Biff

So let me see if I've got this straight. Hiding a AFV causes it to be quieter so it's less likely to provide a sound contact to the enemy. It also reduces it's spotting ability so it's more vunerable to enemy units sneaking up on it. It also make the AFV less likely to open fire unless it's fired upon. Does it make the tank reactions any slower? For ambushes (in CMBB) is it preferable to hide the AFV or just set a armor cover arc?

These are commands in CMBB, which are not available in CMBO. Are you playing CMBO? If so, I've used sneak to good effect, at least when the distance to cover is short.</font>

I was playing a night battle and wanted to move a HQ that had anti-tank weapons (magnetic mines and grenades) up to a enemy tank to try to take it out. What I'm not sure about is what sort of movement order to give the HQ. Should they run or sneak or advance or what? I get confused as to what command will get them in range in the safest manner and also allow them to effectively assault the tank.

I'd like to see BTS provide more detailed docs on these movement commands so I have a better idea when to use a particular command.

Why wouldn't one want to use "move to contact" in an open area? Perhaps this should be added to the docs because this is not spelled out in the demo README. And please, if there are any other caveats with the various commands please add these to the docs.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Madmatt: The entire wheat field is not covered with doodads. There are enough *gaps* between the new textures for them to fit in. However, if the camera is low enough, well see for yourselves. !!!ALL TEXTURES DISPLAYED ARE STILL NOT FINALIZED!!!! Madmatt [ 12-19-2001: Message edited by: Madmatt ]<hr></blockquote> In regards to the wheat doodads, will there be different heights for the different seasons of wheat? This seems like a good solution to visually understanding the reduced cover whenever the wheat is lower.

Yes there are several times I've been irritated with the behavior of units distracted by non-threats. In my last battle I noticed a 105 Sherman that was approaching my infantry gun. I ordered the unit to fire smoke at the tank. While watching the playback I saw the gun turn away from the tank and target a infantry squad about 500 meters away. Of course the Sherman blew the gun away about 10 seconds later. So I say, if they can't program more smarts/memory into the Tac AI then at least give us more control over the behavior.

Hey Rune, I just wanted to thank you for your great scenario work. A friend and I have been playing PBEM battles using several of your scenarios and always find them interesting and challenging. Keep up the good work!

I would like to see in one of the upcomming CM games a feature/command which would give some description of a selected terrain on the map. The description should include something like: Concealment: good (poor-medium-good-excellent) Cover: poor (poor-medium-good-excellent) Chance to bog: high (low-medium-high) I request this because as it stands there is a understandable disconnect between CM's graphic representation of the battlefield and the underlying engine. So when a unit is right next to a wheat field and should be able to determine these things in real life they can't (except for using the LOS tool across the field). Now they could make the terrain info feature more realistic by making the info dependent on the experience level of the unit doing the query and how close the unit is to the terrain they are querying. For example, a selected unit could use something like the LOS tool which held over terrain could give that info or it could be a special unit command that popped up a info window for a chosen terrain. Maybe an HQ unit would be able to give more accurate info.

double post [ 06-09-2001: Message edited by: Biff ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by GenSplatton: Sorry Radar, can't find it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> When you are on the News page of Combat Mission site, do a search for the word terrain and you will see a link to download the "Terrain Effects Table". BTW, although CM does a pretty good job at representing reality, you can always find things where the abstraction CM uses to model reality doesn't mesh with the visuals that you see on the screen. Thus, you basically have to keep in mind that if you have LOS from some position regardless of how good the cover and whether your hiding, etc... there is a mathmatical probability that your opponent may spot you. For using tanks to ambush it may be better to place a smaller unit like a sharpshooter or half squad in a place where they can hide and still have LOS to the spot you want to ambush and move your tanks just out of LOS so that you give them a hunt command when the enemy comes into range. You should place some scenarios hotseat to get a feel for how the spotting works and how to ambush (play both sides). The game will be much more enjoyable once you figure out the quirks. You'll definitely want to find hull-down positions for your tanks.

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I would like to make one other point concerning this topic. Although CM is a great improvement in 3D representation of a battlefield it isn't perfect by a long shot. So instead of seeing exactly what a TC would see, we get a crude approximation which requires use of the LOS command to see if it has the appropriate bend over a crest or selecting a enemy unit that has the tank targeted to see if the tank is hull down. Personally, I find this detracts from the battle immersion that the game purports to achieve. Having a HD command would be a step in the immersion direction.

