Thanks for the guidance and the warm welcome. The CoC artillery is great. I haven't gotten the Smoke rounds or M203 yet. I will work on them.
I wonder if anyone has thought of making a Digital Messaging Device or a FISTV for the game. A FISTV is basically an M113 with a special Lazer Designator hammerhead turret. It allows the user to put crosshairs on the target and press the lazer to get the range. It is then all automatically fed into the Digital Messaging Device which transmits all the necessary data via digital transmission, rather than voice, to the Fire Direction Center. This speeds things up considerably. In the case of MLRS, the info can be sent directly to the launchers. While in Desert Storm, I had stopped in to the 3rd Squadron 2nd ACR TOC when a couple of immediate suppression missions came in to the MLRS. A couple of the Battery vehicles were very close to the 577s, so whenever I heard the digital come over the radio, I got myself in position to get a good pic of the launch. I also timed the response. I got good pics and the first round response averaged 30 seconds.
The greatest advantage of the DMD is that it allows ammo and mission types to be set up in advance with only the grid coordinates required to start shooting. You can also set up and name preplanned fires. One really big thing I would like to see in the on board artillery, is the ability to select things like smoke and illumination. Does SnYpir's support pack allow those rounds to be called with the On Board Artillery? Making a DMD for the game would make choosing these types of ammunition easier and more realistic. It would also mean that you wouldn't have to keep hitting enter on a bunch of menus which are actually telling you what you should be doing. The DMD could be a lot like the radio and you could call it up with a key stroke, just like you do to bring up the Map. It would also make figuring out the targets grid coordinates and punching them in an important task. This also helps in realism, because it is the area where most Forward Observer mistakes are made. A game DMD could be used for voice as well since it's the same information being sent over a radio in either case. It could also eliminate the need for all the scripts which show on the upper left of the screen while calling a fire mission. Things such as the dedicated battery could be listed on the DMD's Digital readout screen. I don't know how it would effect game speed or size, but I would think having all this in a separate routine, that only needs to run a little while actually calling for fire, would really free up resources and eliminate some confusion.
On the issue of foxholes, most modern mobile warfare never gets to that. I've dug my share, but never actually fought from one. I did shoot Arty at some though. In the case of a fire base or prepared defenses, wouldn't it be possible to make the terrain dip in a specific point to simulate a foxhole or trench? I haven't worked with any of the editors yet, so pardon my ignorance if I'm way off.