Wako

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Warsaw_Uprising_-_Captured_SdKfz_251_(1944).jpg Note how half the guy's body is above the shield. Even when firing he would still be quite exposed....

When it comes to laptops, I've had good luck (component-wise) with Lenovo and Apple... and that is it.... It's worth noting that you can wipe the Apple laptops OS and put Windoze on it if you want to as well... I use an Apple for home and a Lenovo for work. The Lenovos are just workhorses (since they used to be IBMs, not really surprised).

For what it's worth regarding Japanese beer vending machines... I've been going to Japan every few months since 1995. Back until the early 2000s there used to be beer vending machines everywhere... after that, the law changed and now you only see them right outside of some liquor stores. I've seen them outside of a liquor store in central Kyoto and outside of a liquor store a few blocks from Osaka castle in Osaka, but other than that, they are now pretty hard to find...

I think I saw something on comp.sys.pc.games.strategic about it or something back in 2000 or late 99. But I think the responses drive home a very important point. All of the people responding to this are old school players/customers who started with CM a long time ago. Where are all the NEW customers? Where is the growth? Put CM Normandy on Steam and I bet they instantly get 2x-10x the customers.... but sounds like this is beating a dead horse...

I haven't been on these forums for probably 6 years, but I just came back today to check out what BF has been up to. I've been a BF customer since at least 2000. I bought CMBO, CMBB, CMAK, Shock Force, TacOps and Strategic Command. My opinion on this topic is that BF would be crazy not to at least experiment with putting an older game or one past the peak of its volume on Steam and seeing what kind of sales volumes they could get. I think that realistically a CM game could sell on par with Napoleon Total War, which Ars Technica calculated as having sold more than 1M units. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/steam-gauge-addressing-your-questions-and-concerns/2/ The only way that would be a losing money proposition is if Steam made you pay up front for your sales. If they do something like what Apple does (take 30% of the sales revenue), you will still make lots of money if you double or triple your sales volume, and let's just say that I am VERY doubtful that the latest CMs sold anything close to 1M units. Personally at this point (and many of my friends are the same way), I have so many games on Steam that I don't even have time to play that the odds of me going and getting a game that is not on Steam are pretty low. It would have to be one heck of a game that no Steam game can come close to... throw in strange DRM and the odds drop even further... The grognard 'elite haughtiness' of this forum notwithstanding, BF is doing itself no favors by continuing to ignore Steam IMHO....

I'm sure SC2 will be nice and all, but I for one won't buy it if it doesn't have hexes and it doesn't have a 2D view option. A big plus would be allowing unit stacking too, but that won't make it or break it for me like this 3-D thing. Dear God, why does no one realize that what we want is something with a map like Third Reich (but prettier) with with the kind of simulation ability that only a computer can provide. Hate to be too negative, but please, please, PLEASE at least include an option (like TOAW did) to change this abhorrent semi-3D map into a hexed 2-D map. Thanks.

Not that this will make you change your mind or anything, but while I own CMBO (and have since it came out), I have not bothered to buy CMBB because the demo frankly sucks. The demo did not show me enough changes from CMBO to bother buying CMBB. None of the scenarios in the CMBB demo are very fun. Nothing like the Valley of Death scenario in the CMBO demo. Surely BTS could hand off demo prep to some of the beta testers and get them to pick a good scenario to add to the demo that would actually BE FUN and SHOW what the game is capable of instead of what the current demo scenarios show. Heck, you could delete that crappy German tanks roll over Soviet anti-tank guns scenerio altogether. As far as I can tell it is completely impossible to win that as the Sovs... I may eventually buy CMBB anyway, but I've been saying that for many months now. Everytime I think about it, I think back to the demo and say "Naw, I'm sure I can find something funner to buy"... and then I do. Just my two cents.

My copy just arrived and if possible I'd like to observe....

Thanks Major.... for some reason I thought the light green was "scattered trees", although I had no real reason to... I guess that explains why my M1A1s were getting pounded when I thought they were in cover By the way, this is an awesome game. I will definately buy it, although it may be a couple of months due to finance issues.

I'm a newbie to TacOps but I've been playing the demo happily for a couple of days. One thing I don't understand though... how does one know the elevation of the terrain? As far as I can tell, one can't unless the isolines are draw on to the map? I assume this information is encoded into the map when it is drawn, but is there anyway to see it during play? Thanks.

Just for the record, I have verified the SC demo works somewhat in Linux under WineX. Certainly it is playable, but most of the text boxes that pop up are not filled in. Not sure if this will be fixed in the final version or not. If it is, then it should be quite playable under Linux, although with a few minor quirks (like no sound).

I think is an important point and this game SHOULD model the sort of "withering on the vine" that being out of supply for weeks on end induces. Certainly after a city has been surrounded for 3 weeks, it should take less effort to destroy the defenders than one that hasn't.

I know the answer is probably no, but I for one would be able to justify playing the demo more and thus find more bugs/playability issues if the demo went for 2 years instead of 1. How about a patch? I doubt it would hurt sales. The people who are going to buy this (myself included) are gonna want to play for 4 or 5 years, not 2. Pretty please?

Danke

I'm not sure you should allow the French units to counter attack once Paris falls. I like it the way it is frankly. One question for everyone though. I can't seem to take Paris earlier than November. Having to pound my way through the Ardennes and the Low Countries takes forever. What am I missing? Also, I think there should be a way to combine and split Armies into Corps.