Hull down, spalling, and BMPs

[Don Maddox]

Some questions:

1. The BMP files used for the maps are huge. Is there a particular reason for using BMPs, or will the program also accept .jpg or .gif?

2. Opportunity fire against moving enemies seems to be limited only to targets crossing a particular location designated (during set-up?) as a target reference point. The implication is that there is no opportunity fire whatsoever for a unit that spots a target but hasn't (before the game even started) designated that target's hex as a watch point. Is this so?

3. Since terrain is abstracted equally across an entire hex, what's the point of the discussion of hull-down positions?

4. It seems spalling is taken into account in some manner by the game engine, but how? What effect does it have on gameplay?

5. Can units be ordered to reverse move (move backwards)?

[HPS]

The BMP files used for the maps are huge. Is there a particular reason for using BMPs, or will the program also accept .jpg or .gif? We use BMP files because they are what Windows “wants”, and though bitter experience I’ve found that it doesn’t pay to go against that if you can help it. Not to mention they are the easiest files for most folks to work with, even if they are large.


Opportunity fire against moving enemies seems to be limited only to targets crossing a particular location designated (during set-up?) as a target reference point. The implication is that there is no opportunity fire whatsoever for a unit that spots a target but hasn't (before the game even started) designated that target's hex as a watch point. Is this so?
Opportunity fire is limited to units crossing into the DF target area. That is where units are aimed by default when they are not firing at something else, and where the majority of their concentration will be focused. Enemy units outside that area are engaged with regular fire. The best way to think of it is that opportunity fire models the increased effectiveness against targets in designated sectors of fire.


Since terrain is abstracted equally across an entire hex, what's the point of the discussion of hull-down positions?

Hull-down positions are possible behind linear terrain features, such as walls, behind the crests of hills, and also in IP’s. Within a location without any of these features, though, it is not specifically possible to put a vehicle in a hull-down position unless the terrain has a “height”.


It seems spalling is taken into account in some manner by the game engine, but how? What effect does it have on gameplay?

Spall is a standard damage method created by various types of rounds. It depends on the armor type, the impacting round type, and a few other factors and anti-spall liners may reduce it. The spall creation routines calculate the total mass of spall created, the average velocity, and average size per “chunk”. See 3-2.8 Weapon/Round Effects in the manual for more information.


Can units be ordered to reverse move (move backwards)?
No, human players can’t give specific “back-up” orders. Instead, it is something the AI will do on it’s own whenever it feels it is appropriate.

[Don Maddox]

I received ADC 2 the other day and I’ve been messing around with some maps. Something that I didn’t think about before is what the use of BMPs does to scenario design. From a programming standpoint I understand there are reasons to use BMPs, however, there are some other considerations as well. The maps I just created -- and they’re not that big in game terms -- are HUGE! Too huge to be useful. Why do I say that? The game engine may be able to handle such files, but this makes it really difficult for players to share maps over the internet.

The first couple of maps I made were 30MB or better. I was able to get that down into the 3-5MB range, but that’s probably still too big for any wargame site to host. The bandwidth and server requirements of hosting such files would kill us. And Warfare HQ is in a better situation to host files than most other places. If there truly is no other way to make the game engine work (I’m only talking about the topo map files) with anything other than BMPs, then it’s certainly going to be an impediment to an active scenario and mapping community. Food for thought.

[HPS]

As for BMP files, they are large on the hard drive, but they ZIP up well. My ADC “gurus” have told me that POA topo maps are fine in 256 colors, which makes them comparable to JPG files in size when they are zipped. Also, if you need to save space and you’re not using some cool looking picture like the Albuquerque aerial-photo, you can skip the zoom level 3 bitmaps and limit use to the terrain tiles.