We have big news for Command: Modern Operations. Today we are going live with a major update that upgrades the engine to 64-Bit architecture. The full changelog and notes on new features and performance are available below.
* MAJOR NEW FEATURE: 64-bit architecture. Command is now a 64-bit application.
* MAJOR NEW FEATURE: New DirectX 11-based map renderer. The existing DX9-based map rendering engine has been wholly replaced with a new one based on DirectX 11. You should observe significantly improved zoom/pan performance, as well as reduced latency and increased throughput when rendering map layer tiles.
* NEW SIM FEATURE: Per-sensor mast height (optional)
Apart from the existing ability to specify an overall mast-height for a platform/unit, it is now possibly to specify the mast-height value per sensor. This can be useful in modeling the different height placement (and thus horizon coverage, and the now-critical ability to clear the local skyline, see below) for each individual sensor in a platform.
* NEW MAJOR SIM FEATURE: Terrain type-dependent skyline / land-cover height. The simulation now clearly distinguishes between terrain elevation height (ie. the actual ground) and the "skyline" height outlined by either natural features (forest trees, plantation etc.) or man-made structures (buildings, bridges etc.). This is critical for a number of different sim features, from land close-combat (e.g. land forces need to poke their sensors above local features to get sufficient LOS) to low-level flight (some aircraft can fly between the trees/buildings, most cannot).
Several new land-cover types have been added to the existing ones. The overall list of land-cover types and their associated skyline-height values is as follows:
Water => 0
Evergreen Needleleaf forest => 5
Evergreen Broadleaf forest => 5
Deciduous Needleleaf forest => 5
Deciduous_Broadleaf forest => 5
Mixed forest => 5
Closed shrublands => 1
Open shrublands => 1
Woody savannas => 5
Savannas => 1
Grasslands => 1
Permanent wetlands => 1
Croplands => 1
Cropland Natural Vegetation Mosaic => 1
Snow And Ice => 1
Barren Or Sparsely Vegetated => 1
Urban And Built Up => 9
Urban - Close Inner City => 30
Urban - Spaced High Rise => 45
Urban - Attached Houses => 6
Urban - Close Industrial => 9
Urban - Spaced Apartments => 20
Urban - Detached Houses => 6
Urban - Spaced Industrial => 9
Urban - Shanty Town => 4
Custom Environment Zone UI changes and new land-cover Types
The Custom Environment Zone window UI has been re-arranged, with sonar environment overrides grouped together on one side and land-cover overrides grouped on the other. You can now set a custom land cover height (skyline), which will override the default land cover height for the CEZ:
The cover type ‘Use_Underlying_Values’ allows you to create a CEZ that doesn’t override land cover at all (for example if you only wanted to override weather and/or sonar conditions.) If you do select a specific land cover type, you can then check the ‘Set custom height’ checkbox to override the cover height for that CEZ. The height value is in whole meters.
Aircraft ‘Land Cover Masking’ Flight Mode
‘Land Cover Masking’ (aka "fly between the trees/buiildings") is a new flight mode for aircraft. Only aircraft with the DB capability flag for ‘land cover masking’ set will be capable of this flight mode (DB v499+ required). In DB3000 v499 all rotorcraft (incl. some UAVs) have this capability.
To set an aircraft to use this flight mode you use the Speed/Altitude window to set an aircraft (or aircraft waypoint) to use terrain-following mode. Once you set terrain following (and assuming the aircraft is capable of land-cover masking), a new check box will appear in the UI to set ‘Land Cover Masking.’ This can also be done via Lua (see below.)
Aircraft flying ‘land cover masking’ will fly much lower than the existing terrain following mode, as low as 10 ft AGL at loiter speed in open terrain with good visibility.
