visbility range

[codman]

Just got done playing a battle in a campaign where the visibility was 3 hexes. Oddly enough throught the battle there were times when one of my units could see much farther then 3 hexes and I was wondering if the visibility is a variable that changes during the battle. Not all of my units seemed to benifit from it even if they were in the same hex and because it's 1958 I doubt that they were getting any type of bonus for IR or NV. I was thinking that in this case the game was trying to simulate an overcast day with lots of blowing fog or scattered rain showers. Any info would be great as I thought it was kind of neat.

Thanks in advance

Steve

[Marek_Tucan]

Any info on units that experienced this would be welcome

[DRG]

Marek_Tucan said:
Any info on units that experienced this would be welcome

........and nationality.

[hoplitis]

Check the "vision" parameter in the Unit Information Screen. It supersedes the scenario visibility (if non zero). If vision is 40 or above you're in the realm of Thermal Imagers and higher tech. Basic game implication is seeing through smoke.
Around 1958 you might find units with 5 or 10(??)vision. Probably multi reflectance multi lence + telescope effect "classical optics" systems.

Cats have excellent night vision and the don't use IR
Well at least not yet!

[codman]

After reading the responses I went back and checked the visibility range for the units in question and this is what the values were:

Soviet T-10M with a value of 20

Soviet T-54B with a value of 20

Soviet T-55 with a value of 20

Soviet ZSU-57 with a value of 10

One of my elite T-10M was able to "reach out" at a distance of 20-25 hexes to the dismay of 5 Chinese T-34/Type 58 tanks. Another group of 4 T-10M wasn't as gifted but they dispatched another group of Chinese vehicles at ranges of 12-15 hexes.

All of the T-54B/T-55 kills occurred at ranges of 10-15 hexes but one was scored at 21.

The ZSU is a veteran unit that has the luck of a cat in that I tend to use my ZSU's in AP/AT roles once the AI stops sending planes and of all the units this is the one that always draws tanks like a magnet. They'll pop out of the underbrush at 3-4 hexes only to get a dose of 57mm AT rounds and if they survive it's time to reverse...

The campaign I'm playing is Soviet vs China during the summer of 1958 and this battle was a meeting engagement. I've been rather lucky in spoon feeding my armor so that most of them have reached elite status but from the start I've kept a group of 4 BTR-40s whose only job is to save bailed tank crews.

Not sure if any of this will be useful but those of you who work on the code might or might not see something amiss.

Thanks for the responses!

Steve

[Marek_Tucan]

Then everything's OK, as these units DO have a night vision, namely Active IR searchlights and IR optics.

[codman]

Marek_Tucan said:
Then everything's OK, as these units DO have a night vision, namely Active IR searchlights and IR optics.

Mark,

When you say OK does that mean that if someone is playing a battle and the visibility is 3, it's nighttime and they were using IR? Now I'm more curious because if it was night, it would seem to me that "all" of my T-10's, T-54's and T-55's would have been able to see or spot opposing units at greater distances than 3 hexes. In this particular battle it almost seemed like the visibility was going up and down depending on the turn. Would you know off hand at what point the visibility value that's shown next to the turn number indicate the daylight/weather conditions or time of day.

[Marek_Tucan]

There was some nice spreadsheet back on Yahoo SPMBT group, correlating vis range and weather/time of day. However, visibility in SPMBT stays the same throughout the game - weren't you blocked say by smoke or such? Or by terrain? Moving one hex might in complicated terrain well lead to losing LOS even if it seems it shouldn't.

[hoplitis]

Marek & codman
the "weather effects" is here: Post#422969

codman,
on the "variability" of visibility range can't think of anything different than Marek's suggestions.

[codman]

Marek_Tucan said:
There was some nice spreadsheet back on Yahoo SPMBT group, correlating vis range and weather/time of day. However, visibility in SPMBT stays the same throughout the game - weren't you blocked say by smoke or such? Or by terrain? Moving one hex might in complicated terrain well lead to losing LOS even if it seems it shouldn't.

Thanks for the info and I followed the link that Hoplitis posted to the chart.

As for the visibility staying the same throughout the game and the effects of terrain or smoke, what interested me was that for most of the game you could only spot something that was within 3 hexes of your position in clear terrain. If you popped smoke, had a burning vehicle or a small hill in your field of view the visibility went down to 1 hex only in that direction. I just thought it was weird because suddenly a longer FOV would open up directly down a row of hexes and you could spot at longer ranges and engage enemy units as well so I came here to see if anyone else has had something similar happen to them. As long as you stayed put you could take advantage of the longer FOV but if you moved towards the target the FOV went back to 3 even through all the hexes between my unit and the enemy were clear terrain.

I think at this point it was a fluke and nothing to worry about.

Thanks for all the info and next time I'll do a better job getting your name spelled correctly.

Steve