Ghost Recon

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In a little bit of  battletesting, Ghost Recon works almost flawlessly under Linux. All that I have to do, is set it to emulate a virtual desktop of my screen size (with the game to match), hide my panels, and leave anything I want to access within alt+tab range.

There’s some rendering bugs or performance optimizations with WINEs desktop emulation window, that are apparent because of (sigh) the game changing resolutions when it comes to menus. This is something that pisses me off about game developers (particularly from RSE), don’t hard code shit !

GR Oh man, that is just so wrong…

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I’ve had this theory for awhile, but I think this proves it well enough for me… I was playing Ghost Recon with the CENTCOM mod loaded, got to a map that the objective is to clear out insurgents from a [very very small] city without waxing the civis in the area…

Loaded up with a G36 rifle and AG36 launcher, one perk of video games over real life – much nicer kit selection >_>. Mission went well, aside from the “support” assets doing little more then sit on their rear ends. Made it to one building and was just floored… I see an enemy shadow through a wall, AK in hand. In another building I found a stair case heading up and 2 shadows above.

Sure enough, where ever I went, the shadow of an enemy tracked my position with his rifle – through the floor. Even worse then that lol, moved up stairs…. shot him in the face and took out his cronie behind the landing without a scratch, the AI can’t even CHEAT correctly lol.

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And *now* I can pass out…. lol

I was like a zombie at work yesterday, by the time I got home it was a splitting headache and felt like someone had kicked my bodies equilibrium on its side. Like working until burned out, then re-burn the burn out and keep marching :. Crashed in front of the TV and went to bed early… work wasn’t so bad today. What pissed me off is being re-tasked to reconnoiter a new grocery store on the way home -> I freaking hate shopping! I also don’t appreciate being made late…

I just got though with a training session, kind of organized chaos I guess but that’s thanks to my shitty work schedule. I conducted a deeper level of stealth training then we usually go into, and I used Ghost Recon to do it; JB, Noer, (at end) Ghost, Ambu, Carter, Decapi, Hostile, and Chester. I tried to iron it out how issues of rules of engagement, positioning, observation, reporting, and coordination of movement/fire command could be used to make the most of covert actions. After we did the training scenarios (ambushes, infil, etc), we moved on to a “shoot your instructor” scenario; where they had to sneak up behind me with MP5SD’s and go for the CQ kill. The trick was, I was on patrol with an AK and weapons free to shoot at anyone I saw trying to sneak up the hill hehe. I was a little disappointed with how long it took (I scored 2 kills, but 1 was probably a glitch) but overall very impressed with their effort (especially JBs). It was very, very pleasing to see them complete that scenario so well.

What can I say, I borrowed that one from U.S. sniper training and simplified it for our gaming environment lol.

With how long it took between setup and intermissions (note to self: be more strict), we didn’t get time for the RvS or S4 portions, considering the big attendance maybe that can do for session 2 next week; whatever. Really I should have just laid down for a nap after work but it was a good 3 or 4 days prep into the session, and one of them days where almost everyone’s there at just the right time.

Right now, I ain’t moving until the foods on the table – unless I’m snoring on my feet in the process!!!

A night on burning sands

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Nothings up, so I setup GR and ran though a mission: first map of Desert Siege with the Sabre Teams mod active.

Equipped myself with a Diemaco SFW-SD, basically a Canadian M4 with SD, Scope, and M203. Crept through the darkness slow and steady, moving taking it as I would actually do it; instead of running headless chicken. All went well, basically made it into the enemy encampments before I was detected and they hardly knew what hit’em hehe. All the way pro, until I was creeping into a small room and saw an X-Ray unawares behind the door; tried shooting him through the seam of the hinge, but no go. So I backed out FAST, shut the door and moved around to his other flank…. open door, lean out, and plugged a M203 bomblet close to him -> lights out turkey!

Normally I wouldn’t do that, but GR utterly sucks and blows for tactical aids…. lol. Scouted out the last encampment, looked good, made ready to drop one of the sentries when my M203 fires… lol. A mistake that wouldn’t happen in real life, because you can feel the difference in triggers; but very easy in game when memory and HUD is all you’ve got to go on instead of memory and tactile senses.

Bugged out and out flanked the enemy counter attack, then moved up like a sniper in the night; nearly lost my head paying more attention to Willow barking like a nut, then moving in on for the kill.

