ASL Veteran

I'm happy to be of assistance. I guess the ball is now firmly in your court. Perhaps you can explain for yourself the process by which you arrived at the conclusion that it would take very little effort on the part of BFC to perform the tasks you feel they should perform? We can all then judge whether your explanation or my explanation is the more accurate one.

Is that a yes or a no? Just curious because if you want others to give you some assistance with your problem straight answers can go a long way towards solving it.

He knows it would require very little effort because he wants BFC to drop everything and do it for him. By saying it would take very little effort he thinks that his chances of it coming to pass will be increased, thus it would take very little effort.

FYI John, I'm not sure if you are aware of this or not, but many times when you post links (and I don't click on all of them by any means) the ones I do check happen to get blocked by my data mask program as phishing sites or sites looking for data entry. Before clicking on some of your more recent links I had zero phishing or data entry sites and after you posted some links my data mask program said I was protected from twelve phishing targets and one online data entry field. I get the impression that when some of these sites load up there are a lot of 'extra' programs / ads / whatever that load along with the site. This only seems to happen to me when you post links for some reason. It happens repeatedly with your links. I don't recall having this issue with any other poster.

You don't have a Windows Vista machine do you? Things get a little dicey with Vista because of the "Virtual Store" folder or whatever it was called.

I don't disagree with that. However, the flip side of that is also true. Let's say you know that your opponent has a King Tiger. The way you play the scenario is going to be in a manner in which you are accounting for it at all times and your plan of action is going to be influenced by that. Your opponent could keep their King Tiger hidden in the back somewhere out of your line of sight for quite a while with the intent of subjecting you to a devastating ambush when the time is right. In the mean time you are advancing cautiously just waiting for the big fist to hit you in the nose, but you don't know when it's going to hit or where. Granted, if you didn't know he had a King Tiger in the first place there would be an 'oh crap' moment when it arrives, but at the same time just by pure accident you may have positioned yourself in such a way as to neutralize it without much trouble since you didn't even know it was there in the first place. Like I said though - it just depends on how you like to play. I've played both ways and I prefer to know I'll be in a good battle than to play blind and find out it's a cake walk (or a thrashing). PBEM battles take so much time to play that I would rather invest my time in something knowing I have a chance for victory. That, and having played ASL for many years where there is no fog of war at all I'm comfortable with it peeking. Besides, most people aren't going to remember every single detail just from one quick glance. I normally just get a sense of what the force is all about, I don't write it all down on a spreadsheet. Usually there is going to be more than one weapon system that will contribute to victory or defeat.

Yeah. Well for those who don't know, there weren't any German Mountain troops anywhere within five hundred miles of Carantan, France in June of 1944. Oddly enough on the exact day and location of the German attack that was portrayed in Band of Brothers there just happened to be a German parachute Regiment in Carantan and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division was there as well. I've got to assume that the German guy who we see in that show as wearing a Paratrooper uniform and helmet yet having the flower in his pocket was a German Paratrooper. Having said that - there is the possibility that he was an ex mountain troop who picked the flower a couple of years earlier before joining the Paratroops just before the Normandy invasion. He didn't want to get sent to Finland so he probably figured that being a paratrooper would be a better gig and he decided to make the switch.

It all depends on how you like to play. If you prefer to play 'blind' then looking before the battle starts would be ungentlemanly. However, I don't really mind if someone looks. In fact, I encourage it because it helps my opponent and I to select good scenarios. If you are playing blind you are selecting scenarios blind (unless you have someone else recommending them to you). The way I would do it is whoever selects the scenario doesn't select which side they want to play as. This forces someone to select a scenario where they think they can win as either side since they don't know what side their opponent is going to pick. It also makes it a good idea to look at both sides before making a scenario selection if you are the one choosing the scenario and it makes it a good idea to look at each side before choosing the side you want to play. It's more of a 'chess' mentality I suppose. Just because someone doesn't play blind doesn't mean the scenario is any less tense. You may have some familiarity with what you are up against, but you don't know how your opponent will use what they've got. There are so many different playing styles and skill levels that having glanced at both sides in a scenario prior to playing it is probably one of the smallest factors in determining victory or defeat in my opinion. That's just me though. If you play the same scenario against five different people, you will most certainly get five different battle experiences.

