Bertram

After playing some other scenario's on the server, without to much trouble (other then people blowing me up) the scenario "Sea Cliffs" was selected. I could not enter this scenario. During the build up my computer got stuck at the "minimap building" step. After about 5 minutes without progress I had to kill the program with <ctrl><alt><del> (WinXP user). I tried two more times, but the program hung at the same place.

AFAIK As Far As I Know Blessing: don't know, but I guess it involves a pope, lots of smelly smoke, water, bad singing and so on.

You kick him out of bed in the mornings? . Ok, I go the new udate to version 1.2.1, even the auto updater worked.. now off to do some target practice. [ October 28, 2006, 04:21 AM: Message edited by: Bertram ]

Next problem: I seem not to be getting past update 1.2.0, while the server is running 1.2.1. So I can not join... Bertram

I'll go hunting for it. My OS is WinXP Bertram Edit: found it, currently downloading file 38 of 444.

Just downloaded the full version. After starting the game, it asks if I want to download the updates. I agree, the program exits me to desktop.... I have made a new user. My demo version is still existing on my HD, in an other directory. Bertram (nb: it was a bit disappointing that the full version downloaded at only 70 KB/sec, while the demo downloaded (from a mirror) at 750 KB/sec... Dont know if you have any influence on this, but it feels strange that you get the free demo faster then the full version you pay for).

Downloaded the demo (got curious when reading the sunday AAR). Played some games getting blown to bits by robots (took me some time to find the gunner sight, so aiming was kind of difficult). One thing I could not find out: is there a self destruct button? Those sneaky robots liked to blow up my armament and sensor arrays, leaving me behind as a mobile smokescreen. I would like to have a new drop by that time, but could not find out how to leave the old one. Bertram

I am missing the effect the weapons have against concrete.. I guess it won't matter much in CM:SF, a most smaller buildings in the Middle East are build of concrete floors on concrete pillars, with brick or cinder walls between. But most larger buildings and almost all modern buildings (in Europe at least) have high quality concrete load bearing sidewalls, and often front and rear walls too, with just a brick sheeting for looks and isolation.

I guess the Netherlands would be (relative) easy to do once US and Germany were covered. Most, if not all, equipment would have been done then. France has a whole new batch of toys. Also, in both Afghanistan and Iraq the Netherlands joined the fun when asked by the US. France declined. So it might be more plausible that the Netherlands would join in next time to. We do have elections before 2007 though (november actually) so this might change.....

The Dutch (in Afghanistan) are forbidden to use cell phones. The tell-com used can tell where the cell phones are used (by triangulating from the send-towers used, the police uses this often enough). There is some fear those tell-coms are infiltrated. It is pretty probable that any cell-phone use in Libanon would be handled by the Libanese tell-com covering the area...

I have been following this discussion more or less (hard to keep up), and I think I would like a very short, non story introduction best. something like: When we started US/UN vs Syria seemed a possible scenario. Now is is very improbable, but if somehow the US/UN decided to invade Syria, and managed to make the manpower available, this is what we think would happen.....

As for the European forces participating, it is not so much that Europe has retreated into its shell, and refuses to come out, but that we need a bit more convincing that the reasons for a war are good enough. European forces do participate in most operations currently (although in limited quantities, thats true). And I dont have the feeling that the support (in the Netherlands) for sending troops to Afghanistan is less then it used to be for previous operations. In fact I think the support is now more robust, the possibility of casualties has been discussed before the troops were send, and expectations are more realistic then they used to be for previous operations. Europe generally will try diplomacy longer than the USA (maybe due to history) and with the way the last war was sold to us we are even more sceptical about the US arguments to join in liberating the next oppressed people. As to logistics: the small European countries indeed have decided that it is unlikely that they will try to conquer a country on the other side of the globe (like Syria) single handed. So they adjusted their forces accordingly. As it is most smaller countries do have some logigstic capability, and (theoretically at least) together and with the larger European countries participatng they would have the means to support the troops.

It is a battery pack. In CM terms, you run a percentage chance that halfway the battle your soldiers will be recalled by the factory for faulty batteries. Bertram

It is of course a trade off between protecting stupid users against virusses and malware, and more tech savvy users alone to exchange strange files without headers . As 99.9% of the files exchanged will be regular formats with headers I can not really fault them. I havent received a single virus for over 3 years.... (now for a way to keep my inbox viagra free... )

I looked somewhat deeper in the file I received, and there is no text file (or other) attached. My mail provider (@home.nl) does have an automatic scanner service. It is probable that not recognized or labled attachments are stripped... Waiting to see if Ossi can get his Pine to name the files . Bertram

