Tanks: no magnification available when targeting?

[botmund 0]

I have hard time seeing any targets at all in the single mission involving the three Abrams tanks. I hear a lot of reports of targets but I have to drive up to the to see them.

Doesn't modern MBTs have quite effective magnification in the optics used from inside the tank?

[l mandrake 9]

numpad + and - to zoom gunsight in and out.

[frederf 0]

Mind you that's for the gunner optics. The commander optics are stuck 1:1 (in game, not real life).

[l mandrake 9]

oh i see - sorry ignore my post

[Rhodite 3]

Mind you that's for the gunner optics. The commander optics are stuck 1:1 (in game, not real life).

This will be fixed

[Shashman 0]

numpad + and - to zoom gunsight in and out.

Num + and - don't work for me for some reason

I'm stuck on default zoom in all armour

[Jester_UK 0]

numpad + and - to zoom gunsight in and out.

Num + and - don't work for me for some reason  

I'm stuck on default zoom in all armour  

Worked in ver 1.04, but no longer works even on the gunner's sight in ver 1.05.

EDIT: Just went and checked the key assignments and they seem fine. Then retested in the M1. Strangely, although the zoom wouldn't work for me after installing the patch it's fine (for the gunner's sight) now.

[Shashman 0]

Speaking of gunners' sights...

How do you target something? When I right click (which is difficult now that there's no 'cursor' to know what you're right clicking on anymore) it just changes the view.

I mean, in OFP all you had to do was put the cursor over the desired target, right click and it would be targeted, no matter whether it was an enemy vehicle or a house.

[mr reality 0]

I'm finding that using a tank in ArmA is not a very pleasant experiance. Like Shashman pointed out, it was very straight forward targeting and ordering to fire in Flashpoint, but in Arma it's difficult to target as the cursor seems fixed and how do you tell your gunner to fire without having to press the spacebar and scroll down the menu.

Because of the turret mounted MG the ammo choice always reverts back to the commanders MG. When you try and order your gunner to fire at a locked on target you just fire your MG.

I set up a test in the editor with three M1s against five BMPs. All the M1s were destroyed with no BMP casualties. I was commanding one of the M1s and i didn't even get a single shot off. This was mainly down to the fact i couldn't target anything because of the fixed cross hair. I was playing in 3rd person mode.

[Heatseeker 0]

I think BIS should give a little atention to tank operation and loadouts. Things like firing the top, turret MG from the inside should be corrected, the same for targeting and shooting system.

The MG turrets are a significant improvement compared to OPF but other than that many other things are a downgrade .

Can a light source be atached to a turret now?

[DaRat 0]

I just think they need to bring back the cursor altogether. Targetting enemies/ buildings/ anything is practically impossible now.. Commanding tanks and flying helis used to be fun AND practical in ofp, now it's just... well.. unworkable IMO.

[Shashman 0]

I concur...

As an OFP pilot, I can tell my job isn't gonna be easy in ArmA

[Fred DM 0]

don't you have to hold the right mouse button to target in the tank?

[mr reality 0]

don't you have to hold the right mouse button to target in the tank?

Yes, but with the cross hair being fixed it makes it somewhat difficult to do that.

I would like to know the correct procedure to tell the gunner to fire on a locked on target. It certainly isn't the left mouse button anymore as that just fires the turret MG.

[-CS-SOBR-1st-I-R- 0]

To get back to the very original question ...

in OFP I often used NVGoogles to spot enemy armour units. They reflected a certain amount of light, I dont know if this works in ArmA aswell.

But I think I get your point... it would be nice of tanks would have an InfraRed vision, so you can spot infantry and enemy tank as in real life.

[colt 0]

Mr Reality:

To order the gunner to fire, press the left ctrl key.

[cuppa 0]

i was stuck on this for a while,,,but left ctrl tells him to fire or cease fire.

