Background & Explanation

Didn't get it? Or just wanna know wtf I was thinking? Here you can find it out. If you dare.



14. I Don't Wanna Know

A beautiful quiet night at Angola. What could go wrong? “Vehicle abandoned”. Whaaaat!? No bullets were fired! I locate the incident site and find this murky looking guy just standing there beside his inclined vehicle. He simply kept staring at my screen and I swear that he spoke to me! Due to darkness (you know what I’m talking about) the picture is modified with cartoonish effect.



13. Clown Car

Don’t you think that clowns are kinda funny?

Some people, me included, call the vehicle introduced in this episode a clown car, because its small, light and funny appearance. Once my scout patrol happened to stumble upon one and guess what? They found that it’s also equipped with not-so-fun machinegun.

Don’t you think that clowns are kinda scary?




11. Hidden In Daylight

All alone in the night it’s driving you nuts!



12. Weathered Plans

Did I check the weather before deploying my forces? Of course not! I wouldn’t remember it even if I did. Tough game... 



11. Hidden In Daylight

All alone in the night it’s driving you nuts!



10. New Year Special

What did you expect?



9. Armored Mobility

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Loading infantry on tanks is a good way to relocate them quickly without increasing their fatigue level. But do not plan to do that off-road during winters with slow matilda tanks unless you have a lifetime to spend. If you do, your infantry will soon find out that it’s actually faster to move by foot. And by foot I mean walking. So please sir, do not even start thinking about going uphill – the time might stop or go reverse…




8. Judgement

If I would ask, how would you define a victory? Is it a victory, if a young strong man beats an old sick woman in a wheel chair? Is it a victory, if you win a competition, but lose something dearest in the process? The definition of a victory is subjective.

In this episode a tank company (first screen) attacks an enemy controlled territory, where the resistance turns out to be non-existent: only a single supply truck is met (second screen). The enemy retreats or is utterly eliminated, but the game reports that the battle ended in a DRAW (third screen).

WHAT WERE THE DEVELOPERS THINKING!?

The game evaluates every battle that player finishes and the result may seem totally ABSURD. You may have completely eliminated all enemy forces, but you may still get “DRAW” or even “TOTAL DEFEAT” in some cases. This is because the game evaluates how well the objectives of a combat mission were met in a relative sense: What was the number, quality and condition of friendly forces before AND after the battle? How about the same for the enemy forces? Was the player attacking or defending? Did the player succeed in defending or capturing objectives (territory)? A victory may lose its value, when all of these questions are answered.

Conclusion: if a tank company defeats a single supply truck, it’s a victory, but so insignificant that it’s much closer to a DRAW than a true VICTORY.




7. Moment of Silence

Did you know that luck plays a major role in your life? Think about it: you were given some random genes, you were born in a random country and you’ve basically met random people at random places at random times during your life. Then there are things like a theoretical chance of a meteor crashing on you... Yes, you’re in total control of your life.

As in real life the luck can have a notable effect in the game too. In the first screen of this episode one of the first main battle tanks, m60a1 “Patton”, is firing its main gun. The target is an approaching t-62 tank seen in the second screen. The shot travels through almost a kilometer of barren deserted land and regardless of the distance hits the target. Yet no boom is observed: the shot hits frontal armor plate of the t-62 at poor angle, fails to penetrate and ricochets to the sky (notice the light ball above t-62 in the second screen).

What a shock for the m60 crew: a blast wave of their main gun lifted a dense dust cloud hampering their quick follow-up shot. What a relief for the t-62 crew: they survived the hit thus having time to react.

The dust settles down and both tanks hurry up to aim their gun. This time the t-62 happens to be faster and takes the lucky shot, which can be deduced from the small details in the last screen: There’s an empty shell on the ground ejected from the t-62 and a rising smoke pillar on the horizon from the m60 tank – the shot by the t-62 was extremely fatal.

