[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Christocipher

Hi Mobhack thanks for your help, yes I agree that is a good idea. I think the free elevation guns should get the 1 stabiliser number. I can explain to the rivet counters and error ferrets why those tanks get the new number for you because I understand it now.

But do you think the range for the free elevation guns should be less as well like for the turret and hull machineguns?

Not at all, you are in any case heading waay off the beaten track into the usual "how many angels can dance on a pinhead" sort of territory with that sort of micro detailed discussion that only ultra-geek theorist types think is relevant, like the WW1 French with thier cult of the bayonet and the "charge wuth elan" that would sweep ze battlefield because they had the war-winning red trousers and the equally "important" long pig-sticker bayonets and thier opponent did not...

Originally Posted by Christocipher

I know you must be a busy person because you are a developer but I am trying to learn mobhack and other stuff. Im seeing guns have an accuracy and a firecontrol and a rangefinder If you have time, can you please explain to me what is the difference between these? I already looked in help and I cant understand it much. They seem to be sort of the same and a bit mysterious. Like originally I thought the fire control would be about how the gun is mounted. but now I think it isnt so I dont know what it is. And when I look, is rangefinder for like a real rangefinder or gunsights or both maybe, but it does seem to go up with the fire control numbers. So Im not sure what I should change in mobhack to change a tank to be a free elevation tank.

Accuracy determines the base to-hit chance of a weapon at range X. Higher ACC means the basic to-hit chance is higher for one with more ACC than some other weapon with lower ACC at that range X. And of course if firing low velocity (HE) or high velocity (AP) then the base to-hit differs at longer ranges as well..

Range finder deals with the distance to the target and hence ranging errors. A laser range finder equipped unit (in MBT) has fewer steps to climb on the ranging ladder from first shot to the best with less shots fired at the target.

Fire control deals with both target and firer (own) movement - (hexes moved). FC probably relates to the mounting, speed of traverse and suchlike (including turret turn rates say). STAB interacts with this of course...

And then missiles will do thier own thing, and AAA fire is another completely different kettle of fish as well, and so on and so forth.

And then again, there are other variables that come into play - like the crew quality, suppression level, formation leader quality (good leaders if nearby can "coach" a subordinate), Visibility level (and any night fighting gear you might have) and so on and so forth. And then what terrain type the target is in, any fortification and shell holes etc providing protection, smoke levels and whatever. And deductions for own unit damage, you name it.

In all cases - more is better, and hence more of it costs you more in the points calculator, as does more STAB and so forth. That is really all an end user playing with Mobhack needs to know, unless they have access to our C++.

This stuff is all very basically mentioned in the mobhack help for the basic FC RF etc - Unlike in the original SSI documentation that told you nothing about game mechanics whatsoever - so read that and then perhaps make experimental units and play around with them on a firing range scenario, if you are really interested and have plenty of time on your hands to do the experiments!.

All weapon variables naturally interact and cross over somewhat, but the only way to know how would be to have the code to hand and hook it into a simulator function that runs the core hit chance code say 1000 times. Like the one I made that gives you results for the armour penetration code, APCalc.

SP results are based on various cascaded code routines and sub-routines with plenty of random variables involved. The game internals are not like some of those SPI games with a very simple "shift table" based on one D6 throw for combat that a user could memorise easily and comprehend and so "game" it and judge exactly what stacking strategy to use etc. Think of it as being more like Squad leader with its sub-choices and situational throws (thinking back 40 years here, never really liked that (horribly expensive to buy here in the UK!) system and preferred proper 1/300 tabletop rules by WRG, Tabletop games and so forth - those are the legacy of how I worked when doing my own coding of these games, which are nowhere like the original SSI base module we started with any more other than the basic outline approach - we have been at this gig for 20+ years, after all!).

And no, I wont be doing any hit chance simulator - the APCalc was bad enough and it is still just a tool that only gives a rough approximation and so its a guideline and not absolutely definative. Its basically there to give you a guide to how the various guns perform against armour and compare and contrast them.

And also - I wont be getting into any nore micro-detail discussion of how the code works or what particular subroutines do. We signed a non disclosure agreement with SSI so we cannot discuss thier way of doing things - and we have in any case elaborated and changed the basic SSI codebase over the decades, even if the core outline is still what they laid out, the detail differs somewhat (in some cases a lot!) from the original MSDOS SSI model.