Command: Modern Operations News

Good news for you Command fans, we have an update out today.

v1.06.1328.18 is mainly focused on bugfixes and tweaks, no new major features have been added. There has however been a significant change to the radar model.

Until now, radars with an air-search capability and those with space-search (ie. ASAT & ABM) capability were separated in their target detection capacity by altitude and target type; ie. air-search radars could detect aerodynamic targets within the atmosphere, whereas space-search radars could detect BMs and RVs outside the atmosphere. While broadly accurate, this abstraction left a lot of unrealistic cases: For example a fighter radar could detect an RV in its terminal phase, or endoatmospheric guided weapons such as hypersonic missiles where not detected by BMD radars.

In real life, radars use velocity filters (in addition to altitude ceilings) to specialize in their search task and minimize false contacts etc. Command now correctly replicates this behavior, with some assumptions for the minimum and maximum velocity values:

Air-only search radars may detect any target from 0 knots (hover) up to Mach 5.

Space-only search radars (ie. BMD/ASAT) can detect any target from Mach 2 up to "unlimited" velocity.

Combined air & space-search capable radars use the full velocity spectrum.

This addition allows more realistic representation of the capabilities and limitations of each type of radar, against the full gamut of endo- and exo-atmospheric targets.

You can read the whole changelog here.

Enjoy the update, and good hunting everyone.

Command: Showcase - Icebreakers is out now on Steam.

To show off this new release, developers Jacob Keyes and Kushan will be streaming the scenario over on the Slitherine Twitch channel from 11:30 AM -1:30 PM EST.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As the globe warms Arctic ice retracts, turning the frozen Siberian coastline into the worlds next great shipping lane. Ships transiting the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from Shanghai to Copenhagen travel only 1/3rd of the old distance, and avoid strategic bottlenecks like the Suez Canal and strait of Gibraltar. It is in this new, thawing theatre that the Russian President and MoD see an avenue of restoring national pride, a theatre which most in the west feel comfortable cropping out of their maps. Investments and military constructions are initiated turning this barren sea lane into an arctic kill-zone, emboldening the Russian parliament to declare that their laws regarding this new waterway supersede the United Nations Law of the Sea. In response, the U.S. President and Canadian Prime Ministers decide to challenge Russia’s claims in the region.

In Showcase: Icebreakers it's up to you to lead a Freedom of Navigation operation in one of the most inhospitable climates on earth, the Arctic circle. Leading the fleet is the Polar Star, an icebreaker capable of plowing through the sheets of sea ice. Following behind her are several allied surface action groups including Zumwalt and Arleigh Burke Destroyers, along with Harry DeWolf patrol ships, and more. While there is no carrier as a part of the fleet, you will have the support of Air Force units stationed in Alaska.

Information is ammunition, and with Russian satellites active you will need all the help you can get to control the flow of information. US CYBERCOM has prepared an attack package code named “Widowmaker" which will help deal with the Russian satellites.

War has not been declared, but hostilities could begin at any moment. The Russian response to your actions will dynamically change according to the level of hostility you display. This is made possible by our new "Road to War" script that models gradual escalations from harassment and skirmishing, to outright warfare.

With this release we also have a small update primarily to support this DLC. The changelog is posted below.

* New weapon type: Laser dazzlers. (Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzler_(weapon))
Dazzlers differ from high-energy lasers as they have a deliberately wider, more dispersed (and less powerful) beam pattern. This reduces the destructive effect but makes it easier to hit their intended target. They are used primarily to damage/destroy visual/EO/IR sensors, on manned as well as unmanned platforms and weapons. When used against manned aircraft, they can cause temporary blindness and even lead to the aircraft crashing if at low altitude.

* ADDED: #15453: Add ability to place reference points relative to any unit or any reference point
* ADDED: [Lua] Show if comms being jammmed on unit.components wrapper

* TWEAK: #15475: [B1328.13] Weapons in final phase always redirected to target
* TWEAK: Rudder turn speed and overswing prevention logic
* TWEAK: Show if comms jammed on Comms window
* TWEAK: Setting "WCS free" now explicitly informs that neutral targets are excluded from engagements

* FIXED: [B1328.13] Patrol & prosecution zone issues
* FIXED: ACs where blocked in refuel loop
* FIXED: #15485: [Lua] TimeToReady inside event not working
* FIXED: Do not perform expensive "Terrain type effects - Advanced" checks for satellites
* FIXED: #15502: [B1328.13] Aircrafts RTB if WP 2 it's close to WP #8
* FIXED: Weapon ETA cache was cleaned every second + Weapon ETA recalc logic
* FIXED: SM-6 Blk IB (fired against ground target) petered out way short of max range
* FIXED: Cater for BOL-attack when checking for water-surface targets
* FIXED: [Lua] Restore visibility to :methods (fixes several reported issues in B1328.13)
* FIXED: #15488: [B1328.13] RPs relative to a unit not being saved
* FIXED: #15486: [B1328.13] Dipping sonar not detected by subs
* FIXED: #15445: [B1328.13] Wrong position of contacts in scenario
* FIXED: RPs relative to units where not working correctly

