Ah nice one it’s a handy wee AI plan device for sure. I’ve also used it for having the turrets of advancing tanks swing about as though searching. Just plot the area fire point out of their LOF. They’ll swing the turrets to face the plotted area fire point but not fire.
But otherwise I tend to use it is mainly for effect as you have to make an educated guess where the player might be defending. Latest etc can make this more educated and less guess though!
So in this case I’m glad it gave the impression of engaging a more sentient enemy! Immersion is what I’m shooting for!
Ah nice one it’s a handy wee AI plan device for sure. I’ve also used it for having the turrets of advancing tanks swing about as though searching. Just plot the area fire point out of their LOF. They’ll swing the turrets to face the plotted area fire point but not fire.
But otherwise I tend to use it is mainly for effect as you have to make an educated guess where the player might be defending. Latest etc can make this more educated and less guess though!
So in this case I’m glad it gave the impression of engaging a more sentient enemy! Immersion is what I’m shooting for!
You will also find this AI action used in some FR campaign scenarios (particularly in the German campaign, as I recall).
It is a bit tricky to use as far as timing when using the capability, and works best when the AI is on the attack and aimed at an obvious area the player may be defending.
All I can say is that George's scenarios will challenge you at every turn with surprises. It's not unreasonable behavior. A unit on the attack is going to plaster any suspected enemy locations either by direct or indirect fire, whether or not they spot anything. If nothing else you keep their heads down. Treelines are obvious targets where enemy might be expected.
Dave
I'm playing @George MC's Red Thunder Campaign Five Days One Summer and I'm on the 4th mission. I set up an ambush with 3 tanks in the town of Gliniszcze, which has a border of trees on all sides about 20 meters wide. Shortly after I set them up 3 Soviet tanks arrive and I dispatch them pretty quickly. After a little while I see two more approaching. They get within and 30 to 40 meters of the tree line then stop. They then proceed to rake the entire tree line with their machine guns and main guns. This went on for about a full 10 minutes (10 turns) with them raking the whole line and concentrating on a small area in front of them with their main guns. I didn't have any units in or near the tree line.
They blasted away an opening for them then they went in through the opening they made and stopped again. They again proceeded to start shooting at the next set of trees and the houses. I didn't have anybody in the houses either. My tanks were between some houses on the main road but I had to wait for them to get in the line of fire as since they were already facing me I couldn't approach them from the front for a shot and couldn't work my way around them as there were over watch tanks that would blast me since I would have been in the open.
Eventually they worked their way into my tanks line of fire and I was able to get them both. I have never played a scenario where the designer had the tanks proactively started shooting at areas where the opponent might likely be. It's almost as they were thinking on their own. It added a bit more excitement to the game to say the least.
Nope. You might be told at the start what your core units' are but within each mission likely not.
This might be intentional on the part of the designer to prevent players from misusing the non-core unit.
This is an interesting idea that I have been playing around with in CMCW for an NTC rotation (campaign). This is to add an S4 logistics element that can be evaluated and has real implications in a campaign.
The mechanics of the idea is that there are two supply trucks that are part of the core force. The supply trucks only show up in scenarios where the scenario designer wants the player to have a possibility of refit, repair and resupply (or at least one of these three things). In the chosen scenario(s) the two trucks are on the scenario map (either from the start or as reinforcements). The player must keep these trucks safe and move them to an exit on the OpFor side of the map. The exit is to prevent the player from simply hiding the trucks in the player's setup zone. No other unit needs to exit for the supply system to work. The player has the challenge of preserving his supply trucks while having them follow the combat units across the map.
The next mission is a supply scenario (referred to as a "mini mission" above). If the supply trucks safely made the exit in the previous "battle" scenario they will appear on the supply scenario map. A short distance in front of the supply trucks is an occupy objective worth X amount of VPs. If at least one of the two trucks are present it drives forward to occupy the objective wining the scenario and earning whatever % of whatever Refit and/or Repair and/or Resupply the scenario designer decided was appropriate. If the player has no supply trucks on the map he gets zero or some very low number of the three Rs as determined by the scenario designer.
The player then hits cease fire and starts the next battle scenario with the three R's he earned (or didn't). This rewards the player for thinking about and taking care of his S4 logistics.