Shogun 2 has been out for at least a year or two now and Total War has released several DLC for different factions. I've been playing it a lot lately and I have to say that the naval battles are completely broken. How did this state of affairs come to pass with a game company that has a budget so large that they have their own motion capture studio and they could hire a programmer who did nothing but code water for an entire year? The problems with naval battles? Let me list a few of them 1. Enemy ships line up on the opposite side of the map, but don't move until your ships get into bow range. This allows me to move my ships all up to one flank and put the whipping on the enemy because they don't react until I've already taken my time and set up my trap. 2. Frequently, enemy ships run for the map edge even though they are in good order. For some reason the ships get 'stuck' on the map edge and can't leave. I typically let them sit there while I finish off all their friends, then I send my entire fleet to the map edges to pick off these stragglers who are stuck on the edge. 3 The Sengoku Bune, the sailing ship with no oars, when choosing to board one of my ships after I've positioned my ships UPWIND seem to travel at speeds appropriate for ships with an engine and a propeller shaft in them rather than a sailing vessel going upwind. They move at this speed in any direction when routing as well. 4. The pathing is pretty suspect at times. If there are a lot of surrendered or burning ships littering the sea (or even when there is open ocean this happens sometimes) then many times if you want to move a ship a few meters in one direction they end up doing a circular motion sailing around in a circle for, like fifty meters, before getting to that location that was originally about five meters away. The ironic thing is that they allow the ships to turn in place sometimes. 5. Ships will auto target when an enemy ship gets in range, but I've noticed that there is a lot of target 'fixation' where they will target the first ship that gets in range and they will continue to fire on that ship even though another ship might be approaching with the intent to board and is now closer than the first target which might be routing away. 6. If your ships aren't moving (these are oared vessels so you can just sit in place if you want to) then after they auto target the first vessel that comes in range they will stop shooting when that ship gets out of range. Those ships will then not auto target any other vessels that get in range, and this forces the player to manually target enemy ships or move your ships a little bit if you don't want to get fired upon without returning fire. How naval battles got past the testing phase is a complete mystery to me. Anyone who went in and played one could have seen all the problems with them. They haven't even fixed this problem yet either, and this game has been out for a while. They are now mostly working on Rome 2 I guess and creating new DLC faction packs and skins to charge people for. I suppose having working naval battles just isn't a priority for those guys. I wonder what that guy who was coding water for a year is doing now? Maybe he could do some bug fixing instead?

Always trying to slip something in there under the radar eh? The 2.0 upgrade was $10, but patches to anything in version 2.0 will be at no charge. So now you will have version 1x patches at no charge and version 2x patches at no charge (after making the initial upgrade purchase of course). Sure, the upgrade had some problems in it, but you shouldn't be conflating the 2.0 upgrade itself with any subsequent patches that will be applied to the 2.0 upgrade. Of course, you claim to be in favor of that 'scheme' though so I guess we shouldn't think that you are taking another back handed slap at the BFC crew should we?

You pretty much have to get a direct hit with any indirect fire to KO a wooden bunker. If you do get a direct hit though, even a 60mm mortar will take it out, but I think it takes more than one hit with the 60mm.

All you have to do is get within hand grenade range and your truppen should knock out the bunker pretty quickly. It looks like you can run someone up there fairly easily, unless there is something else covering that open ground that's not showing up in your screen shot. Oh, and from the screen shot it sure looks like your troops are aiming their rifles right at the bunker. That's probably not the best way to try to take a wooden bunker out with infantry though.

