Cranky

It has been some time since Eichenbaum visited BFC - I sent him an email to the addy attached to his marvellous Operation Storfang Mods, and it bounced back - the various websites he has posted here over the years are gone too. I would like to use the OSF Mods for a Tourney at WeBoB, and wanted to ask permission first. If anyone knows how to contact E or the man himself visits here, please either post in this thread or you can contact me via ant2man<at>iinet.net.au Thanks.

Q: How do most ethnic jokes begin? A: With a quick glance over the shoulder. Is that a joke about humpbacks? LOL - I knew a guy with a hump - he used to iron his shirt in a Wok.

In the end it became very likely that it was in fact the on-board video adapter slowly crapping out. Eventually, playing video - not just 3D games like CMBB - was causing the same crash to the BSOD. Real problem emerged when I wanted to put an actual vid card in to do the job of the failing adapter - the box of my comp (HP Compaq dc7700U) doesn't have enough room for even a SFF vid card! Trash time! Replaced cheap reconditioned comp with another cheap reconditioned comp - another HP Compaq desktop, but this time in a box big enough for upgrades. Back to the game!

Solved by buying new comp with working video adapter - Definitely that was the problem, as CM runs fine again.

Indeed it is uber groggy, and so am I, having spent rather too much time on the internets this eve... Interested to find out the truth, though - if such an animal can be brought into captivity.

OK, so we've got some evidence that suggests that a 2 pdr HE shell was produced, and available at least for the Daimler AC by June 1944? Again, I wonder what evidence the Battlefront team drew on to (a) make the HE shell available in the Middle East from April 1943 onwards? ( to make it available to the Russians so they might fire it from their Lend-Lease British tanks beginning the same month and year? Can anyone produce the shipping manifests that show such shells in transit via Murmansk or the Iranian border? Seriously, I was just curious, because I had always believed that no-one had bothered to make a HE shell for the 2 pdr, until I just happened to see such offered in the Scenario Editor for CMAK.

Mr Kettler - That HE shell is for the 2 pdr Naval Gun - the QF Pom-Pom - so, as you say, it's a question of compatibility; Whether (a) you could fire such a shell from the 2 pdr AT gun - they are different weapons, the 2 pdr QF being an Autocannon.* ( if yes, did anyone actually do so? And what about the mysterious APHE shell? Clearly the Battlefront team must have had something in mind when they allowed for a HE shell to be available to 2 pdr AT guns in CMBB and CMAK, but what? * I don't pretend to have any experience of such things, although I did once use a spud-gun to fire carrots, if this is applicable.

"By contrast, the 1942 intelligence report seems woefully confused. 2 pdr AT guns had NO HE round, nor were they fitted with and kind of APHE, firing solid shot exclusively." Speaking of confusion: About a week back, I got curious about the fact that in CMAK and CMBB the 2 pdr gun in tanks and armoured cars has a HE round available in the Editor after April 1943. The default amount is 0, meaning that you have to add such rounds via the Editor - but they ARE available. A couple of hours reading stuff on the internets produced a bunch of conflicting info - An HE round was produced, but not issued, or an HE round was never made at all. Some sources maintain that an APHE round was manufactured and issued from the late 1930's, but these rounds were quickly used up in the first 2 years of the war.

I've occasionally got this error message in the last few months: igxprd32 display driver has stopped working normally at which point CMBB or CMAK has already crashed. So far, I've just restarted my comp, and CM1 runs again fine. Today I got it again, and no amount of restarting is able to fix the problem - CMBB or CMAK freezes as soon as I attempt to view the 3D map, and thence to the Blue Screen of Death, which explains that the graphics driver has got itself into an infinite loop. Natch, I went online and read bulletin boards - this is apparently a common problem caused by a flaw in the intel chipsets that has not yet been fixed. So far, I have: (1) Uninstalled the Driver, and installed the latest Driver. (2) Uninstalled that Driver, and installed an older version of the Driver from 2007. No result. Cannot play CM1. Anyone got any ideas? Can the CM1 games prefs be tweaked somehow so as to change the way the graphics driver interacts with CM1's 3D graphics? Video plays just fine (via VLC). I'm running Windows XP, Service Pack 3. The file apparently at fault is igxprd32.dll Chipset is Q965/963. Intel Pentium D CPU 2.80 GHz 0.99 GHz of RAM (reconditioned HP Compaq Desktop) Any assistance or ideas appreciated - PBEMS on hold.

Yeah, much thanks in advance, Streety - I haven't actually DL'd the Mod Pack yet, but I've been using your Brit Para Portraits for years now, so I know the Westfront will be good... Erwin - I'm there, dude Seriously - Spain '38, Poland '39, France 40....Sealion 40-42 (includes Lionheart Resistance Campaign). I'm actually hoping that the Tourney after BB10 finishes will be my own TOTAL WAR mini-campaign, which is why I'm offering only my support, not my initiative.... And it's Doc von Cool I believe you were thinking of - WeBoB's Lord of Tournaments.

Great idea, Erwin! I can immediately think of 4 great possible backgrounds for such a Tournament -love the early-war stuff. Will support idea at WeBoB when aired.

