Mikeydz

CMBO (and CMBB for that matter) use something called table fog, which is the older, more wildly compatible method of creating fog under Direct-X(at the time the current CM engine was coded, at least). Unfortunatly, ATI drivers do not support table fog (at least in the way it's called for under Direct-X, so your get not actual fog on screen. The "fog" is still there causing limited LOS issues for your troops, but the cool looking graphic effect is something that won't show up.

2 of 3 games started (setup turns exchanged) Looks interesting so far for the 2 maps I've seen. Should be fun.

I count 10 Allied (51+) wins out of all 35 reported games on the latest scoresheet I got. The key to my win was my troops winning the 2 attacks made against the little village on the hill to the French left side. I don't have those turn files anymore (Damn HD crash) but if I remember right the kill ratios after the first assault over there was at least 10-1 in my favor. His second wave (with the SS reinforcements??) was also stopped cold with only slightly more losses this time to my defenders. The median scores listed on the FotM thread in the scenario forum is 41.5-58.5 in the axis favor, so it definatly was a tough road. I was very happy with my performance before seeing the score, and even more so now. Too bad I sucked so bad in the 3 of the other 4 scenarios.

I definatly had a blast doing the scenarios, even though IMHO I got my arse kicked foolishly in a few of them. If you need a filler player for the second round, let me know. Mikey

