maxm2

Ah, I miss Pawbroon's "Mods & Modders" site, abandoned apparently in 9/02: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pawbroon/ He had how-to articles and reviews and quite a bit of good humor, like a pic of someone trying to do a "print screen" by putting the monitor in a copy machine.... Not to mention my fabulous cartoons. Gotta get another site. It's hard being cyberstreet person.... --Max

Thank you, sir. I guess I can live with that....

Didn't see this among subject lines...did I miss it? Problem being the one reported by at least six of us with varying machines and configurations about crashing to desktop when tank crews are clicked on in citadel battle. Would really like to play as Germans, but want to be able to move tank crews without obliterating the universe! --Max

Thank you Tiger!!!!! Besides the game crashing with the crew bug, my biggest disappointment was the look of the Russian tanks, and I was wistfully wondering if anyone would mod 'em soon. And you did. Thanks again to you and the modding community that's swinging into gear. --Max

For you guys who may not have downloaded CMBB and are used to having agonizingly slow downloads, just wanted to mention my new favorite download program:GetRight. It's not a new program, but I have tried several and this is the absolute best. It has features that allowed me to download CMBB in just about 3.5 hours on a 56k modem with speeds consistently around 3k to 4.5k per second. I also got kicked off the net (I suspect it had something to do with Windows asking me for the 60th time if I wanted their crucial new update...)with 4% of the demo left to go, and there was no problem with resuming where I left off when I discovered what happened. I'm sure all you broadbanders downloaded CMBB in six seconds, but for us techno turtles, I think my download speed was pretty damn good. I own no stock in GetRight, but I think they have a good product: http://www.getright.com/ --Max

BTS: Sending the saved game file with the message below separately. I am experiencing a gamestopper bug: Same problem as below: in the Citadel battle when playing as German, game crashes back to desktop when I click on a tank crew. Win98se Gateway PII 400 with 128k RAM (yeah, it's underpowered, but every other part of the game runs fine, no slow-down, no other problems--except weird graphics (blocky white) on river). My PIV 2.2Ghz 512K RAM etc. is in the mail, but meanwhile.... Great game otherwise, of course, but I don't think I can avoid clicking on those little black suited rascals once in a while. --Max Molinaro Originally posted by Pvt. Ryan: quote: Originally posted by highlife: I just came across a possible bug. Playing "Citadel Schwerpunkt" as germans against AI. When I try to click on any tank crews the game freezes and I have to ctrl- alt-del or esc to exit the game. If I ctrl-alt-del I get an "unhandled error exception" message. This happened with both a dead crew and one with survivors. Running WinXP Home. I was just going to report the same thing. When I click on my German tank crew the game crashes to the desktop. Win98SE Just experienced the same problem...only booted out completely! Had to restart game.

I think it would help to be specific also. I spent so much time reading the forum and playing the demo before CM came out that I haven't used the manual much, but when I have it has been very adequate. It is one of the few game manuals I have that has a decent index.

Thanks for all the information and advice. I too have seen units "sneak" past each other without firing while I tore my hair out while cursing about the great opportunity my "sneakers" were missing. As to some of the suggestions (all of which I thank you for): Why not just plaster the other side of the ridge with arty? No line of sight and all the arty I had insisted on it, the morons. Why not hit "near" the enemy units who are maybe 20 meters away from top of the ridge? Tried it--but we're in the snow and it takes forever to move anywhere, and I had to keep my troops who were going to charge following the barrage close by, and the barrage killed or demoralized several of my guys waiting in poor cover. The enemy, meanwhile, were all entrenched and seemed relatively untouched by what did hit them. Why not sneak a spotter up? No cover at all at the top of the ridge--it's a nice, wide, road from map side to map side. Anyone who poked a nose up got hit by every enemy unit within a hundred meters. Why not cover the ridge top with smoke and then go over? That's probably the best option (had I known that none of the others would work and saved my arty for smoke use); drawback is that as soon as one emerges from the smoke you're in the same fix: lots of entrenched enemy with good fields of fire--they don't take much time to swing their zooks and mgs around. I'm down to 11% morale(!), so this one ought to be over soon. Then my gaming pard is going to switch places and take a shot at it. If he once again waxes me, I'll ask him to write a brief essay about conquering the reverse slope defense, heh-heh! --Max

"A sneaking unit moves until it is fired on and then stops. They don't withdraw (unless the incoming fire convinces them to)." Thanks for the info. I guess I haven't sneaked my guys enough...they get tired. "They also won't shoot themselves." I thought that was due to the Prozac I put in their rations. "Sounds like Rich is employing a nice reverse slope defense." "Nice" is a very relative term.....

