chrisl

If you're like the rest of us you'll just leave the CM CD in your drive and remove it on those rare occasions when you want to do something else.

hold down the option key and move the cursor over the little tab on the end. It will turn into a hand and you can move it around.

That's a new one. Works great on my G3/300, usually only allocate 80 MB RAM Do you have a lot of other applications already running and are you using virtual memory? I could imagine this happening if something is causing a lot of disk swaps. There have also been some notes that with the G4 some (all?) people have to turn off the L2 cache. Works fine with the cache on with the G3. Try turning off the movie (hold down shift during launch) and see if that cures the problems with the game. Also - Charles has noted that OS9 does weird things. If you do a search for "OS 9" or something like that, there might be some details.

Have you tried turning off the movie? hold down the shift key during launch. You probably only have 2MB of vram in the 266 (maybe 4). I have a PB G3/300 w/4MB vram and all I can get is 640x480, but I get the full 3D effect with fog and all. Check out my thread "Major clue in mac quit to desktop bug..." for the set of drivers that works on mine. I suspect that Charles is looking for the cause for a later (1.03? fix).

We used to have a game like this when I was a kid, but we played it outside with sticks and running around the neighborhood through people's backyards. The graphics quality was excellent-- you could see every blade of grass, smell the dirt when someone tackled you and pushed you into it...

I do it all the time, but avoid running through the LOF. It also helps to have any vehicles providing covering fire unbuttoned. I don't seem to lose many, if any to my own fire. Don't try this at night, unless the assault troops are leaving from right next to the cover fire troops.

The ai doesn't know how to use boats. Don't know if there's been word on if it will learn.

Sometimes happens to me, sometimes doesn't. Easy solution: hide behind the house. More effective anyway if all you have is a tank assault-- they can't rubble the house on top of you if you're not in it. If it's a big bldg and you expect an infantry charge into it as well (like the church in VoT), hide one squad inside and the rest behind it and when the assault gets close, move the ones from behind into it.

read my response to the question on the Pause command in this forum (tips and techniques). I gave an example of how to time an infantry assault to come in right after the arty stops. Also, do some experiments in DYO scenarios to learn about arty patterns with and without LOS and different types of gun. There's a difference, and if you know the rough pattern you cna avoid shorts. Try different quality observers (haven't tried this myself). [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-17-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lawyer: I'm a dumb lawyer who cannot figure out how to string different commands together as mentioned in the CM manual. Somebody please tell me precisely what to do after selecting a squad to make it (1) run to a waypoint, then (2) sneak to another waypoint, then (3) hide when they arrive, and finally (4) target a specific vehicle or squad. The interaction between moving commands and firing commands when mixed together is confusing to me. Thanks for any help. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Select the squad. press "f" move the cursor to where you want them to run click the mouse button (I'm on a mac and have only one button) press "s" move the cursor where you want them to sneak click the mouse button press "h" A this point you should see two waypoints and it should say "sneak and hide" at the end. with the squad still selected press "t" click on the unit you want to target. If the unit you are targeting is out of LOS then the squad won't shoot until they're in LOS. If an opportunity target comes up before then, they'll probably switch. You can't control the timing of when they move and fire except by managing what lines of sight that they have and when through maneuver. The squad will do mostly what you order, but is always bent on self preservation and will fire when it thinks it's a good idea.

Yeah- I forgot to mention that. Here's an example of how to use pause effectively: You want to have a bunch of guys charge an enemy position right on the heels of an artillery (or smoke) barrage: (Assuming the barrage is targeted, and expected on the present turn.) Give your units a crawl order with a nearby waypoint and run order to where they're charging. Press "P" for each charging unit until the delay is as close to 60 seconds as possible without going over Press "GO"-- the arty will fall, at the end of the turn everybody will be crawling toward the target. Beginning of the next turn: Cancel the barrage, change all the crawls to "runs" and hope the enemy you are charging is still suppressed by the time your guys get close. If the arty is falling in an area that the FO can see (thus you get a tight, predictable pattern) and the charging units are just short of the edge of the pattern this can work pretty well. It can also be a disaster if the arty isn't effective.

Sounds a little different from the bug I observed--mine never dies on the calculations, only when loading the 3D graphics. Can you change the speed on your graphics card? I think there were some people with problems on their PCs when they ran the graphics cards at top speed.

I hate any US HT with a .50 HMG when I'm the germans, and love them when I'm the allies. They just turn the German light armor into scrap metal. With quad .50s it will be that much scarier.

Yep. It's good for timing advances so you units don't get all bunched up, or leaving one unit on covering fire while the others evac and then moving it out after, etc.

