Thomm

Could anyone point out to me a (historical?) scenario with Jagdtigers? I have never encountered them so far (having played almost all original scenarios). Thanks in advance, Thomm

This seems to be the right place to dump these ****ty error messages: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>THE ANALYSIS IS ENDED BECAUSE OF THE PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED LOOK AT THE MSG FILE FOR THE CAUSE OF THE TERMINATION<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>We apologize for the inconvenience!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Stacheldraht: "reconstructing part of Stalingrad's sewer system to depict the underground fighting that took place there."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It must take a lot of guts not to skip a feature that requires a second layer of possible pathways for the pathfinding AI. Not to mention the graphical representation. I hope they just "beam" squads behind enemy lines - same result, minimum effort. On the other hand, the sewer network should be pretty easy to model as a network of essentially one-dimensional channels that converge at nodes under buildings. This network does not interact with the surface other than allowing squads to enter basements and vice versa. Combat is easy to resolve on a straight line. Spotting by sound is especially important under ground. But should the AI use the sewer system on the offense? Is the capacity of the sewer system large enough to influence action on the surface? I have doubts! Basements would be cool, though! Regards, Thomm

Dear Me 262! I live in Vienna and have studied a book on WW II in Austria. There was some fighting for Vienna, but it was over in a matter of a few days and, most importantly, done exclusively between the Wehrmacht and the Russians! So maybe we can go back to the subject when CM 2 arrives. Regards, Thomm

To take this one step further, Combat Mission could also export the result of the battle as a text file such that the outcome of a battle can be re-imported in the front-end program. This way, a strategic layer could be designed ... Regards, Thomm

... possibly for the same reason the Allies did not use the MG42 ...

PS.: Absender = thommson@hotmail.com

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by M Hofbauer: so you are going by Rollstoy in these waters. Hmmm, no, I don't remember any email of that kind. But I would look it up - can you tell me the exact "absender", date, or subject/title?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Dear Markus! Never mind the nickname ! I sent you two Panzerfaust pictures I have scanned from an old "Wie geht das" magazine. Good, theatralic stuff! Thought you might have use for it on your Panzerfaust page. Unfortunately, I did not keep copies of the files, because I do not want military pictures to lie around on my institute account (my own, personal "Feind hört mit" paranoia). As soon as possible I will re-scan the pictures and post them at Photopoint ... A pity that the first attempt failed, though. Freundlichen Gruß, Thomm

1) dpi = Dots per Inch ... printer resolution, totally irrelevant to "skinning". 2) Texture quality cannot be judged from jpeg picture due to loss of quality inherent in compression method. 3) M.Hofbauer, did you ever receive the scans I sent to the email address in your profile? 4) Regards, Thomm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>How did that recoiless rifle do in combat?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Three clean kills until I got impatient and decided to move it to gain LOS to the last enemy "vehicle". BAD decision ... My hardest battle so far. Minor Allied victory ... Regards, Thomm

In one of my last battles, I destroyed one wooden pillbox with 105mm artillery while three others survived the same treatment. It was surprisingly easy to take out one of the surviving pillbox by close assaulting it through a 81mm smoke mortar barrage. As a sidenote, it took 10 bazooka rounds to knock out another wooden pillbox from the rear at 15 meters distance. This I consider unrealistic. These are just the results from one battle. I do not think I will waste artillery on pillboxes again. Regards, Thomm

Scenario Page is blank in Netscape Navigator 4.77. Sorry.

Perfect down to the Pixel! Congratulations!!

Check out article on Doom III technology at http://www.geocities.com/lordflathead/zaldron.html . Some interesting pictures. As usual quite irrelevant for Combat Mission-like games. Maybe the bump-map animation works here, too: Regards, Thomm

Hmmm. Guess that thing would need its own AI. Otherwise it would be very easy to waste its limited number of shots possible in the timeframe of a CM battle.

I suggest you check out this 10 page thread on contemporary computer graphics: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/015600.html Lots of comments from BTS in there, too! Enjoy, Thomm

Killing a Panther and two Panzer IVs with three subsequent shots from a 75MM HOWITZER!!! Some time I will submit the corresponding screenshot to the Hero's Corner ... Regards, Thomm

I am also impressed with the new voice cues, but the next time my batallion commander is going to make a snide remark about my orders, I swear I will send him right into the next minefield!!! Thank God you can escape the litany by staying on view level 4, although the star-shells can be really irritating at this view setting!