* Added support for the "Showcase #4 - Icebreakers" scenario.
* Includes updated versions of all official scenarios. All scenarios were updated to the v504 DBs, in addition there have been fixes & tweaks to the following scenarios:
- Falklands - Cry Havoc Bluff Cove: Added Saint Julian Air Base
- Live - No BREXIT, no Problem!: Fixed USS Missouri Doctrine, should no longer RTB at scenario start
- Live - You Brexit - You Fix It!: Fixed USS Missouri Doctrine, should no longer RTB at scenario start. Updated Russian AAW loadouts and Swapped German NH90 DBIDs
- Live - Pole Positions: Fixed US submarines not being assigned to missions when playing as Russia
- Standalone - South China Sea Clash: Swapped USA LCS DBIDs, CCG WHEC DBID, and Updated UnitDestroyed events

Hello Commanders, a new update has gone live.

The big new feature for this update is water-surface facilities. These are facilities and structures located on the surface of the ocean that can be targeted by both anti-ship and anti-land weapon systems. Examples of this are piers, bridges, and offshore drilling facilities. The full changelog for this patch is listed below.

v1.06.1328.13 – 12th January 2024
• NEW FEATURE: Water-surface facilities (supported only on v504+ DBs). Such facilities are
placed on the water surface (not on the sea bottom) and can be attacked with both land-attack
and anti-ship weapons. Examples of such facilities include bridges (both single-unit and multi-
segment), offshore platforms, piers etc.
• ADDED: Unit Status panel (right column) shows primary target name for selected unit
• ADDED: Display a red X-crosshairs symbol and ETA on the calculated interception point when a
weapon is selected
• ADDED: Added 'Unpack all containers at destination' option for Cargo Transfer Mission
• ADDED: Added aircraft emergency diversion to new host base when fuel is too low
• ADDED: [Lua] Contact wrapper - markedAsDecoy property
• ADDED: [Lua] Add time on target and takeoff time to mission wrapper
• TWEAK: Significant performance improvement on game startup and scenario loading time
• TWEAK: Fixes & enhancements on mine-laying mission
• TWEAK: Losses & expenditures: Don't attempt to show stores with an empty name
• TWEAK: Map appears at slightly higher resolution at lower altitude, reducing OpenTopoMap
pixellation
• TWEAK: OpenTopoMap layer does not stop rendering tiles at very low altitude. Virtual Earth layer
renders tiles at higher resolution at very low altitude.
• TWEAK: When bubbling up message-box messages from sim-core to UI, check if the originator
side is the current side on the UI; if not then don't show them
• TWEAK: Nuclear detonations begin appearing immediately upon detonation instead of after a
slight delay and their circles expand with internal fill that fades out over time.
• TWEAK: Event balloons render properly again with outlines and elliptical background fill around
them.
• TWEAK: Various refinements on the "throttle down to avoid wierd things" logics active during
double-flame time accel
• TWEAK: List Packages in order by name
• FIXED: #15458: Various aircrafts don't have a correct WRA Classification
• FIXED: #15447 : Ballistic missiles erratic trajectories
• FIXED: Comms-jammer was jamming low-frequency radar
• FIXED: Bark for "weapon hold" status and "switching to opportunity targets" were visible even if
the unit was not from the player side
• FIXED: Cached datatables access issue causing DB-Viever and "Add Unit" dialog to not behave
correctly
• FIXED: Decoy icon not being shown for decoy UAVs
• FIXED: [1328.12] OECM jamming other bands
• FIXED: #15468: No Navigation Zones Prevent Flights from Launching
• FIXED: Missiles were handled as air contacts and so they where not always targeted + there was
an hardcoded limitation of 10NM when identifying an incoming weapon as a threat.
• FIXED: #15469: [1328.12] BM detonating into the ground
• FIXED: #15250: Port/dock 'blue area' (pier lane) not working properly
• FIXED: Keep plotted path on map when WP selected
• FIXED: [DX11 renderer] Pier-lanes not being rendered
• FIXED: #15462: [1328.13] Units on inactive missions don't perform manual attack
• FIXED: #15407: [1328.12] SAMs not working against Guided Weapons and BM
• FIXED: #15466: [1328.12] HAAWC from Osprey not seen
• FIXED: Non-Functional Air-to-Air Missiles in Helicopters, CMO v1.06 Build 1328.12
• FIXED: Suicide craft not auto-attacking water-surface facilities, also manual suicide attacks do not
