Supertanker

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wayne: Thanks for the info. Why would you want to remap? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It is nice to be able to customize the game controls to your liking. For instance, I am sick to death of hitting Esc to cancel a command (as it does in most every other game or application I am used to) and ending up at the desktop. Arrrgh! If I wanted the desktop, I would Alt-Tab to it! It is quite nice to be able to change the default key setup in a game to be what I expect them to be. That way, I can just play and enjoy the immersion, and not worry about changing my reflexes to match the keys the designers chose. This is standard in every shooter I have seen in the last few years (good thing, too, as us sim players always have to flip the y-axis on the mouse). It is becoming standard in lots of other genres as well, and it would be a welcome addition to CM.

I've seen a sound contact tank drive across a river, remarkably parallel to the bridge the tank was actually on. C'mon boys, I think we can figure out where the tank actually is. ------------------ I'm only interested in hamsters. - Madmatt

While defending against the AI, I had a platoon of regular American infantry supported by an M3 halftrack wipe out a company of FJ (and assorted support teams) while only losing about 10 men. All three squads had in the low 20s on kills, and the M3 had 27. Considering the Sherman 105 nearby had 28 kills, and my 57mm AT gun popped two StuGs, it was not a good day for the FJs.

At long last, after literally months of searching, I have found my .sig: ------------------ I'm only interested in hamsters. - Madmatt

I can't say I'll pony up any extra cash, but I will say that this is one of very few games that I paid full boat for, but still feel I got 100% worth on my money. Now, Q3A - id should be ashamed of themselves for that incomplete program they call a game.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dittohead: I'm a Dodge man myself. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Dang, beat me to it! I was reading down the thread thinking, "I thought most of the deuce and a halfs were made by GMC, which is pretty close to Chevy, and so THEY shouldn't have a problem with streams..."

I played the SS demo in the long, dark days between release of CM and its arrival on my doorstep. It is pretty much Command & Conquer with WWII graphics. Units have hit points, for example, and various weapons just remove them at higher or lower rates. A group of riflemen could shoot at your KT from a distance and eventually kill it (by erosion?). Something that originally turned me off of C&C was that the Mammoth Tanks weren't immune to most weapons, so that didn't exactly make me want to play any more SS.

Thanks, chrisl, I probably would have had to RTFM to figure that out, and God knows I don't want to do that!

I thought "x" for "cancel target" did this, but I will go have to check. A friend of mine who used to run a Mac lab (and learned to hate Macs doing it) says the "escape key takes you to the desktop" thing is a Mac convention. As a hardcore gamer with bad eyesight, I gave up on Macs many years ago, so I can't confirm that personally.

I often send a anti-tank team out by itself on a flanking manuever. The riflemen stay where they are to engage or provide a convenient target to the enemy AFV, while the AT team sneaks out the back and around the side for a better shot. It works great, and I don't know if I would call it bad tactics. I don't know how you could avoid such a thing in a good city fight.

Sometimes Lady Luck is on the other side. I'm playing a PBEM game right now in which a veteran Panther was hit 3 of 3 from 800m and destroyed without firing a shot by a Jackson on the move, and a veteran Hetzer (in perfect hull-down ambush position) missed its first shot then had its gun knocked out by a Sherman on the first hit (after two misses)at 500m. The odds were in my favor, but I lost both encounters. Is the AI cheating on behalf of my friend? God, I hope not.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mirage2k: Don't forget victory flags!!! -Andrew <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ah, right, I sometimes just get caught up in destroying the enemy. With a final score of 58 to 34, that is probably the reason for the minor victory. Since those don't add up to 100, looks like some flags were in dispute.

I would like to know a little bit more about the mechanics of how the victory level is determined. That said, it looks like you lost about half of your infantry (with 88 men OK, and 11 crews on the loose, that would mean around 50 infantry left?), and a significant chunk of vehicles and guns. You stopped the allied attack, but at great cost. Your probable inability to counter-attack or to hold your positions against another attack the next day is my guess about what reduced the victory level.

