The Commissar

Gen Paulus, Beware! Imminenet danger lurks! What sort of danger you ask? The sort presented by the legions of half wits who think that it is the high peak of humour to pull some WW2 related graphic image out of their ass and call it a CM2 screenshot. For real CM2 screenies, go to www.combatmission.com I believe that BTS promised us new screenshots this fall, possible even October. I would be interested in seeing screenshots of your Stalingrad map! As for a new home page for CM2, it won't happen. The BTS home page is the home for all BTS produced games, including CMBB. I think they'll just add a new section to battlefront.com when they have lots of screens, official data, and something to brag abaout (hopefully pretty soon).

If you're reffering to the general American public, then no, probably not for a while. Cold War's been over for just a decade or so, can't go around giving the big bad Reds credit for anything just yet.

Most people here already own CMBO. Try E-Bay.

Those two pics are so totally cool I am left speachless! OK, not totally speechless but it is totally cool. If they didn't look so out of place I'd ask where you got them

Ive had vastly varrying experiences with units caught in the open no matter what experience they are. Sometimes it seems the bastards can run through a wall of bullets without so much as a scratch! Other times, you see multiple guys pierced with lead in a single volley. Ive always pictured this to be an account from a book called "Phase Line Green" about the Vietnam war, specifically the fighting for Hue city. There was one part where a nearly blind GI rushed across a street in full view of enemy fire 2 whole times without a scratch, while others guys were shot to hell and back doing the same. It's mostly freakish luck the way I see it. You never know what you're going to get.

I would guess girl friend. I haven't met a single man who calls his mother by her first name.

I think what Cooper is trying to do is suggest CMBB have attrition of lesser unit formation. IE: Instead of a full combat strenght 9 men to a German Rifle squad, some squads may have a little less, like 6 or 7 men. Support elements could alos be affected similarily. Of course, this could cause problems in QB's. "Hey, I purchased a MG42 for the full 28 points only to find it 3 crew members short! What gives?!" Attrition can be a bitch. I wonder if the necessary research could be done to have the degree of attrition varry throughout the years. Like in the opening stages of Barbarossa, the Germans would be near full combat strenghts while the Soviets would be reeling back with depleted everything, making it that much more difficult (and realistic). Of course, the same will happen to the German when they are pushed back to Berlin. Or something to this effect, I don't really know if the Soviets maintained near-full combat power after they started beating the Germans back.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Andrew Hedges: IIRC, BTS's response to this was that there were many rivers in the CMBO area that were passable by infantry but impassible to vehicles because of the steep banks leading down to the river. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If this is really the case, I think BTS fouled up on the issue. If you want to have rivers with fords but also with steep banks that cannot support vehicles, why not just have the banks be designated as a "slope"? IE: In CMBO, infantry can climb a slope while AFV's cannot. Thus, fords could still be useable by AFV's and infantry and controlling whether any AFV's got to your ford would be as simple as sloping the elevation down to the river steeply enough. This would also have been the most realistic approach, as opposed to "no AFV's crossing fords, period". Problem solved. If people had wanted to simulate rivers without steep banks, they could have used normal elevation. I can't believe this was overlooked. Oh well, guess the guys were too busy. CMBB should fix up the nitpicks. [ 09-09-2001: Message edited by: The Commissar ]

I don't see why AFV's cannot cross fords myself. It was done on numerous occasions on almost all the fronts of the war. Ive seen footage of Soviet tanks going through a river, completely submerging. Of course this was a small river. However, since I imagine a ford is at maximum a meter deep, most threaded vehicles theoretically should not face any problems. Just make them bog often when crossing.

