Moon
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Posts posted by Moon
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With a 10,000 page manual, CM would become the game to the book, wouldn't it?
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I am SURE that SOMEBODY SOMETIME SOMEWHERE will print them ALL
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I don't know, but one thing I always found a little strange in Close Combat was that there could be the most intense shelling of artillery and AT guns, the cries of the dying squads could already not be distinguished, and still you would hear a bird singing happily like nothing happened.
Yes, birds sing BEFORE a battle, but I can imaging that the sound of 150mm howitzers ripping through the landscape would scare them for at least some time. Hell, go and fire a rifle in the woods and THEN try to listen to the birds... it'll certainly take some time...
Oh, and I forgot: GREAT screenshots. Geez, these soldiers look amazing from even close up. I personally would have been happy with half the detail
Especially interesting the different weapons that each men in a squad carries. MP43, the rifle and a MP - great!
Two questions:
- what is this big flag in the background of the first screenshot? Looks like a flag or some, but it seems pretty oversized
- in the second screenshot, I can not really see very well where the slope starts. The background has the same green color, the slope is not visible (but can be imagined because of the partially hidden trees). Is this because the picture has been compressed for the iNet?
[This message has been edited by Moon (edited 03-16-99).]
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Will the armor penetration diagrams be included in the manual or on CD?
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In Germany, AOL just moved from an hour fee ($3 per hour) to a flat rate for 60 hours per month (can't remember what the flat rate is)...
There are other ISPs out there and some do offer unlimited online time, but most are either slow (because so many people are using them) or have an overload with advertising...
Phone calls, even local, are becoming cheaper and cheaper, so for about 100 hours a month I pay about 15-20 US$. However, I am online mostly at nights and weekends, which is about 1/4 cheaper than being online during the day...
However, this is all pretty new. Half a year ago, I paid 300 US$ per month in total for 100 hours online...
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AWESOME Chris!
I promise if in CM one of the US guys name is Chris Jenkins, I will not shoot him!
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Thanks John! But I am just learning all this HTML stuff, really...
As to long German words: "Geländeerkundung" is nothing. Check this out:
"Umklammerungsbewegung" (encircling maneuver) or even better
"Kampfverbandsstabsunteroffizier" (combat group staff sergeant). There is no limit in German how long a word can be...
[This message has been edited by Moon (edited 03-16-99).]
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You are right as well, John. And to be 100% correct, grazing fire (which was the initial question) is not aimed at all by definition. Instead it means that the MG operator is laying a continuous fire about 3 feet above the ground without really aiming for anything, just sweeping an area. Of course you could simulate this (if the other player is silly enough to put a few squads in open view lined up behind each other) by simply aiming for the last squad or even BEHIND the last squad. It may be a game limitation, but I guess one can live with it very well.
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May I take the liberty to point to my own website if you want more information of how recon has been conducted by the Germans, John? (of course also anybody alse is invited
)http://members.aol.com/moonde/FrameSet1.html
Check the historical section.
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The closer the aim point, the less distance stray rounds will go. Standard physics of aiming.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Of course! Dang... (what was that blushing face sign again?)
How about suppression fire then? Can I assign my MG team an area to fire into rather than a single target? Do I understand right that in order to cover, say, a whole treeline with suppressive fire, I would have to issue two or three fire orders to my MG team?
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Don't want to be nitpicking here, but what happens if I shoot at the front one? Will the squads behind it get their "share"? (Small difference at first sight, but if "no" is the answer it means that small arms fire doesn't get tracked... AHA!
)And on a side note: will MG teams "produce" more tracers than rifle teams?
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Thanks Ben, very interesting site! But actually what it shows most is how uncertain any data is in this field, I think. Still worth to check out.
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YEAH!
Or as the polish say (actually sing)
"Jeszcze Polska nie zginela, puki Wisla plynie!"
(Poland is not lost as long as the river Wisla is running!)
And for anybody who wants to sing along:
"Yeshche polskah nye sginewa puky wiswa pwinye"
(and no jokes about the "puky" please)[This message has been edited by Moon (edited 03-10-99).]