If the scenario has the ‘Terrain Effects’ feature enabled, an aircraft flying ‘land cover masking’ will fly just low enough to be inside the land cover when possible. For example if land cover at the aircraft’s location is ‘urban/built up’ with a height of 9m then the aircraft will fly at 8m. This allows the aircraft to receive concealment from the land cover (see sensor changes below) while still exposing any mast-mounted sensors it may have (a good example is OH-58D with its mast-mounted optics).
Land Cover and Sensor Detection Ranges
The effect of land cover on the maximum sensor detection ranges for visual, IR, and radar sensors has been changed. (NOTE: as before, land cover only effects sensor detection range when the ‘Terrain Effects’ feature is enabled in the scenario settings.)
Previously, only the land cover at the target’s location influenced sensor detection range. Now the sensor itself is checked to see if it is ‘within land cover’ (ie. it clears the skyline or not) and this applies an additional reduction in detection range if the height of the sensor is below the local skyline. In addition, the land cover along the ‘line of sight’ between the sensor and the target will also reduce sensor detection range whenever the LOS point is below the local skyline.
These changes can result is significantly shorter detection ranges for ground-to-ground sensor detections when there is ‘high’ land cover in the area (e.g. woods and/or urban terrain.). Very low-flying aircraft (using the ‘land cover masking’ mode) can also have reduced detection ranges if they are flying below the local skyline (and dodging telephone poles or power lines, probably).
Lua Changes
New Lua support has been added for the features above:
Land Cover Masking Flight Mode
‘Land cover masking’ mode can also be set via Lua using the Unit wrapper. Set the ‘unit.TF’ property to ‘true’ to turn on terrain following and then set the new ‘unit.TFType’ property to 1 (for land cover masking) or ‘0’ (for traditional terrain following AGL flight.)
Custom Environment Zones
Lua support for custom environment zones has been expanded.
The ScenEdit_AddZone, ScenEditRemoveZone, and ScenEdit_TransformZone functions now support CEZs. CEZs are always added to/removed from the ‘nature’ side. CEZ values are set via the CEZ wrapper object (see below.)
Lua Side wrapper has a new property and a new method:
Side.Customenvironmentzones read-only property – returns a table of CEZ guid/name/description. Note: only the ‘Nature’ side will have CEZs normally.
Side:getcustomenvironmentzone(guid or name or description) method – returns the CEZ as a zone wrapper object.
Lua Zone object wrapper:
Zone.landcovertype property – get/set integer land cover type.
Zone.hascustomlandcoverheight read-only property – returns true if CEZ has custom land cover height set.
Zone.landcoverheight property – get/set integer land cover height in meters.
Zone.thermallayerceiling property – get/set thermal layer ceiling in meters.
Zone.thermallayerfloor property – get/set thermal layer floor in meters.
Zone.thermallayerstrength property – get/set thermal layer strength as floating point value.
Zone.convergencezoneinterval property – get/set convergence zone interval as floating-point value.
Zone.weatherprofile property – get/set weather profile as a Lua table with ‘temp’, ‘rainfall’, ‘undercloud’, and ‘seastate’ table fields with the same values as the weather model.
* NEW SCENARIO REALISM FEATURE: Weather and day/night cycle affect air sorties. Aircraft that are not suitably equipped (either built-in or through their loadout, e.g. LANTIRN pods) for flying at night or in bad weather, will not be able to take off. If such aircraft are already airborne when the unsuitable conditions occur, they run a high risk of crashing on landing.
This is an optional realism feature, enabled by default for new scenarios but disabled for existing ones, to avoid disrupting existing scenarios.
* NEW MAJOR FEATURE: Targeting Priority (part of Doctrine/ROE settings):
A new ‘Targeting Priority’ tab now appears on the Doctrine/ROE window. This tab allows the user to create a Targeting Priority List to control how a unit prioritizes engaging known targets.
Targeting Priority is a component of a Doctrine, and thus follows all the existing conventions for Doctrines in Command – they can be assigned at the unit, group, mission, or side level and will inherit from higher-level Doctrines:
The Targeting Priority List UI will display the Targeting Priority that applies to the Doctrine you’re currently viewing. You can only edit the Targeting Priority List if it is a part of the current Doctrine – i.e. not inherited from a higher-level Doctrine.