Have a moment of silence for the m60 crew. Good that they were only simulated pixelmen, but bad that they were my pixelmen. :(




6. Community

Welcome to the forums... :D
 

 
5. Renewed Interface

I had a chance to take a preview of the Mius Front, which is the next incarnation of Graviteam Tactics series. One of its major new features is the simplified and more intuitive user interface. To relieve you from excitement I decided to take a screenshot of the new tactical interface for you (seen in the episode). How do you like it? I think new players will find it easier to familiarize themselves with the game and that there will be a whole new branch of players, since the game is now touchpad friendly too!

OK, let’s cut the crap. This episode was directly based on the words of a developer, who joked about reducing the interface to have only two options: “kill all using AI” and “quit game”. That’s what you get if you complain too much about complexity, I guess.



4. Precision

Are you a precise person? Well, I am quite precise in my actions, and to be honest, sometimes even too precise. To make it an advantage it’s good to know the difference between being precise and being just an idiot. In this fourth episode I’m showing you what an idiot I am – other than making these episodes of a GAME that is only MARGINALLY KNOWN in UNPOLULAR GENRE.

In the first screen I’ve set up a target area for artillery in preparation for bombardment of enemy controlled village. But oh noes, the accuracy of artillery on the target area is only 80 m, which is the maximum error of predicted center of hits, I think. To improve accuracy I order my spotter group to move closer, because they are the ones who actually call and direct the artillery fire. After their relocation is completed I move the target area a bit towards the west so that the spotter group can have better line of sight on it. And voila! The accuracy increases to 60m (second screen). 

Time to shake some balls: Ready – set – fire!! ”WOOOOSH, WOOOSH, WOOOOOOSH”, terror of man-portable Grad-p battery rockets fill the air (third screen). So cool! ...If only those rockets would hit the village. Wait! Rockets!? Yeah, rockets. I forgot that I’m targeting for very inaccurate high dispersion rockets...

P.S. I colored the story a bit in this re-enactment. The accuracy on the target area was something about 200 m at first, to be precise.



3. Zooming In

In this one I was fooling around with the title. Note that besides ”enlarging” or ”inspecting  more closely” ”zoom  in” is also an idiom to ”moving rapidly towards something”.

I picked this particular incident from the game, because it always makes me smile wide: a tank spots an enemy anti-tank gun in close proximity and decides to make some pan cakes. Yum! While the tank is zooming in, the commander of the anti-tank gun keeps zooming in with his binoculars up to the last second, before that monster smashes their gun to the ground. You can see the commander closely in the middle screen that I zoomed in for you. :) Now, that guy has some nerves!



2. Night Battle

Have you ever been outside far from the city during murky winter nights? If you have, you know that it’s very dark out there! Just like inside my head. 

Because this game is heavily influenced by realism you can expect plenty of dark knights nights. I always thought it’s funny, when you had lights before the battle and after the battle, but not during the action. But hey, it’s realism! That’s what this episode is about. Maybe I should also mention that with the newer game versions nights have become more brighter for practical reasons – or I have messed up something with my gamma settings, which wouldn’t be too far-fetched.

”Tell me about the infiltration! Why didn’t you mention it!?” Whoooah, you have really been playing this game! Ok, this episode actually had a dual meaning: it also demonstrates how easy it’s for you and your enemy to bypass each other in the dark – on purpose or by accident. The last screen shows part of my mortar platoon deployed in the rear/side position of the main attacking force. The notable detail in this screen is the red squared ground, which indicates heavy enemy influence/presence in that sector when the battle ended. As a result, the mortar platoon is immediately forced to retreat to adjacent friendly sector and my control of the territory is lost. In short, the enemy AI just slipped my pants down without me even realizing it! AAArrrrggh!!



1. Fording

In the first episode you meet a failteam, a mechanized platoon, attempting to cross a river. Four vehicles get to the other side and the rest of the six went ”to the other side”. ;)

This episode deals with the fact that fording has considerable risks in reality and in the game too. In the game, however, drivers tend to be even more drunk than in real life, which may lead to unpredictable hilarious (alt+F4) situations. This was especially true in the past days, but modern drivers in the game seem to value more sober ways. At least when I keep on watcing them.