Alte Ziegelei b55 Ammunition Resupply &....

[jeffduquette]

Alte Ziegelei b55 Ammunition Resupply & Sniper Rifle Oddity

I guess this is directed at Foo

 

[2fisted]

I had the same issue w/ the sniper rifle jeff, I was told that happens usualy as a commander. & you have to dump your main gun first before you grab the rifle.

 

[jeffduquette]

Hi 2-Fisted:

Yes -- I think in both cases I was playing either a squadleader or tank commander. But I probably didn't explain my own observations very well. I am actually able to pick-up the sniper rifle without a problem. I see it in my hands. Than I switched back to binoculars to call in an arty strike or I switch to my pistol. When I try to switch back to the sniper rifle by hitting the "1" key, nothing happens. No sniper rifle -- no nothing. When I hit the 1-key again, nothing appears -- not the sniper-rifle, (nor does my original SMG appear -- or whatever primary weapon I may have been equipped with).

Best Regards
Jeff

 

[jeffduquette]

EDIT: Ok, Ok -- I think I see the subtle difference here. I don't normally cast away my main weapon before grabbing the sniper rifle. I just hit the 'use key' when the sniper rifle "grab message" appears. Like when you are next to a satchel charge or panzerfaust -- no need to throw anything away before grabbing these things as you are filling unused weapon slots -- slots (5) and (6).

Usually when a "grab weapon message" appears for a weapon slot that’s already filled -- like primary weapon (1), SMG or the like -- the cast away weapon thingy happens automatically.

I'll try hitting the manual throw weapon away first -- backslash I think "\". Than grab the sniper rifle...

 

[jeffduquette]

I'd still be interested in the ammo resupply questions. Are the ammo boxes at these locations only intended as decorations? Or; did the AmmoVloume actor accidently get displaced between b53 and the b55 editions.

Thanks
Jeff

 

[2fisted]

Yes, that sounds exacty like what has happened to me, (except I usualy scroll to put the desired weopon in my hands)
If I recall, when you die all of the items you do grab are left on the ground too.

 

[jeffduquette]

Yes, that sounds exacty like what has happened to me, (except I usualy scroll to put the desired weopon in my hands)
If I recall, when you die all of the items you do grab are left on the ground too.

Tested it a couple of times last night as a German squad leader and Russian Tank Commander. First hit backslash "\" and dropped my primary weapon -- than grabbed the sniper rifle. All went smoothly. No weirdo hiccups. Thanks for the tip.

Just an aside, but boy-oh-boy the reticle on the sniper rifle is horrible from an ergonomics perspective. Not the texture art or game appearance or anything -- that's all fine. But the reticle lines are so thick that they completely mask the target for any sort of extended range shots – like anything over maybe 200 or 300m. For longer range shoots in which you are not using the central cross hair as the aim point, there is no way to range bracket the target. You sort of have to remember about where on the vertical reticle line your ground spray from your shot occurred, than try to adjust from memory as you loose the sight picture each time you work the bolt. The Germans should have used much thinner reticle lines -- like maybe 0.1-mil thickness. As it is the reticle lines look to be maybe 5-mils(!!) or 8-mils(!!!) in thickness. The Germans also should have put short horizontal reticle lines at say 5-mil intervals along the length of the vertical reticle line to make range bracketing and placing burst on target a tad easier.

 

[Foo'bar]

Sorry guys for answering that late. I missed this thread...

Since b55 I took all AT guns out of the map because of compatibility problems. And I moved the resupply volume at posten 1 into the bunker itself. I didn't expect that someone would resupply his tank there I will put the volume to its origin location in one of the next versions.

Meanwhile you're invited to test my latest b61 on one of our [E.C.] servers

cheers

 

[jeffduquette]

Thanks Foo'bar. I don't resupply there too often as it is a real chore to get there with a tank. ;o) But resupply at the village was not realistic at the time given the number of Panthers and Tigers prollying about that region of the map.

I've spotted a couple of floating trees on b55. I know from my own editor tinkering, floaters can sometimes be very tough to spot. I'll forward along a screen shot of the overhead map showing where I spotted these.

I wish there was some sort of feature in the editor to automatically snap the trees to the height map and embed the trunk slightly below the ground(maybe there is and I just haven't found it yet). But this sort of setting would make dealing with floating trees and bushes infinately less time consuming.

 

[Foo'bar]

Hi jeffduquette,

floating trees are killing me with b61 I fixed some more of them. Align or snap to surface isn't my first choice because I love to have as much variety as possible, height, direction, scaling. A screeny will always be helpful, or just give me a description where to find floating trees
The Posten I ammo point never meant to be a tank ammo point, so I thought it would be helpful to move it inside the concrete bunker.
Instead I plan to set a second ammo point at south west end of Alte Ziegelei village.

 

[jeffduquette]

As I recall there are two floaters in the vicinity I show on the map. The white highlighted tree is one. I couldn

 

[Foo'bar]

Thank you, long time since I went to that corner

 

[jeffduquette]

Here is the floater over by Kleines Walchen.



