Lawyer
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Posts posted by Lawyer
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Wow Michael, that was almost witty. I'd forgotten how tough this place is. Where's Joe Shaw when ya need him??
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Geez, Michael Emrys still lives (or apparently pretends to do so)... I thought that viral strain was gone the last time I flushed...
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Hello to all, both the old and new...
I was there at the start of CM and did it all big time for a few years back then. It was an exciting new game that appealed to me since I don't have a quick mouse finger and I liked realism and strategy. The turn play and email turns fit me perfectly. I could drink beer and take a day to figure out what to do next. Of course, I was disappointed when CM did things that undermined my tactics, but I lived to play again...
But the vibrant online community of like-minded souls was the heart of it. Back then, I mouthed off on the Peng thread forum. Traded trash and played games with a few fellow Peng guys. Mostly got beat after they got better and I didn't. But I always loved the original setting in ETO which matched my reading list of U.S. WWII history. And I had lots of attitude, which was crucial back then. If you couldn't throw an interesting insult, you were dead meat...
I've been gone for several years now while living Real Life for better and worse. I'm kinda "retired" from a real job these days and wanting to doing things I actually enjoy like biking, kayaking, hiking, drinking (like a fish as always), and trying to have more fun. So here I am playing the new CM with better gameplay and graphics I always wanted. I never got into the East Front or Africa, and I NEVER wanted to play modern war in the Middle East. But I always hoped Battlefront would realize that guys like me wanted a better ETO Western Front game. It took a long time, but now they apparently have done it, so I'll buy the new game and give it a try...
I don't know who's left here from the old days. But I'm definitely back in the game now that CMBN is out for Mac. I left Windoze long ago and will never return. So I'm an authentic "old guy" and look forward to having some good times with the new CM. And I hope to have some fun with you guys, no matter when you joined up. Most of you are far better than me, but I'm THE LAWYER who everybody loves to hate and beat to a pulp. Hmmm... Maybe I should change my monicker to The Priest...
Hey, it's all about the camaraderie of enjoying CM, so I'll see you around...
Jake
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Thanks. The text fix worked for me. I never could get the ATI Catalyst to load because my WinXP with auto update does not have .NET framwork, whatever the hell that is. I've become spoiled by Mac software that automatically loads easily and does not require running around or screwing up the OS on my computer.
I sure hope Battlefront makes its next game compatible with OSX. That's where the action is for home computers these days. And with good reason...
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Hi,
I installed CMAK on my new 24" Intel iMac running WinXP using Bootcamp. I have the ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO card and 2GB RAM on the Mac. CMAK runs, but the text blocks in the game are blank white and the ESC key does not work to quit the game, so I have no way quit mid-game. Basically, CMAK is unplayable.
I read Madmatt's trouble shooting advice about ATI drivers causing the blank text boxes, and that I should disable anti-aliasing to fix the problem. But I don't have a way to do that under Bootcamp, since all I have is the Windows Control Panel display box that only lets me set screen resolution. And I still have no way to quit using the ESC key.
This is all very confusing to me. I really want to keep playing CMAK, and I purchased and installed WinXP to play Battlefront games. Can somebody help me? Is there somewhere I can download a more elaborate control panel for the ATI card installed on my Mac? The Bootcamp install of WinXP went perfectly with the necessary drivers being installed from my Leopard OSX disk, but I don't have the standard video card control program most video cards come with to make detailed settings.
Thanks for any help.
Jake
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I am NOT interested in "peace keeping", "nation building", "hunting insurgents", or fighting corrupt third world armies that deserve one good nuke. Let's face it, WWII literally presented a world of combat opportunites that involved fascinating military hardware and excellent tactics used by opponents who were on fairly equal footing. And we knew what we were fighting for back then... It never gets tiresome.
I must have CM:WW2, and I must have it work on Mac OSX since Windows for consumers is an oxymoron. And the whole Microsoft crew that produced Vista are morons too. I've read about new coding techniques that make it much easier to convert a great game like CM to Mac. Let's get back to the future by giving us the FULL WWII experience we never got on earlier CM's using modern graphics and advanced gameplay.
As The Lawyer has spoken, so let it be....
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Beautiful work. What does it include? Trees? Buildings? What?
Thanks, because CMETO is more important than ever now that the next game is Iraq.
Jake
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Very nice, David. Keep up the good work! I had a great two week vacation touring Normandy and the Breakout last summer. Mortain should provide a good scenario design for a Normandy pack.
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Thanks! Gura is a new name to me, but he seems to do very nice work. MikeyD and AndrewTF have always been great.Originally posted by Pzman:Lawyer, go to http://www.zimorodok.org/ and then to the little link called hosted mods.
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Thanks, do you have a link?Originally posted by junk2drive:A good start is at zimorodok's hosting page. Gurra and MikeyD have a few late war German mods there IIRC came after David's mod.
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I love CMETO. I've got MikeyD's new Sherman mods, and I'm looking for other good German and US mods that will work in CMETO. I've downloaded a bunch of CMBB mods in the past, but I never know which ones will work with CMETO. Any recommendations?
