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Pak40

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Posts posted by Pak40

  1. 35 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

    Funny... I put NormalDude onto The Expanse (somehow he had missed it) a little while ago, then after finishing it he heard before I did that Netflix cancelled it (WHAT?!?!).  The he quite nicely told me that Amazon picked it up (yippie!).

    Steve

    Have you read the books? I've just finished the second one and they've both been amazing. I only saw the 1st episode of season 1 because I heard that the 1st season kind of overlaps multiple books. I'm the kind of person that likes to read the books first.

  2. 28 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

    Sorry, it's not going to change.  If it we were able to change it we would have done so years ago because it's obviously something that would be very beneficial to have.  Unfortunately, the core of the game's engine was written in 2004/2005 and would have to be significantly recoded to have the UI be scalable.  That's simply not feasible.  So either play at a lower resolution, invest in a magnifying glass, or lobby for us to stop supporting and making CM2 products.  Those are the options.

    It's similar to the old days when DOS games were all coded to 320x240 because that's what the OS was set to handle, even though monitors at the time were more often than not 640x480.  If you had the money for a bigger monitor (my first 19" monitor cost $5,100 in today's money!) you didn't get higher resolution, just a blown up image.  Games had to be specifically coded to take advantage of the higher resolutions, but many of them were still fixed to something like 640x480 because the systems of the day weren't capable of pushing more pixels than that at one time. 

    That's just the way it goes sometimes.

    Steve

    I, for one, am ready for the next line of CM engine. My vote goes for stop making CM2 products, It's time for CM3.

  3. On 8/22/2017 at 8:51 AM, copet said:

    I played the first Combat Mission a long time ago (Barbarosa to Berlin) head-to-head with my brother. There was a mode where you would give orders to your units, then the game would play out for like, a minute.

    After that, the game would pause.... you would each give orders again, then "advance" the game to the next minute or so.

    Does this mode still exist, or is the game 100% realtime now?

    I'm checking out YouTube videos but it just looks like only realtime, similar to a Total War type of game.

    Thank you for your help!

    Echoing what everyone else here has posted: Wego is turn based and I think what most people play. Real time is mess if the unit count gets above a company size engagement. You can pause the action at any time in Real Time mode but when the unit count gets so large you'll find that you have to pause the action every few seconds to give or change orders. This sounds ideal until you realize that the game is being paused so often that it's not really "Real Time" any more. The one and only advantage that Real Time mode has over Wego is that you can give orders at any time, so you could avoid potential disaster ambushes and perhaps time attacks better with multiple units.

    Most people love that anticipation of 1 minute of solid action that Wego provides.

    There are demos to download, btw. 

  4. 13 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

    Actually what baffles me the most is not so much the competence of the American defenders as the sheer incompetence of the Germans.

    Well the first frontal assault was somewhat excusable. The paratroopers were about to be ambushed when a girl ran out to warn a German officer who then alerted his men. I think the firing started immediately after that - The Germans were already caught out in the open for the most part. Maybe the girl told him that there were only a few men in the woods and he figured that a quick frontal assault was the best way to quickly solve the dilemma.

    The second frontal assault was the real incompetence.

  5. 6 hours ago, IanL said:

    It should be noted that the recon platoon had scrounged M1 Garands for everyone (on paper they only had carbines) and secured a .30ca (or was it two I forget) and a .50cal which they were also not supposed to have. Plus a lot of ammo. So they were considerably better armed than their on paper organization. That was due to their leader who correctly interpreted that they were going to be stuck doing an infantry platoon's job.

    Honestly, it should have been a Company's job to hold Lanzerath. Bouck's I&R platoon was the only "front line" unit guarding the road to what was supposed to be a rear area where Company L and K were bivouacked as the sole reserve of the entire 99th Division. The 99th was spread that thin.

    Actually I think there was an AT unit in Lanzerath belonging to another outfit but they high tailed it out of there before the German paratroopers entered the town. The artillery observers left the town too but at least went up to be with Bouck's platoon on the tree line.

  6. On 8/6/2017 at 9:38 AM, Bulletpoint said:

    "A single 18-man Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon from the 99th Infantry Division along with four Forward Air Controllers held up the battalion of about 500 German paratroopers until sunset, about 16:00, causing 92 casualties among the Germans."

    (wikipedia)

    For those interested in this there is a good read about this unit and the famous action:

    The Longest Winter by Alex Kershaw

    Although they technically held up an entire Battalion all day, it's not as if the entire battalion attacked at once. However, they still did an incredible job, decisively stopping two strong frontal attacks before running out of ammo on a 3rd flanking attack. The defenders were well dug in and only lost 1 man KIA. A pretty amazing feat.

    And for a SQUAD LEADER trivia bonus, this I&R battle is tied to an old classic scenario: 

    For those of you that had the original Squad Leader game from Avalon Hill, one of the original scenarios that came with the base game was a 99th Division Company L of the 394th in chow lines at Bucholtz Station. When shadowy figures emerge in casual walk along the rail line, it takes a few minutes for Company L men to realize that these figures are German troops. Company L is able to beat back the ensuing firefight and hold the line for the day. However, without the heroic stand of the Bouck's 18 man I&R platoon, Company L would have quickly been hit by this same FJ battalion and most likely overrun putting the entire 394th Regiment in serious jeopardy on the 1st day of the Ardenness Offensive.