I conceptually decided on two supply trucks just in case a player had bad luck and one truck was immobilized from bogging while moving across the battle scenario map. Of course the number of supply trucks can be lowered or raised depending on what a scenario designer thought was best for the campaign.
So many ideas, so little time ....... ......
Nope. You might be told at the start what your core units' are but within each mission likely not.
This might be intentional on the part of the designer to prevent players from misusing the non-core unit.
Nope. You might be told at the start what your core units' are but within each mission likely not.
This might be intentional on the part of the designer to prevent players from misusing the non-core unit.
Hey Guys,
Took a few years, but I'm back to working on CM stuff. Have revamped my Combat Mission Website and over the last few months have populated it with some old (5 Campaigns). some reworked (5 Scenarios of which three are really new), and some new (6 new scenarios). Also have other things in the works including a 9 scenario campaign for CMFB ' Task Force Baum' and a 7 scenario campaign for CMCW 'Son of Major Nosov'.
Think the new layout of the website makes it easy to not only get at the scenarios/campaigns but should provide enough description to see if your interested in downloading them or not. Would love to get feedback on any of them you attempt to play. Enjoy, and I am happy to be active again.
To promote more people using this tool I'm going to write a quick guide and offer help for people in this thread.
I'm going to show you how to get the program running. We will be using .tif files which are just black/white maps that show the elevation of areas through different shades of black/grey.
This process is a lot easier than it might seem, especially once you have the .tif map downloaded.
Step 1: Download QGis and CMAutoEditor from these pages:
Step 2: Extract CMAutoHelper to somewhere easy to access. I extracted the "Release" folder right to my desktop.
create two sub folders in the "release" folder. One will be for current files (I named this "Convert"), and one will be for old files that you might wish to access again in the future:
Step 3: Make an account on this website. It's for getting free satellite-created .tif maps. The downside to using these files is that they can't distinguish between the ground or houses, trees, whatever. So it's best to use terrain without these if you don't want to have a weird result. You can use other .tif files if you have another source. Tif files can be the height of the ground (DTM.Tif files), or they can be the height of what the satellite sees (DSM.Tif files) - which includes houses, treetops. Not all .tif files show elevation so make sure you have the right file. They are images so you can look at them and make sure they're the right thing.
After registering with the Japanese website check your email for your account information. They supply you with a password to make sure to have your browser save this information.
Revisit the link below and access the tool with the link in section 4. Log in with your information when prompted.
SEE SECTION 4 OF THE LINK TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT AND DOWNLOAD
https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/dataset/aw3d30/aw3d30_e.htm
Step 5: Open Google Maps (Or whatever) and find the location that you want CMAutoEditor to auto-elevate for you. Match this area with the map from the Japanese website. Download the file below.
If you don't know how latitude-longitude works I will provide a video below in the next post. Longitude starts at the Prime Meridian and increases in value from 0 to 180 degrees going East. It then goes from -180 back to 0 degrees as it returns to the Prime Meridian from the West. Latitude has positive values North of the Equator and negative South of the equator.
It will be somewhat important to understand this concept during this process. You don't really have to know anything more than this. After you download your package it will look like this (Below):
The package that I chose to download (The area South of Prokhorovka, Russia):
Step 6: Once you have your .tif (Make sure to open it and make sure it looks like a black/white elevation map) then open QGis.
At the top click "Project" -> "New".
Then at the top click "Layer" -> "Add Layer" "Add Raster Layer"
Click the box on the right with the three dots and navigate to your .tif file (It can be DSM, DTM, others too I think).
Click "Add" and then close the old window if it doesn't close automatically.
Step 7: You have to match the latitude/longitude of the area you want to use in Google Maps with QGis. You can left or right click in Google Maps to select a point (One corner of your map). Google maps should display the latitude/longitude for you. Keep that data open on the side or temporarily saved until you can import that data into QGis.
Step 8: We will draw a rectangle (a 2x2km area wont look square most likely) in the general area that you want to map out. It doesn't have to be the correct coordinates, just somewhere on the screen somewhat close to your map. We will correct it manually.
To do this:
Click "New Temporary Scratch Layer". Assign it a name, and in the second box on screen choose "polygon". Click ok to close that window.
