Webwing

The builder will blow your mind! You'll soon find out. I don't want to be cruel or to tease you guys but... I am creating this little village now, exactly the way I had always wanted and was never able to. Cool! :cool: If feels like I'm creating one of those nice dioramas... only I can actually have a real battle in TOW afterwards!!! --

That's what i thought too! Never expected anything like that. I remember the first time I did a map for Close Combat II, many years ago. It was like that, a big image and then another image where you specified the hight and surfaces. This one is totally real time interactive joy! There is a tool where you can paint with the grass! The beauty of it is that it doesn't look like flat textures applied to a surface but layers one on top of the others. Besides all that you can add your own textures or modify the ones that come with it in Photoshop. Endless possibilities really. --

Double post...

- The undelete thing was my only big problem with this area of the editor. I found it out by chance when started with the editor. Later completely forgot! What a headache! Now I read this thread!!!! -

Now that Steve is back reading the forum I’d like to post, in one single thread, my take on some issues i find important regarding the editor. Some of the topics might be addressed in 1.05 but still a relevant thread in my opinion. I have already spent an enormous amount of time in the editor. Much more time than playing the game itself. I would very much like to know what others have to say about those issues as well. And this is one of the reasons for this thread. Time savers and little tips that would help specially the beginner: The option to turn off fog of war. On top of my list!!! I don’t have a clue how other mission designers do it (apart from MarkEzra). I think having to place high buildings with spy units on top to look at the enemy to see what the AI is doing is a very clumsy way to solve this problem. Pressing surrender or cease fire also is not exactly a solution since then you have to restart the mission. Not very efficient and very time consuming. -Parameters: Casualties – less than, more than. Just to make it clearer. Yes, its in the manual, I know. -Highlight what Plan you are in an even easier way to see. When you have more than one plan and specially when programming RED AI (most of the time). I go back and forth from the Units tab to the AI tab. As I do that sometimes I just add orders to say group 3. I test it and it doesn’t work. In the end I find out that I was programming group 3 from Plan 1 of Blue, the default! Yes, I know, its my mistake but if there was a way to improve that would be very welcome. Perhaps using tabs, I’m not sure. But this one is maybe just me. I don’t know. - First plan can never be set to NOT USED. Which makes it more difficult to test a mission with several plans. I understand the logic behind it. There need to be at least one active plan. Not sure what would be the solution here. -> Another thing that might be interesting is to be able as in the campaign, to disable one side as playable. If you plan a mission for Blue only, the player would not have the option to choose Red before the start of the mission. The way it is since he will only read the briefing after that he might think there is the option to play Red when in fact there isn’t. Some things must be looked into like the artillery issue and the fact that the roof command has no effect for instance. Other players/mission designers will add to this list, I’m sure. Improving the game improves the editor Some areas of the game, once they are patched and improved will prove a greater help to scenario designers than actually adding new features to the editor. For instance Spotting of units, Pathfinding, AI in general, Use of Javelin by the AI, Column command for convoys, just to name a few off the top of my head. I’d definitely would rather see this areas have the attention of BF before start lobbying for new features in the editor. Like I said those would help designers more than any possible new feature would. Triggers and random events. I’m all for it from a mission designer’s point of view. But to be honest I don’t feel that they are in accordance with the philosophy behind the design of the editor as stated in the game's manual. And I totally agree with this philosophy. I still haven’t explored the full potential of the editor without triggers, etc. It has got enough depth the way it is. The editor in TOW(which I also like very much), script oriented, gives you most of the features I have seen requested in this forum, with a lot of control. Still people in the TOW forum are requesting new commands to be added all the time! There is no end to it really. In CM:SF editor BF has achieved a great balance between ease of use and powerful features. To water it down to make it easier to use would completely kill it. But to add too many options will make it too complex for most players. But as you noticed by now I’m an editor freak, so the more features the better for me! Units Structure Human beings in general have a certain resistance to change. We prefer the comfort of our old ways. IMO the Units structure in CM:SF is a good example of this. First few times I used it felt cumbersome and restrictive. I feel the opposite now and strongly so. To the point of saying that changing it would be a step backwards. For starters it’s educational to new users as there you have all the structure and chain of command for you to see. It is very clear, simple and easy to use. In the beginning you think you will need to add and delete a lot and will be time consuming. Not so. It keeps your troops very well organized. Map editor A beauty. What can I say? More flavor objects? More buildings? Let people add their own custom made objects? All welcomed. Campaigns Never thought it could be so easy to link 3 missions with branches in a mini campaign! Well, there it goes! [ December 05, 2007, 05:16 AM: Message edited by: Webwing ]

