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Frequently Asked Questions for
Close Combat
by Atomic Games and Microsoft.
Version 1.1
July 30, 1996
1. Game Philosophy (why we don't make you micromanage)
2. Why there is no editor, DYO (Design your own)
3. Game Scale
4. Monitor Information
5. The Orders
6. Keyboard shortcuts
7. LOS line
8. How/why the game ends
9. Why there's no pause
10. Second stories and Elevations
11. Command Radius/Troops not obeying
12. Heroes, Bravery, and Cowardice
13. Effectiveness of MGs
14. Soldier Deployment
15. Soldier Visibility
16. Bazookas and Schrecks vs Infantry
17. Does the AI Cheat?
18. Enemy Knowledge
19. How do I move a Vehicle in Reverse
20. Mortar Indirect Fire
21. What's different in the retail version?
22. Win95 Display Drivers
23. How can I regroup a separated soldier?
24. My sniper is out of ammo. How can I get more?
25. Is there a way to use waypoints?
26. Does CC use DirectDraw?
27. Do the guys get promoted?
28. Can the guys "load" onto a vehicle?
29. How do I get mortars to stop firing?
30. How to check LOS during set-up:
31. Where do I get tech support?
32. What are the Rank Insignias?
33. How do I send messages to my net opponent?
34. If I just let the game play, my men start to move on their own.
35. Where can I find an opponent?
36. How to use a null modem connection.
1. Game Philosophy (why we don't make you micromanage)
We wanted this game to be more of a simulation than a board game. As such, we
did not want to burden the player with having to command each and every
soldier and tell that soldier what ammo to use, what to shoot at, and where to
take cover. Playing the game that way would take hours and completely ruin the
experience of the game. While that may be exactly what some players want in a
game, it is not the game that we wanted to create.
2. Why there is no editor, DYO (desing your own)
A map editor would be impracticle. We have to preprocess the map for LOS and
even running on a 9500, this takes special code and 40 or more minutes. And
then we have to see how the map data turned out and tweak it for the correct
behavior.
DYO is a definite possibility for CC2. Being able to select teams to put in
play, victory locations and values, setup areas, etc is certainly do-able and
adds a lot to the life of the game (posting your favorite battles). We could
not do it easily in CC due to precalculated setup locations. If we can make
the setup locations dynamic n CC2, we can handle DYO.
3. Game Scale
Scale is dependant on screen resolution, thus, it is about 15 meters per inch
at 800 x 600 assuming 13 horizontal inches of viewing area. The official scale
is 8 meters per 40 pixels.
Soldiers are represented at 2x scale and vehicles are at 1.5x scale so that
these are more visible.
4. Monitor Information
Team Monitor:
Scroll list on the far left bottom. Sorted by the team type with the exception
that the Company/Platoon Commander Teams are always at the top.
Left side: Contains Team Icon (pict of soldiers/vehicle), and Team Quality (a
set of bars ranging from none (Conscript) to 4 (Elite).
Top Center: Contains the Team Type Name (general description). Background
color represents the team's cohesion, or ability to fight. As the color drops
from Green to Red or Black, it represents that the team is taking losses.
Bottom Center: Contains the Team's Strategic Order. If this order is Green, it
is an order you gave. If it is white, the team is doing it's own thing. If it
is Red, the team is disobeying you.
Right side: Enemy Threat Compass. It represents the direction that team sees
the enemy. If the center dot is red, then that team is alse being shot at.
Soldier Monitor:
Top Left: Same as the Team Monitor Left Side.
Top Center: Team Name (more detailed than the Team Type Name) and the
Team Orders. Both of these are similar to the Top Center and Bottom Center of
the Team Monitor respectively.
Top Far Right: Smoke Availability. If not crossed out, this team can place
smoke.
Top Right: Firepower Graphs. These are graphed at 10s of meters at the number
listed, thus the column with an 8 represents firepower at 80 meters.
Green, good firepower, grey line, no firepower. This color will also show up
on the Fire Line as you drag it across the screen.
Vehicle Info:
For vehicles, a status panel showing the vehicle condition is displayed.
Greenindicates functioning; Red, destroyed; and blank, that vehicle does not
have that weapon or is immoble.
Soldier List:
This has the soldier name, action, status and weapon info. Most of this is
pretty obvious, the key here is to see if the soldier action is Green, Red, or
White (see Team Strategic Order above).
Ammo Type consists of the following:
AP - Armor Piercing, includes all solid shots such as bullets.
HE - High Explosive
HT - High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT)
SM - Smoke
SP - Special. This can be anything from Canister (check the M5 at close
range) to HVAP used in the M4A3 76.
Ammo Count is the number of rounds available of that ammo for that weapon.
Note that the rounds are still divided into clips or belts internally, and
that the time to reload a clip or belt is taken into account. Watch a soldier
with a Garand fire and you will see him fire off 8 rounds, then sit a reload
for a while.
Physical State:
Dead and Incap means this soldier will no longer obey orders and will just lay
there. Hurt means the soldier was hit but can keep on going.
Mental State:
The soldier can go Berserk, Fanatic, Heroic, Panicked or Routed. This is
adjusted as stress builds in relation to the soldier's morale and experience.
Fatigue:
As fatigue increases, the soldier can become winded or later, fatigued. The
soldiers desire to follow orders drops with the increase in fatigue, as does
the speed at which he moves.