I am in the process of recovering from just such surgery (5th week post surgery). The surgery went well (no more sciatica) and the recovery has been pretty fast although it may take 3-4 weeks before you feel comfortable sitting for more than 15 minutes. My surgeon recommended lots of walking and I do think it has helped alot. I think you'll definitely feel decent between 4-6 weeks after surgery. Note, make sure you have someone there to help you at home cause you're not going to be able to reach much or lift it if you can reach it for that matter. Just be patient (pun intended 8^) and take it easy and I'm sure you will recover nicely.

I have to agree with those folks for a "hull down" command. I also think it should somewhere between a hunt and move command. The command should allow the user to give a direction and length to the HD command and if the tank commander determines that they have a HD position while traveling in the assigned direction they should stop there but like a move command they should not stop and return fire but continue to move until they have HD (in the direction given by the command). However this doesn't mean they shouldn't return fire, they just should not stop moving until they either find HD or the length of the HD command is reached at which point the tank would either stop there or follow the next waypoint command. How hard can it be for the program to basically say, at this point can this tank fire over the crest of this hill in the direction of the HD command? Note that the experience level of the TC could be accounted for in either the time it takes to find HD or perhaps some % success rate in achieving HD. So an elite TC would find HD faster than a regular TC.

I should add that this feature could be useful in determining the video resources a particular grapich mod is using. For example, if you try hi-rez buildings you could see how much additional VRAM is used vs. the same scenario with lo-rez buildings.

It would be nice if CM had a feature that would show the user how much video memory a battle scenario used and possibly warn if video RAM is < scenario requirements. Perhaps this could be a hotkey feature in the battle window. It may also be handy in the scenario designer but perhaps this could be accessed in the map preview.

Have to agree with this. The game is well done with the author still making improvements to the game. I think someone also created a scenario designer for it. It's the CMBO of operational wargames.

Yes, transport class was the cause of my embarking problem. BTW, it was a Churchill VIII that I was trying to embark on with a transport class of 2 similar to the Cromwell tank so my original post was incorrect regarding the tank type in the "All or Nothing" battle. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kestrl: A 3 inch mortar team is to large to embark on a Cromwell tank. The transport class of the Cromwell tank is 2 while the 3 inch mortar team has a transport class of 4 so anything with a transport class of 4 or higher would be able to embark your mortar team, like a halftrack or truck.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In the battle, "All or Nothing" I am trying to get a 3inch mortar team to embark on a Cromwell tank which has no passengers but the game won't let me do this. I'm using beta 1.1b24. Is this a bug or expected behavior?

It would also be nice if they would provide a PDF version of the manual with the game updates that would be in sync with that version of the game. I still think there could be more detail provided regarding the various commands like sneak vs crawl, etc...

Let's say I turned in a bug with the errorlog.txt, etc... Let's say they come out with a new beta. If the docs state they think they have fixed the problem causing that error code then I will try the game otherwise I will assume they haven't fixed the bug I turned in and will have wasted my time if I hit the same bug in the new beta. All I'm asking for is that the developers include which error code bugs are fixed in a particular beta. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by rune: Biff, It is BETA code. IF you read the documentation, you will see they want the error codes so they can fix it. If you don't want to "waste your time" then go with 1.05. The purpose here is to help BTS. If you are more concerned with finishing games, then play 1.05 until the final version comes out. Rune <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

It would be nice if the developers put the Error: line from the error log that is fixed in the docs distributed with the new versions of the game. That way I can tell if a problem that I am having is fixed or not (I don't want to waste my time when I know a particular bug will dump me to the desktop and prevent me from finishing a battle).

FYI, I saw a mortar carrier become bogged/immobilzed on a road in wet conditions when moving fast. Although I could see bogging it did seem extreme that the vehicle would become immobilized. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KwazyDog: Just so you know guys there was indeed a small bug here causing immobilisations when there shouldnt have been. Charles has fixed it for the next patch though Dan<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

FYI, When I tried to search the ICQ Active Lists using the search term "Combat Mission", ICQ could not find the list. If I used the AL #, ICQ could find the list.