Wolfe

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>you may want to experiment with the "AGP Aperture"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Thanks. I did that a while ago with the demo, and it helped. But with the full release of CM, I think there's something between the V5 and CM that just really don't like each other. I just tried underclocking the video card to see if it was overheating. Nope. Been through the BIOS twice with no real help there. Been through every driver I could find as well as just about every setting I can think of. Thanks for the suggestions, but it looks like I'm stuck without smoke or weather for the time being. - Chris

*sigh* Forget I said anything. Whatever good mojo I had going last night has apparently disappeared this evening. After continuing playing a couple more turns of Long Cold Day, the machine has now begun to lock up again within a turn or 2 whenever I have smoke/weather turn on. Damn. I thought I might have found a good combo. Guess not. Oh, BTW. I don't mean to imply that there is something wrong with these particular scenarios. It's just that these 2 off the top of my head seem to exhibit the behaviour more often than others (likely due to the weather conditions and the number of burning vehicles). Turning off the weather (and especially smoke) really *does* mitigate the lock-ups, though. That's the one thing that's been consistent throughout for me. Building transparency doesn't seem to make any difference. - Chris

Well, I've been having lock ups for a while. They're fairly intermittent, but seem to occur more quickly when smoke and weather effects are turned on (as well as in larger scenarios with more units). Having them off seems to allow the computer to last a bit longer before dying. Dunno why. I tried every V5 5500 driver set available, and currently have the latest beta (606 or whatever it is) installed. Also played around with the sound card drivers too. Nothing seemed to help much until I decided to change my mouse driver. I use a Kensington Orbit mouse and was using the software that comes with it, so I upgraded to the latest Kensington drivers, but nothing seemed to change. Until I got frustrated and just changed over to the default PS/2 mouse driver supplied with Windows. All of a sudden I could play the larger scenarios that have weather effects and I could turn the smoke back on. Amazing! It wasn't perfect (it would still lock solid after a while), but I could play for a much longer duration (still saving often, of course). I also noticed that if you run MSCONFIG, there's a Startup button that lists a 'MSWheel' under it. I turned this off and things seem to have gotten even a bit better with the lockups. I've been playing 1 Long Cold Day with the weather effects and smoke on without incident (knock on plastic). But I'm still not sure the problem is solved. Sherbrooke Fusiliers is another scenario that seems to lock up more readily than others (it has loads of units). So you might want to try playing around with the mouse drivers and uncheck the MSWheel entry to see if that helps. Good luck. BTW, my lockups almost always occur when plotting movements, and only rarely during playback. Also, I never got lockups with the demo (same hardware config as now). Strange. Also, solid lockups usually are due to heat, but leaving the case off the computer and even blowing a fan at it didn't help for me. Also changed heatsinks on the CPU; it made no difference. Current config: K6-2 450 on Soyo 5EMA+ Voodoo 5 5500 AGP Diamond Sonic S90 (Vortex1) sound card 128MB PC100 Crucial mem - Chris

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KwazyDog: Ahhh, I see, so the mortars can see right through the building with the LOS tool<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yup. Hmmm. Does LOS into/out of houses change with the seasons just like LOS through trees?!? - Chris

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KwazyDog: Platoon HQ is doing the spotting for them <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Dan, if you DL the saved game and hit 'L' to check for LOS, the HQ unit can see (has direct LOS to) an abandoned M8 Greyhound. If you do the same for the mortar teams, neither has LOS. Of course, because the HQ can see the Gryhound, the mortars certainly would be able to target it. But it's my understanding that the mortars should NOT have LOS to something they can't see (atleast that's how I've understood the game to work since BTS added the HQ spotting ability). Next to the Greyhound is a dead Sherman 76. The HQ also has LOS to this, but the mortars indicate they do as well. If the HQ can pass spotting ability to the mortar teams for the dead 76, why can't he do it for the Greyhound? BTW, only 1 of the mortars has LOS to the dead Sherm 76. Sorry. But both are within command of the HQ unit. BTW, I hate this scenario. It's too hard. This is my 4th try at winning. - Chris [This message has been edited by Wolfe (edited 09-10-2000).]