Then click "Add Polygon" up top. Click four points on your map to draw a rectangle. Right click outside the rectangle when you're finished creating it. If you mess up, right click the layer on the left side of the screen and delete it. Re-do the process starting from "New Temporary Scratch Layer".
Step 9: Now, we will edit the rectangle to make it perfect. You will now need the latitude/longitude you saved from Google Maps.
Select the "Vertex Tool" and right click on a corner of your square. If your Vertex tool is not selectable, then click the rectangle layer on the left side of your screen first. Now you should be able to open the Vertex tool.
After you right click the corner you will see a new menu on the bottom left under your layers. Expand it so you can see all 5 values. Ignore the top value.
You have to think about the latitude/longitude values now. The area I have chosen is Prokhorovka which has positive latitude and positive longitude values. The first point you want to edit is the point you have chosen in google maps. The first point I have chosen is the bottom left point in Google Maps. So - I will look for the lowest values because that is the bottom left point (If you don't understand this, then look at the lat/longitude globe I posted earlier). The point can also be highlighted on the Rectangle if you click the box with the numbers.
Replace the numbers in the chart on the bottom left by double clicking on it. You will see your bottom left point shift (Or whatever point you choose to edit). Even out the rectangle by choosing values which are the same for the X and Y. I will provide a crude example below.
WHEN YOU ARE DONE, you will want to measure your rectangle to make sure it's the right size for CM. 4x4km is probably the largest you want to go with these maps. I'm unsure what dimensions CMAutoEditor can do (One edge larger than 4km). Choose the ruler up top and measure the sides of the rectangle and adjust the lat/longitude values if needed.
IMPORTANT! TAKE A PICTURE OF THESE COORDINATES OR SAVE THEM. YOU NEED THE BOTTOM LEFT AND TOP RIGHT COORDS SPECIFICALLY. Make sure to label them as top right and bottom left when you save them.
'
Step 10: Great! Now the easy part!
Click the hand under "Plugins" up top so you don't screw anything up. Zoom into the rectangle but keep a lot of dead room on the edges (The zoom in the above picture is perfect).
On the top click "Raster" -> "Extractions" -> "Clip Raster by Extent".
For your Input layer just choose the "ALPSML" layer (Or whatever it's called for you. It's the very first layer you started with.. the black/white elevation map in the background of all the pictures). Then click the little box at the end of "Clipping Extent". It will automatically add the coordinates of what you see on your screen. This includes everything outside the orange box on your screen.
Then click "Run" at the bottom and let it finish. You will now have another layer on the bottom left called "Clipped (extent)". Drag the orange box to the top of the list on the bottom left so it displays again. You can adjust the visibility of layers by swapping places like this.
At this point, you can click the check mark on your original layer to hide it, since it's not necessary anymore. My original layer is called "ALPSML" but it may be different for you.
Zoom out and you will see that the rest of the map has disappeared. That's what you want.
Step 11: Almost there! This is the hard part, which isn't even hard but it might annoy you.
On the top click "Raster" -> "Projections" -> "Warp"
For the Input Layer choose the "Clipped (extent)" layer that you just created a minute ago.
Skip the "Source CRS".
For "Target CRS" You will want to click the little box on the right. You need to search through these lists and find your map within the red box. If you don't do this, the accuracy of your map can be significantly off. You can expand the folders, and then hold down the arrow keys to quickly move up and down the examples. It will take a long time to click through everything. You want to find something that's particular to the country or region that you are choosing to map. This will ensure a higher accuracy. Generally the smaller the area you can get, the higher accuracy your projection/warp will be. This isn't always true but generally it is. You can't choose a red square that encompasses the entire earth unless you don't care about things being completely wrong. Also it has to say meters in the attributes/description, and must have an EPSG number.
Save your EPSG Number with the two coordinates I asked you to save earlier.
The reason why we have to do this will be explained in a video in the next post. In short - the earth isn't perfectly round and it needs areas to be specifically measured.
When you find the correct one, click on it, and then click the blue arrow up top. It should now display in the "Target CRS" section.
Set "Resampling Method" to something, Butschi likes to use Cubic Spline, so that's what I choose too.
Finally, for "Output file resolution" just click the little arrow up twice so it shows as 1.000000 (For 1m resolution).