Per request HOW IT WORKS Once the 72 players have been assigned to one of the three tourneys (24 in each) as described in the first post to this thread, they will be further divided into four sections of six players. This division into sections will be done in a completely random manner by drawing names out of a hat. Your section is where the "regular season" action is. You will play one game against each of the people in your section. You will also play each scenario one time. This means you will play five games in the "regular season". The sides you play, and your attack/defend duties could very well come out lopsided. You may play the Germans four times, or you may find yourself defending four times. The only guarantee regarding your matches is that you will play each scenario once, and each member of your section once. The scenarios will be provided by the "Boots & Tracks" design team headed up by SuperTed. They will be historical/semi-historical scenarios never before seen by the community. The guys at B & T are working on our scenarios right now. Without them the tourney would not have happened. The scenarios may or may not be balanced. Don't count on a fair fight! The scoring system will determine balance. It is possible to "lose" the battle, and still win if you perform better than the median established for that side of the scenario. I will explain how this works later. You do not need to understand the nitty-gritty of the scoring system, although some may be interested. You need only be aware of the following: 1) Points for contested VL's will be split. This means final game scores will always total to 100. There is a very good reason for this I'll not get into now. If you think "gamey" you can probably figure it out. 2) Voluntary surrender is ALWAYS bad. Your opponent gets too many points for all the people he captures. You should always withdraw your people from a hopeless situation. This way you deprive your opponent of capture points. The game will auto-surrender you once your global morale drops to a certain point. Every unit that you successfully withdraw off the map will lower this global morale. Try to have all your people step off the map together once you are near the auto-surrender point. This prevents capture of units who would have made it off, but didn't due to the auto-surrender. If you score very poorly in relation to the median for a scenario you will suffer a penalty (your score will be made even worse). This is to discourage surrender, and careless play just to get the game over with. If your score is that low compared to the median we assume you surrendered or got purposely stupid. WITHDRAW YOUR TROOPS IF POSSIBLE when faced with a bad situation!! I'm telling you all this because it is quite possible you will find yourself in a very bad situation due to deliberate scenario imbalance. Do not give up!! Withdraw!! The median score for your side of that scenario may only be 20 points. IOW, if you score 32 points you did very well. You can "lose" and still win if you get your people to safety so they can fight again another day. 3) Your goal with each scenario is not so much to beat your opponent (could be impossible), but to get the highest score of the 36 people (three tourneys) who play that side of the particular scenario. "Winning" the game may be virtually impossible due to imbalance. You never know what hand you may be dealt. LAUNCHING THE TOURNEY Each player will receive the schedule for his section only. Where your name is on the LEFT you will play the Allied side for that scenario. Along with the schedule of games you will receive a contact list with all the email addresses of your five opponents. When you receive these the tourney is officially underway. After this, over the course of the next several days, you will receive an email for each of the five scenarios. For games where you are the Allies you will find two briefing files attached, a general briefing and your Allied briefing. This email will also contain your password for that scenario. Your German opponent will start the game. To open the first file from him you will need to use the password I provide you. This will put you in the Allied setup phase. If you are playing the German side you will also receive a secured saved game file in addition to the two briefings and password. By 'secured' I mean that the briefings have been stripped out, the game begun, and the passwords entered. This is the file you will use to start the PBEM game. It will be a .cmb file, not a .txt file. Start the game just as you would any other new PBEM game. The only difference is that you will have to enter the password I provide you. You will find yourself in the Axis setup phase. DEADLINES AND GAME RESULTS REPORTING All games should be completed within 90 days of the date I send out the last scenario files. This means you will need to keep at it. Don't be the one to hold up the show. Don't get lazy. Take your turns. We want to at least get into the playoff stage before CMBB comes out. The tourney cannot be scored until ALL games have been completed. The LOSER reports game results. If you end up being on the weak side of a few unbalanced scenarios you will find yourself having to report most of your games. This is, as they say, tough luck. Game Report email needs to have the subject, "Game Report". The body of the email must contain the following information: Tourney Number (1-3), Scenario Title, Your username on this forum, the side you played, your score, your opponent's username and his score. The body of the email should then look like this if you are Fred: Tourney 1, The Ambush, Fred (Axis) 37, Joe 43 Reporting games in this manner will save me a great deal of time. With 72 people I NEED to have games reported this way. Do not send me final game files. Keep these in a safe place in case of disputes. FOG OF WAR No discussion of scenarios is allowed on the forum until ALL players in all three tourneys have completed a scenario. I will let you know when it is alright to talk about a scenario. It won't happen until near the end of the tourney. No game results are to be revealed on the forum. You won't know who beat who until all is revealed at the end. Think before you post, and remember, no games scores, no blow by blow descriptions of the last movie, no general discussion about the scenarios, etc.. THE NABLA SCORING SYSTEM Your game scores will be recorded on an input file for the Nabla Scoring Program, created by Jarmo Hurri (Nabla). The Nabla program will crunch the scores and spit out your Nabla Score, also called your "Tourney Score", for each scenario. Below is what the program does: 1) Checks for game scores that total less than 100. Adjusts to 100 if necessary (60-30 becomes 65-35) 2) Determines the median score for both sides of every scenario based on all 36 instances of that scenario. 3) Determines the distance, plus or minus, of your score from the median for each scenario. 4) Calculates a Nabla Score based on this distance from the median using a rather complex formula. 