Technical aspects

Addons:

• Addons required are announced prior to the events
• Addon signature verification is on meaning that you can only enter server with the addons specified per battle.

Additional features:

• Thermal Imaging  is disabled (to keep it challenging)
• Viewdistance is by default automatically set at 4000 meters for all players (but may deviate per battle. If so this will be announced in the relative battle forum thread)
• 3rd personview is disabled to enhance the simulation experience
• Vehicle and player respawn activated

 

Player slots

For both companies the following player slots are by default available (with some variations between each battle):

• 3/4 Tank Platoons (3 tanks each)
• 6x /4x AT team members (may vary from battle to battle)
• 6x Recon Team members
• Sometimes 1x Helicopter pilot + Co-pilot
• 3x Engineer (logistical & service Team)
• other assetts may be pesent in some battles

 

Vehicle pool

For both companies the following vehicles are available:

• 9/12x Main battle tank (types are different per battle)
• 2x /3x Transport vehicle for AT team and Recon team  (Jeeps, Quads)
• 1x Transport / Reconnaissance helicopter (present in some battles)
• other assetts may be present in some battles

 

Logistical support

A logistical team is available for logistical support.

 

Respawn features

The respawn feature is configured so that it allows a continuous flow of gameplay, but also gives room for units to make critical moves / strikes in times their opponent is recovering. That way you gain terrain and if all well and continued, you will be able to seize and hold your objective sectors. Respawn delays are not very long. However, penalty for death are not to be taken lightly as, due to to the large maps, it will take quite some time to get back into the area of operations. Since the maps are quite large, recon teams have a very essential role. Recon vehicles, when deserted, respawn when the crew is more than 1500 m from the vehicle, as recons are often away from their vehicle in a dismounted observation post.
The default configuration is as follows (but may be different per battle. Also, some vehicles can vary from battle to battle.
When so, this will be stated in the relative battle information thread):

• Each player, when killed, respawns  with a 30 second delay
• Tanks, when destroyed or abandoned within 300 meters, respawn with a delay of 90 seconds.
• Vehicles assigned to scouts, when destroyed or deserted for more than 300 meters, respawn with a delay of 90 seconds
• Vehicles assigned to AT, recon teams and ammo logistic vehicles when destroyed or deserted for more than 1500 meters (to allow on foot recognition and other activities) respawn with a delay of 90 seconds
• Helicopters, when destroyed or deserted for more than 300 meters, respawn with a delay of 300 seconds. Two service vehicles do not respawn (new).
• AntiTank helicopter (if present) respawn with a delay of 15 min
• AntiAir vehicle (if present) respawn with a delay of 15 min

*A vehicle/aircraft is counted as deserted when the driver/ pilot seat has been unoccupied for more then the allowed amount of time
*Destroyed in this context means not able to be boarded anymore

Vehicles/aircraft respawn at their initial start point. Players respawn at one central location in their base. Respawn frequency is unlimited for all players/vehicles/aircraft.

 

Objective sectors

Both sides have two objective zones to secure and hold, while trying to prevent the enemy to secure their own objectives.
The game takes two hours and a half, in which both sides try to take and hold their objective sectors.
For each minute that a company is able to hold a objective sector, it receives 1 point. If both sectors are held simultaneously, it gains 2 points each minute. The company with the most points after two and a half hours wins.

The philosophy behind the RT capture/hold system is to simulate tactical domination on strategic points (objective sectors). From a realistic perspective, having tactical domination is not possible if your tanks in such sector are half crewed, low on supplies or heavily damaged. That is why these conditions below are set. The conditions for occupying a single objective sector are:

• Objective sector must contain at least two tanks (MBTs) of your own side. Three MBTs are required in case of 4 tank platoons battles.
• These tanks must be able to fire their weapons and move (canFire and canMove)
• These tanks must have at least 3 crewman class players of own side aboard each tank
• These crewman class players must be alive

*New: a line up time of 10 min is present starting from RT#19. During this line – up tanks are locked and only scouts, recon and anti – tank can move.

Having enemy units present in your objective sector does not directly interfere with your winning conditions.

 

Example:
RED moves a tank platoon into the RED1 objective sector. They have at least two operational tanks with them and each of them contain 3 crewmen aboard. Now the points start to add up. Now, in the case that for example one of the tanks in that sector gets its track or gun damaged, they lose the sector, as well as when for example a crew leaves its tank or gets killed. When a objective sector becomes lost/occupied, a message is shown to all players saying so.

Here the  details on how the scoring system works:

• there are 4 triggers, one for sector 
• condition for the triggers is the presence of 2 fully crewed and functional (canFire + canMove) tanks in the trigger area
• on activation the sector marker becomes “solid” red or blue and the sector gets a public variable true
• on deactivation the sector marker becomes transparent with red / blue border and the sector variable becomes false
• when the sector control variable is true the scoring loop starts and gives points to the conquering side at given time intervals
• the scoring intervals are controlled by parameters. Default value (currently in use) is 30 seconds. This means the conquering side gets one point each 30 secs.

Scenarios and Restrictions

Restricted areas are clearly marked on map. In Rolling Thunder there are not physical or virtual invalicable boundaries in the scenarios, if there were, they would have been marked. For this reason we usually select very large maps in order to allow complete freedom of movements and large flanking manouvres, although unfortunately  maps with these features are not easily found.  In any case the restrictions apply to the starting bases which are – for obvious reasons – protected. They are marked and the protected zone is large enough to avoid accidental firing into the actual base area. The actual location of the opposite faction base is covered for the enemy side. Entering the opposite base for any reason is prohibited.