Thanks,
Jake
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I'm loving CMETO, David. Please do Normandy. Thanks for breathing new life for us Western Front fans.
Cheers,
Jake
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Just make sure the next CM plays well on Mac OSX. I've abandoned Win XP for everything except CM, but I can't postpone the inevitable forever. Now that I've learned to enjoy a consumer-friendly computer, I won't be going back for any game in the future.
Originally posted by Moon:inff, the wargamer in me is looking forward to check out the titles you mentioned when they're out. It would be great to finally get something good to play other than what we made or published
Competition is good for business. It makes you avoid stagnation and keeps you on your toes. Nothing to be afraid of. Like Sergei says, I'd wish there was more.
The games you mentioned are classic RTS games, and I think that Close Combat game is an FPS (and in any case the Close Combat name is just that by now - a trademark sold from one company to another), so it's quite something different than what CM is, and CMX2 is going to be. Like most RTS and FPS games that I bought in the past couple of years or so, many look very good, but that's about it. Nothing I saw from the games you mentioned makes me think that these will be any different than the typical RTS out there, although the hope is there (it always is, isn't it? As if the tons of good looking crap made in the past by the mass market types suddenly don't count anymore when you see new screenshots and read new feature lists and dream of what that new game could be... only to be disappointed again)
CMX2 is going to look good, too, but looks is not where our core focus lies in terms of development. Which is why we don't think of these other games as much of a competition - at least not more than from pretty much any other game out there - and in fact, perhaps some of these games will in fact make more people interested in "deeper" tactical gameplay, which would be a plus for us, not a minus.
But you know, even if this would change and the mass market suddenly produced something really decent after so many failed attempts (at least when you define "decent" by more than graphics), I think that most people will have space on their harddrive for another game if ours is really good. And it will be. And it will look good, too. Future will be good, as game makers and as game players.
Martin
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There are a lot of dirty windshields in Chicago. So get rich... That is, if you can stand on yer tip-toes and reach that high...Originally posted by Seanachai:I'm going to Chicago in (wait one, while I figure out this 'calendar' thingy...) roughly, two weeks. I will drive to Chicago. I will be completely fecking broke.
I expect to be able to cadge enough money for gas to get home. It's that, or I'll have to take up being homeless where the Chicagoans live and work. Who wouldn't contribute a few bucks to make sure that doesn't happen?
Maybe all those evenings you spent pirouetting around in front of the mirror playing the lead in "Swan Lake" will finally pay off.
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I don't like to be a wet blanket, but I can't recommend Stonhenge. First, it's a whole day trip by itself unless you get a tour bus that includes Salisbury, etc. But still the trip is a whole day. Second, these days I understand you can only look at Stonehenge from a distance rather than wandering around the individual stones. The stones are not that large by modern standards. I don't know if the museum there is worth more than what you can find on the internet or a book.Originally posted by Zitadelle:Another question-
As we consider a longer stay in the UK, is Stongehenge worth a visit? We are wondering especially since we will be in the UK around the Summer Solistice.
I initially visited 30 years ago when you could actually walk through Stonehenge and jump on the stones. Even then, I had the feeling "Is this all there is?" You first see it from a distance as a small thing when you crest a hill on the highway that runs right by it. Maybe the experience has improved since I last saw it 15 years ago.
Stonehenge is now located on an open plain that makes its size seem relatively small. In its prime, I believe it was a heavily wooded area, which would make the stones appear more impressive by comparison. Also, remember the people who built Stonehenge had never seen a skyscraper, so their idea of "impressive" may be disappointing to you. Basically, you should be aware it ain't the Grand Canyon in terms of breath-taking grandeur. So you should be prepared to appreciate it for its historical significance, which is enormous.
But visiting anywhere is important to see for yourself if you have the time. I'm just trying to give you some perspective so you can budget your time and resources.
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Ditto in all respects!Originally posted by Stingray:No!!! Absolutely NOT !!!
BTW Merry Christmas to one and all !!
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Of course Normandy has changed in 60 years! What growing area hasn't?
My point is that bocage country for CM scenario purposes looks much the same today as it did in WWII. I toured the whole area by car in August, and can tell you that one hedgerow field looks the same as another after a while. Unless you want to design a CM scenario where you design the contours of an actual plot of land belonging to Mssr. Whoever in 1944, it won't make a difference using the maps I mentioned for general layout purposes. And even if you do want to add that extreme layer of detail, the CM map editor won't let you.
The IGN Normandy map shows lots of small irregular hedgerow fields that look the same as those in pictures shown in the books i mentioned above. So I recommend the IGN maps available today as a useful gaming guide for CM.
Hmmm, this last bit is contradicted by what someone posted a year or so ago to the effect that a lot of the hedgerows have been destroyed and many of the fields consolidated. I have no opinion on the matter myself, but I would like to see the matter hashed out more thoroughly by those in the know.Originally posted by Michael Emrys:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Lawyer:
It shows the terrain as it is today, but not much has changed.
