pooroldspike

Depending on your system, disabling 'Post-process effects' is the one that had me turning handsprings of delight down the street when I first tried it because it instantly crisped up the display fantastically- PIC 1- with PP effects set to Low or higher, note the fuzziness- PIC 2- Disable it- PIC 3- And now the pic is so crisp you could count the spots on a ladybirds back at 100 metres. (actually the effect is even better on our monitors--trust me-- as these shrunken little JPEG screenshots introduce a degree of blurring; i can't use fullsize GIF pics or the moderators would kill me for exceeding the forum size limit)

Aargh this thread has run to over a hundred pages and I just got here! Are you saying there's an AA2 Normandy mod that's finished, playable and ready to go? Is it called Normandy or Invasion? What page is the most up to date download link on? What version is it? Thanks PS- i know a little bit about WW2 AFV's so if i can help in any way let me know. I can also do hours of playtesting every day if you like

Well this thread seems to have satisfactorily run its course and we've all learnt a few things about campaigns and tactics and immediate bans etc along the way..:) (PS- sorry about the spoiler thing, I mistakenly thought putting the big word "Spoiler" at the top of my sensational post would be enough)

Well I don't like Campaigns (I haven't the patience) but just had a brief crack at Eagles Wing on Regular difficulty-

Of course, if you've got Hellfires there's no need to waste time with the gun, just hit 'F' a couple of times to cycle to Hellfs (readout top right), hit 'Tab' to lock on.. Then pop up just above the treetops (don't want to risk blowing up a thrushes nest) and let fly with the left mouse button- Zappo, I fire a volley of 4 Hellfires in a feeding frenzy and the Tung is toast, it all happened so quick it never even had time to acquire the helo with its radar and start shooting- We fly over to gloat and tell it "Don't ever take sides with anybody against the family again" Bemused local villagers will tell their grandchildren of "the day the fire came by" TACTICAL SUMMARY- 1- Keep the chopper at or below treetop height to confuse the Tungs radar. 2- The choppers gun can penetrate the Tungs frontal armour,although it may take a full minute or more of firing. 3- In a straight gunfight at 1 km, the odds of winning are 50-50 4- In a gunfight at less than 1 km the Tung has the edge. 5- If you've got Hellfires forget about gunfights, just pop up to treetop height, lock on and let fly. 6- Finally remember these tests were conducted in clear weather, and that results may vary slightly according to visibility and weather under combat conditions etc.

APACHE V TUNGUSKA tests (vanilla Comb Ops 1.57/1.08, 'Regular' difficulty) I place the contenders 1km apart on Vybor Plain, Chernarus.. The WRONG way- our chopper pops up well above the treeline in plain view and begins trading shots (red tracer) with the Tung (green tracer). (Note, I'm 'Player as pilot' but the gunner usually opens up without me having to order him. Alternatively hit 'Tab' to help him by giving him a lockon) After a minute or so of continual shooting by both sides, the helo gets its ass busted, (BUT in reruns sometimes the helo won and sometimes the Tung won, it's a 50-50 deal) I also ran the test several times at half the range (500m) but the helo usually got shot down, so it looks like the Tung is more effective than the chopper at closer ranges. The RIGHT way- this time the helo stays below the treeline and the Tung can't see him because its radar and the crews eyeballs are confused by the leaves. But the chopper gunner can see him and begins hosing him down, note the red tracer. Again, the gunner does it all on his own initiative bless him.. NOTE- If the Tung crew saw you going behind the trees earlier, they might fire through the trees to get at you because they know where you are, there are no guarantees so watch out.. After a full minute or two of pouring cannon fire into the Tung, it's scratch one flat top! The poor Tung never fired at all! (Incidentally all these tests were against the Tungs thicker frontal armour)

I set up this basic simple test in the editor. There are no doubt other ways to do it and add various refinements etc, but this is aimed at newcomers- 1- Get on the radio to the circling A-10 by hitting 'F2', point at the target you want it to zap, then send the order with a left mouse click. 2- The A-10 will then position itself for the attack run and whammo, it lets fly with rockets and gunfire- NOTE:- Sometimes the A-10 will abort its attack run if it loses sight of the enemy. That's more likely to happen if you order it to strike infantry because they have the habit of running into cover.

Yeh there are various ways to play nav missions, I should imagine the hardest are making your way through enemy terriotory crawling with hawkeyed AI bots because the chances are he'll see you before you see him and crackle!- you're dead meat. Unless of course you improve your chances by moving through thick woods, low ground, along hedgerows, gullies and peoples back yards etc as much as possible. I suppose you could also have a friendly helo orbiting overhead to warn you where the bad guys are. Alternatively have no friendly helo and no enemy ground troops, but give Opfor a few chopper gunships to hunt you down instead so you can dive for cover when you hear one coming and enjoy the bowel-churning thrill of wondering if he's seen you. PS- I'm no astronomy whizz but this looks like Orion to me; correct me if I'm wrong but I swear I heard in Star Trek that Spocks home planet Vulcan is in Orion's belt..

