L4Pilot

14. The enemy diversion you have been ignoring will be the main attack. 15. Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.

L4Pilot called in #102 for 92.5! FIRE FOR EFFECT!!!!! [This message has been edited by L4Pilot (edited 05-16-2000).]

Thanks, Moon. I've been wanting a set of translations and the one you've provided is comprehensive. It'll come in handy when trying to explain to some friends about the various shouts and I'll have a little better idea, with your list's phonetic assistance, of what being said. I really admire Steve and Charles for their use of a "semi-open" game system that allows substitution of textures and wav files for a certain degree of customization. The only shout I'd change would be instead of "Enemy Aircraft!" I'd have "Jabos! Jabos!" Now I'll have to work on my CM Polsih. Thanks again.

Forget the Panther and Tiger Prints...I want a signed, limited edition print of the opening menu flash screen with the column of US armor and supporting armored infantry moving past the smoking Panther. Oooh. Ooooh. Them's my boys! (snif) And if they could put a little Grasshopper in the upper right hand corner where it says DEMO, my life would be complete.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Big Time Software: Herr T says... "I piddy zat fool who mess mit meiner Tiger!!" Steve<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ah, does this mean that gold chains and a Mohawk haircut will be one of the textures in an upcoming version?

Funny that this particular reference (A-Team) came up on this board at this time. I owned a software store in Los Angeles at the time A-Team was being produced. It was located in West LA between 20th Fox studios(where the show must have been shot) and the freeway. Several of the cast members (George Peppard and the "smart guy" Dutch? [brain fade]) became regular customers. They're main areas of interest: combat simulations. I distinctly remember George Peppard leaning over my shoulder at one of the demo machines and saying he wanted to buy the copy of [some game that had individual tanks for the Apple II (more brain fade)] that I was, er, evaluating because he wanted to "try out some ideas he had on tank tactics." So the show may have been cheesy, but at least a couple of the principal actos were gamers. They would have loved CM.

Actually, not a bad idea. The "location" of the Jabo is just a series of x, y, and z coordinates that move across (over) the map. And the rocket fire and machine gun (or cannon) fire has to emanate from somewhere in 3D space. So you'd have to tie the POV point to the Jabo for the duration of the run. Probably look pretty neat, with tracers and rockets going down, and tracers coming back up. Ooo! Oooooo!

Lifted directly from the site above: "Critical issues to be addressed are the acceptance of two crew vehicle operation, leap ahead mobility, non traditional survivability (replacing ballistic protection with signature management, countermeasures, and active protection), and indefensible lethality (both direct and indirect fire).Critical issues to be addressed are the acceptance of two–crew–vehicle operation, leap–ahead mobility (60 mph cross country), nontraditional survivability (replacing ballistic protection with signature management, countermeasures, and active protection), and indefensible lethality (both direct and indirect fire). " Our systems never screw up...screw up...screw up...

There have been a number of enthusiastic comments regarding the much better animation of running soldiers visible in the IntroMovie. But has anyone noticed how much better the walking soldiers look as well - heads bobbing up and down, no more lockstep between the 1st and 3rd man in a squad. They look like they're really....well...walking. One thing that came to mind while watching the movie (repeatedly, obsessively) was "how would this look with the color filtered out?" I.e. a black and white version of the movie - really start to blur the line between CGI and reality. Maybe there's a filter that can be applied to .avi's that could do this. We could end up not just with movies, but "newsreels" and "documentaries" L4Pilot (have to go unlimber my 4x5 Speed Graphic)

Neutral Party: Did you have a "combat emission" while watching the intro?

major_tom (junior member) I'm in favor of virtually all of your suggestions (selectable limited viewpoints, terrain only maps, etc.) but fear that they must wait for a upgrade to the forthcoming CM for implementation (Which smiley has tears streaming don its face).

I think the textures and the "tweaked" look are the improved details that SS_Panzer is referring to. I noticed them too, much better "European" feel - I especially like the shutter hanging askew (sp?) on one of the one story buildings - sort of reminds me of my place

There is a new book out SPECIFICALLY about the VT fuse. I don't have it yet - I've been meaning to track it down and get it. And an extra copy for one of the employees in my store whose father worked on the development of the VT. And know, I don't have a title, author, or publisher at the moment (though I have a faint recollection that it might be the US Naval Institute Press). I will re-post when I have the info. (In a few hours, I hope) And yes it does cover the use of the VT fuse in land combat in addition to the AAA role it played in the Pacific and against the V-1.

