hoolaman

I think the answer will be yes... and no. I'm probably not telling you anything that you haven't worked out for yourself, but with all the new stuff going into the WW2 game by way of terrain, weather? water, flavour objects, fortifications etc, I'm sure there are going to be plenty of new problems to solve. On the other hand I'm sure there is no way the ww2 game will start from the point that CMSF 1.01 was. Things like the enhanced LOS system, infantry and AFV TacAI behaviour that are now in CMSF but were not at the start seem like they would be common to both titles. I've been thinking about the Paradox connection too. I think BFC will be happy to revert to the "when it's done" philosophy for all their future works.

Are you trying to be ironic?

I don't know what you saw, but if it was a simplistic grid based view, that is probably the map editor. It uses a simple 2d interface for terrain and elevations to create a 3d map. The 3d game maps can also be zoomed out to a high altitude top down view. Yes, the game is played that way, except in case it escaped your notice, CM is turn based. "WEGO", turn based orders but simultaneous execution gives a unique pace to a game, and a much more cinematic experience. If you are expecting a game of the visual quality of COH you may be disappointed. The game has a very steep learning curve, and the graphics are pretty dated, but still have a certain unique charm. Be sure to come back and ask all your noob;) questions after you try the demo. Yes, yes I would. Real armour penetration, artillery, ranges are never seen in a "hollywood" strategy game. You should be impressed.

Just to be clear are you actually talking about cover or concealment? I am 100% sure the men behind the tree will have more cover than the man not, a more extreme example is where half your squad is behind a crest and half is hanging over a crest, only half will take fire and die. Once your squad is spotted and starts taking fire, whether one man is concealed and one is not is irrelevant AFAICT. LOF/cover is modelled per man, LOS/concealment/spotting is modelled per unit. Does that answer your question?

I think the idea to set a foot unit to "Dead" is a good one. Cpl Steiner is not talking about a "pile-o-skulls" flavour object, just some realistic dead squads for storytelling purposes.

So should your byte battles have AI? I would vote no, since I can lazily submit some AI-less maps to a pure H2H site and I'm sure many others can. What is the Byte Battle criteria? I'd suggest the smallest map size, but maybe that isn't appropriate for modern weapons.

Are they concealed? I have never observed that individuals are concealed (as in "not seen") behind a tree, but it may be so. Individuals can certainly be concealed behind a low wall or a berm, but that is also "perfect" cover, where even whether they are prone makes a difference. Once a squad is spotted I suppose they are inviting fire, and that fire is as likely to find any guy withing 10m. But I am sure that man-to-man LOF tracking means that they are in COVER, if not concealment. It's an interesting question, whether the game code explicitly simulates an individual soldier actually aiming at another individual soldier. I've never payed attention enough to see if I've killed any enemy men who were not spotted at the time even though their squad as a whole was spotted.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. I'm pretty sure most of this time was spent patching the base game, up until 1.07/8 it seemed like the focus was on getting the base game right. Even the marines module seems like it includes a lot of patching to the base game. Whether future modules include so much coding or are just units and TO&E and a campaign is anyones guess. But based on what BFC have stated in the distant past about the philosophy behind their new module based approach, modules are supposed to be released on a timeframe of 6 months or so, and potentially can use 3rd party resources to reduce timescales.

Funny, with the real life Russian bear waking again, I think BFC might be taking a bit too much of an anglo-centric view. The Hezbollah/Israel combat in 2006 seemed to be very influential on development, the latest fighting in Georgia seems to be just as interesting. All of these are mainly influential to the red TO&E. I think it would be a worthy addition to make the next module a Red module to set the CMSF setting free into Afghanistan, Africa etc. I can understand that there might not be a whole lot of terrain changes in future modules, so within those limits I would want the most flexibility possible, and in a historical sense, that means soviet era equipment and low tech skirmishes.

Yes I agree. You often see low res palm trees in front of his res ones, and a wise man described the LOD redraws of the bushes as "going off like little popcorns". I wish the map was just "there" instead of fading in and out like a desert mirage. The mechanics of the game is getting so good, I hope this gets a look in.

