David Aitken

Forever Babra wrote: > They will recombine during the next orders phase. ...provided they are the two halves of the same squad. You cannot combine B2a and B3b or C1a and C2a, only B2a and B2b. I think the 'recombine' range was reduced in 1.1b24. It is now something like 10 metres instead of 20. David

And a "move to contact" order, like the "scout" command which has been requested for vehicles, is just another device which people want to save them from having to use proper tactics. The key is, these are not reliable commands, because they depend on the units in question actually spotting the enemy, which they cannot do well while they are moving. The answer is to use the "sneak" (in the case of infantry) or "hunt" (in the case of armour) commands over short distances, and allow your units time to stop and look around, instead of running them headlong towards the enemy and expecting them to avoid imminent destruction. David

Big Time Software wrote: > posted 06-07-2000 01:35 AM > The 'sneak' command sort of works like move-to-contact, but not quite - currently. > However I just made some slight changes that make it work much more like that now. These changes will be part of the v1.01 patch. > Charles Relevant thread: Movement To Contact Order?

Crew sidearms are a possibility for CM2. Have you never seen any of the big debates? Anti tank team problems

Hiram Sedai wrote: > Where do I go to enlist in the AOP? You'll find a recruiting office at your local hospital or mental institution.

M. Bates wrote: > Last two PBEM games I have had great success by hiding or putting all my units behind cover. I would agree that this tactic has its merits. I am usually inclined to keep my infantry hidden until I'm ready to attack, although I don't think hiding armour is a good idea. If my opponent hid all of his forces, I would relish the opportunity to establish positions where I could easily do away with his forces when he chose to move them out. My philosophy is that the enemy cannot 'cheat' or benefit from 'gamey' tactics. No matter what he does, you can take advantage of it. I have learned from others that patience is a virtue – I didn't notice that myself, because I am typically patient and cautious, but some of my opponents have got into trouble and blamed it on impatience. The key is, you need to wait and see what your opponent is doing before you make your move. If he rushes into the fight, lie low and whittle his forces down. If he holds back, get yourself into ambush positions. Of course, it's never as simple as that, and you should never be doing the same thing with all of your units. David

Ha... ha... ha... ha... Since you seem to detest this forum so much, you won't be aware that M. Bates's screen name used to be Master Bates. In other words, we've had that feeble excuse for a joke about thirty-eight times already.

<font size="+4">Enough, God damn you!!</font> <font size="+6">>:0</font> Stop defacing the minimalistically stylish Peng Thread with your crimes against colour coordination!

Shadow 1st Hussars wrote: > None of you understnad my question, Well let's see, so far we know: > I can't seem to get the #*$# things to work ! My poor HT's don't switch, nor the T8 & kangaroo, or the firefly, of the sherman..... > MCM3 does all my work for me. Unfortunately, it's not doing this right. > I know how to install the mods. It won't switch between countries. You can't get batch mods to work... your HTs, T8's, Kangaroos, Fireflies and Shermans don't switch... MCM3 (Mac Combat Mission Mod Manager, I assume) is not working... it won't switch between countries. You're right, we don't understand. I assume aikidorat is responsible for MCM3, so have you done all he suggests? David

PawBroon wrote: > Je ne suis pourquoi survêtement ça va! Get out!! Get out you French heathen! How dare you take your leave of this hallowed place and then have the audacity to crawl back and do anything but beg for forgiveness! Go on, get back to your cheese and your onions! And have a good Christmas too, you Gallic wretch!!

Marco – good of you to offer, but I don't think that anything you could do would make a difference to what is being discussed here. 'Converting' PC mods to Mac format is as easy as this: – Download PC BMPs – Open BMPs in Apple's PictureViewer – Open desination data file in Apple's ResEdit – Copy images from BMP to ResEdit file Using a 'mod manager' program is another issue, and I think that is the subject of this thread. I haven't personally used these, so I'm not qualified to comment on the matter. =) David

Well said Tiger. sitzkrieg – I wouldn't hold your breath for relative spotting. =) That's another debate, of course, and I don't want to restart it here, but personally I'm not sure whether it has any place in a game. There is a thin line between realism and playability. Anyway, yes, b24 does make bailed crews far less useful. And as jaja points out, crews represent the equipment they're trained to use, and are thus invaluable and not very sensible suicide recon troops. =) David

If we have evidence that this is unrealistic, I'm sure BTS would want to take that into account. However, it's not like they have specified that pistol fire can cause a catastrophic explosion in a halftrack – it's just that the parameters they've programmed into the game have led to such occurrences. David

You could try copying the BMPs individually into ResEdit to see if it makes a difference.