In one game where I'm trying to cross a ridge with the enemy entrenched on the other side,(Hi Rich!) I'm going crazy because there is no way I can figure out to have anyone peek over the ridge without getting nailed by the ten bajillion enemy units waiting to instantly spot and destroy any unit that crawls or creeps into LOS. Then, while doing a search trying to find out about the coming "advance to contact" command in CMBB, I saw someone comment that a unit "sneaking" advances until spotted or fired on and then withdraws---can that be right? Might I use sneak to peek over the edge of my Ridge From Hell? --Max

I think it's a gorgeous mod--love the detail on the sides--and I actually liked the original coloring, realistic or not. --Max

Thanks for all the additional good advice, guys. And Echo, Ubermenschen have no use for amusing concepts of "right" "wrong" "Geneva Conventions" and other antiquated Ami ideas. With the tactics of all my new-found friends, you will taste hot Krupp steel, schweinhundt. Tastes like chicken, I hear.... : ) --Max

Thank you all for your very helpful suggestions, and the discussions of armor tactics (gotta read more about that Israeli attack). I really appreciate everyone's feedback, and my opponents can be sure I will be trying them out. And--I can be sure they will come up with a counter tactic. And so it goes.... --Max "There is no answer. There never was an answer. There's never going to be an answer. THAT'S the answer!" --Stein

Dear System Administrator: I am on my lunch break. Honest. Okay, with that out of the way, one of my loyal opponents (Hi Rich!) often uses the tactic in meeting engagements and assaults of massing almost all his tanks together, waiting for his infantry to pinpoint AT defenses, and then sending the whole flock of tanks forward. Given at least seven or eight tanks, nothing I've come up with can stop the armored horde. If I mass my own armor in one spot, a wrong guess about where the enemy tanks will show up means I'm dead. If I set up flanking positions on either side of the map, assuming a careful advance on my opponent's part on only one side and some LOS shelter from my flankers on the other side of the map (or distracting troops), I'm dead. Individual AT guns and teams don't even have a chance to get off a second shot when facing six or seven or more tanks---they're targeted and eliminated almost instantly. Two questions: 1. Any suggestions? 2. Is the mass attack typical of combined arms operations in WWII, and if so, how was it stopped in the real world? --Max

When I was 11 or 12, my brother and I used to light our plastic model ships and planes on fire (don't try this one at home, kids). Now that was way cool. Being a more mature 55 now, I contented myself on my first map (Belgian city of Ghent) with placing, in the forest across from one of the rivers flanking the town, a circle of track with small buildings all around labeled "King's Choo-choo," since there was a king of Belgum. I figured he could use it as the Royale Modele Trainse for his amusement. Despite my thoughtfullness, he never showed in any of our battles. Go figure. --Max

I understand that in CMBB units will be able to pop purple smoke on their positions to eliminate the need to make bases visible..... : )

Do a search on this topic---there's been lots of discussion. If you create your own games you can set the number of turns for 50 or 75 or whatever and one side will always surrender or be defeated before it goes that far (with the standard size battles). There is also a strange (to me) work-around that allows you to set the end turn randomly within a range of turns (so the game ends some time between turn 15 and turn 20, say). To me that's just as unnatural and arbitrary as a fixed point--but there are a number of fans who like this approach. --Max "Witty/profound/absurd comment goes here."

Thanks very much for the advice, BeWary. Uh, do you not allow an email reply because you're a software developer and afraid of thousands of submissions "for this great game idea I've got where, like, you start out with this army--but it's MUTANT ZOMBIE CHEERLEADERS!!!! It would be so cool! You'd have to like gather Enthusiasm Points before you could attack, and search for cool weapons and armored sweaters and ****. And the coolest thing of all would be that it's REAL TIME!! Whaddaya think, huh? Could you send me a check soon? My allowance is kind of running out..." Okay, okay, I'll stop there. Anyway: >I've not heard of that problem before, but it might be related to your RAM. Only 128k! I had more than that on my 286< You're thinking of the size of your enhanced 51/2" inch floppies of the time... : ) >Oiling your CPU isn't a good idea. It doesn't have any moving parts.< What are you talking about? When I tried to plug it into the motherboard it popped out of my fingers and rolled across the lenght of my desk... >Though the massage was a good idea. Those electrons get kinda stressed zipping around so much.< Putting on a Yanni CD has the same effect as the massage for some of the subatomic particles, although many others break valence bonds and anything else in their way in an attempt to flee, I've noticed... >But seriously...Do you have some "special" background programs running?.....it wouldn't surprise me that something Gateway installed is interfering with CM. < Nor me. I'm trying to be super careful about pushing shift at the moment, but I'll get to your suggestion if this doesn't work. Thanks again for the humor and the advice. --Max

