chrisl

It's normal-- whoever creates the movie sends it to the other player, who views it and sends it back. The second person to view the movie then puts in orders first. This has been discussed at least once in the main forum, so when you start to wonder why you can't do it in one fewer email, do a search first. You can also fast forward through the movie if you want, but I like to watch several times, so I can observe all the different firefights at least once. If there's something dramatic I like to get into view #1 from the unit's POV and watch it.

If you'd done a search you'd find that the trashcan in my office makes the same sound as your toilet. I started a thread a while back when I couldn't stand the wait anymore and had taken to throwing away extra garbage (empties that had been around for a while) just so I could hear the plunk. Amazing isn't it.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ASL Veteran: Since flares were discussed in an earlier thread, I can only figure that they had to cut a few things out to get the game released. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Here's a couple of relativly recent threads about the subject. http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/004915.html http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/Forum1/HTML/000831.html [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-11-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Darwin: Was it an ambush situation from the men on the fields perspective?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Probably-- although in the fog in the dark eveything is an ambush-- visibility is only about 50 m, so you hardly even have to hide.

In the Ham and Jam scenario the germans are out setting up anti-glider poles when the brits show, but I don't think that's what you meant.

Order up some 14" offshore gunfire. You just have to make sure it hits in the right general area.

bump-- was hoping for some comments from BTS on apparent berserk behavior. Intended or weird side effect?

I finally had a bit of luck and figured out what I changed when I started getting proper fog, transparent buildings, fancy smoke, and stopped quitting to desktop: I turned off the intro movie. I realized that today, and tried turning it back on. Boom--quit to desktop while loading 3D graphics. Launch CM again, loads ok, high quality smoke doesn't show up transparent. If I turn off the movie, then restart the machine, CM works fine, over and over. I'm still stuck with 640x480, but I have nice smoke, beautiful fog, and transparent buildings. It also doesn't quit to DT when I go to load my email files. It's a little complicated but here's some of the systematics of what happens if the movie is on: Movie on Case A) If I change to 640x480 before launching CM: CM loads lets me pick multiplayer lets me pick the file starts to load 3D graphics loads for a while boom, crash to DT. (error 2) I launch CM again go through picking the file loads and shows me the game everything plays ok, except that I don't get transparency effects Movie on Case If I don't switch to 640x480 before launching CM lets me go through picking a file boom, dies to desktop I launch CM again lets me click on multiplayer lets me choose load an email gives me a dialog box full of gibberish (dingbats) with cancel, save, discard as options I cancel, CM dies to desktop (usually error 3). Movie off, CM hasn't been run with the movie on: Everything is beautiful, it automatically switches resolutions on start and quit, full transparency, and I kick grunto's butt. This ought to be a useful clue to what's going on. My system is: PB G3/300 192MB OS 8.5 ATI RageLTPro w/4MB ATI 3D Accelerator 4.3.6 ATI Driver Update 1.4.6 ATI Graphics Accelerator 3.4 ATI video memory manager 7.5

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Big Time Software: Unfortunately the Rage LT Pro is a seriously underpowered chipset. Upgrading to the very latest drivers (from www.atitech.ca) can help, but there's a limit to what can be done from our end, though we're still looking into it. Charles<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> From looking at a couple of the other threads on Mac (esp. powerbooks) the very latest drivers (1.4.8) may cause trouble, but 1.4.6 and 1.4.7 both seem to work ok, but neither will give you 1024x768.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Buckeye: I'm surprised no one has replied. PBEM is a terrific challenge. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Everybody's off playing PBEM! I've noticed that there's a lot fewer of the hardcore posters here in the past several days. Either they have lots of pbems going or they all just got the new Harry Potter book and are busy reading it.

Flamethrowers are great scouts-- they draw lots of fire. I once managed to suppress the 75 bunker in VoT and work my FT up the side of the map, but he decided he didn't want to take a perfect shot on the bunker door,and let the engineers do it with hand grenades instead (they used their satchel charge to no effect earlier).

