About Those New 'Splody Trucks...

[BlitzPig_EL]

 

I put two of them next to this German train that is sitting on a siding.   I then attacked it with a P51 using only guns.

I shot at the one on the upper left, from about this angle.  It blew up, which blew up the other one, and the entire train.

What was left of my Mustang is beyond that line of trees, in a million pieces on the ground.

 

Be forewarned.

 

[WheelwrightPL]

Are those added to career mode too ? If so it may be a short career.

[BlitzPig_EL]

No idea about career mode.  I just placed them in a couple of my dogfight missions to see what they do.

[Rjel]

28 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

 

I put two of them next to this German train that is sitting on a siding.   I then attacked it with a P51 using only guns.

I shot at the one on the upper left, from about this angle.  It blew up, which blew up the other one, and the entire train.

What was left of my Mustang is beyond that line of trees, in a million pieces on the ground.

 

Be forewarned.

 

Hoping they'll incorporate that into some train cars at some point. Some really good WWII guncam features massive train explosions.

[BlitzPig_EL]

That it did.

[Gambit21]

Damn...I wish they'd come out a year ago.

No time to go retrofitting now.

 

[Feathered_IV]

If they can do that, could they also make a smokey truck?  One that burns for ages and emits big plume of smoke?

[BraveSirRobin]

30 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

If they can do that, could they also make a smokey truck?  One that burns for ages and emits big plume of smoke?

 

They could do that now.  But it would cause a slide show.  You would win your years long crusade.  But your victory would be ...

 

wait for it... 

 

pyre-rhic.  

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, Feathered_IV said:

If they can do that, could they also make a smokey truck?  One that burns for ages and emits big plume of smoke?

 

They could - but we’d need a setting to manage how long the smoke lasts.

 

I’ve done a ton of testing with placed smoke effects and haven’t noticed a performance hit (offline) so long as there isn’t a silly number of them.

[Yogiflight]

On a sidenote, with an explosion big enough to destroy that train, you wouldn't see a lot of the trucks anymore. Just small pieces spread over the ground and a big black, burned spot on the ground.

[PatrickAWlson]

I added them to PWCG truck convoys.  Strafing them should be interesting.  I do not, however, put them next to trains.  Maybe I should.  For the life of me I cannot kill a locomotive.

[RedKestrel]

5 hours ago, Yogiflight said:

On a sidenote, with an explosion big enough to destroy that train, you wouldn't see a lot of the trucks anymore. Just small pieces spread over the ground and a big black, burned spot on the ground.

I guess It could be that the exploding truck triggers secondary explosions in the locomotive, especially if its hauling fuel.

[Hanu]

It would nice to add those stuff in missions, but ME keeps crashing after few couple of clicks no matter if you use 4k display or not. Sure, it has always been unstable as politician, but now this is becoming unbearable.

[BlitzPig_EL]

Odd, I never have that issue, unless I have another couple of windows open in the background, so I just don't do that anymore.  If I am working in the mission editor, that is the only thing I have running.

[BlitzPig_EL]

Interesting, last night I took up a P38.  Convergence set to 600 meters.  Tried attacking one of the ammo trucks and blam, same outcome.

 

What is the radius of the explosions of these things?  Honestly, I think that these trucks may be the best protection from being strafed, as once people get blown up a couple times they simply will no longer risk their virtual self shooting at trucks of any kind.

 

Maybe a high G turn and pull out just after firing a burst?   I dunno, but I think I am yanking these things from the maps I put them on, as the only safe way to attack them would be by level bombing from altitude. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by BlitzPig_EL

[LLv24_SukkaVR]

I shot many trucks upclose and flew right through the explosions and my plane never got damaged.

[BlitzPig_EL]

The new ones that are marked "ammo" after their model type in the Mission Editor?

[jollyjack]

 

[PatrickAWlson]

FC: Benz and Leyland

GB: Opel, Ford, GM, Gaz

[Rjel]

Maybe rocket attacks are the answer to nailing these ammo carriers?
 

I shot up a few of the German fuel trucks last night. The explosions were impressive looking. Did I misread the update notes? I thought the new explosive effects were tied to the ammo trucks? Did all the vehicles get updated? 

[Avimimus]

4 minutes ago, Rjel said:

I shot up a few of the German fuel trucks last night. The explosions were impressive looking. Did I misread the update notes? I thought the new explosive effects were tied to the ammo trucks? Did all the vehicles get updated? 

 

I think they received updated explosion effects one or two updates ago.

[Stoopy]

3 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

The new ones that are marked "ammo" after their model type in the Mission Editor?