Like Kanonier von Reichmann, I was expressing a personal opinion, and made that clear. In spite of that, you indulge in an ad hominem attack, casting aspersions on my mental health. It's that kind of childish comment that stops me visiting this board as often as I otherwise might. BTW, my auntie knows him personally, and it's well known that he sucks balls.

And Chris Rock as Jesus' homie. Personally, I thought 'Dogma' was the only movie that Matt Damon was any good in. Uhhhh...... Yeah, I'm still playing CM1.

I haven't yet properly got into any of the CM2 games - in part because I'm still finding fun things to do with CM1. Lots of great gaming possibilities still relatively unexplored there - when you involve a third person as umpire/hand of god, a bunch of cool things can be done. Also, I make Scenarios for play against the AI - because it's a challenge to make that dumb guy a fun & frightening opponent. Shameless Plug: 'Chemin-de-Fer 1940' - for CMAK - depicts French heavy tanks of 4th DCR in action against invading Germans, 1940. Difficulty: extreme. Find it at The Proving Grounds. Currently WeBoB's Monthly Challenge for June. <ADVERTISEMENT ENDS>

"The 8Kx4K map looked like that part of N. Africa (at greater reduced scale of course)" > I actually just thought about that - you mean you replicated the area TO SCALE? LOL - I've had a few thoughts in that direction myself - e.g. a complete Map of the World (Mercator Projection) or a map of Normandy for CM:ETO, to scale, that could be fought over..... Sigh...so many ideas, so little time.

That's a shame - the biggest Op map sizes would be ideal for some kind of desert battle across the wide open spaces of Libya. My own computer is fairly limited - otherwise I would say 'Let's Test That Op! :eek:

That's right. IIRC maximum Battle map size for CMBB is about 4000m x 2200m, and for CMAK 5000m x 4000m. Only Operations allow the biggest size of maps, and then only if you use 'Advance' or Assault' to denote Operation Type - 'Static'-type Ops can have a bigger map than stand-alone Battles, but not the maximum, which is 8000m x 4000m - at least in CMAK; IIRC CMBB's maximum map size is smaller than that.

I've messed around with the Operations parameters a lot, and played through a few, and AFAIK there are no consequences to skipping a Night battle, other than missing the chance to kill or be killed in the dark. One cool feature of the Night battle thing is that it enables an exploit for using the largest sizes of maps (restricted to multi-battle Ops) for just one battle: make your Operation only 2 battles, with Night set to Every 2nd Battle. Set Night Combat to 'No Night Combat', and your Op effectively ends after the first (daytime) battle is fought.... Get me? And to clarify the original point, Skipping a battle means you fight one less battle in that particular Op - AFAIK, it changes nothing at all - you've still 'fought' that Battle, by choosing to Skip it.

And I found a use for Assault Boats - Mother WILL Be Proud.....

We scenario designers are often confronted by players who DONT READ THE BRIEFING, and then give the Scenario a bad review. One of the worst is the player who insists on playing against the AI, when it is clearly stated that the AI can't play it's side effectively. Solution: Give one or both sides an Assault Boat - this eliminates the AI option for that side - only Hotseat, PBEM and TCP/IP options will be available. And guess what? You don't even have to have the Boat on the map. I made a Battle with 33 Turns. The Assault Boat is a reinforcement set for Turn 50. It will never arrive, but the AI option for that side is still not available. I would think Ops work the same way - have the Boat arrive as a reinforcement in a Battle that is numbered beyond the actual number of Battles in your Op.

In the end, the solution for me was this: June, 1942, Finland. In the Operation Parameters, temperature is set to COLD, Weather to BAD, Ground Conditions to LIGHT SNOW. First Battle is Midday - the water is unfrozen. 2nd Battle is Night - the water freezes. 3rd Battle is Midday again - the water is unfrozen. 4th Battle is Night - frozen. This so far has been 100% consistent. What conclusions one might extrapolate from this, I don't know - but it works.

Hey folks - I've just been working on a little CMBB scenario, and I'm perplexed: 3-battle Operation - I want to start with Frozen conditions, and then have it thaw in Battle #2 or maybe in Battle #3 Does anyone know how to do this so that one can reliably get weather warmer than FROZEN in the second battle? I've just spent a frustrating couple of hours trying every different combo of TIME OF YEAR and REGION. Seems that if you select FROZEN for the first battle, things stay frozen. Anyone seen different? I'm sure I've played Ops where water turns to ice as the weather changes - how to do the opposite? Any assistance gratefully appreciated.

The only one I know of is YumanOppo 1.0

A Technical Point: The BFG 9000 was never fielded by Duke Nukem, being encountered instead as part of the arsenal of the anonymous Space Marine in the 'Doom' universe. Perhaps the original poster was thinking of Duke's RPG or maybe the Devastator? Those who have posted comments relating to the use of the Shrink Ray in CMBN are making a similar unfortunate error: getting their games mixed up.

Many thanks to JonS for providing some information on this topic that was helpful. Kiwi Grogs Rule!