Tactics Air-bursting smoke grenades

[I. Kant]

In this topic we extol the virtues of cooking smoke grenades so as to achieve an air-burst and a resulting hanging cloud of smoke that works to obscure and obfuscate thy nefarious doings from those that may watch from high on (excluding the all-seeing eye of Providence and the Lord).

It is my personal, humble belief that such a hanging cloud of smoke is of essence on such maps as Grain Elevator (of essence to the Germans, that is, who are able to block LoS from upper floors of the elevator). Well, Elevator is the only one I can think of off the top of me head.
Should you know of any other maps where it is sagacious to avail yourself of such a method of deploying smoke grenades, do not let me stop you from sharing it.

A word of caution, however, is that in the current build (17th Nov patch) the smoke grenade, when over-cooked, appears to disappear. Therefore, a trait likening the smoke grenades to the Holy Hand Grenades of Antioch, one must air-smoke whilst keeping careful count of seconds passed since the pin was pulled (thus says the ancient Book of Armaments):

"Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shall thou not count, neither thou count two accepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number be reached the lobbest thou thy [smoke grenade]"

It helps to ensure that you have a peaceful environment for air-bursting the smoke grenade and then augment thy attempt by accessing the tactical view overlay and scrupulously minding the timer (so as not to rely on unreliable counts that thee may keep in your head) up until the moment when the smoke grenade shall be deployed.

Thus it is ordained and thus you shall do. :IS2:

 

[Cwivey]

Never even occured to me to cook smoke grenades.

 

[Rabid Penguin]

Spartanovka, to obscure the top floor windows of the town hall.

 

[Schnurx]

Ummm.... you *do* know, that smoke grenades develop their smokish delight during a longer time, e.g. serveral minutes (3.5 for the current german Nebelwurfk

 

[I. Kant]

Are you talking about the game? Because I am talking about the computer game Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad (and what I wrote above pertains fully to the 17th Nov 2011 patch; later patches may reflect negatively on the veracity of the above).

Smoke does not fall down. Smoke lingers. In the air. Subsequently, it does not fall down. It dissipates. I hope that clears up the confusion, Schurx. If not, I shall be at hand to provide further elucidation.

 

[Cpt-Praxius]

Ummm.... you *do* know, that smoke grenades develop their smokish delight during a longer time, e.g. serveral minutes (3.5 for the current german Nebelwurfk

 

[I. Kant]

Praxius, have you actually tried this in game?

Are we talking about the same game?

Try it. Really. Cook a smoke grenade for, give or take, 3 seconds, lob it up high. Really. Seeing is believing.

 

[barakas]

That's what I was thinking..... the smoke grenades don't explode, they release.... so even if you time it properly to start releasing smoke in mid-air, a second later it'll be on the ground and whatever smoke started to emit in the air would dissipate seconds later, while the rest of the smoke would continue to emit on the ground, bringing you back to what they normally do.

The only real solution, cooking or not cooking, is to lob the smoke grenade onto a ledge, roof or something above the ground.

That's the way it happens in real life, but not in the game. In the game, wherever the smoke grenade is when it "detonates", is where the cloud forms.

I imagine that having smoke release in real time from a moving physics object would be a performance nightmare if it was done in any realistic way, so when it goes off its just like a single effect.

 

[monster]

This is expoiting a bug. Not a tactic.

 

[Cpt-Praxius]

That's the way it happens in real life, but not in the game. In the game, wherever the smoke grenade is when it "detonates", is where the cloud forms.

I imagine that having smoke release in real time from a moving physics object would be a performance nightmare if it was done in any realistic way, so when it goes off its just like a single effect.

Fascinating.... I can't say I ever noticed this before.... does this also occur in RO1?

 

[NikolaiLev]

No, iirc when a smoke opens in mid-air in RO1, you'll see a few poofs of smoke trailing behind it, and the smoke grenade will plop onto the ground and operate as usual.

However, the RO2 smokes are bugged. They stop mid-air when they detonate (resultant of the experimental anti-gravitation generators deployed on both factions' smoke grenades in the WW2 era) and remain there, releasing a cloud wherever it is suspended.

At least, last I checked.

 

[ro_sauce]

jesus christ wtf are you guys talking about?!?!

it's just an emitter attached to the grenade projectile, and the sprites emitted dont have any negative z axis movement, they just spawn and change size from a timed sizescale, and prolly use a subdivision scale to animate. stop argtuing about useless *** stuff, the sprites spawn where the emitter is when its event is called, be it in the air or on the ground.

 

[I. Kant]

Yes. I am in agreement. I am indicating its tactical usefullness. Period.

 

[Gudenrath]

Fascinating.... I can't say I ever noticed this before.... does this also occur in RO1?

No, this feature is an RO2 exclusive.

 

[Gudenrath]

Yes. I am in agreement. I am indicating its tactical usefullness. Period.

Actually I hadn't thought about exploiting this bug in that way, but yes it could actually be very useful for obscuring smoke on upper floors of buildings.

However, I fear it will take some time to get the accuracy of timing in place and as I expect it is a bug they will someday fix, I may waste time learning this only to find it has suddenly been removed.

 

[I. Kant]

Well, then it shall be removed. Yes, it is difficult.

But, oh so much fun. I am reminded of a small indie game Soldat, where one of the bugs (the so-called crouch-bug) became a semi-official feature, as fans liked it so much that it was left it. Don't think it will happen here (provided this is a bug, not WAD), as the drive towards realism means there is little place for odd physics like these happening.

 

[jackrabbitslim7]

Aren't smoke grenades too effective in the game? The cloud of smoke is really big compared to real smoke grenades.

Maybe it's only caused by the absence of wind.

 

[Golf33]

That has a lot to do with it. Even artillery smoke is pretty subject to the vagaries of the weather in real life.

 

[Westernesse]

Cooking them has a few uses, like taking F/G on CH, Spartanova like previously mentioned and a few spots on Station. The biggest advantage is it can let you kill people on a point in the clear, while providing cover from people in a high position inside a nearby building. So cover for you, without vision loss like throwing it on the ground would give.

 

[DAT]

I once had a smoke grenade get caught on a power wire, cant remeber which map but it was just burning away up on the line doing nothing for obscuration.