I've been playing CM on my Gateway PII 400 for at least a year, but this occasional (once 1-2 weeks) problem is a reeeeeel drag. I searched on "scroll" and every version of crash I could think of, but only one vaguely relevant reference. When zipping around the battlefield during the movie or plots, I use the "shift-mouse/left button" or "shift-right/left scroll arrow" command to scroll/move sideways (pan). Every so often, especially when I'm trying to do it quickly, the screen freezes (cursor disappears, can't scroll) and I can only alt-tab to other programs---for a few seconds--and then everything freezes and I have to do a cold reboot (shut the power off). Of course, Windows is pissed and anything going on before the freezed in any other program (I've learned not to run anything else during CM because I'll lose any ram info)is gone. My gateway is very conventional, I'm running WIN98, have 128k of memory, and it's hard to believe I have some weird configuration of drivers/address assignments etc. No other game I have does this, and I've got lots. I've run all my utilities, defragged, given the case a massage, and oiled the CPU. I assume my problem isn't common, though, because I couldn't find anything using every search term I could imagine might be relevant. Help! --Max [ 12-28-2001: Message edited by: maxm2 ]</p>

I like it...the variation in coloring is a good direction. Can you put a little more detail in the varied areas (suggesting shrubs, stones, etc. without making the tile repetition too obvious?

Let's stay friendly here, it's only a game... I would like to see the Steel Panthers (SP)approach and give units highlighted territory that corresponds to what they can see in (I think) eight different directions. It's enough "work" so that it feels like looking around in various directions to see what you can see. I don't think that CM currently realistically models the abilities of the human eye to see everything in its visual field when looking in a particular direction...in real life you could instantly see if two unconcealed tanks and a field gun were visible to you over a rise--you wouldn't have to do any los procedures. But, since time is frozen while you examine los in CM, you have time to check out all those little details. Tedious sometimes, but pretty good. But the SP method would be better, in my opinion.

What about: Sie will soonen kaput gewerden sein. ("You have the honor of carrying the flame thrower.") Also, after hearing "Aaachh--tooo!" (the "hawk and spit" wav (altho it could be a mod) one too many times, I deleted it. However, this made me think (uh-oh): maybe it could be randomly interspersed with sounds of vomiting, eliminating (1&2), belching, farting, sneezing, coughing, and snoring. I'm sure y'all can come up with more. We are a musical species, aren't we?

I think the random ending is fine if it's optional. However, I still don't understand the need for it in any but tournament play (where standardization is needed). If you have an opponent you trust not to do something silly (like run around hiding for 20 turns in his last kubelwagen), and assuming you're not playing with 50,000 points (heh) why not just set the turn number at 60 or some other large number? Maybe my opponents are especially wonderful (well, they are....) but I can't remember a game that saw both of us still functional by turn 30 or so. That means there have been no "last minute rushes" that won the game for the more decimated player that I can remember. Am I right that there are people out there who deliberately plan to capture a victory location in the last two turns and save significant numbers of units to do just that? I don't know about the rest of you, but I think I would only need to see that kind of gaminess once to move on to a new opponent. That's "no fun" in my book.

I'm sure these issues have come up, but I couldn't find the right key words to get to them. In a solitaire game a Wespe just fired into a wall next to it, self-destructing. Seems unlikely in real life, no? In another game, my Marder shows los to a building at the same apparent elevation, but continues to fire at a spot about 20 meters in front of it. The los goes over rubble, but shows a good los. Anyone know what gives? Thanks in advance for any help on either issue.

I'm sure these issues have come up, but I couldn't find the right key words to get to them. In a solitaire game a Wespe just fired into a wall next to it, self-destructing. Seems unlikely in real life, no? In another game, my Marder shows los to a building at the same apparent elevation, but continues to fire at a spot about 20 meters in front of it. The los goes over rubble, but shows a good los. Anyone know what gives? Thanks in advance for any help on either issue.