Murx

Comandstructure up to Bt. HQ is a cool idea, but there should be only a additional delay for the sub HQs out of command. That way A company as one can still operate but with some restriction cause it's not aware of Bt.HQs higher plans. That would mean for example a Cp.HQ out of Commmand gets 15 sec delay and every Pl. gets that too, but the Pl. of that Cp. out of command would get 15 secs + another 15 secs. Still the delay should show the level of experience of the units. Thus a green team will need longer to figure out what next, a elite team will know what to do anyway. But then units should tend to get near their HQ when command is broken. murx

Hi Username, my reason for those asterix is that I'm German and don't always have the correct miltary technological word at hand. Laughing tanks is a metaphor - just an image but I think You got a clue on that one murx

War of the Chipmonks - would be cool have You contacted the Warner Bros. (or whatever copany produces them) ? Might be a good deal in it murx

I started a similar discussion a few days ago... I agreed to some parts (like tank crews bailing etc.) But still disagree with gun crews + mortars especially in defense scenarios. I strongly believe that German guncrews (especially when they had fought at the Russian front) were used to abandon the gun at some point willingly and fight as infantry. That would happen esp. when enemy armor was disabled and/or they were flanked or in enough grave (but not to grave to panic) situations like starting arty barrages to manage a controlled repositioning/ordered fallback. As Germany was in the defense I would assume this to be a normal procedure but not for less trained troops (Regular troops may by some chance do this, Veteran and above will do so, but Green & Conscripts wont most of the time). As new weapons were always (OK, nearly always) available to Allied units but not for German units the crews would eventually end up as infantry anyway. But I understand that this is hard to code and can live with the way it is at this point. murx [This message has been edited by Murx (edited 06-19-2000).]

DrD, I bet it's a kind of research delay, thus the science team on the Tiger was faster then that of the Panther But don't know. Real problem on the Tigers (as someone stated 'getting them in combat condition to the battlegrounds') was that their tracks were 81cm braod (exact?) thus they had to be removed and the track skirts (right word again?) too when moved per rail. That made a mobile war nearly impossible. So they are defense tanks only. Heard a nice Western Front story once. A US tank Bat. found a single King Tiger guarding a pass loosing one Sherman at a good distance. They didn't liked the idea and waited. After a day another Armor Bat. + a infantry Bat. arrived. The grunts were sent out just to find that the King Tiger was abandonded in the meantime murx (Even if that wasn't that heroic I like it that way cause it saved some lives on both sides)

Trooper, thank You for correcting ( I wrote *right word?* in my post cause I didn't knew the right word. On some weapons the muzzle break & fume extractor are one part (like then MG3) T-34, the NATO tends to 'over-arm' these vehicles with both armor & weapons. But (to my opinion) there is no need to build a allround tank-killer/infantry support vehicle. Like the PzKw III & IV, one for tanks and one for infantry support. So they are most of the time too slow and can't keep up with the MBTs. But as a 'grunt' I bet I would prefere a bit more speed then relying on that armor on my 'support' tank. murx

Hi AFAIK (and some knowledge came from some other threads) the sound can be converted easily (some probs adjusting the amplitude tho), bitmap graphics are used on most computers as they are the simplest way to store pictures. For the game code, if I remember right Quake I was design on a Mac and ported (seems the reason why it's modular & better programmed and optimized then most other PC(equivalent Windows) games). But maybe some experienced coders/programmers can help you further... murx

USERNAME, HEAT will sure not be used by NATO forces on infantry for one reason : Geneva Convention forbids combatants to use all calibers from 20mm and larger to be used on infantry. That is inhumane cause the wounds are either immediate death (not needed, not able to fight longer is enough) or are severe and leave lots of crippled veterans. HEAT is not mortar shaped, if I remember right the arch of the firearc is less then 80cm on one kilometer. It's a direct fire weapon and cant be used indirect. MPAT, prox fused rounds are only useful against *easily* damaged targets, a MBT from this or even several former on (probably including even Panther, KVs and even Matildas will just laugh). You still might be right that MPAT are multipurpose AT rounds but I don't know. Borgiax, I just found out that the Leclerc has not the Rheinmetall 120mm! You can see that because the muzzlebreak (right word ?) is missing, it's the big part in the barrel. As far as I know the Leopard doesn't use Chobham but a similar alloy. And I suspect that you are not right for *reloading and loading* in 6 seconds. Reloading after fired in six seconds the next round in loader system without changing is sure possible. But rotating the loader to another ammo type + unloading (I even doubt that there is a autounloading mechanism as opening the breach and getting the round out of it is a real hard job both in power and difficile). But maybe I'm wrong and there is a unloading mechanism other then firing it will still take a considerable amount of time. (minimum would be the time needed to load but then rotating the reloader too) Second thing on reloader ... another equipment that can jam. And I guess it's more complicated to refill the autoloader and takes more time. And a average loader can reload under all circumstances the gun can be fired + a good loader can load in under 4 seconds, tried it, done it [but only the first shot the next will take approx 6 seconds, but then you ignore some 'official rules' on loading protocoll] + you can't fire when driving cross-country at top speed (70Km/h and ore soetimes) cause the computer wont let you cause the stabilization is not fast enough, the gun alone weights nearly 5 tons !, the whole turret more then 16 tons with the additional armor most of the MBTs have by now, just make a short math on forces that occure here. So reloading at that speed is not needed . Trooper: Bunkers ? They are completely silly today, you can't set up installations that can stand HEAT without notice thus airstrikes are likely to occure at those that are hard enough for HEAT . And mobile war is the name of the game today. Remeber Iraks troops completely bombed/rushed out couse they didn't move, they just dig their tanks in. And Mark IV, just let me say the team that had to clean up the tank didn't loved the job, but after the test every equipment that was attached to the interior got a 6cm thick shock-dampener and no solid/metal is attached to the interior of the turret. It looked inside like, uh, you have a machine you make milchshakes with ? Yes? Try it with pigs... murx [This message has been edited by Murx (edited 06-18-2000).]

