The Commissar

One time, when I sent a wave attack against suppressed enemy positions, the machine guns doing the suppressions seemed[/] to have cut down some of my own men. I say "seemed" because while I did not see any of the suppressed enemy fire at my men, it could have been a multitude of other things including mines, mortars, random fire from some unit I didnt yet see, etc. And as for "bodies only half way visible" providing cover, that simply doesn't work. The thing you see in CM are only a graphical representation and not the actual exact duplicate of what is going on "under the hood". Try increasing the size of your men to Size 4, and they will look like their whole body is exposed. Decrease it to Size 1, and they may very well look like they are completely hidden. The only way to find out is with a LOS line to the enemy. Usually, if youre in a depression in open ground, and the enemy is shooting at you, you dont get much cover at all. Now, if you're in a foxhole, its a whole 'nother story.

Here's one for you fanatics: You are thrown in jail (for sexually harrasing farm animals, no doubt!) and meet the friendly convicts. Thankfully, before being thrown into the cell you managed to grab your CM disk, knowing that prisons now-a-days have free access to Cable Television, a Gym, and a P4 1.5Ghz computers. The convicts, having been bored of watching Sopranos and pubmping up their biceps to the size of canned Hams, want alternative entertainment. You can either give them your CM disk (and you can't order a new one, mind) or "entertain" those prisoners in *ahem*, uh, another way. There's big Bubba already opening his zipper, in case you choose the later. What do you do? What DO you do?

Uh, nothing would happen. A few kewl dewdz would look at the demo and the "un-leet graphix" and then download the latest reflex-over-brains demo instead. All in all, the effect would be minimal if anything at all. I mean, the game was advertised and got good reviews. Beyond that is the demo. If you dont like the game by then, the full version won't likely change your mind much. NOTE: By "reflex-over-brain" reference, I was in no way insulting players who like these games. I myself sometimes enjoy a relaxing evening gibbing to my heart's desire.

The closest thing BTS would possibly do to "better the sales for CM1" (As if they really need to!), would be to include a CM1 demo on the CM2 disk. I dont think they'll do either, though. Remember, you have to go to battlefront.com to buy CM2, and you KNOW there will be adds everywhere for CM1 as well. Besides, doesnt putting demos on disks of major magazines cost major mula? I should think so, since other then this mags like PCG have no reason not to include the CM demo. Especially with the kind of godawful crap they usually put on their disks.

I think they have every reason to be pissed off. I can also see why they want in banned - for millions of viewers all over the world, this movie could create an image of what the battle was actually like. Lets face it - as long as a movie is directed by anyone who wasnt there to witness it, and the fact that no 80 year old man would be able to direct a high budget movie, we will almost never get an accurate depiction other then from war footage. Oh, and the Soviet command was not always like this, like someone said in thsi thread. I imagine they didn't have mass wave attacks in a city. The Soviets were mostly on the defensive, with small attacks to regain positions once in a while. Anyway, just my 2 cents before the thread goes down.

What makes me wonder is how the authors says at the end of the article, and I quote, "without Lend-Lease the Soviet Union would probably have only been able to liberate its own territory by the time the Allies eventually defeated Germany." If Soviets finished with the war business after they liberated their territory, which would probably consist of everything up to the half of Poland which they gained before the war, how successful would the Allies be? Now I need a historian on this (that's your que, Jason ) to tell me how much men Germany lost/would have probably lost by that time. Im not guessing it would have been as much without those massive Soviet offensives. Furthermore, if Soviets did not push on, Germany would not have been pressured, and this would have allowed it to relocate men and material to the West. Also, Berlin would have not been sacked and Hitler would not have killed himself this early. In fact, morale in Germany would be much higher then it was originally. Im thinking the Western allies would have a hard time with D-Day if this was the case. Im guessing an extra, oh I dont know, 50 German devisions in Europe (all with experience fighting the Russians) would have shifted the balance and pushed the US/Brit forces back into the ocean. Also, can someone tell me 2 dates: 1) When do you think the USSR would have regained its original territory? 2) When were the Axis finally pushed out of Africa? Im thinking if the Soviets stoped fighting soon enough, Rommel would have gotten some much needed aid. All in all, I dont completely agree with this author either. Sure, lend lease was important, but I still think offensives would have been made and the war continued. The Soviets would not just stop fighting all of a sudden. Their industry would have been sufficiently strong by that time. If they did, the rest of the Allies would have been screwed. I dont think the Allies would have the "balls" to invade mainland Europe if Germany had more troops there then it did in real life. Of course this is all "what if?" bulls@it, so Ill stop now. My 2 cents.