Im an optimist by nature (we'll NEVER get this frekin' game!), so I'll wager a guess (a hope?) for a late December 01/early January 02 release. BTS can take its vacation after it finishes swimming in their newly collected riches a week after the release!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Echo: I've noticed a decline in the "hardcore" PC Gamer staff in the last few years. Most of them are now twidget heads playing shoot em ups. Trotters material is getting stale even. In fact, I've just talked myself into canceling my scrip.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I agree. I didn't renew my subscription because I realized that PCG didn't have the same coverage I used to like. Now, if they have one good article out of many, I'll just read it at my local Barnes and Noble rather then buy the mag.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KiwiJoe: I think on the eastern front it was pretty much 6:1 in favour of the germans right threw the war. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Depends on the time period and the terrain fighting on. Late war Soviet machines were often the superiors of their German counterparts. However, while the Soviets enjoyed numerical superiority as well as good tanks, the Germans had the advantage of being on the defense and having had more experience. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dogface21: HHHHmmm lessee... Ive got 20 T- 34s here, 20 over there, and 15 comin up the middle, Maybe now i can kill that platoon of panthers!!!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Shows how much you know. Give me 55 T-34's and I'll give you a free ride to Berlin.

Well lets face it, we're sorrounded by stupid people. For every person I know that gets a kick out of sitting down and thinking about how to best deploy his men to defeat the enemy, there are 10 persons who would much prefer clicking many times on the screen and blowing up things in showers of gore while yelling "Eat that, biznatch!" That's the way of things. Entertainment that most appeals to the dim masses is the entertainment that will always do better then the nitch market. "Starcrap" appeals to millions of people world wide, Koreans especially, who go so far as to put the game characters on their cereal boxes. CMBO appeals to you, a few thousand middle aged men, and my humble little self. I suppose its not fair to us that CMBO is so low on the list while games that inspired countless dumb clones of themselves get to be up higher. However, looking at it from the POV of Joe Geekboy, your average gamer, any game that has boobs in it and can give me a hard thanks to buckets of blood and intestines thrown at me every 3 seconds tops my list!

When dealing with modern combat, one mustn't forget that much of it deals at ranges that are currently deemed ineffective in CMBO. Currently, I can have a good chance of destroying a German Panzer IV with a zook team at 50 metres and below. In modern war, an ATGM team can have a good chance of KO'ing an enemy AFV at over 1000 metres and beyond, depending on the weapon used and the skill of the operators. While in CMBO, it is fairly realistic to see tank duels being effective at ranges of under 500 metres (1000 metres usually being the max, with tanks firing at each other with low chances of hitting), in modern war, a 2000m duel is nothing out of the ordinary. Maximum ranges are far beyond even that. While in WW2, we need to wait several minutes before and arty barrage gets under way, and even then it isn't very accurate, in modern war we have a multitude of ways to deliver the payload. Jets, helicopters, and missiles not only do the job much faster, but also with deadly accuracy. The infantry has changed as well. While in WW2, they would be fighting on foot, in modern war, much of the fighting is done in APC's while on the move. At least that's the way it would have been done had the USSR turned the Cold War temperture up a few million degrees. While the effective range of a Mauser/Springfield/Nagat (sp?) is limited to a 100-200 metres or so, modern weapons can probably surpass that with ease. Snipers have likewise advanced. I don't think any of us would like to see conflicts like the Gulf War modeled, where the combatants are so mismatched, its difficult to lose a battle. So we must rely on hypothetical scenarios to get our modern war fix. That means going back a decade or two when the Soviets were still at large. So, my point is, WW2 is very different from modern war

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Germanboy: Well, one might do that. Then again, it wasn't just Russians and Germans who fought. Soviet-German War would be better, but I like the ring of Great Patriotic War, and I like the way the acronym rolls, so I am going to stick with it. Not an issue for me, really.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> If you're going for the most accurate description, it would probably be the "Soviet-Nazi War", since both Russia and Germany had the peoples of many other countries fighting for them. Of course, I also like simplicity, and calling it the "Eastern Front" makes it easy to recognize and seperate from the Western, African, and Pacific fronts.

