David Aitken

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Steve wrote: Expect to see this sort of stuff when we rewrite the engine after we complete CM2. We are hoping for at least a five fold increase in terrain tile resolution (2x2m tiles instead of 20x20). This will probably be doable and will open up huge doors to all sorts of things.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Exactly what we were hoping for. I look forward to seeing what you can come up with! (I don't know if you went all the way through the thread – I did a Part 2 with lots more photos from Edinburgh, which is more thorough.)

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Steve wrote: Until we can put in semi-random "junk" into the 3D world it will always feel artificial.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> There are, of course, entirely functional ways in which the look and feel of Combat Mission could be dramatically improved. Anyone interested, who didn't catch it the first (or second) time, should have a look at my illustrated megathread on the subject: Photography Mission: Urban Terrain In CM

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Panzer Leader wrote: Look at Davids picture again. Notice the jarring diefferences in color. Glaring brights, it is hard for me to enjoy looking at, but mine, with nice fall colors, subdued grass, buildings with bullet-holes and cracks, a red sky at dawn, flames tracing through the smoking husks of tanks. It looks pretty.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> In my experience, the Real World™ also has plenty of "jarring differences in colour". When I look at 'subdued' textures they seem too drab to me. Maybe Scotland has its colour intensity set too high... or maybe you lot are too used to seeing the Second World War in monochrome. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Terence wrote: I also bet that using mods causes the game to return many ahistoric results, like when a Sherman kills a Panther.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> This has been clinically proven. Different textures on the surface of a vehicle offer different properties. Depending on the kind of paint used, the friction created on the impact of an Armour Piercing shell can decrease the chances of a ricochet. German vehicle textures with Zimmeritt are impervious to magnetic mines, whereas more complacent texture designers have been responsible for many a knocked-out Tiger or Hetzer. There have also been documented cases of designers omitting details such as hatches or vision slits, leaving the crew blind or even trapping them inside the vehicle.

When the Whuppin' boy speaks, gather round and beat him within an inch of his pathetic little existence. Pain is humanity's most eloquent mentor.

This from SuperTed's thread... <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Rommel22 wrote: I have a small site, nothing really much on it. But I am proud of it, and the fact I made it all by myself using HTML.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> This comes as a shock to those of us who spent weeks training our pet dogs/hamsters/sheep to build our websites for us using carboard and sticky tape.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Sten wrote: MrPeng, you are one funny guy. Your posts always crack me up.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeech, what is this, the Peng Sycophancy Thread?

This has been suggested before. I don't think I am the only person who feels that separate boards would be a bad idea. As CM2 draws nearer, discussion of it will increase, and discussion of CMBO will decrease. CM is a linear series of games, they are not running in parallel, so most CM-related discussion pertains to all games in the series, eg. concerns about realism. The only game-specific issues are those concerning the exact forces and battles in each theatre, but all such discussion relates to the Second World War and as such to CM, and should therefore be kept together. A new CM2 board would at best cause everyone to abandon the CMBO board and move on, but more likely fragment the community further – we already have several different CM boards.

Leeo and I have finally slogged to a conclusion. This is the battle where, you may recall, I was rearraging the scenery with three batteries of 25lb artillery. I didn't get as far as rearranging his troops, only suggesting that I might prefer them dead. The infantry battle was as you might expect for a roughed-up Sturmkompanie versus a British rifle company – more or less equal. The tank battle was more of a spectacle – two of the long-barreled JgPz IV's and two Hetzers squaring up against three Challengers and two Fireflies. Leeo's marksmen spoiled the day for my TC's, but despite some AI floundering I came out on top with two intact Challengers (one with the TC suffering cranial lead poisoning) and an immobile Firefly. The two Challengers unknowingly had adversaries in the form of two surviving 50mm AT guns. One gun gave itself away killing a Humber and was introduced to some 76mm HE. The other wasn't spotted at all, and on the last turn caused internal armour flaking in the Challenger which hit another crewman, and the rest elected to abandon ship. Most of the infantry cancelled each other out, and I refrained from bagging the second 300pt VL (which had been guarded only by the ex-AT gun) with my Challenger, ensuring a draw of 38-44 magnitude in Leeo's favour. I'll get you next time, Gadget, next time...