Message Monitor:
You can click on a message and it will center on the team that issued the
message. You can also restrict which priority of message will appear by
deselecting the color associated with that message priority.
5. The Orders
You can issue up to 6 orders: Move, Move Fast, Fire, Smoke, Defend, and Hide.
Teams that cannot perform the order (e.g. has no smoke grenades) has that
affected order dimmed.
Move tells the team to move to that location taking the safest route. The team
will scatter to cover if fired at and will use overwatch.
Move Fast has the team take as fast a route as possible and to do so running.
This will tire out a team quickly (Fatigue in the Soldier Monitor) as well as
make them vulnerable to enemy fire.
Fire (See LOS Line below)
Smoke is the same as Fire, but you are placing a Smoke grenade or shell that
will produce hindrance causing smoke that will decay in a minute or two.
Defend order tells the team to seek cover from enemy fire based on the angle
of the defend arc you select. Selecting a narrow arc ensures that all the
soldiers will take the best cover vs enemy fire from that direction but be
vulnerable to fire from other directions. A wider arc will lessen the amount
of cover that a team can get vs any one direction. Think of it as hiding
behind a tree, and which side of the tree do you want the soldier to be
behind. This is the default order for the Americans and Germans, only the
Germans interpret Defend as an Ambush command in that they will not fire
unless they see an exposed target, are being fired at, or the enemy is very
close.
Hide command will keep your guys from firing unless the enemy is within 30
meters. It works best if your team has not been seen.
6. Keyboard shortcuts
The keys z, x, c, v, b, and n can be used in conjuction with a selected to
team to issue Move, Move Fast, Fire, Smoke, Defend, and Hide orders
respectively without having to click and hold the mouse on the team. This is
very useful for placing mortar fire. Select the area on the overview where you
want to fire, select a mortar team in the Team Monitor, hit c, then click on
the map where to bring in the fire. No scrolling required.
7. LOS line
The LOS line drawn when issuing a Fire order represents whether or not the
team has LOS to the target, and the firepower the team can put on that target.
If the LOS line is Red, you have Line of Sight to the target, if it turns Dark
Red, you can still shoot there, but you cannot see that location due to visual
hindrances along the Line of Sight. If it turns Black, then you cannot shoot
there, nor see there.
Note that LOS is traced from each soldier in a team to each soldier in the
enemy team you have the fire line cursor over. Thus if one soldier in the
looking team is standing, he can shoot over the wall while the rest of his
prone team members cannot. This can also cause a successfully placed fire
marker to not cause anyone to fire as everyone that can fire is no longer in
LOS. Click and drag on the fire marker to recheck your team's LOS.
If you are not pointed over an enemy team, but over open ground, LOS is traced
to the highest terrain object within the vicinity. Thus, you can trace over a
wall to a building, but cannot trace over a wall to open ground.
The color of the dot at the end of the fire line represents the amount of
firepower this team can deliver at that range. If the fire cursor is over open
ground or an enemy soldier, it uses the Vs Infantry rating. If it is over a
vehicle, it will use the Vs Armor rating to determine what color to display.
8. How/why the game ends
The game ends when an internal timer set for between 30 and 120 seconds goes
off. This timer is started when either both side's Force Morale is in the
Yellow, or one side's Force Morale is in the Red. Once started, the Force
Morale bars begin to flash. This represents that one or both sides will to
fight has been lost and the troops will start to pull back. In the case of one
side going into the Red, that side will then start to rout.
The winner is determined as follows:
If one side's Force Morale is Red, the other side won, regardless of score.
This represents routing the enemy from field of battle. If the other side is
still in the Green, it will be a Major Victory or better, else it will be a
Minor Victory or better for the other side.
If both side's Force Morale is Yellow or both are Red, then points are used to
determine the victor. Victory location points vary from location to location.
The bigger the font used in the victory location name, the more it is worth.
This method allows a player to develop a strategy of either defending / taking
victory locations or killing the enemy. We do not force you to do both. There
is also a game end due to inaction. If no shot has been fired or no order
issued by the player for the past 2 minutes of game time, the battle will be
declared ended due to inaction. If you are playing as the Germans and are
attempting to set up an ambush in the rear, and the Americans are advancing
very slowly, you can just re-issue a Defend or Hide order every minute to keep
the game from ending. But believe me, in the campaign game, you want the game
to end as soon as possible if playing the Germans.
9. Why there's no pause
Pausing the game and issuing orders would ruin it. We actually did useability
tests on live subjects, with a pause feature in the game. We saw the players
issue a lot of orders, let the game run for maybe 10 seconds, pause, issue
more orders, etc. This destroyed the whole feel of the game. Its also totally
unworkable for 2-player network games. If you feel the game is moving too
quickly, try slowing it down from the options menu.
10. Second stories and Elevations
Elevations / Hills were things we would have liked to put in the game but the
extra graphics needed to represent them were not possible for us to put in.
They will be in for CC2. Multi-story buildings will possibly never be put in
due to the problems with the interface (Move Upstairs, Move Downstairs) and
viewing multiple levels (View First Floor, View Basement, View Roof, etc)
causes. Also, imagine trying to tell where enemy fire came from, directing
fire vs different levels, determining which buildings have how many levels,
etc.