Almost secured the entire map night creeping around, but there was this one bastardo around the building…. searched around before going up, only to realize we must’ve been playing cat and mouse for the last 8 minutes -> as the 2nd to last X-Ray shot me in the back of the head lol.

when stuck playing alone, night ops and an SD rifle help even the odds lol.

Year of the Monkey

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Been playing a Vietnam themed Ghost Recon mod that was mentioned on our forums, Year of the Monkey; so far this is an awesome mod lol. Being stuck in the middle of a jungle, well is a terrain type that feels more natural then desert missions ^_^. Moment I got to the intro and heard the mods music taste, I was hooked. YOTM does music and sounds more “in period”, some of which are songs that are more my style then oft’ found today. GR already has awesome sound effects, and YOTM don’t do a bad job there either hehe.

Launched the first map on elite, ordered the sniper to an overwatch position and the next thing I know, I’m laying flat with helmet to the grindstone as bullets are whizzing by our insertion! Ordered all teams to surpress and I put down a bit of frag cover in order to peel alpha & bravo out under sniper fire. Oh man, what a map. Tried circling around the flanks in groups (leaving our sniper as bait lol), only for Bravo to get pinned down; I’m moving, can’t see crap, bullet zips over my ear and I dived straight to the ground; Bravo opened fire on their positions. Looking over my shoulder confirmed my ears summery, the poor slept behind me had lost his head; crawling back to safer ground and moving across the stream, so I could regroup on Bravo for a tactical withdrawal (they had just moved out of cover when we took fire). Lo’ and behold, 3 bodies moving in the water about 35m to Bravos 4 o’clock.

“I don’t give a f*** what that is, let’s rock”

and Alpha went weapons free, next thing I know we’re picking shrapnel out of our asses from behind lol. Swithced to bravo team, to find 2 men down and one stuck in a tree, being shot at by an enemy 3 metres away….. little M60 fire and problem solved. Maybe the AI isn’t totally used to the terrain?

Eventually ended up with just the Sniper left, when I found a small area dug into the earth and covered over with camo — leading into a tunnel system going all over the map. Now that’s what I call attention to detail!!!!! managed to eventually find my way out, only to see the end of tunnel come up practically behind our insertion point! Stuck my head out, and lost it without even seeing a thing.

Loaded it on Multilayer again, sent re spawns to infinite, then kitted out for action. M60 General Purpose Machine Gun plus Frags. That was a crazy map. I went to search around the spawn point, next thing I know there are two X-Rays behind me: little bastards had a small encampment buried into the ground where I couldn’t see, came out and shot me lol. In attempts to attack the village position, met with heavy fire and got blown up by grenades several times; ended up using frags and M60 fire just to pepper then enough I could circle around between flanking positions.

A few lives later, managed to creep into the village undetected, passing up a kill – then lit up their world. Main problem was the tunnels and having to frag both sides of a T-Junction; killing the enemy or forcing them to take cover, then trying to engage before getting shot in the back lol. At least though, GR doesn’t seem to be capable of simulating booby traps… lol.

Played through several of the missions and it was just awesome; cook a few goons (I love setting ambushes), check your six, then move out, and next thing you know Charlie’s fried your ass.

One thing I love about Ghost Recon, is it has that feel to it, that feel that behind any rock or tree could be lurking a nasty surprise. That’s something that is sorely missing from war games set in urban environments, where you generally know where threats can come from, where they probably will be, and good cover is scarce.

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Was playing a bit of Ghost Recons PlayStation 2 editiion, after so many years of CQ in [SAS], I really hate the AI more then I used to lol. One nice thing though, despite that it seems micro-management (barf!) or leaving by the wayside the Squad AI isn’t much use tactically beyond (very) simple fire and maneuver. One nice thing though, was scouting 20~40m ahead of the assault group when I spotted a sentry in a ditch; amazingly he didn’t notice me laying some 25 meters to his side, even with a tweedle dee and tweedle dumb giving away my snipers position 8=)

swapped fire teams and moved Alpha up, plugged a M203 into the ditch and then switched back to the sniper on Bravo to pick off anything fleeing from Alphas SAW.

Now if only the dipsticks didn’t cross my line of fire so often, lol. In terms of friendly AI, for what they are capable of GR has good squad AI, but sadly still needs baby sitting for anything beyond rules of engagement. I have no exposure to the AI community, but most video games have the “Artificial” part right, they just lack “Intelligence” to go with it.