I think it is a shame (an a comment on the state of the average game AI) that doing LOS checks and path computing are termed AI. In my opinion these routines are (cpu intensive) basic procedures. With HT and duo/quad cores these processes should be able to be done in parrallel on the regular CPU, in sofar as you still have a regular CPU in a few years. The AI should kick in after these procedures are done, to formulate strategy and tactics based on the results of these procedures. Writing a good AI is very labor intensive (and needs good Human Intelligence), but the result isn't necesairily cpu intensive... Compare it to chess programs. The first ones just tried to compute every possible move a few steps deep, and then gave a value to the resulting position. The CPU intensive part was computing all possible moves, the smart programming was coming up with a value for the position that resulted. These programs could be tricked by thinking a few steps deeper, and luring them into traps, where an advantage in terms of pieces was compensated in position (position is difficult to formulate values for, even in chess, and more so in wargames with less ordered battlefields). More modern programs either use more computing power, to evaluate more moves (brute force, cpu heavy but intelligence light) or choose a few promising moves and develop these (and this needs intelligent design to recognize these promising moves). War games need more of the second type of AI, as the possible permutations are so great that brute force will never give good results. The crux of good game AI design is cutting up/describing the situation in information units on which rules (as in "if ... then ... " statements) can be applied. Of these two the describing of the situation in terms that can be used in the rules is more difficult then actually formulating the rules themself... (Disclaimer: my recent AI/expert system experience is more related to technical juridical problems. In these the knowledge is easier to describe, so the difficulty of describing the situation in a game might be in my perception).

I asked Ossi to send you a mail. My mails reach him fine. Bertram

MTA?? Bertram

Hello, I just picked up a CMBB PBEM game with Ossi Tapio. Trouble is that his e-mails arrive fine, but the attachments get lost on the way. This goes for all kind of attachments: .txt, but also .jpg and .zip are tried. He receives mine ok. Trouble comes probably from the fact that he is using a Linux based browser (Pine), and I am using WinXP with Outlook. They dont play nice together . We both have other PBEM games running with no problems. I looked up this problem with the search function, as I remembered it being a point at the release of CMBB. Sure enough there were some posts about it, but no real solution. One remark was about a securit setting in the mail program, but this was for Outlook express under Win98, and didnt fit my system. Any suggestions? Bertram

Hm, I am planning to buy this game (add on?) when it finally comes out. So, I might as well try to get into the tournament... Bertram

Hi Dorosh, I support Groningen. Would be nice to see what they make of the town I was born in and am living in at the moment . You wouldnt be influenzed by it being Canadians who arrived here first would you? Got to confess that at the time (according to my father) they were either hoping for Poles (who didn't have much in the way of artillery) or the Russians to arrive first (the last would have been bad in terms of artillery, but place he was living then was rather communist, he even told he secretly learned some Russian in the war, to welcome the liberators). Bertram

I have a question along these lines. What is going to be the scope of the title/module system? Is a title going to be Normandy, and the modules the American section/British section/Breakout (for example), with other titles the Battle of the Bulge, Arnhem, etc., or are the titles going to be west front 44, east front, west front 40, etc. Or are titles going to be WW2, Vietnam, Korea, etc? Reading the comments the latter is not very likely , but it seems that the scope is somewhere between option one and two... Just curious

If ther is ice, I demand the famous dutch "schaatseenheid" (skate truppen)!

Hi, I am once again playing CMBB, after a pause of about a year. I am wuilling to join up as tac-commander for one of the sides. I am lifving in Europe though (GMT +1) Bertram

I don't think the "small solution" would have been a succes. First, north of the battlefield lies the Hohe Venne, or the "high marshes". The terrain there is worse then the Ardennes through which the Germans had to fight in history. (Even now it is a prime area for survival courses. It is "famous" for having winter when it is stil autum around it, or already spring elsewhere, even though it is just a little higher. It is also famous for keepng wet all summer). This is also the reason all those Battle of the Bulge maps cut off where they do in the north: nothing much is going to happen there. Second Liege is a medieval town, build right were it is for the defensive value. It is in the Maas valley, with hills on the sides, and the bridges going through the town. Even as late as 5 years ago you still had to pass through the town (more or less, you skirted the centre, but drove along the river side) when traveling from Maastricht to Luxembourgh. In short, it is a major obstacle, and not somethng to take on an autumn afternoon. So, apart fromn taking Elsborn, and bagging 2 divisions, there was no no (long term) goal the Germans realistically could have accomplished. In my opinion they would have been better of using the divisions defensive. Would not have chnged the outcome, but would have bought them more time. Of course that was not in their way of thinking: they defended by counter attacking. And beside, the divisions were transferred from the east with the purpose of a fast hit, after which they would have transferred back (such optimism).