Every Targeting Priority List will contain a single ‘default’ priority entry. Entries above the ‘default’ entry in the list will be considered ‘immediate’ priority targets, to be engaged before any other targets. Entries below the default entry in the list are considered ‘delayed’ priority, to be engaged only if no higher priority targets are available. The ‘default’ priority entry will automatically match any target(s) that do not match any other entry in the Targeting Priority List, allowing the player to prioritize (or de-prioritize) individual target types while leaving all other target types to fall into the ‘default’ category.
Create: Allows you to create a Priority Target List for the current Doctrine. This will override any inherited Targeting Priority.
Remove: Removes the Targeting Priority List from the current Doctrine. The Doctrine will automatically inherit from higher level Targeting Priorities, if they exist.
Move Up: Move the selected item up one row in the list.
Move Down: Move the selected item down one row in the list.
Add Item: Add a new item above the currently selected item in the list.
Delete Item: Deletes the currently selected item from the list. NOTE: You cannot delete the default priority item.
Doctrine Targeting Priority applies as one of the final criteria when a unit is selecting a target. Other Doctrine settings (Rules Of Engagement, Weapon Release Authorization, etc.) and general AI targeting considerations (side posture, mission applicability, weapon effectiveness, etc.) are applied before the Doctrine Targeting Priority is checked. So for example, if a unit does not have a weapon to engage a given target, or that target is not considered relevant to the unit’s current mission, the target will not be considered as a potential target regardless of Targeting Priority.
Each entry in the Targeting Priority List is evaluated in turn against a unit’s final potential targets. If an ‘immediate’ priority entry is matched, the unit will engage the target(s) that match that entry, ignoring lower priority targets. If a ‘delayed’ priority entry is matched the unit will engage the target(s) that match that entry only if there are no higher priority targets.
If there are multiple potential targets remaining after the Targeting Priority is applied the Command AI will select one of those targets based on its general AI and/or mission target selection behavior – typically closest-first, while attempting to spread attackers across multiple targets.
NOTE: In some cases the unit AI will evaluate a nearby hostile unit as an immediate threat and engage it in preference to all other targets. The Priority Targeting List is ignored in this case.
Targeting Priority Doctrine can be changed via Lua using the Doctrine wrapper object. The Doctrine wrapper can be obtained from a unit, group, mission, or side wrapper object via its doctrine property. See ‘Lua Changes’ below for further details.
Lua additions for Targeting priority feature:
ActiveUnit wrapper: ActiveUnit.doctrine read-only property – returns the Doctrine wrapper object for the unit’s Doctrine.
Group wrapper: Group.doctrine read-only property – returns the Doctrine wrapper object for the group’s Doctrine.
Mission wrapper: Mission.doctrine read-only property – returns the Doctrine wrapper object for the mission’s Doctrine.
Doctrine object wrapper:
* Doctrine.TargetPriority read-only property – returns a Lua table with the contents of the doctrine’s priority target list, if any. Fields for each item in the table are:
-- unit_type (integer) = ActiveUnitType
-- unit_subtype (integer) = AircraftType, ShipType, SubmarineType, FacilityCategory, WeaponType, MobileGroundUnitCategory, depending on unit_type.
-- Isfixedfacilitysubtype (boolean) = For fixed facility unit_type, ‘true’ indicates the unit_subtype is a value from FacilityCategory, ‘false’ indicates the unit_subtype is from MobileGroundUnitCategory.
-- dbid (integer) = the specific DBID.
-- priority (integer) = 0 (delayed), 1 (default), 2 (immediate) engagement priority.
* Doctrine:deleteTargetPriorityEntry(index) method – deletes the corresponding item from the priority target list, if it exists. NOTE: index value is 0-based. Returns the list as a Lua table.