"Bunker 24, known as a “silo” bunker by the Americans was a fighting bunker of the general construction plan Type SK/6a or Kampfbunker. Built in 1938, the same year as Bunker 27, it was slightly smaller than the troop shelter, but boasted an armored machine gun turret on the roof. Protected by walls 2 meters thick, it could accommodate a crew of nine, though more could fit inside if the situation warranted. Impregnable to even direct hits from the largest shells then in use, it suffered from the same weakness as Bunker 27 in that its northwestern orientation also left it vulnerable to an attack from the sides and rear where its main entrance lay. Riding atop the tanks in order to avoid bouncing betty anti personnel mines the Americans quickly reached bunker 24 and 25, a smaller troop shelter 100 meters to the southwest and began to methodically assault both structures. One of the tanks was equipped with a bulldozer blade, which it used to push dirt over bunker 24s firing embrasures and exits, while infantrymen placed shaped charges on top. After several of these charges were detonated, two Germans rushed out of the exit and surrendered. Although bunker 25 fell quickly to a team of infantrymen and combat engineers supported by one of the tanks, bunker 24 proved to be a more difficult challenge. While engaged in placing shaped charges on bunker 24, heavy German artillery and mortar fire as well as small arms fire (probably from the positions of the nearby 3rd platoon) forced the men of company B to withdraw to their line of departure at bunker 27 to seek shelter after they had suffered heavy losses. While the infantry pulled back to safety, the four tanks from Company A, 709th Tank Battalion continued the attack against Bunker 24, and it’s adjacent trenchline with cannon and machine gun fire. One Sherman was soon knocked out by a direct hit caused by the intense German artillery fire. The bulldozer tank attempted to use it’s blade to bury the occupants of the bunker alive, but it slipped over the edge of the ice covered embankment at the rear exit and became wedged against the door. The crew’s frantic efforts to place the engine in reverse and back out of their predicament proved unsuccessful. Undeterred, the Gis inside the dozer tank decided to do as much damage to the bunker as possible and fired all of their ammunition, about seventy rounds of 75mm high explosive and white phosphorus against the armored door, scarcely ten feet away. While they were eventually forced to abandon their tank, the crew at least could boast that “We didn’t get in, but the Krauts didn’t get out.” When Wegner arrived at Bunker 24 at 2000 hours, he noticed that there were ten sacks of American high explosives and shaped charges stacked along the entrance side of the bunker. He couldn’t help but notice the dozer tank partially blocking the right entrance door and saw that the outer walls of the bunker were heavily damaged. On the steps by the left entrance lay rubble and he noticed metal reinforcing rods sticking out of the concrete at the corner that completely blocked the entrance. Near the right entrance lay two seriously wounded soldiers who had just been brought out of the bunker. A step or two inside the entrance he stumbled on two bodies that had just been laid near the door. Inside the right side of the bunker, Wegner saw a dim light burning and noticed several soldiers engaged in caring for the wounded and clearing out the interior. In his words, the interior of the bunker presented a tragic sight. From the roof hung steel reinforcing rods and metal strips. The interior walls of the bunker were also cracked and shattered, evidence of the American’s use of the new “beehive” shaped charges. Bits of concrete and equipment lay upon the dead and wounded. Wegner found the body of Oberleutnant Kold underneath that of another dead Volksgrenadier. When he lifted Kolb’s body, the smell of phosphorus filled the air, already chokingly thick with the smell of gunpowder and concrete dust. Except for skin abrasions and bruises, none of the dead or wounded had any marks on them; evidently they were killed or injured by blast overpressure and concussion. Another survivor of Bunker 24 was Unteroffizier Kurt Klein, who had accompanied Kolb as NCO in charge of the company’s command group. Klein was found covered in blood and babbling incoherently, evidently having suffered a mental breakdown from the strain of being trapped in the bunker while artillery, shaped charges, and tank shells were detonated within feet of him and the others. It was Klein who had found the body of his best friend, Heinz Kolb and though wounded himself, had tried to shield the body from further harm. In addition to his psychiatric injuries, Klein also suffered from phosphorus burns on his face and neck that required extensive treatment. After receiving first aid, Klein was evacuated to a military hospital in Plauen, where he was beset by nightmares and crying fits. Shortly thereafter he was moved to an Army mental hospital in Rodewisch, where one doctor wanted to use shock therapy to treat his depression. A kindly staff doctor, who also had a son in the Wehrmacht who was Klein’s age, took a liking to him and had him put to work in the hospital telephone exchange as part of his therapy. Here he worked as an operator until the end of the war, when he was taken prisoner. Classified as a combatant, Klein was forced to walk to the nearest POW camp while still dressed in his pajamas." That passage compliments of "Victory was Beyond Their Grasp: with the 272nd Volksgrenadier Division from the Hurtgen Forest to the Heart of the Reich." If only those foolish Americans would have known that just one or two AP rounds from any of those four tanks could have taken care of bunker 24 in a few seconds. They could have left the engineers with their demo charges behind and a lot of lives could have been saved since they wouldn't have been hit by that artillery fire. It should also be noted that the tanks were not subjected to any AT fire and had the freedom to drive around at will. Here is an example of that bunker type that I found after a quick search http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/7877/Westwall---Regelbau-SK-Bunker-Aachen-Forest.htm

Bunkers aren't made out of just regular poured concrete - you know that right? There are layers of steel reinforcing among other things within the concrete. Many small concrete bunkers begin life as a steel shell.

If I remember right, all you do is just select the same squares again and the victory location color will disappear.

I read an account where American troops supported by one Sherman tank assaulted a West Wall bunker packed with a German Volksgrenadier platoon. The Engineers were repeatedly placing what they called 'Beehive' demo charges on the roof of the bunker. The Sherman tank had driven around towards the rear of the bunker and slid down into the depression where the bunker door opens out into. There was snow on the ground and they couldn't get the Sherman back out of the depression, so they just aimed the main gun at the door and started blasting away. They ended up emptying the Sherman's entire complement of ammunition into the shut bunker door. Almost all the Germans inside the bunker were killed from blast and over pressure damage from the demolition charges and the main gun rounds, but the Americans never actually broke into the bunker. Eventually the crew of the Sherman abandoned the tank and walked back to American lines.

Full Camo would suggest that I was going to be getting a full can of Camo High Gravity Lager. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/881/2789

I understand your frustration - sometimes things in games don't work the way you expect and stuff happens to affect your chances of victory in a negative way. No need to excuse yourself. You identified an issue and Steve addressed your post about the issue. You have recommended a solution - maybe he'll take a look at that proposed solution and see if it can be implemented some day in the future.

