please give us more snippets of news pyro

[Hazed]

as long as i know whats coming and a rough idea of when i dont mind waiting but not knowing when next plane/vehicle etc is due is driving me crazy  

  only kidding,....ok im not.. NEWS!!! please  

[funked]

It's all coming in two weeks.

[HaHa]

Pyro said he won't be back from gambling his life away until Thursday.

[ra]

I wonder how long it would take to hitchhike from Vegas to Texas?

[Hans]

Ok, HiTech leaked some infobits this weekend in the Main Arena.  I don't know what version each change will go into, or even IF they will ever get done, but here they are...

• Icons for tanks vs. airplanes will be reduced 1.5k, but air to air will stay as is.  He did mention that getting rid of the black "dot" would be harder so it is only the icon range that is getting shortened.
• Icons between enemy ground vehicles, none.  No icon, not at even 2 feet away.  Friendly vehicles will apear at 1.5k.
• Sherman tank's gunsight (not the tank, just the gunsight).  If I recall this sight has a row of various sized boxes at the top, each one with a range number next to it.  Slew the sight over the target tank and see which box (specifically the height of the box) fits the best, then that is the enemy tank's range from you.  We are going to need this when the icons for enemy tanks go bye-bye.
• Ground objects.  Something for tanks to go hull-down in and maneuver around inside.  I asked about treelines, but HT said those were not planned.  I assume this will be houses, small hills and ridgelines.
• Battleships.  Carriers.  PT-boats.  Somewhere I remember HT or Pyro mentioning that v1.04+ may get a Navy.  Yes, these will be player controlled ships.  WB's Captain A.I. Numbnutz need not apply.
• FlaK.  Puffy, black cloudes of shrapnel throwing explosives fired up to 30,000 feet.
• M7 Priest.  American, self propelled, 105mm artillery gun.
• Tank turrets.  Other players will see the turret turn on their oponent's tank.  Also, the Panzer will get a single .50 cal (more or less) machine gun in the coupla for Anti-aircraft use.

Hanz.

[This message has been edited by Hans (edited 05-23-2000).]

[NineZ]

Sounds pretty dag-goned cool!

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[Badger]

 

Originally posted by Hans:
...Sherman tank's gunsight (not the tank, just the gunsight).  If I recall this sight has a row of various sized boxes at the top, each one with a range number next to it.  Slew the sight over the target tank and see which box (specifically the height of the box) fits the best, then that is the enemy tank's range from you.

Hmmm....as a qualified Sherman (M4A2E8), circa 1952 vintage, Group 2 RCAC Gunner, I don't remember a sighting telescope with those characteristics.  It was much more like we have today in the Panzer IV with distance markings (numbers) on horizontal lines.  It did have azimuth marks graduated in mils so that you could provide corrections for lateral deflection, which the current Panzer IV sight does not have.  What you speak of, actually sounds to me more like the real German 1940's Panzer optics, but I could be wrong.  Perhaps the 1944 Sherman sight was different than the 1952 version, but I doubt it.

Anyway, not being picky as it's just a game anyway and it has been over 35 years, so I hope it's not the early stages of dementia.

Great news about the features though.  I love marketing leaks.  They spice up dull days and keep the competition awake.  

Regards,
Badger

[Hans]

Sherman sights.

Well, I didn't fully explain myself.  First off I am probably wrong.  I've never actually seen a Sherman sight pictured before.  I'm just going off what I have seen in other games.

The row of boxes are along the TOP of the sight.  These are aids for determining range.

There rest of the sight looks like we have now, yes.  Well, sorta.  Both the high velocity AP and low velocity HE scales are in the same sight, side by side.

But, I am willing to admit I really have only a vague idea.  If you are a Sherman tanker....tells us what it should look like and how you determine the target's range, please.

Hanz.

[Badger]

 

Originally posted by Hans:
Sherman sights.

.....If you are a Sherman tanker....tells us what it should look like and how you determine the target's range, please.

Hi Hans.....

As I said, I can ONLY speak to the sighting telescope mounted in the M4A2E8 Sherman (76mm) that I qualified on.  It was a circa early 50's critter with a reticule pattern in the sight, remarkably similar to what Hitech has programmed with what we see now.  The vertical bar down the center with horizontal lines for range (marked on each line in yards) that became increasingly tighter together as the range decreased.  It also had additional horizontal markings for lateral displacement and fire correction that were graduated in mils.  I believe there's 6400 mils in 360 degrees.  There was a hand traverse wheel (gunner's right hand) marked with mils also for the same fine corrections so that we could look down and move the gun laterally without having to look through telescope.

