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For entertainment purposes only. Not real-world instruction or advice. Read the full notice
For entertainment purposes only. Written by members for play in our gaming community. It is not official military instruction or medical, tactical, legal, or safety advice, it may be wrong or out of date, and it does not qualify anyone to use real vehicles, weapons, radios, or other equipment. Do not rely on it in real life: get proper training, follow the law and the equipment's own manual, and use anything here at your own risk (Terms of Use, section 10).
For entertainment purposes only. Written by members for play in our gaming community. It is not official military instruction or medical, tactical, legal, or safety advice, it may be wrong or out of date, and it does not qualify anyone to use real vehicles, weapons, radios, or other equipment. Do not rely on it in real life: get proper training, follow the law and the equipment's own manual, and use anything here at your own risk (Terms of Use, section 10).
Mod version
Written for WD Warhawk BFT 1.1.0. If the server runs a different version, some of this may have changed.
Half of every firefight is knowing where your own people are. WD Warhawk BFT is our Blue Force Tracker: it puts every friendly on your map, live, and adds a military compass to the bottom of your screen. By the end of this guide you will be able to read every marker, give an exact grid, call a bearing and a range, and hold a direction across open ground at night.
You do not install anything yourself. When a server runs WD Warhawk BFT, the game downloads it with the other mods, and the server's mod list on the Servers page shows it.
Tip
Want the pictures? BFT at a glance shows every marker and the compass as they look in game.
What it gives you
| Where | What |
|---|---|
| The map | A marker for you, your squad and the rest of your side, moving live, with the way each one faces. A grid readout at the top. |
| Your screen | A compass at the bottom: your bearing, the back azimuth, your squadmates and the map's markers on the tape, a bearing you can mark, and degrees or mils. |
The map
Who is who
Open the map. Every friendly is a marker, and its colour tells you who it is.
| Marker | Who |
|---|---|
| Magenta arrow with a light cone | You. The arrow points the way your body faces. The cone points where you are looking, so it swings when you freelook. |
| Cyan ring | Your squad. |
| Deep blue ring | The rest of your side. |
The ring around each friendly has a notch, and the notch points the way that player is facing. A squad watching all round shows notches pointing out in every direction.
What the icon means
Inside the ring is what the player is doing, in NATO style.
| Icon | Means |
|---|---|
| A box with a cross | On foot. |
| A box marked SL | The squad leader. |
| A box with an oval | In a ground vehicle. Everyone aboard shows it. |
| A box with a bow tie | In a helicopter. |
Names and zoom
- Zoom in and each marker gets the player's name under it. Zoom out and the names hide, so the map stays readable.
- Markers grow as you zoom in, with dark outlines so they show on any ground.
What it never shows
- Enemies. Never, in any colour.
- The dead. A marker goes when its player dies.
- Friendlies a long way off. The game only tells your computer about players within the server's view distance. A squad on the far side of the map may not show until you get closer.
The grid readout
A panel at the top of the map gives you two lines.
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| CURSOR GRID: 0452 1189 | The 8-digit grid under your mouse. |
| MY POS: 0381 1207 | HDG: 247° | Your own 8-digit grid, and your heading. |
An 8-digit grid is good to 10 metres. The first four digits are how far east, the last four how far north, and they match the grid lines printed on the map. Read it out in two halves: "grid zero-four-five-two, one-one-eight-niner".
On the radio
Hover the mouse over what you see and read the cursor grid off the panel. Do not eyeball it from the grid lines. "Contact, grid zero-four-five-two, one-one-eight-niner, two trucks moving north."
The compass
At the bottom of your screen is a compass tape, the kind you see in a vehicle sight. It is on whenever you are on foot or in a vehicle, and it hides with the rest of your HUD, while the map is open, and when you are dead.
Reading it
- The tape shows 90 degrees of the horizon: 45 each side of the middle.
- A short tick every 5 degrees, a tall tick with a number every 15: N, 15, 30, NE, 60, 75, E and so on round.
- The amber line in the middle is where you are looking.
- The box above it is your bearing, three digits: 247°.
- To the left, dimmer, is the back azimuth: BA 067°. That is the way back, straight behind you.
The compass follows your eyes, not your feet. Freelook and it swings with your head. It matches the HDG on the map.
Diamonds on the tape
Small diamonds along the bottom of the tape show where things are.
| Diamond | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cyan | A member of your squad. When one is outside the tape, its diamond waits at the edge on the side to turn to, so you always know which way they are. |
| White | A marker someone placed on the map that your side can see. These only show while they are inside the tape. |
| Amber | The bearing you marked (see below). It waits at the edge too. |
Look at it to read it
Turn until a diamond sits on the amber line (within 3 degrees). The line under the tape tells you what it is, its bearing and how far:
RP 1 | 315° | 840 m
For a squadmate it is their name. For a map marker it is the marker's text, or MARKER if it has none. The range is flat distance on the map, to the nearest 10 metres.
Tip
Name your map markers. "RP 1", "OBJ GOLD", "LZ NORTH": whatever you type is what everyone reads on their compass when they look that way.
Mark a bearing
Press . (period). The bearing you are looking at is saved: an amber diamond goes on the tape at that bearing, and MK 247° shows to the right of your bearing. Turn away and the diamond waits at the edge of the tape, on the side to turn back to.
Press . again to clear it.
Use it to:
- Hold a direction across open ground, in smoke, or at night.
- Remember where the shots came from after you dive for cover.
- Point your whole fire team the same way: everyone marks the bearing the leader calls.
Degrees or mils
Press , (comma) to switch the compass to mils, the unit artillery and mortar crews use. There are 6400 mils in a circle (NATO).
- The bearing reads 4391 MIL, and the back azimuth and mark switch too.
- The tape gets a tick every 100 mils and a number every 400, written in hundreds: 4 is 400, 12 is 1200. N, NE, E and the rest stay where they are.
Press , again to go back to degrees. It starts in degrees each time you start the game.
Controls
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| . (period) | Mark the bearing you are looking at, or clear the mark. |
| , (comma) | Degrees or mils. |
In game
To change them, or to put them on a controller, go to Settings, Controls, WD Warhawk BFT. Controllers have no buttons for them until you set some.
Using it as a team
- Give grids from the readout. Hover, read, send. Ten metres is close enough to put a mortar round on.
- Give bearing and range together. Look at the marker, read the line under the tape: "Rally point, bearing three-one-five, eight hundred metres."
- Leaders, mark the objective before you step off. Put a named marker on it. Everyone then has a white diamond with the range counting down.
- Lost the squad? Look for the cyan diamonds pinned to the edge of your tape and turn that way.
- Send someone back the way they came with your back azimuth: "Head two-four-seven, you will hit our line."
Things to know
- Everything is drawn on your own computer. It sends nothing over the network and puts no load on the server.
- Only your squad gets diamonds on the compass, to keep the tape clean. The whole side is on the map.
- A marker placed by the other side never shows.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| No markers on the map | The server is not running WD Warhawk BFT. Check its mod list on the Servers page. |
| A squadmate is missing from the map and the compass | They are dead, or too far away for the game to tell your computer about them. Move closer. |
| No compass | The map is open, a menu is open, or your HUD is hidden. |
| No line under the tape | No diamond is within 3 degrees of the amber line. Turn onto it. |
| . or , does nothing | Another mod uses that key. Pick a new one in Settings, Controls, WD Warhawk BFT. |
| The bearing reads 4 digits and MIL | You are in mils. Press , for degrees. |
Something else not working? Tell staff in Discord which server you were on and what you saw.
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Reviewed by staff on . Version 1.