11. Command Radius/Troops not obeying
There is no command radius but the distance from a leader will affect how well
the team obeys its orders. Given everything else is the same, a poor quality
team moving with your company commander's team is more likely to carry out
it's order than it would if the only leader was on the other side of the map.
If that team you ordered to move got shot at, its possible that they decided
against moving. Or they started to move, got shot at, and decided to run back
to cover. A lot depends on their experience level and their surrounding
terrain. In either case, the team will constantly re-evaluate their ability to
make that move. If they decide its safe, or they decide to obey the order,
they'll try again.
12. Heroes, Bravery, and Cowardice
Heroic soldiers don't become Audie Murphy, and they are likely to "recover"
from it. Unlike ASL, when a soldier goes heroic, he does not gain special
abilities. He's just more likely to stay functional in the heat of battle.
Bravery points are awarded for when a soldier goes heroic, fanatic, or
berserk. The soldier also gets bravery points for taking a victory location.
Cowardice points are awarded when a soldier routs or becomes panicked.
Leaders get bravery and cowardice points for winning or losing the battle (the
bigger the win/loss, the more the points) as they are responsible for the
outcome. Note that you are represented on the battlefield as the 2nd Lt. that
commands the first team listed in the Team Monitor. In the campaign game, you
get to name that soldier.
13. Effectiveness of MGs
An M4 cannot be killed by an MG but can be killed by the Panzerfaust that the
loader in the MG team carries. Rule #1 of survival with American armor: Never
move closer than 60 meters to a potential german location. Even 120 meters is
too close if there is a Panzerscreck team near.
As for the MG killing halftracks, this is why the M3 HT series was known as
"Purple Heart Boxes". With only 6mm at a 20o slope of frontal chasis armor
(10mm effective) and 12mm at 20o slope frontal upper structure (17mm
effective), the German MG42 could easily penetrate it at close range (less
than 200m or so). While the MG won't necessarily destroy the M3 HT at this
range, it can injure or kill the occupants resulting in a soft kill.
Also watch out for the MG42 when you are in a wooden building at very close
range (50 meters or so). That gun (as well as the US 50cal) can rip right
through the walls making it much safer to be outside the building in some nice
big shellhole or foxhole.
One of the strategies a tester came up with is to deploy a couple of MG42
teams in the interior of a large stone building so they could not be shot at
by the Americans until they entered the building, at which time the MG42s
opened up, shredding the interior wooden walls between them and the Americans
as well as the Americans themselves.
Also note that all weapons, not just MGs have a chance to hit someone in the
line of fire. It is just with MGs, the rate of fire is much higher and thus is
more likely to hit someone. Avoid walking your units in front of your own men
firing.
14. Soldier Deployment
The amount the team bunches up depends on their experience and the amount of
cover in the area they are trying to deploy in. Inexperienced teams will tend
to bunch up more and even experienced teams will bunch up if the cover within
their "deploy zone" is limited to a small location. The deploy zone consists
of a rectangle about 8 meters wide and 24 meters long, perpendicular to the
axis of advance.
15. Soldier Visibility
If you are having trouble seeing your soldiers, try using the Team Monitor to
select the team. Double clicking on a team in the Team Monitor will center the
map on that team and highlight it.
Enemy soldiers may be hard to see just because they are shadowed. If a team
has just been spotted but no one got a good look at the team, they will
initially be displayed as shadows to let you know something is there even if
you don't know what it is. As more information comes available, they will
change into visible soldiers.
16. Bazookas and Schrecks vs Infantry
Bazookas and Panzerschrecks were used quite often vs infantry in buildings /
behind walls. The Germans even referred to the Bazooka as a shoulder 75. The
game will limit usage of these weapons in this fashion if there are tank
assets that have yet to be dealt with.
17. Does the AI cheat?
The AI does not cheat. We put a lot of effort into making sure that the AI is
playing with the same rules as the player. Move Out does NOT equate to AI
control. The AI performs many other actions to try to coordinate attacks,
provide suppression fire, etc. Move Out causes your troops to move forward to
engage the enemy, and then they will keep on trying to advance.
18. Enemy Knowledge
Selecting an Enemy Team will display varios information about that enemy team.
The amount is dependant on how well spotted the enemy team is. Knowledge
accumulates about an enemy team as time progresses and the enemy is doing
things in LOS of a friendly team. It is also affected by proximity to the
enemy and the cover the enemy is in. Thus, a just spotted enemy team in a
building will only give you what type of team it is and number of soldiers.
Only if you get close, or spend a long time in LOS of this team will this
knowledge increase. If this is not the case for you, make sure the enemy
intelligence option is off in the Custom preferences.
19. How do I move a Vehicle in Reverse?
Vehicles will use reverse, but only if they are given a Move command, not a
Move Fast command. The move also has to be of a short range. Using Move Fast
will cause the tank to get there as fast as possible, not a safe as possible.
20. Mortar Indirect Fire
The indirect fire model for mortars was simplified so the player would not
have to be concerned with spotting rounds, etc. They are handled abstractly.
The rate of fire of a mortar is about 1 round / 6 seconds, but note that the
delay could be much greater if the mortar team repositioned themselves due to
incoming fire, the mortar firer was suppressed by enemy fire, or the mortar
jammed (fired a dud round).
21. What's different in the retail version?
The sounds file used in the demo is a subset of the sounds in the game. Two
sounds, the Berserk scream, and the out of armor sounds were left out due to
their size.
