George MC

We've reconnected ta!

Brill ta

Ah cool - that would be good if you could thank you

My oppo has gone dark on me, so aye be good IMO to have a wee nudge sent to players. Cheery!

Brill update ta. The End Game is always the toughest part of any battle I find. Appreciate the playing as though you were there. I tend tae adopt a similar stance when playing.

I've had some success with using the Razer Cortex software to free up memory when playing larger scenarios. https://www.razer.com/sg-en/cortex You'll still have the 4Gb cap but at least you'll know you've maxed that 4Gb!

Thank you - feedback like this is a great motivator Much appreciated thank you.

Ah cool - aye took a long time to pull together and a wee bit later than I planned still just made it in time for the second deadline Cheery!

Ah cool thank you - congrats on the new job. Aye HKL is one of my favourites, so yeah be interesting to see how it pans out. I've seen players tackle it in ways I never foresaw during playtesting so ended up doing some AI plan tweaking to account. Cheery!

A wee something I put together. This video showcases content from the Combat Mission Red Thunder Battlepack 1 released by Battlefront.com. It's a brief overview of each scenario, what it's about and the main intent; it also covers the campaigns (including a brief summary of the main campaign branches). There are NO spoilers in the video chapters. https://youtu.be/wyrRX4bP2mM

I've found if you are using a VPN and/or some anti-virus settings might prevent you from accessing the sharefile links. Failing that best bet contcat BFC tech support and raise a support ticket.

Aye you are right but only a binary sort of way either stay or go. I meant there were no other varibalkes like if you have taken 30% casualties don;t do this - this then gets into branching etc.. He! Thanks - yup it does all come down to hours of testing - nae short cuts. But good planning and terrain analysis at the start really does play dividends as you can anticipate the most likely enemy COA.

Errm no - the time is the game clock time. So it would be hard to create what you are stating as the time the trigger is activated would be very variable depending on enemy action i.e. it could be triggered right at the very start or right at the very end. You can mitigate this by having the next order painted pretty close so the unit would move up, but working out how long it would stay there for would be hard.

What you seeking and describing are conditional triggers and we don't have them. So you have to work around this cos we have the tools we have. As I said you can fudge this to an extent by lots of testing, and at least anticipating common courses of action. Playing against he AI will never (well least just now) be like playing a human, and attempting to have the AI operate like a human is a road to frustration cos it cant and it wont. For what its worth my own personal goal it to at least create an AI plan that has the computer player operate in a way that at least appears realistic and tactically sound and reflects the tactics that national armed force might have used. Oh and it provides some fun and enjoyment for the player. Or in short hand - its good enough but not perfect.

The key to making triggers work is good terrain analysis and thinking what the enemy player might do. Then you adapt your plan accordingly to minimise the possibility of your AI being outwitted. But players eventually find more ways of approaching a scenario than you can often anticipate so sometimes yeah the AI will steadfastly continue on its merry way to its doom attempting to compete its AI plan orders...

Yeah, no - I've not found this to be a limitation using triggers. Thats why you need to test your AI Plan. You can achieve what you are after but you need to test your plan. I've never managed to create a plan off the bat without lots of testing and subsequent amending. Even then players can do weird **** that totally whacks your plan, but then good luck to them for getting within the AIs ODA loop!! You're trying to fight this - just go wi the flow man

@PEB14 what Carl wrote. Yup the AI will not skip an order. It'll move onto the next and the next. The risk here, especially with infantry teams is they can become exhausted. So testing your plan to avoid the worse impact of this - exhausted teams crawling their way to their doom - is a must.

Not sure what you mean? I'm assuming you mean if the AI takes longer to than planned to reach a point? If so it will still try to achieve the order - just not in the designers allocated time frame. page 107 of the CM game engine manual: The second number defines the latest time that an AI Group should arrive at it’s next order, and causes the Group to try very hard to get to the next Order in the plan before the specified scenario time is reached. This does not mean the Group will do it, just that it will try. If it has taken excessive casualties, is immobilized or heavily engaged, it may blow the set time. It will still attempt to execute the next order in the plan, just not within the time that the scenario designer allotted for it. Re triggers. The AI group will only react to a trigger if either the trigger is tripped OR the timer is reached. You can also have the AI move out at a set time after a trigger is tripped rather than immediately by setting a suitable time in the following AI order. e.g. Example 1 ORDER 2 Exit between 00:00 ...and 30:00 WAIT FOR (Trigger objective EXAMPLE) ORDER 3 Exit between 00:00 ...and 00:00 In this one the AI unit will stay put until either an enemy activates (triggers) 'Trigger objective EXAMPLE) In which case it will begin to move off as soon as it the AI Plan objective is triggered. OR Example 2 ORDER 2 Exit between 00:00 ...and 30:00 WAIT FOR (Trigger objective EXAMPLE) ORDER 3 Exit between 20:00 ...and 25:00 In example 2 the AI group will move off only when the AI plan trigger is activated BUT it won't do so until the clock on the next order reaches 20 minutes from the start of the scenario in which case it has five minutes to reach the next point. If it fails to do so in that time i.e. due to enemy fire it will still seek to reach the point just it can throw the whole AI plan timeline out. Its wrinkles like that I tend to iron out during testing though sometimes the AI plan being totally out of whack can produce some interesting results! Hope this helps?

