jim crowley

Ditto. Oh well, at least I know its not down to my PC. Cheers Jim

Just had an e-mail from MadMatt. Apparently these new forums were designed to divert certain dysfunctional "rogue elements" from the main issues, in the hope that they become inextricably entangled in mindless trivia; thus leaving the main forums clear for normal,sane individuals. Seems to have worked. Cheers Jim

Just had an e-mail from MadMatt. Apparently these new forums were designed to divert certain dysfunctional "rogue elements" from the main issues, in the hope that they become inextricably entangled in mindless trivia; thus leaving the main forums clear for normal,sane individuals. Seems to have worked. Cheers Jim

Not content with Skunkworks for "secret" people, now there's two new private forums; Have Blue and Aurora for "other projects" What sort of sinister shenanigens are the BFC gang up to? What exotic tricks will emerge from up their collective sleeves? Will bones now only be available in a mysterious code? Will they ever let slip some information about CMX2? Interesting, if baffling, times! Cheers Jim

Not content with Skunkworks for "secret" people, now there's two new private forums; Have Blue and Aurora for "other projects" What sort of sinister shenanigens are the BFC gang up to? What exotic tricks will emerge from up their collective sleeves? Will bones now only be available in a mysterious code? Will they ever let slip some information about CMX2? Interesting, if baffling, times! Cheers Jim

A few more.... A broader range of pre-built scenario types such as raids, dalaying actions, break-outs etc. without having to rely on individual scen designers having to manipulate the standard and fairly limited probe/attack/assualt/exit situations. This in turn could lead to more flexible victory conditions, less related to just flags and casualties. Instead of flags, possibly zones with each successive zone yielding a greater number of points for each unit that enters. Perhaps battles that end "naturally" rather than on an arbitrary timer, with more points garnered for quicker victories. QB's capabilities expanded to include all battle types including river crossings, para and glider drops and able to include reinforcements and resupply. The correct ranks of command for the British Army Jim

Nothing new here, I should think, but my two h'pence worth. All based on assumptions that BFC will continue with land-based WW2, tactical level combat on a similar scale to the original CM. An option, at least, to have a more command oriented enviroment where only units in C&C can be given orders and from whom info about themselves and the enemy can be obtained. This could be watered-down to a limited set of orders and just generic info on enemy units. HQ's and individual leaders would become far more important and players would need to exercise control in maintaining and re-establishing C&C. Another option to have even more intense FoW than "extreme", perhaps tied into the above suggestion. Certainly enemy armour hit/damage info should be much more sparse. Potential leader-loss. Instead of platoon/company/batt HQ's reducing in size due to casualties, there could be a percentage chance, relative to the number of men in the HQ, that the actual leader is KIA/WIA. This would lead to loss of leader bonuses and potential disruption of chain of command. More terrain variety, such as steams, trails, high, medium and low walls, all destructible; with more complex and realistic building types and groupings. Hinted at by BFC previously; units having some "memory" as to the prescence of previously spotted enemy units. If this could be expanded to include some basic situational awareness about the terrain and the general location of the enemy perhaps the "dance of the headless chickens" could be avoided. Linked to the above would be the AI setting up in sensible, in-command formations, without needing to spread itself all over the place to take advantage of "cover", which often isn't even needed. A "solution" to borg spotting. Some of the above could go someway to alleviating it. All set in Western Europe '40 and '44 Well, there's nothing like wishful thinking, is there? Cheers jim

You could try "Russian tanks of World War 11" by Tim Bean & Will Fowler, published by Ian Allan Publishing in 2002.176 pages, lots of photos and some useful appendices. Cost in UK was £18.99 Not as much technical data as in the Zaloga/Grandsen book (which is excellent)but perhaps a little more accessible, especially for those with not too much knowledge on the subject. A cheaper alternative to buying lots of Osprey books - although they are very good as well. Cheers Jim

CMX2 was, I believe, "presented" as being a platform for potentially many battlefieds, even eras. I suppose most us CM afficienados are keen to see what the first of those battlefields will be and whether or not it will be our personal favourite. However, if CMX2 is indeed a flexible, modular engine, then even if the first offering is not to an individual's taste perhaps it won't take too long to produce new battlefields to suit, eventually, most tastes. The build-up has been somewhat subdued, compared to that surrounding CMBO, which was a very exciting time but I dare say there will be some news in due course. My prediction, FWIW, is that we will initially see a return to the Western front but covering both 1940 and 1944. Anyone taking bets? Cheers Jim

SIGH!!!! Back to square one. Literally. Exactly the same problem; same error message, everything. Bios is fixed at 8xAGP (greyed-out, so can't change it) AGP aperture is at 64mb fast re-writes disabled. Have tried 56.72 drivers as well; no difference. It also freezes up when I try the benchmarking programme 3DMark03. Could this be a problem graphics card?