Are you aware that on Windows, the graphics are individual BMP files, whereas on the Mac they are all stored in ResEdit files?

The Hollywoodism that always sticks in my mind is the Visible Grenade Explosion. They couldn't possibly present people being killed for an indeterminate reason, so instead of having smokeless explosions from fragmentation grenades, they throw in a big plume like a smoke grenade so you know what happened. The bottom line is, action movies are pure fantasy, and a war movie should not be used as a historical reference. David

I seem to remember the concept of not allowing crews to advance being brought up before. I think the answer was – and if not, it should have been – that this would be unrealistic and potentially dangerous. What if the enemy got round behind a vehicle and took it out? The crew would either have to brave enemy crossfire or run straight into their arms. You may be aware that in CM 1.1b24 the effectiveness of crews was greatly reduced, in that the crew of a knocked-out vehicle will be shaken or panicked and have 'low' ammunition. I don't think they need to be crippled any further. There is no point in modelling crews at all unless they can help out in dire situations, so the way they are just now is fine. David

Germanboy wrote: > it is 1am where I am on Christmas day Andreas, you are either drunk, on holiday to the Philippines, or worst of all, German. I favour the latter. Last time I checked it was 1 AM on December the 24th, Christmas EVE. So no opening your presents for another 24 hours.

Forever Babra wrote: > The only movie I want to see is the one where my Sherman whacks your Hetzer. Oh, what a shame to disrupt your men's festive celebrations. No disruption is involved for my men, as they exist only to rend American flesh from bone and would enjoy nothing more from Santa than a giftwrapped limb from a recently deceased GI. Never mind, you can tell your men it will all be over by Christmas. Just as long as you don't explain exactly what will be over. They won't know the difference by then anyway. You should have the setup file by now. I have made sure to pick up a few Hetzers so they can let you know just what they think of your pansy Shermans. David

You send AVs prowling around scattered trees on their own? That sounds like a sure way to get them killed. How about having them tag along with your infantry, so when you make contact with the enemy, you can bring up the flamethrower for support? That's the concept of an infantry support vehicle. Without infantry you're just asking for an AT team to pop up and nail it. I'm not telling you how I think you should be fighting, I'm telling you how such units would normally have been used. BTS is unlikely to consider adding features to the game specifically to allow you to do inadvisable or ahistorical things with your units. Now what Lewis mentioned – running area-fire – is a feature which would make flamethrower vehicles much more useful. Kind of the same issue as sweeping area-fire for MGs and such, but that's another story. David

Okay, we've done music and film, but wouldn't war films be more appropriate? A Peng Challenge Too Far None But The Peng Too Late The Peng The Bridge On The River Peng Where Pengs Dare aPengalypse Now Peng Chop Hill The Naked And The Peng Between Peng Challenge And Hell

Thanks for that well-reasoned response Colin. Maybe you should consider that (1) two of the flamethrower vehicles in question are light armoured vehicles which don't stand a chance against tanks, and (2) the vehicles you mention are more heavily armoured and fire AP or HC, giving them a chance of killing tanks at a distance, which the aforementioned flamethrowers do not. Spot the difference? David

As the others have suggested, most people who want the dead bodies changed want one for every man on the board. There used not to be any, but this was a bad thing, and I think if you played the Beta Demo you would understand this. Rather than dead bodies they are an 'eliminated squad marker'. Without them, when the last man in a squad or team becomes a casualty, it just disappears off the face of the earth. Half the time you have no idea what happened to it. BTS have struck an excellent compromise. Some people don't like the 'dead bodies', others want more, but what BTS have done is included them so far as they are functional. Learn to make use of them! David

Lord Dreaman wrote: > infantry should have a modified hunt command to stop and engage infantry. The Sneak command used to be a 'move stealthily' order, but it was changed to more of a 'move to contact' order. In other words, try using the Sneak command.

Passengers usually jump off a tank if HE lands anywhere nearby or a sniper takes potshots at the commander. AP is another matter though – it doesn't create much shrapel, and might well ricochet off the turret with the passengers barely noticing. Sure, they'd hear it, but battlefields are noisy and it wouldn't necessarily affect them. If you shot HE at the back of the turret, that's another matter. David