* Doctrine:addTargetPriorityEntry(type, subtype, isfixedfacilitysubtype, dbid, index) method – all arguments are integers save for ‘isfixedfacilitysubtype’ which is a boolean value. ‘type’, ‘subtype’, ‘isfixedfacilitytype’, and ‘dbid’ are as explained for the TargetPriority property above. ‘index’ is the location in the list where the new entry will be inserted, with the existing entry at that location moving down. NOTE: index value is 0-based.
* NEW FEATURE: Decoy platforms. Summary description: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aG1sirF06rpGXyxiVD2CD57_T2e1Yy1f/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110077162694891335144&rtpof=true&sd=true
* NEW FEATURE: Weapon-deployable platforms (initially aircraft).
Some aircraft can be carried as payloads from other platforms and released to fly. This allows moddeling various systems that are carried as payloads (with the full penalties of drag, weight etc.) and are launched weapons, but are actually recoverable platforms.
The DB3000 v499 database contains one such example the Altius 600 UAV, carried as a loadout option for the XQ-58A Valkyrie UCAV. More systems (like the D-21 and WZ-8 Mach-3 UAVs) are to be added in the future. The UAVs are launched just like tactical decoys, using a BOL launch mode.
* ADDED: Zone selection paradigm for all types of mission areas, triggers, actions, nonav & exclusion zones, and flight plans.
Example:
* ADDED: New quick mission (Patrols) creation with Shift+RMB on clicked zones. This allows to select one or more units and quickly create a patrol mission on a zone (supports zone overlap).
The selected mission will be automatically created to the zone's RPs and selected relevant units or hosted unit will be assigned to the mission. The mission editor will also open, allowing the player to further refine it.
How-to guide:
1-Make sure to create at least 1 zone (with the area & ref point manager)
2-Select 1 or more units then shift+RMB on a zone to select the mission to create.
Example: https://imgur.com/jLSMZXs
* ADDED: Various features to easily create usable zones:
-"Define area" now prompts the user to automatically create a standard zone and requests for a name, expanding the area-centric changes.
-Added a circle-shaped "define area" in addition to the rectangle-shaped one (shortcut ctrl+O)
-Reorganized the Refpoint Manager UI for reference points and areas
-Added a general text input dialog Returns the user's input, returns null if canceled
* ADDED: Added persistent UI+Lua layer control over standard zones and env. Zones (Can also be extended to other zone type, it has been intentionally disabled for other zone types)
* ADDED: Special kinematic behaviour for hovercrafts (LCAC, for instance); they no longer behave like Martian flying saucers capable of hovering above trees.
* ADDED: Traction system for ground units (also fixes units getting stuck in sloppy area and adds collision bounce). Also improved how a land unit's speed is computed given slope, terrain type, and the unit's traction system (tracked, wheeled, foot).
* ADDED: Formation editor now supports "hot reload" of the templates file. Also added button to quickly open the file for editing.
* ADDED: Added support (incl. damage mechanics) for new "blimp" airship type
* ADDED: Added support for "multi-staged missile" flag. Multi-staged AAW missiles (e.g. SA-5) have a lower burnout weight in proportion to their overall launch weight. This helps them achieve better climb performance post-burnout, but if they loft it also means that they are less able to use their mass to re-energize on their post-loft dive.
* ADDED: Indication of which AC is the group leader
* ADDED: Special kinematic behaviors for hovercrafts (LCAC, for instance); they no longer behave like Martian flying saucers capable of hovering above trees.
* ADDED: Traction system for ground units (also fixes units getting stuck in sloppy area and adds collision bounce). Also improved how a land unit's speed is computed given slope, terrain type, and the unit's traction system (tracked, wheeled, foot).
* ADDED: Formation editor now supports "hot reload" of the templates file. Also added button to quickly open the file for editing.
