civdiv
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Posts posted by civdiv
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Personally, I wouldn't bother with it. Yeah, you could spend the money and bring it up to par, but you are still stuck with a middle-of-the-road processor, and old MB, and old memory architecture. Systems like this are designed for people who know nothing about computers. I mean, 20GB HD and 128 MB RAM, why even bother? You basically bought a case, a power supply, and a processor as everything else needs to be upgraded.Originally posted by Andreas:Hi
Got the offer to take home this PC Dell Optiplex GX 260 for a small fee. Question is whether this would be worth it - it needs memory (UKP100 for 1GB), a graphics card unless the built-in Intel 845GV or whatever its called can handle CM (and the best it could take appears to be AGP 4x which I make to be an ATI Radeon NO FOG 128MB or Nvidia MX440) at UK25, and a new HDD at say UKP50 to play CMBB and maybe IL-2 FB (which is all I want). Then I would need to buy a monitor at UKP200 and a wireless router at UK25. Total system cost including the fee UKP300 (US$450) plus the hassle of putting it all together. Processor is a Pentium 5 2.4.
Any views on this? Is it worth getting considering the follow-on cost? The prime reason for getting this over my G4 is that it would be a space-saving measure compared to the G4 tower and that I could play IL-2.
All the best
Andreas
Since you were going to do the upgrades yourself, why not just gut your existing desktop, I mean, the case and powersupply, at a minimum should bbe reusable. I mean, look here;
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828379&sku=A458-1116%20B
for $279 you get more stuff than you would keep off that Gateway system. And you aren't suck with old architecture. Or here;
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1580857&sku=I69-2114%20A
Or even here;
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1592094&sku=M450-2018%20F
Especially with the last one, you get a much better processor, better MB and memory architecture, a big power supply, and 1 GB of ram. Yeah, you still need the monitor and the video card, but you are starting with a modern computer as opposed to one that is already like 2 years old. I mean, PC2100? That's closer to 3 years old, I think.
Now, I am not recommending the specs on these systems, I haven't done any research, you might want to research the MBs. But I don't do desktops anymore, I'm all laptops now. But I used to build my own systems.
Just my $.02.
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In a scenario I'm playing, in the midst of a battle between some of my tanks, and a combination of dug in infantry and a couple of AT guns, I lost 7 out of 8 tank commanders in like 2 turns. I think the ranges to the enemy infantry was at least 150 meters, and I didn't take any indirect fire that I noticed. I really never saw it happen, I mean, no duels with AT guns, and it seemed like the enemy infantry were concentrating on my own infantry. I know that isn't a lot of info to go on, but is this probably a sniper or multiple snipers?
What are your feelings on when to button up, when to unbutton?
This is sort of the second time this has happened to me. I had two tanks right next to each other in another scenario both lose their commanders in the same turn, and I didn't even note incoming fire.
Are the TCs too vulnerable to snipers in this game?
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Good article that speaks to this issue;
Why Arabs Can't Fight by Kenneth Pollack;
http://www.ciaonet.org/conf/ssr01/ssr01af.html
The site requires a password but you can get a one week trial just by providing your name and address. No credit card or anything required.
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No we just ask them the same question three times. On the third they have to tell us the truth.Originally posted by GasMask:Oh yeah? I heard that deployment sucked big time. I joined 2/2 three months before we left for Iraq, which was March 2004 and all I heard for those 3 months was, "all man, I just spent 9 months there an now I gotta go back after only 9 months home." I felt bad for everybody there lol.
By the way, you HET are guys are pretty cool, I always wandered if you guys interigated the Iraqis like Ace Ventura interigated that guy about the bat on part 2. "Vwhere... is... zee bat!?"
Yeah, it really did suck. Like 3 days of liberty in over 9 months. Saw some cool places though.
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Welcome aboard. And it is indeed a small world. I was with the 24th MEU when 2/2 was the BLT, during the 2002-2003 deployment. I was a HET guy so I spent a lot of time with all of the infantry companies in the MEU.Originally posted by GasMask:Hey all, I'm new to the sight and actually new to the Combat Mission game franchize. I always heard it was a damn good war sim but never could find it. Well, I just bought Afrika Corps and it rocks.
Anyways, I just got out of the Corps in July and spent most of 2004 in Iraq with 2D Bn 2D Marines in the Suni Triangle (sp). Ever since I've been back I have noticed a lot of TV shows and games trying to make money on the Iraq war and usually they just make some cheesy crap, kind of like Wind Talkers was cheesy for WWII, or Heart Brake Ridge was cheesy for that era. Anyways, I'm very glad to see that you guys are developing a game based on the middle east and on Modern Warfare. By seeing the dedication you put into your other games, I am sure that this will be the most comprehensive and accurate middle east combat sim. I'm sure that I won't be embarrassed to play it like some other games.