JK, I must compliment you on your good form on the new forum. I actually laughed out loud at this one. Saving the more controversial topics for a more receptive audience is a very good idea. And I don't mean the arab-israeli conflict. The 2006 Lebanon campaign was extremely influential on CMSF, so your post (despite the non-PC jihadi theatrics) is a good one.

WEBWING has given us an excellent tutorial video for the AI. The PDFs are in GeorgeMc's sig and they are good for the other stuff, light on AI. Between this and the manual you should be well on you way. Making a map, buying placing units are pretty easy, the AI is not so intuitive.

Ouch______plusstupidextracharacters

Its an oldie but a goodie.

The problems at release were discussed extensively here. They probably fall into two categories. 1. Things that were in the old games but aren't in this one. 2. Bugs that ruin what IS in the game. The things that were left out that people liked in CMBB are still not there for the most part. Some are planned to go into the next game based on this engine, some probably are gone forever. A combination of lack of programming time, lack of computing resources and a different design philosophy is the cause of this. I'm talking about: No random maps, no points based purchasing of units, more complicated (but more versatile) scripted AI, problems with the underlying "action spot" system, 1:1 instead of abstracted squads (yes people actually wanted a fairly decent 1:1 representation replaced with an even worse abstracted 3-man tile). All these were complained about long and loud. Most people got over it and just enjoyed what WAS there. Second we have things that sucked in the original release but have been fixed or vastly improved. Things like: Poor performance, bad graphical appearance, lack of TacAI evasive routines, poor pathing, poor infantry TacAI and modelling, poor camera controls, poor game controls, strange spotting and line-of-fire results. Between 1.07 and 1.08 there are a few extra tweaks and fixes, but I'd say the game was up to standard at 1.07, which is the demo version. The game's pretty cheap, and if you like this style of game, I think it's worth buying.

I googled it, it seems like a fairly normal indian beach resort. Can't say it's likely any of us will end up there, but who knows.

Came across this interesting video. They have hooked up electrodes to brain cells. I got a bit of a chill like this video could roll under the opening credits for some terminator style armageddon movie. Step 1. Rat robot Step 2. Cyberdyne systems Inc. Step 3. Nuclear Annihilation Very interesting if you think of the moral and scientific progression of this tech.

You didn't give us much time to guess. But welcome back, thought we'd lost you to real life or something equally terrible.

I don't own any form of radar or red light or laser detector and I've never had a ticket in my life. I'm also rarely late. I'll sell you my system for $199.95.

And the minimum character count. What possible purpose does that serve on a board like this? It just means we can't swing by and post such catch phrases: Sweet! First! Wankers Sod Off Hi Mom

While Russian forces are a great idea, I think I'd rather not be limited to the CMSF Syrian terrain when playing with these toys. It doesn't seem like terrain will come in module form judging by the Marines, so I'd rather wait and have a Russia vs NATO/Ukraine in the rolling green steppes or Western Europe. Once that base game was squared away, there could be module after module after module. Anything from early 1950s soviet era to 1980s cold war to 2010 modern could be added as a TO&E for the one base game. Even a lot of the models are already done, T-55, BTR-60 etc are all pretty ancient. So CMSF can be left behing AFAIC, on to WWII, then on to the Fulda Gap.

While Russian forces are a great idea, I think I'd rather not be limited to the CMSF Syrian terrain when playing with these toys. It doesn't seem like terrain will come in module form judging by the Marines, so I'd rather wait and have a Russia vs NATO/Ukraine in the rolling green steppes or Western Europe. Once that base game was squared away, there could be module after module after module. Anything from early 1950s soviet era to 1980s cold war to 2010 modern could be added as a TO&E for the one base game. So CMSF can be left behing AFAIC, on to WWII, then on to the Fulda Gap.

Nice. I note some of the car drivers aren't that much better. With the combination of the two it seems like doing that would be a bad idea.

With all the world records being broken all I can think is what new performance enhancing therapy has been developed that nobody can detect. Or maybe the chinese reduced the viscosity in the pool. Is there any regulation to ensure that the pool is filled with 100% water? Serious question.

"September" has already been confirmed by BFC I think, so that date is probably within 12-17 days of the correct one;). As for why it has taken 5 months, well I guess these things take time when you're just one brain-in-a-jar. Also better to nail this one than drag on another few months patching the patch. And it sounds like a pretty big patch aside from just adding some tanks and marines.