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vehicles appear but usually don't see half of 'em go by. When you are the TC - are you better than AI
TC??
The computer TC is fast, yeah, but they have a real problem with obscured targets, or targets at range, and a
major problem spotting anything to the sides and rear of the vehicle.
They're good enough to provide a high level of competence, particularly with a good battle plan that keeps
everything to the front, but a sharp player will be able to outperform them regularly (same as the computer
gunners).
Mekhazzio - 04/2001 SBCom Forum
About SA:
Maintaining SA is simply the matter of not allowing yourself to get fixated on any one thing : don't micromanage
from the map, leave the gunnery to the gunner, and always keep an eye out for new threats you might have to
deal with.
Mekhazzio - 06/2001 SBCom Forum
About "Cavalry to the Rescue"-mission:
While there - is - a lot of terrain to scan in this mission, you can narrow that down by excluding that which you
can consider reasonably safe.
For instance, you can consider everything south and east as clear until you get to the PCs, since the enemy
only approaches (and has time to approach) from the north and west. Also, you can dismiss most of the far flat
plains area, since it's flat and anything moving across it would be spotted -- no need to keep scanning over it
much.
Also, you can mostly leave the frontal arc to your gunner...with a human gunner especially, since their TIS will
spot things a heck of a lot better than you will.
So I mostly focus on the side arcs, and the major areas of concern are the "dead zones", places you couldn't
see before that are now revealed as you cross over/around a terrain feature -- part of using terrain to your
advantage is to keep those dead zones down to the smallest manageable area -- if you're coming around a hill,
you can just scan around that hill as you circle it -- it's opening up a minor portion of area at a time (one you can
keep your gun on, in fact) -- but if you go OVER that hill, you're instantly revealing the entire area on the other
side, which is way too much to cover before you could receive a round from anybody in there.
IMO, the external view really hurts more than it helps -- you're not controlling the tank, the AI is, and the AI
doesn't really spot as well as a human can. With external view you're also giving up the GPSE and override
capabilities, as well as the tank intercom (so you can't hear your gunner scream "Identified!! BACK UP!!" at you
in MP)
IMO it's also a lot easier to drive from the TC's seat, and the arrow keys that jump you to facing front/side/back
of the gun really help the quick checking of this or that direction (checking up on wingmates, or going to another
direction, etc)
The TC's seat is the place to be.
Mekhazzio - 07/2001 SBCom Forum