That "Hide under Tank" order certainly helps keeping your infantry alive during artillery barrages! And I really did not expect reflecting water in the beta demo! This Charles guy must really have too much time! And with the new AI it is really time to stop playing humans again! The last time as was beaten up like this by a computer was in Chess! Looking forward to the Gold Demo! P.S.: All those individual soldiers can really be confusing sometimes!

This is a very nice mod!!!! Congratulations!! The trousers are especially nice!!! Regards, Thomm P.S.: What will we do without Photopoint (i.e. when they will start to charge in May)?

I think that Combat Mission already has most of the necessary graphic elements. I think that they should invest some processor power in smoke and dust effects, since those add more to the overall atmosphere than, for example, a higher polygon count on the models. I can imagine, for instance, that small arms bursts could throw up a small dust cloud on impact (transparent animated billboard poly), such that the intensity of fire can be judged by this effect. Other than that, the graphics are more than adequate considered the gameplay value of the game. Regards, Thomm

Dear Matrox Users! I am getting very good results with the latest Matrox G400 drivers ( http://www.matrox.com ). I have the feeling that the quality of transparencies is improved and the amount of flickering is reduced for smoke. I use DirectX 7.0, do not know if version 'a' or not. Hope it works for you, too. Regards, Thomm

If there was one thing I could change then it would be the unit debriefing ("Kills"), where I would prefer FULL and DETAILED information about all kills made, including unidentified ones. Sadly, this seems to be impossible. Regards, Thomm

I just finished L'Abbey Blanche as Allies and achieved a tactical victory in this quite difficult scenario. I transfered the .50 cal to a heavy building in the city where it blasted away at the Germans until it was low on ammunition. In the debriefing it had caused ONE casualty at a mean distance of 150 meters. Now, I do not know if only confirmed casualties are given in the debrief mode (this is what I suspect), but this result was a little bit disappointing for such a heavy weapon. Fighting nearby was a squad with 14 confirmed kills! Remark: I would really like to see ALL caused casualities in the debriefing map mode, including those of artillery observers ... On the other hand, the two employed MGs kept the Germans out of town until I could bring in an infantry platoon. The town remained contested in the end, which I did not expect when I first spotted the mass of enemies approaching. So, against the AI, the MGs were useful enough. A human player would certainly have overran my position with a massed attack! Anyway, it was a very entertaining game. Excellent scenario with lots of movement! Regards, Thomm

Here is my first person account: Location: SERIOUS SAM PUBLIC TEST, TEMPLE OF KARNAK. Armarment: Shotgun, Chaingun, Rocket Launcher, ... Enemy: Suicidal Zombies with explosives strapped to their body. All right, here it goes: by picking up certain items the player triggers an attack by "Suicide Bombers" in Serious Sam. Those guys attack in groups of four, basically simply running towards the player, but spreading out in the process. They do not have any long-range weapon, just "contact fuses". They have to cover a wide, flat area to cross to reach the player, who is cornered in this specific location. I have played this situation a dozens of times. It takes two hits to take out one guy. The chain-gun had an ammo load of 300 round. So, in theory I could have taken out 150 out of those guys, right?! No way. I think my maximum was about six. By the time you have aligned the gun (Note: this in a GAME) and killed one or two enemys, the other ones are already closing in to you from the flanks, from your blind side. Grazing fire is out of the question because you do not get in your two hits in one pass and then you are out of ammo. So you have to aim, and this takes time (note again: ideal game conditions!). Also, guys that do not come directly at you are much harder to hit. How matter how hard I tried including (shotgun close defense methods), some of the maniacs got into my weak side. It was impressive. And they were not even firing at me! And it did not take a platoon of them, one squad did the job nicely. I found the situation in the game to be fairly realistic with respect to the subject of rushing a isolated MG position and I was impressed how little damage I could do with that mean chaingun, simply because the process of aiming over a wide field of view took to much time. Regards, Serious Thomm