I took the plunge.....formatted the HD, reinstalled Windows, that wonderfully robust operating system. Touch wood, all is well (thus far!) Thanks for your time guys, now I acn get back to some CM gaming.

Hpt.Lisse. No changes at all, AFAIK. The only thing I have ever conciously changed are the vid. drivers and each succesive one has made the situation worse. In fact I'm sure that's when the problem started; first driver change after CMAk came out. Trouble is I have no idea what driver was in place then and should I really need to have old, presumably less efficient drivers, to run CMAK? I might just try going on to the Nvidia site and getting an older driver just to see if it makes a difference. Thanks for the interest.

Problem: CMAK locks-up for no obvious reason. This can happen after 10 seconds or maybe as long as two minutes. There are two incarnations of lock-up: a)The screen freezes totally, necesitating a reboot. This tends to happen in relatively static screens such as scenario selection or naming a PBEM file. b)the screen freezes (usually at some point in a turn); the mouse pointer still moves, but without function. I can ctrl/alt/del and this puts me back to desktop with Windows task manager on. I then get up an "unhandeled exception C0000005 at address 6d919c48" Clicking on anything clears CMAK away with a windows message saying CMAK exe. has had to close down. My system is: Asus A7V8X Athlon MB AMD athlon 2700XP 512MB DDR333 memory 128MB Geforce 4 Ti4800SE (6175 drivers, but previous two have same effect) Audigy 1394(5.1)player 80 GB HD (only half of it being used) This doesn't happen with anything else. Very occaisional forays into Morrowind, Medieval Total War, HPS Alamein produce no problems, nor do any demos that are downloaded. I remain baffled, which is not difficult! If anyone can throw any light on this, I shall be most gratefull; if not then CMAK will have to become a thing of the past.

Ugh. What happened? What was I talking about? Something about skunks.....don't like them. Perhaps it wasn't important...... But.....what is that strange smell?

A new "restricted access" forum for "other" projects. I wonder if there are any clues in the name? Or do I smell something in the air?

The Tiger is indeed up and "running". It was recently driven into the museum under its own power for the first time, using the original Maybach engine. For those able to get there, Bovington will be hosting a "Tankfest" on May 23, at which, along with many others, the Tiger is expected to do a circuit.

Where is this driver? It doesn't appear to be on the Nvidia site.

Another addition to the ranks of the "mature" - 49. Cheers Jim

Recent QB. Lone Piat team move across open ground towards scattered trees (to try and obtain a LoS to an enemy vehicle) Just short of the tree line they sight a foxhole; as they close on the foxhole they spot an enemy FO team in it. The Piat team carries on, moves into the same foxhole as the German observer team and then proceeds to target, fire at and knock-out the enemy vehicle. The two occupants of the foxhole (actually four) then proceed to stare at each other for the remainder of the turn. At the start of the next turn, the piat team is ordered to attack the FO. At virtually point-blank range (the unit bases are completely merged) it fires the piat and destroys the FO! The FO, in the meantime has done absolutely nothing. Unlikely or what? Don,t these folk have a pistol between them,or the sense to run away. And can you imagine loading a piat a few feet away from your enemy and then firing it, while they just sit and look at you. Realism seems to have departed in this instance. Cheers Jim

\\\\\\testing

Take this as my vote for more / full randomisation in QB's I also very much like Jumbo's idea of possibly mixed experience levels within a given force. Cheers Jim

As the fully authorised representative of the Senior Officers, British Commonwealth, serving in the CM sector, I really must protest as to the very poor show regarding ranks. The fact is that Company C. O.’s are Majors and Battalion C.O.’s are Lt. Colonels, at the very least, and more often full Colonels. To reinforce this point I will introduce you to the RSM. RIGHT YOU BLOODY ‘ORRIBLE SHOWER AT BTS, LISTEN TO WHAT THE COMMANDING OFFICER IS TELLING YOU AND GET IT SORTED!!! IF THINGS AREN’T SHIPSHAPE BY 1.1, YOU’LL FEEL THE SHARP END OF MY BOOT UP YOUR BLEEDING YANKEE ARSES. DO YOU UNDERSTAND!!! Yes, er very eloquently put S ‘ Major. Do see what you can do old chaps. With all due apologies and a happy new year Jim

Absolutely! I've recently generated dozens of QB's, based on combined arms from 500 - 1500 points, and the result is nearly always the same. Lots of infantry and support weapons; occasionally a few vehicles (usually half-tracks or carriers); very rarely a tank or two. This is markedly different from even ver. 1.05, which I reloaded just to check. The 'combined arms' selection is just not producing a mixed selection any more. It seems that to get a reasonable mixture you now need to choose the 'Armour' option, which often chooses an amount of infantry and support weapons as well as tanks. 'Infantry' still seems to produce a pure infanty selection. Cheers Jim