ASL Veteran

I have two sources on the MP35 Chamberlain says In 1934 production started in Germany of the MP34/1 which was produced for export in a number of calibers, but the main production model was the MP35/1 produced for the Waffen SS by Junker und Ruh AG at Karlsruhe. About 40000 had been made by the time production ended in 1945 and the entire output was delivered to the SS. The MP34/1 was produced for such countries as Ethiopia, and the type was also adopted for Danish army use. A small batch was delivered to the German Police, but total production did not exceed 2000. Ian Hogg says The production weapon, taken into use by the German police in the first instance, was the MP34. The MP34 was in production for about a year, something like 2000 being made, and in mid 1935 a small number of changes were made in order to simplify production. This revised model was known as the MP35. In subsequent years these guns were sold in fair numbers to Spain, Sweden, Poland, and Ethiopia. In 1940 the Waffen SS adopted the weapon as their standard sub-machine gun, and from then on the entire production (which was now contracted out once more, this time to Junker and Ruh, leaving Walther to get on with more important things) went on to the Waffen SS units. It appears to have been mostly used on the Eastern Front and the few MP35 specimens which appear in the West generally have SS runes engraved upon them. So I think it’s safe to assume that all the parts about export and police are references to the MP34 (no Poland to export to after 1939 obviously) and that it’s probably fair to say that the SMG used by the Waffen SS in front line units would be the MP35 at least through 1943 and perhaps early in 1944. Incidentally the MP Erma was apparently the standard SMG used by the SS Charlemagne division, SS Latvian volunteers, and the Nederland with Charlemagne using it all the way up to the battle of Berlin. The entire production of the Kutometna Pistole ZK vz383 was used by the Waffen SS as well which apparently 35000 were produced as best I can tell but I don't know who was using it specifically. Anyway, as far as Fire and Rubble is concerned just an academic discussion, but perhaps if a future East Front module might be planned then maybe something could be done there if the resources could be spared.

After looking at the available SMGs for the Germans the only one I would be interested in seeing is the MP35. It appears that something like 40000 were produced until 1945 and every single one was sent to the Waffen SS. So it would be interesting if the Waffen SS squads in Combat Mission used the MP35 (Bergmann) instead of the MP40 (or in addition to as a random substitute). I don't think it would make a difference in firepower terms, but it would be something that sort of 'set apart' the SS squads from the regular army squads from an appearance standpoint.

The reality is that you can list any number of captured weapons that were reused by the Germans during WW2 at various times and it's probably impossible to include every one of them (Polish Rifles, French Rifles, Belgian machine guns, Czech weapons, etcetera). I'm sure everyone has a favorite, but it's probably not realistic to expect every one of them to be represented in the game. Too much work for too little practical end result. Many of the French bolt action rifles that were reused by the Germans only had a three round magazine like the GEW 302(f). For submachine guns you have the MP722(f), The entire production of the Czech ZK vz383 was sent to the Waffen SS. The Germans also had an MP18/1, MP 28/11 (used by SS), MP 34/1, MP 35/1, MP Erma (used by SS), MP38, MP41, and the MP3008. The Waffen SS exclusively used many of those weapons. Even the Soviets had the PPD 1934, PPD 1940, PPS 1941, PPS 1942, and the PPS 1943. Are all those different SMGs in the Soviet order of battle in the game? No. Does it matter? Probably not ...? Did the Germans use all of them as capture weapons? Probably? Does it matter that they aren't using them in the game? Probably not? (shrug). I just don't know why captured Soviet SMGs always seems to come up - is there some sort of reason why it seems like they get asked for all the time? I'm just not getting it. Honest question here, not trying to bust anyone's chops or anything like that. Just curious.

BFC has said that was the plan in several threads on these forums - perhaps the Fire and Rubble thread (which is big I know, but it's probably in there somewhere if you want to get it straight from the big man himself)

Did Steve really say CM3? I think someone who was dreaming about Barbarossa said CM3 but I'm not sure Steve said it ...? Or did he? I would be surprised if he did.

Guess we'll find out

Yes, there is always Cold War to wait on as well. At least with that we can all agree which direction everyone was climbing over the wall.