This is my AI aide memoire - not own work as I've copied and pasted and edited from various other designers. AI Plans When creating orders the behaviour in an order group refers to the PREVIOUS order. "Exit Between" times affect the next order. They tell the AI what time period to enact an order. The first time tells the AI to NEVER start the Order until that time. The second time tells the AI to NEVER start the Order later than that time. The time period between the first and second settings is the phase where the AI attempts to carry out the planned order. The behaviour affecting this order is allocated in the next order. So simply put (!) when creating an order you are telling the AI the behaviour to adopt for the preceding order and telling it when to carry out the next order. Set-up: 00:00 – 00:01 Order 2 behaviour here refers to order when moving out from set-up. Timing phase refers to the next order. So if the behaviour is ‘ADVANCE’ for Order 2 the AI will immediately at set- up move out using the ‘ADVANCE’ command. Timing shown in this order i.e. order 2 now refers to the NEXT order i.e. Order 3, so 00:04 – 00:06 means that the unit will sit at this painted spot till the clock reaches four minutes then it will move out (using the behaviour as indicated under ORDER 3). Order 3 DASH – the AI after sitting at it’s current location for four minutes will DASH to the painted objective and attempt to reach that before the clock strikes 00:06. The timing under Order 3 now refers to the time phase before it starts on Order 4. AI Triggers Overview Sometimes you'll want an AI Group to act based on battlefield conditions rather than set times. This is achieved with the use of Triggers. You can tell an AI Group to "Wait For" another AI Group to execute an Order or to "Wait for" a unit (enemy or friendly) to touch a Trigger Objective. The same basic principles apply to both Order and Objective type Triggers, however you'll probably find some situations where one type works better than the other. What Triggers cannot do is provide alternate commands. AI Orders are still followed one-after-another without branching. Triggers simply allow you to control when the next Order executes based on the Trigger parameters you choose. Setting up a Trigger Triggers are always set up first and then linked to specific Orders. A Trigger can be used by as many Orders in as many Friendly AI Groups as you want, but an Order can only be assigned to use one Trigger. Setup can never be used as a Trigger and the last Order of an AI Group can never be triggered. For an Objective Trigger you must first designate a Terrain Objective on the map, then choose what sort of unit can trip it. You can choose between friendly or enemy and either any type of unit or only armoured ones. For an Orders Trigger you must identify a specific Order (Setup is not an Order) in a friendly AI Group and change the popup just below the Order Number to "Can Trigger" from "Not Trigger". Now that you have a Trigger specified you need to instruct one or more AI Groups to use it. Find the Order you want to wait for a Trigger and click on the "Wait For..." button at the bottom of the Orders panel. When you do this a dialog appears with a popup menu that shows all the Triggers you have made. Select one and it becomes the active Trigger for that Order. Exit Between Times The first thing to understand is how the "Exit Between" times affect tripping. The first time tells the AI to NEVER start the Order until that time even if the Trigger is tripped. The second time tells the AI to NEVER start the Order later than that time even if the Trigger is not tripped. The time period between the first and second settings is when the Order is paused waiting for the Trigger to be tripped. If you want an AI Group to always wait for a Trigger to be tripped leave the first timer to 00:00 and set the second timer to something greater than the scenario's maximum game time. If you want an AI Group to give up on a Trigger if it isn't tripped by a particular time (a failsafe) then leave the first timer to 00:00 and set the second timer to the time you have in mind. Sometimes you will want an AI Group to wait until a specific time even if the Trigger is tripped, in which case you set the first timer to that time. If the Trigger is tripped before then the AI Group will start executing it's Order only when the first timer's time is reached. If it hasn't been tripped by then the AI Group will remain idle until either the Trigger is tripped or the second timer's time is reached (whichever happens first). The Tricky Part While setting up Triggers is fairly straight forward, getting them to do what you expect is not necessarily as easily done. The more complex your Plan is, the more interdependent AI Groups are to each other, the more challenging it is to get the results you want. This section tries to get you started on the right path. The most important, and definitely most difficult, concept to understand is which Order to select as the Trigger. The natural inclination is think of Triggers being tripped when an Order is complete (i.e. the units arrive in the painted area). This is not how it works. Instead a Trigger is tripped when the designated Order starts, not when it ends. Which means if you want to key off of units arriving in the painted area of Order 5 you must select Order 6 as the Trigger, not Order 5. While this may be counter intuitive to us Humans, to the computer it's solidly logical and there are very good reasons for it. The second most common source of error is having two or more AI Groups use Triggers to "leap frog" each other. This can definitely work, however designer error and/or unforeseen game events can cause a huge chain reaction that stops your AI from functioning. For example, you could find Group 2 waiting for Group 3 which is waiting for Group 4 which is unexpectedly waiting for Group 2. This error is commonly called "circular logic". Careful use of the Exit Between timers can limit the damage, but keeping things simple is an even better way to go. Combining Objective and Orders Triggers can produce some sophisticated behaviour if done right. For example, AI Group 2 Order 4 waits until Objective Blue is tripped by enemy armour, at which point it starts a wide flanking action using three additional Orders. Order 6 places the units in a key spot which signals that AI Group 3 should begin its own movement. In which case AI Group 3 would be set to trigger off Order 7 so that it starts it's attack when AI Group 2 is at the key spot. TIP! In the event that you want the last action of an AI Group to be a Trigger (which it can not be by default) you can fake out the system. Create your last Order to do whatever action it is you want done, then create a new last Order with the parameters to be the same as the previous one and no painted objective zone. Then go back and assign a Trigger to the previous Order. This allows the last meaningful action of that AI Group to act as a Trigger even though technically it's not it's last set of instructions. That's because the actual last Order is nothing but a repeat of the previous instructions. TIP! There is no explicit way to instruct a Group to face after completing an Order. However, you can "paint" the rearward destination 1 Action Spot further than you want them to go, then create a new Order and paint the Action Spot where you want them to end up. What happens is the units move past where you want them to wind up, end that Order, then start the new Order which requires them to turn around and drive "forward" towards the enemy by 1 Action Spot. If you do not use Exit Before/After time variables then the progression from one Order to the next will be seamless.