I'm also very happy to read that you will have Marines in the game, because let's just face it, the Army is in Iraq to stabalize it, while the Corps is in Iraq to hunt down terrorists, and who wouldn't want to play a game where you're using some hard core Marines to take out a few terrorists.
I never new how many military guys played this thing till I was reading on these boards. WOW. Anyways, I'm looking for someone to play online with or via e-mail, so if you guys are up for it, send me an e-mail.
Semper Fidelis
And keep up the great work. Out.
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Some time ago I downloaded a PDF file describing ASL to CM map conversion. It was off one of the various CM sites, probably Der Kessel oder another site I can´t remember. I can send it to your email if you like.Originally posted by RockinHarry:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by civdiv:
I'm trying to recreate some SL/ASL maps. I'm starting with SL Map-1 as I want to design a Tractor Works/Guards Counterattack scenario for CM. But I am having real problems trying to make diagonal buildings. How can I build these larger (multihex) diagonal buildings in CM? Here is the map I am trying to recreate;
Here's the link to the actual pictures (bigger);
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7622/slmap10lh.gif
I'm primarily worried about the 2 diagonal buildings, and that triangular one is a pain also. The buildings over 2 hexes, but smaller than the really large ones are a pain also, but the factory tiles can be used. It is supposed to be an industrial area around the Tractor Works in Stalingrad.
I'm also having trouble getting the roads to come together. This is due to a lack of tiles that allow three roads to come together in CM. I can do it, but the roads end up having gaps in them. Also, since CM maps are squares, and SL maps are hexes, I am having trouble running roads right down the sides of buildings. I either end up with the buildings 20 meters from the roads, or else the building edges run across portions of the roads. The latter affect is probably more accurate, but viasually it doesn't work great. And keep in mind that the hexes in SL are 40 meters, while the squares in CM are 20 meters. So each hex in the map I linked would actually be 2x2 tile s in CM.
Also, am I correct in stating that there are no large wooden buildings available in CM?
I know the conversion process will be imprefect, I am just looking for some tips. More than anything I am just trying to get into designing some scenarios. I;m sure my finished product will end of bearing little resemblance to the scenario I am trying to recreate.
Thanks for your help.
</font>
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Alright, a new, real newbie, question. Is there anyway to display elevation contours in the game? I've seen them displayed in briefing packs, how do you turn them on in the game?
[ February 05, 2006, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: civdiv ]
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Did you take any of these? </font>Originally posted by LtCol West:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by civdiv:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by LtCol West:
Here are some pics of some American warriors with their Iraqi Army brothers-in-arms:
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[jasonc]You silly, whining, girlie man, shut your little pie hole. You've gotten all the answers you deserve you whining little pissant. Your Shermans die because you were born with a silver spoon in yer mouth, and they flame up like hibachis because you have no business even coming into my presence! Now bow down and thank your lucky stars that I even hit the reply button, as I seriously doubt if the good lord really intended you to have opposing thumbs!!Originally posted by Dave Stockhoff:I may be risking a spanking myself, but I am really curious about the LOS question I posed above. I'll rephrase it:
Was it a fluke when a schreck targeted, hit, and killed my Sherman at about 60 meters through a small stone house that should have been hiding right behind the house? I've been playing CM since CMBO came out and I have never seen this.
If so, which was the fluke, the targeting or the kiling?
[/jasonc]
Just kidding.
[ February 04, 2006, 08:25 PM: Message edited by: civdiv ]
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Did you take any of these?Originally posted by LtCol West:Here are some pics of some American warriors with their Iraqi Army brothers-in-arms:
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Oh, I wasn't talking about giving it up, just taking a break from it. I think you can see from the number of questions I have asked, and the time I have taken to provide screen shots and the like, I have tried to really get into the game. I have no thoughts of giving it up, but I was getting a bit frustrated.Originally posted by BulletRat:JasonC you may know a fair bit about the game but maybe you should work on your people skills a little more. As fas as I can see civdiv was asking a legitimate question - maybe a little frustrated and confused with the way the game works - hence the "attitude" appearance.
Relax mate, take 5 mins out sheesh.
Civdiv, play the game a bit more - just as a learning experience and be prepared to lose guys even where you don't think you will. You'll soon get an idea of what can and can't be done in the game - experiment a little, remember of course that if that HT was yours and the squad was a bunch of krauts I'm pretty sure you'd be happy you could see them!
