SABOW Basic Controls

VIEW/POSITION:
F6 will bring you to the gunner's seat, F7 to the commander's. Sit in the commander's seat when looking for targets and when not actively engaged with the enemy. F10 opens the tactical map when sat in the commander's position.

V will bring you immediately to either the station you're in's default optic, or to the last optic you used. C and X will cycle through the available optics (i.e. changing from main gunsight to auxiliary in the M60A1, switching from gunsight to vision block in the T-62). O, when pressed in a position that has a hatch above it, will unbutton you- that is, you will open your hatch on the tank and stick your head out to get a better look. If you press O again after this, you will return to your seat inside the tank, but the hatch will remain open. Press P to close the hatch. You can order your crew to close their hatches from the commander's position by pressing 8 on the numrow. When unbuttoned, you can press B to bring up your binoculars.

Backspace will narrow your field of view in the optic you're looking through, "zooming in" slightly at the expense of overall lesser vision (only really relevant when looking through vision blocks). Tab will optically zoom in your optic, if the optic is capable of it (so only the T-62 gunsight, which has two levels of magnification).

CTRL will enable and disable mouselook- if you press CTRL and the cursor disappears, the camera is now slaved to your mouse, and so will any optics you're viewing through. With mouselook disabled, the cursor can be used to interact with a limited number of elements inside the tank (mostly optics), to issue movement commands as the commander, to issue targeting commands, and to interact with UI elements.

DRIVING COMMANDS:
Issuing commands to the driver is simple. W will order him to move forward, or if already moving forward, to move forward at the next possible speed level (there are three). S will order the tank to slow down one speed level, or halt if moving forward at the slowest speed. If halted, S will move the tank in reverse. A and D will order the driver to turn an amount proportional to how long the button is held down. X will order an immediate halt- E will order a "short halt" wherein the driver will stop the tank long enough for the gunner to fire the main gun, then resume moving. As the commander, you can also look at any point in the game world, bring your cursor over it (with mouselook turned off with CTRL), and right click on it to order your driver to drive to that point. Pressing K with a target designated will order the driver to turn the tank to face that target, useful to present your best armor to the target if not in a hull-down position.

TARGETING COMMANDS FROM COMMANDER'S SEAT:
Targeting commands are also issued with the mouse. As the commander, once you have acquired a target visually, disable mouselook, put your cursor over the target, and left click- this will order your gunner to engage that target. You are responsible for telling the gunner the range to the target- how to do this is different in either tank and will be discussed in their particular sections. You can also designate a target with mouselook on by centering your view on it and pressing MMB.

TARGETING COMMANDS FROM THE GUNNER'S SEAT:
As the gunner, you will be told what targets to engage by the AI occupying the commander's seat. Generally, his judgement is good, and a marker will appear on the compass at the top of your screen showing where the target is in relation to your view. If you cannot find the target the commander has designated, press the "I" key for him to re-state the target, and for a dot to appear over the target in your view. The commander should also tell you what ammunition to engage with (generally sabot for tanks, HEAT for softskins, HE/canister for dismounts and unarmored vehicles), and the range to target.. There is no penalty for engaging targets of your own volition, or for engaging a different target than what your commander has designated. If you'd like to tell your commander that you're engaging a different target (and get the range information for that target from him), with mouselook activated center your gunsight on the target and press MMB. Once the commander sees the target, he should give you the range to it.

FIRING COMMANDS FROM THE COMMANDER'S SEAT:
By default, your gunner will engage at will, using ammunition he selects for himself. You can change this by pressing 5 on the numrow to change fire modes (on the M60A1, you can also use this to override the gunner), at which point the gunner will now fire only on your command, using ammunition you choose. Select the ammunition type to load from the UI bar at the bottom ((there's a hotkey but I forget it, this is WIP)), then press R to order the loader to load that round type- the loader will continue to load that round type after every shot until you press R again to order him to stop; if you change ammunition types, you will need to press R again to order the loader to load that round type. Once a round is loaded, there is no way to remove it from the gun without firing it. To order the gunner to begin firing, press spacebar, or press LMB with mouselook enabled. He will now fire at the target until it is destroyed, then engage other targets- pressing spacebar again will order him to cease fire. If ordered to fire on infantry, the gunner will generally engage with the coaxial machine gun rather than the main gun ((behavior might change with HE/Canister loaded, unsure))