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On the information bar as seen in a few screenshots, the information "rested" appears. Also, in the "Spotting" section, the suggestion is made that the US recon team should have taken the longer, "more tiring" route through the woods.
So exhaustion of units seems to be simulated. Here a couple of questions to that:
will units tire quicker when moving through difficult terrain like marshes, thick forest and/or moving constantly at a fast pace (i.e. running)?
will units tire more from turn to turn? Since CM simulates, say, 30-60 minutes of continuous combat in a single game, I would expect that ALL units, regardless of what they are actually doing, should be more tired at the end (e.g. because of the stress of being under fire - i.e. adrenaline...).
However, what will the effects be that tired units have to suffer from? I would imagine that they move slower, lose firing effectiveness, react slower to player's orders etc.
And finally, would tired or exhausted units be able to go back to "rested" within the short timeframe of a single game? (not that I want to indicate by the phrasing of this question that they shouldn't...
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Not bad idea, John, but how would the information realistically get from the scout unit to units A, B, and C within the 60 seconds of one action turn?
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Of course I have to mention here the Polish Airborne brigade as an example which is probably best known for its participation in the Market Garden campaign.
As to the names, Chris, tell me if you need any help in putting together the polish names. I suggest starting with Turewicz (for reasons I am sure you will guess right...
) but I can provide you with a couple hundred others easily... -
How about simply allowing the players to rename the squads?
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I guess grabbing weapons/ammo off dead bodies would be only an option for a soldier if he has no more ammo on him or his weapon broke. Leads me to jams: will weapons jam in CM? And I mean not only the small stuff, but also MGs, tanks and 88s?
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Just saw an advertising at wargamer.com - 4CDs is selling Combat Mission at $39.99 and release date is May 1999 - just wondering if BTS already knows that?
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From the screenshots it seems that foxholes are represented by a ground texture rather than a "real" hole in the ground. No big problem with that, except - will foxholes be visible all the time in the overhead view or will they also have to be spotted first?
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I thought Hänsel and Gretel had a problem with cookie houses and witches? Wasn't aware that there were any flags involved... could you explain?
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Another way to prevent overuse of artillery in CM would be to make it realisticly inaccurate. Calling a shelling on a position even 200 meters forward of your position can be a dangerous thing to do - so the safest use of artillery would be at distances beyond the usual spotting range... i.e. you could use artillery to hammer on probable enemy positions (like dominating hills etc.) but could't use it really as effective weapon once the small arms fire starts...
Another thing of course are the delay times of artillery. Unless in a well pre-planned large scale assault, it should takes several turns (i.e. minutes) before the shells arrive.
One question on the side: how lethal would a 150mm round be to tanks? In West Front artillery is almost useless against tanks. What is your approach to this?
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A quote from CITIZEN SOLDIER on that topic: "What good is a King Tiger when you don't have the gas to get it moving"
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Interesting interview indeed - and throws up a few new questions, e.g. what was that with "selecting a unit draws a line to its platoon leader"? Sounds interesting enough to know more about it...
Progress
in Combat Mission Archive #1 (1999)
Posted
I think Thomas has made the mistake we all have in the beginning (and still make
) - trying to judge CM by the standards of other wargames out there.
Yes, in West Front you need a lot of charts and formulas, simply because they make up 90% of the game engine. Charts and tables are the only means for the player to get information about the battlefield action. Playing West Front without a thick manual is almost impossible - if you want to win that is
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John made a good point here - no Lt. is running around the battlefield with a 10,000 page book in his pocket. CM promises to deliver much more the feel and smell of the battlefield action BECAUSE it DOESN'T need the bureaucracy of West Front...
Comparing the penetration data for two vehicles quickly in the game should give you enough information for a successful game and I think it's a great idea. Although these diagrams look great because of all the colors (kinda fractal
), I absolutely agree with Steve - no need to print them. As said before, I am sure that some hardcore grognard will do it... strange breed these people 