killmore

Thanks! I am going up hill and Stug is in hull down position. So penetration chances should decrease

If I have a tank with 30 deg slopped armour but it is on 15 deg slope will the game now count that his armour is 45 deg slopped and therefore reduce chance of penetrations?

I doubt if a buttoned tank can spot a stug hull down after it fired at it just once. But in the game it ALWAYS happens

I agree that there is still a chance of a knockout in hull down position. Just the odds here are amazing. The darn randomness allowed on the two first shots from two different tanks two penetrations of hull down stug while stug missed 3 times. That gotta be terrible luck, don't you agree? The problem is that this seems to happen a lot on my machine... It did happen to me once (in the first game!) that hull down stug killed 3 shermans. It did not miss even once! And it actually scored 7 hits but only 3 were kills. Then a sherman killed it by firing a single round from the very edge of the map. This makes for exciting game... Maybe a bit too exciting.

Here is an idea totally converting CC1 or CC3:West front to CM. So who is doing it? (Not me )

Ok. Stug hull down sees 2 Shermans. Fires a shot & misses. Shermans rotate turrets. Stug fires and misses. Both shermans fire at hull down stug. Stug fires and missed. Shermans? 2 Simultanious Stug penetrations. Stug is dead. (It was hull down! - shermans were in the middle of the road) Gee I wonder if AI is given maybe a bigger chances from time to time...

Ok. I will try hunt command - I am not very clear as to what it is doing...

I am playing Chance Encounter. I was able to position all of my stugs hull down. (That what game said). But it seems that it took alies only 3 shots to kill each one. So my stugs lasted only short while - only 2 allied tanks died... What else I need to do? (Obviously I should try to play allies...) I guess allies are more experienced then stugs. We also need this: A meniu option that will say "Move tank until given point is in line of sight". This will eliminate me trying to move stug just an inch forward to get hull down position.

Since you are in marketing that explains a lot of things! If there is a discussion - let it die on its own. Don't tell me what they are saying because you don't know that. Now for fionn: Obviously there are many ways to do things. One of them is in EXE. That makes it harder to reverse engineer things. I already said that to do things the way I am desribing would take more time and require rewrite - therefore it is probably not rational! Just creating vehicles models should not require code rewrite. I can accept that they don't want to do that. I am simply debating this with you guys. All I am saying is that it is possible and doable. As well as it will reinforce community and thus might result in larger profits. As for vehicles: 1) Soviet vehicles are not ready yet. 2) Early vehicles (1941) are not ready. I was pretty sure from the beginning that BTS will not be interested but I was interested what will happen if I start this discussion. No, I will not make any unfounded or other accusations. What would I accuse? Why? That would be brain dead. I will admit that I am not a game engineer (We did sell 1500 copies once. When I was a student). I write mainly OS and Satelite SW. I would love to see add-ons like Japanese stuff thats why I would enable people to create new units, but I am not BTS so I do not have the same vision/point of view as they have. Interestingly enough I don't see any convincing (to me) counter arguments. But don't worry I am NOT going to point fingers and try to make BTS look bad. This is not the point. I am not going to say that BTS is bad company and they are !@#$ if they don't accept my idea. Common, this way never on my mind.

Good point there. Well I guess tanks often level trees if needed but in CM we can't do that.

Now if BTS has contracted people to do all the units then it does not make sense. But if they make units themselves then they do it one by one. And just let people make models for units they are planing to do at the end. Why not allow adding the units that people make after release? As long as unit is realistic and balanced why not allow people to add their own unit? and create checksum for them if needed. Tank is a tank is a tank. It has turret, ROF etc - all these can be in spec file. Model can be in another file. And if you write AI correctly you can use same algorithm for every tank - but the behavious will change due to its gun, ROF, protection etc. Coding units into EXE is not necessary. Trust me I am a programmer and I have added units before. If you are afraid of cheating - solution is simple. Checksum will be given to the unit once it is approved by "community" by vote. then it will be available for download from BTS. Otherwise to test units you can just play "cm.exe -nochecksums" Most of above things will produce more work for BTS. Therefore they are "questionable". But if they let people create 3D models before "dead line" that should not require extra effort from BTS if done correctly. And by the way they don't even have to pay people. They can simply let prople vote on what was the best unit made by 3rd party and give that person some kind of bonus.

