Let me tell you a bit about how tank combat works in ARMA, and OFP:CWC in particular.
Technically, you play as the tank commander and control the tank by giving orders to your crew. Orders are given via a neat little radio system that constructs phrases out of individual words, like "Nine oclock-unknown-MAN-two hundred!". So if you order the driver to move forward, your character will say "Forward" and the driver will move forward after that. NPCs will also use this system to inform you about their status and things they see, so you're pretty well appraised of your surroundings.
However, presumably so you can hear every order clearly, NPCs will never speak over eachother. This is convenient for infantry missions, where it's critical to hear the direction and distance of units. However, there's a consequence of this: if you give an order while commanding a vehicle, the crew won't act until your order comes up in the list of queued radio communications. If you're commanding multiple tanks, your NPC platoon will be constantly telling you about the damage their tanks have sustained, their ammunition levels, and any interesting rocks they notice on the ground... which mean your orders can be delayed by up to twenty seconds while your platoon chatters. This can be relieved by filling the driver's seat and using manual fire, eliminating the need to give some orders, but your gunner still has to aim the turret, which means you still need to give orders to him.
So, I died because my platoon wouldn't fucking shut up. My gunner was staring off into space while I was frantically right-clicking on a T80, desperately trying to bring the cannon to bear on the tank that ended up destroying me.
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis.
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Topic: How did you last die? (Read 2412670 times)