So don't give up on the game mate, it's the best WWII strat game bar-none that I have found yet - I'm far from the best player around and I've been playing CMBB since it came out, but every time I load up a map I usually learn a little more by the time the map is done.
So don't take a loss personally, it's just the way the battle pans out sometimes.
Hope that helps.
And Take Command is now loaded and patched.
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Thanks Jason, I am cutting sand pasting these into another document.
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Other means, sticky, flaming, and anyone else who suggested it,Originally posted by Other Means:Estimate the distance from the edge of the woods to the HT. Add 10m. MTC with a cover arc set to this value towards the HT HT through the woods. Keep the HT buttoned with fire = probably a dead HT. Probably.
You're best having him stop before the end of the minute as close to the HT as possible without leaving cover and without firing. Then fire for the full minute the next turn.
A PIATs max accurate range is ~40m, or at least that's what I play to. It looks to me like you're trying to fire 93m through trees - would you do that in real life?
I've never seen LOS through the ground. There's issues with woods etc but you learn that 1 10*10m "tile" can probably be seen through but any more than that no.
Scattered trees can go out to 25 or so. Just guesses, find your own values.
You only assault when you know there's no one with a full loaded machine gun waiting for you.
Find, fix, flank, finish.
Find the enemy.
Fix them in position with fire - get their heads down.
Flank - get to a positon you can fire past their cover, generally at some angle to there current facing.
Finish. Kill them. Generally with bullets but the final holdouts can be cleared with grenades.
Not find - charge.
One of the best things to me in CM is seeing these small scale firefights and how you can take some cover to flank a position, and then use that position falling to get leverage on more positions until the line is broken. But it's all done with fire, not bodies.
Great suggestion. I'll try the MTC with the covered arc next time I play. That will be scenario four of Sie Kommen, a FANTASTIC series/mod.
[ February 03, 2006, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: civdiv ]
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!?!?Originally posted by JasonC:civdiv - Halftrack MGs are not one inch off the ground. Grow up and stop moaning, you sound like a spoiled brat.
I am trying to understand the mechanics of this game and you are calling me a spoiled brat?
I don't give a rat's you-know-what if the MG is mounted on the top of the gunner's helmet, he can't see them. Ok, now I understand why, your explanation was good. But I am a spoiled brat for what, asking why the AI is shooting through terra firma?
No, don't answer that, this is going nowhere good.
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I already answered it but I should have put it in the original post, but it seemed clear to me. The guys were sneaking. And yes, I understand about the 'footprint', but regardless of where they were in the square, they were behind the finger.Originally posted by civdiv:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by junk2drive:
civdiv I had the opposite happen with a unit (PB?) below a ridge. As my troops moved above the ridge they were hit and went to ground. I had no LOS to the unit but it continued to fire at the troops.
Remember that we see three solidier icons but the game sees 10-12 men spread out in a "footprint".
Sorry to not have been clear originally. </font>
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Airborne scenario with stuff scattered on the map (really along two edges). When you throw in the small size of the map (About a company and a half versus a company), plus my flanking maneuvers, I've worked down about 65% of the map edges, so it's tough to avoid.Originally posted by jbertles:Originally posted by civdiv:
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Anyway, just as the two squads assaulted, a half platoon of German reinforcements appeared litterally 5 meters from the two squads. The squads made short work of the reinforcements, but it kept them from assaulting the buttoned HT, that promptly slaughtered them. Maybe CM should show off board sound contacts to let you know something is about to appear? But that is definately a contributing factor in the HT causing 24 casualties.
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Reinforcements materializing like that are a sign of sloppy scenario design, not bad game mechanics.
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I already answered it but I should have put it in the original post, but it seemed clear to me. The guys were sneaking. And yes, I understand about the 'footprint', but regardless of where they were in the square, they were behind the finger.Originally posted by junk2drive:civdiv I had the opposite happen with a unit (PB?) below a ridge. As my troops moved above the ridge they were hit and went to ground. I had no LOS to the unit but it continued to fire at the troops.
Remember that we see three solidier icons but the game sees 10-12 men spread out in a "footprint".
Sorry to not have been clear originally.
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Full FOW and the guys were sneaking when they were spotted.Originally posted by Wicky:@civdiv - Quick question to clarify: What FOW setting are your playing on?
Edit: Sorry Dave S not to you - yours is like a fluke winning Euro lottery or rather not winning the jackpot after buying 176 million tickets or sumfink
From the pics the soldiers were presumably standing when they were legitimately spotted behind the small rise on the edge of the woods. The 'targeting' line has a small linger time even when the target drops out of LOS and was that when you took the screenie?
