Gcoat

Hi, I decided to head for Munster and after a very speedy drive (Holland sucks in this respect and German autobahn definitely rulez arrived in Munster. Okay, some problems in Oldenburg when going east due to some annoying maintenance, but other than that a very nice drive. Munster museum is not very big, but once inside, you won't be disappointed. They have a nice ww2 collection of some very nice German tanks. It was a long time I saw some serious stuff like this and was really surprised by the size of the Pz. IV and Panther. I was really surprised and highly impressed by the Panther. Really, when you're that close to such a thing, it's really a terrifying tank. The others they had on display were also great to see (L70, Pz. 1-3, Jagdpanther, Koenigstiger, Sturmgeschuetz, Hummel, Wespe), but of all the Panther impressed me most. It's simply a very large tank (a lot bigger than I imagined) and really an awesome machine close to perfection (in my book). Because of the ww2 tanks they have on display I can really recommend the Munster museum. They only miss one major tank: Tiger. They have an exotic Sturmtiger, but personally I'd rather seen they display a normal Tiger; that way, the line up of major tanks would have been almost complete. Must say, still think (and always did) the 'dark side' had the best looking stuff... Anyway, thanks for all the advice Mark

Sneaksie, "We plan to improve vehicle path finding behavior in addon, but, as you can see, each way has it's problems." Waiting for patch/addon, but good to hear it will be improved "Currently, if we set their behavior to drive around trees as armored cars do, they will start to turn and expose their weaker sides to the enemy, which i'm sure everybody will not be happy with:) It's a pity, because non-aggressive movement mode took much time to develop (driving along roads priority, avoiding obstacles, etc.) and currently is not being used." I certainly would have liked to seen this kind of mode in ToW A pre-combat/non-aggressive would have been a good choice I think, even if it slows things down. My, maybe too simple view on AI is that, e.g. if a unit's threat level is low, there's no need to run down trees and crush buildings. In real life they usually avoided these kind of things 'cause it could damage their precious vehicles By crushing trees and houses you'll destroy potential camouflage for yourself and others and only draw unnecessary attention on an already dangerous playground. Besides that, armoured vehicles can usually drive much faster on roads than cross country Likewise, I can imagine if a unit's threat level is high (imminent danger, enemy in sight/near), a more aggressive mode kicks in which prefers other capabilities (e.g. always rotate to enemy, crawl, shoot and scoot, reverse as much as possible thus avoiding showing weaker sides etc, etc). Key is of course, to determine if a unit has a high threat level or not. I'm not sure if such behavior is modeled in ToW and is possible with current pc's. Anyway, a small suggestion w.r.t. path finding. In case path finding is changed in future versions, I would also like to see the path they'd use if I point them to go somewhere (e.g. orange line showing the planned route) and show no-go areas (e.g. ravine, thus using alternate route). Mark

Sneaksie, W.r.t Vista support": Okay. I understand this WinXP decision, but was wondering about latest Vista developments. W.r.t. "Running down trees": I'm not sure if this is the right way because it leads to, among many other things, some very unrealistic and very illogical situations like panzers crushing every tree along a road just to get from A to B. I understand tanks sometimes need to crush trees when they're in immediate danger or plan a surprise attack (i.e. a high threat level), but when they only maneuver and are not in immediate danger (e.g. pre-combat) they usually avoid these obstacles whenever they can cause it slows them down, draws unnecessary attention, and above all, could damage their costly vehicles. I understand this will not be easy, but are you still considering better and smarter ways to handle this in ToW? Mark

Sneaksie, Maybe I missed it in the list of changes, but will the 'running down trees' (when not needed...) be fixed as well? Mark

Sneaksie, I know some may consider this a 'unnecessary evil', but will the patch also better work with Vista32/64? map editor: starts, but switches resolution and never completes initialisation. Vista remains a resolution set by editor and must be manually reset after closing application; mission editor: fails to initialize all together; ToW: real slowdowns with multiple cores unless single cpu is chosen. These slowdowns do not happen when app. is set to run on 2 cores when using XP32. My system: C2D E6700@3Ghz, 2 Gb 8500C5 GF8800GTS 640mb (latest 163.69 drivers) Samsung 226BW VistaU64 Thanks, Mark

Uwe, Nein, kenne Ich nicht Hmm, I see Koblenz is not very far from Munster and must say, that Panther G is looking very, very nice indeed. I'm having some doubts about going to Saumur right now. Maybe a trip to Germany will be a nice alternative. Thanks, Mark

DeLaVega Thanks for the 'url', I didn't have that one Yep, I've travelled a few times through the Ardennes (last time on a bike 'Luik - Bastenaken - Luik') and saw the big one in La Gleize. Also seen Bastogne and Overloon, but that was a long time ago. Luckily for us, Hitler was still in command and there was an east front as well otherwise we'd now be speaking German over here Mark

DOBERmann, Yep, I saw site of the one in Munster, but is it any good? I know it's a lot smaller than Saumur and has less verhicles on display. On the other hand it's a lot closer to home Still thinking.... Mark

