Juardis

With the plethora of user generated scenarios appearing, we need a ranking system and one place to find it. I don't want to play 5 crappy scenarios to get to the one great scenario. Madmatt, you willing to undertake such a mission at CM-HQ? I'm thinking of a table like the scenario Table of Contents in the game, only with one extra column - average rank. I'm thinking those who've played it rank it between 1-5, 5 being the highest. Take the average of all the rankings. Maybe, if someone goes all out, there could be brief comments from some of the reviews giving a high level reason (i.e., no spoilers) as to why it deserved the ranking it got. What you guys think? Or does something like this exist already? ------------------ Jeff Abbott

OK, chose a small scenario where both sides start close to each other. Played hot seat. Germans were attackers. I told the 3 german infantry units closest to the front lines to crawl. Results after watching movie? As the germans I could here my units talk at the onset of the crawl. Results after watching from the American point of view? I could hear the Germans issuing those orders. Restarted, this time I chose units further back to sneak. I could hear the commands as the Germans watching my own troops (from anywhere). Could also hear them from the American side (from almost anywhere). I did have the iron cross designations indicating maybe an inf unit was there, but not designating it a sound contact. I tried a 3rd test. I left everyone standing still and did not move, sneak, crawl anybody. I did have halftracks idling, but they also remained stationary. As the germans, I heard not a sound (except the engines). As the americans, I heard not a sound but I also had iron cross designations for all the infantry. Since the scenario I chose had dense fog and there were no sound contact designations, I'm guessing the silhouettes could be made out. Interestingly, the Ami's started firing, which caused one of my units to move and my halftrack to start firing. Once the track started firing, it was labeled as a sound contact by the Ami's and then you could hear the idling engine (but not before it started firing). Another interesting tidbit. My 3 man squad representation was a one man squad according to the americans. Could be because it was sneaking. Could be because it was foggy. But I thought that was cool. You may hear me issue stupid commands as I try to sneak up on you, but you only think you see all of me. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Yeah, I saw that too. I thought maybe they screwed up and said beta demo but meant gold demo or maybe didn't update the link but did update the demo. dunno ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Don't know when, or if, it'll be uploaded. But I've been "published" 3 times before (out of 4 submittals), so I feel confident it'll make the grade. I challenge any of you to submit something more worthy than my effort (and you're working blind here since you have no idea what I wrote ). Oh, and while I was there I rated it a perfect 10 (duh). Needless to say I recommended it for GOTY in my review. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Owen: Juardis, I previously had/have a voodoo banshee AGP card and a voodoo 2, will the Geforce make a big improvement over a Tnt2?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I have no idea. I'm a 3dfx man all the way. I went from a Pure3d to 2 V2s to a V3 3000 and now a V5 5500. Just going by what I know and the Geforce is the best of what he listed and not quite as good as my V5. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Guess I'll have to set up a hot seat game and play both sides myself to find out for sure. Thanks all. kipanderson, what do you mean when you say skirmishes? ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Funny guy Havermeyer For that I will load you up with incessant QA of my next 300 page calc file

Of that list, the Geforce is your best bet followed by the Matrox. Go now and purchase my son. Geforce might actually improve games on your "low end" system, depending on what you had before. WRT to prices, I don't know the european comparisons, sorry. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

There IS a God and he intervened on your postmaster's behalf

I don't know how this is handled in the game, but last night I was playing Wiltz (awesome scenario btw) and I ordered a platoon to sneak to a position. Now normally, when I think of sneak, I think of maintaining stealth, quietness, concealment at all costs. So I was surprised when I heard my guys barking orders when they started moving. Los, snell, and various asundry other germanic words. WTH are they doing? So I replayed the movie, only this time from a suspected allied position. Sure enough, from that spot I hear the same german voices coming from that direction. Curious, I moved waaaaay back from that spot and STILL heard my guys. So my questions. 1. What the 7734 (put it on calculator and turn it over ) are they doing talking? 2. Can the enemy really hear them? 3. How far away can you be without hearing the enemy? BTW, this happens regardless of the command you give - crawl, sneak, move, run. Just a bunch of damn chatterboxes these soldiers are. I want them quiet when crawling or sneaking. That's the whole idea behind those commands after all. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

I just finished that one last night at 2:00 am . So far it's my fav. The ambient sound effects are awesome as is the action. I played as the axis and managed to take out one Sherman with my Hetzer and the other sherman with my Panther G within the first 3 turns. The TD killed my Hetzer then my Puma killed the TD. So basically, the Allies were screwed from that point on. It was just a matter of me not doing anything stupid while advancing my forces (like not providing cover fire). I did manage to lose another Puma and two half-tracks to anti-tank teams, but my Stugs and Panther survived and wreaked major havoc. Now, how realistic it is for a Puma to take out the allied TD I don't know. I was at 330m or so from it and it was a frontal shot. Hit the upper hull and knocked it out. I don't even know what type of TD it was, but I was damn glad when it was knocked out. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Sewers are intriguing, but as someone said, you'd have to model individuals down there. Also, seems he who throws the first grenade should win. The only stress involved there is will your guys throw them first? JMO ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Hakko Ichiu: With the offense, you have to plan your line of attack, you have to figure out how to do your initial probe, you have to find a safe basing area for your reserve, and you just know that you are going to run into an ambush somewhere along the line. The question "where is the enemy hiding?" is more difficult to answer than "where is the enemy going to come from?" <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yes, that is my problem. It's easier for me to answer where will they come from than where are they hiding. For this reason, the first time through each scenario I'm playing the attacker. More challenging for me. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Thanks Rune. Will give it a try tonight. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