Been bitten by the 'soft corners' of buildings before (shell travels thru a building corner to kill a tank), but I've never seen it quite this bad before: http://users.erols.com/chare/cm/1longday.jpg Both 81mm mortars have LOS to multiple tanks that should be completely obscured by the building in front of them. Saved game: http://users.erols.com/chare/cm/1longday.zip - Chris

Sorry. It's a Microsoft Works file. It's all I have. I had assumed most folks have a spreadsheet that can read old MSWorks 3.0 files. Guess not. OK. I tried saving it as an Excel 4.0 file from within Works, but the columns are now much wider than in the Works file, so the tank stuff won't print correctly unless you re-orient the page to landscape and fiddle with all the columns. Sorry, it's the best I can do. Does anyone know of a free converter that doesn't screw with the column width/text type? URL: http://users.erols.com/chare/cm/cm_xls.zip - Chris [This message has been edited by Wolfe (edited 09-09-2000).]

I have a CM arty ETA chart available on my site for anyone who is interested: http://users.erols.com/chare/cm/ - Chris

If you're firing at something that the FO can't see (no LOS to target), the ETA time will be double what the counter says (i.e. the counter will tick half as fast). If you can see that target, the counter will tick at the same rate as the time. And yes, barrages out of LOS will be less accurate. - Chris

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I was still awaiting approval, that's why I haven't said to go grab them.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ah. Sorry about that. I removed the URL. Incidentally, you can either prevent directories from being viewed by changing the setup on the server or add a blank 'index.html' file to the directory to keep people with prying eyes out. - Chris

Man, that had to take a lot of time to write. To get what you want, try using the PzIV/70(V) instead. - Chris

BTW, I think for the snow textures, 1470~1489 is supposed to be the low res and 800~819 is supposed to be the high res. - Chris

Mods are at: [url removed] Very nice work, Gunslinger! I used many of the tweaked textures, but ended up not using a lot of the more prominent ones. The houses look better and blend more into the background. I also like the snow texture and certainly the trees and tree bases (though the snow tree base is too grey, IMO). The trees and their bases are overall less "busy" than they were and don't stick out as much (exactly what I was hoping for). Though I did go back to the greener velvet grass textures. Gunslinger's seemed to be too grey to me (as did the 'brush' texture). Marsh is good, though. I ended up not using any of the modded vehicles or uniforms. I guess I just like the brighter colors from the other mods. BTW, the stone bridge looked real good, but it's actually a different type of stone bridge depending on whether it's intact or destroyed. Also, the summer and winter stone walls are different. I went back to *IX*Angela Deth's winter stone wall. And her frozen water is bluer than the one in Gunslinger's mod, so I went back to that one too. Regardless of which mods I (or any one else) use I hope that mod makers know how much their work is appreciated by those of us who lack the talent and drive to do this sort of thing. Thanks very much! It is a pain, though, to try to figure out what BMP is what. A beginning list of BMP mappings can be found here: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/010165.html Other I've documented: 10000~10071 editor buttons 1000~1092 unit info graphics 10340~10342 winter pillbox 10343~10345 winter wooden bunker 1100~1126 faces 11000~11002 main menu BG 11100~11270 menu graphics 1200 winter roof 1201~1202 roofs 1204~1206 fire (top) 1208 stone wall 1209~1210 foxholes 1211 barbed wire 1212~1215 flying debris from explosions 1217 hedge/bocage 1218 winter wall 1219 winter hedge/bocage 1220 AP mine marker 1221 TRP marker 1222~1223 exit zone 1224 AT mine marker 1225 ambush marker 1400~1444 sky 1470~1489 snow tile texture 1500~1519 low res grass (default) 1550~1569 high res grass 1600~1686 command menus 1700~1717 fire 1720~1729 explosion 1800 white smoke 1801 black smoke 2000~2015 menu buttons 2020 color strip? 300~302 white stucco house 30000~30002 text 30010 mouse pointer 303~320 houses 321~335 2-story buildings 336~339 church 340~342 pillbox 343~345 wood bunker 346~348 dark stone house w/ tudor gable 400~405 lost contact markers 420~425 small flags in menu 440~447 objective flags 500~544 trees 600~612 dirt road 613~627 paved road 628~633 marsh bases 634~639 wheat field 640 rough 641~646 water 642~652 summer woods bases 653~658 fall woods bases 659~671 train tracks 672 rubble 673 ford 674~678 pavement 679~684 brush bases 685~690 summer scattered tree bases 691~696 fall scattered trees bases 697~702 wheat field 800~819 snow 820~826 ice 830~844 snowy road 848 snowy pavement 849 snowy rough 850~855 snowy trees bases (all tree types) 860~880 snowy houses 881~895 snowy 2-story buildings 896~899 snowy church 906~908 snowy house 959~971 snowy train tracks 979~984 ??? Hope that helps somebody. - Chris [This message has been edited by Wolfe (edited 09-08-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Silesian-jaeger: Wolfe. I just wanted to say congratulations. I have never seen a more civil way of saying "use the search engine" on this board. Well done! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Thanks. I enjoy the threads anyway. Makes you think about how you play the game yourself. Besides, people's tastes change over time. At first, I was big on the Hellcat and Jumbo. The Hellkitty has a good gun and great speed, but it's much too vulnerable to smaller Axis guns (even the 20mm). Jumbo is nice, but is still vulnerable from the side and a KT can most certainly kill it. I've since migrated more towards the Jackson or Churchill VIII supported by roving .50cals myself. Though in one PBEM, my Jackson pinged 2 consecutive shells off the upper side hull of a Tiger at 8 meters distance. And no, I didn't misplace a decimal point. I really did mean 8 meters. - Chris