A sticky!? They'll eventualy do it Mark. Thanks. --

This is a long post. In proportion with my enthusiasm with the Builder. Last week I received an e-mail from MadMatt inviting me to take a look at the new builder that is included in the upcoming patch. I have been away from TOW for a while but the idea of the builder has already got me excited the first time I heard about it from my friend SlapHappy. Being able to check it out in its beta form before release was really cool. It was hard to control my anxiety while it was being downloaded! At this point most have already checked out the video showing some of the features/tools that are found in the Builder. If you haven’t, get it now! You’ll be amazed. I was planning to post some screens of a portion of a map I planned to make with it but I had an issue with the rotation in the Builder that I only managed to solve yesterday - remember this is still a beta version I tested. I do plan on posting some images and possibly a video soon, as time permits. We’ll see. Now, my first impressions are this, after playing with it for a few days: This is a very powerful tool. Extremely powerful. A designers dream come true really. I never expected it to be that thorough. A lot of control and subtleties and detail put into it. Now I understand why the landscape looks so good in TOW. You can say it is a game in itself. It is a full program. To be only used in TOW but still complete and thorough. Want to play a scene from Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, or any other film about WWII? Now you can reproduce those maps here. I was already a big fan of the tools that came with TOW, the mission editor ( I did some video tutorials for it ), and later the map editor. Now with this builder the package is complete. You have features of Photoshop and 3DsMax/Maya in one single program. Only customized for TOW. You don’t have to learn a complex and expensive 3D software to make a map for TOW, like with so many other games. I think the release of this Builder is somehow unprecedented. I have been involved with game MODing/editing on and off for quite some time. Even games that are from the start planned to be MODed don’t release tools like this. They leave this responsibility to the community. The most recent exemple I can remember is rFactor, the racing sim. There are some tools to make a track for it but made by members of the community and mind you, they charge for it! And, rightly so. But this only makes the release of this patch and Builder even more extraordinary. Months and months after the release of TOW and we keep getting fixes, new features and now this Christmas present!!! Keep in mind though that it takes some skill and patience to use it. Easy to play, difficult to master. You read this a lot in game reviews. This is probably the case here. You can make something that resembles the surface of an alien planet easily and it is tempting to do so as you are using it the first few times. To do something more like what is in the game though takes more patience and practice. Still all the tools are there. The map will be as good as it’s designer’s ability permits. And there are a lot of very talented people in the community. Besides, it’s YOUR map and now you can do ANYTHING with it! Thanks for the Christmas present 1C and BF!!! -- [ December 05, 2007, 02:52 AM: Message edited by: Webwing ]

Wolfseven, Great to see that you are very active here and the great job you did testing the patch!!!! Congratulations. This patch is really fantastic. --

Hey SlapHappy, You wont believe but MadMatt invited me last week to test it!!!! Pretty cool hah! I'll post my first impressions tomorrow. I've been reading some of your posts there. Helping loads of people with your fantastic knowledge of all aspects of the game! And thanks for inviting me again. --

Since this is tips and techniques, I contribute 2. Nothing cutting edge. But stuff that it's not on the manual. First: Deployment of AI forces The forces that start the game they don't need to be placed manualy on the map. You can just specify an area in the AI section and the TacAI will place them for you. BUT the reinforcements need to be placed by hand else they will show in the corner of the map. Second: Different size/types of forces for different plans for the AI player. I did this for my last mission. 3 Plans for the AI . Some units I use in one plan but not in the other. Now there is no official way to do this that I know (Do you?). So I set up an area behind a high hill, behind the enemy line. This area is not an objective for the blue and they wont have time to get there anyway. I place the troops that will be used for only one plan there with HIDE orders. So they "sleep" there. They only wake up for their own plan. -- Have you goto some tips? --

9 square kilometers!!!!!!????? ---

I have exactly the opposite experience! Strange. I'll do some more testing... I think a lot of the accuracy is probably due to the experience of the troops, motivation, etc. I have intended to do that for some time. To test the same kind of troops with same weapons but different settings to see the results. --

Thanks for the answer JohnO, I'd sure like to know more about that too and what DaveDash brought up. And it goes both ways. Sometimes the enemy spots you without LOS. Maybe that's not even a bug, they heard you!!!! --

DaveDash, This is not really a design feature but a designer's feature(?). The skill of the OPFOR is set by the designer and not enforced by the game. I'm not sure if that's what you meant. In any case as I remember GeorgeMc has given most of them Fanatic motivation and many have +2 leadership. I'd have to check again but there are a few green mixed in. I can tell you that because I studied this mission to learn how he designed it and how he got the results he got. One thing that caught my attention is that none of the RED team were less than extreme in their motivation!!! :eek: For me though the battle seems pretty well balance. Played it 3 times before I won, but I'm getting better!