Also, the Save Replay, Campaign Game, and all the other Maneuvers are enabled
in the retail version as well as the Help system which is really immense.
The other Maneuvers feature OOBs which contain German StuG IIIGs, PzKw IIIs,
PzKw IVHs, Panthers, Marders, Tigers, Kubelwagons, SdKFz 232s, StuH 42s, and a
rare Jagpanther. We also have 5cm AT, 7.5cm AT, 8.8cm Flak and 7.5cm Inf guns
Additional American forces include the M4A3 76, M4A3 105, Jeep, M10, and the
rare M36. Guns are the 57mm AT, and 75mm M5 Gun.
22. Win95 Display Drivers and CC Install
Please note: The following was submitted by Steven C. Den Beste,
denbeste@world.std.com. Atomic presents this here in the hopes that it will
help others, but does not take responsibility for any problems that may arise
from the following:
Several people here have complained (correctly) that the DirectX install
program included in the Close Combat demo automatically installed a display
driver for them, often to their regret.
You should know that when this takes place, the older driver is not deleted.
You can switch back without finding your disks and doing a complete reinstall.
The only problem may be figuring out which one you were using.
First off, you have to get back to the GUI with it working. The best way to do
that is to safe-boot. (See the WIN95 docs - I think it is done by pressing F8
at the beginning of the boot-up to bring up the menu.)
Select Safe-boot, which will bring you up in a 16-color 640*480 display mode.
Then right-click anywhere on the blank screen and select Properties.
Press the "Settings" display tab, and press the "Change Display Type" button.
Then press the "Change" button next to the "Adaptor type" window.
At this point, there will be at least two lines in the white window in the
middle, one of which will be highlighted. You can select another and hit "OK",
and it will change drivers. Reboot and there you are. If you picked the wrong
one, just go through this process again and pick a different one.
It isn't necessary to use the "Have Disk" button and reinstall the drivers
from scratch in most cases.
23. How can I regroup a separated soldier?
You don't have to. When the soldier recovers to the point that he will start
obeying orders again, he will then move to rejoin his team. If you want to
speed that process up, move a team with a high ranking leader near the
separated soldier, and/or move his original team closer.
24. My sniper is out of ammo. How can I get more?
Sorry, there is no resupply ability in a battle. Resupply occurs between
battles during a campaign. Your best bet with a sniper is to use him as such,
and not as a fire support unit. If he gets engaged in a fire fight, pull him
out, and let him set up elsewhere.
25. Is there a way to use waypoints?
Waypoints were not included in the game, the AI will attempt to pick a safe
route for Move orders and a quick route for Move Fast orders. If you wish
finer control, try giving shorter move orders, then watch for the message (in
green) in the message monitor telling you that the team has completed its
move. Click on the message, then issue the next segment.
Be careful when moving along the length of walls and bocage as the team does
not know which side you want the team to move on. A team will tend to drift to
either side of the wall if the destination is near the wall and the team is
not taking fire. If you want the team to stay on one side, issue an order away
from the wall at about the mid point of the move on the side you want them to
stay, then order them back up to the wall at the destination.
26. Does CC use DirectDraw?
No. The version of DirectDraw available at the time CC was developed did not
support the resolution needed for the game. CC does use DirectSound though.
27. Do the guys get promoted?
Yes. And demoted. Look for a Green/promoted or Red/demoted border around the
rank insignia in the details screen.
28. Can the guys "load" onto a vehicle?
No. Riding in a vehicle when engaged in combat was not a recommended practice.
One shot could kill the entire team. Units almost always unloaded prior to
going into combat. Plus it would complicate the interface to add commands to
embark and disembark a vehicle.
29. How do I get mortars to stop firing?
You have to issue a Hide command. Defend commands will allow the mortar to
provide supporting fire against units it cannot see but other units can.
30. How to check LOS during set-up:
Mac:
select unit, COMMAND-click and drag to check for LOS and distance.
Win95:
same as Mac except use ALT-click.
31. Where do I get tech support?
Try either calling MS tech support or contacting them at:
http://www.microsoft.com/support
33. How do I send messages to my net opponent?
Use the ~ (tilde) key. Requires the SHIFT key combination on most keyboards.
You will get a small text prompt at the bottom left of the map that you can
type in short messages that will appear in your opponent's message monitor.
34. If I just let the game play, my men start to move on their own.
If you do not issue a team an order for 5 or more minutes, that team will use
it's initiative to act on its own. If you do not want the team to do that, you
can either look for a message in the message monitor where the team asks for
orders prior to moving out, and then issue that team another order, or select
the DEFEND button on the right hand panel.
35. Where can I find an opponent?
The best choice is to join the irc channel #close combat. It exists on
undernet and others. There are several web sites that support coordinating net
play and one that even rates opponents. Check out:
Church of Close Combat
Close Combat Challenge Board
Unofficial Close Combat Headquarters
36. How to use a null modem connection.
I have sucessfully gotten Close Combat to work over a null modem connection
for some fantastic H2H play. A complete FAQ can be found at:
www.xmission.com/~dmappin/ccfaq.htm
I will be updating it frequently the next few days to make it more complete
and detailed. I realise that everyone out there may not be as
familiar/comfortable screwing with the networking aspects of Win95.