I saw something like it in the gold demo in VoT. It would crash to desktop if I clicked on certain units at the end of the scenario. I still have the files and can a) go back and look systematically at how it does it send them to you. It seemed to be the German platoon that was hidden throughout the scenario that consistenly crashed me out. Haven't looked carefully since then since I've generally found all the enemy units by the end and wasn't trying to figure out what the hidden guys did. I'm on a PBG3 with MacOS 8.5 [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-09-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bullethead: SPOILER WARNING So it seems we've drawn opposite ends of the spectrum. In my game, I'd say close to 3/4 of the troops have been berserkers. You're seeing it rarely. Both are possible IF (as I believe) each squad's chance is independent of the others. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> There's enought squads in that scenario that only in very rare instances should you see anything other than 50-50 (plus or minus a little). I suspect there's some situation dependence on when they charge, and you're seeing that situation more than me. I also suffered very heavy casualties around Brutet's house-- I traded one of my elite platoons for one of his elite platoons (counting the bodies on the embankment) plus a couple of his vehicles. I suffered similar casualties at the next house, with less success in routing the Germs. The only obviously berserk unit in the battle over Brutet's house was the MMG. My other serious berserker was a half squad over on the left working through the hedges. Otherwise the troops have been pretty obedient-charging on demand, laying down covering fire, etc. Are your units in C&C when they go nuts? I might have to go back and watch all the movies carefully and watch.

Is that the daylight attack that failed before the night assault in the scenario that came with the game? CMHQ has a scenario section, and there are others around too (look in the scenario forum) [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-08-2000).]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by L.Tankersley: Bullethead's hypothesis about fanatic units liking to charge is interesting, but I have no evidence (other than this one incident) to support it. It would be nice to get a confirmation as to whether or not this effect is in the code or not. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think that the units I saw charging were charging as Bullethead suggested, I just think that the numbers aren't nearly as bad as he does. The one half-squad made a beeline from concealment straight at an MG position that was blasting away, the other that weirded me out was an MMG charging Brutet's house after decomissioning a flak gun in front of it. Fortunately all the Germs were down on the embankment to ambush my elite platoon that was moving along the bank. The MG turned out to provide useful support.

Help!!! People are making scenarios faster than I can play them!!!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dell Wade: I was trying, but it is SO German favored I didn't think it was much fun <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I got an allied major victory my first time through. Toasted all the vehicles with gammon bombs and zooks (a Tiger at 5 m with a zook!), kept 4 of the 6 in the HQ healthy. btw, I've only seen the end of the movie (in a hotel room on travel for work).

I have to disagree strenuously with Bullethead. I'm just going into turn 18 of Cheneux as the amis against a live opponent. I lost one half squad to a psychotic charge down the barrel of an LMG42 team, and had an mmg charge the remnants of a flak gun that it had silenced. I think that a few other charges occured under control of the AI, but they eliminated their victims, not my paratroopers. All the other foolish charges were under my orders, although a crew from a toasted vehicle retreated in fear into a house occupied by concealed Germans. *******Moderate Spoilers Below******* * * * * * * * I had nearly all the squads in C&C nearly all the time. This may have helped avoid the psycho charges. I also generally advanced with a single half-squad 40-50 m ahead of the line to draw fire, and the rest of the platoon spread out (with cover/concealment as available) ready for covering fire. Fionn- the hedges mostly worked pretty well for me. There aren't a whole lot of houses until you're into the town, and I advanced through the hedges in front faster than I could bring in the smoke to cover the advance. My biggest problem was that the advance kept getting ahead of the smoke order (because the defenders got clobbered), and every time I moved it even a little it went back to 2 minutes. When I foolishly tried to sneak line abreast across the open into Cheneux I had a platoon decimated, and I lost the better part of another platoon trying to advance along the left bank of the river to the first house past Brutet's when I was unpleasantly surprised by a Panther with deadly accurate MG fire. As JWorthing is about to discover, my remaining Jackson just toasted all three of his remaining vehicles (two Panthers and a Wirblewind) in about 30 seconds. So far I have to say that I do better on assaults in limited visibility than I do when there are open lines of sight (ask grunto). Theres a lot more room to maneuver in back if the defender can only see 50 m. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-07-2000).]

