Beamup

An update - I started trying some other things with this, and one of them worked. When I increased CM's RAM even more than I had, it processed the turn with no problems. So, this appears to be a memory problem, where occasionally it needs large quantities of RAM. Further testing showed that the turn would process with 20M more than the normal allocation (but 128M didn't work earlier for some reason - maybe it didn't have a free block that large?)

OS 8.6 OpenGL 1.1.2, but it doesn't seem to be graphics-related - I'll check, though 256M RAM installed, virtual memory off, increased CM's RAM to 128M without effect

A search indicates that this problem has come up before, but was never answered. Whenever I try to play "All or Nothing" on my G4/450 (stock) I can get somewhat into the scenario (sometimes 20 turns, sometimes right after setup) and, while the computer is thinking (apparently precisely when it finishes thinking), CM crashes to the desktop with no error messages. Reloading of saved games where the problem occurred has them recur. The problem persists after a full reinstall from CD (1.0, the second batch) and redownload/reapplication of v. 1.12, with extensions off. This bug affects, AFAIK, ONLY this scenario, but it manifests at some point during every attempt to play AoN. I have a saved game that exhibits this bug, if desired. ------------------ Beamup Questions, comments, arguments, refutations, criticisms, and/or sea stories?

IIRC, this is one of those capabilities that will be in the full version but is not in the beta demo. You will be able to order dismounted crews to reman abandoned (though not destroyed) vehicles.

I just had it happen in a PBEM game I am playing (Reisberg as Allies) that the reinforcements showed up. When I opened up the file, the message that "Reinforcements have arrived" popped up BEFORE I entered my password. This security flaw (irrelevant in the beta demo since everyone knows when the reinforcements arrive anyway) should be fixed.

Quote: Of course if the vehicle is moving slowly laterally kill rates go up but a vehicle moving quickly laterally is very difficult to miss. Ah, Fionn, you did mean difficult to _hit_, didn't you? If not, I'm getting really, really, confused here.

Current count (quickly done, might be off by 1) 6-27. At the moment the no's have it.

No. I'd much rather have a consistent, well-researched game than one where everybody could just change whatever they thought would be cool. Anyway, at this point it would require a HUGE code revision, I am sure, which would push back the release date - and nobody wants that.

Don't _ever_ post on topics like this when a physicist is around. Sorry, nobody's gotten it right yet. The correct metric mass/area (which is not a pressure) is 1.09 kg/square cm. A 0 was dropped, and this should be easy to fix. If you really want all the gory details, read on - If the W weighs 35 tons = 70000 lb, and has a ground pressure of 14.3 psi, its footprint is 4900 square inches - about 34 square feet, which is reasonable. Converting these to metric, one gets 1.0 kg/cm squared, which is what is noted (ccm is a somewhat archaic notation for square centimeters, NOT cubic... the c's are both "centi". It's like p. for a page and pp. for several pages) BTW, don't even get me started on the fact that this is not a pressure... pounds (a force) and kilograms (a mass) do not measure the same thing, a metric pressure would be kg/m/s^2. Doing the same for the W+, assuming the same footprint, one gets 15.1 psi - close enough given the precision of the data provided. This then becomes 1.09 kg/cm^2, NOT 1.9. Someone dropped a 0. I would expect, since this is so simple, it can be fixed easily. [This message has been edited by Beamup (edited 11-16-99).] [This message has been edited by Beamup (edited 11-16-99).]

I plan to be there (I hope) That's 8 PM my time, so I'll have to blow off helping with that observatory tour and let Stuartt handle all of it... too bad.

Crossfire, you're looking at a completely different scale here. To be realistic (which to many people here is almost synonymous with fun) the Germans must lose, since they did in the real war. BUT, this is almost totally invisible at CM's level. A company-level battle to capture a village is basically the same regardless of which side is winning the war. In any given engagement, the Germans have more or less the same chance of winning as the Allies. And to answer your Russian analogy, sure! A specific company refusing to fight would not alter the course of the war. The problem is not in CM, it is in all the other wargames that try to make out that victory/defeat in this one small battle will actually change the war somehow. It won't. And, IMNSHO, if you need for your actions to have an effect on the whole war to enjoy the game, it's your priorities that are warped.

I disagree with C.C. The behavior Fionn suggests does not seem contrived at all to me, IMHO it seems quite realistic. After all, you're supposed to be at the platoon/company leader scale - it's not really likely that a company commander would say "Hey Sarge, target that Tiger over there, and make sure you rotate the hull." More probable would be "Hey Joe Tank Commander, kill that Tiger!" and then the _tank commander_ decides how to go about it. So the angle should be under the control of the unit itself, i.e. the TacAI. So I think Fionn's suggested system is the way to go, since my knowledge (limited compared to some here, but reasonably accurate) suggests that German tankers, at least, did use this tactic.

Yes - this issue has been discussed in great detail elsewhere. To summarize, while you can certainly calculate the results as many times as you like, the other player will see them first - CM won't play the movie for you. So you don't know what the results were and hence cannot try for any specific result.

Realistic, yes - doable, I'd have to guess a resounding NO. From a programming standpoint, what you suggest would almost certainly be difficult and time-consuming. It may sound trivial, but I've tried to program similar things and it isn't at all.

While I was playing Last Defense today something weird happened. My Tiger is merrily driving around Hellcat Hill. I order him to drive to the road and start the turn. He doesn't move, and in the next orders phase the move marker is in a different place, which from my perspective appeared to be right by the tank, so I just grumbled and deleted it, then replotted the move. Started the turn, and next orders phase the same thing happened, so I looked a little bit closer - and from view 1 it was clear (looked at it from all directions) the waypoint was FLOATING IN MIDAIR about 50m off the ground(rough estimate). At one point I even moved the camera under it, and got a nice aqua line slanting up over my head. So let me make this perfectly clear - this was no trick of perspective, it was most definitely in midair. I saved, thinking to send it in, but when I reloaded the file, the waypoint had moved down to ground level, though it was in the same (wrong) position. I can still e-mail anybody the file, but I'm not sure it will be useful. Has anyone else ever seen this?