It's fun to become a bandwidth abuser, and see how your attitude toward downloading changes: "Hey, cool, this demo is only 87 meg!" I have also learned that I will never be satisfied. I had a meeting this week with a new company that is building an all-fiber network, and their plans include our area. Once they are done, it should be 10 megabit data service to the home. Woohoo, bring it on!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Formerly Babra: The download is an exe file. So the only way I can read the readme is to install it! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> You forget that BTS' patches do not autoinstall. You run the exe, and it extracts itself to its own directory, and then you have to manually move the files around.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jeff Heidman: I'm not asking to simulate all the characteristics of a dust cloud, I am asking it to look like something vaguely similar to a dust cloud. Right now, it does not look anything like a dust cloud.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Jeff, I agree that the current image seems more "explosion" and less "collapsing building dust cloud" (at least based on the building demolition films I have seen). However, something better might not be worth the CPU hit. Did you ever try and play Nocturne? The hype for the game went on and on about how they had a true physics "cloth simulation" for the hero's overcoat (and whatever blowing curtains and such they could even slightly justify). That was nice and all, but it put such a massive hit on the CPU that it was unplayable on all but the most powerful systems. It was only programmed for 32-bit color as well, which didn't help the system requirements at all. Given that example, there are a lot of other things I would rather see the CPU cycles go to before they fix the dust cloud graphic. It I can put up with the vehicle fire graphics, I can put up with that. Until CM2, anyway.

I'm sitting at a stoplight the other day, and I realize the car in front of me is a new BMW 740i with a license plate that reads, "Long 88." Now, we have a large Chinese-American community around here, so I'm pretty sure that is the driver's family name, with 88 thrown in for luck. Nevertheless, I prefer to interpret it as a WWII-type double entendre. Who will be the first among us to put a license plate on a big Bimmer that reads "88L71"? Y'know, my GMC Safari is kind of tall and slab-sided, maybe I'll change the plate to read "Easy 8." I better talk to the wife...

Alexander, you are also underestimating the building height. Since the graphics are only representational, a one-floor building represents a building that is 1-2 stories in height. A two-floor building represents one that is 3-4 stories in height. See the manual at the last paragraph of page 45. So, when that building went down, your men were falling through and being covered by debris from a building about twice the size you thought it was. I agree that the TacAI should have a sense of when the building was getting shaky, and maybe bug out. However, if they started leaving buildings as soon as the shelling started, it would make it too easy to break a line of resistance.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fionn: BTW, does anyone else find it a bit ironic/inappropriate that the thread is titled "light a candle". I mean, given that a goodly portion of the crew has or will die from asphyxiation and given that a candle burns precious oxygen isn't that a bit blackly ironic?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I always assumed this was a reference to a prayer candle or a memorial candle, not inappropriate at all. Lighting candles as a gesture of hope or faith is an ancient ritual.

My heart goes out to the men on board the Kursk, and their families. I offer this prayer from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, meant to be used during storms at sea. It seems frighteningly appropriate: "O most glorious and gracious Lord God, who dwellest in heaven, but beholdest all things below: Look down, we beseech thee, and hear us, calling out of the depth of misery, and out of the jaws of this death, which is ready now to swallow us up: Save, Lord, or else we perish. The living, the living, shalt praise thee. 0 send thy word of command to rebuke the raging winds, and the roaring sea; that we, being delivered from this distress, may live to serve thee, and to glorify thy Name all the days of our life. Hear, Lord, and save us, for the infinite merits of our blessed Saviour, thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." Man, unfortunately, often has different plans. I recommend reading "Blind Man's Bluff," by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew. It convinced me that all countries lie as a matter of policy when it comes to submarine warfare. It might have been an explosion, it might have been a collision, or it might have been a giant sea monster. Regardless, admitting a vulnerability in a sub fleet isn't going to happen. The Kursk could have been carrying all nukes, but the official story will be that they left them all at home, and/or there is no radiation danger. There was just a story a couple days ago that the US never recovered a lost hydrogen bomb from a B-52 that crashed near Iceland, despite telling the Icelanders that they did recover it. It is likely still down there somewhere. If lying to allies is SOP, I wouldn't expect much truth about this incident. Even if it was a collision with a US sub, it makes both sides look bad, and they both agree to keep it quiet. I agree with Fionn that the Russions may choose to let the submariners perish rather than let NATO rescue teams (which certainly would contain an intelligence analyst or two) near an Oscar.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jay: "Valley of Trouble" scenario way too much fun...Played as American's...German '88 hidden in trees...blew two squads of engineers to hell with one shot...How I hate them 88's... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If you have the time, go read the "Ultimate VOT Thread" http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/004480.html in which many versions of your story were told. It is amazing to see the variety of actions, and the consistency of reactions to things like that gun (pretty much a universal, "Holy crap!"). I will never forget the first time that gun opened up on me. Not to take anything away from the 88, but you actually were nailed by a 150mm. Now, wait until your full version comes, and you see those falling from the sky as the big arty support arrives. Be sure to watch from view #1! Both sides get this fun though, as several times I've used American 155mm to quickly blow a nice big hole in the German MLR.