Yes, that's what he said. Even if he said that they would adjust it today though it wouldn't help you in your current situation anyway. Your game would likely have been played to completion by the time it was 'adjusted' so it would only help you the next time this happened to you. Just out of curiosity how many times has this happened to you prior to just now? Also, now that you know this situation exists do you think you might be able to adjust your playing style a bit to account for this 'situation'? Just asking.

You can play either real time or turn based. You just have to select turn based when you fire up a scenario. Edited to add that I think I misunderstood your question. No, there is no TCP/IP turn based at the moment. Hopefully it will get added some day - I know that Steve has mentioned on the forums that it is a feature he would like to get in there if they could squeeze it in. The forum activity on this particular subject has been pretty intense in the past so they definitely know that it's a feature players would like to have.

Nothing along those lines has been announced. If you think about it, there would be no reason to bundle the upgrade with CW because the upgrade is not required for CW to run. It would only be included at a reduced price for Market Garden because Market Garden can only work with 2.0 so it makes sense to bundle them together.

Ah yes, Chief Ten Bears http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Bears Anyone who has a Steam account will know that every developer who sells product on Steam will sell you far less than what you are getting with the upgrade for far more. They don't call them upgrades though - they just call them DLC (Down Loadable Content). Sometimes they only cost a buck or two, but sometimes the DLC costs much more than that. Many times they are nothing but a few new skins - something that the Upgrade did for every single item in CMBN. Anyone who thinks this isn't the trend for all developers going forward isn't living in reality. For those who are waiting for CMx1 patches .... wow, just wow. :eek: I bought Master of Orion 3 a while back which was functional but essentially broken in many parts. No patches are ever going to be forthcoming for that. I bought Rome Total War and the Barbarian Invasion expansion pack. As far as I know you still can't assault a large city because when the assaulting troops come off the siege tower they simply fall through the city wall and die as they impact the ground. There are still many players who think Rome Total war is better than sliced bread, yet the Total War team (who has enough monetary resources to have it's own motion capture studio) hasn't done squat to fix that fatal game breaking bug. Because of that bug my Rome Total War game has been collecting dust for a long time because for me it's unplayable. I'm sure you are all passionate about how much you love CMx1 and you want to keep playing it until the sun goes supernova, but don't you think your expectations for support are just a little over the top? After all, the game is more than ten years old. Honestly, how many ten year old games are still being supported by their developers? Heck, how many two year old games are still being supported? Don't you think you are being even the slightest bit unreasonable? Most gamers are lucky to get more than one patch after a game is released. Sometimes if we were lucky we would get two patches! Steam is helping there a bit though, but with Steam also comes the DLC.

Many of these shots include mods and would not be representative of the game as purchased. If you are doing a review of the game it might not be a good idea to use modded shots.

Now I'm angry!! Rather than charging the same for CMBN and CMFI and then backporting the features of CMFI to CMBN for an extra ten bucks they should have charged ten dollars more for CMFI!! I'm furious that I underpaid for CMFI!! :mad: CMBN should have been ten dollars cheaper than CMFI because those features in CMFI weren't in CMBN dammit! The obvious solution was to have charged ten dollars more for CMFI in the first place! If they did that, then the price for CMBN with the upgrade would be the same as CMFI. I'm furious that I paid to little for CMFI! BFC should have charged me more!!! :mad: I think the strategy going forward should be to charge each new version ten dollars more than the previous version.

Maybe it's 'possible' that most of those who are downloading patches for CMFI were those who ordered hardgoods. Perhaps many of those who chose download only didn't need to patch since perhaps the items that they downloaded were already patched to the most current version when they downloaded it? Once again though - what difference does it make? BFC has a certain development cost to cover for creating the product. BFC also knows how much it takes in terms of sales to cover those costs. They then create some sales projections that will be required to be met in order to pay for the development cost. If the selling of one copy of CMFI covers their costs and that is considered a success by BFC, then what difference does it make what someone else thinks is successful or not? The bar for success is entirely set by BFC based upon what BFC requires in terms of covering their costs, a little profit tossed in, and hopefully a little cash to pay for the development of future games. Since the bar for success is set entirely by BFC then what possible value could BFC gain from having someone else who is not intimate with their business model, cost structure, or their needs lecture them on what is a success or not? There is no value to BFC. None whatsoever. So what could the motivations for these discussions be? Are people worried that BFC won't survive and if they would only follow this helpful but uninformed advise they would start blowing the doors off the competition? Maybe. Since BFC has been around for a very long time though (in terms of game developers.) that doesn't seem to be the motivation for these discussions.