Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - rattovolante

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 9
1
Off-Topic / Re: Havoc's friday morning questions
« on: 22-01-2010, 08:01:51 »
So is it to show thats friendly for the luftwaffe? I thought the Germans always used red flags for that?

Btw its like not very well done on the trucks..

I'd guess so, but seems somewhat ambiguous with orange.
Did the dutch use the "neutral orange" triangles/markings on vehicles too?

2
General Discussion / Re: Why Italy
« on: 13-01-2010, 19:01:11 »
Carcano got the job for producing a NEW Rifle with a better calibre , what happened?  They where not able to produce this gun in the numbers required and so the Italian soldiers used the some weapon as there fathers in the war before, with the same deficiencies.

Er, Carcano died in 1903 ;)
Carcano designed only the bolt system (IIRC) of the "original" 1891 rifle. The rifle itself was designed by a commission and had a somewhat complex development (the bullet was designed first, then changed to rimless while the rifle design was underway). For some reason in English the name stuck with the whole rifle, but in Italian the rifle is just called by its commission year (i.e., "il 91").

What happened was that the '91 turned out to be an extremely sturdy rifle, so after WWI there were a lot of still more-or-less functional surplus rifles laying around. So instead of making a completely new (and modern) design from scratch (*), it was thought to modernize the existing rifles. Thus the Carcano 38 (or 91/38, depends on the naming style used) inherited most peculiarities of a 1890 design...

BTW, it's doubtful the 38 would have been a better rifle than the 91 - Finnish experience with it was negative for example. Certainly it was an interesting experiment (very short barrel (**), fixed sights only, what would nowadays be called an intermediate cartridge), but it would probably have added new defects too.


(*): actually a semiauto rifle was being developed at the same time (the 91/38 was somewhat of a stopgap measure) and was even used in limited numbers, but like most semiauto models of the time it was too complex to mass produce (not to mention field maintenance)

(**): note that it's supposed to be a full battle rifle, not a carbine as FH2 says)




About the production system: main problem was that budget and political issues prevented importing or licensing foreign models. As a result, with rare exceptions almost everything fielded by Italy had to take into heavy consideration what could actually be entirely produced indigenously.

So, the Breda 30 LMG was selected over the czech ZB vz.26 (which then became the Bren, type 96, etc.etc.) because they had to get a license for it.

FIAT owned pretty much the only factories in Italy able to produce tanks, so there wasn't much choice as to who to award the contracts. BTW, the L6/40 (which FH2 calls "FIAT L6/40" IIRC) was developed by Ansaldo as an export model (with a much more conventional turret!), and only produced by FIAT because Ansaldo didn't have the capability to mass-produce it.

FWIW, the opposite happened for plane production: there were too many (private) design teams, and during the '30s the government tried to keep them all busy... with the result of fielding a huge number of different designs (which all shared underpowered radial engines).

Bomber design focused almost exclusively on trimotori (3-engined) simply because italian-designed radial engines were not reliable enough to use a two-engine layout.

Radial engines also influenced the late 30s and early war trend of highly maneouvrable but really slow fighters. Later high performance Italian planes were povered by a Daimler-Benz licensed engine that Alfa Romeo had privately bought the license for (i.e., the military didn't finance it).

More or less the same happened with plane MGs, the original ones were underpowered, so they just switched to german models.



Due to this in hindsight Italy (apart from maybe France) would have been the country which would have gained the most by American lend lease equipment. That's not so hypothetical as it sounds nowadays, as until mid-1939 (signing of the Pact of Steel) the side Italy would take in the clearly approaching conflict between Germany and France-Britain wasn't actually defined (pre-war plans and preparations for a war against Germany were never shelved and kept being updated even during the WW2 btw)

3
Off-Topic / Re: Advice needed on buying new PC
« on: 12-01-2010, 01:01:02 »
@Stefan:
athlon II 620 isn't on stock. Usual post-christmas shortage :\
I think I might even fall back to an entry-level athlon II 240 to cut costs, then if it proves to be too slow I could just discard it (sell it on ebay maybe) and buy a better one later on (when I have some spare money). Strictly speaking I only need this PC to run an office suite and a few other programs, any gaming is an extra so if FH2 can't run smoothly, well, too bad, but my priority is work.
I hope AM3 socket will stay on the market for a while...


@Kelmola
yep I think I still know my way around power supply units, their basics change a LOT more slowly than other components. Although to be honest in my experience spontaneous PSU failure (i.e., not caused by power surges, users tinkering with it, etc.) damaging the mobo and/or other components is a rather rare event, I think I've seen it happen only once in about 15 years.