Michael </font>
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Phillipe,
If you just want an accurate representation of Normandy terrain, I bought a nice map there for 9 Euros by IGN (www.ign.fr). It has a lot of detail and shows all the hedgerow fields individually at 1:25,000 scale. The map number is 1412 OT. It shows the terrain as it is today, but not much has changed. It's plenty well-detailed for WWII CM scenario purposes. Much cheaper and easier than buying those online photo's.
In fact, I have several IGN maps of Normandy and the Ardennes. They are great maps with terrain markings at smaller scales intended for hikers and tourists. Highly recommended!
For a nice selection of WWII aerial recce photo's with very good explanations of what they mean, I recommend "Above the Battle, D-Day, The Lost Evidence" by Going and Jones (History Channel book) and "To Fool a Glass Eye" by Stanley. Not as good, but still worthwhile is "Allied Photo Reconnaissance of WWII" by Staerck. I bought all these on Amazon. As I recall, they were less than $25 each.
Cheers,
Jake
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The real weak link is the CM map editor. It doesn't matter how much photo detail we have if it can't be modeled accurately in CM.
I made a pretty good map of Baugnes crossroads for a CMBO scenario two years ago using a local hiking map, my personal scouting visit, and a couple of US air recce photo's taken shortly after the massacre. When I returned to visit the next year, I was impressed how close to real it was. But I couldn't truly re-create the buildings, roads, and terrain to match the maps and WWII photo's due to CM editor limits.
I don't mind paying for good books, maps, and pictures based on government sources, but these photo's are pricey. Also, I found that photo's need to be taken much closer to the ground to have enough 3-D detail to be useful for a tactical scenario in CM. These pics are taken too high up from what I see.
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Thanks a lot, Wicky. But the spanning hack site link is only a forum. It never really tells me what the hack program does. I can't find the home site.
Apparently the hack works on new iBooks like mine, so I would like to understand what it does and how it works. Where can I find that info?
Thanks,
Jake
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I bought my daughter an Apple iBook that is fixed at a single screen resolution of 1024x768. That image looks great on its 12" screen, but it will only connect to a larger desktop monitor at its mirror image of 1024x768.
I would like to get a nice LCD desktop monitor for it, but the ones above 15" screen size are all native 1280x1024. From what I read, a 1024x768 image projected on them would be too fuzzy for her homework and media programs like MS Office, etc. Is that correct?
Ideally, I would like to buy a 17" LCD display, but will consider a nice 15" LCD if that is the only satisfactory solution for decent text and graphics display at 1024x768.
Can you recommend an LCD that would suit my needs?
Thanks for any help,
Jake
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I don't like North Africa. I don't like Arabs (apparently the soldiers in WWII felt the same way). I judge places and cultures by their food, drink, scenery, trees, and relaxation. North Africa (then and particularly now) is a huge loser on all counts.
Also, I like to mix playing CM with reading history and traveling to WWII spots on vacation. Who the hell wants to go to Morroco or Libya for good drinks, stylish living, food, or beautiful forest trails? Give me France, Belgium, Germany or Italy any day...
So I'm playing games in Italy with CMAK while I wait for BTS to make the Western Front game that will be really cool. Glad to know I'm not the only one who finds North Africa unappealing. Let the Monty Boyz in short pants enjoy pushing Krauts across the sand through places I can't pronounce. Who gives a damn?
What is it with Brits and sand countries anyway? Ain't Brighton beach bright enough?
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Anybody read "Tigers in the Mud"? I scanned it at Borders and was interested, but some of these German author books get very boring very fast. I'd be interested to hear from anybody who likes good information combined with a good read.
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I've been using a flat panel Dell 18" screen at 1280x1024 for the past year with GForce 4/128 memory. The CM graphics are excellent with zero AA applied, although the lines for sight, target, command, etc. are jagged. I set the anistrophic (sp?) setting at the highest because many game reviewers say that is more important than AA for visual depth. It looks good to me.Originally posted by Limey:A good point GAJ. I have a monitor that has a max of 1024*768 and FSAA makes a HUGE difference to the quality of the graphics. In fact with a lowly GeForce 2 Ti and 28.32 drivers and with 4 times FSAA enabled on Windows 98, CM graphics are superb. What I don't want is to buy a new PC and end up with a worse CM experience! However the new PC will have a flat screen at 1280*1024. Does anyone know if this will have the equivalent effect as using 4 times FSAA on a 1024*768 screen?
I just got the newest nVidia driver mentioned above, and it works fine with 4xAA added as well. I agree that higher screen resolution makes a huge difference in CM graphics, and also shows you more battlefield at once which is nice.
A lot of old timers coming back
in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
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Well Joe, where were you to defend me tonight when Michael Emrys (yes, THAT Michael Emrys who lorded over us) attacked me with what appeared to be Real Wit? And where the hell is the Cesspool these days?
I've been gone a long, long time, Joe. I almost got cleaned up, although I got in trouble once again on another forum this evening for attacking a witless knave who thought he could top THE Lawyer. But you know better... So where are you guys on the forum these days? Is Elvis still dead? Has Peng and/or Seanachai yet risen from the dead? Did any of you get a much needed brain transplant? Inquiring minds want to know...