Can a tank be unable to rotate its gun because the building wall will stop its nozzle?

BTS SHOULD NOT DEPEND on people to deliver the units! They should not count on it either! I leaned well there is no way you can depend on external help!!! But it might save them some time and should not in any way interfere with them. This will only work if BTS WILL NOT count on the units being produced by other people. But if there is a perfectly good/working 3D model why not use it, save yourselves some time and reward its creator? They should just allow the people to model while they develop the game engine twicks. There is a date by units have to be in. The rest of units will have to be done by BTS themselves! I believe that some people will produce some fun units. And if it happens after the Shipment day then it will just extend playability of CM X. I think the CM community is much more "sophisticated" then TA community and much more dedicated/interested in WWII. So they would produce units for their own and others enjoyment.

There is a problem here. If you play this scenario for the first time then you will get into situation where while playing it for the second time you will know much better where to be and what to do. Depending on forces the results of second game might be pure effect of learning from game 1.

Do you believe that Oddball could actually win if tigers new the enemy is around? Or even does Oddball sherman has any chance at all? Am I just spreading negative waves here? Besides how would you make tank shout with paint? I wonder if tiger will be able to rotate his gun if it is between buildings. I also assume you can make last Tiger to join US side.

I guess you never player Total Annihilation. They unit designers have to do even more work there then in CM. They have to design 3D unit look, a weapon and its explosion pic and damage and EVEN WRITE CODE to specify unit behaviour. Guess what? There are over 300 units available for download. So I don't think it cannot be done. Coordination time? Less than you think if it is done right. What is the time needed for? Explain please! All they do is post a list of units they want and provide a 3D editor that they would use themselves. Providing a lost is no problem. Choosing units is no problem - people can look at them and choose them by voting. Then they can make the rest of units themselves if needed. 3D editor? Well Total Annihilation people would buy it themselves!!! (and then they made one) Even in Close Combat people have added their own graphics and units. Including entire West front for CC3.

I don't really see a reason why coordination will take a lot of time. All they would have to do is to provide a list of vehicles needed. And the date when they will need them. That is it. Then they can look at them and determine which look best. + there are polygon limits - easily enforced with a good editor. And people could vote which vehicle models they like most.

I recall someone from BTS complaining that it makes him sick just thinking about how many 3D models they will need for CM2

Remember this will not be only done to speed up the CM2 release. There are also other things to be gained from letting people "help".

How much time do you think models will save? 3 Months? or less? Thats probably $100.000 right there. In my company that would be $3 million in savings.

That is kinda easy. I worked for game company before. We have send checks to Heavy Metal bands whose music we used. Just put them into database - print all checks and letter labels. Common thats less than $200.

Amsterdam flashback!

Here is an idea: BTS complained that for CM2 they have to make huge amount of German/Russian 3D vehicles models. How about this: 1) BTS will release list of vehicles it needs 2) BTS will provide something for people to model vehicles. 3) People will create vehicles models themselves. 4) Only best looking models make it into the game. 5) BTS gives 1 cent per sold game to the person who constructed the one 3D model. So even if there is 100 vehicles in the game thats only $1. Why is this good for BTS: 1) Decreases delivery time of CM2. - Increases time they can spend on programming. 2) Increases number of vehicles in the game and game longetivity. A lot of people will be adding the vehicles to the game after it has been released (just look at Total Annihilation) 3) Increases and builds CM Community to which games will be sold. 4) Increases interest in the game. I bet you will see a lot of articles about the game in the press if you do that.

I have similar problems with my Voodoo 1 card. All text seems to be flickering. I see text then I see white box where text should be.

BTS sim is so real that echo effect has appeared