Pak40

Fionn, I'm pretty handy with photoshop and can do some textures. Trees, uniforms, vehicles... etc. Sorry, not much programming experience, though. Mike, I think I found the book on www.barnesandnoble.com: St. Lo Historical Section European Theater of Operations Staff (Editor) It doesn't say much about it, but It sounds like to book to me. You're best bet, I would think, is to find it at a major univeristy's library. And pray that the maps for the book havn't been stolen.

Mike, Have you seen the book on the St. Lo batlle? I'm not sure of the exact name but I've seen the book in the non-circulating section of LSU's library. It has has very detailed contour maps of the St Lo area. These are on par with USGS Quad maps.

"Not sure where the Army would have theirs hidden, maybe at West Point?" They probably have lots at the Army War Collage in Carlile(sp?) Pennsylvania also. I live in New Orleans where Stephen Ambrose tought at UNO. He's heading the effort to build the National D-Day museum here in New Orleans. I'm hoping that this will become a good source for this type of information. The museum will open June 6, 2000.

I second what Mike D said. I'd love to do some maps but I'm a real hard ass when it comes to historical accuracy. I can't find any contour maps of Europe that have the accuracy of U.S.G.S. Quad maps. Good qualtity Aerial photos (from the war) would be awesome, but there is no source that the general public can download these photos. I know they exitst, the allies must have taken thousands of Aerial photos during the war...but where are they?

Steve, just curious. I assume that the typical German infantry sqauds carry at least one or more panzerfausts. Is there an inventory of the squad that shows extra weapons such as panzerfausts, mines, Satchel charges etc.?

Some more factors to consider in muzzle velocity: 1) Muzzle Break - I'm not sure why but I've read that guns with a muzzle break do have a higher velocity. Some US 76mm had muzzle breaks didn't they? 2) Tapered Bore - American guns didn't have them but I think some German guns did. Maybe Steve can fill us in on the physics behind these guns. Simon, I don't know the lengths of the barrels but I know the size of the shells of British guns: 17lb - 76mm (actually something like 76.2mm) It was longer than the US 76 and had a muzzle break. 6 lb - 57mm 2lb - 37mm I think

it could have been me... oops

according to the Handbook of German Military Forces, the MG34 has a cyclic rate of 900 rounds per minute, but the practical rate as a LMG is listed as 100 to 120 per minute. I's assume that as long as they dont go above 120 rounds per minute they wouldnt have to worry about changing the barrels.

While talking to my grandfather about US vs German Armor, he told me about a tactic that allied gunners used to help defeat the thick german armored tanks. He said that some gunners would aim low causing the flat trajectory round to literally skip off of the ground and hit the undercarriage of the tank or the lower front hull which is much thinner. I don't know how often this tactic was used and I've never read any book that mentions what my grandfather said. But since CM tracks rounds that glance off of armor I was wondering if this "skipping" was modeled in your real world physics.

I know that the 90mm gun was mounted on the M36 Jackson tank destroyer. It began appearing sometime after Normandy fighting. Several M36's were a significant part of the defense of Bastogne/Noville. I know less about the actual armor penetrating capabilities. I think that a typical AP round could penetrate 120mm at 1000 yards (30 degrees from vertical). A HVAP would probably do about 140mm. I could be wrong about these figures, just an educated guess from memory.

Although I've read many accounts where soldiers said that they were afraid of being captured with the enemy's weapons, the fact of the matter is that it happened. It seems mainly to happen in desparate situations such as the British at Arnhem or the 101st at Bastogne. The battle for Arnhem saw soldiers from both sides picking up whatever they could find. Most germans units at this state were refitting and didn't have much ammo or weapons. Sten guns found on dead British paratroopers were taken more often than not. The British were surrounded and used whatever they could find.

Fionn, I noticed that your Stug is low on ammo, it obviously has unleashed a lot of shells within 16 minutes. Is there a way to tell your gunners/tanks to conserve ammo? If so, is it something you control or something that the computer decides once ammo reaches a low state?

Fionn,

Fionn,

Sounds good steve, that's just what I wanted to hear

"Proximity fuses aren't in.. Or are only in for very late-war if I remember correctly since they were really uncommon in artillery units in WW2." Actually, proximity fuses were used in the bulge. IMO, they ought to be added, they would be similar to a tree bursts. Lethal to infantry but not to tanks. Since tree bursts are already in it shouldn't be too hard to simulate proximity fuses (I hope).

Steve, one point and one question: "It's a good idea, but I don't think it will get in. In any case, it wasn't very common to do this, ESPECIALLY in the winter. " Read (if you have any extra time) the new book "Seven Roads to Hell" by Donald Burgett. He describes his foxhole digging near Bastonge. They (101st) dug foxholes even in extremely cold weather. They pretty much HAD to do it if they wanted to live. Once they dug below the freezing ground the digging was easy. It's just a matter of how deep the frozen ground is. It seems they had more of a hard time keeping their foxholes dry due to melting snow. My Question: In CM, once "dug in" troops move troops they lose their "dug in" status I assume. Would they gain it back if they move back to their starting location? In other words, this would be like troops returning to their fox holes.