Question for setup zones : Will it be possible to overlap zones ? Like a zone that covers both more forward positions + that of the mainforce (resembling you could place some recons in advanced position but if you don't want to endanger them keep them with the rest of your force). As in VoT I had really wanted some units in postions not so close to the frontline esp. support MMGs etc. murx

Just for my 2 cents: Succecive shots work ! I layed a direct fire of 60mm in VoT on the small building at the slope. After several shots (some missed widely) nearly all of the second half (must be 8-10 rounds in that turn) exploded at target ! So they get more & more accurate. murx

T-34/85, You forget that nowadays we have no Infantry anymore, they are all mechanized infantry, thus having their own support tank - Marder, Bradley and lots of others I don't know. It's far more efficient to use high ROF weapons (like HMGs and small caliber guns (20mm MK)) for firesupport then the big ones. You can better adjust the amount of damage you want to make (sometimes you have own troops in/near targetzone so you don't want use HE on the enemy AND your troops - else they wont like you much ) The reason why there is both HEAT and KE (APFSDS) is that HEAT will have little effect on most odern MBT-frontarmor. + most modern tanks have a shaped armor thus HEAT more easily glances off. For APFSDS to loose power due to range - quit ridiculous, OK they loose power but for combats up to 4Km that reduction is less to mention. On trial-shootings with the 120mm smoothbore they shot at T-62 tanks at 1Km, the round went straight through it (and the whole engine block!) most times and still buried itself several meters (over ten) in the ground (there were hills behind the targets for safety reasons). When it didn't went through it got caught inside the turret and flying erranous in circles ricochetting from the round interior. Like a big Mulinex. Don't let me tell what happened on the pig-trials they made both with enemy tanks & the Leopard 2 ... murx

One thing on accuracy... I would like to see a command like 'aimed targeting' maybe always used with ambush. So the gunner/crew takes extratime to aim and gains accuracy. As far as I played my tanks mostly do snapshots - they just fire as fast as possible, but in combination of camouflage tanks & guns can efficiently ambush and take longer time to properly aim. And for optics & stuff - maybe a kind of 'quality of material' could help. It's different if your tank is fresh from the line (and not a Monday piece of crap...), had this tank for 1/2 year and now it exactly or it had three major overhauls caused by damage/upgrades and is haunted by ghosts (( )etc. Some tanks in WWII had rangefinders and with maps up to 4 Km maybe the better equipment on both sides could be included. Especially on the rangefinder systems from WWII there is surely enough information to find on which tanks they were. Just my 2 Euro murx [This message has been edited by Murx (edited 06-17-2000).]

Seen nearly the same thing, at VoT the Pak/40 aimed at my Sherman 105 with a FO as passenger; just when the Sherman get out of LOS behind the 2-story building at the left the PaK changed target to the observer (LOS line clearly going straight through the building, not the edge or stuff) and fired several rounds at the FO. All rounds exploded in/at the building. murx

As aka_tom_w said, most things that are wanted/optional are hard to code (else they would be in the game now?!?), but I bet there will be a next generation of CM, I'm quit sure of this. Maybe there wont be a 'tileset' country, maybe there will be true LOS. It's just up to those who have fun/get money to code all this (and are able to do it). So CM is great as it is but as PC tend to get faster & faster there will be a other game with new/other/not yet used features we have thought of and if we are lucky someday one game will dethrone CM (maybe CM2 ) if the developers haven't forgotten us wargamers. murx (10 % of 2 Pfennige..)