Calm down Max, I'm just voicing my personal preferences! I reckon the bitmaps are realistic enough – maybe not optimal, but elegantly sufficient. I don't reckon, for example, the brightness is unrealistic. I don't examine my units closely enough on a regular basis to want high resolution textures. The kind of improvements in realism I would care about are not currently supported by the game's engine – but I'm certainly not holding my breath until we get more eye candy, it's just my take on the subject. If you want to make an analogy, I would say that the house's wallpaper could be improved, but I think some plants would make the atmosphere far more attractive.

It is essetially a stopgap to employ the 17lb gun before any tanks were specifically designed for it. It's not a tank destroyer as such, just a self-propelled antitank gun. It is vulnerable to mortar fire. If you want to employ the 17lb gun to its best advantage, get a Challenger. Or a Firefly, but I love Challengers to bits. Think of the Archer as just a mobile 17lb antitank gun. Keep it hull down, away from harmful bullets and explosions and such. It withdraws forward, a characteristic you can use to your advantage, quickly retreating to a new position.

Find a good bookshop and look around. The internet is useless for browsing.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Juju wrote: could ya give us a close up of the faces your using?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> These are available from my website:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Maximus wrote: I don't see one mod at all.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That is correct, Sir. Up until today I was using slightly darkened trees and tree bases, because I reckoned they were too light. Today I tried reducing the saturation, because I looked at some photos and decided that trees aren't very bright. The whole battlefield ended up looking incredibly drab, so I went back to BTS's originals, and realised that the darkening I had done had also intensified the colour slightly, and the originals were probably realistic after all. I spend a lot of time trying to perceive the CM battlefield as I would in reality, and I have come to the conclusion that no amount of modifying will make CM in its current incarnation much more visually realistic. I think that our perception of a scene pivots not around the bulk of what we see, but on the details, which give us information about scale and the way things interact with each other. For example, a picture of a road going past a treeline is brought together by an embankment bordering the road, or a fence or wall bordering the trees. Roads in CM look unrealistic because they are flat strips across the terrain, when in reality a road has some kind of immediate border - embankment, ditch, brush, or somesuch - which is not modelled in CM, and would not necessarily be worth modelling in terms of gameplay. Modifications certainly make individual objects look nicer, but they don't make the overall scene more convincing, and that's all that really concerns me. As I have explained above, I adjusted the water colour to be what I perceive as more realistic. The only other modification I have is my own soldier faces, because the originals annoyed me.

dalem has performed a cunning and brilliantly orchestrated rout. I fired at his troops, I charged his positions, his troops ran away. My diversionary two-platoon attack routed two larger enemy platoons and permanently secured the main objective. My main force of four platoons was left to sweep around the left flank and shake dalem's monkey-men out of the trees. With his survivors galloping back to Iowa as fast as their four limbs will carry them, he was left with little choice but to surrender and hope that they would evolve sufficiently in the next sixty years to understand just how hard I kicked his bum. My veteran Sicherung troops march up to dalem's regular American 45 squads' table and take 84 points off their plates, leaving them with 16 which they gladly accept, thanking my men for not taking their guns and ammunition as well.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Juju wrote: BTW, what's that water mod you got there?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I just did it myself this afternoon. Saturation -50, Lightness +25. I think water is usually light, because it reflects the sky. Grey if it's cloudy, blue if it's clear, or even silver. Black at night (unless there are a lot of moonlit clouds about). BTS's colour was maybe a day/night compromise, but it just never seemed remotely like water to me. Unforunately my modification isn't reflective, that's just an effect in the picture. I can send you the files if you like.

Those of use who have been Combat Mission fans since the Beta Demo will know the Riesberg scenario like the back of our hands. We are well acquainted with the little pond that sits at the corner of the village, and have passed it many times with our attacking Americans, or planted a machinegun in the buildings next to it as the Germans. Some of us may have wondered why it was in such a strange position, and why a road seems to disappear into it. Well, Allied scientists have been thinking the same thing. They have heard local legends about the Riesberg Pond, and since the capture of the village (you did win as the Americans, didn't you?), they have been running tests on this unassuming water hole. The first thing that was established was that the pond appears to be extremely deep. A detachment of troops was in the process of exploring the depths when all their questions were suddenly answered in a shocking way. The Riesberg Pond is home to... The Giant Man-Eating Hamstertruppen Of The Deep! This post is brought to you by Peng Thread Publications Ltd. and too much time on my hands.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>YK2 wrote: I saw some guy who looked suspiciously productive in charge of a bloody huge tank at the Bathgate Pipers Competition<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> They have tanks at the Bathgate Pipers' Competition?? Do the locals get that upset at the noise?