Pat - I was actually referring to follow up Combat Mission games, not the one currently in devopment. I know that it's impossible at this point to convert the current CM to comply with the GeForce standards. CoolJ - True, the CPU is still a limiting factor. But if you put ALL graphics processing and memory used for graphics on to the graphics board then you free up the CPU to handle things like AI and calculations. The entire concept behind the GeForce 256 is that it is actually another CPU. They actually call it a GPU(graphics processing unit). Read the article, you will understand it better.

Upon reading an article about the new graphics chip from nNivia, I got to thinking about the future of CM and its graphics. It seems that this new chip will move almost all of the graphics processing to the video card, thereby freeing up the CPU and the conventional RAM. Here's one of the quotes from the article found at www.cdmag.com: "Transforming and Lighting polygons are the single most CPU-intensive parts of current 3D games. Moving these calculations from the host CPU to the graphics card frees up an incredible amount of CPU time for more advanced AI, physics, and game logic. " Steve, this sounds good for the future of Combat Mission, do you currently have any plans to incorporate this technology?

Fionn, You said this in your last turn: "Panzerschreck’s shouldn’t be able to fire from inside houses though but I think that’s going to be fixed. " Why on earth wouldn't a Panzerschreck be able to be fired from a house? It seems perfectly logical that it could be fired from a house. Bigtime, what are your intentions on this subject?

Hi Rhet, "It never snows in September" by Robert Kershaw. isbn 0711021678. I got this one from Amazon.com, but have actually seen it in Barns and Noble or Borders. It's got some detailed battle accounts that Ryan's "A Bridge to Far" didn't even mention. For instance, the first enemy encounter that XXX Corps experienced was a multi Panzershrek/faust ambush on the rear tank column of the Irish Gaurds. I don't have "Seven Roads to Hell" with me right now, but it's by Donald Burgett. It's GREAT! Insanely detailed battle descriptions. Well written. He really gives you a sense of how it felt to be in battle. He paints a great detail of the battle for Noville. After reading his book you know exactly how the battles unfolded. This one should be easy to find in any bookstore since it is a new Hardback. (He also wrote a book called "Curahee: We Stand Alone" later renamed to "As Eagles Screamed" . It's a good account of his D-Day jump and the few days in Normandy before he got wounded.) PS: just saw a rumor on Amazon.com that "Curahee: We Stand alone" will be rereleased in September. Also, Burgett is writing a 3rd book on his Market Garden experiences. [This message has been edited by Pak40 (edited 08-30-99).]

Hi Kwazy, Love Market Garden. I've been reading lots of good books lately: "Seven Roads to Hell" (101st at Bastogne) and I am now reading "It never Snows in September" (the german viewpoint of Market Garden) I too would love to create some battles in Market Garden, I think I'll stick to 101st and 82nd Airborne, though. I'll leave the Arnhem battles to the rest of you guys. Also, I plan on making a small campaign of the 99th infantry Div. in the Bulge since my grandfather was in that division. Can you as Pieper rewrite history and smash through the 99th's line within 24 hours?

Steve, thanks for explaining some of the techno details, it's always helpfull to know this kind of stuff because it helps us understand and appreciate the game better. One clarification about Close Combat's units. Close Combat tracks line of site to each individual soldier which would explain why players see only some of the soldiers in a squad at certain points in the game. CC also tracks movement of each individual sodier as well as their phsycological state. So while there may be a max of 30 military units in a CC game, the reality is that CC treats each soldier as a "unit". If both sides compose of nothing but infantry you could have as many as 200+ "units" on the map. I notice my P133 chugs when I play these types of games because of the sheer number of soldiers on the map that CPU has to keep track of. Combat Mission only tracks each unit and not each soldier, correct? But I suppose that a 3D calculation for LOS and bullet tracking must be more complex for a CPU to calculate. Any thoughts?

Couldn't find any answers in previous posts about this so I'll go ahead and ask it: Can we draw our own building artwork in something like photoshop and use on a pre-made building? sorry, if this one's already been asked... Thanks

"we currently have ZERO maps made for the final release. " That's kind of what I thought, but I wanted to hear it from you. I'm glad that the editor is so easy to use that you can wait 2-3 months before touching the final maps. That means it will be easy for us to use. I'm glad, Steve, that you've got some travel time in Europe, it will help a lot in map design. I, on the other hand, have never been to Europe and have to rely on pictures and the little bit of "European urban design" lectures that I remember from my Landscape Architecture classes. Could you tell pre-WW2 towns apart from the towns that had to be rebuilt after the war?