Slapaho, Good to hear Saumur is worth the trip. I live in the northern part of the Netherlands, so just to get there will mean a 900 km drive At Kubinka they really have some extraordinary stuff I see, but a quick trip to Moscow is a bit too much right now. Besides that Wiki mentions: "As of August 2007, the Museum website states that it is closed to foreign visitors: "Attention, please! The museum is the military subject and temporary closed for the foreign visitors till the special command". If this is true, I think I will head for Saumur then... Thanks, Mark

Hi, It's a bit off-topic, but can anyone make some recommendations or know which tank (preferably the main ww2 armoured verhicles) museum is the best on the European main land? I've found sofar a nice one and close by in Muenster Germany, but it's not very large and only has some ww2 tanks. Another one, a long 900 km drive , seems to have a lot of armoured vehicles, i.e. Musee de Blindee Saumur in France. Has anybody recently visited the Saumur museum? Is it a good ww2 tank museum or are there other ones that are better and have more vehicles on display? Would love to hear your opinions Thanks, Mark

Sneaksie, "Option for 'hold' being default stance ======================== Maybe, in wishlist now." Good to hear it's in the wish list "Return to previous camera position after unit view ======================== Problem is, it was that way and was found uncomfortable by Battlefront and 1C before release." Okay, understand. Maybe if a smart LOS/LOF tool will be added a lot of camera movement to check units' positions can be avoided. It will likely lead to less zoom-in/out camera movement and player will have a better overview. "Make camera travel further ======================== If you rise camera to high altitude (200+m)and move it to the edge of the map, you'll see graphical artifacts already (sharp texture detalisation transition). Min distance to map's edge is 180m now and lowering it further will result in you being able to see ugly 2d trees, pixels with size of a car, etc. Bad;)" To me, graphics mean less than ease of play. I'm not put off by less detailed graphics near the end of a map (a bit like IL2) if it would improve camera movement and playability. It was on my wish list because reserves usually appear near the edge of the map while sometimes under attack. Right now, it's troublesome to move them quickly elsewhere. Mark

Sneaksie, "Make 'hold' default command, keep hold after other orders ================= Probably no. Considered as part of unit's initiative. Remember CC, when units sometimes decide to attack by themselves? It's somewhat similar. Btw, in TOW they can't ignore your hold order, while in CC they could. " 1) Could this please be looked at one more time? To me, this is perhaps the most annoying and most tedious issue with ToW right now. If AI tactical behavior and their sense of LOS/LOF and overview/memory of enemy units is greatly improved in the add-on, this is a very nice option, but right now the player constantly has to keep a close eye on its units to ensure they make the proper moves. E.g. if a tank gets killed in a certain position, normally another one would think twice before moving to that position. The commander would send out some scouts, call in air or artillery support or take a different route. I mean, showing initiative without some kind of sound tactical plan is usually pointless. The player however, is very much capable of making these decisions. Is it still considered to make this a player option? In that case everyone can choose if they need/like this or not. 2) One other thing that I suggest to improve is the camera movement which is too restricted near the edge of the map. I think it's better if one would be able to zoom beyond the map much further. Now sometimes you have to select your reserve units from 12 o'clock low and point you view straight down and overview is lost. 3) Is there a 'camera memory view'? I mean, I usually have a nicely chosen camera view like 150 meters high, ~ 30% downward angle so I can see the relevant battle area. However when I select e.g. a tank and press 'return' see its adversary I lose my overview and have to setup the view again. Is it possible to 'remember' a particular camera view so I can quickly return to my generic overview? Mark

Tyrant, - keep pre-set formation unless defined otherwise; (esp. infantery line, wedge etc, etc.) - shoot & scoot - always turn to direction of enemy positions (unless hasty retreat) - when 'on hold', keep it that way. Even when defining multiple waypoints for objects - option for pre-defined firing/kill arcs/zones - infantery should be able to use/enter buildings - 'dynamic' i.e. real time in-game LOS tool - more freedom in placing units before game starts (I know this is a mission designers' choice, but I just like to have a little more freedom to place my units) edit: 1 more thing: I don't like it when units appear suddenly near the border of the map without being able to comfortably zoom in and out to get an good overview. The zoom/view function should be extended beyond the borders of the map. Likely mentioned by others, but I really miss them. Mark

Dmg, That's exactly what I did But.. I thought ToW multi threading was meant to work on any flavor of Windows. On windows xp 32 using both cores works with the newly compiled code, but choosing 'threading optimizations = on' with vista64 seems to mean the opposite; it gets incredibly slow. Using only 1 core works on vista however works. Mark

Madmatt, "One of the big changes in this patch is that it was compiled with some updated software that should better support multicore CPU's as well as those that support hyperthreading." I have run the game both with XP32 and Vista 64 (Ultimate) and have found that multi threading only works with XP32. A bit puzzled that the multicore CPU only works in XP while using Vista64 leads to stutters very low fps. System: E6700@3Ghz 2 GB ram GTS8800 Mark