Don "Ace" Mappin
Close Combat
by Atomic Games and Microsoft.
Version 1.1
July 30, 1996
1. Game Philosophy (why we don't make you micromanage)
2. Why there is no editor, DYO (Design your own)
3. Game Scale
4. Monitor Information
5. The Orders
6. Keyboard shortcuts
7. LOS line
8. How/why the game ends
9. Why there's no pause
10. Second stories and Elevations
11. Command Radius/Troops not obeying
12. Heroes, Bravery, and Cowardice
13. Effectiveness of MGs
14. Soldier Deployment
15. Soldier Visibility
16. Bazookas and Schrecks vs Infantry
17. Does the AI Cheat?
18. Enemy Knowledge
19. How do I move a Vehicle in Reverse
20. Mortar Indirect Fire
21. What's different in the retail version?
22. Win95 Display Drivers
23. How can I regroup a separated soldier?
24. My sniper is out of ammo. How can I get more?
25. Is there a way to use waypoints?
26. Does CC use DirectDraw?
27. Do the guys get promoted?
28. Can the guys "load" onto a vehicle?
29. How do I get mortars to stop firing?
30. How to check LOS during set-up:
31. Where do I get tech support?
32. What are the Rank Insignias?
33. How do I send messages to my net opponent?
34. If I just let the game play, my men start to move on their own.
35. Where can I find an opponent?
36. How to use a null modem connection.
1. Game Philosophy (why we don't make you micromanage)
We wanted this game to be more of a simulation than a board game. As such, we
did not want to burden the player with having to command each and every
soldier and tell that soldier what ammo to use, what to shoot at, and where to
take cover. Playing the game that way would take hours and completely ruin the
experience of the game. While that may be exactly what some players want in a
game, it is not the game that we wanted to create.
2. Why there is no editor, DYO (desing your own)
A map editor would be impracticle. We have to preprocess the map for LOS and
even running on a 9500, this takes special code and 40 or more minutes. And
then we have to see how the map data turned out and tweak it for the correct
behavior.
DYO is a definite possibility for CC2. Being able to select teams to put in
play, victory locations and values, setup areas, etc is certainly do-able and
adds a lot to the life of the game (posting your favorite battles). We could
not do it easily in CC due to precalculated setup locations. If we can make
the setup locations dynamic n CC2, we can handle DYO.
3. Game Scale
Scale is dependant on screen resolution, thus, it is about 15 meters per inch
at 800 x 600 assuming 13 horizontal inches of viewing area. The official scale
is 8 meters per 40 pixels.
Soldiers are represented at 2x scale and vehicles are at 1.5x scale so that
these are more visible.
4. Monitor Information
Team Monitor:
Scroll list on the far left bottom. Sorted by the team type with the exception
that the Company/Platoon Commander Teams are always at the top.
Left side: Contains Team Icon (pict of soldiers/vehicle), and Team Quality (a
set of bars ranging from none (Conscript) to 4 (Elite).
Top Center: Contains the Team Type Name (general description). Background
color represents the team's cohesion, or ability to fight. As the color drops
from Green to Red or Black, it represents that the team is taking losses.
Bottom Center: Contains the Team's Strategic Order. If this order is Green, it
is an order you gave. If it is white, the team is doing it's own thing. If it
is Red, the team is disobeying you.
Right side: Enemy Threat Compass. It represents the direction that team sees
the enemy. If the center dot is red, then that team is alse being shot at.
Soldier Monitor:
Top Left: Same as the Team Monitor Left Side.
Top Center: Team Name (more detailed than the Team Type Name) and the
Team Orders. Both of these are similar to the Top Center and Bottom Center of
the Team Monitor respectively.
Top Far Right: Smoke Availability. If not crossed out, this team can place
smoke.
Top Right: Firepower Graphs. These are graphed at 10s of meters at the number
listed, thus the column with an 8 represents firepower at 80 meters.
Green, good firepower, grey line, no firepower. This color will also show up
on the Fire Line as you drag it across the screen.
Vehicle Info:
For vehicles, a status panel showing the vehicle condition is displayed.
Greenindicates functioning; Red, destroyed; and blank, that vehicle does not
have that weapon or is immoble.
Soldier List:
This has the soldier name, action, status and weapon info. Most of this is
pretty obvious, the key here is to see if the soldier action is Green, Red, or
White (see Team Strategic Order above).
Ammo Type consists of the following:
AP - Armor Piercing, includes all solid shots such as bullets.
HE - High Explosive
HT - High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT)
SM - Smoke
SP - Special. This can be anything from Canister (check the M5 at close
range) to HVAP used in the M4A3 76.
Ammo Count is the number of rounds available of that ammo for that weapon.
Note that the rounds are still divided into clips or belts internally, and
that the time to reload a clip or belt is taken into account. Watch a soldier
with a Garand fire and you will see him fire off 8 rounds, then sit a reload
for a while.
Physical State:
Dead and Incap means this soldier will no longer obey orders and will just lay
there. Hurt means the soldier was hit but can keep on going.
Mental State:
The soldier can go Berserk, Fanatic, Heroic, Panicked or Routed. This is
adjusted as stress builds in relation to the soldier's morale and experience.
Fatigue:
As fatigue increases, the soldier can become winded or later, fatigued. The
soldiers desire to follow orders drops with the increase in fatigue, as does
the speed at which he moves.