A few more tips: 1) Use your leaders, and keep units in command and control. Click on any leader (platoon/company) and it will show you lines to all the units it commands. Brown lines are good-- those units are in C&C and derive benefits from the leader (reduced time for orders to take effect, stealth and combat bonuses, etc). Black lines are bad-- those units are bumbling about waiting to be taken out of action. If they break and there's not a leader to rally them, they're effectively eliminated. This is especially important to consider when you're playing the germans in VoT. 2) Line of Sight - check it often!!. The 3D in CM isn't perfect-- the trees aren't accounted for individally, the houses leak a little, a few other minor things, but it's *very* good. If it looks like there's LOS between two points, there probably is. 3) Cover, Concealment, and terrain-- on attack you want to take advantage of the terrain to allow your units to maneuver without being seen. On defense you want to set up in positions that cover the possible avenues of attack without exposing yourself. This means you want to be concealed so that when the enemy comes around the corner he gets blasted, and can't get LOS to your defender without going through the exposed area. 4) Make a plan, keep roughly to it, but realize that it's going to fall apart at the first shot. A good plan will have options to account for various possibilities-- attack in concentration and defend in depth, so that the loss of any one unit won't ruin the plan. 5) As mentioned above, read a lot of historical accounts. Try searching on the CM forum-- there are pointers to all sorts of historical reports from the military historians and other authors. They're very useful. 6) Play by email against someone (preferably better than you) and then trade passwords at the end (and comments) so you can see what the other player saw and did in response. 7) Read some of the after action reports at combat mission hq-- they really give tremendous detail on their plans, with movement diagrams and the works. Extremely valuable. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-16-2000).]

These incidents remind me of the couch trapped in the stairwell in one of the Dirk Gently's holistic detection agency novels by Douglas Adams. No one could get it out, and no one could figure out how it got in there.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chuckd: With 75 turns, each equalling four minutes a piece (nevermind the time that I spend to actually issue orders) I would spend roughly 300 minutes (or 5 hours) playing just this one scenario. I'm running a pIII 500 w/128 megs of RAM. Is there any way to shorten the load times at all? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> When I was a youngster we had to do it all with carboard chits on hex maps. A single turn could take 5 hours. And if you had pets they'd come and adjust the positions during the night for you. And we had to walk 10 miles through ice and snow to get to school, and it was uphill both ways...

I can play a medium sized game against the AI in 2 hours or so, and usually win these days. PBEM depends on how much time I have (and how much my opponent has). Right now I'm playing 4 games at once, and we do 1-3 turns/day.

There is some FOW in vehicle destruction, but I've only noticed it at very close range (~100 m). When driving in the city or in the dark, recon vehicle will often see and start to shoot at other vehicles before they show up on the screen. I've seen guns and halftracks that were knocked out by mg fire seconds before they became visible. If I watch from the POV of the recon vehicle (often a jeep or T8) the gun starts firing, then out of nowhere a dead HT appears right next to the gun. Presumably if the T8 or Jeep got zapped I'd never see what caused it.

try turning off the intro movie (hold shift while CM launches). this may keep it from crashing, but it may also autoswitch to 640x480. I think it depends on available vram.

I've only played a few so far. I think balance is very player dependent though--one person might have a hard time where another can consistently roll over the enemy. Night at Cheneux definitely has a lot of replay value. My first (and only time through) the German player made some mistakes with his vehicles early, but then recovered and had me stopped cold for a while. Thought it would be a rout, ended up with a tactical victory, and don't think I had more than a squad or two that was better than half strength. Ham and Jam may be a replayer too, esp as the Germans, because it looks *really* hard. I'm getting routed pretty quickly. All I can see is damn british bullseyes everywhere, but the real bullseyes are painted on my troops backs! Move it or Lose it is probably a replayer-- lots of stuff on both sides.

The turret on a hull down tank isn't exactly a huge target and they get zapped plenty frequently. I don't think PBs are overly weak from the front either. 500 m isn't all *that* far, especially with an aiming system that has even a little magnification.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Talenn: The HE would have removed the same units a threat, not only for the moment, but forever <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Not necessarily-- small stuff like 81 mm mortars has a terrible time on pillboxes, , and even on emplaced guns that aren't in PBs. Sometimes it's more effective to keep it covered in smoke while you bring something else to bear on it rather than dropping HE. Infantry in trees though, and HE is where it's at. I love watching the treebursts with the new explosions.

Buying over the net from a reputable company (which BTS is- if you look at all the efforts they made to make sure everyone got their copy quickly you'll see they're exceptional) and a secure server then it's probably safer than using your credit card in a restaurant (where there are sales receipts with your number lying around where anyone can see).

Cubes laid it out nicely above: for security reasons, when you get the movie you just watch it, the game stamps it as having been watched by you, and you send it back. No orders for the next turn-- you get to do those later. Keeps your opponent from repeatedly recalculating the turn until the results are favorable, and causes the movie to be generated alternately on each players computer. One of the first things you will notice is that this could probably be done with one fewer email exchange. i.e. watch the movie and immediate add orders before returning it to your opponent. This is what I suggested you search for, since it has been discussed to death in the CM forum.