ASL Veteran

I find it hard to believe that you have made over 100 scenarios given how long it actually takes to make one. At least if you are making them from scratch. If you are taking the work that someone else has done and porting it over to something else or swapping some stuff around then yeah, I could see over 100. That's just being a parasite though and making a claim about what you have "made" is honestly a little offensive to me if that's the case. However, I am pretty sure that you can't understand or comprehend the distinction given what you have posted about in the past and what you have been advocating for in this thread.

Let me try T72 in the above mentioned btt scenario can't spot enemy tank in the open field during daylight at the distance of 2km that is straight ahead because dbsapp dislikes the way spotting is modeled in Combat Mission and likes the way spotting is modeled in Steel Beasts better. It is very fortunate that dbsapp can play Steel Beasts instead because if he prefers the way spotting is done in Steel Beasts the best way to experience that spotting is to play Steel Beasts instead of playing Combat Mission and wishing it was Steel Beasts. I will leave you with this first hand Soviet account from WW2 - yeah, the Soviet crew is in a T34 and that's a German Panther and guess what? It's right in the gunner's sight exactly where they were expecting it to show up and yet the gunner cannot see it. Reality must be broken or something - a shattering of the space time continuum because everyone knows that if the enemy tank is sitting right in the gunner's sight the gunner should see it since that's how it is in Steel Beasts.

Trust me, BFC is very aware of all the spotting complaints. Personally - just speaking for myself - I think there is a combination of factors that skews things a bit. For one thing I'm not sure that gamers realize how difficult it is (per veteran accounts as well as various 'spotting tests' done in the 19th century - the human eye hasn't changed since then) to spot anything at all on the battlefield - up to and including stuff that's firing directly at you. I'm also not sure that gamers fully appreciate what a human being looks like at 700 meters (for example). On the one hand you have to make spotting such that a game can function (the empty battlefield) and on the other hand you have to try and make something that an average gamer can reasonably associate with reality and that's a difficult wire to walk (gamers who may or may not have an appreciation of what something actually looks like 800 meters away). I think probably the biggest spotting 'hole' in the game (if you will) is probably anything movement related. Movement draws the eye and assists in spotting something. Binoculars will bring something a lot closer through magnification, but of course your field of view is way more restricted than it would be with the naked eye. So typically I would expect that if something was stationary (even sitting in the open) it would be difficult to spot at various ranges (for example, an infantryman standing in the open might not be seen with the naked eye beyond 700 meters if he isn't moving). However if something is moving you should notice it even with peripheral vision with the naked eye at reasonable ranges (not at 2000 meters for example) and then binoculars could be used to scan the specific area where movement was detected in order to firm up the 'spot'. Infantrymen could walk through an open field at 2000 meters and it's unlikely that you would even know they were there if you were looking just with the naked eye.

Well there was a very lengthy discussion about arcs (behind the veil) and he never once mentioned that there was a spotting bonus to arcs. I don't recall that he specifically said there wasn't a bonus or not, but that was a part of the discussion and he never said there was either (as far as I remember). So if there is a bonus then perhaps he forgot (entirely possible) or perhaps it was altered later (also possible, but probably unlikely). I would guess that the bonus is probably very slight assuming there is one.

Okay, well I guess I'm not remembering right. I've never used a full sized self propelled artillery piece as a vehicle in anything before, although I've selected them as artillery batteries. I know the western allied pieces are present - they were used in a direct fire role. Not sure I've ever read anything about a Hummel being used in a direct fire role - that would have been the role of the infantry gun version - there are several self propelled 150 infantry guns available on the German side for sure.

The Hummel is an offmap artillery asset. I'm pretty sure you can select it as part of an artillery battery (offmap). I don't think that any of the artillery pieces that are typically offmap are represented in game. The Hummel has the full sized Artillery Howitzer on it as opposed to the 150 Infantry gun - those self propelled pieces with the infantry gun should be in the game but I've never seen a full sized artillery piece in the game in any form that I can recall.

Even funnier than that is Steve is a dead ringer for my brother in law - retired contractor / carpenter in West Virginia. Incidentally my brother in law's name is ... Steve. No I'm not making this stuff up.

That's not 100% accurate If you have a Setup zone defined for an AI group, they will try to spread themselves evenly over that zone (provided all the set up zone areas are located within the same Deployment Zone) If you do not have a set up zone defined, but you start them in a Deployment Zone, they will remain where you set them up If you start them outside a deployment zone then they will remain where you set them up regardless as to whether you have a setup order for them or not The only time the AI will redeploy troops at start is if you have them assigned to an AI group, give them a Setup Order that is located within a deployment zone, and also the truppen must be within the same Deployment Zone that the setup order is located. In other words, truppen will only redeploy within the same set up zone that you place them and will only move at start if there is also a set up order within that same deployment zone. The main point, with regards to this thread, is that if you want your ATG ammo bearers to be next to the appropriate gun, then don't give them a setup order and set them up next to each other. Yeah, then their locations won't be randomized, but at least they will have full ammo when they fire at the enemy.

My first thought would be whether the pixeltruppen are confused by the balcony somehow. My second thought for the buildings with no balcony would be to check the ground elevations on the map for those buildings to see if maybe they aren't on entirely flat ground.

Well you know what they say: We all start in diapers and we all end in diapers

It depends on what type of tree it is. With the pine trees you can see a surprisingly far way through them, but with the other tree types not so far. It also matters if the tree is on a light forest tile, a heavy forest tile, or just a grass tile.

IF the western allies did not declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland IF that resulted in neutral France, Britain, and America along with no Lend Lease Germany invades the Soviet Union in the Summer of 1940. No German occupation forces in France, Norway, etc so the full force and resources of the German military were targeted on the Soviet Union standing alone Italy, Romania, Finland, and Hungary all join the invasion of the Soviet Union (Mussolini wanted to help the Germans in the Soviet Union in spite of Hitler not wanting his help.) I think that even with what we know now the Axis powers would have prevailed. The wild card in that scenario would be if the Empire of Japan still attacked the US in December of 1941, would Germany still declare war upon the US and thus likely bring Britain into the war as well (not sure what France would do in that circumstance). If so, would Germany simply defend the West Wall and send a few troops to North Africa or would substantial forces be moved west to actively fight Britain, the US, and maybe France or maybe not France.