Priest

Panzerman you are also forgetting one little thing also (apparently lost on many folks especially a certain bunch that I know of). You are speaking of WITTMAN. He is ELITE, one of the best soldiers ever. Of course he is going to be good in whatever you put him in, possibly in any field of combat. He had "that certain something" that made him great. Many folks use or defend the use of entire companies of ELITE and CRACK troops and justify it by saying that this was a Crack Unit. Newsflash, a crack unit may not have any Crack rated units in it. Probably just Vets and some Regs, with maybe one Green new recruit. In Villers Bocage in the CMBO game how many Tigers are ELITE in the Wittman's group? One if IIRC. Anyhow comparing how tank crews for the Germans in 45 would be with Wittman's ability to switch weapons platforms easily is like saying that it must be easy to paint a portrait look what DaVinci did! Nationality has ZERO bearing on being scared to death in a tin can you barely know how to work. Panzerman this rant is not directed soley at your but certain others who I hope "GET" it.

Actually it goes much deeper than that, a credit card number can tell you a great many things by just the number alone. And actually while you are correct that is not what saved Tiborhead. You are on the right track but not quite right. [ September 17, 2002, 03:37 AM: Message edited by: Priest ]

Rest assured Tiborhead I doubt it will be a big deal. You did get an approval right? Sometimes computers and such fix such things for you.

Everyone forgets why we showed up late to the war in Europe. We were busy building your tanks, boats, planes, and other armaments. Excuse us for keeping you combat ready with equipment [ September 16, 2002, 04:54 PM: Message edited by: Priest ]

God Bless. I agree with the poster above, leave a copy for your buddy and get one for yourself. No time better than now to practice up for you will meet again.

A.) We should keep this off the forum. B.) The 10th SS had fallen on some hard times but so have many allied units. c.) CMMC2 is one of many choices for the Thread starter to choose from. Perhaps you should contact your 10th SS friends, never know what might be going on.

Someone seems to have upset a lord of chaos. Easily fixed though, Steve, simply send in Elric and Stormbringer to "calm" him down.

Tanks A Lot! Bodacious you are getting CMBB. What is up? I will shoot you an email later today.

ITS MINE IT IS ALL MINE MUHUHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I now need some private time, excuse me...

SPAM!

Did Steve just call me stupid? Just kidding, just kidding. Hey it is 230 AM over there, sleep...it is okay we have the demo now we can cut you some slack!

If it is a club do you need a Bren Tripod to join?

September 20th I believe, and hang around, you will learn more than you want to. As far as what you are being told, I would listen. If they are even half right you are going to be a lot more frustrated in the near future than you are now, and without their support.

haha thanks Dan! Took a stab at it. Sometimes I am even right!

Hey Dan, Was I even close? hehe

Bruce I think Steve's point is that unless you have designed CMBO or CMBB, or cracked the exe code, you have no idea what can be done. I understand what Steve is saying perfectly. Could the current CM engine have been made more flexible, and the right answer is NO. Why? Because BTS was not in a postion to do so. On a purely technical level, well maybe, but as I said before we would not know that because we do not have access to how it was done. But designing CM is not a purely technical endeavour, it is a technical, business, gaming, loving, and rigrous process that doesn't always allow for purely technical decisions to be allowed to be made. CMBO had to be a homerun and there was ZERO assurances that a second game would come about. That meant that Steve and Charles poured everything into the current CM engine that would make sure that CMBO was a hit (And I think they reached that goal rather well!). They made an almost dedicated engine to CMBO because they needed to do everything to insure success. That is why CMBB had so much re-written and is not some cheap expansion pack write off. So if you believe that Steve should not make assumptions on certain things then the same holds for you. He may not know your some Uber Programmer but if you are you should be intelligent enough to know not to comment on anyone's code unless you have seen it. By you own admission you have basically destroyed your own argument as you are making assumptions. The next engine will be more upgradeable, their situation has changed. Your argument is based purely on a technical level, another fact that invalidates it. That was far from the only concern when CMBO was designed. Think out of the programmers box (if that is what you are).