Re: Intellectual property. It would probably not be a good idea to "convert" ASL scenarios to CM, especially given the newly "resurrected" status of ASL and it's new "owner." Used as a research tool and resource, there shouldn't be any problem. Two things I am aware of is 1) you can't copyright history and 2) when you only use one source, it's called plagiarism, when you use more than one, it's called "research" Not trying to give legal advice here, just my understanding of the situation.

(With apologies to Lorak) Steve said my name! uh...well...uh...sort of... Tehehe L4Pilot [This message has been edited by L4Pilot (edited 03-08-2000).]

A major axis victory? With 16 Shermans left against 2 immobilized Tigers? Reminds me of the story of the new American tank division just over the beach shortly after the invasion. They entered combat and on the first day lost 10 Shermans for a single Tiger destroyed. On the second day of combat they lost 20 Shermans but managed to knock out two Tigers. And on the third day, sure enough, as the fighting intensified, 30 Shermans knocked out or immobilized with only three dead Tigers to show for the carnage. One of the more experienced FO's accompanying the new unit couldn't figure out why all the (remaining) tankers seemed happy. In fact, their smiles seemed to get bigger each day of combat. He asked one of the company commanders about it and was told "Well, at this rate, pretty soon no more Tigers" [This message has been edited by L4Pilot (edited 03-08-2000).] [This message has been edited by L4Pilot (edited 03-08-2000).]

I've been wondering about this, too. Quoting Michael Doubler(again ) "Artillery FO's with infrantry battalions often became casualties or were not in a good location to call for fires. To solve these problems, infantry regiments...began to train all personnel, down to and including platoon sergeants in FO procedures." So the idea of having HQ units able to call for fire seems like a good one, even if with some accuracy or time penalty due to it not being their "full-time" job.

Bullethead: That Mauldin cartoon sounds great. I'll have to search and see if there are any internet archives of his cartoons. And the endurance on an L4 was about 2hrs 45min. On 12 gallons of gas. I can tell you fram experience, you get very nervous eating into the last 30 mins of fuel. And re: Jabos spotting enemy ground forces - may have happened but not very often. Too high speed and low altitude. Doubler goes into this pretty well and confirms what Germanboy suggests: that Jabos (P-47's, et. al.) had trouble indentifying friendly vs. enemy as targets until steps were taken to improve communications. These included providing ground forces with radios that had air unit frequencies, better use of identifier markers and (evidently) most important, FAC's in (you guessed it) spotter planes to direct the incoming Jabos.

Actually, is there any reason you couldn't do that now? A properly behaved Mac or Windows program could be put into a small window and you could look at or play with whatever you wanted while waiting for the other player to finish. Just watch the window for the TCP/IP move to come in, then maximize it to see the results. Yes?

[What I want to know is who stole my last MG42 in RB?] Must be the same rat that stole the 81mm FO from me in CE (1 listed, none provided)

Perhaps "Rearguard" might have gotten renamed "Last Defense" at some point?

That's one commandment I'm gonna break. Not that I'm all that good with the other ten... Graven images, watch out!

Go, CoolColJ, go! L4Pilot says "Fire for Effect" [This message has been edited by L4Pilot (edited 02-25-2000).]

Berli - And I know exactly what you mean. Was exposed to miniature gaming as a teen. Really enjoyed it, but the "overhead" was horrendous - measuring, rulers, tables without end. So the results took sooo long - well I never got hooked. Now CM offers all the neatness of miniatures, with the computer doing the fire resolution, rules application, and everything else. And with the immediate prospect of an infinite numbers of maps to play on. "Heaven, I'm in Heaavveennn..."

Germanboy is right - p 47 of my edition reads in part: "Aerial FO's provided the best means for observing enemy targets. In First Army each division had ten light aircraft assigned for liaison missions, and each corps headquarters had from fifty to seventy aircraft."