did read that guide and know about the "w" button -- it just didnt always seem to work for me. Sometimes I would have a target, hit the button, and then the appropriate number, but it would fire all weapons or none. Sometimes it would fire at a different target. (I also suppose I am used to systems which cycle through valid targets -- that is what I expected the "t" button to do. Is it possible to mod the game so that this in fact is done?)

One last question, if I may -- are there scenarios (or could one make them) which involve civilians (in an urban or quasi-urban or suburban setting, for example) and *negative* VPs for harming them as, say, the advancer or attacker?

Thank you very much