Some previous favorite AFV threads: StugIII sucks! Poll - What's Your Favorite German Tank? Poll - What's Your Favorite Allied Tank? Favorite German Armor Tank Surprises Armor: Favorite AFV in Combat Mission AFV - Bang For The Buck? Some arguments for the little guys: Why is the American M3A1 mounted with a 75mm cannon not included in CM? And don't forget about the mighty .50cal: Ridiculous kill: Jeep kills Hetzer Happy reading. - Chris [This message has been edited by Wolfe (edited 09-07-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Colin: That's not the most hits. I had an enemy Panther take well over 60 hits from a 57mm AT gun, a Sherman Jumbo (75), a M24 Chaffee and an M8 Greyhound. It also took at least one hit from a Shaped charge round from a 105mm hozitzer. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ha! That's nothing. If you want ricochets, I got yer ricochets right here, buddy! 52 pings off the frontal armor of a Churchill VIII in ONE SINGLE TURN! Try to beat *that*. Ricochet Alley can be found at: http://users.erols.com/chare/cm/ Ok, so it's completely unfair (hey, I didn't force the AI to choose those weapon types). But still a lot of fun. - Chris

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jarmo: <FONT FACE="Courier"> Let's find out </FONT> <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Actually I was wondering if it *looks* like a fixed-width font to Mac folks (i.e. do you have a fixed-width font on your systems called 'Courier' or 'Courier New')? - Chris

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by PawBroon: <FONT FACE="Forte">Wolfe you might want to upgrade your comp in order to play CM to its full extent. A bloody 486...</FONT> <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yep. A 486SX, too! One of these days I'm gonna get me a chip with one o' them thar FPU thingeys. Then I'll be really fast. Maybe even a Pentium-!!!^TM; it accelerates the Internet, dontcha know! - Chris

Ha! Fixed width font. So long as you have the 'Courier' font on your machine, this works: [font FACE=Courier]Fixed width font Just replace the brackets [] with <> and you get: <FONT FACE="Courier">Fixed width font</FONT> Hmmm. Wonder if that works for Mac folks too? - Chris

So, HTML does work! So why no fixed width font? <FONT SIZE="-1" FACE="Courier">Fixed width or no?</FONT> - Chris