[mr reality 0]

Ah i see. I was using the space/left mouse button. It's not as simple as Flashpoint, but then again it did take me a while to get to grips with those controls aswell. Thanks guys...

[jasono 0]

Right click used to work to aim on targets but now, like you said it just changes view. I find that getting them in radar range and pressing tab works for me now.

[Fred DM 0]

so going into command mode (SPACE or DEL) and left clicking on an enemy tank orders your own gunner to fire the machine gun while pressing CTRL orders him to fire the cannon?

why does he fire the MG in the first place? it worked fine in OpF, why is it so complicated now?

[weegee_101 0]

SOBR[1st-I-R] @ Mar. 04 2007,16:16)]To get back to the very original question ...

in OFP I often used NVGoogles to spot enemy armour units. They reflected a certain amount of light, I dont know if this works in ArmA aswell.

But I think I get your point... it would be nice of tanks would have an InfraRed vision, so you can spot infantry and enemy tank as in real life.

Honestly, I'd like to see a thermal scope in ArmA. I was kind of hoping for one after wanting one in OFP for a long while. Like you said, the NVG worked well to help spot enemy armour in OFP, but in ArmA you can barely see out of the NVG during daylight (which is realistic).

A thermal scope would give the Abrams the advantage that it actually has IRL. I'm pretty sure that the operational orders for the M1A1 and M1A2 have the gunner and commander using the thermal scopes at all times to spot enemy vehicles from a distance.

[frederf 0]

Mind you that's for the gunner optics. The commander optics are stuck 1:1 (in game, not real life).

This will be fixed

Thanks! I can think of the following optics that need zoom:

M1A1 commander

Stryker ICV gunner

Stryker ATGM gunner

HMMWV TOW gunner

[HamishUK 0]

The M1 tanks use a TOGS box (Thermal Observation Gunnery Sight).

So the fact they are using a starlight scope for night is incorrect. I am sure it would be fairly simple to code heat sources coming from vehicles. I realise that the Thermal sight would also detect buildings as well but maybe for simplicity sake vehicles show as white hot and buildings black hot.

Also the M1's front and side Chobham Armour is resistant to AT-5 missiles. Okay maybe it makes the tank too tough for a game but then lets look at it realistically that the M1 when hit from the front will not be taken out so quickly.

Is there anyway to change the armour values in the game?

[memnoch 0]

Not only armour but tyres. Putting 5 or 6 rounds into a Ural tire doesn't seem very realistic to me. Perhaps they run on flats and the game is modelling a destroyed wheel rather than flat? In that case I dont think 5 rounds would completely destroy it either.

[EricJ 765]

SOBR[1st-I-R] @ Mar. 04 2007,16:16)]To get back to the very original question ...

in OFP I often used NVGoogles to spot enemy armour units. They reflected a certain amount of light, I dont know if this works in ArmA aswell.

But I think I get your point... it would be nice of tanks would have an InfraRed vision, so you can spot infantry and enemy tank as in real life.

Honestly, I'd like to see a thermal scope in ArmA.  I was kind of hoping for one after wanting one in OFP for a long while.  Like you said, the NVG worked well to help spot enemy armour in OFP, but in ArmA you can barely see out of the NVG during daylight (which is realistic).

A thermal scope would give the Abrams the advantage that it actually has IRL.  I'm pretty sure that the operational orders for the M1A1 and M1A2 have the gunner and commander using the thermal scopes at all times to spot enemy vehicles from a distance.

I noticed that the driver's location for the Stryker ICV M2 is jacked up too.  It should have a thermal sight as well.  Matter of fact NVGs shouldn't be required as it shows in the screen (sorry, UK 1.05) some of the NVG and some of the screen without the NVG overlay.  And is there a scripting way to raise/lower the seat?

Oh and to be anal HamisUK, the proper term is CITV, or Commanders Independant Thermal Viewer. That's only on the A2, not the M1 or M1A1. TOGS is Challenger/Chally 2.