* ADDED: Added new map layer: OpenTopoMap. This is a map layer optimized for displaying natural topography (see also: https://opentopomap.org/) . This can be useful for better evaluating the terrain around a given unit (and thus better understanding visibility, movement and damage effects). This layer is externally-provided, so tile-download reliability and speed are beyond our control.
* ADDED: Support for new "blimp" airship type
* ADDED: Implemented rudder as factor in ship/sub turn rate, and rudder damage (stuck). Ships and subs are now more "sluggish" in their turns (especially large ones) as it takes time for the rudder to fully deflect to the desired position. Additionally, the rudder can be damaged (stuck) or destroyed, leaving the boat directionless (e.g. Bismarck in WW2).
* ADDED: New trigger type: "Air/Dock Ops Status Change". This trigger fires whenever the air/dock ops status of the selected unit(s) changes - e.g. an aircraft takes off, a boat returns to its host unit, an aircraft shifts from "being turned around" to "ready and waiting" etc. The UI allows selecting which of the available states will cause the trigger to fire. This was available until now only through scripting but can now also be configured through the EE.
* ADDED: Add speed and altitude to file
* ADDED: Interpolation function for zones; Also added Shift+RMB zone interpolation options (1, 2, 3, 4, 9) in the UI
* ADDED: Added a new Shift+RMB interaction on zones: Highlight all RPs of a zone exclusively
* ADDED: Shift now allows to move multiple RPs while keeping relative position. This makes it possible to move a selected zone in one go.
* ADDED: Zone creation by polygon
* ADDED: Button to change cargo transfer destination unit in mission editor
* ADDED: #15024: "Unit in Zone" in the lua template for operation planner triggers
* ADDED: Added the ability to view/edit the assigned cargo for cargo missions using a list of cargo consolidated by unit type. This is done with a new check box "Show items grouped by unit type" under the cargo item list in the cargo settings tab. (So for example if you have 1500 individual rifleman units in your cargo, you can click this to see one "0/1500 Rifleman" entry in the list instead of 1500 individual Rifleman list entries)
* ADDED: #15049: A button to clear all slug trails
* ADDED: Relinkable decoys: https://i.imgur.com/QKl41zf.png
* ADDED: #14903: Allow Rapid Dragon use with missions
* ADDED: Integrated IsDecoy property (to existing unit-wrapper object) with new logic + displayed decoy info into print(unit). Example: https://i.imgur.com/Q3C2SqZ.png
* ADDED: Several new type-specific icons for ground units
* ADDED: You can now customize the size of unit icons, per-type and per-shape: https://imgur.com/a/3tVU6cr
* ADDED: The QuickSink-configured JDAMs (background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41bCXburV2s) now correctly dive in front of the target ship and (try to) detonate under its keel (due to the CEP-based accuracy, the exact detonation point can vary). The underwater blast usually delivers much more severe damage than direct impact to the target ship.
* ADDED: Added 'Add Reference Point at...' menu item and dialog (on "Missions and Reference Points" menu); this allows placing a reference point with great precision, using known lat/lon coordinates.
* ADDED: #15173: SBR Add Support for Sensor Groups
* ADDED: Added Lua wrapper support for cargo mission assigned cargo list.
* ADDED: Mission-level integration for "AC landing/takeoff weather/night limitation" feature: A per-unit check is performed on the takeoff and landing locations, to check if the AC will be able to take-off & land without any issue. At the end a warning is shown to the user (No hard-lock prevention).
* ADDED: #14985: Opacity validation by "enter" key in area & ref point manager
* ADDED: Added placeholder properties for AC flights
* ADDED: Added 'All ground units attempt self-transfer' option to cargo missions
* ADDED: Property 'leadSlowsDown' for group wrapper object
• ADDED: Added mechanics for proximity-fuzed warheads on AAA rounds (such as flak rounds). General background on the proximity fuze: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_fuze
Proximity flak greatly boosts the effective "hit" probability against aerospace targets - whereby "hit" no longer means just a direct impact, but detonating withing a lethal sphere around the target. The dimensions of the lethal sphere depend on:
• The shell caliber: big shells like 85mm or 127mm have much larger lethal spheres than 35mm or
40mm rounds.