RAM is 2 banks of 2 gbs each = 4 gb

gpu: my plan is currently to test the integrated card first... that is, when I get the pc I install FH2 and join a server... if it runs anctoville on low, it's ok :)
if not, I can just get into the store on the following day and get a dedicated card.
I'd prefer to delay buying one until I can afford a decent to good one, anyway

Late '90s/early '00s? I remember when 386s became obsolete almost overnight!
Anyway, I'm not too picky about getting the latest stuff in the house. I've been using an Athlon XP until last week, after all (and playing FH2 up to 2.2!). Well, I'm still sort of using it, at least until it hangs and/or refuses to boot...
(to be honest I still think it could be salvaged... if I had time to spend...)


@all
Thanks! :)

4
Off-Topic / Re: Advice needed on buying new PC
« on: 12-01-2010, 00:01:55 »
budget is "as low as possible without getting already-obsolete stuff" (like AM2+ sockets for example)

the problem is that
- I need a PC to work with "right now" (meaning within the week or so)
- I'd like a decent full-featured system
- but I'll only have the money for such a full-featured system in February or March

so I'm trying to get together some hardware that
- can hold its ground (perform decently) on their own until I can upgrade it
- and can be upgraded easily and without too many parts going to waste if/when I get enough money (for example, I might swap the X2 for a X4 and try the AMD Dragon thingy - btw does anyone know if it actually does anything useful or it's just marketing bs?)

This also means I can't chase the perfect system... for example I know an intel i5 has a better power-to-money ratio, but it (and/or the mobo)
- costs about twice as the AMD cpu/mobo, and since I'll have to fund it by cutting other expenses I'd prefer the AMD stuff even with its inferior processing power - unless the AMD cpu design has known issues/flaws (happened with AMD in the past...) I don't think I'll really notice the reduced power, while I might notice having to use buses for 2 weeks more to cut on car fuel expenses in order to fund buying the computer ;)
- isn't currently available at reliable shops near here. I'd either have to wait for it to arrive or to start browsing for it in other shops - but I don't think I have time for either one :\



5
Off-Topic / Advice needed on buying new PC
« on: 11-01-2010, 20:01:01 »
Long story short, I need to buy a new PC and I've very little budget. So a call for help is in order :D

I guess the most graphic- (and sound-) intensive program I want to be able to run on it for the time being is FH2. Anyway, I'd like to be able to upgrade the system in the future (i.e., in case my finances improve) - unless the costs are prohibitive.


I'm currently considering going AMD, with

CPU: Phenom II X2 545 (am3 socket)
@ 59,25 eur + VAT

Mobo: Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H (AMD 785G chipset: am3 socket, ddr3-1666, integrated ATI HD 4200)
@ 63 eur + VAT

RAM: 2 modules of 2 GB each, ddr3 1333
@ 67 eur + VAT


no dedicated audio or video card, for the time being I'll use the on-chip ones ... hoping to upgrade if I get some more money


Now the questions...
* will this run FH2 on medium to high settings? (I'm mostly worried about the distant sound and rain effects introduced in 2.25 I guess they might be heavish on hardware)

* does AMD offer reasonable performance? it costs MUCH less than intel stuff

* is future upgrading (for ex. adding video card, etc.) a realistic perspective or the system (and/or the standards used, like 2x pci-e slots, I saw that SLI is already at 3x) will become obsolete so fast that in a year or two it would be cheaper to buy a new machine from scratch?

* are prices roughly competitive? even if actually I'd prefer to spend a few euros more and have assistance at the shop near home

(of course I'm also buying the case, power supply, etc. but my doubts are mostly with the cpu/mobo/ram/gpu components)

6
Off-Topic / Re: Mussolini's 'brain and blood for sale...
« on: 22-11-2009, 12:11:57 »
Well, the "whole story" seems to have surfaced in italian newspapers.
After Mussolini was killed (and his body shown in Milan), a hasty authopsy was performed in Milan.

Part (or possibly most) of the brain was then sent to the US (apparently they suspected him to have neurosyphilis or some kind of neurological condition, which proved false), some tissue and blood samples were retained in the hospital, the rest was buried. Some time later, all samples kept by the hospital were destroyed.

The ebay seller's story is that an assistant to the surgeon performing the authopsy had kept (stolen?) some of the samples, which eventually ended up in the seller's possessions. While not unlikely there is of course no way to confirm if the story is true except possibly a dna analisys.

Keep in mind that the "brain and blood" samples are just slides:
http://www.corriere.it/gallery/cronache/11-2009/mussolini/1/i-reperti-duce_b0ab0cd8-d6a3-11de-a7cd-00144f02aabc.shtml?title=I%20vetrini%20con%20i%20campioni%20biologici%20che%20un%26pos=4
(Caveat: technically speaking above link points to body parts. I doubt anyone would be shocked by them though :P)
(if you scroll the pics in the link, the paper is an autograph letter signed by the assistant that originally took the slides, which supposedly certifies that the slides contain samples from Mussolini's authopsy.)