Zee, Not exactly the same thing with smoke from fires (which is static bmps, overlayed and slightly animated). Same thing with building going down and guns firing, it is an optical illusion. Works similiar to a cartoon, flash enough BMPs at you at once and it looks like motion. Particle effects (and I am not an expert) are not quite the same. Let me give you an example based on theory (this is not the technical way CMBB or CMBO works but the idea is close I believe). Okay smoke for fires and gun shots work something like this (my opinion): 1.) EXE CODE DETERMINES THAT A FIRE STARTS DUE TO A PLAYER ACTION OR AI ACTION. 2.) EXE DETERMINES AT WHAT LOCATION ON THE MAP THE FIRE ACTION TAKES PLACE ON. 3.) LOCATION FOUND, EXE DISPLAYS SMOKE EFFECTS. 4.) SUBROUTINE RUNS TO DETERMINE IF FIRE SPREADS. 5.) IF YES, INITIATE STEP ONE AGAIN. For a gun blast it is similiar. 1.) EXE CODE DETERMINES IF FIRE GUN ACTION IS TAKING PLACE. 2.) DETERMINES LOCATION OF OBJECT PREFORMING THE ACTION. 3.) DETERMINES SET POINT OF FIRE FOR THE OBJECT (basically what I assume is a pre-coded identifier for the end of the barrel) 4.) DISPLAYS SMOKE GRAPHICS. 5.) EXE CODE RESETS THIS PARTICULAR SUBROUTINE FOR NEXT INSTANCE OF THE FIRE GUN ACTION. Now the EXE has to run the above routines maybe once a turn for a given location for a given game in the case of fire. It only has to check if it spreads once, probably part of compiling the turn. As far as firing goes, well not many tanks are going to fire more than 5 or 6 times a turn so not many issues there either. Now depending how realistic you want your dust cloud you are going to have to run a truly bodacious routine to constantly change the display of the BMPs to follow along with the vehicle (remember there really is no true particle support yet). You are talking about serious processor cycles that are better spent on ballistic calculations. I think we can all agree that ballistic calculations are better than dust clouds and power/life/health bars, a true sign of comprimise and cheesy play.

I think what everyone is forgetting here is that when the current CM engine was made that the graphics cards of the age could not handle it, hence the engine was not setup to deal with it. Times have changed. But CMBB is based on the old engine, stuff like this will come with the next engine I am sure. I am totally psyched for it, it is the one piece of eye candy that I want. But I will wait for the desert front and the next engine. That way we can really kick up some dust plumes with our tanks!