Probably due to the fact that hard core wargamers are "grognards" and want perfection. Its kind of difficult to achieve perfection, so people complain. When a game is utter ****e however, and you've waited and devoted a solid amount of your time to waiting for it, you get pretty pissed when it comes out and does not reach your expectations. Wargame or no wargame, this holds true for all. It just happens more for wargames because wargame devs usually dont make that much money and it is thus harder for them to devote resources to perfecting a game. So there you go. Thank goodness for BTS and CM!

Maximus, This is a bit offtopic, but I simply must know where you got those ultra-detailed US uniforms! They look great (and it would be nice if the same guy that made them also created German versions!) Can you tell me of the site which carries these? Thanks in advance. BTW - I like the truck mod. The seats in the back are especially well done IMHO.

Im feeling slow today (must be the 93 degree heat here in New York) so I dont understand the "joke". Someone care to enlighten this poor sweating dolt?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Panzer Leader: Hey shut up about that "no cavalry" bit! I personally (deluded though I may be) have a VERY good feeling about cavalry. I think the gang is gonna manage to pull out a fast one and include the damn horses!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ah, your typical "newbius-ignoramus". Notice how it reacts with violence when people with more knowledge then it try to set it straight. Observe how it fails to "DO A SEARCH!" about a subject which has been discussed on and off longer then the newbie in question has been around. Now, let's watch as it is proven wrong by a simple search function with the words cavalry... Ta-da! For your reading enjoyment, a quote from Steve himself, from the following thread: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=015815 "Combat Mission is just not set up for horse. There would need to be special TacAI just for them, and that would be pretty tough to do. The modeling of the horses, graphically, would be a big undertaking. Remember, we have to program in behavior patterns. Legs don't inherently know they should stick to the torso and foot We would also have to come up with some sort of way to simulate mounts being shot out from under otherwise intact riders. With a horse "squad" unit and a rider squad unit, that would be very tough. Because of these and a few other reasons, no horses for the Eastern Front. As the quote of mine posted above says very well, we understand that they do have a place on the Eastern Front, but it is simply too small for the effort needed to simulate them. Therefore, no dice. Steve" [ 04-30-2001: Message edited by: The Commissar ]

I think the main issue with NOT including these, as BTS has stated (actually, it was KwazyDawg who mentioned this) is the difficulty in modeling all those turrets. Dont ask me why, im not a programmer, but Kwazy said that it could be done but would take a big long while. Since T-35's saw SOME but not a LOT of combat, they arent that critical. I'd like to see them myself, just for the coolness factor of all those guns, but as BTS has said about ANY new features, it must pass the following rules: 1. Is the feature "COOL"? Obviously something can be "cool" and fail every single question below. But if the feature isn't very interesting, then why bother? 2. Does it add something SIGNIFICANT to the game as a whole? The key word is SIGNIFICANT. 3. Is it TECHNICALLY possible to do even for the high end systems? This is CM specific [and also programming specific] 4. Is it something that is likely to INCREASE sales significantly? Yes, if we are talking about investing a lot of time/money into something, it had better have some sort of payback. Otherwise... why bother? 5. Can it be done without HARMING the game itself? There are only so many hours in the day and dollars in our pocket, so if we have to make sacrifices it had better be damned important. 6. Overall, how much EFFORT will be spent on how much of a percentage of the customer base? The more effort, and the fewer people that can use it, the less reason to do it. "Make it optional" - a reasonable request only if it is no sweat off our nose to do it. For E.g., Dynamic Lighting would probably take several months of coding just so 10% of the customers MIGHT be able to use it. A no starter from the get go. We have said …. that we will be improving Combat Mission, graphically as well as in every other aspect OVER TIME. But there is only so much that can be done at once. Despite my own feelings for the inclusion of the T-35, it only really passes #1, the "Coolness Factor".

