Gromit

Well, can't say that I am surprised. Oh well, back to the drawing board! Thanks for the input PT.

A question for one of you mapper vets: Have you found that river crossings give the AI fits thus far? In my post above I have three in an area about 750m wide. Two will support vehicular/heavy traffic and a footbridge is near one edge. Am I going to need to be careful how I write the AI plans due to this foot-only restriction? Thanks.

You know, that's sort of been my problem with the editor- is there any way to see the buildings before placing them in 2D mode? Might have to do what some guy did for the CoD mapping community, a html file with all the objects usable in the editor visible. Done already for the most part by BFC.

I am starting work on one map, fairly large (950m x 700m) depicting a small river wandering through the middle with wooded lands and farming (bocage) villages on both sides on terrain climbing from the river valley. I also am doing my own version of a sunken lane- seems to be a hot item right now... It actually is based on a drawing I made a few years back for a Call of Duty map in Radiant, however, the game interest fell off and I never did anything with it until now. Learning the editor will be easier when my manual arrives so I don't have to keep ALT-Tab'ing out to the .pdf file. Three means to cross the river for now- stone bridge in middle, ford on one flank in a swampy area, and a footbridge on the other. I will keep you guys informed and am sure I will be asking for advise here plenty before it is done. Glad to see so much interest! :cool: G.

I have bagged the idea of a train station in my current map due to no train stations, platforms or other railroad buildings. Anybody found a current building under commercial or otherwise that might work as a fudge for now?

That reminds me guys- I got lucky last year and found a pristine 78rpm Columbia record of Rina Ketty's "J'attendrai" in Australia of all places. Any of you familiar with "Das Boot" would remember it well as the Kaleun's favorite song! I need to get a good modern phonograph and transfer it over to digital and clean it up for release. :cool:

I had very little time this morning to dink around with the demo, but so far things look great overall. I do have one question wrt graphics Steve. I am getting the Moire (fan) pattern on grasses and whatnot in the fields. Using a nVidia 460 with the latest drivers. I can't remember what the verdict on this issue was from a few months ago. Any tips? Thanks. Gromit

Having built my own since 1993 I can say that both have their good and bad points. I am currently using a 460 Nvidia card but most likely will go back to AMD with the change to Sandy Bridge I have planned. The one thing I can't stand is a noisy card that could heat a small apartment. Right now AMD, other than their ridiculous 6990, is the best bang-for-the-buck with minimum power usage and noise levels. There are some Nvidia aftermarket models that stress noise level reduction, but the choices are kinda slim IMO. I am just glad there are two large firms that have to compete with one another.

That reminds me of something my nuclear weapons school instructor told all of us- our country's initial answer for protecting itself from a mass Soviet missile strike was originally to launch a vast "curtain" of US missiles and detonate them above us meeting the oncoming Soviet launch... then someone learned about EMP and realized that in one ill-fated decision we would have wiped out practically every transitor-based piece of equipment in the US in a matter of an hour or two. Meanwhile, the Soviets would be humming along with their "obsolete" vacuum tube technology... :eek:

I don't think heavy fortifications were built anywhere else in France, but it would be fairly common to find bunkers made from trees in areas of importance. Doubt seriously if you would find any metal or concrete pillboxes or bunkers.

If I may, I think what dk is lamenting is losing CMx1's ability to very quickly sit down, generate a random map w/o any fanfare and whammo, you're up and playing. No fuss, no muss- no thought involved and it won't be like the last one you played or the next for that matter. This appears to be possible in CM:BN by virtue of the QB interface (shown briefly in Chris' QB video) that lets you quickly decide what broad terrain terms you want and then selects a map to meet those parameters. Certainly, it is not truly random, but I think once a few thousand maps are out there, it really won't matter much anymore as the "sample size" of our statistical exercise will be large enough to ferret out and reduce the number of outlier experiences when picking a map on a given day. Having said all that, it just occurred to me that there is a much more important topic that needs to be explored here - some sort of repository voting mechanism is likey to be required to help separate the map wheat from the chaff. I know, I know... some people here think poles and voting are on par with the Spanish Inquisition (NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquistion!!) but I believe there will need to be SOME way of allowing the CM public (one vote per username only) to determine the quality of submitted maps and most importantly, some way of providing feedback to the creator. IMO, without this it will eventually turn into a big, unruly map database mess. Not to mention that mapmakers only get better when their creations are subject to the scrutiny of thousands of rabid WW2 OGH* wargamers! Just a thought... * Obsessivus Grognardius Historicus

Can't remember which thread for the life of me, but Steve did respond not long ago about foxholes and AT guns. He said that they would protect the crew but not the gun. However, he also said that the gun (and crew) would be protected by a particular fortification in-game, I think it was a revetment or something similar, it escapes me at the moment.

Which brings us full circle back to the real answer to the initial question IMO- as a designer it's what you do with the editor that counts, not the size of the map.