If your page looks similar to mine then click Run. The file should begin to process eventually. If it doesn't start after 30 seconds then chances are there was an error.
Step 12: If you did everything right, then you should have a new layer called "Reprojected". Also your map might tilt a little, this is fine. The important thing is that your orange rectangle is still over intact data and isn't over any black marks. Uncheck the "clipped extent" layer to see the difference that the new layer created.
If everything's good, then up top click
Raster -> Conversion -> Translate
You want to select the "Reprojected" layer (Not the clipped layer or the original) and click the box with the three dots to save it on your system as a final product.
Click "save to file" and make sure to choose ".xyz" as the extension after giving your file a name. I suggest saving the file into the "Release" directory for the CMAutoEditor and in one of the two folders I asked you to create. I save my files in the "Convert" folder as shown earlier in this post.
Note: You can only have one file at a time in your "Convert" (Whatever the hell you name it) folder at a time. So that's why I asked you to create a second folder for older files, if you choose to revisit them or whatever. As you can see I already have a file in this folder called 2 IISS. So I won't be saving another file into here, or I will move it afterward.
OK !!!! Now that was the hard part! Now we can run the tool!
Step 13: I recommend you keep QGis open for this part. You will want to see the coordinates of the orange box you created. To see the coordinates in QGis, see Step 9 again. Or, if you saved the top right and bottom left corners as I had asked, you can just use these values instead. It helps to keep QGis open for your first few times anyway.
Run the Dgm2cm.exe tool provided in the Release folders that you downloaded from Butschi's CMAutoEditor. Wait a minute for it to start. When it starts you need to select the FOLDER where the .XYZ file you created is located (This is why you can only have one file in this folder at a time). I will be using the 2 IISS file I already have. Then you need to replace the "Coordinate Reference System (CRS) of data: EPSG". Replace this with the EPSG I asked you to save earlier.
Name the file something. Then, skip the rest and go straight to the two X and two Y values the program is asking for. One is the lower left, and one is the upper right. If you saved the values I had asked you to earlier (The two corners of the orange box) then please input them and click "Start". The program should run and once it's finished it will output five files for you. Two .csv and three images. If everything worked, you should see an image file with a red square around the area you chose.
YOUR COORDINATES AND EPSG WILL BE DIFFERENT THAN MINE BUT I WILL PROVIDE AN EXAMPLE IMAGE BELOW
ALTERNATIVELY You can run the program through anaconda (Which you need to install to run this program anyway).
To do so:
Start an anaconda prompt. Then you want to "navigate" to the CmAutoEditor folder.
My CMAutoEditor folder is on my desktop.
So I will use the "CD" (navigate) command.
I will type : cd c:\users\tyler\desktop\release
This will bring me to my CMAutoEditor folder, since it's located on my desktop. After you successfully do this, you can type dgm2cm.exe and press enter.
The benefit of doing this is having a log if the program crashes, and it gives you some information too. Ignore the information, you just want to make sure the program works.
This is my preferred way of running the programs in case something goes wrong, I can check it. You can also run CMAutoEditor.exe this way too.
THE FORMER ORANGE BOX IS NOW REPRESENTED BY THE RED SQUARE. EVERYTHING ELSE IN THIS IMAGE WAS MY "CLIPPED EXTENT" WHICH I REPROJECTED. THIS IS NOT THE SAME ORANGE BOX AS THE ONE I USED IN THIS TUTORIAL BUT THIS IS WHAT YOUR FINAL PRODUCT SHOULD LOOK LIKE. THE DIMENSIONS SAY THAT MY RED BOX IS 4x4KM APPROX WHICH IS PERFECT:
Step 14: Now that you have your .csv files created you can open CMAutoEditor.exe and set the settings. Open the correct game, go to the editor, then go to map -> elevation -> and click on "direct". Don't touch anything else.
Alt tab and go to CMAutoEditor and start the program. Immediately alt-tab back into CM and let the program work. I let to go overnight so I can use my PC during the day.
It should work and you should have an elevated map now!
This process should be easy to remember after a couple tries! Have fun with it! It's quick to do all of this so don't be afraid of experimenting!
Good luck and ask for help below.
In other words... CM Space Lobsters is coming in 2024 everybody! We've all waited over 20 years for it and its finally coming. You can all rest easy now. 😁
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