Message Monitor:
You can click on a message and it will center on the team that issued the
message. You can also restrict which priority of message will appear by
deselecting the color associated with that message priority.
5. The Orders
You can issue up to 6 orders: Move, Move Fast, Fire, Smoke, Defend, and Hide.
Teams that cannot perform the order (e.g. has no smoke grenades) has that
affected order dimmed.
Move tells the team to move to that location taking the safest route. The team
will scatter to cover if fired at and will use overwatch.
Move Fast has the team take as fast a route as possible and to do so running.
This will tire out a team quickly (Fatigue in the Soldier Monitor) as well as
make them vulnerable to enemy fire.
Fire (See LOS Line below)
Smoke is the same as Fire, but you are placing a Smoke grenade or shell that
will produce hindrance causing smoke that will decay in a minute or two.
Defend order tells the team to seek cover from enemy fire based on the angle
of the defend arc you select. Selecting a narrow arc ensures that all the
soldiers will take the best cover vs enemy fire from that direction but be
vulnerable to fire from other directions. A wider arc will lessen the amount
of cover that a team can get vs any one direction. Think of it as hiding
behind a tree, and which side of the tree do you want the soldier to be
behind. This is the default order for the Americans and Germans, only the
Germans interpret Defend as an Ambush command in that they will not fire
unless they see an exposed target, are being fired at, or the enemy is very
close.
Hide command will keep your guys from firing unless the enemy is within 30
meters. It works best if your team has not been seen.
6. Keyboard shortcuts
The keys z, x, c, v, b, and n can be used in conjuction with a selected to
team to issue Move, Move Fast, Fire, Smoke, Defend, and Hide orders
respectively without having to click and hold the mouse on the team. This is
very useful for placing mortar fire. Select the area on the overview where you
want to fire, select a mortar team in the Team Monitor, hit c, then click on
the map where to bring in the fire. No scrolling required.
7. LOS line
The LOS line drawn when issuing a Fire order represents whether or not the
team has LOS to the target, and the firepower the team can put on that target.
If the LOS line is Red, you have Line of Sight to the target, if it turns Dark
Red, you can still shoot there, but you cannot see that location due to visual
hindrances along the Line of Sight. If it turns Black, then you cannot shoot
there, nor see there.
Note that LOS is traced from each soldier in a team to each soldier in the
enemy team you have the fire line cursor over. Thus if one soldier in the
looking team is standing, he can shoot over the wall while the rest of his
prone team members cannot. This can also cause a successfully placed fire
marker to not cause anyone to fire as everyone that can fire is no longer in
LOS. Click and drag on the fire marker to recheck your team's LOS.
If you are not pointed over an enemy team, but over open ground, LOS is traced
to the highest terrain object within the vicinity. Thus, you can trace over a
wall to a building, but cannot trace over a wall to open ground.
The color of the dot at the end of the fire line represents the amount of
firepower this team can deliver at that range. If the fire cursor is over open
ground or an enemy soldier, it uses the Vs Infantry rating. If it is over a
vehicle, it will use the Vs Armor rating to determine what color to display.
8. How/why the game ends
The game ends when an internal timer set for between 30 and 120 seconds goes
off. This timer is started when either both side's Force Morale is in the
Yellow, or one side's Force Morale is in the Red. Once started, the Force
Morale bars begin to flash. This represents that one or both sides will to
fight has been lost and the troops will start to pull back. In the case of one
side going into the Red, that side will then start to rout.
The winner is determined as follows:
If one side's Force Morale is Red, the other side won, regardless of score.
This represents routing the enemy from field of battle. If the other side is
still in the Green, it will be a Major Victory or better, else it will be a
Minor Victory or better for the other side.
If both side's Force Morale is Yellow or both are Red, then points are used to
determine the victor. Victory location points vary from location to location.
The bigger the font used in the victory location name, the more it is worth.
This method allows a player to develop a strategy of either defending / taking
victory locations or killing the enemy. We do not force you to do both. There
is also a game end due to inaction. If no shot has been fired or no order
issued by the player for the past 2 minutes of game time, the battle will be
declared ended due to inaction. If you are playing as the Germans and are
attempting to set up an ambush in the rear, and the Americans are advancing
very slowly, you can just re-issue a Defend or Hide order every minute to keep
the game from ending. But believe me, in the campaign game, you want the game
to end as soon as possible if playing the Germans.
9. Why there's no pause
Pausing the game and issuing orders would ruin it. We actually did useability
tests on live subjects, with a pause feature in the game. We saw the players
issue a lot of orders, let the game run for maybe 10 seconds, pause, issue
more orders, etc. This destroyed the whole feel of the game. Its also totally
unworkable for 2-player network games. If you feel the game is moving too
quickly, try slowing it down from the options menu.
10. Second stories and Elevations
Elevations / Hills were things we would have liked to put in the game but the
extra graphics needed to represent them were not possible for us to put in.
They will be in for CC2. Multi-story buildings will possibly never be put in
due to the problems with the interface (Move Upstairs, Move Downstairs) and
viewing multiple levels (View First Floor, View Basement, View Roof, etc)
causes. Also, imagine trying to tell where enemy fire came from, directing
fire vs different levels, determining which buildings have how many levels,
etc.