 

Yep.  It seems that they modified existing vehicles, so if you used the previously non-exploding equivalent of the exploding ammo trucks (gaz-aa, etc) in your existing missions, they're now automatically converted to the exploding kind (gaz-aa-ammo, etc).  Very convenient.  

 

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Stoopy

[Gambit21]

9 minutes ago, Stoopy said:

 

Yep.  It seems that they modified existing vehicles, so if you used the previously non-exploding equivalent of the exploding ammo trucks (gaz-aa, etc) in your existing missions, they're now automatically converted to the exploding kind (gaz-aa-ammo, etc).  Very convenient.  

 

 

 

That’s good news!

[PatrickAWlson]

20 minutes ago, Stoopy said:

 

Yep.  It seems that they modified existing vehicles, so if you used the previously non-exploding equivalent of the exploding ammo trucks (gaz-aa, etc) in your existing missions, they're now automatically converted to the exploding kind (gaz-aa-ammo, etc).  Very convenient.  

 

 

 

I don't think that is accurate.  If you get into the ME opel-blitz is an entirely different entity than opel-blitz-ammo.  At a minimum the script is different.  I do not believe that 1C converts regular trucks to ammo trucks in their code automatically.

 

Changing regular trucks to ammo trucks is easy enough.  Just a different model and script designation.  My biggest issue is that I make trucks with spawns, therefore I have a 1:many relationship between trucks and spawns.  If you simply change to the ammo type then all of the spawns will be ammo.  If you have a 1:1 relationship between truck instances and spawns it is easier.

Edited February 18, 2021 by PatrickAWlson

[Stoopy]

1 hour ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

I don't think that is accurate.  If you get into the ME opel-blitz is an entirely different entity than opel-blitz-ammo.  At a minimum the script is different.  I do not believe that 1C converts regular trucks to ammo trucks in their code automatically..

 

I may have got the impression because immediately after the 4.506 update, I opened an existing mission in the mission editor that included a convoy containing. U.S. GMC trucks, with the intent on changing them to the new exploding type and changing the player aircraft to the new Fw190 A6.  To my surprise, the properties showed they were the same name as the new "explody" version, with the suffix of "-ammo".   I only changed the played aircraft at that point, and saved the mission with a new name and description. A forum member took it for a spin and confirmed the exploding trucks... So maybe its not something that occurs automatically, but when the mission is opened in the editor, when specific trucks already are present in the mission file?

[SYN_Vander]

15 minutes ago, Stoopy said:

 

I may have got the impression because immediately after the 4.506 update, I opened an existing mission in the mission editor that included a convoy containing. U.S. GMC trucks, with the intent on changing them to the new exploding type and changing the player aircraft to the new Fw190 A6.  To my surprise, the properties showed they were the same name as the new "explody" version, with the suffix of "-ammo".   I only changed the played aircraft at that point, and saved the mission with a new name and description. A forum member took it for a spin and confirmed the exploding trucks... So maybe its not something that occurs automatically, but when the mission is opened in the editor, when specific trucks already are present in the mission file?

 

Yes, I had the same thing. When you open the object with the intention to change the script file, it already selects the ammo version. Strange and could be a bug.

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by SYN_Vander

[Stoopy]

1 minute ago, SYN_Vander said:

 

Yes, I had the same thing. When you open the object with the intention to change the script file, it already selects the ammo version. Strange and could be a bug.

 

 

Heresy!  I'm going to say it is a cleverly planned implementation designed for our convenience!  ?

 

The real test will be to take an existing mission that contains the non-exploding version of one of these trucks, and just use the "Convert Missions in Folder to Binary" option of the ME, and see if the explody trucks are present after conversion.,  I'm hoping that's how it will work, but won't be in a place to try it out until tonight.

 

[PatrickAWlson]

OK.  I'm pretty surprised.  I wonder how they handle, for example, multiple spawns of an opel-blitz.  I have one opel-blitz vehicle but four spawns based on that vehicle.  Will I get 4 of one kind?  Will they be mixed?  

[Stoopy]

Well, you don't have to be surprised any longer, I verified just now that... I'm full of it.  There is no automatic conversion to exploding trucks as I thought.  I apologize for the red herring.

 

What happens is, when you open the "Properties" menu for an existing truck (in this case the type gmc-cckw) the default in the picklist selection lands on the "gmc-cckw-ammo" type - which gave me the false impression that it magically changed by itself, somehow.   But it doesn't.

 

 

[PatrickAWlson]

1 minute ago, jollyjack said:

 

Twice we had a Ford Transit band van, first was built in Germany, almost never broke down, then we bought a much newer one built in the UK, boy, what a downer.

Avoided the Ford brand ever after Lol.