5) Averages all five of your Nabla Scores to give your final Tourney Score. By establishing a median for each side of a scenario we determine the balance of the scenario. Your score is then compared to this median. If you score 30 points and the median is only 20 for that side, then you have done very well inspite of your "loss". This is why you don't want to surrender. You never know what the median of a scenario might be. You won't know this until the end. Establishing scenario balance (the median) means we can measure relative performance within your section without the necessity of balanced scenarios. This is a major breakthrough for competitive CM IMO!! With this scoring system we can play virtually any scenario and not worry about unfairness due to the balance issue. AARs Bonus points will be added to your final Tourney Score if you submit AARs. Each full credit AAR will be worth 4% of the highest player's tourney score (before adding his AARs). If you write five full credit AARs you will receive additional tourney points equal to 20% of the highest players tourney score. AARs will receive either full credit or half credit. You must write more than just a few short paragraphs for full credit. I will let you know if an AAR is too short soon after you send it to me. You don't have to write a book either. Just give us a fairly good description of how the game played out. You are not required to write AARs. You just get a few extra points if you do. This could put you ahead if you're in a tight race in your section. The primary purpose of the AARs is to provide the scenario designers with feedback on their work. If you've ever designed a scenario for the community, you know how rare it is to get this feedback. Writing AARs is one way to express your thanks to the designer. Even negative feedback is welcome as long as it's constructive and not mean spirited. Another thing AARs do is help people learn to improve their tactics. Every scenario is played twelve times in a tourney such as this. There are eleven other people who had to deal with the same tactical situations you did. It can be very instructive to learn how others handled things, especially if you did worse than most. (BTW, all the AARs will be sent to you upon request once you have completed your games.) Lastly, by writing an AAR (feedback) you are doing the community a small favor. This is because the designer can tweak the scenario based on feedback before releasing it to the community. Having a scenario played twelve times by twenty four different people is a great test of a scenario. I think it's safe to say that very few scenarios get that degree of testing before they are put out to the public. They may get played twelve times, but not by twenty four different people, and certainly not under blind conditions. Those of us who enjoy these tournaments need new scenarios (security). In return for these scenarios the designers get the feedback they like. IMPORTANT! Submitting AARs 1)AARs should never be sent in with game results. Send them in a separate email. 2)AARs can be .txt, .doc, or .pdf files. Do not write them in the body of an email. 3)AARs should not be more than 4 MB UNcompressed. Screenshots can cause you to go over this limit easily. I would recommend the .pdf format if you want to include several screenshots. 4)In the subject line of emails containing attached AARs, write your username and the scenario name. For example: Madmatt, The Ambush THE PLAYOFFS Everybody makes it to the playoffs! However, only the four section winners in each tourney are eligible for the prize. The four section winners will play a 3 scenario round robin. The second place finishers in each section will do the same, and so on. If you place last in your section, you will face the other three last place finishers in the playoffs. The playoffs will be scored exactly like the "regular season". Those of you who aren't eligible for the wine (not first in section) are still very important to the tourney. Your scores will determine the accurate median we need for the playoff scenarios. THE PRIZES The winner of the "First Place Playoff" in each tourney will win the prize. The winners of Tourney I and Tourney II will each receive six different bottles of WineCape's fine South African wines, postage paid to their doorstep. The winner of Tourney III will receive three almost new VCR movies. They are, "Stalingrad" (by the people who made "Das Boot"), "Cross Of Iron", and the somewhat obscure "A Midnight Clear". I purchased these a year ago from Amazon.com and watched them all twice. All three are very good war movies IMO, and the tapes are in mint condition. REPORTING MIAs In order to keep all games proceeding at an acceptable pace we need to identify any potential dropouts (MIAs) promptly so I can find out their intentions regarding the tourney, and replace them if necessary. Please email me if you have not heard from an opponent in 3 days unless that opponent has informed you beforehand of his inability to send turns for a specified period of time. This way I know what is going on. The tourney cannot be scored until every last game is completed. By informing me of possible problems (3 days and no turns) I can act promplty so matches don't get way behind. It's up to you guys to keep me informed. That should cover just about everything. Ask questions if you have them. I probably left something out, or explained something in an unclear manner. Aaah, SuperTed is working through the night again, I see. Thanks for the update, Ted. I am also working late tonight. I have divided the 72 players (one OPEN slot) into their respective tourneys. I have printed out the names, cut them up, and put them in a hat (one hat for each tourney). Your names are now being picked out of the hat and typed into this post. TOURNEY I Section One 1) Ali 2) Ricochet 3) THumpre 4) Fate 5) Jarmo 6) Mr Spkr Section Two 1) Lopaka 2) mike8g 3) mPisi 4) John Jelinek 5) Jack Trap 6) Bimmer Section Three 1) Redwolf 2) Tero 3) Kiwi Joe 4) White4 5) Holien 6) Cogust Section Four 1) The Capt 2) Juha Ahoniemi 3) von Lucke 4) Wreck 5) Mattias 6) JonS _______________________________ TOURNEY II Section One 1) Visom 2) Big Dog 3) Strider 4) Wadepm 5) MickOZ 6) Uber General Section Two 1) Pixelmaster 2) Torbhen 3) a1steaks 4) J. Porta 5) Scheer 6) Combined Arms Section Three 1) Tom Norton 2) Kanonier Reichmann 3) JeffWilders 4) StuGIII 5) Tabpub 6) Warhammer Section Four 1) Soddball 2) C. Rohde 3) Bertram 4) John Kettler 5) Michael Dorosh 6) Ugbash _______________________________ TOURNEY III Section One 1) Sgt Gold 2) Gunnersman 3) Ligur 4) Jim L. 5) U8led 6) Kunstler Section Two 1) Silvio Manuel 2) Hoopenfaust 101 3) Heavy Drop 4) EASY-V 5) GeneralSV 6) Jeb Section Three 1) Cpt T 2) Jon L 3) Mikeydz 4) Vader's Jester 5) Pilgrim 6) R.C. Section Four 1) I-Man 2) Lord Dragon 3) Zipper 4) f1shlips 5) Vadr 6) Hobo So there you have it. Now you know who the enemy is. Shortly before you begin receiving game files, you will receive a Contact List containing the email addresses of those in your section. You will also receive the schedule for your section. This will tell you who your opponent is for each scenario and which side you will play. The German player will start the PBEM game with the secure file and password I provide him. In games where you are the Allies, you need only wait for a file from your opponent. You will receive your password and briefings at the same time I send the secure game file to the German player. I have MANY files to send out. It will take days to get all the briefings, passwords, and secured .cmb files out to the players. You will probably receive one game's files per day for five days. I must work carefully so I don't send the wrong briefings or passwords to the players. When I get tired I have to stop so I don't mess up. One file to the wrong person and security is blown completely and that scenario is ruined for two people. So, be patient once the files begin arriving. Work on what you have. The rest will be coming in due time. This tourney will be played under extreme Fog Of War. Lots of time and effort goes into making sure your opponents know nothing about your units, setup zones, and the contents of your briefings. Do not discuss the scenarios on the forum! NO AARs, DARs, etc. as others may not have progressed as far in a particular scenario as you have. This should be a fairly boring thread while the tourney is going on. If you leak scenario info, you are only helping the others to your own detriment. Mum's the word. This FOW includes final game scores! No player should know any final scores, except for his own games, until the end when I will reveal all. Leaking final scores can tip your opponents off as to scenario balance. Think before you type. If you have not yet done so, PLEASE read the last half of page one of this thread. There are some new procedures for reporting final game scores, submitting AARs, and reporting MIAs. These procedures are simple, but must be followed in order for me to manage 72 people efficiently. THANKS!!

