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Heaven & Earth: Project discussion thread


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19 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Oh I remember now.....WTF was it called?

'Tour of Duty'.....That's it, isn't it? 

(He says doubtfully.  :unsure:)

Tour of Duty is great. I'd never heard of it before I found the dvd box set in a raghead shop on base in Iraq. Watched it while doing my own tour of duty.

For the record though, I don't remember hearing Fortunate Son in it, just in all other other Vietnam War related popular culture :)

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On 5/27/2019 at 9:33 PM, puje said:

Okay I'll be the first to ask what I know everone's thinking: WILL IT HAVE FORTUNATE SON IN IT????

:D

Hmmm where would I fit in Low, by Flo Rida, if we use Fortunate Son?

 

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On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 9:56 PM, puje said:

Vietnam War related popular culture :)

Fekkin Hippies!  :P

After some discussion, we're gradually coming to the conclusion that Vietnam, per se, is a tricky subjects for CM:SF2 (Technology's a b***h!  :rolleyes:).....However the 'Drug Wars' and associated insurgencies of the 'Golden Triangle' should be eminently doable with a more or less identical mod set (& we can use most of the techno-toys too). 

To this end @37mm and I have begun creating the concept of a fictional country or province therein.....At present we are considering the possibilities of the faction riven region known to its inhabitants as 'Bong-Hai'.  :D

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Beware trying to do Jungle combat.  I played around with CMFI as the weaponry seemed appropriate for early Vietnam...… let's just say it was a bit less interesting than I'd hoped.  CM just doesn't work that well for it. Unit posture for example gets really problematic.

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I'm trying to minimise that issue by building the maps with great care, no mono-blocs of jungle etc. plus lots of undulations in the terrain. 

In my 'Drug War' concept I'll be using Fighters (Maoist/Islamic Insurgents) & Combatants (Armed Tribesmen) as the real jungle-warfare specialists, giving them an advantage by using the 'Population Density' setting in a counter-intuitive (but perfectly effective way).  :ph34r:

They'll get exactly the same advantage in urban settings too, but for different reasons.....Basically I like using Uncons and the other side already has plenty of advantages all of its own, such as artillery and helicopter gunships, among other things.  :D

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1 hour ago, sburke said:

I played around with CMFI as the weaponry seemed appropriate for early Vietnam

I've experimented with CM:FI too, for very similar reasons, but set on a very different continent.....I started building a monstrous master map, but it crashed terminally (so a new smaller version is in progress).  B)

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When they are stationary they certainly seem to.....I had some horrible point blank encounters while testing Coup.  :ph34r:

What I'm not sure is whether (or how well) it works against other Uncons.....Testing my 'SRBM Attack' IED/VBIED concept I expected to have more failures to detonate if the population density was higher (some of the IED/VBIED targets are Uncons too), however that doesn't appear to be the case.  :unsure:

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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In the isolated village of Myitkam (formerly Ven Song) at the edge of the Bong-Hai uplands a group of worried Catholics prostrate themselves before the village militia, begging for protection from Islamic Insurgents, led by the notorious bandit Mg Pyay Ag:

cULg6HB.jpg

While Old Major Linn telephones the capital for assistance, Father Arnold, the local priest, asks Commander Zin Phone to have his men bring the faithful to safety within the sturdy stone walls of the church.....Barely has the order been given when a shot rings out from the forest and Commander Zin falls, seriously wounded:

7AP8KFI.jpg

Will the insurgents attack and if so, can the elderly Major Linn rally the village defenders and keep the innocent Catholics safe until BHSFB troops arrive from the capital by helicopter?  :unsure:

Find out in the next instalment.  ;)

Image content courtesy @37mm

 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Over on Highway #1 a truck has broken down.  The driver, a militiaman in his own village, stands ready to protect the cargo from bandits.....Fortunately Mg Zin, the local mechanic is near at hand and he soon identifies a problem with the differential:

W79kfTO.jpg

Barely has he begun to suck air in through his teeth, while calculating an imaginative quote for the repairs, when there is a loud whooshing noise, followed by an even louder explosion on the road nearby:

6QDuSnz.jpg

Can the driver protect his precious cargo?  Will Mg Zin get to extract his gold fillings or will he just have to settle for cash?  :P

Find out in the next instalment.  ;)

Image content courtesy @37mm

 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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From his position perched on the roof of the sluice-gate control-house, Watchman Ko sees a number of armed men moving through the jungle toward him:

Uh33YqY.jpg

Ordered by Old Major Linn to notify him of anything unusual, and an adamant believer that discretion is the better part of valour, Ko rushes into the paddy fields to give warning to the farmers and alert the militia:

RP1GIms.jpg

Will Watchman Ko manage to alert the militia?  Will he live to fight another day?  :unsure:

Find out in the next instalment.  ;)

Image content courtesy @37mm

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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Old Major Linn was having a hard time convincing the office-bound bureaucrat on the other end of the line of the seriousness of Mg Pyay Ag's threats.  Secure in the capital the man had little comprehension of life on the upland fringe.  :rolleyes:

However the thunderous explosion from the nearby highway, and the ensuing cacophony as several 'architecturally significant' glazed panels collapsed around Major Linn in his prized colonial-era greenhouse, proved sufficient to shake even this imbecile out of his stupor!  :o 

With the help of his household servants, several militiamen among them, Major Linn climbed to the upper floor of his home and trained his binoculars on the treeline:

GVwoO0w.jpg

Tracers flickered across the paddy fields sending a number of farmers scurrying for cover:

VHk8wqZ.jpg

"Send help now!" Major Linn practically screamed at the distant grey man "The insurgents are coming!"  :unsure:

Will the official send help?  Will it arrive in time?  Will Major Linn's poor servants carry him back to the ground floor in time to lead his men in battle, or will he have to use the stair-lift?  :P

Find out in the next instalment.  ;)

Image content courtesy @37mm

 

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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With gunshots now buzzing overhead, Watchman Ko redoubled his pace:

Ht4OmYV.jpg

Yelling to the terrified farmers to get back to the village:

SzF02RY.jpg

One of them was just too slow:

P1OQEAd.jpg

Will Watchman Ko ever make it out of the rice paddy?  :unsure:

Well, TBH:

KGgcK7m.jpg

No!  :(

Image content courtesy @37mm

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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I'm having a lot of fun testing this, I'm using an 'ultra-lite' version of @Bil Hardenberger's rules to moderate the action (playing myself hotseat and taking notes for future AI scripting) things are a little slower paced than is normal for me, but it's fascinating to follow who knows what, when (and then to judge how they would act upon that knowledge).  B)

I'm thinking of renaming the HQ of the 'Unconcerned Farmers' (Spy Group) 'Deaf Mg'.....All of the above action is going on about fifty yards away, in the next rice paddy, yet he remains blissfully unaware of any of it, no tentative contacts, nothing!  :rolleyes:  But he has planted a lot of rice!  :D

Ironically Bil did me a favour with his two-leg move rule for Uncons.....Given the granularity of the timer in the AI, if I follow that rule, more or less anything I do should, in principle, be repeatable by the AI (with the usual limitations).  No doubt I'll have to use some trickery to get it to play nicely, but this does give me an amusing new way to generate AI plans for small unit skirmishes.

Sadly I messed a couple of things up in this early test (trying to put a 'running gag' in the show, before the show's even made), so I probably won't be playing it to completion.  :(

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