You can even set night and navigate by the stars. Hey you innocent noobs, remember the Big Dipper (or 'Plough') always points to the north star like this- "I am constant as the northern star, of whose true-fix'd and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament."- Shakesp's J. Caesar BUT- at the moment I'm trying to find a way to work around the annoying fact that the map's red crosshairs tend to zero in on your position even though you've disabled your icon, meaning you still know where you are, and there's no fun in that...grrr. (one way round it would be to print out the map and play the game with it on your knee)

Thanks guys i've followed some of your suggestions about creating simple "Manhunt"/ "Pilot Down"/ "Orienteering" missions and here are some of my dabblings- In the Editor place a guy in the middle of the map, then set a 'Placement radius' of about 6000 metres around him so that he appears at a random point inside the circle every time you start a new mission- Then disable his icon so that he won't appear on the ingame map (that'd be too easy) Run the Preview a few times just to check that he really does appear at different spots each time like this-

Yeh, applying Arrowhead patch 1.57 to Comb Ops will update AA2 to 1.08 at the same time, it did for me..:)

And if you've got Comb Ops, slap the Arrowhead 1.57 patch on it and it'll patch AA2 to 1.08 at the same time, at least it did for me.

If you prefer disks to downloads you can buy AA2 and OA on separate disks and simply combine them to make Combined Ops like I did.

Thanks guys I think i've cracked it, the breakthrough came when I placed a 'US Army Special Weapons' crate in the editor and found a laser designator in it. (previously I'd only looked in the 'US Special Weapons' crate, so obviously the word 'Army' makes all the difference) You simply point the laser and click on what you want to clobber, then wait for the A-10 to pick it up and make its run and drop one of its 4x LGB's on whatever the designators pointing at such as buildings or a dam etc. I'm still testing it out and there are some loose ends I need to tie up, but like I said at least I now know how to do that laser sh*t..:)

Yes the AI (artificial intelligence) robots are usually pretty dumb and we have to nanny them along; but look on it as an interesting test of your leadership to get the best out of them..:) For example I just set up this little exercise inside 2 minutes in the Editor (the Ed is a great simple way for running tests etc) I placed myself ('player') and 4 men (AI bots) on the Ed map to form my squad, then hit 'Preview' to begin the game. Okay,for this exercise hit the period key '.' on your numpad to go to the Tactical view to get a better overall birds eye view of your boys, and hit the numpad '+ and -' keys to zoom to a comfortable level. Move the mouse cursor around the edges of the picture to further adjust the view if you like, and you should be seeing something like this, (you're the guy in the middle)- Okay, hit 'Space' to light up the squads icons along bottom left of the screen and hit '7' on the main keyboard. Piece o' cake! A list of stance orders will come up on the left, so just select the one you want (eg 'Prone') and the boys will drop prone like this..:) Hit 'Z' to make yourself drop prone too. Okay just to sum up, the two-key sequence to get 'stances' is Space and 7. You can play around with other stances too like Crouch and Stand. Incidentally you can change formation too, the sequence is Space and 8. For examp here I order my boys to go into Column (compact), great for moving down alleyways in towns like a SWAT stack. Try out all ten number buttons too (1 to 0) for fun to see what they do, but don't forget to hit Space before each one. Oh, and to exit Tactical view just hit period again.

I want a SOFLAM laser designator! I've tried to find a guy with one in vanilla Comb Ops, but there's just the usual list to choose from (Rifleman/Grenadier/Machinegunner etc etc), and none of them seem to have a SOFLAM. I even picked a guy called 'Spotter', but he didn't seem to have one either. And i placed a few ammo crates and rummaged through them looking for a SOFLAM but couldn't find one. So it looks like there's no laser designator in vanilla (sniffle)

Okay I just called in an airstrike by map and radio only even though I was in a building and couldn't see the target which was miles away, how kewl is dat? i posted half-a-dozen screenshots about it at the Few Good Men club (scroll down to their Armed Assault II Section)- http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/forum.php I wish I could post them here but some are over the 100kb limit, but this one scrapes in at 98kb. Basically it's a 2-step process, first order the A-10 to fly to a spot on the map to look for enemies, then if it spots any, order it to clobber them-

I shall have to have a go at serious scripting one day, but at the moment I'm having great fun just playing at the basic level..:) Incidentally in my test, I can't find any way to make the A-10 attack an empty object such as a building, oil tank or control tower etc, which is disappointing. As the test showed, I had to point at a spotted enemy unit to order an airstrike.

Incidentally at 'Regular' difficulty there's no cast-iron guarantee that the enemy icons will be accurately placed on the map, so don't take them as gospel. Remember icons only indicate the enemy's LAST KNOWN POSITION, and he may not be there any more. Also, if only one or two icons are showing don't take that as gospel either, as in fact there may be MORE bad guys there who aren't showing on the map. Trust me, i see this all the time during play, as no doubt many other players have too. The map therefore often only gives us a rough idea of enemy location and numbers and that's fine by me because it maintains a realistic 'uncertainty' factor. i mean, if the map icon thing was absolutely accurate all the time it'd be too easy..:)

Thanks i'll bear it in mind to give the AI bots some payback..:)

I play at 'Regular' because it feels about right. Sure it might give us a couple of unrealistic-seeming benefits, but the enemy AI accuracy/spotting is unrealistically too good anyway at all levels, so it kinda balances things out. PS- when enemy icons show up on the map even before you've spotted them, it's not as unrealistic as it seems because it might mean you caught a fleeting glimpse of movement or a glint of light off a weapon etc, or else one of your teammates thought he saw something, waddya say Billy? "There's something in the trees"

Try holding CTRL and hitting +/- (or mouse wheel) to shrink/expand what's on screen