pford

Who at BTS needs to be contacted re: evaluation copies for a review article? I don't want to say who I have in mind since I do not know if there is any interest on their end to evaluate CM. If there is, it would be best to let them contact you directly anyways. I will just pass the information along. Regards

Question re: EU taxes How do they charge for downloaded software? Say for instance a free crippled version was downloaded via the internet and to fully enable it you had to get a code from BTS. How does your government know that you have uses a secure browser to pass your credit card information? Does the bank report foreign transactions? This method is fairly common over here in purchasing software. (I have so many manual lying around the house, I don’t need any more.) I don’t know what the internet charges are like in Europe, but we usually pay a flat fee. I.e. $20 a month plus taxes ($5.00) for unlimited access at 56K baud. Even if it took 12+ hours to download , it gets there a lot faster. How do they trace all of this? Regards Patrick Ford

There are several classes of AI programming. A genetic algorithm(GA) is a method of doing a search, and is similar in concept to synthetic annealing. It you have a search-space, say for example a hilly terain in CM, with dense fog and you want your unit to get on top of the highest hill. The classic method is to walkup hill until you can’t go any higher (gradient descent such as the Newton-Raphson (sp??) method). However this may just be a local solution, i.e. there is a higher hill but you can’t see it. A GA is very good in situations like this in getting you to the highest hill but not necessarily on top. It works well if, for example, you have 2 solutions, A and B, and you can tell if A > B, A = B or A < B but not by how much, e.g. a = 2.5B. This is called the fitness. After a population is ranked in order of its fitness, the genetic strings are mated by crossovering data. Then some of the string is mutated and the process is repeated. This iterative method is slow but fairly robust. In a game like CM it is unlikely to have any advantage in a single game, since the major goal is user entertainment and bad solutions could screw things up, like running Shermans into an open field and making a circle where they all point inward. In terms of working with fuzzy logic, it should work. The GA could move the cut-off points and adjust the overlaps The GA wouldn’t know what it is doing, it is just choosing the best parents for the next generation. The GA string could be binary 1’s and 0’s. Sections of the string codes for different parameters. The string is then decoded and the parameter is placed into its proper location. CM parameters could be “tuned” by letting the computer(s) playing set situations for a given population, choosing the best outcomes to create the next generation and repeating it. For speed, graphic could be disabled. On a large scale, a SETI type project where populations are sent to remote computers could be used. Generations don’t necessarily have to be in sync. This is obviously a pipe-dream since this would be quite an undertaking. The US military might be interested in doing something like this, but they already won WWII. Re: learning on the fly While a GA is useful for changing situations, say of the hills keep moving, and in the real-world, managing queues, it does this by testing a bunch of solutions. With a really fast system, the computer could test out several tactics. To do it well in real-time I think it would need to be ported to Deep Blue. Note: when I read this online, there is a major section missing, but is is here in the edit mode. Is the greater than and lesser than signs assigned special code? I added spaces around the < and > and it looks clean now. [This message has been edited by pford (edited 11-26-99).] [This message has been edited by pford (edited 11-26-99).] [This message has been edited by pford (edited 11-26-99).]

Re: AI I have an idea that has been popping around in my head for awhile. I doubt that it could be implemented, but if I don’t bring it up, it never will. What I would like is the schematic for the parameters re: what to do in certain situations, a way of changing the parameters and a method of determining the outcome written to a file and a setting to let the game play itself. The basic idea I want to do is to let a genetic algorithm modify the parameters and optimize the tactics. This would require playing several thousands CM games.

Lance: I think the basic assumption you made, having known me for 30 years, is my unwillingness to take risk, which is accurate. However, in analysis of my portfolio, I discovered the apparent paradox that being conservative is higher risk. With this lesson, I look at this set up and decide I could move cautiously through your 88s or run like hell forward. Just because you don’t have any 88s that I know of is irrelevant. If I was to change something, I would drop the flags and add real fog. I know that the ATI rave , (but don't know about that sucky MS product), has fog but this may be too much coding to ask this late for what I see as a polished product. (ass kissing terminated, no discount expected) [This message has been edited by pford (edited 11-24-99).]

Lance According the scenario briefing, Allied recon reports the town is not occupied with what sound like a high degree of reliability. And it is a meeting engagement. Unless there are no Germans, it is hard not to expect some. It wouldn’t be much of a game if you weren’t there. There are only 3 sides that you could come from and since in the 2 other scenarios, it is always the opposite side, chance are it would be also on the opposite side in this one. Since I (1)had to cover a lot of open ground to cross, (2)every time I had a Sherman in the open it has died, (3)every time I have had a Sherman away from infantry, it has died, and (4)the buildings are about the only defensible position, I think that rushing to the buildings only makes sense. The only way I see to make it ‘realistic’ is to not know the Germans are coming. In the setup like this, a surprise ambush on a large scale is not possible. If I actually believed there would be no one around, I would have convoyed leisurely down the road. [This message has been edited by pford (edited 11-24-99).]