Looks like we struck a nerve with Leeo. I almost get the impression he would make a good Peng-Lite™. I think my mail server has hijacked all the turns people owe me. You have all sent me your turns, haven't you? I should probably do something productive. Geez, that was scary. I almost started to think that doing something productive would be a good idea. Losername doesn't think we're funny. Waaa!

Why don't you ask him.

Geier, I have not played that scenario, so hit me baby one more time... I mean... (what does that mean anyway?)... err, that would be nice sir. Neither have I heard Fretless, although I think it's on the Automatic Box that I neglected to get. I meant to get the Smashing Pumpkins' box set as well... fix or do somefink!! Elvis has pulled an ill-gotten draw in our nocturnal Rune apocalyptic slugfest. You thought Enemy At The Gates was destructive? This picture makes the battlefield look tame. Half the map is on fire, and a wide area on the northwestern side of the river is scattered with scores of knocked out Sherman III's, Churchill Crocodiles, Stuart V's, Ram Kangaroos, Badgers, Panthers, PzKpfw IV's, Hetzers and SPW 251's, and hundreds of dead, wounded and panicking Canadian and German infantry. Gamey flag rush meets gamey crew rush! On the southeastern side of the river, a Firefly and two Ram Kangaroos hug the main VL, having been ordered across the bridge on the second last turn by Elvis. My crews, of course, were just taking refuge well behind friendly lines. Most of my forces are on his side of the bridge, flanking his spearhead (if "chaotic rabble of infantry and armour desperately stumbling towards the bridge as my wounded men gnash at their ankles and pull the tracks off their tanks" counts as a "spearhead"). The computer conceded a draw to him, but gave me a knowing nudge with a 51-43 score in my favour. Now, in other matters... Panzer Leader has e-mailed me begging for a game. This man knows no pity, and I think we should all be very wary of his presence. I am inclined to agree to his request and put him down quickly, as such a pathetic creature should not be left to suffer.

This is what the Peng Thread is for, you twit. Really. Anyway, I have a window in my schedule... were you wanting to be killed right now?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Someone pretending to be mensch wrote: So dawning a new age mensch who is frustrated by the crap some of the poolers have been spewing rummages through the kitchen and looks for a snip<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Either mensch has installed his wife in front of the computer while he is engaged with the alleged lucrative contract (which would doubtlessly send his win/loss ratio through the roof), or he has been fired and now finds himself with the time to work out what each of the letters on his keyboard actually mean.

Having spent the past few pages skimming over the playground tit-for-tat slanging match between Stalin's Organ and Leeo, I fully agree with mensch. There remain in the Peng Thread a few people who are capable of constructing a real tongue-in-cheek taunt instead of some mindless name-calling, but without any real degree of commitment on the part of a sufficient number of such people, no-one really feels inclined to bother trying. A couple of days ago I was looking over the original Peng Thread, and almost every post was extensive, well conceived and highly enjoyable to read. Now there is sometimes something worth reading every few pages, but it's usually only a pale shadow of our former glory. As far as I am concerned, the Peng Thread has become all that its critics claim, a pointless playground brawl which is not of sufficient quality or ingenuity to merit its place on the CM forum. Of course, I myself enjoy speaking my mind here at 3 AM, but I could do the same anywhere – what I have to say does not really belong here. [ 05-31-2001: Message edited by: David Aitken ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Poultry Larder wrote: why is it that you jump up and down, yap at my heels, and from the other side of the fence hurl your spittle-encrusted verbosities at me, but in such as an oblique way that I cannot respond?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Seems like a good plan to me. Do I need a reason? <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>you seem to think you can insult and challenge me with every post but NEVER accept the fact that I accepted your challenge.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Indeed. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I don't know who you are (my guess is something along the lines of Benny Hill meets Brainy Smurf) but there are rules, you ninny, and though not elevated to your status(yet) I have my rights, sir, and I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> There is only one rule: There are no rules. We made the rules, of which there are none, and we reserve the right either to follow them or not. But newbies must adhere strictly, or be regarded as a git for all eternity. Adhesion to the rules, of course, labels one as a git for all eternity. Especially considering they don't exist.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Panty Liner wrote: What are you using, freaking LINUX or somesing??<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Oh look, a sheep. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I become increasingly disturbed by your posts, which with each installment become less coherent and more spineless.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Do you have any conception of what this thread is about? Bugger off back to your Defending Against The Assault thread and discuss BTS's point ratios or something.