Louie the Toad

Dear Abbott and Winecape, I don't understand your thinking about the gun barrel smoke. You like it because..... Yes it might add some reality but to what purpose? Allowing infantry to have smoke grenades is just as realistic but not included. I wish this was an on/off option. I fully endorse smoke shells, but for me a great amount of fun in this game is visually tracking the shot. Smokeless Toad

These concerns are serious. Therefore this Bump.

Antawar, very nice. I have the game but also have some concerns about my system's ability to do it justice. Possibly I speak for others who may be having resolution problems but because we have not seen pictures from fully functional computers we may not know the difference. Could you provide a brief series of pictures from say view levels 2, 3 and 4 of the Set Up screen of say the Iron Roadblock 'practice' scenario in the manual? This would allow players like myself to see what a high end machine makes the game look like. If you identified the scenario as well as the view level that would allow a person to simulate the same view and then make comparisons between your graphics and his. Visual Toad

1. When viewing from level 3 or maybe 4 so much detail is lost that I can't distinguish squads from HQ from Machine guns. Need to have bases on just to find people. Not so in CMBO. 2. Fire in burning vehicles fades out and stops flickering as the camera zooms toward it. Can hardly tell there is a fire close up. Looks great from a distance though. No similar problem in CMBO 3. Gun barrel smoke is blocky and polygonish. Small explosion smoke is similar. Large amounts of smoke appear ok. No similar in CMBO. Is this a game thing or a video card thing ? 32 mb of memory in a Voodoo 3 Pentium II 450 mhz Advise Appreciated. Toad

Yes, I believe John Wayne had this problem in Horse Soldiers. His solution: " The coffee tastes better when the latrines are made downstream." Fresh water Toad

Yes, I noticed this too. This is one of several annoying facets that I am ready to complain about after playing for about 4 hours. Together they make the game less enjoyable. I too enjoyed following the fly and fall of shot. Two things aggravate this in BB. One is the camera location as shown so well above. The second is the irritating volume of smoke from the gun blast. It blocks MY sight of the fly and fall. Lets go back to the 'puff' of CMBO. In this instance BB may depict reality but to what end? It interferes with enjoyment and adds nothing to the game. And no I do not want to shut off smoke. The second is the rotate vs slide problem. Why was this done? It doesnt add anything to the game and will be even more annoying when you want to go back to playing CMBO and have to unlearn and relearn the system. A third playability defect is somehow related to game scale and camera angle. In BO I could go to level 3 or 4 and see enough of the battlefield to make informed decisions and at the same time STILL see enough detail in my forces to distinguish a squad from a machine gun. Now in BB I sometimes can't even locate units visually and never will be able to unless the unit bases are on. So this is my impression in only the first 4 hours of game play. I wonder what else I will find. There are a lot of 'nice' improvements in BB but what's the use if they can't be enjoyed because of changes that have been made to some of the basics of the game. So far BB is a step backward in enjoyability. One has to wonder why things that worked were fixed until they didn't. Disgruntled ... Toad

Forest Lake reporting in.

I tried searching, got no satisfaction. I have only one avenue of approach... unless I can drive up the embankment and cross the tracks. What can I expect of my PZIV, Panther, Sturm III and Puma crossing RR tracks? Just crossing not riding the rails.... Toad

It is true there was some discussion on the Forum about Briefings containing Scouting Reports. But this won't happen unless there is a standardization of Briefings. I am not sure I would trust them anyway. Every soldier scoffs at the intel report of "Expect light resistance". So the choices are : sending someone up ahead with a certain amount of caution; or moving forward on the attack or assault and trusting in the briefings. I will take the first option each time. Who in their right mind would send a tank over the top of a hill without first having observed the other side. I certainly won't be sending open topped vehicles into a town unless I have first scouted and taken out enemy units in the buildings I am to pass by. Maybe the designers of scenarios should uncover supposedly hidden units at the Set Up that have been seen and reported by Recon. The shadow vehicle markers would be used in that case. This would be a step in the right direction. I think there also is confusion about what is Recon vs Scouting vs Cautious play. "Go see what that is ! " -- Ollie to Stan Toad