generate damage
• FIXED: Various fixes on submarine damage from shaped-charge torpedoes:
o The secondary-explosion damage of such torpedoes was not affecting the target sub
o The explosion standoff was too small for all types of ASW torpedo impacts (generated too
high shock factor)
o Fire/flood effects are now cumulative (e.g. major + major --> step up to "severe")
• FIXED: "ASW optimized" warheads not producing secondary blast effect
• FIXED: ASW-optimized torpedo warheads were not getting their designed penetration & flooding
bonus
• FIXED: Unit assigned to cargo mission waits for pending cargo when it won't be able to load it
• FIXED: #15396: (1328.11) Illumination and targeting vectors not appearing properly
• FIXED: Weapon losses not recorded
• FIXED: Unit icons "parallaxing" against map layer at extremely close zoom
• FIXED: QuickSink-fused weapon was impacting non-ship target and the impact logics had not
accounted for this case (fallback to normal impact)
• FIXED: Weapon ETA calculator did not consider carried-dispenser weapons (JP233, MW-1 etc.)
• FIXED: in some cases Aircrafts where circling around WP 6
• FIXED: #15310: CEZ Terrain Pathfinding Bug?
• FIXED: Explosion crater only damaging the first hit unit
• FIXED: #15253: [B1328.8] 64-bit slowdown when launching mass amount of bombs
• FIXED: Calculation of ABM intercept point did not take into account max weapon altitude
• FIXED: Tanker-to-tanker aerial refueling issue
• FIXED: #15440: Diesel/electric submarine extremely loud if electric engine is destroyed
• FIXED: #15414: [B1328.12] Aircraft not following flight plan speed
• FIXED: #15077: The DISPLAY of Flight Plan Paths seems off
• FIXED: #15402: [1328.11] Prosecution Area not working
• FIXED: (Double-flame mode rudder behaviour) Wobbling ships, boats and submarines
• FIXED: Broken ESM for negative altitude
• FIXED: (Double flame mode) Some weapons type overshooting targets
• FIXED: #15415: [B1328.12] Aircraft not firing all their standoff weapons
• FIXED: #15127: [B1307.14] MDSP & WRA Issues
• FIXED: Some ACs where not RTB
• FIXED: #14926: [1307.9] ATO does not show all packages under a task pool when the pool is
selected
• FIXED: Units with a phased-array radar boresighted well away from the unit's heading (e.g.
SLAR) incorrectly suffered the "phased array degradation due to off-boresight angle"
• Fixed/Tweaked: Effectively decayed satellite (moving along a decayed orbit) will destroy it
• FIXED: #15431: AOU miscalculates for very high altitudes and sensor range (e.g. GEO SIGINT
satellites)
• FIXED: #14925: [1307.9] Sorting ATO by mission/package greys out all buttons except "Create
flight"
• FIXED: #15374: [1328.11] Can't assignt a ship from a group to a Strike mission
• FIXED: Group leash transparency
• FIXED: 0014882: [B1303] Extreme wingman separation
• FIXED: Leftover UI-only code (from the pre-CMO days) stating that HGVs & D-EMP weapons
could only be used in CPE
• FIXED: ABM interceptor activation point too low vs. ascending target
• FIXED: #15430: [1328.12] Command Blocked with Error
• FIXED: UAVs visual/icon classification fix
• FIXED: #15418: [1328.12] DB viewer exception Log
• FIXED: #15413: [B1328.12] Aircraft taking off to0 soon
• FIXED: Issue with the new HPM weapon type that doesn't let you attack an UAV if it's a weapon
(ie. loitering munition) but if it's an aircraft you can attack it
• FIXED: #15410: [B1328.12] Aircraft flying off into space (point 1)
• FIXED: #14923: [1307.9] Cloning missions with generated flightplans messes up some references
in ATO
• FIXED: #15406: Parabolic trajectory on guided projectiles wasn't taking into account altitude delta
• FIXED: [Operation Planner] UI is more responsive for H and L initial mission dropdown when
adding a mission concurrently
• Numerous general fixes
• Numerous sim-performance tweaks
• Includes the new v504 release of the DB3000 and CWDB databases.
o DB3000 v504 additions:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1InvoyJJJnRGfCpDJgU9cNOAxMNCCw1P9/view?usp=sharing

o CWDB v504 additions:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ip8AM2y1EZbQgQusUC6BFPzlKwxU6Cgt/view?usp=sharing

Today we are announcing our newest piece of Command DLC. Showcase - Icebreakers will take you to the arctic circle, commanding a naval task force in a F.O.N. exercise gone hot. Icebreakers will be out February 1st, 2024.