If I were in that situation I'd either immediately 'hide' the crunchies, to try and maintain a break in contact, and give them a sneak order deeper into cover, or aternatively issue a withdraw order again deeper into cover
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Ok, further question, how is sniper resolution handled? I notice they have no firepower factors, just a simple range. Is this really abstracted? How do they handle targte selection? Do they tend to single out HQ units? Is there just a simple chance, based on terrain, that they will cause a casualty every time they fire?
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Now, another case of a screwy LOS computation;
Hmmmmm......
link to full picture;
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/589/losa8vb.jpg
It is clearly (to me) blocked by the actual ground;
link to full picture;
http://img431.imageshack.us/img431/1500/losb6km.jpg
Here it is with terrain and trees removed;
full image;
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/2192/losc4ic.jpg
Hmmmm...., mirrors;
full image;
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/679/lose0po.jpg
[ February 03, 2006, 10:41 AM: Message edited by: civdiv ]
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I'm not very familiar with the PIAT. I guess I sort of equated it with a shorter range bazooka. But regardless, the first time I tried with the PIAT he started with a 28% hit chance. He probably took 6 shots from that location, and then he moved up, and missed twice more. The HT wasn't moving, nor was the PIAT guy taking fire such that he was even cautious. He still missed with all 8 shots.A PIATs max accurate range is ~40m, or at least that's what I play to. It looks to me like you're trying to fire 93m through trees - would you do that in real life?What would I do in real life with a PIAT? I'd throw it away and nail the HT with an AT-4.
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Well, I had a saved game from a couple of turns previous to the disaster I described above. One of the causes for the disaster was Murphy showing up near the halftrack. While I had my PIAT guy plinking away at the halftrack, I had mortars firing at the HT trying to get it to button, and two squads assaulting it. The mortars did button the HT, but then I learned yet another lesson in CM; a buttoned HT still fires. Buttoned tanks can't use the mg in the cupula, so it makes no sense whatsoever, except maybe the fact that the HT has a small gun shield.
Anyway, just as the two squads assaulted, a half platoon of German reinforcements appeared litterally 5 meters from the two squads. The squads made short work of the reinforcements, but it kept them from assaulting the buttoned HT, that promptly slaughtered them. Maybe CM should show off board sound contacts to let you know something is about to appear? But that is definately a contributing factor in the HT causing 24 casualties.
Anyways, on to the tale of success. On the mg's in the trench, I crept close, and then dropped some area 76mm mortar fire on them (I could see the trench but I had no targets.). While I did take one casualty due to the mortars, I did suppress one MG and the HQ element. My two squads fired on them to suppress them more for one minute. One MG (the pinned one) did quickly recover, turned, and killed my HQ element and got two guys from one squad. But the other MG panicked and routed, and was gunned down by my other squad. With both squads concentrating on the other MG, he was routed, and then my squads closed in a wiped them out.
On the other flank I moved my PIAT closer (around 40 meters), and he nailed the HT with his first shot.
[ February 03, 2006, 09:38 AM: Message edited by: civdiv ]
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David and meatetr,
I agree the LOS tool helps a lot. But my problems center around picking out good positions to move to, to engage particular targets. You can't check LOS, besides with the mark-1 eyeball, unless you have a unit occupying the location you want to determine LOS from.
jason,
Having spent a lot of time in the military, I know what orders and such I would give my guys, and I'd have a good idea of how they would respond. I'm just trying to translate that into the mechanics of this game.
So what is the equivelent of; 'Ok, sneak towards that halftrack there and get into a good position to nail him with the PIAT. Now, if he spots you, take your shot'
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Ok, some related questions, and then I'll post some screenshots that really confuse me. Shots that clearly show LOS' bbeing traced through the ground. Not through bushes, not through scattered trees, but right through good ol' mother earth. Or am a beating a dead horse here? I can see terrain features such as individual bushes being approximated, but the actual ground also?
1. Anyways, sneaking, hiding, etc. It seems that my infantrey squads in particular, seem to have a habit of coming out of hiding and/or firing, even if I give them a sneak and hide command. I would assume a sneak and hide command would make them sneak for a while, and then coninue to be stealthy when they reach the end of their movement. And I am not talking about firing at nearby units, I am talking about targets that are almost 200 meters away.
2. Also, if I give a unit a sneak and hide command, and a covered arc, will that cause them to pop out of their sneak hide status to engage the target?
3. The same with a movement command. If I give them a covered arc and an enemy either enters the covered arc, or the unit moves close enough so the enemy is in the covered arc, will they cease movement and begin to engage?
4. The same question as 3, but what if they are sneaking?
M1A2..how tough?
in Combat Mission Shock Force 1
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