I routinely see movie files get above 5-600k, depending on home much activity is going on. The larger the battle, and the more units, the larger the files.

Tourney 3 Section 3 Update As far as my battles are concerned. 1 Complete 1 Finishing up Other 3 are 1/4 to 1/2 done. Moving along nicely still. Great fun so far, even if I do suck.

Just tried the newest Radeon drivers dated 6/12/02, and still no dice as far as fog.

So far so good.... 1 game completed 2 games are about 1/3rd done 1 game is 1/5th 1 game just gearing up Not to shabby a pace. Definately thought it would be slower going. Mikey

Yeah, uh-huh ... and well see him cursing at his opponent on the computer on the next episode of The Osbournes, right?

You gamey bastard....

Count me in as one who would love to get his butt kicked by the one and only... Add me to the list.

Is the start of T3-section3 delayed until Nemo is replaced, or should we still be expecting files shortly?

Maybe you should try and make a backup copy of your cd. Copy every file except the the 1.12 Combat Mission.exe file from your cd and burn the 1.03 Version onto your new CD instead. If that doesn't work, then your probably screwed.

Depends on your defenition of a newbie. If your refering to your familiarity with the game and its mechanics, then you could almost lose your newbieness playing the AI. If your talking about your familiarity with tactics and such, I'd say most players would drop thier true newbie status within a handful of games. If he's played 100+ PBEMs, then he ain't a newbie, unless the learning algorithms in his brain are fried. Mikey

As far at the vacations go, remember that if you can find the time and double up turns often enough, you can create a buffer that will let you fit in a week of no turns and not fall behind. Just a thought.