Just lost a QB game to the AI (my first!), though I admit I stacked the deck a little bit in its favor. 2000 point game, me conducting an allied probe with armor vs. axis combined arms. I selected this configuration to reduce my available infantry and my attacker's multiplier. I also picked May '45 to maximize the chance it would have some big iron. I let the computer buy, and ended up facing a company of FJs, supported by a platoon of StuGs, two 251/1, a 20mm FlaK, two 75mm IG, a PaK 40, and two 81mm and one 120mm mortar observers. I had 3x Sherman 76, 1x Sherman 75, 4x M18, 5x Chaffee, 4x halftracks, 2x MG Jeeps, a single platoon of Engineers, two flamethrowers, and two 81mm and one 105mmVT observers. The board was large, moderate trees, modest hills, village, dry, clear. I hid everyone away at the start, and inched three of the Chaffees into hull down positions. They were taken under fire by the StuGs at around 600-700m, and I lost the three while killing three. Much more than I expected from them! That gave me a chance to run most of my armor and the mounted engineers up the right flank, toward a large hill the StuGs were on. My advance encountered a few scattered FJ squads, which they disposed of (one of the FT teams actually got some kills!), and eventually were able to kill the remaining StuGs at the cost of an M18, an HT, a Chaffee, and the Sherman 75. All of those but the Sherman were lost to the 20mm Flak that was down in a depression in the far corner of the right flank. The AI dropped most of its arty during that advance, but I was able to move out of most of its fire, losing only a few engineers to it. Now the hill was mine for the taking, which I did, bypassing a victory flag. I could see several infantry units around it, and until I could secure the center, I could not safely move armor into position to shell them into submission. By selecting an armor force, I meant to handicap myself, and my inability to clear the woods at that flag made my limitations obvious. I placed the M18s on the hill to cover me, and advanced on the town in the center. As I moved in on the town, one of my 76s bogged, and another was destroyed by the Pak. The Pak and the two IGs were right near each other on a wooded hill on the left flank, but my area-fired 81mm support had little effect on the dug-in guns. They knocked out my HTs, or drove them into the fire of MG42s in the town, leaving me with only one that was missing its gunner. My remaining 76 knocked out the two German HTs at the same time. I was eventually able to move the 105 observer up, and in three turns, he destroyed all three guns while using only half of his ammo. Three cheers for VT arty support! By this point, I was on the German edge of the board, behind the town. I set the bogged 76 to destroying buildings, and fired in the rest of the 105 ammo while moving up the rest of my armor and troops. My engineers were at about two-thirds strength, which would require me to significantly reduce the resistance in town before assaulting. I proceeded to do this, but the lack of HE on the M18s, and my loss of all but one Sherman and Chaffee, made this time-consuming. After a few turns, my global morale was down to 48%, and it was clear I was not going to take the village from the platoon or so of FJs holding it (and at least two MG42s). The AI did not possess the strength to keep me from roving about the battlefield shooting up its infantry as long as my HE held out. Time was on its side, so I asked for a cease-fire, which the AI took, leaving me with a 30-70 loss. Casualties were pretty close, with 48 for me and 49 for the Germans, and I lost 12 vehicles to its 7. However, it had over 200 men left, and I had only about 50.

Another thing BTS has told us is that the graphics really are just representational, and the true LOS is calculated within the game engine. You may see some LOS lines that look blocked, but the math shows to be clear. Also, guessing based on those shots, it looks like you have unit scale set to +2. That LOS like is pretty close to center on the other Tiger, so this may not make much difference, but have you tried reducing the scale to Realistic and checking again?

I had mine installed in January, right after they rolled them out. I usually see 2 to 2.5 megabits/second, so now I seriously abuse the Internet with giant downloads. I do a lot of work with cable companies (representing cities), and I've had a chance to pepper my provider's engineers with questions. They are acutely aware of the bad reputation cable modems earned on old systems (and they hate those "web hog" ads from the phone companies), so they WAY overbuilt the system, and it will stay fast even when a large number of subscribers pile on. The homepage says "expect 1.5 to 2.0 Mbps," and I read in a forum post that they use 1.5 down and 384K up as their service floors. They want to beat DSL speeds, no matter what. It was also interesting to see the download speed increase when I upgraded my machine. Everything gets processed more quickly, and so is displayed sooner. The web seems much faster now, and online gaming is LAN smooth. For example, the best pings in Counterstrike that I used to see with my old machine (PII/266, LX motherboard) were around 150-180, and I could not play on maps with more than 8 players. Now, with the PIII/733 on an ASUS P3V4X, I'm down in the 50-60 ping range even in a 24 player game. I'm in hardware heaven now. Ph34r my 1337 ski11z!

Thanks to the voices of experience, and thanks to Charles for taking up the issues raised (and raised in a courteous fashion by all). Man, I love the Internet! Do you know how long it would take me to find someone, if anyone, among my friends and acquaintances that has fired a Ma Deuce? Here, we got two in a day.