On the bright side though, when Steve gets chatty like this it usually means ....

Once everything gets on Steam then everyone can go to Steam Charts and see how many players are playing each game series so people will know which titles are the most popular based on current players (as opposed to sales which we aren't privy to). That also makes the discussion about what came out before what and what has more content largely irrelevant - at least for current players anyway since the measure is the same for all titles (who is playing the game today). More than likely all the East Front fans have also bought CMBN because it came out first, but not all players who bought CMBN bought CMRT thus the East Front fans count towards both (making it improbable that sales of CMRT would surpass CMBN since everyone for CMRT likely has CMBN). That doesn't necessarily mean that all the East Front fans are still playing CMBN at the same level as they are playing CMRT. Fire and Rubble might also increase the number of East Front players just because there would be more content. I'm sure that even accounting for that CMBN outstrips everything else, but at least we would get an objective measure of current popularity once everything is on Steam. Last time I checked Steam Charts CMSF had about twice as many current players as CMBS IIRC. I am curious what CMBN would be.

well, and obviously the properties of the flavor object made by someone would not be coded into the game as the ones in the game are done by Charles so whatever object you chose to modify would retain the properties assigned to whatever the object was before you turned it into whatever you turned it into.

I seem to recall Steve saying that Panzershreks were not normally available to Panzergrenadier formations by TO&E, but rather that Panzershreks were distributed amongst leg infantry units instead. I'm just going from memory and I haven't looked at the TO&E for Panzergrenadier formations or anything like that, but if what I'm remembering is accurate then that's why Panzershrek teams wouldn't be available in the Armored Infantry category. Incidentally the teams are functionally identical no matter what category you are choosing them from, so if you want Panzershrek teams with your Panzergrenadiers then just grab the team from the Infantry category. Nobody will know the difference.

Well that's the thing. There is a Well flavor object in CMRT so if it provided cover then you would see bullets bouncing off it since it's stone. It might, I've just never tried it or noticed it. At the same time though any flavor object that gets added to the game has to be coded on the back end by Charles to give it cover. Flavor objects typically have a very low priority when it comes to getting a game completed so I'm not sure how much time is spent on giving flavor objects appropriate properties. Map makers always want more flavor objects, but there is always push back on what we can have and how much effort is put into creating them. Without Pete Wenman's good work we would probably still be using flavor objects from Shock Force in Final Blitzkrieg! I kid, but only a little.

Well I don't pretend to know how complicated it would be, but it's been like this forever ... I'm sure if it could be fixed it would be. It seems like, for whatever reason, buildings just tend to have an invisible footprint inside an action spot when placed at the diagonal - at least for vehicles. A footprint beyond what you can see visually 3D or even what's represented in the 2D map editor. I've been bit by that on occasion in the past and it's aggravating. If you catch it you can adjust the map accordingly, but that's not always going to be possible to catch that sort of stuff if you have a big map. I spent hours on the Hot Time In Hatten map only to find out that I couldn't drive anything down the main road through Hatten!! Eventually I was able to fix it by adjusting the building spacing, but it can be hard to detect even when you are making the map. Infantry can't body up to a fence at a T or + intersection, but I think that shows as prohibited terrain when you try to move them up to the fence (although I can't be sure as it's been a while since I've tried that)

Color me surprised. I've seen them get destroyed when vehicles drive over them (disappear). I've never seen the pixeltruppen take a knee behind a flavor object - at least that I remember. Interesting.

