Chupacabra

I'm a student myself, I pay fees too, and as some other folk on the board can tell you, I often don't have two pence to scrape together. But the issue of 'pricing integrity' absolutely never entered my mind. Either you assume Steve and Charles are a bunch of money-hungrey land-eels, or not. Companies that are looking to screw you out of a few quid are going to screw you every chance they get. If BTS was about making money to the disadvantage of their customers, how much you wanna bet they'd have sold out to Talonsoft or SSI by now? I bet the offer's been made. If you think BTS is looking to screw you, well, I dunno. I can understand being paranoid about software companies, but I think it's completely misplaced in this case. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Er, no offense, but I sorta doubt that wargames are niche products because their designers don't model five hundred different kinds of uniforms No one except the groggiest of grogs is going to notice whether the GIs are toting FPZ-13 Field Canteens Mark 3 or FPZ-13 Field Canteens Mark 4. I'd be willing to venture that I know quite a lot more about WW2 than the average computer gamer, but for all I know, German armored car drivers were issued uniform feldgrau bunny slippers in 1943. The majority of gamers are going to look for whizbang stuff, not how many uniform BMPs there are. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KiwiJoe: This is the rule I use: Would I do this attack if there were 5 turns left in the game? If no, then its a gamey suicide flag rush and shouldnt be done.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> 6 in one, half a dozen in the other. How can you measure someone's intent? "Er, yep, you know what, I thought about it, and I would've made this assault five turns ago, yep yep, now off to polish my shiny victory..." Life is much easier if you just assume that the other guy's going to do his best to win for the entire length of the game, and not just till turn 15, or 25, or 29, or whatever. If you're winning so convincingly that an assault on your positions would inevitably fail, there's really no excuse for not stopping it cold. If you can't do so, you don't control the VLs, which the game recognizes. If someone holds back until the last turn and waits to rush the VLs, I'd be a bit stupid if I didn't cover his possible approaches. If he's been fighting the whole time, his men are most likely torn up enough that I can stop him in his tracks. Even so, I usually play with at least 10 more turns than the game absolutely needs, because it avoids all of this sillyness. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tris: Looked at logically . . . that is an impossibility. I agree that as one owns and plays the game longer that the cost per hour for the purchase will plunge to an insignificant amount <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> How dare you insult my findings, base worm?! Why, I have it on good authority from Professor H.R. Ruggelpuff from the University of East Dakota that my thesis is 100% airtight in every way, and will be accepted as the standard CM cost/value model for decades to come! ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Vehicle AIs don't react to any sort of indirect fire, it seems. So mortars and artillery, yes, but also, as it turns out, area fire from guns. In a PBEM I'm playing against Dr. Alimantado, he set up what looks to be an infantry gun in a patch of woods. I park a HT out of the gun's LOS, but positioned to cover a likely route of advance, clever me. Well, clever him, he has the gun area fire about 3 meters from my HT's position. Big galoomphing HE shells are slamming into the ground five feet in front of the HT's fender, and it blithely sits there, completely unconcerned. At the beginning of the next turn, I tell the HT to get out of there, but it's immobilized during command delay. Poop. I'm not sure what's to be done, but it seems that the vehicle AI just doesn't react unless something's directly targeting it. Which can be, as examples on this thread have shown, a bit problematic. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Madmatt: With a newly hired in house artist we are hopeful that we won't have such issues again. You here that Kwazydog? GET BACK TO WORK! Madmatt<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Don't suppose you have a spot for a newly hired in-house audio/music designer, eh wot guv? ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by -tink-: to me the essence of a good game is nice weather, even points and go from there <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Just some further ideas - some of the most fun games I've had have been in absolutely godawful conditions, where half the battle was getting your guys into position where they could actually do something without half of them collapsing from exhaustion or becoming immobilized. I've also had a lot of fun as both the attacker and defender on probes, attacks, and assaults. The points difference isn't a disincentive to me, and in fact I feel that if the points were equal, these types of games would be completely boring to play, as the defender would win every time. What's fun for you is what's important, and you should play your games based on that, but no, I don't think there's anything unfair about the game you played. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Madmatt: We shall, and it will be called CM2. Madmatt <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It'd be even better if it was called CM2: Chupacabra's Revenge! ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

It's certainly possible to win assaults as the defender. The way you've described the setup, it sounds like the conditions would actually work in your favor, as he would have more to lose from his tanks bogging down at their start lines. There's not much you can do about artillery bombardments, except to be where they ain't. Sitting on VLs and in obviously buildings is usually a good way to get plastered, perhaps organize your defense around a terrain feature which isn't so likely to get pasted with arty? Finally, if you're playing against someone you're not sure of on a ladder, only play mirrored games. If the setup is blatantly unfair towards one team, you'll be able to hammer the guy in the second game. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Many Allied commanders were also (rightfully) quite nervous of calling in CAS. The real Allied air superiority was, IMO, the ability to disrupt German lines of transport and communications, and to a lesser extent, to dole out pre-assault bombardments. Even this was somewhat of a dodgy prospect - IIRC, the bombardment preceding Operation Cobra wiped out a good part of several American companies, killed a 4-star, and delayed the operation for several hours. My recollection of this is fairly sketchy, but shorts were devestating. However, neither interdiction nor pre-assault bombardments are within CM's scope, so it's probably best not to worry about it ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lordfluffers: The costs to Battlefront.com simply do not reflect the price it's charging. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> So you're BTS' accountant, then? If you're not, then this statement is completely baseless. How can you have any idea what their bottom line is? Keep in mind that BTS aren't part of a large software company. Which means, I'm assuming, that the costs for designing CM, including salary for Steve and Charles, incidental costs like travel, research fees, hardware, software, et freaking cetera, have come out entirely out of pocket. Furthermore, the revenue generated by CM sales will have to pay for the design costs of CM2. Furthermore, CM is not a necessity. It's a luxury. It is absolutely ludicrous to buy luxury goods and to then complain about them being overpriced. It's like saying "Goddamn those Lexus bastards, that's another $40K that won't be going towards my yacht." Doesn't work. If you believe a luxury good is overpriced, you have a very simple remedy: don't buy it. Crap like this really gets my dander up. Feh. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Plus you get all those pictures on the CD of Steve and Charles posing in their Super Friends costumes! What, you mean you didn't get pictures of Steve and Charles posing in their Super Friends costumes??!!?? ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by AggroMann: This tread is huge and annoying. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Your manhood is tiny and non-functional. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