 

My father was Ford man.  Had a Maverick that he kept running for over 300K miles.  It drove itself to the junk yard, part green, mostly primer red, trailing a cloud of blue smoke.  1970s automobiles.  American engineering at its finest.

[jollyjack]

Yep, but especially the UK stuff was kind of bad, however a friend and garage owner has a UK P100 Ford pickup he's happy with; second engine now ...

[Stoopy]

'66 Mustang Fastback in high school.  Swapped in two different engines, the last one was build on a 302 block with 351 heads, 11:1 pistons, Isky cam and Offenhauser intake manifold with a 4 barrel (sounds strange to run through the build list nowadays where no Edelbrock parts were used).  

 

Got into lots of trouble with it in more ways than one and it never once exploded. 

 

[Noisemaker]

6 minutes ago, Stoopy said:

'66 Mustang Fastback in high school.  Swapped in two different engines, the last one was build on a 302 block with 351 heads, 11:1 pistons, Isky cam and Offenhauser intake manifold with a 4 barrel (sounds strange to run through the build list nowadays where no Edelbrock parts were used).  

 

Got into lots of trouble with it in more ways than one and it never once exploded. 

 

Never got hit by a .50cal, I bet...

[LukeFF]

8 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

Interesting, last night I took up a P38.  Convergence set to 600 meters.  Tried attacking one of the ammo trucks and blam, same outcome.

 

What is the radius of the explosions of these things?  Honestly, I think that these trucks may be the best protection from being strafed, as once people get blown up a couple times they simply will no longer risk their virtual self shooting at trucks of any kind.

 

Maybe a high G turn and pull out just after firing a burst?   I dunno, but I think I am yanking these things from the maps I put them on, as the only safe way to attack them would be by level bombing from altitude. 

 

Part of the problem is players get way, way too close on strafing runs. It was of course for good reason you see those guys pulling out of their strafing runs well before flying over the target in those old films. ?

[jollyjack]

18 minutes ago, Noisemaker said:

Never got hit by a .50cal, I bet...

 

He was toooo fast for da' Police i bet.

 

Back to them Splody trucks: actually those German Fords blow up great, take down adjacent buildings (non entity blocks) with 'em shot by a Kv1s HE shell.

Alas the LizLemon lights are left on, not nice in these climate friendly pro-eco political days ...

 

Edited February 18, 2021 by jollyjack

[PatrickAWlson]

24 minutes ago, Noisemaker said:

Never got hit by a .50cal, I bet...

 

Only works if you ricochet the shots off the pavement.

[RAAF492SQNOz_Steve]

1 hour ago, Stoopy said:

'66 Mustang Fastback in high school.  Swapped in two different engines, the last one was build on a 302 block with 351 heads, 11:1 pistons, Isky cam and Offenhauser intake manifold with a 4 barrel (sounds strange to run through the build list nowadays where no Edelbrock parts were used).  

 

Got into lots of trouble with it in more ways than one and it never once exploded. 

 

Sounds too cool for skool!. 

 

My, slightly modified, Ford sedan exploded many times but the fact that it was fitted with a monster truck turbo and ran on "special fuel" may have had something to do with it.

[Gambit21]

I’m happy about the splody trucks, and especially that no re-works are necessary to get them into the current campaigns. Way to go Devs.

[BlitzPig_EL]

So...  Back to exploding trucks....

 

I set up a test firing range with all the various ammo trucks well spaced on the Lapino airfield, and an airstart with a smattering of aircraft types that represent the various weapons types and installation locations a few kilometers away, and had at it.  I kept my normal 300 meter convergence setting to see how the planes with wing mounted weapons would do. As LukeFF said, the key is firing at a greater distance.   Even with the wing guns, "killing" the trucks was not a real issue at distances well beyond the optimum convergence setting.

 

It was also interesting to note that the trucks were often counted as destroyed without them exploding dramatically, especially when hit with the lighter machine guns.  Some planes were better than others of course.  Those with cannons were typically devastating with a short burst, while the 12 gun Hurricane was a waste of ammo in most cases.  The MC 202 worked well, but the A20's two .50 Brownings were nearly as anemic as the .303s on the Hurricane.  I found that a bit odd.

Edited February 19, 2021 by BlitzPig_EL

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, II./SG.1-MarkWilhelmsson said:

 

Sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

Back then, the way Ford felt was pretty much seen as somewhat normal; so i wouldn't exactly call him worse than your average person of that era. He was just much more outspoken about it than some. I have his collection of pamphlets in my library. Very interesting stuff. You've got to just realize, this was 100 years ago and things were different back then. It is what it is. Can't stay mad about it forever. Learn from history and try not to repeat the bad parts. But it will be repeated anyways so might as well not fret about it too much. 

 

Keep digging.

But here - sploddy trucks.