• The target speed: faster targets severely reduce the effective lethal sphere; this is a large part of why flak fell out of fashion post-WW2 as jet engines sharply increased the speeds of frontline aircraft. It's also why flak has seen a resurgence as an anti-UAS solution: drones generally are slow, flimsy air vehicles, and flak rounds are much cheaper than missiles.
When a proximity round "hits" an air target, we break down the detonation distance into five logical "distance slots" (20% probability on each), each representing a different distance from the target:
1) Point-blank ie. direct hit: The target receives the full warhead damage
2) A very near miss: The target receives 80% of the warhead damage
3) A less close miss: The target receives 40% of the warhead damage
4) Further out: The target receives 20% of the warhead damage
5) Edge of the lethal sphere: The target receives 10% of the warhead damage
(Notice that received damage falls sharply with distance; this represents the expanding frag pattern of proximity rounds).
• ADDED: On the "Scenario Migration" window, you can now customize the default WRA-range for AAW missiles when migrating a scenario
• ADDED: The Sentinel-2 map layer now uses an improved custom-tuned tileset. This has several improvements:
- It is hill-shaded, and thus relief (terrain elevations) stand out much more prominently: https://imgur.com/a/urc9XXL
- Because of the shading, desert regions are less eyeball-melting: https://imgur.com/a/TTPUZOW
- It is water-masked, so coastal outlines are a lot crisper: https://imgur.com/a/RzDE4yZ
- Also because of the water-masking, water regions are transparent, so now you can combine it with bathymetry: https://imgur.com/a/PXOYLiY
- The tiles themselves are compressed to higher quality, so you should see less compression-artifacts on high zoom.
* Includes improved graphics for the depiction of mount/sensor coverage arcs. Example: https://imgur.com/a/M4cZsm8
• Includes updated and corrected versions of the following official scenarios:
- Chains Of War #1 - Blue Dawn
- Command LIVE - Kuril Sunrise
- Command Showcase - Queen Elizabeth
- Choking Halifax
- Raid On Kismayo
- Falklands #8 - Pebble Island Raid
- Falklands Bonus #1 - The Empire Strikes Back
- Falklands Bonus #2 - Operation Mikado
- Kashmir Fire #13 - Over The Hump
- Desert Storm #3: First Night (Fixed grammatical errors)
- Command-LIVE: Aegean In Flames (Fixed a number of issues: Airbase magazines, missing mounts and weapons, turned off unlimited airbase magazines)
- Command-LIVE: Don of a New Era (Adjusted description and briefing text style)
- Command-LIVE: Broken Shield 300 (Fixed airbase magazines, various other fixes)
- Command-LIVE: Pole Positions (Fixed broken links in scenario description)
- Command-LIVE: The King of the Border (Adjusted description and briefing text style)
• Includes all official scenarios rebuilt to DB v499, with their default AAW WRA-range set to 75% of maximum range.
DB3000 v499 changelog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XmuwnZgf1f2drXA2R3cB5oR-fV_slwul/view?usp=sharing
CWDB v499 changelog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y-vuNJ0A_gr5ufleBxicrmUNpTJwaK2f/view?usp=sharing
DB3000 v500 content changelog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ukywMOnA6qWpKpD7K0aw9BhEAl0fGPK2/view?usp=sharing
CWDB v500 content changelog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uupIaQia3qHF_YPxEuUAk_TkkeIjKFvp/view?usp=sharing
DB3000 v501 changelog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1--wRLPWp0AHyu_oWhcUdzaucvI8GmXJo/view?usp=sharing
CWDB v501 changelog: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-6II6vMwT4u9QvYn-9lltj0YkEXwpJG3/view?usp=sharing