ianc

Great post Jeff! Thanks for taking the time to work through this and share your results with us. Maybe I should take your figures and print out a little Terrain Effects Table. That way I can have a little ASL-like security blanket next to me as I play. ianc

Holy cow Bill, I just got my ass handed to me by the AI in Le Lorey. Nice work! #$^%$!^%@$ ianc

Just as and addon: I was playing a QB last nite as Germans, combined arms. I was given one platoon of inf, 4 HT's, a Puma, and a Stug to start with. Damned if the Ami's 60mm mortars didn't kill every last one of my halftracks AND the Puma by direct top hits by game's end. I was moving them around too... Fluke? How hard is it to hit something vehicle-sized with a mortar? Ian

I too have wished for a small routine allowing the different functions to be mappable to the key of choice. Another nice thing would be if the mouse wheel just coming into common usage could be used to scroll the map back and forth. Maybe in CM2, ianc

Yeah! A slap in the face insult is always a laff riot and a great way to end any discussion! Gotta love that low road! ianc

Then of course there's that Hund Minen guy...

Hmmmm... Hunt then reverse. Good thinkin', I'll have to give that a try. Kinda makes me wish that a pause could be issued mid-stream for a hunt-pause-reverse string. Thanks for the suggestion! ianc

Recently I've wanted to do something that I've seen the AI engage in very often: Pop around a corner, take a quick shot, then disengage again. Last nite a couple of cheeky halftracks were teaming up on one of my Tigers with this irritating maneuver. They'd alternately pull just out of cover, spray the Tiger with MG fire, then reverse back into cover again as its dog-slow turret tried to track them. I can't seem to figure out a way of doing this by issuing orders to my units. I understand that the TacAI will try to withdraw your unit if it detects that it's facing a serious threat, but I can't think of a way to do this on purprose beforehand. Anyone? Or is it one of those 'AI only' trix? ianc

"Damn, Fionn, I can see why people get so pissed off at you. Lighten up, and quit taking any question about CM as some kind of personal attack against you. It is just a game." Agreed. Like my mom used to say: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. ianc

WOW!

Madmatt, You put a comma instead of a period in the filename in the link to megawinter.jpg thus breaking it... ianc

<The Hetzer has low quality armor.Very low quality. The kind that doesn't have the strength you'd expect. We rate it at 85% which is probably generous.> I've seen some mention of this in previous threads. It's funny, but in all my readings, I haven't seen reference to late-war German vehicles being made of poor quality armour. In fact, in 1943-44, Otto Carius (CO of SPzAbt 502) reported that the crews were generally very pleased with the quality of the armour on their tigers, reporting that most shells would just glance off like butter, instead of cracking or breaking the armour. Not doubting you, just interested in further reading if you can divulge some of your sources on this. Thanks, ianc

Well, here's a little suggestion I'd like to offer to BTS. I'd like to see a little slot in the unit info screen (just what you see when you click on a unit, not by pressing enter) saying whether the unit is carrying passengers, and if they are, what they are exactly. If I'm in camera 4 and looking down at a gang of HT's, I can't tell without going to each one and selecting it, then pressing enter, what its passenger is. Just a suggestion... ianc

Drop me a line at ianc@buzzsaw.com, ianc

Last nite I was playing a quick battle and had a Mk IV sneaking around some woods trying to flank some Shermans that were up on a hill giving my guys hard times. He emerged between two houses, and I ordered him up a steep slope and up a road where he would come out behind them. Apparently the slope was too steep. He started driving, but began to slow down near the top, then finally lost traction and slid backwards down the hill again. Then, after a brief pause to calm down (and without further orders), he skirted the steep slope, got on the road at the bottom of the hill and carried on, narrowly winning the Sherman shootout. Cool! ianc

Sorry, forgot: ianc@buzzsaw.com

Hi all, Just finished making a winter camo set of graphics for the Tiger 1. Now I know why MadMatt's not jumping all over these since it definitely took a LONG TIME! It's not quite up to Colin Chung's fine work, but certainly serviceable. If anybody wants to give them a whirl I'll email you a .zip of the bumps (about 250K, sorry, Windows only...). Just unzip 'em to your \cmbo\bmps directory and the next time you fire up a winter scenario, your Tigers will be appropriately dressed. Need somebody to post these and any that anyone else has made somewhere. MadMatt, maybe a vehicle archive? Interested in seeing more from people, ianc

<I don't have the full game (yet) but in the demo scenarios I divided all my guys up into piles so I could keep track of them before I place them. > Yup, me too. That's a good, if unwieldy solution to the Quick Battle, but some of the premade scenarios have units scattered everywhere, and already padlocked in place... ianc

I've had this as well, where shot-up infantrymen run in strange directions after being routed. I kinda wish they'd just get the hell gone so my tanks will stop targeting them... I would think it's an AI thing. Maybe broken units could run in the opposite direction from the nearest enemy unit, generally sort of 'back where they came from'? ianc

I've had the 'dead Wittman' syndrome many times as well. Popped right through the turret rear. I like Pfalz XIII's idea of a 'Target AFV\AT Only' command selection. Perhaps Charles or Steve will chip in. ianc

Hey guys, Most vehicle's summer camouflage jobs in winter scenarios is getting to me a bit. MadMatt, I loved your winterized Hetzer, so I sat down and fiddled in the bumps directory for a little while. It seems to me that the game will automatically load a texture set for winter if it's the same filename but preceded by a '1'. I'm dying to see a winter Panther or Tiger, so my first thought was just to take one of the original bumps, modify it, and save it with a '1' in the name. Simply 'modifying' it is not a pleasant proposition however. Using Windows' Paint, it means basically touching almost every pixel in the file. What software packages are you guys using? How are you making these? Is there a package which will just substitute one color range for another? Any hints available for the good of the fledgling modsters? CoolColj, I also like your divisional and tactical markings, but it appears that the game uses the same side-bump for both sides of the vehicle. Any way of getting around this that you know of? Do tell, I want to start my modified collection of vehicle bumps! ianc

Guys, I and some others are in total agreement with you. For example, take a look at some of the huge scenarios included in the game and it's a real pita to get an idea of what your force actually consists of and where everybody is when you're just starting it. I'd like to see the RH pane of the 'buy' screen (from quick battle or scenario builder) available in-game as a hot key that would allow you to jump to the view point of a unit when you click on it. Actually, I'm just prevaricating. This particular topic has been done to death in the past, so do some searches. BTS has said that they will think about including such an organizational feature in CM2, but it will not be made available in CM1. Search! ianc

Coming up empty on Tues. in San Rafael.. Ok, just cracked my 4th beer. Wanna hear a really pathetic story? I thought so. There is this girl at work who is a hottie. H-O-T-T-I-E. I met her in the kitchen last week and we got to talking. I asked her if she had been to any of the company-sponsored shindigs held on Wednesdays. She said no, but she thought she'd go to the one this week. "Chitter chatter, blah blah, great! Maybe I'll see you there then!" The pathetic part is that I'll probably blow her off tomorrow just to come home and see if there's a !@##@$ manila envelope in my mailbox instead! There's something wrong with me... ianc

...PS: No crap the forum's getting boring. ... It'll never get boring with threads like these! ianc

Camera rotating around a point! RIGHT ON! ianc