Interesting question is how they do that: Duracell? Red-Bull én masse ? Are they aliens distributing a weird mind-control program ? Listen later when Prof. Frasier talks on ... murx

USERNAME, You are right on the space & use of MBTs like M1A1 Abrahams & Leopard 2 using smoothbore they are tank-killer. And for the smoke, we still have that on the tank, there is a kind of mortar with 6 shots and 2 flanks(3 shots each) attached to the turret. So one can fire either a single smoke round approximately 30m in front of the tank or a smoke wall of three smoke rounds in 60 or 70 degree right or left of the tank. The Leopard 2 carries 49 rounds if I remember right and has only 15 in turret, thus handy in an engagement. With 80% first shot/hit rate and normally 9 rounds APFSDS and 6 HEAT that would mean 7 tanks - more then most nations tank platoons have tanks, German tank companies have currently 13 tanks if I'm right (dunno if they changed ToO&E again). But the real problem with ammo is - reloading a different kind ! A good loader can reload in under 9 seconds a fired gun, but you need nearly 30 secs to unload & reload if no problems occure (and problems tend to happen when you dont need them ). OK, the Gunner can make a 'hot' unloading by just firing the round in the gun but thus you loose valuable ammo you might need later. AFAIK the only *new* ammo that will really be used for the 120mm smoothbore will be range-ignited ammo for airborne (helicopter) targets. So when you rangefind a helicopter the round will explode near it thus disabling it even if it didn't hit (same system behind WWII AA-Guns - but they were manually set for height/time of flight). Other ammo for the 120mm I have heard of but can't validate is HE for bombardment - inaccurate but hey it's just like arty in directfire... And something called APER (antipersonell I think) rounds that wont damage a tank but the shrapnell would be a horror for infantry, used to give firesupport to friendly AFV that are in close combat/being stormed by OPFOR infantry with satchelcharges/magnetic mines. murx (my 0.02 Euro ) [This message has been edited by Murx (edited 06-17-2000).]

There is an issue with some graphical cards screwing screen & mouse pointer (mainly S3 based and some Voodoos). So this is to less information. If You might think it's because of the card try the newest device drivers, most times that would fix that. murx

argie, from Your former post I can see that this is just a joke and You are not saying You don't know Immanuel Kant murx

I think capitalism & communism wouldn't matter if everyone follows Immanuel Kants 1. directive (is that the right term ?). But as someone stated above it doesn't seem that mankinds nature will ever allow this. murx (somewhat mourning on all of this)

What's a ladder ? murx (I know, just want to make fun ) PS: My m key is fuzzled , sometimes the PC doesn't use it ... [This message has been edited by Murx (edited 06-17-2000).]

I thought (until my current PBEMs) that the classic advance, take good position, recon & strike is a good approach in ost cases but 'daring' asaults can have a real effect (especially on assault missions where you are sure of a numerical/support force). The defender has to make sure that he doesn't get outflanked but still needs to deploy his troops with a well balanced strength. So the problem is not attacking with 4:1 strength but defending against that ! Maybe someone can give some good points on this question. murx [This message has been edited by Murx (edited 06-17-2000).]

Could be a simple IRQ - conflitct. PS/2 mice use IRQ 12 if I remember right. Soe Videocards use that one too. Win98 tends to allow several devices on one IRQ (Win95 has bigger probs with tha) but not always this will work as intended. You might try to use a adapter to use the mouse on a COM-port, if its USB-port I dunno . Hope this helps, murx

Thanks Steve OK, I thought the game-engine would have a slighty other structure ; but that each components works in harmony that seems like good traditional Chinese philosophy. This phrase tells me that You really put Your heart & soul in this game (if one wasn't sure by now). I don't mind if either of these options will be build-in I'm still going to buy it. If this discussion leads to know what CM2 could have or maybe even should avoid I'm fine. If it's just hot air , err, pixels on a screen, it's allright too (I can train my English here ) murx

I have read may good ideas/arguments now. To Fred: The five minute turns that both You and the AI/opponent have to stick to their (initial) 5 min orders, so it's surprising for both of you... I don't meant to replay just one minute of replay but the whole scenario, that is 60 minute movie (without loading every turn....) For estimating the experience of enemy troops, especially vehicles. It should be as exact as the hitting algorithm... A veteran troop might know a MG34 from a MG42 but in the midth of a firefight? And they might tell a Sherman with 105m gun from a 75mm, but a 75mm from a 76mm ? When shot at ? A camoflaged concrete from a wooden bunker ? I doubt it ( and that doesn't even include experience of a unit !) So I find nothing special on a less precise ID of targets... Any target is dangerous (Why don't show how much ammo they have left or for FO how much firemissions ?) The idea from Germanboy is quit good representing C&C capabilities. As is gruntos note of delay when issueing new orders. As I (till now ) understand CM it tries to give players the maximum they want & Steve and Charles are willing and able to give. So when some things can *easily* be included as an option then why not ? You can give players a bonus in units (25% 50% etc), why not let them choose their force with points in a scenario as an option ? Options that could be easily be included should (to my opinion and meager knowledge of programming structure) be included. I don't want to sell fun for reality, but I would like to see the option to gain reality for those who still find fun then. Just read Jujus post... You are right, but with the limit you weren't able to do all this and focus on being the CO giving commmands and hoping your troops assimilate :_) ( this will take maybe a even better TacAI [could that be done ? without a cray ] ) murx PS: I'm astonished with so good replies on my thread ! I'm in since only three days... ;}

That is the way war is - expect the unexpected ... ok that a bit polemic... murx