11. Command Radius/Troops not obeying
There is no command radius but the distance from a leader will affect how well
the team obeys its orders. Given everything else is the same, a poor quality
team moving with your company commander's team is more likely to carry out
it's order than it would if the only leader was on the other side of the map.
If that team you ordered to move got shot at, its possible that they decided
against moving. Or they started to move, got shot at, and decided to run back
to cover. A lot depends on their experience level and their surrounding
terrain. In either case, the team will constantly re-evaluate their ability to
make that move. If they decide its safe, or they decide to obey the order,
they'll try again.
12. Heroes, Bravery, and Cowardice
Heroic soldiers don't become Audie Murphy, and they are likely to "recover"
from it. Unlike ASL, when a soldier goes heroic, he does not gain special
abilities. He's just more likely to stay functional in the heat of battle.
Bravery points are awarded for when a soldier goes heroic, fanatic, or
berserk. The soldier also gets bravery points for taking a victory location.
Cowardice points are awarded when a soldier routs or becomes panicked.
Leaders get bravery and cowardice points for winning or losing the battle (the
bigger the win/loss, the more the points) as they are responsible for the
outcome. Note that you are represented on the battlefield as the 2nd Lt. that
commands the first team listed in the Team Monitor. In the campaign game, you
get to name that soldier.
13. Effectiveness of MGs
An M4 cannot be killed by an MG but can be killed by the Panzerfaust that the
loader in the MG team carries. Rule #1 of survival with American armor: Never
move closer than 60 meters to a potential german location. Even 120 meters is
too close if there is a Panzerscreck team near.
As for the MG killing halftracks, this is why the M3 HT series was known as
"Purple Heart Boxes". With only 6mm at a 20o slope of frontal chasis armor
(10mm effective) and 12mm at 20o slope frontal upper structure (17mm
effective), the German MG42 could easily penetrate it at close range (less
than 200m or so). While the MG won't necessarily destroy the M3 HT at this
range, it can injure or kill the occupants resulting in a soft kill.
Also watch out for the MG42 when you are in a wooden building at very close
range (50 meters or so). That gun (as well as the US 50cal) can rip right
through the walls making it much safer to be outside the building in some nice
big shellhole or foxhole.
One of the strategies a tester came up with is to deploy a couple of MG42
teams in the interior of a large stone building so they could not be shot at
by the Americans until they entered the building, at which time the MG42s
opened up, shredding the interior wooden walls between them and the Americans
as well as the Americans themselves.
Also note that all weapons, not just MGs have a chance to hit someone in the
line of fire. It is just with MGs, the rate of fire is much higher and thus is
more likely to hit someone. Avoid walking your units in front of your own men
firing.
14. Soldier Deployment
The amount the team bunches up depends on their experience and the amount of
cover in the area they are trying to deploy in. Inexperienced teams will tend
to bunch up more and even experienced teams will bunch up if the cover within
their "deploy zone" is limited to a small location. The deploy zone consists
of a rectangle about 8 meters wide and 24 meters long, perpendicular to the
axis of advance.
15. Soldier Visibility
If you are having trouble seeing your soldiers, try using the Team Monitor to
select the team. Double clicking on a team in the Team Monitor will center the
map on that team and highlight it.
Enemy soldiers may be hard to see just because they are shadowed. If a team
has just been spotted but no one got a good look at the team, they will
initially be displayed as shadows to let you know something is there even if
you don't know what it is. As more information comes available, they will
change into visible soldiers.
16. Bazookas and Schrecks vs Infantry
Bazookas and Panzerschrecks were used quite often vs infantry in buildings /
behind walls. The Germans even referred to the Bazooka as a shoulder 75. The
game will limit usage of these weapons in this fashion if there are tank
assets that have yet to be dealt with.
17. Does the AI cheat?
The AI does not cheat. We put a lot of effort into making sure that the AI is
playing with the same rules as the player. Move Out does NOT equate to AI
control. The AI performs many other actions to try to coordinate attacks,
provide suppression fire, etc. Move Out causes your troops to move forward to
engage the enemy, and then they will keep on trying to advance.
18. Enemy Knowledge
Selecting an Enemy Team will display varios information about that enemy team.
The amount is dependant on how well spotted the enemy team is. Knowledge
accumulates about an enemy team as time progresses and the enemy is doing
things in LOS of a friendly team. It is also affected by proximity to the
enemy and the cover the enemy is in. Thus, a just spotted enemy team in a
building will only give you what type of team it is and number of soldiers.
Only if you get close, or spend a long time in LOS of this team will this
knowledge increase. If this is not the case for you, make sure the enemy
intelligence option is off in the Custom preferences.
19. How do I move a Vehicle in Reverse?
Vehicles will use reverse, but only if they are given a Move command, not a
Move Fast command. The move also has to be of a short range. Using Move Fast
will cause the tank to get there as fast as possible, not a safe as possible.
20. Mortar Indirect Fire
The indirect fire model for mortars was simplified so the player would not
have to be concerned with spotting rounds, etc. They are handled abstractly.
The rate of fire of a mortar is about 1 round / 6 seconds, but note that the
delay could be much greater if the mortar team repositioned themselves due to
incoming fire, the mortar firer was suppressed by enemy fire, or the mortar
jammed (fired a dud round).
21. What's different in the retail version?
The sounds file used in the demo is a subset of the sounds in the game. Two
sounds, the Berserk scream, and the out of armor sounds were left out due to
their size.