I know the screen resolution maxes out at whatever you have your desktop set to. Is it the same for bit depth? Is there even a noticeable difference in 16 bit and 32 bit rendering (i.e., is 32 bit artwork available for CM)? If not, it's not worth the effort since 16 bit artwork in a 32 bit environment will not offer any significant improvement. I'm using a V5 5500, set on 4x FSAA highest quality. Desktop set at 1024x768, 16 bit. Thanks ------------------ Jeff Abbott

I have a Xitel Storm Platinum Vortex 2 sound card. It's great during the game. 3d positional sounds work fantastic. My problem comes when I exit the game shut down Win98, then reboot the computer. Win98 hangs on loading and only after multiple reboots will I finally get into Win98. I know it's the sound card because I can remove the sound card and drivers and Win98 will work again. I've used both the 2016 and 2048 A3D Vortex 2 drivers. Am I alone here in this problem? If not, can someone help me out? Maybe disable directsound hardware acceleration? check my IRQ settings? anything else? Just doesn't make sense that it hangs Win98 upon rebooting. Is CM is doing something behind the scenes that would cause this? Thanks ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Steve, how can you be a junior member? ------------------ Jeff Abbott

My 10 year old plays it a lot. My 7 yr old wants me to teach him. Unfortunately for both of us I don't have a lot of free time while he's awake. Most of my playing comes between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

I was playing the allies attacking the germans in a Hertgen forest scenario (forgot the scenario name, sorry). Anyway, I had this 60 mm mortar team come under fire. One guy got killed and the unit broke (it was veteran even). The little pussies turned and ran away. Next turn they recovered, but of course they couldn't reman their mortars. So what to do? I have this field they have to cross to get the remaining two victory flags. Waiting for me on the otherside is a MG42 nest, a infantry squad and platoon HQ in foxholes, and 2 mortar units in foxholes. The MG42 is laying down some wicked suppressing fire and half my guys are pinned. So I decide if my mortar team can't fire, they can at least draw fire. So I send them running across the field directly at the platoon HQ in a foxhole. They lose another squaddie in their mad dash so they're down to 3 survivors - yet they're still running and 3/4 of the way there already. Needless to say, I didn't expect this since they had already broken. I thought for sure they'd break again. Well, might as well exploit the situation. I lay down some suppression with mortars and machine gun and rifle fire and send 2 more squads running across the field. The mortar team made it to the foxhole and began hand to hand combat with the axis platoon HQ. You could hear the fists landing - too cool . My guys managed to kill one before they were killed, but the fact that they even made it to the foxhole is a miracle. To top it off, since they were engaging the HQ unit, the HQ unit couldn't fire at my other two squads. By the time my mortar unit died, the other two squads were on top of the foxhole and it was all over after another brief hand to hand exchange. God I love the attention to detail here ------------------ Jeff Abbott

For me, attacking is more difficult. I've played 3 scenarios so far, playing the defender once and the attacker twice. When defending, I won easily. When attacking, I'm 0-1-1 (no wins, one draw, one loss). Rooting out foxholed infantry is just a pain in the arse. The only effective strategy I have found to date is.... SPOILER ALERT .... is to bull rush the foxhole. Sure, I take casualties, but much less than if I try to take out the squad before advancing. Am I doing something wrong here? ------------------ Jeff Abbott

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mick_Oz: Just curious, what happens if ground fire takes out one of the attacking planes... how is this represented?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It isn't. I haven't personally experienced an air attack yet, but the manual says there will be no ground fire against aircraft. However, if you have AA, it can fire at, and hit, the plane. If the plane is hit, there is a possibility that it will land on the map. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Thanks guys, I personally have only experienced abondonment when my tanks get immobilized. Can't recall the experience level of my crews though. Now, if your tank (turetted tank) gets immobilized because the engine was hit (instead of losing a track say), I'd expect the turret to be immobilized. Would you guys expect the same? I don't recall there being manual rotation of the turrets, but I may be wrong on this. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

If a tank loses a track, for whatever reason, will the main gun/turret still function properly? If it does still work, the crew will hang in there and fight it out unless it's clear they are going to die, right? (as opposed to running away like Sir Robin ). If the turret/gun doesn't work, why not? Losing a track should have no effect on firing the big gun. I did a search and didn't find the answer. I've read the manual (twice now) and didn't find the answer. Not to say it isn't out there, just that I didn't find it. ------------------ Jeff Abbott

Jeff, just checked out your site (now it's bookmarked). One suggestion, put a date on those interviews. I couldn't tell when they were written until I got into the story. Otherwise, good luck. I'll be happy to contribute something. I writ good ------------------ Jeff Abbott

I've played many many games in my 12 year old hobby, and never have I come across a manual as well written and informative as the CM manual I just finished. I'm especially impressed with the designer notes that explain why certain decisions were made. I'm an engineer by profession and I'm constantly asking "why". After having read the manual, I have very few "why" questions (or any questions for that matter). It's not flashy by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll take substance over flash any day of the week. Steve, Charles, and whoever else contributed to putting together our field manual...Job Well Done!!!! ------------------ Jeff Abbott