As a complete aside, have you experimented with using a finer mesh for the terrain\height map? I assume the mesh coarseness for Alte Ziegelei is currently set to medium. I was wondering what effects running a fine mesh might have for a map this big

 

[jeffduquette]

oophs...my arrow showing "To Posten-II" is wrong. The objective coin for Posten-2 actually appears on my screen shot -- if you look real closely.

 

[Foo'bar]

fixed for next version thx

 

[jeffduquette]

Just another aside, but I did want to comment about how cleverly balanced the Alte Ziegelei Map is. When I first started playing it I was pretty convinced it was slightly balanced in favor of the Germans. But after playing it extensively, I am pretty comfortable with how well balanced you have made the map.

Assuming average team skills on both sides -- I'd say it's a 50-50 prospect on who will win. Of course if you get a group of exceptional players stacked on one side (players with shooting skills, tactical judgement and willingness to communicate and cooperate), than balance can go out the window. But than that's true with any map.

Conversly, after playing Debrecen (also an excellent map), I've become pretty well convinced it's about a 70-30 prospect in favor of the Russians. I think the OoB\force-mix should be readjusted. Either loose an IS-2 from the initial Soviet Spawn area, or add a Panther or Tiger to the Initial German Spawn Area.

All the best
Jeff

 

[2fisted]

One of my favorite maps! very well balanced & recently I have seen more & more victories pulled off in the last seconds. A good chess match!

I remember keystones map Debrecen being more balanced w/ AB, but w/out AB I think it does favor the Allied.

 

[BubbaG]

Hmm, I was wondering who made this map. I'm all about tanks now, so this map is god sent to me. Trouble is I get it confused with the steel beast map, so I might be off on my next observation.

I like to play the German side and upon entering the battle all the panthers and tigers are rightfully taken. On high player count nights even the PzlV's are taken up, which puts you down to using either the short or long barreled stug, or the Pzlll. In my opinion since the soviet side has all 76.2mm cannon armed tanks and up (85mm, 122mm and 152mm) the German side needs to delete all Pzlll's and short barreled stugs from the spawn point and replace them with PzIV's and long barreled stugs.

Regards,
s.SS.Pz.Abt-102

 

[jeffduquette]

Hmm, I was wondering who made this map. I'm all about tanks now, so this map is god sent to me. Trouble is I get it confused with the steel beast map, so I might be off on my next observation.

I like to play the German side and upon entering the battle all the panthers and tigers are rightfully taken. On high player count nights even the PzlV's are taken up, which puts you down to using either the short or long barreled stug, or the Pzlll. In my opinion since the soviet side has all 76.2mm cannon armed tanks and up (85mm, 122mm and 152mm) the German side needs to delete all Pzlll's and short barreled stugs from the spawn point and replace them with PzIV's and long barreled stugs.

Regards,
s.SS.Pz.Abt-102

Hi Bubba:

Foo'Bar made this excellent map. Its original basis is Keystone's Excellent Debrecen Map, although obviously there are now only subtle similarities between Debrecen and Alt Ziegelei.

On map balance -- I had sort of swayed back and forth in my opinion the first 100 times I played the map (I have literally played this map hundreds of times). Germans have too much -- Russians have too much. I am now of the opinion that the map is very well balanced. The MkIII is actually a good match-up against the T34/76 -- at least with the AB-Mutator. I think the only thing I would do to AZ is drop the clown car completely and perhaps add one T34/85 to the Russian initial Spawn location. But it's Foo'bars masterpiece, so someone else monkeying with his work is sort of sacrilege.

There are various team stratagies which can be implemented on this map that can make it almost impossible for the Russians to win. But this happens so extremely rarely as to make it a non-issue in map balance. Players act too independently (read incoherently) which is actually much more of disadvantge to the Germans than the Reds -- at least on AZ. It is of interest that players who like to play infantry on AZ and hunker down in Grantlerhof or the village of Alte Ziegelei tend to work a bit more coherently and cooporate more so than tank drivers on the map.

The AZ map dynamics are such that MkIII vs T34/76s are -- at least in my experience -- not occurring very frequently. It might be more interesting to eliminate all T34/85s, IS2s, Tigers and Panthers from the map to see how it plays with PZkw IVs, IIIs and T34/76s. Also loose the clown cars. But again, it's Foo'bars map, so they would have to be changes he was interested in doing.

The T34/85s, IS2s, Panthers and Tigers tend to dominate the AZ map. MkIVs and Stugs do well enough with decent players at the helm. The T34/76 optics and reload rates are a real challenge for Russian players. This is where the MkIII has an advanatge -- particularly when playing the more realistic Armor Beasts Mutator. Also -- use your APCR.

When playing stock RO, tank armor is such that angling T34/76s makes their front just about invulnerable to the MkIII. Even with extreme close range hits in the gun mantlet.