sage2

Thanks Scurlock. In Adam's defense, he did provide valid and relevant feedback to my request for information.

Hey Steve, thanks for the long response! I would also be interested in hearing what other vets say about the dust. We don't have (or at least I have seen) the "pools" of "angel dust" that you see in other areas in Iraq around here / Mosul. Just this super super super fine dust that seems to have an almost neutral buyoncy in the air. You might model something like a 10 minute hang time and slow dispersion, with it finally settling after about 10 minutes. This is probably quite conservatitve, from what I've seen (assuming Syria is similar to Northern Iraq), but would capture the feel. I remember reading about the ancient armies in this area (Xenophon? can't remember the source) talking about the dust hanging in the air for two days after the army had passed. That's not an exageration if there's no wind. One thing that impacts the spotting, IMO, is the lack of COBs and the need to positively ID before shooting. (COBs = Civilians on Battlefield). Playing the 2nd campaign mission with the SVBIED taxis brought this to the fore. One of those SVBIED taxies was identified at about 600m as an SVBIED. In reality, it would only be able to be id'd as hostile based on its action and response to an EOF as it neared coalition forces. Likewise, seeing people moving around windows in a building isn't "hostile intent". I would imagine that modeling COBs and EOF procedures would be a ton of work, but I believe it actually has relevancy to the high intensity conflict modeled here. Not so much so for the upcoming "Normandy" game, however. One possible way to address is for scenario designers to place units that *could* be enemies. When the enemy "engages" (or moves out to engage) the CFs, or is engaged (such as by area fire) by CF, a check is done to see whether they are actually COBs. If they are COBs, CF takes a hit on its victory points if it engaged incorrectly. On the flipside, if you wait too long, you could get blown up or ambushed. Sage

Oh one other thing -- I don't think you'll even see uparmored 1114s used on the battlefield again. Maybe 1151s, but definitely not thin skin 1114s.

Hi Steve, Thank you for asking. Combat results in 1.07 feel much more 'organic' than 1.11. That's a good thing. It's definitely a big improvement. I actually had fun playing the first mission in the original campaign, and am looking forward to playing the second. The coolest moment was when one of my M1A1s killed a second T54 through the carcass of the 1st T54 that came around the corner. I watched the video, and sure enough that APDS round went right through. My general sense is that CM2x is now almost as good at CM1 as a game. Yes, it has many many many more features, and a much higher fidelity modeling for many things, but that doesn't necessarily make for a better game. The return of the blue bar gives me a fuzzy warm feeling. I use the ability to skip quickly through turns both at the end and beginning of games. I spend much less time feeling like I'm waiting for the computer, even if net time playing is unchanged. Here are somethings I've noticed: * Dust hang time is way, way, way too low. The terrain in Mosul is probably pretty similar to Syria (we're pretty dang close). Arid, rocky, low scrub. The dust here is astoundingly fine. When tracked or wheeled vehicles go by the dust that is kicked up hangs in the air for hours, and very, very slowly disperses. It has to be seen to be believed. It is nothing like any thing I have ever seen in the American West. It's also quite different from central Iraq (although I wasn't there very long). IMO, the dust that is generated in the game shouldn't be quite as thick, but it should last much longer. I know that there's a processor hit for this, but if it's possible it should be done. For a tactical game like this, getting your vehicles 'out of the plume' and into fresh air is a reasonable consideration. Additionally, the dust of moving vehicles will aid enemy spoting. * MRAPs are everywhere. I'm not sure they'd be a ton of use in a 'hot' conflict like portrayed at the beginning of the Syrian campaign, but they are here to stay. Despite their tippy tendencies, extremly high profile and so forth, the Army has spent a bajilllion dollars on them, and I would expect to see them only be developed more in the future. It would be nice to see 1 or 2 flavors modeled in game for scenario designs to use in LIC scenarios. * Small arms lethality against troops in cover still seems too high. I had this same genearal concern in the CM games, but it seems even more pronounced here. I don't have any hard data to back this one up. Small arms fixes your enemy (maybe). Explosives or close contact kill him. Lots of people have complained about the spotting model. It seems about right, or even a bit too generous, to me for troops in cover concealment. On the flipside, it seems a bit too hard to spot troops in the open. No analytical data to back this up at all. Best, Sage

Edit: Ah ha! Found my original email from like forever ago,which had my key. Yay. Oh the irony... I very carefully typed all the CD keys for all my games. Except, apparently CMSF. Hopefully my wife can I find it. Ghent, I might try an internet cafe, except that the locals look at you funny when you get out of an MRAP to go check your email. :=) Sage

Wow, thanks all for so much feedback and the many offers to burn and send me CDs. It looks like my connection stayed up long enough to download 1.10 and 1.11 over the last 24 hours (hopefully they didn't get corrupted or something), so I'll give them a whirl. I appreciate everyone taking the time to give me both positive and negative feedback. My point of comparison has always been CM 1 and 2 -- 1.07 definitely wasn't as good, but it sounds like these might be. Looking forward to trying them this evening. If the patch downloads get any bigger, you can bet I'll take some of you up on those offers to download and burn for me. Best, Sage

I played CMSF when it first came out, but quit in frustration. I played again, in February / March with 1.07 or 08 (can't remember), and found it better, but still problematic. What "did it in" for me, was not getting credit for capturing ground, even after having marched infantry all over it. There wasn't any feedback to tell me whether I had captured the ground, or how it was computed or so forth. The game was marginally better, but still felt clunky. How is now with 1.10/1.11? I ask because my connection is rreeeeaaaallllly slow, and downloading a few hundred megs is quite a project. Sage (in Mosul, yeah I know it's a little weird wanting to play CMSF when actually getting rocketed, but hey, adds to the imersion when you can play in your kevlar, right?)

Hmmmm... might actually be time to play CMSF again. I was gone for 6 months for army BCT and AIT, and just got back about 2 weeks ago. Looks like the 1.07 patch may be the charm.

E4 (specialist) 38B with the 448th Civil Affairs battalion at Ft. Lewis. Starting... today at 1700hrs. See y'all in 6 months.

Sooo... don't use the feature.

Nice. I like how it's also shooting through the hill...

I'm not sure how this would play out, but you would also need to adjust for training costs of units. Then you might want to amortize for life insurance policies. :=) Things might get interested when your loan US 11B PV2 Joe is up against a syrian tank company.

My favorite pathfinding moment: On the first turn, I manage to run 2 squads through a hole in the wall. Cool, I think, people had reported problems with this. But it worked fine. However, they're both immediately ambushed. So I tell them to retreat on turn 2. But they can't find their way back through the hole to safety. Instead, they bounce repeatedly off of the wall, then stand around doing nothing, despite being under heavy fire, until they are killed. Oh yay, nix 2 squads. :=(

I'm sure the attached infantry might have something to say about that. :=) The picture in my head is some buff infantry types rubbing the face of the scrawny Styker commander on the pavement.

Is there a way to pause in real time play, and still give orders? Obviously not for online play, but this would be nice for single player. As it is, I'm playing WEGO because it's too frantic. The ability to correct path finding wonkiness as it happens sure would be nice however.