Read the CM2 FAQ: There will be NO cavalry.

If Finns get ski troops, Soviets should as well. Of course, that would be later in the war. Soviets learned the about fighting in winter quite well after Finland had been more or less subdued. I dont think "tank riders" had their own TO&E. That's just like what we have now in CM, when you get a squad on an M4 and ride 'em about a bit until an MG42 rattles them off.

Hmm...did the NKVD actively participated in battles? I think they did with some, but mostly they just kept to the back. Quick, someone with more knowledge, where there any major battles that the NKVD stepped in to assist the main fighters? Otherwise they would not be included as they would be "outside CM2's scale" or somefink.

Fascinating. I never knew there even WAS a 77mm!

I have a few questions concerning the trailer (since the RealPlayer trailer I downloaded wasnt exactly high quality): What are those enemy tanks the T-34's are attacking? From the few seconds of blurry image that the trailer showed us, it kinda looked like PZIII's. Did Germany give Japan tanks? If those were the so called Japanese 'tanks', I hope this movie doesnt show them being able to KO T-34's or Soviet heavies. You know, the old "we only got our arses handed to us because there were so many of them!" motto you see in movies made by countries who ended up losing. What was that (destroyer?) the Japanese planes were attacking? It wasnt very clear at all. I would have assumed it was Soviet, only I dont know much about the state of the Soviet navy during WW2, and whether they participated in sea battles against the Japs. Anyone care to clarify? [ 04-28-2001: Message edited by: The Commissar ]

Fellows, WineCape has started up a thread that will form into an unconfirmed "list" of features BTS can look through and consider, without any commentary and back and forth discussions between board members. Just get in there and post your thing! Here's a quick link: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=018670

Splinty, I cant remember the episode, since Ive seen it some 2 years ago. This was when I couldnt distinguish a tank from a bucket with a broomstick sticking out. So it could of been an M60A3. All I really remember (besides the way he demolished lots of cars) was that he could not (thankfully!) fire the turret. He ended up getting stuck by attempting to cross over the cement border between lanes on a highway.

Hey guys, I recently installed Winamp, the free wav playing software. Everything was going fine until I launched CMBO while playing a soundtrack on winamp. I do this all the time with Napster to battle to some good tunes. Anyway, winampo went and coverted all my files to winamp played files. So now when I launch the game, there is no music playing, even if I dont have a soundtrack going at the same time!! I want my battlefield sounds back, you bloody shareware! Please help, I tried uninstalling winamp but it just wont work. Eagerly awaiting replies.

*dusts off "Please do not feed Troll" sign* Man, I never thought I'd have to use THIS thing on THIS board!

Skippio, CM2 is the one currently in production, dealing with the Ostrfront. CMII is the full engine rewrite, going into production after CM4 is complete. CMII will have all the whiz-bang features of today's video cards (meaning that by the time CMII comes out, those whiz-bang features will cost you about $40 dollars to afford), more physics effects like this collision thing, and a bunch of other stuff BTS isn't too clear about now. They arent even sure what the damn game will be based on! Rumor is, it's the hypothetical clash between NATO and the USSR.

In a cop-chase program on Fox I saw an M1A1 run over half a dozen cars, ranging from cadilacs to Volkswagen beetles and crush them like one would crush an empty soda can. Of course, the M1's weight is comparable only to the German super-heavies of WW2. Still I imagine if a tank with even half the weight of an Abrams can still do a comendable job of crushing things. Point is, as BTS said over and over again, it would require some engine rewrite or another. It wont be in CM2, 3, or even 4. Maybe for CMII if they feel up to it. I agree it would be a nice feature, but a real b@tch to program.

Didnt someone already say that BTS clearly stated that this couldnt be done? You guys still hoping, eh? Anyone care to come up ideas how this could easily be done. Maybe if you make it good enough to convinve BTS they'll even give it a second thought.

BTS holds closed Beta. The Beta people are probably the same ones they have had for CM1. They never "opened" it or allowed anyone to get in unless they hand picked that someone themselves. Dont know if they did so or who that someone is though. Sorry.

stupid double post...