  7. 3 hours ago, IanL said:

    Yep, it was both. I use walls for separating testing lanes frequently but I also use terrain too if the test involves something taller than infantry. After this I'll pay attention to this lesson and use walls more carefully.

    Seems like so far you've only tested walls vs terrain.

    Are you sure it's just walls and not other place-able map elements such as buildings, trees, hedgerows?

    I'm not in a position to test, just thought it might be bigger issue than you think.

  8. 23 hours ago, StieliAlpha said:

    Ok, I gave it a try, but Midnight Clear is certainly not what I remember.

    Good movie, though.

    I did a search on IMDB.com and came across Castle Keep. It's the same basic theme but the squad is in a Castle. I've never seen it though.

    Also, I came across Attack which is not the movie you're looking for, but after reading the comments I now want to watch it.

     

  9. 2 hours ago, IanL said:

    It is actually variable - units in closer proximity get shorter cycles to help reduce the amount of instances where we have units tripping over the enemy.

    That's good to know. I wonder what the smallest cycle is.

    2 hours ago, IanL said:

    Even though there are issues that could be improved upon *we* have to let go of our idea that there should be an insta spot feature in the game.

    Yes, that's the whole purpose of my post. Hopefully, any future CMx3 engine will have much quicker spotting cycles, at least closer to what reality is. I agree that in reality there isn't insta-spotting but in the case of a bazooka team rounding a corner and seeing a huge Tiger tank in the middle of the street 40 meters away, it's pretty close to insta-spotting. At this point you're pretty much talking about human reaction times and decision making.

  10. Another thing to consider in the whole 'scoot and shoot' debate is that the LOS cycle is several seconds long (6 seconds IIRC but please correct me if I'm wrong). So even if Batttlefront were to implement this as a time based or shot based command, it will take longer than imagined by all of us. For example, let's say your bazooka team rounds a corner and then sees an enemy tank. In reality, the 'scoot and shoot' process is fairly simple and should happen quickly:

    1) round corner

    2) immediately see enemy tank and stop

    3) aim

    4) fire

    5) scoot to safety

    However, with CM, step 2 could take considerably longer depending on the LOS check cycle. They often seem to be tapping their toes while we're yelling 'shoot for Christ's sake!'

  11. On 3/14/2017 at 3:55 AM, George MC said:

    The issue is though how long should the tank pause with this new command? 5s?10s? 15s? 30s? That's the point even with a "shoot and scoot" command you would still get the situation of a tank pulling back before taking the crucial shot. Or taking fore from a previously unknown enemy shooter whilst vainly trying to locate them...The whole point of shoot and scoot is getting off a snap shot (at a known enemy) before they can fire back at you...Or at least encouraging someone to break cover and take a snap shot (works well if you have others keeping an eye out in overwatch).

    The issue is that it should not be time based at all. It should be shot based. In other words the team should not scoot until it shoots. I think though that normal TacAI conditions should still apply, ie. if the unit comes under heavy fire before it's able to shoot then it should take appropriate steps to get under cover. In this case the 'shoot and scoot' command should be overridden like other movement orders would be by the TacAI.

  12. On 3/10/2017 at 7:21 AM, StieliAlpha said:

    Yeah, I stumbled over that one, too, and found it sounds like it. Maybe, I am mistaken with the black and white, because some of the 'Midnight Clear' pic's do look pretty dull 'white and dark'.

    I'll give it a try on YouTube. 

    Also, it's based on a novel which is very well written. I'd recommend it to anyone.

  13. 1 hour ago, Michael Emrys said:

    Actually, you could say that after 1940 when the draft was begun and the expansion of the Army was starting to get underway.

    Michael

    Well, I'm talking more in the context of troops landing on D-Day vs Troops after D-Day. For example, 1st ID was permanent & 29th Div was a reactivated Guard unit, so they probably both had soldiers who wanted to be in the army as apposed to draftees or volunteers after the war started.

    However, even the 82nd and 101st, which were considered elite troops, were full of citizen soldiers, although mostly volunteer. 

  14. Before this gets out of hand, let's define conscript. It is by definition a synonym of draftee. User1000, has a point that a lot of "real life" U.S. units after D-Day had conscripted soldiers but they also had a lot of volunteers.

    However, if one is talking about the 'Conscript' level of soldier quality in Combat Mission (i.e. poorly trained, poorly motivated and little or no combat experience), then the answer is obviously no, there were no U.S. combat units after D-Day that fit that definition. At worst there were some green soldiers, but most might fit into a 'Regular' category. Usually well trained but little or no combat experience.

     

  15. 3 hours ago, Ch53dVet said:

    Really?  you don't see anything remotely implied to a certain character flaw from getting older? Just like you don't think I don't see the same kind of character attack by you questioning the 3rd party remark?  Look, if you don't have any constructive criticism or helpful advise to counter the zany idiosyncrasies that my units do at all the wrong times then please leave me be. I didn't come here for fight night, just friendly conversation and relevant answers to the occasion questions I might have. Good day to you too.

    No, how is getting older a character flaw? You're reading way too much into his post and mine. I just found it odd that you're referring to yourself in the 3rd person, now I'm pretty sure you're a troll looking for his next meal. You didn't come for a fight but you're the only person here picking one. Every person here that's responded to you has been helping players for YEARS on this forum, especially MikeyD who is a beta tester. We've all been on the forums that long. You're here one day and you're picking a fight. You could have simply said "no, it's not my change in taste as I'm getting older", but instead you directly insult him and ASSUME that he is attacking you and trying to discredit you.

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