As a kid I remembered him as the oldest boy in Swiss Family Robinson- had to love that treehouse they built, it was too cool. Along with the other middle boy that starred in Old Yeller (a real tear-jerker), can't think of his name at the moment. Of course, I don't think anyone who grew up in 1940s-70s America wasn't bombarded by Disney and Co.

Smoke usage, for infantry at least, seems to be one of those "Winter League" hot buttons- and it doesn't matter what WW2 tactical game forum you are visiting. As Steve has pointed out at various times over the years, unfortunately definitive sources citing common usage of "X" are hard to come by. I don't think smoke usage for cover (infantry smoke grenades) is any different, although I could be way off base. Vets are dicey sources at best. This is one of those topics I'd love to have a definitive answer on once and for all, but I don't think we will ever get one. Seems that a large planned assault would see infantry being issued smoke and/or WP grenades for use at a local tactical level, blinding a pillbox or bunker, etc. Knowing most GIs, they didn't want to shlep any more extra weight than they absolutely had to- makes you wonder how many smoke grenades would be present on your average Norman summer afternoon...

I looks that way to me too Ali-Baba. Very smooth and lifelike- I thought I was watching a real movie at times. As they say, spot on!

It's a bit pricey, but I have heard many times from different sources that "It Never Snows in September" is one of the best. Haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

Uhhh... what is it with European guys and leather pants?

So, here I am, kicking around at work and dreaming of CM:BN's imminent release when WHAM!!- the rug is whipped out from under me by no less than a MacOS announcement (hiisssss), 2 to 3 more weeks of agonizing delays of my mega-critical enjoyment. Almost resigned to my fate, I glance at the calendar and peruse the upcoming holidays and whatnot. Good Friday, Easter... Mother's Day... **wince** Boy, heh... good thing I was looking at my calendar- didn't realize that Mother's Day was sooo close! Yeah, May 8th, yeah. Uhh, hey... wait a minute! I know why the date has been pushed back- it's a conspiracy guys, don't let Steve tell ya otherwise! See, the MAFS (that's Mothers Against Forgetting Sons) organization has brokered a deal with BFC at the 11th hour in an backdoor attempt to catch any lazy, goldbricking sons who are SOOOOO busy playing their shiny new metal box filled with CM goodness that they throw dear old Ma under the wargaming bus! LOOK OUT!! Don't be one of the "unfortunate ones" guys! :eek: (I'm tellin ya, it's true!)

So Martin... can you tell us how expectations have gone thus far? Are you guys way ahead of anticipated sales? Bored at work and curious

Oh boy, there's a real can of worms... I must be the poster boy for gaming diversity. Right now I am playing in some capacity the following: Lord of the Rings Online -(4 characters, FElf Guardian, FHuman Hunter, MDwf Runecaster, MElf Warden) Distant Worlds-Return of the Shakturi- an awesome SF 4x pausable RT game by CodeForce, a small company out of New Zealand Arsenal of Democracy - an offshoot of Hearts of Iron II by modders Shogun II - no intro needed, very well done. Get it if you have the system! Academagia - a sim game not unlike going to Hogwarts yourself. Pretty neat. Space Rangers 2: Reboot - a sweet little 1C game of open-ended space exploration and battling robots gone mad! Play it anyway you want. Silent Hunter III w/ Grey Wolves mod - still a great sub sim Steel Wolves - a solitaire boardgame as German BdU from 1939 to 1943 Twilight Imperium w/ expansion Axis and Allies (Europe and Pacific) The Kaiser's Pirates - a cardgame of WWI merchant raiders A Game of Thrones LCG - a living card game based on GRR Martin's world Pathfinder Fantasy RPG - working on my own world for future campaign Cargo Noir - an easy to learn black market game MLB 11 The Show - a great console baseball game for PS3. Love the Road to the Show and Franchise modes Out of the Park Baseball 11 (and 12 shortly!) - best all-around baseball simulation, hands down for those who aspire to being a Manager and/or GM. A Game of Thrones RPG - roleplay a minor house member- very interesting. Probably missed a couple being at work...

I might get lumped into some ill-thought about category for saying this, but I actually play quite a bit of Company of Heroes. I have all the expansions and enjoy it from a WW2 quick setup and play perspective. It's not very realistic when it comes a lot of things, but it's FUN and actually fairly addicting, esp. when you have some new 3rd party maps to play around on. I haven't played recently as I am waiting while the newest patch (and the first in like a year) goes through Beta testing. I do sort of wonder if they will ever get around to coming out with a Soviet army- CoH online is dead and I don't think the Valour add-on is drawing all that many peeps... time will tell. Anyhoo, it is good fun no matter how you look at it. The key is looking at it in context.

Crap!! **munches on cigar**

Holy CRAP! No wonder they made everyone bug out while doing the removal- if one of those big ones went off somehow... :eek: I agree with you guys about the unspent rounds- kind of gives you the heebie-jeebies. All for a rusty helmet and some (thankfully) unused 1940 condoms. No thank you.

Seconded. Thanks for the effort!