Steve as always thanks! I was thinking about this very thread last night (yeah I know a life, I need one!). PCGamer a few years back named a gem of a game "THE BEST PC GAME EVER!". It was called XCOM and to this day it rules! I digress. XCOM came out and there was much rejoicing. Microprose had struck gold. So after a bit, they release XCOM II!!!!! And it sucked hard. Why? It was the same engine. It was the same graphics. Heck it was the same game but underwater, at the very least it should have done at least decent, but it did not. Why? Simple actually, the original XCOM played upon a pseudo 50s, kinda comic book, alien genre combo thing (confusing ain't it). XCOM II's venture underwater didn't have the same allure. It felt like Microprose was reaching (they let us kick the Aliens on Mars in the first game, they had to make something lame up to sell more games)for some sense in the story of why the Aliens were back. The weapons weren't as cool, the aliens weren't as cool. And they jacked up the AI to make it a challenge for all of us again, but broke the fine line that is challenge versus frustration. XCOM, the franchise, then faded away for sometime. Then Microprose shot back with XCOM APOCOLYPSE (I think that was the title) and....failed again. This time they had scrapped everything and went RTS. Not to mention it was not nearly as cool to defend a city when not to long ago you were defending the world. Since then XCOM has been bandied back and forth as a FPS, another RTS, there was a flight sim I think, and currently a possible reiteration of the old orignal game but with better graphics. In other words they ruined the franchise that was based upon what could be THE BEST PC GAME EVER. Now you ask, why the long diatribe? Well, CMBB is based on the same engine as CMBO, as was XCOM and XCOM II. The difference is that unlike Microprose which pumped out a sequel as fast as possible (which was just a friggen expansion pack in the end anyway) BFC took their time and created a new game. Like XCOM II you have new units and weapons, but unlike XCOM II they operate within a newly defined environment and under new parameters (a good example is the MGs). XCOM II did little to convey that your Underwater environments made a difference in the game, it was just a backdrop. BFC made sure that the fact you were on the Eastern Front made a big difference in the game. They expanded the maps, changed the terrain, re-did how the terrain interacts with gameplay and how it affects it. They added realism, both graphically and with regards to gameplay. They changed how you built, played, and finished a game. And most importantly they listened and tried to do everything they could for us. Microprose was out for the money, and if I am not mistaken they are gone. BFC is out to make a game and/or series of games. Microprose with XCOM franchise was ranked number 1 within their genre one year. If I was a betting man I would say that CMBO was Wargame of the Year pretty much everywhere and CMBB will win the same if not more accolades. Already BFC will have accomplished more with CM than Microprose did with the supposed "BEST PC GAME EVER". That shows me that BFC a.) knows how to make a game b.) knows how to market that game (so they can stay in business and make more) c.) understands that (a) and ( require that they do not sell out and screw their fan base. Notice how many companies are getting on the WWII bandwagon and finding success, well BFC has one upped them, they are doing it right and succeeding. Thanks again guys.

Stop playing CMBO????? Is that even possible????? I find it easier to convince myself that there are now twice as many hours in a day!

Wade as I have been trying to help you allow me to say that while I understand your frustration you have to realize that this could be your machine. As literally hundreds if not thousands of others have downloaded it and not experienced any issues. Name another forum where everyone jumped to aide you, and one of the friggen designers of the game (responsible for most if not all the graphics in the game) took time away to assist you. Before condemning BTS or BFC you should have someone take a look at your machine and find out why it cannot perform a simple function that literally thousands of other machines are doing. Also I re-installed with no error. And yes the game is worth all this trouble!

Wade as I have been trying to help you allow me to say that while I understand your frustration you have to realize that this could be your machine. As literally hundreds if not thousands of others have downloaded it and not experienced any issues. Name another forum where everyone jumped to aide you, and one of the friggen designers of the game (responsible for most if not all the graphics in the game) took time away to assist you. Before condemning BTS or BFC you should have someone take a look at your machine and find out why it cannot perform a simple function that literally thousands of other machines are doing. Also I re-installed with no error. And yes the game is worth all this trouble!

*Blaring warning horn sounds* RED ALERT RED ALERT! WE HAVE A LEAKAGE. REPEAT WE HAVE A LEAKAGE! CMBB SECTOR. ALL TEAMS REPORT FOR IMMEDIATE FLUSH AND CLOSURE. *As the Battlefront Emergency teams near the site of the leakage, Dan asks Matt what he thinks it is* Dan: So Matt, whaddaya think? Matt: Dan I got a bad feeling about this one, it feels like a Seanachai. Dan: Oh God no.... What does their fate hold? How will Dan and Matt handle the Seanachai? FInd out soon, same BFC time, same BFC channel! (On a side note, Pengers get groupies? Darn I might have to start participating again. Hmmm being Ronin is fun but might have to contact Sir Meeks again. Or was it Lorak? Darn.)

Number One! Decode the message and send it to Starfeet! The Borg are up to something!

Luckily I traveled within the USS Battlefront while borgy made his rounds during CMBO, time to fire up the old girl for CMBB