We're ignoring you!!! Hmmm. Always wanted to try this: <TABLE CELLPADDING="3" CELLSPACING="3" BORDER="3"> <TR BGCOLOR="#0000CC"><TH COLSPAN="5"><BIG><BIG>486</BIG></BIG></TH></TR> <TR BGCOLOR="#0000CC"><TH>AMD Processors</TH><TH>Natural State</TH><TH>Sockets</TH><TH>L1 Cache</TH><TH>Transistors</TH></TR> <TR><TD BGCOLOR="#444499">Am486SX-33 July, 1993</TD><TD BGCOLOR=#444499">168 pins 33MHz (33x1) 5v</TD><TD BGCOLOR=#227356">Socket 1 Socket 2 Socket 3</TD><TD BGCOLOR=#6B6789">8KB unified</TD><TD BGCOLOR=#994444">? million ?µ process ?mm² die</TD></TR> <TR><TD BGCOLOR="#444499">Am486SX-33 October, 1993</TD><TD BGCOLOR=#444499">168 pins 33MHz (33x1) 3.0v</TD><TD BGCOLOR=#227356">486 Socket<SUP>1</SUP> Socket 1<SUP>1</SUP> Socket 2<SUP>1</SUP> Socket 3</TD><TD BGCOLOR=#6B6789">8KB unified</TD><TD BGCOLOR=#994444">? million ?µ process ?mm² die</TD></TR> </TABLE> - Chris

An interesting thread: Wespe Self-Kill Yes, it seems CM buildings do have 'soft' corners where units can shoot at each other through the edges of the buildings. One oddity I experienced is HE rounds seem more likely to impact building corners than AP rounds. Maybe it was just a small sampling, but I was play testing a scenario I had built where Shermans cross a bridge and then immediately come under fire from an AT gun. The AT gun was blocked from seeing the Sherms cross the bridge by a 2 story building, but could open up after they got across. Invariably, when the AT gun opened up, it was able to fire its AP rounds through the building pretty reliably while the HE from the Shermans would almost always hit the building. It could have been just a small statistical sample, but it definitely stuck out as odd. *shrug* - Chris

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>basically yes but please keep in mind that this is only the increase of matter alone due to geometric logic. There are additional factors of deflection, structure etc. that slope benefits from, much too compliacted for someone like me.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Oh, most certainly! The "math" I presented is a gross oversimplification and undoubtedly doesn't even describe how CM performs the calculation, much less what happens in real life. I was just looking for some very rough penetration numbers for the Faust since it isn't listed in the game. And that's exactly what I got, some very rough numbers. - Chris

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Chris a shaped charge rounds penetration limit, is not realy affected by the obliquity of impact.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Oh! So that's why I don't remember ever getting a ricochet with a shreck/zook IN CM. Thanks, John. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The fact alone that something hits the armor plate at an angle makes for an increase in effective armor, as the entry-exit distance through the armor is longer. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Interesting. So the actual amount of material the round would have to penetrate, given the results from tests I did with CM would be: <pre> Successful Penetration: 200/0 = N/A 178/30 = 206mm 152/45 = 215mm 114/60 = 228mm . Failed Penetration: 178/45 = 252mm 152/60 = 304mm </pre> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Panzerfaust ... is long overdue to an extensive overhaul ...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Great page, Markus. If I might make a suggestion: a summary table at the end of the pages listing the various specs (tube size, weight, etc) for each weapon would be real handy. Thanks again for the info, guys. - Chris [This message has been edited by Wolfe (edited 09-03-2000).]

Searched for numbers for CM, but didn't come up with anything, so I did some testing with CM. In CM, Panzerfausts can penetrate more than 178mm of armor at 0 degrees slope (178mm is the thickest Allied armor in CM). Panzerfaust puts the official number at 200mm. In CM, PFs can penetrate greater than 178mm of armor at 30 degrees (I obliqued the Jumbo to do the test). Again, no thicker armor is present in CM, so that's as close as I can get. At 45 degrees, penetration lies somewhere between 152mm (some penetrated, some didn't) and 178mm (all 12 hits on the Sherman Jumbo's front turret failed to penetrate). Ok, so maybe 12 isn't a statistical sample, but the PF also failed to penetrate the Jumbo's 152@6 side turret armor at 45 degrees as well as rear turret armor (152@2) sometimes. At other times it did get through, so I gotta figure 152mm is close to the limit for 45 degrees. At 60 degrees, penetration lies somewhere between 114mm and 152mm. There didn't seem to be any difference in penetrating power between the Panzerfaust 30, 60, and 100. Is there supposed to be? Incidentally, I had a panzershreck penetrate the front turret of a Sherman Jumbo (178@0) a couple of times; it's max penetration is listed as 170@0. Yeah, I know, the tables in CM are just rough guidelines, but still. - Chris [This message has been edited by Wolfe (edited 09-01-2000).]