Steve, I for one have pointed out many bugs in the game. The response I got from beta testers was: Hey, we'll tell this to the team and see what they can do. But I have restrained myself from doing this sometimes so that some people wouldn't use this as an excuse to start another hate thread. But I have to say I felt really uncomfortable about posting positive comments about the game. I felt like I'd have to run for cover. I could go on and on but you said everything perfectly yourself and I agree with every word. It is very refreshing to read your posts. --

Steve, I didn't find the lack of news and posts from BF disturbing in anyway. But the lack of a moderator was. Welcome back! --

I agree. The trouble is if your men saw the dust clouds there should be a red icon with a question mark on top of the clouds. Second, the trails appear even if your troops are on the other side of a very high mountain. ---

The most urgent "bug" that needs a fix IMO though is the troops walking in the middle of a firefight. You see them calmly walking as bullets fly all over the place. You click on them to find out that they are exhausted. --

Just by moving over the houses with the mouse you can hear enemy troops talking and thus know where they are although they have not yet been detected by your troops. Another way is by the dust track left by moving vehicles. You can't see the vehicle since they haven't been spotted by your troops but the dust track gives them away. We'll soon find out if they are going to carry on to 1.05 --- [ December 04, 2007, 07:32 AM: Message edited by: Webwing ]

Cpl Steiner, Thanks for the answer. I'd also like to see supply trucks but read somewhere that it was out of the question since due to the duration of the battles they thought it was unnecessary. Not so. I am doing some scenarios with infantry only and it's amazing how fast they all run out of ammo. --

There is a supply platoon with 4 humvees and crew. Now, I try to use them in a mission but when the troops get in they can't "acquire" any ammo. If they don't carry ammo what is their purpose? Any ideas? Am I missing something? Bug? thanks. --

The hide command works as hold fire, doesn't it? They even shout "Hold fire!" when you press the Hide command. They lay down and stop firing. Only problem is they cant be on the move... --

No problem. Hope it helps. Uploaded a new version. --

Version 2 of the tutorial. I changed the graphics for the workflow explanation and moved it to the beginning of the movie where it should have been from the start. Also added an illustration for the facing issue explained in the end of the video. There have been 35 downloads in the first 12 hours after I posted the link here. If you are one of the users that already downloaded the first version and feel that this is worth another download, it’s already been updated. I could not manage to make my video capturing software work properly with CMSF. It’s a real shame. Usually I just record in one go. I explain things as I do them and you can actually see things as they are done. In this case I wanted to include some game footage and a lot of other little things but it was not possible. So unfortunately the tutorial is a lot less dynamic than the ones I did for TOW. AI Setup Video Tutorial - Rapidshare <a href="http://www.bestsharing.com/files/LsOYr376045/AI_SetUP_CMSF_v104.avi.html" target="_blank"> AI Setup Video Tutorial – Bestsharing </a> AI Setup in CM:SF Scenario Editor v1.04 Video file, with audio. DivX 6.0 codec. File size: 37 M Duration: around 17 min. Maybe not a good timing, since v1.05 is just around the corner. But I can’t imagine radical changes will occur in the editor. The AI is probably the most talked about feature of the game and I hope this video will help people understand it better. </font> Assign groups to units</font>Create a plan</font>Add orders to groups</font>Learn about all the options for orders and setup phase.</font>Synchronizing the troops</font>Adding support targets.</font> If you already use the editor this is probably not for you. Still it covers all the aspects of this section of the editor. Any mistakes you find please let me know so that I can correct them. This is based on my experience using the editor in CM:SF v1.04. Hope this helps you designing your missions. Feedback appreciated. - [ December 03, 2007, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: Webwing ]

-- RT with a replay function of max 60 seconds? I'd love that. --