Also, the Save Replay, Campaign Game, and all the other Maneuvers are enabled
in the retail version as well as the Help system which is really immense.
The other Maneuvers feature OOBs which contain German StuG IIIGs, PzKw IIIs,
PzKw IVHs, Panthers, Marders, Tigers, Kubelwagons, SdKFz 232s, StuH 42s, and a
rare Jagpanther. We also have 5cm AT, 7.5cm AT, 8.8cm Flak and 7.5cm Inf guns
Additional American forces include the M4A3 76, M4A3 105, Jeep, M10, and the
rare M36. Guns are the 57mm AT, and 75mm M5 Gun.
22. Win95 Display Drivers and CC Install
Please note: The following was submitted by Steven C. Den Beste,
denbeste@world.std.com. Atomic presents this here in the hopes that it will
help others, but does not take responsibility for any problems that may arise
from the following:
Several people here have complained (correctly) that the DirectX install
program included in the Close Combat demo automatically installed a display
driver for them, often to their regret.
You should know that when this takes place, the older driver is not deleted.
You can switch back without finding your disks and doing a complete reinstall.
The only problem may be figuring out which one you were using.
First off, you have to get back to the GUI with it working. The best way to do
that is to safe-boot. (See the WIN95 docs - I think it is done by pressing F8
at the beginning of the boot-up to bring up the menu.)
Select Safe-boot, which will bring you up in a 16-color 640*480 display mode.
Then right-click anywhere on the blank screen and select Properties.
Press the "Settings" display tab, and press the "Change Display Type" button.
Then press the "Change" button next to the "Adaptor type" window.
At this point, there will be at least two lines in the white window in the
middle, one of which will be highlighted. You can select another and hit "OK",
and it will change drivers. Reboot and there you are. If you picked the wrong
one, just go through this process again and pick a different one.
It isn't necessary to use the "Have Disk" button and reinstall the drivers
from scratch in most cases.
23. How can I regroup a separated soldier?
You don't have to. When the soldier recovers to the point that he will start
obeying orders again, he will then move to rejoin his team. If you want to
speed that process up, move a team with a high ranking leader near the
separated soldier, and/or move his original team closer.
24. My sniper is out of ammo. How can I get more?
Sorry, there is no resupply ability in a battle. Resupply occurs between
battles during a campaign. Your best bet with a sniper is to use him as such,
and not as a fire support unit. If he gets engaged in a fire fight, pull him
out, and let him set up elsewhere.
25. Is there a way to use waypoints?
Waypoints were not included in the game, the AI will attempt to pick a safe
route for Move orders and a quick route for Move Fast orders. If you wish
finer control, try giving shorter move orders, then watch for the message (in
green) in the message monitor telling you that the team has completed its
move. Click on the message, then issue the next segment.
Be careful when moving along the length of walls and bocage as the team does
not know which side you want the team to move on. A team will tend to drift to
either side of the wall if the destination is near the wall and the team is
not taking fire. If you want the team to stay on one side, issue an order away
from the wall at about the mid point of the move on the side you want them to
stay, then order them back up to the wall at the destination.
26. Does CC use DirectDraw?
No. The version of DirectDraw available at the time CC was developed did not
support the resolution needed for the game. CC does use DirectSound though.
27. Do the guys get promoted?
Yes. And demoted. Look for a Green/promoted or Red/demoted border around the
rank insignia in the details screen.
28. Can the guys "load" onto a vehicle?
No. Riding in a vehicle when engaged in combat was not a recommended practice.
One shot could kill the entire team. Units almost always unloaded prior to
going into combat. Plus it would complicate the interface to add commands to
embark and disembark a vehicle.
29. How do I get mortars to stop firing?
You have to issue a Hide command. Defend commands will allow the mortar to
provide supporting fire against units it cannot see but other units can.
30. How to check LOS during set-up:
Mac:
select unit, COMMAND-click and drag to check for LOS and distance.
Win95:
same as Mac except use ALT-click.
31. Where do I get tech support?
Try either calling MS tech support or contacting them at:
http://www.microsoft.com/support
33. How do I send messages to my net opponent?
Use the ~ (tilde) key. Requires the SHIFT key combination on most keyboards.
You will get a small text prompt at the bottom left of the map that you can
type in short messages that will appear in your opponent's message monitor.
34. If I just let the game play, my men start to move on their own.
If you do not issue a team an order for 5 or more minutes, that team will use
it's initiative to act on its own. If you do not want the team to do that, you
can either look for a message in the message monitor where the team asks for
orders prior to moving out, and then issue that team another order, or select
the DEFEND button on the right hand panel.
35. Where can I find an opponent?
The best choice is to join the irc channel #close combat. It exists on
undernet and others. There are several web sites that support coordinating net
play and one that even rates opponents. Check out:
Church of Close Combat
Close Combat Challenge Board
Unofficial Close Combat Headquarters
36. How to use a null modem connection.
I have sucessfully gotten Close Combat to work over a null modem connection
for some fantastic H2H play. A complete FAQ can be found at:
www.xmission.com/~dmappin/ccfaq.htm
I will be updating it frequently the next few days to make it more complete
and detailed. I realise that everyone out there may not be as
familiar/comfortable screwing with the networking aspects of Win95.
Don "Ace" Mappin