I'm using a PB G3/300, 192 MB, OS 8.5, and was having trouble with CM bailing out to the desktop the first time it loaded graphics, but subsequently loading fine and not showing fog or transparency. I turned off a bunch of extension (Norton, OpenGL), and restarted. No effect. A few hours (and several restarts later), I restarted in 640x480 and it suddenly stopped quitting to the desktop and started showing transparency! (Yes, I had cycled through all the switches, and left them in the transparency settings, which is why I got smoke, fog, and buildings all at once) I've since turned all the extensions back on and even restarted in 1024x768 and it all still works. I don't understand, but I'm not going to complain. The machine has a RageLTPro,with I think 4 MB VRAM. My drivers: ATI MPP Manager 1.0 ATI Resource Manager 1.2.4 ATI 3D Accelerator 4.3.6 ATI Driver Update 1.4.6 (I think 1.4.8 started all my troubles...) ATI Graphics Accelerator 3.4 ATI Video Memory Manager 7.5

Play the demo a little more. I can only play in 640x480, and it's still awesome. It's not going to compete with the Emotion Engine for graphics on your laptop, but the graphics are just the icing on the cake. The game system underneath is really awesome, and has unlimited replayability (because of the possibilities for scenarios). Play a little more and you'll get hooked like the rest of us.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by iggi: The problem with all those hexgames that looked really cool was all those rules.The host of errata and the various interpretations.They were good for thier time. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Turns out that later in life it was useful to have played games like SL with so many rules, but most of them were pretty simple. Longest Day only had a few pages. With SL you could pick which rules you were using, and many of the rules only applied to limited circumstances (Ghurkas, etc) and you could read them again just before the scenario. That said, now I'd rather let the computer worry about the details of the rules.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tailz: Does anyone else here have AH's The Longest Day? Now there is a monster! Days just to set up... kitchen table (not for the map... just the support sheets!) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Always thought it was cool, but never got to play. It cost too much for a 14 year old when it came out, and the geometry of the board wasn't quite right to work in my mom's basement.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by perpster: Will Combat Mission be worth playing on a Gateway Solo 9100 laptop without a 3D card but with 128ram and PII 300? Any comments welcome at perpster@aol.com. Thanks.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I use a laptop with a RageLTPro (some 3D acceleration, not much ram for textures) and it's well worth it.

I've assaulted a few and they aren't very frightening. They have little cover for the crew and a squad of riflemen can make them bail out. One caveat--I've been doing it in night or foggy scenarios where I can get really close without coming under fire. At long range they could maybe make a mess. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-06-2000).]

Some of each. The units pause at some waypoints because of command delay. If you give a unit a set of orders in one turn that takes it to the tree line, then another set in the next turn to crawl onward to somewhere else, there will be a pause at the waypoint at the treeline, even if the units don't get there until a few turns later. If you gave the full set of orders in one turn there will be no pause. You can take advantage of this. In an attack I usually give units orders to go quite far, sometimes enough for 4-5 turns, especially for a platoon sent around the flank. Usually one half-squad will be moving slightly ahead of the rest to draw fire, while the rest will have paused slightly and be sneaking along behind, ready to provide covering fire. All of the orders will originally be sneak, but as areas are identified as clear I'll change the orders to move, or even fast, as there is no command delay for changing the type of movement. I'll also reroute the existing waypoints slightly as enemy positions that might have LOS from other flanks are revealed. There's also no penalty for grabbing and moving a waypoint slightly, just a limit on how far you can move it. Always keep your units in C&C as much as you can. They'll be more responsive and get benefits (stealth, combat, etc) that will help the attack. Also, if they're in C&C you'll be less likely to have the lead squad sneak over a small hillock and disappear in a hail of gunfire that's backed up by the fog of war. For climbing a steep embankment I'll put waypoints very close together, same as for careful maneuvering of armor in close quarters. Micromanage the positions, but let at least some of the units pick their own targets-- if something pops up and everyone is sticking to their assigned targets you could be unhappy. [This message has been edited by chrisl (edited 07-06-2000).]