I have no recollection of the boxes and triangles you mentioned, but that could be just a 35 year memory dysfunction.  I do have a huge kitbag of musty and smelly (wife's term) manuals from those days, so I should go rummaging around and see what's there.  I would bet that Hitech or Pyro already have something from this era that would answer the question.  Again, NOTE!  I don't not know if the sight was changed between 1944 and early 50's, but I doubt it as nothing else much changed in the gyro stabilization system or the gun drills and techniques themselves.

Sorry, I can't be of much help and the only other thing I have are a lot of pics from those days that might show better details.  hehehe...I was just looking in an old album and found a pic of my very first round being fired from a Sherman as a fresh young Crew Commander.  I can still remember that moment as if it was yesterday.  I was standing in cupola ring, top half of my body exposed, targeting the gunner on an old Sherman wreck down range.  When the 76mm went off, it spun me around in the turret, blew my beret off, singed (burnt) my eyebrows and hair and I choked on the cordite fumes that rose up from inside the turret.  The instructor on the back deck (WWII Sherman and Korean War vet) leaned over and hollered in my ear, "don't you wish you had joined the infantry now?"  ....hehehe

I could scan these, but I have no place to put them on the web.  Some great shots of Shermans and Kangaroos.

Exciting times for a youngster with good people....mostly great memories, but some bad ones as well.

Regards,
Badger


[This message has been edited by Badger (edited 05-24-2000).]

[Hazed]

thanks for the replies sounds good  

[Superfly]

check the news section.......  

------------------
John "SUPERFLY" Guytan - Art Director
HiTech Creations
"Happiness is a warm gun momma" - The Beatles
-=HELLFIRE=- SQUAD

[Nash]

Those cockpits are sweeeeet!

[Greg 'wmutt' Cook]

On the tank site issue:  It's not the Sherman sight, that has the size boxes, but the German sight.  They had  different sized triangles used to compare the object in them and make an educated guess at range. All you needed to know was how tall the object was.  It would be cool to have this type of setup and then publish the heights of things like hangers, AA guns and such.  Would make tanking more of a skill based occupation.

------------------
Greg 'wmutt' Cook
332nd Flying Mongrels

[Hans]

Nope.  I know what the German sight looks like with it's triangles.

What I was talking about was different.  It was used in the Microprose M1-Tank platoon 2 game (secondary sights in case the main sights get damaged).

I figured that this was a hold over from WW-2.

I want to desribe what it looks like again.

The sight looks like what we have now.  However, ADD several brackets/boxes along the TOP edge of the viewing area.  If you try to use those brackets for a crosshair, you going to shoot the dirt in front of you.  One box was large, then the next one was smaller, and smaller, ect.

You slew the sight so that your target tank is inside this row of boxes.  Pan left or right till you find one that fits its height.  Read off the range.  NOW you can point the gun straight at the target and elevate the barrel using the scale (like what we have now) to fire at what you've measure his range at.

We won't have any way of determining range if we loose the icons...which I heard HT say they are going to do.

I have also done a little digging.  I don't beleave that Shermans ever had a "range finder" scale like I was describing.  You could use the coax machine gun to fire downrange to get an aproximation of the range.  Fire it and eleveate/depress the gun till it starts hitting.  This way you don't waste main gun ammo on ranging shots.
In reality I thought that the German sights would have been more appropriate since it is a Panzer in the game.

German sights look like this.

   

Each mil is 1 meter at the calibrated range of 1000 meters distance away.  A Panzer IV is about 2.5 meters tall.  If you can determine if the target is 2.5 "mils" tall, then its 1000 meters/yards away.

Pulling back on the joystick shouldn't move the sights, just the gun barrel.  Around the outside edge of the sight is a scale and a needle marking what range the gun is set to fire at.  The small triangle to the right of the big, central triangle is the crosshairs one.  Put that triangle on target and let her rip.

Hanz.

[This message has been edited by Hans (edited 05-24-2000).]

[CavemanJ]

 

Originally posted by SUPERFLY:
check the news section.......    

dinnae see a shot of the new main gun sight for the tank... or am I just blind??