CD is required to be in the drive to play except if your joining a multiplayer TCP/IP game. All other modes (Single player, hotseat, or PBEM) need the CD.

real shot in the dark, but could be the memory slot could be bad. Couple of years back, I had a similar problem. The system I had ran flawlessly. I added a second memory chip to the system and occasionally would have unexplained lock ups in certain games. The memory would test ok. I changed the memory, switched the slots that the memory was in, ect. Ended up being the slot was bad. If you have a third memory slot, try putting the extra memory there, and see what happens. This is assuming your board will let you skip a slot.

How much do you want to spend?? Just about any Nvidea based card (TNT-2 all the way to the newest G-Force cards should work like a champ. So the question becomes... Do you see yourself playing other newer, high graphics intensive games, or not? If your like me, you play quite a few of the latest games that push the envelope, so you'll want to buy as much card as you can afford. But if your next Gaming purchases are basically going to be CM2, Cm3, ect, then I think a minimum of a 32mb TNT2 card should suffice.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Von Lucke -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by Jinxx: Hello, I'm a designer for Taldren, we made SFC2. *** insert extended commercial for SFC2 here *** ... and this is why SFC2 was such a great game, so why didn't Steve and Charles copy our superior design? Just a thought, anyone like to comment? Josh -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And you wonder why Brummbar lit you up? Ever hear the old one about "if I had some bread I could make a ham sandwich --- if I had some ham"? The game you describe is not, and most likely will not be, CM. Maybe with the new CMII engine, some years from now --- but who can say where Steve and Charles are going with this franchise of theirs. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Let's not start putting words into his mouth now. He never called SFC/SFC2 a superior design. He just wanted to know why BTS is going the direction that they are simulating the different fronts exclusively, rather than releasing the new fronts as add-ons, so you can stage "what-if" secenarios. So let's no start making things up. Personally, I think that the module system works better for SFC precisly because it's a fictional setting vs. a historical one. Sure, there is a "historical" background for the SFB universe to play out, but at it's core, it's always been an open system for anyone to fly any race against any other. Can my G-CCH beat your H-TAR, and so on. Cm, since it's based on real life events, lends itself much more to sticking "to the script". While I personally would love to be able to quick-battle an american force vs. a soviet one, I can live with BTS sticking to only the relevant East Front forces. It's purely a design philosophy on thier part, rather than any programing ones. IMHO. Mikey

Welcome Jinxx... Glad to see you made your way to the game that took me away from SFC. Don't mind the occasional flames. My theory is that people sometimes think that if they practice thier flaming skills here on the board, they will learn how to handle thier flamethrower troops in game. Once again. Good to see an old familiar face from the long nights playing SFC on Mplayer.

I don't know where you live, but $21??? If your in any decent sized metro area, you should be able to shop around and find a good ISP for $10-$15. If your only choice though is $21 or free, then is you don't do any real online gaming, then go for free. I'm not sure what you mean Rommel when you say your getting charged for a local call. Where are you at where that happens. I know here in Houston, unless your on a very cheap metered type service, pretty much all calls within the same local area codes are free. There are a few exceptions, but in those areas, you have to dial a 1 before the call, so you know if it's getting charged.

1st off. 10 shots total for the 3 tanks, or 10 each? (I'm assuming total) This is definatly not impossible. it would be rare, but not unheard of. How many times have you played this scenario, vs. how many times have you seen this result. Way back when, I ran some tests checking out the accuracy of the "% to hit" numbers that are displayed when you target an enemy unit. During those tests, which were run under "ideal" conditions for the firing unit, there were times that the firing unit would miss 3 times. It was a low chance that they would miss 3 times but it did happen. I don't have the raw data from the tests any more, but I wouldn't be suprised if it happened that 3 tanks in a row all missed with 3 shots. Me thinks you had very bad luck. [This message has been edited by Mikeydz (edited 03-06-2001).]

I would think that the 4.2 would be no problem. You'd probable want to submit that question when starting a game to see if your opponent would mind, but I personally would not.

Ahhh Max.... quick hint... Look at the date of the original post, this thing is almost 2 years old. Why was it brought back from the dead? Who knows..