Hypersonic missiles are launched to attack Russian surface units

As the globe warms Arctic ice retracts, turning the frozen Siberian coastline into the worlds next great shipping lane. Ships transiting the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from Shanghai to Copenhagen travel only 1/3rd of the old distance, and avoid strategic bottlenecks like the Suez Canal and strait of Gibraltar. It is in this new, thawing theater that the Russian President and MoD see an avenue of restoring national pride, a theater which most in the west feel comfortable cropping out of their maps. Investments and military constructions are initiated turning this barren sea lane into an arctic kill-zone, emboldening the Russian parliament to declare that their laws regarding this new waterway supersede the United Nations Law of the Sea. In response, the U.S. President and Canadian Prime Minister decide to challenge Russia’s claims in the region.

The Polar Star smashes it's way through an ice flow, creating a corridor for the fleet

In Showcase: Icebreakers it's up to you to lead a Freedom of Navigation operation in one of the most inhospitable climates on earth, the Arctic circle. Leading the fleet is the Polar Star, an icebreaker capable of plowing through the sheets of sea ice. Following behind her are several allied surface action groups including Zumwalt and Arleigh Burke Destroyers, along with Harry DeWolf patrol ships, and more. While there is no carrier as a part of the fleet, you will have the support of Air Force units stationed in Alaska.

Russian units harass the combined Canadian/U.S. fleet as they make their way through this new northern passage

Information is ammunition, and with Russian satellites active you will need all the help you can get to control the flow of information. US CYBERCOM has prepared an attack package code named “Widowmaker" which will help deal with the Russian satellites.

With Alaska and Siberia nearby, land-based missiles and aircraft become a major factor in operations

War has not been declared, but hostilities could begin at any moment. The Russian response to your actions will dynamically change according to the level of hostility you display. This is made possible by our new "Road to War" script that models gradual escalations from harassment and skirmishing, to outright warfare.

In brutal Arctic conditions, personnel won't survive long in the water without a rescue

Good luck Commander, control of this new sea lane is crucial.

Icebreakers will be out on Steam February 1st, 2024

Hello everyone, we have a Command: MO update for you today with several tweaks and bugfixes along with new UI options.

v1.06.1328.12 – 6th December 2023

• ADDED: New map display option (Game Options window): Draw black outlines on icons & text to make them easier to stand out against background map (ON by default; disable if it is slowing down rendering)
  
• ADDED: [Lua] Added target property to unit wrapper
  
• TWEAK: Map appears at slightly higher resolution on average by loading higher zoom levels at higher altitudes.
  
• TWEAK: Updated built-in callsigns list
  
• FIXED: Crash issue on startup
  
• FIXED: #15340: [Lua] Sensor mounts were not being attached to parent platforms when added by Lua - SE_UpdateUnit; this led to incorrect illumination-arc calculation
  
• FIXED: #15335: [B1328.10] Palletized munitions with Nan altitude and other issues
  
• FIXED: [B1238.11] Rapid Dragon weapons pallets transcending altitude, accelerating infinitely, and migrating to North Pole
  
• FIXED: [Lua] Exception error in weapon wrapper
  
• FIXED: [B1328.11] Strikers and Escorts Not Working Together
  
• FIXED: Lofted ASW weapon (SS-N-15) was considering the target altitude (underwater) instead of the desired impact altitude (water surface) for the lofted trajectory calculation
  
• FIXED: [B1328.11] Aircraft egressing off flight plan to the east and west for some distance
  
• FIXED: #15386: [B1328.11] Aircraft selected not transfer to Target list on air strike mission
  
• FIXED: Missiles where not splashing on water
  
• PARTIALLY FIXED: #15375: [B1328.11] DF-26 No altitude and weird behavior
  
• FIXED: #15304: [1328.9] Air Intercept, low altitude in transit
  
• FIXED: Escorts flying in circle ignoring the escorted unit
  
• FIXED: Setting sub/ship throttle causes sonar signature to increase even if vessel doesn't move
  
• FIXED: #15377: Speed override causes Sub to keep moving after course is cleared
  
• Numerous general fixes
  
• Numerous sim-performance tweaks
  

Includes the new v503 release of the DB3000 and CWDB databases.

• DB3000 v503 additions https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CfqVLnl4pR1oSHbD4hUOYPzPLzgyx7Ou/view
• CWDB v503 additions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CgAWCjDxyugeB609KRSldtq9scUnTFkA/view