I feel your pain. I can't really tell from the screen shot, but the game does have some vehicle pathing issues for buildings at a 45 degree angle (as opposed to straight north south cardinal directions when looking at the 2D map in the editor). Your compass in the screen shot seems to indicate that everything is at a 45 degree angle, but I'm not certain because you may be looking at a 45 degree angle and buildings are at cardinal directions. For example, you can put a road down an angled street with buildings along each side and then find that you can't drive anything down said road. The gap between obstacles basically has to be a full 'action spot' in order to be sure that a vehicle will pass through a gap. The unfortunate part is that you can place buildings, walls, and other things such that they will only be half an 'action spot' wide and it will block movement and the game won't even tell you that the path is obstructed (although if the building is facing the cardinal directions the game works better with smaller gaps). The only way to know is when it happens (as you found out). So once again, I don't know what map that is or if the building is diagonal vs a cardinal direction, but if they are then likely the gap is not a full action spot in width and so your jeep was blocked. The person who makes the map isn't going to know either unless they drive something through there or know about the 'issue' and can remember to adjust for it. My only advice would be that if you are thinking of a move like that, check the direction the building facades are facing. If the building facade doesn't face the cardinal directions then you should probably be cautious when attempting to pass through a gap near a building.

From a scenario design standpoint there really is no need for window entry. As I recall there was a lot of discussion about this years ago, but ultimately if you just think of doors as 'entry points' rather than doors then the window discussion becomes academic. On the modular buildings a designer can put a door on every side of the building as well as putting doors on every floor between adjacent buildings if the designer chooses to do so. I can't do that on the independent buildings, but for the most part if I want to allow the player easy entry to every modular building I can do that as a designer. A door on every wall would probably look funny, but it's possible. When two modular buildings abut each other I tend to add doors between the buildings on every floor - it only takes one shift click and it's done now. Back when CMBN was originally released the windows remained in place when buildings were touching each other and you would have to painstakingly cycle through all the facades until you got the one with a door and no windows. Now when two buildings are adjacent to each other the walls that touch another building are blank and it just takes one click to put a door in the wall. So easy peasy lemon squeezy these days. You can even shift the location of the door along to different parts of the wall if you have two buildings that don't line up exactly against each other. Or add a door between buildings and then put a window on a part of the building that isn't covered by an adjacent building. I don't remember exactly when that was added - maybe it was added for Market Garden? Anyway, it's basically up to the designer and how much time they want to spend cycling through the building facades. It can be a bit of a time sink, but it's time you have to spend if you want your map to work the way you want it to. The only thing you can't do is put two doors in the same wall - which is unfortunate in some instances because there are cases where I would like to be able to put an interior door between adjacent buildings as well as put a door to the outside on an exposed part of the building along the same wall. In the case of the screen shot, if the elevation was adjusted such that the door was no longer blocked then window entry would be unnecessary since the door would work.

Flavor objects do not provide any cover. They can be driven through freely by any vehicle. Not certain if they provide concealment or not - but if you are already spotted it probably doesn't matter that much.

Yes, but when you fire them from a building it causes suppression and possible casualties to building occupants.

Linking up and Breaking out is an older scenario. At that time I seem to recall that buildings would automatically flatten the terrain around it so the building sat flat. At some point later on buildings no longer pushed the terrain flat automatically so now unless the designer places elevation points under the building the ground will rise up and cover doors and windows. I may not be remembering right though cause it's been a few years since Commonwealth. The elevation routine was changed with the first Italy game IIRC because roads wouldn't cut into mountains and other complications that were specific to Italy. I'm guessing that scenarios from before the first Italy game may suffer these issues with doors and windows more so than in later titles.

In this case it appears that the door is partially underground because the elevation appears to be different between the two doors. When a designer doesn't put buildings on flat ground the doors frequently don't work because the door is blocked by the ground. Creating a town in hilly terrain is a lot of work and you really have to massage the ground in order for it to work and have it look okay. I can't be certain because I'm not looking in the editor and I don't know what map that is, but to my eye that door doesn't look like it's the right size (my eyeball is telling me it's too short so the elevation isn't flat)

I don't know if this means anything or not, but I heard this song playing in BFC's offices as I walked past - draw your own conclusions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIuYQ_4TcXg

That would be nice.

Isn't there already a combat mission Afghanistan game?

If I recall correctly there are no separately tracked smoke rounds in the sense that they come from an entirely different pile of ammo than the HE rounds. If the HE is expended then the smoke is expended as the smoke rounds listed is a subset of the HE rounds. The reverse is not true though in that if you expend all of your smoke rounds then the remaining HE rounds can still be fired. Not really sure why they did it like that, but I'm pretty sure that's how it works.