Try having : Order 4 dash to yellow painted zone A Stance: cautious 1st timestamp is 00:00 2nd timestamp is 40:00 Trigger (whatever it is) The AI group will not follow the order until EITHER the trigger is tripped OR the clocks runs to 40:00 at which point it will move off.

Load of possible issues as others have pointed out with how your trying to do these bridges. Another thing to try is having the banks on either side of the bridge structure same height as the bridge tile. You also often need longer bridges than you think on diagonals. Try to avoid ditch lock with bridges if you can - often causes weird stuff to happen. Also use try using shallow ford tiles to begin with - they bank sides of the 'river' will be less steep. Bridges can often be a lot of trial and error as many terrain tile permutations cos odd off-sets. rail bridges for some reason are the most problematic I've found. If you have it check out the bridges in the Dying Sun scenario - gave me fits they did getting em as good as i could get em... Edit to add : just had a look at your image. You are trying to make water flow downhill - that won't work in CM - water defaults to the lowest elevation regardless of what value you set. If you need a water feature to flow downhill you'll have to consider the lowest height then once you move beyond that use stream tiles and whatever terrain feature gives the best effect e.g. if you want it impassable use say marsh or heavy forest tiles.

He! He! Thank you and my pleasure oh meant to add the facility on Windows is called Windows Ink Workspace - basically a large digital whiteboard. Cheery!

I’ve used the whiteboard function in Windows - by importing a screenshot of the map (you can import multiple copies see later) then annotating that as I go, including using post-it’s etc. you can also use this to track different phases of the e battle by using a fresh copy. Saves everything getting to cluttered. You can also export the mission briefing via the editor and copy/paste relevant info from this into your whiteboard. For smaller scenarios I’ve also used the IPad and imported image and annotate using Apple Pencil but find for larger scenarios the screen size constrains things. Though this is more accessible. Cheery! George

One of my mountain bike buddies flew Tornadoes in this ‘war’. He’d a few scary moments being targeted by multiple SAMs.

Awesome bit of work. Thanks for all this effort