FIRING COMMANDS FROM THE GUNNER'S SEAT:
Gunnery is fairly simple- mouselook, when looking through the gunsight, will traverse the turret and elevate the gun. The arrow keys will also do this at the fastest speed possible, if you need to move the turret a large degree, or if you'd like to move the turret while not looking through the gunsight. You always have control over what ammunition is being loaded as the gunner (with the same reload rules- R will continuously reload one kind of ammunition, etc). To fire, press spacebar, or LMB with mouselook enabled. RMB will fire the coaxial machine gun with mouselook enabled.

TANK SPECIFIC: T-62

The T-62 lacks any sort of fire control system- range is found visually by comparing the size of a vehicle to the distance between lines in the tank's gunsight and commander's periscope, with the number above the line corresponding to the distance to the target. Match the target to the best line combination to find range- as the commander, you can then use PGUP and PGDN to enter distance (the distance will be displayed on the UI bar, look for the rapidly changing number)- the gunner will use the distance you had entered when you designated the target, so designate the target AFTER finding its range.

As the gunner, your commander will give you range to target. Scroll the mousewheel to adjust your gunsight for range, using the correct scale at the top of the sight. From left to right, the scales are:

БР: Sabot
БК: HEAT
ОФ: HE
ГТ: PKT/Coaxial MG

Scroll the mousewheel until the range on the appropriate scale is even with the horizontal line running across the gunsight, then place the chevron in the sight underneath the target (place the point you wish to hit on the tip of the chevron, as if it were pointing to it), then fire. If the target is moving, you will need to lead it- the marks running horizontally from the center chevron can aid with lead if you're familiar with using mils to calculate lead.

The T-62 also has a two-plane gun stabilizer that will keep the gun on target in basically any situation where that can be possibly achieved. To enable it, click on the UI button with a symbol of a vertical line running through the center of a squashed ellipse.

After firing the main gun on the T-62, the gun will automatically elevate to a position to allow the spent shell to be extracted (and then thrown out a hatch on the back of the turret), and for the next round to be loaded. If the stabilizer is active, the gun will reset to its last position prior to firing after being reloaded. If you need to observe fall of shot, or generally want to be looking at something other than the sky while your gun is being reloaded, press X or C to switch to the gunner's vision block. The turret cannot be traversed while the gun is being reloaded.

The loader on the T-62 has an anti-aircraft machine gun outside of his hatch. To use it, unbutton, and press V to look down the sights. Enable mouselook to aim, RMB to fire ((I believe?))

TANK SPECIFIC: M60A1

The M60A1 has a novel rangefinder consisting of two mirrors- one fixed, one able to be rotated, which the commander can use to find range reasonably accurately to a target. To do this, look through the optic that presents a double image (X or C to swap to it from another optic), then scroll the mousewheel until the target appears sharp and without ghosting. This range information is sent automatically to the M60A1's ballistic computer, which means all the gunner has to do is put the crosshair on target and fire. The rangefinder view is slaved to (and partially composed of) the gunsight view, so you cannot search for targets in this view- either designate the target for the gunner, then switch to the rangefinder to find range before giving the fire order, or you can press 5 again once you're in "fire on my command" mode to override the gunner and take control of the turret and gun to slew the gun onto target before finding range. You can also fire from this mode. ((I believe the range found from the gunsight is only good for sabot rounds, not sure though)).

If, for whatever reason, you cannot use the rangefinder (be it damage or a dead commander), the M60A1 has an auxiliary gunsight with range scales inside- put the target vertically in the gunsight against the range marking on the appropriate scale, then fire. The reticule in this sight can be switched with the swap reticule key ((G?)).

The M60A1 has no gun stabilizer, so accurate gunnery requires the vehicle to be stopped.

The M60A1 has a .50 machine gun on the commander's cupola, which can be fired buttoned up. To fire it, go to the periscope view with a crosshair inside, then use mouselook and RMB ((I think??)) to fire.