Scipio, Say this with me: 1)OP Flash is an Action Game 2) CMBO is a wargame Two very different things. How different, you ask? Well, Germanboy already brought to light some of the features that distinguish the two. You said that the fog is realistic. Uh, not unless the whole game takes place on the outskirts of London. You said that there were "very many units on the map" in Flashpoint. No, sorry. I played the demo quite a bit, and at any one time, I believe the maximum for smooth PC rates was a company. Only about 30 people. Double that for an enemy company. AFV's are total crap, and part of the reason I did not buy the whole game. Now, another difference is that in CMBO, I can zoom out and view the whole map, with all the hundreds of units, at one time. In Op F, I am always restricted to a view right in front of me, or slighty more in a 3rd person POV. Thus, at any one time, CMBO has a hundred times more polygons displayed then Flashpoint. I don't think the Mac is to blame. As far as I know, Macs are the choice for prgrammers and designers. The blame is that of current machines and the time you can allocate to programming such quirks as dynamic LOS, with only 2 programmers in your whole design team. I hope we're all clear now. *Edited for spelling* [ 09-01-2001: Message edited by: The Commissar ]

Excellent point, Panzer Leader. Everyone already said what I wanted to say, so I won't bother. Basically Dunphie, you don't really know what you're talking about. Heck, I would be surprised if you even own CM and thus able to validly support your "pro US" claims in this game.

What is it that creates the special sort of cretin who proceed to write posts like these? "Look! Old CM/Tanks drawn in 3d art program pics! I know - I'll make a post that says they are new CM 2- CM 666 screens. Me is genius! Woot Woot!!!"

Killa, Your problem is that 16MB vid card. That's a first generation video card right there pal, not many of them are around, and pretty soon, none will be left. I have a TNT2, 32 MB (so Im only one generation above yours...) and the game run well most of the time. It slows whenever the rotor starts, a major explosion goes off, or if I come too close to the ground and it has to render a lot of objects. Otherwise, runs beautifully with other planes in the skies and everything.

Hey Gustav, round which parts of Alaska were you fishing? I was up in Sitka this summer, you go through those parts at all?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Schrullenhaft: The sky/cloud effects look beautiful. Other than buildings though, the terrain is featureless/steppe-like (specifically lacking in trees or very undulating ground features) in most respects which is probably necessary for decent framerates. There appears to be a nice variety of building structures and AFVs and the aircraft are simply stunning in appearance.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Actually, there are forests full of trees, and the individual trees look magnificent until you zoom all the way to the ground level and see that the trees are composed of 3-4 circles one on top of another. Still, they achieve the effect magnificently. From above, they look VERY realistic. The terrain has lots of rivers, some villages, forests...I dont know, not much else to ask for, IMHO. Get the demo, you'll see for yourself. The game is not only beautiful, it is also realistic.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by M. Bates: Hey Maximus, I just emailed my American cousin, Stevenson Franklin (III), and this is what he had to say: DUH I gess tjose BRits R still saw at looseing to a bunsch of farmerz in the Re-Volution back in 1776!!!! They shood lerrn to spell maw leke us (WHOOPS A U THERE) cuz we spell words wivout U's (ANOTHER U SOR-REY) AND we saaved tham TWICE fromm Gerr-Manns HAHAHAH FRENCH CRAP AT FIGHTING!!!!! Well there you have it Maximus, perhaps one day the rest of the world will learn to spell like invading 17th Century English Peasant F*ckwitts, but until then we will have to differ [ 08-25-2001: Message edited by: M. Bates ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ROFL...the funny (frightning?) thing is that it's true!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Peter Cairns: Are their any plans to put Ski's in the Russian front winter scenarios ? Peter.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> How can one have uber-finns without skis? Of course we'll have skis!

Whoa, my old junior high school playground has been transfered to this very forum! Sick! Oh, and how hard is it to distinguish between CM2 (East Front) and CMII (engine rewrite)? Jebus, you crazy delinquents you...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Danzig: Heh...I've been waiting for that 'something' called Shadowbane for almost two years now and it still doesn't look like it will be out by the end of the year. It is probably one of the most intriguing MMORPG's I have ever seen...I can't wait to play it. I am in a guild of over 200 players who are waiting as well! Indeed, waiting is the hardest part, heheh...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Arrrgh! Heretic! Hang him, HANG HIM!!! C'mon folks, we can doo eeet!