TGMC:Guide to fire support
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The following page is currently in the process of being created, is undergoing a major structural rework and/or is being moved. |
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TGMC is a project based on the CM-SS13 codebase. |
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LCDR Willem Shepard говорит: "This is your Lieutenant speaking, confirming good hits?" |
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SCPL Xander Greene говорит: "I NEED A MEDIC, FOB IS HIT I SAY AGAIN-" |
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PFC James Ningle говорит: "EVAC!!!!" |
Overview
Fire support is a complicated, yet important part of the marines' arsenal. In case you haven't noticed, the Xenos don't have a massive ship, dropship, ground assault jet, and mortar equipment, and you do (the closest they get is the boiler, which sexually identifies as a howitzer). What stifles marine use of these seemingly impressive tools is their lack of knowledge on how to effectively operate, and coordinate the use of these weapons. Hopefully this guide will help you better make use of the tools entrusted to you and not single handedly cause an entire squad to be wiped.
Tactical Binoculars
The Tactical Binoculars are going to be the primary way of calling down holy hellfire upon the xenos scum. There are other ways(to be mentioned later), but none as versatile. It has the ability to find the coordinates of a given tile, mark and fire the shipside railgun, mark an area for CAS attack, and mark and fire the Orbital Bombardment cannon. You can switch between these modes by alt-clicking it. Not to mention that it has night vision as well, so you can see what you're going to delete, even in pitch black darkness! Use it in hand to activate the zoom, and ctrl-click to mark a target. Examine it to see what mode it's currently set to. Note that you can only mark an area you can actually see(which is unfortunately more inconsistent than you'd think).
Range Finder mode
This is what you use to get the coordinates of a tile, which you can then communicate to whatever schmuck is operating the mortar back at base, if webmaps lag you out too much. ctrl-click a tile while zoomed in to get the coordinates for that tile. It will warn you if that area is too deep for ordnance, and will not give coords. Coordinates are also useful for drop podding marines, though it would be wise to not tell them to drop directly into the entire hive with no support.
Railgun Targeting mode
The shipside railgun is arguably the simplest of the fire support weapons, because it needs only one operator: you, with your tac binos! The Railgun can be fired by simply ctrl-clicking a tile while zoomed in, after a short wind-up period. After firing, it needs a moment to cool down before it can be used again.
CAS Marking mode
The Tactical Binoculars can be used to mark an area to be hit by CAS. Depending on what aircraft is currently doing the attacking, you can plan around:
- the Alamo can only fire directly at the CAS laser, with some offset/inaccuracy.
- the Condor has the ability to target and fire freely independent of the laser mark, it simply needs there to be a mark so the Condor can begin its fire mission. You can laze an area roughly around where the targets are(you can even laze the FOB if you like living on the edge), and let the PO handle the rest.
Orbital Bombardment Targeting mode
Beware, for you now hold in your hands the power to consign an entire area to oblivion. While the primary firing technique for the OB is having the CIC staff fire it, you too have the ability to fire it from groundside. For the CIC staff to fire the OB, you'll need to mark an area by ctrl-clicking like usual. The Ones Above can then fire the OB at that mark after a short wind-up period. However, say that the CIC staff are ERPing in the showers still asleep or otherwise occupied, you'll have to fire it yourself. after the wind-up period, there is an extra 15 seconds or so of wait time. after that has elapsed, a beep and a message will appear:
TARGET ACQUIRED. ORBITAL CANNON IS READY TO FIRE.
After this message appears, you will be able to fire the OB by ctrl+shift-clicking your laser mark. Do know that you are expected to be able to see the target area, so if you end up "accidentally" hitting friendly marines, The Gods might not let you off the hook too easily...
Mortar Fire
target, don't dial at all, and hope for the best(don't do this for the love of god)
The Railgun
When fighting against an existential threat such as the xenomorph horde, you're going to need to use everything you have at your disposal to eliminate the enemy, up to and including a weapon made for the express purpose of ship-to-ship combat. A weapon such as the shipside railgun. While not particularly as effective against planetary targets as it is against spaceships, it has its uses. When fired, the projectile burns up in the planet's atmosphere, melting and splitting apart into a hail of molten metal. Functionally, it has a similar effect to the GAU-21 cannons attachable to aircraft. It is much better at being used for area denial rather than dealing actual damage due to its spread.
There are 2 primary ways to target the railgun: using tactical binoculars, or using an OB beacon.
- with tactical binoculars, alt-click until you switch to railgun targeting mode, then use the binoculars and ctrl-click the area you wish to hit, as described above. Keeping the laze on the target will cause the railgun to keep firing until the laze is removed, usually by a braindead marine moving you by bumping into you.
- The railgun can be fired from an overwatch console(not the main one, the other ones). simply set the overwatch to whichever squad deployed the beacon, and check the area by clicking the target beacon's button on the display(image coming soon maybe probably hopefully). if this pops up when you try to fire:
Your busy doing something else, and press the wrong button!
try clicking the End Camera View action button, then clicking on the target beacon button again. This should allow you to fire the railgun. Though most times this method is never used, it never hurts to know.
Closest of Air Supports
A10 go brrrrrrrrr
Orbital Bombardment
The Orbital Bombardment cannon, the biggest and baddest piece of rock throwing equipment the TGMC has. Capable of launching a large payload from orbit at hypersonic speeds. The large payload size also allows a variety of warhead types to be used.
Loading
The Orbital Cannon must be manually loaded and chambered by a skilled technician(though an unskilled person could do it, but with a lot of fumbling about). Here is how to do it:
- get in a powerloader, and grab a warhead
- put it in the loading tray
- check the fuel requirement for that specific warhead using the loading console(this is randomized each round, and an improper amount of propellant will cause the warhead to veer off course, possibly hitting friendlies)
- load the correct amount of solid fuel blocks into the tray
- press the load tray button
- press the chamber tray payload button
Using the powerloader and the loading console is much faster if you have Engineering skill(you can check your skills through the IC tab). At the moment, the Close button on the loading console does nothing, and shouldn't be pressed if you don't have Engineering skill, as it will only slow you down.
Firing
Targeting the OB can be done 2 ways:
- using an orbital beacon set by marines groundside
- using a laser mark from tactical binoculars
The cannon can then be fired from the main overwatch console once the lase has been set, or by a tac bino operator groundside after a 15 second wait. It's worth noting that the OB can be fired at any lase, be it the dedicated OB lase, or a railgun or CAS lase, so it's important to check the damn target area before hitting the OB button!
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Warhead Types
Currently, the TGMC fields 4 warhead types which can be loaded as needed depending on the situation at hand.
HE Warhead
An extremely high yield warhead capable of devastating targets and structures within a moderately sized area.
Cluster Warhead
A warhead filled with multiple small yield mini-warheads that detonates some distance from the surface, spreading the mini-warheads across a large area. Despite being lower yield projectiles, they are many, and still pack quite the punch.
Incendiary Warhead
Filled to the brim with X-type incendiary fuel, this warhead splashes and ignites the fuel over a large area, turning the target zone into a sea of scorching hot blue flame.
Plasma Drain Warhead
Loaded with codename:TANGLEFOOT, an experimental substance that drains the plasma of any xenomorph it comes in contact with when in aerosol form. The warhead disperses this substance upon impact, covering a large target area with plasma draining purple mist. Preliminary tests show tanglefoot to be mildly toxic to humans though, but surely it'll be fine, right?