7
General / Re: Weapon 3D ironsights/sway feedback
« on: 18-11-2009, 12:11:56 »
Maybe because of all those juicy unreleased not-yet-shown upcoming goodies, ooOOooOoooOOoo?  ;)

Is there extensive amount on unreleased content in it?
if not, just remove it and only keep the released stuff.

Ok, a shooting range map isn't too hard to make from scratch, but the one in the video looks very nice and I'm against reinventing the wheel (er... map) in general

8
General / Re: Weapon 3D ironsights/sway feedback
« on: 18-11-2009, 10:11:50 »
BAR recoil still "looks" a bit too low
I know a BAR weights almost twice than a Garand, but the difference "looks" huge from the video
sorry I can't be any more technical, I have no idea how their recoil actually feels in real life



BTW, just nitpicking but since the mod strives for detail...
was the Carcano 91 rear sight modified? in 2.2 it's set to 450m instead of battle sights (0-300 m). Since virtually all engagements in FH2 are at very short range, battle sights would be more appropriate

Rear sight set at 450m (this is how FH2's model looks like in 2.2):


Raising rear sight (up to 2000m for volley fire):


Full forward position sets sight to battle sight for 0-300m:



PS: could the "shooting range" test map be released? I guess many players might find it useful! :)

9
Off-Topic / Re: Picture of the Day
« on: 06-11-2009, 11:11:02 »
japanese panzer I ?
i must admit i m not very good on early war pacific japanese stuff

but when when did japs get german tanks, this must have been before some major stuff i guess ?

I guess it was captured from Chinese forces. RoC had a tradition of shopping for weapons in Germany until the Japanese convinced the Germans to stop selling them stuff some time after the second sino-japanese war broke out

10
Off-Topic / Re: Guess the Videogame-game
« on: 03-11-2009, 08:11:02 »
Warcraft 3

actually the frozen throne expansion :PPP
your turn flippy! :)

11
Off-Topic / Re: Guess the Videogame-game
« on: 03-11-2009, 00:11:31 »
I expect this to be guessed when I check again the forums tomorrow morning :P

click on thumbnail to enlarge

12
Off-Topic / Re: Forum Demographics
« on: 01-11-2009, 11:11:42 »
17/F/Fl
yes, yes, we all know that you're a 45 years old fly-guy...  like Cronenberg's "the fly", that is ;)

13
Off-Topic / Re: Guess the Videogame-game
« on: 01-11-2009, 10:11:10 »
that made it a tad too easy.... LBA^2 :)

14
Suggestions / Re: Semovente 75/18
« on: 31-10-2009, 19:10:44 »
On the topic of the ammo carrier for the 90mm, then where is the ammo carrier for the stuka zu fuss, and eventually, where are the ammo carriers gonna be for the wespe and hummel, which only had a few dozen rounds :3  Just have the 6 shots, and a longer pause for reloading the full allotment.

this made me realize that I never drove a stuka zu fuss in FH2...  :o how much ammo does it carry? what maps are they in?
I assumed it worked like in FH 0.7 where it only had 1 volley of rockets IIRC, so you would usually park it next to an ammobox before firing non-stop. but that wouldn't work for AT self-propelled guns

15
Suggestions / Re: Semovente 75/18
« on: 31-10-2009, 10:10:54 »
I think the 75mm Semovente would be awesome to have sometime soon...especially since it can also be used by the Germans in italy, and the chassis can be used for the L34 type, and the 90mm type. ;)

90/53 variant wouldn't be very useful in FH2 due to they way it worked, it carried only 6 shots... it was a self-propelled AT artillery piece which needed its dedicated ammo carrier, not an assault gun or tank destroyer. it just avoided the need for separate artillery tractor and gave better overall mobility (but was bulkier and more expensive).
I don't think in a FH2 game you'll find anyone willing to spend a round driving an ammo carrier behind the SPG...

about pacific... actually main issue IMO is - would FH2-style pacific maps work in BF2's engine limits? FH 0.7 pacific maps were very fun, but not very realistic (ok, more like "as realistic as Nazi moon bases"). As far as I understand, FH2 team wants to avoid FH0.7 gazala-type (or midway-type) maps. I would prefer eastern front first for example.

On the other hand the amount of work needed to complete Italian weaponry is very limited, so it might have a high result-to-effort ratio:
- some simple models: bandage, smoke grenade, (improvised) AT grenade, AT mine
- optional more complex models: mortar, sem. 75/18 (supposing it's almost complete)

some existing stuff isn't exactly accurate, but I guess I'm the only one which might notice it so it's not worth to fix it
mc.202 would need animations and cockpit in order to be flown, so I don't think it's worth the effort.

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 9