I am having a terrible time seeing previously selected choices such as 'search.' Could you modify your HTML to choose another color that shows up better against the background. I am sure that since I am using both IE and Netscape on PCs and a Mac, that this has to be a problem for some else other than just me. THX [This message has been edited by pford (edited 11-24-99).]

Re: Type of ATI card Run the profiler in the apple menu. It will show what cards are in which PCI slots and display the version. Also download the newest drivers from www.atitech.com It may not recognize the card and you will have to do a custom install. Regards

The conflict involves the following 3 extenstions. ATI RAGE 128 3D Acellerator V5.6.6 ATI Resorce Manager V2.0.8 and from Powerlogix G3/G4 Profiler INIT 1.3 disable the last one and it works. BTW, if I boot with the shift key down, I still get the rave acceleration. Odd.

I can understand the LOS rule to a point. But in a game I am currently lossing, there is a burning half-tack and I wanted to fire at the area of smoke where I knew there were other units. But since I can't directly see the units behind the tree that are on fire I can't shoot. I certainly can see the smoke. May be version 2 will allow scatter firing into an area.

Another small request. Instead of just naming the file PBEM, allow the user to assign a name that then has whose turn it is and the turn number. example: mygame setup allied: mygame_su_al turn 5 axis: mygame_05_ax When playing multiple email games simultaneously it would make it a lot easier to keep track of them. Regards Patrick Ford

I am currently having a different PBEM problem. I am at turn #2 as the Americans in Last Defense.cmb . The other player sent his turn and I could watch is move. When I clicked done to make my orders it immediately wrote a PBEM file. It did this at least 5 times on two diffent Macs. (He is using a PC) We are sequencing the files so we have all the moves so far. Note: CM opens some sort of temp file in the directory that the PMEM file is located. So what ever you do don't use a 3.5 floppy as your source or it will realy slow it down and may crash it with a Type 2 error if there is not enough room. For Speed I move it to the ram disk. Regards Patrick Ford

It is definitely an extension conflict. I rebooted using a different Conflict Catcher set that is smaller and I had set up for CDROM games. The difference working RAVE makes is spectacular. I spent at least 5 minutes just moving around the screen. I will give the low res a try. If and when I track down the offenders, I will let you know so you can add it to your database if someone else has this problem. Regards Patrick Ford

Steve: I hope you are wrong about the number of Mac users. I don't want to sound like I am really pusing it. Rereading my first post, I would change it to putting it on the wish-list, like around 1024 on the list for V2 or something. I will forward the code so you can put it on a shelf and dust it off when ready. Considering what I have seen so far, the effort in CM greatly exceeds software I being ask use costing 300 to 400 times more. While I am wishing, multiplayer with more than 2 players. Another correction. By "hard it is" I meant programming, especially with your work I have seen so far. Your are right about how easy it is to attach multiple monitors. Regards Pat Ford

Steve: I hope you are wrong about the number of Mac users. I don't want to sound like I am really pusing it. Rereading my first post, I would change it to putting it on the wish-list, like around 1024 on the list for V2 or something. I will forward the code so you can put it on a shelf and dust it off when ready. Considering what I have seen so far, the effort in CM greatly exceeds software I being ask use costing 300 to 400 times more. While I am wishing, multiplayer with more than 2 players. Regards Pat Ford

I just got my my new Mac ATV 128 Xclaim VR tonight and when I try CM either the screen goes blank, the monitor looks like it goes asleep,or more frequently, it just hangs. This may be an init confict, but I have not had time to track it down. Anyone else having this problem? Regards Patrick Ford

Steve: While I understand why it is a low priority, I think you underestimate the frequency Macs have multiple monitors and how hard it is. Nanosaur does this and its source code is available. 1000 lines or less free re-use for comercial or private use. I would be happy to e-mail a copy of the source code. Regards Patrick Ford

I have two monitors on my Mac and CM runs on the one seleted as the 'main' monitor. It would be helpful if you added to you list of features a method of selecting the monitor to be used. In my case, one is using a 3DFX Voodoo3 card and the other and ATI VR. Since I don't have RAGE for the faster and newer 3DFX card, I was very disappointed in its performance.