UPDATES! Senility - Er, still waiting... Tick, tock, tick, tock. Scrota - Your last tank sure looked funny scooting back and forth behind that house! Too bad it had two big guns pointing at it. Boom. Too bad your supporting infantry is already sissying out. Too bad I've still got another platoon to play with. All in all, too bad for you. I will soon be using your sternum for a backscratcher. JDMorose - Artillery sure is fun to watch, isn't it? It's even more fun to watch when it's coming down on you, not me! Oh boy oh boy oh boy, is it ever fun to watch! I do hope you brought something more than armored cars to support your attack, yes? Well, tell 'em to stop hiding and come play! You can tell them I've got candy... Shamfork - ...still doesn't see it coming. I love a good surprise, don't you? Choco Taco - Nice of you to pull your tanks up in column like that. Means less tidying up after boomboom time. SheepEater - ...also still doesn't see it coming. Once again, I love artillery. Squirminjoy - You can sabotage the files all you want, but sooner or later, The Reckoning will come. Shortly following The Reckoning will be The Wailing, The Crying, and The Cold, Dark Place (Sit down, Bauhaus!). ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

This is potentially worrisome - at some point, the cost of CM per hour of gameplay will be so low as to be effectively zero. Logically, this would dictate that the overall price of CM is also effectively zero. Therefore it would seem to follow that BTS would go suddenly bankrupt when this point is reached. The only possible remedy I can see to forestall this 'Black CMday' is the immediate release of CM2. BTS, please fix or do somefink. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

This question comes up quite often. Try searching for "VLs" or "flag grabbing." IMO, no, it's not gamey. If an assault is so desperate and so poorly organized that it would inevitably fail, it shouldn't be any harder to snuff it in one turn than it would be to stop it in two. If you hold the VLs, it's your job to control them. If you can't, and the other guy can take them, well, sucks, better luck next time. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Comparing PCs and consoles is apples and oranges. They're designed to play different types of games. Consoles are great at some kinds of games and suck for others, PCs are the same way. When was the last time you saw a really deep wargame on a console? When was the last time you saw a really kickass fighter on a PC (ports don't count, at that point it's just merchandising)? Comparisons like "11 times faster than a fast Mac" are useless. It's a bit like saying that my fridge is 11 times faster than my dishrack. They're designed to perform differently, so why compare them? Polygon counts are fine, but realize that PC monitors have a much higher resolution than most peoples' TVs. Until HDTVs come down in price, you're going to be getting 66 million polygons of blurry eyestrain at 90 fps. The processor speed has nothing to do with AI competence. For example, System Shock 2 will run (slowly) on a P133. Daikatana, on the other hand, is a system hog. Try to load that thing on a P133 and watch while your CPU melts. Is the Daikatana AI better than the SS2 AI? Hell no. And LGMB - please edit that down some, I think everyone got your point in the first five lines of suck. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh. [This message has been edited by Chupacabra (edited 11-05-2000).]

Whoa, I'm rubbing my eyes in disbelief. Germanboy enthusing over a mod? I don't think I've ever seen anything like it! ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

There's a destroyed stone bridge BMP IIRC, so I'm assuming they can go kerpow if you bang on them for long enough. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Soooo Stinkytea - I suppose you've forgotten that bit where you're meant to fire up your email and send me a file? Or may I take your continued non-response as the sissified version of surrender currently popular in darkest Minnesota? The Canadian influence no doubt - why cry havoc when you can whimper abjectly instead? Reply quickly, you flash-frozen fool, as I mean to use your skull as a brandy snifter and your spine as a coat hanger. My room is so pitifully bare, you see, and some nice ex-Senility furniture would go quite well with my Moriarty-skin coffee table and my Croda lampshades ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Do a search on 'dead bodies.' Basically, any of those get my vote. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

A number of well-known Hollywood directors filmed propaganda/documentary pieces during WW2 (the line between propaganda and documentary often gets fairly blurry. John Huston also directed: Report from the Aleutians (1943) Tunisian Victory (1944, w. Frank Capra) John Ford directed: The Battle of Midway (1942) Torpedo Squadron (1942) Sex Hygiene (1942) We Sail at Midnight (1943) December 7th (1943) They Were Expendable (1945) - Not a documentary, but excellent, and as far as I can tell, accurate. Frank Capra The 'Why We Fight' series, including Prelude to War (1943) Nazi Strike, Blitzkrieg! (1943) Divide and Conquer (1943) The Battle of Britain (1944) The Battle of China (1944) Two Down and One To Go (1945) War Comes to America (1945) ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

ScoutPL - Question: in the type of battles CM represents, wouldn't the attacker already have fairly accurate reports on force composition, relative location, etc IRL? ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Tanks can dig in, if the scenario designer permits it. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.

Have the Americans attack, and they can. ------------------ Grand Poobah of the fresh fire of Heh.