Fenris

Guy I know pointed this out... Might be useful for scen builders... http://search.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/1854255/google-earth-pro-now-available-free -F

Ctrl+z to undo would be useful too. -F

It;s a very lengthy process. I've spent way more time on scenarioes I've made than playing. Map making is ok and what takes the longest. Making the map editor a more mouse+keyboard process I think would help. Have number keyboard short cuts to the categories. ground #, roads, walls etc. Then function key shortcuts to the elements. Finally WASD to navigate to the individual items - road shape tiles, number of trees etc. Spacebar rotates, same as ctrl+r-click. Have the key shortcuts shown in the UI. So for example press 2 for ground #2 and then the F2 key for marsh tiles, 6 for roads, F3 for paved, WASD to choose the shape, space to rotate. Not having to move the cursor off the map all the time to change elements would really help IMO. AI planning is the most tedious. Doing it all in the 3D view just like plotting in game movement might be easier. Allow plotting just the command elements instead of all the individual subunits it you wish. Add to the waypoint menu the various timing and action items you get doing an AI plan. Having the movepaths and waypoints visible in the AI plan map view might be useful, leave the grid square(s) to occupy at the waypoints intact. When testing in 3D being able to move the game time to any point and seeing where the units are would also really speed up testing, maybe have a 'process movement' button like end turn and the PC calcs movement for your units for the entire scenario so you can review. Or maybe just having a fast forward option in realtime mode so you can watch the pixeltruppen buzz across the map. I dunno, something to speed up testing, trying to get AI plan timing right so there's some co-ordination is really tedious. I've only done maps and briefings once so don't have a huge amount of experience with that. Perhaps the games could ship with a nice 2D map jpg of the area that the module covers. Punters can then cut out a pic for the area their scenario takes place, then everyone ends up at least having smoething similar looking. For tactical maps I just do a pic top down view of the map with stuff drawn on in crayon. If I think of more I'll post. -F

CM2 campaigns take your core force over multiple, separate engagements each on a different map over the course over a period of time. CM1 ops are multiple engagements on a single map within a day or two tracking your progress over that map from fight to fight. -F

With regard to CM1 they were called operations and were essentially a complete battle played out on a single map with the fighting broken up into a number of engagements (up to 10) happening over a relatively short period of time, like up to 24 hours or so, depends on how it was setup, it included the chance of night ops. So one operation might consist of six 45 minute fire fights on a largish map with the front line adjusting on the map depending on the ending positions of each side. IIRC the map state and destroyed vehicles etc were all retained over the course of the battle and you'd get some resupply and reinforcements happening during the lulls between fighting. As I mentioned above I really don't like that this feature was dropped. To me, from what I've read, this far more along the lines of how real battles played out. With scenerioes we have now we get just the single firefights and don't have the option to simulate multiple attacks and counter attacks with fighting over an objective flaring up then dying down many times over the course of a day which happened basically all the time. -F

Yeah, we've been told no, never. Apparently no one liked them...??? Which is a shame IMO as they were better at representing how battles played out in real life than the short 30-120 minute all out struggles we tend to have now. -F

Ha! I fired up the CMSF demo again for the first time in years just yesterday to get a little taster of modern action... Am now contemplating the full bundle. Also interested in the the 80's era Europe mod. Would like to see the cold war era covered in a proper title "one day" Edit - yeah I'm a CM1 diehard too, CMBB and CMETO mostly, still fire it up once in a while. -F

Ouch, getting brutal. That team on the left flank got taken out by th T72 that lost it's TC. It fired a fraction of a second before the javelin killed it. -F

Why I oughta get you two... -F

Gah! We were supposed to post a time?? I kind of started skim reading after the bit about putting your date in bold text. Pffft 1055 hrs if it comes down to it. And I deserve it more than the other guy coz I guessed right. Isn't that the point of the dang competition you simpletons?!? -F

22012015

Bil, I'm in awe of your profile pic

"Ask a silly question..." Lulz, come on it's the CM forums, what did you expect? -F

+1. Let the guy tell it how he wants, it's a lot of work, better he can enjoy himself while doing it. -F

Oops yes PaK36. How embarrassing, I'll trade my card in when I leave. Yes prolly a long shot for 1939-40 era but it's fun to kick the idea around -F

I found scenario making indeed a long process. Fun in it's own way but takes stamina to stay with it, especially the AI part. Suggested short cut for lazy researchers like me... Copy something from CM1. Wouldn't mind battle packs. And to flog my poor dead horse - bring back CM1 style operations -F

Lulz. You forgot to include "crawls" in the description of the Char's movement. They so slow gerry should have plenty of time to reposition should one turn up Same for the R35 for that matter! Still, would be <cough> kinda fun <cough> trying to deal with them with only PaK38's, PzII's and III's I reckon. -F

How about putting those new French armour models into a CM Blitzkrieg game? I mean you've got a lot of the French armour done, some of the Brit and German stuff. Don't need to do much terrain as that's already done too. How hard could it be?? Here's hoping for one day it comes true. -Fenris

Do we know about this? Hi res/quality maps, aerial recon and photo resource... http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com/index.html Example - Stalingrad Assorted Maps » Map Sketches » Stalingrad Apotheke und Kommissarshaus (not sure where this is from or it's authenticity but there's a lot of other stuff that's obviously real) http://www.wwii-photos-maps.com/stalingradassortedmaps/Map%20Sketches/slides/Stalingrad%20Apotheke%20und%20Kommissarshaus.html -F

From memory some environmental ones in addition to those above... there's another Rambler one (I think it is) that sets the tabletop surrounding the map to the same colour as grass. I find this helps a lot for some reason. There's also one that fixes the visual distortion you get from the ploughed field texture when you zoom out. I also like Marco+JuJu UI for silhouettes and SS dot pattern on the UI. Finally Aris/Fuser's horizons are nice. -F

If the entire pic was very slightly blurred like the rear AC it'd look more convincing IMO. The jagged shadows under the first vehicle are a dead give away. Thats not to say it isn't a nice pic though, well done. -F

lol, for all that effort I just noticed I didn't use the correct word of bales the whole time.. derr

//channeling JasonC// Well now that depends doesn't it. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. Now if it's just hand bundled the straw man may well fail. However if it's made from hardened bails or homogeneous rolls then you'd need to test things first. There are a number of factors to consider however. Late war german hay bailing suffered from a acute lack of twine (the factories having been heavily damaged by the USAAF during operation Deny the swine his twine one of great successes of day light precision bombing btw). So the quality of their bail hardening slowly tapered off as the war dragged on. The slave labour they were using on the farms at this stage was also actively sabotaging hay bail production. It wasn't unusual for farmer Schultz to break open a bail and find something fowl within (well what was left of the fowl anyway) instead of good solid stalks of German wheat or volksweis as is was being called at this stage. etc etc for another few hundred words leading to a 15 page thread with two posters at the end arguing about something completely unrelated to the start of the topic. Ah I really should get back to doing some work -F

Pretty sure you're wrong on that point. To the OP, an interesting little experiment -F

The first part of Sailor's comment is still valid IMO. The visual representation of objects in the 3d space of the game doesn't always match precisely what the game is simulating. That said player decisions are based on the visual representation of the environment. When the two don't meet expectations it can be very annoying. -F