What Apache said. IMHO there are a lot of options that could be in the game before considering gamey grid lines. CM is supposed to simulate combat not football. Why not try one of the Grass mods. Using grass ... er, grass mod --- Toad

That is strange, because over the past year or so I experimented with all of the different display settings, changing them for one game or another and never saw the logo. In addition I have played at 1024x768 most of the time and the task bar filled up the screen with the unit commander picture up against the left side and the GO! button up against the right. I have downloaded games from the usual scenario sources, playtested games from at least two designers, set up countless QBs and played by email with two different opponents. Never once have I seen the logo, until the other day. Any other explanations? Toad

About the same time I downloaded the scenario 21st Panzers the words Big Time appeared on both sides of the unit orders task bar. They were not there before. Not sure if the download was the cause, but it now appears in every game file. Has anyone experienced this? If so where did it come from if not that scenario. Disgruntled ..... Toad

I play Franko's rules as much as anyone and maybe more than most. I thought it was interesting that you thought the game is more coherent. Many others who try playing at Level 1 say it is more confusing, with a tendency for units to get lost. One of the reasons I like Level 1 is that it emphasizes terrain. Grunt level .... Toad

But I haven't downloaded BB !! I decided to preorder the demo and wait. I did notice that when all of this happened the screen showing my list of installed scenarios was at a different resolution. I went in and made some changes and that is corrected. But stuff like the unit information display at the bottom of the screen is very different. For example -- No picture of the leader or TC. Instead the words Big Time are located like book ends on either side of this display. Could all of this be related to a short power outage? But I didnt think I had CM open at the time.

When I just now opened up CMBO, the movie at the beginning of the game ran. I've had that shut off for over a year. The intro screen with Play Game, Multi Player Exit choices was sized differently. The status bar showing the unit selected, its status, the movement arrows and GO etc was much smaller in size. In addition, the words Big Time Software were on either side of the status bar since it was now much smaller than it had been. Graphics in the game seemed ok except for smoke. I had upgraded that with a mod quite some time ago and this smoke looked like the old days. What's going on? Puzzled Toad

What's this? Yes you can go down to the local wargame shop and pick up a game. At least I did, just a month ago, got (SuperSized) Illuminati. As opposed to the pocket book edition which causes eye strain. While at the wargame store I did notice that there was nothing, NOTHING! to compare with CM. But let us not forget our roots ! If Red Alert taught the value of combined arms, thats great. As was stated, not all of the unit specific tactics will transfer. But the basic tactics that lead to victory in any age, will. "Go tell the archers to get on the reverse slope of that hill" ---- Tacticus Toad

My Labtec c322 can't be taped together anymore. Good audio, poor construction. Any suggestions ? I can hear you now...... Toad

Thanks to all, Ben, you were right. Treeburst's mod is ugly, with a capital UGH !! Toad

Is there more than one that does this? Your help is appreciated. Sparse on the top .... Toad

Given to my opponent by random AI pick. They seem to fight for a bit, then run. Hah Ha Ha Haaa ! Toad

I play FTCR every so often with the following modifications and rationalizations for them. These might be solutions to some of the problems posted above. I use level 5 to look straight down at a friendly unit or two. But I do not scroll around while in this position. I use it to maneuver the unit around corners in and out of buildings, behind walls and the like. Because: the game mechanics do not model this type of movement realistically at all from View 1. This can also help orient a unit on a landmark that it can see. But No scrolling allowed. Level 2 is the second story of a building. Level 3 is the steeple of a church. Because: You can see further of course. I make sure the viewing unit is located on level 2 just below the steeple. Occasionally use level 7 or 8. Because a company commander might use a map. NO Scrolling. Enemy units appearing on the map are due to reports coming into my command post. This would help in orienting units as well. I suppose one could argue for Level 4 if you had an aircraft and could somehow prove that it was in contact with the ground forces. Certainly not something that happened early in the war. I dont do this though. The Rule of Thumb that really works is: Would I really be able to do this/see this on the battlefield from the levels allowed. Have I earned these levels? Yes the high ground becomes very important, as it should. Take That Hill... Toad

One of my favorites playing miniatures because our rules gave it the option for the 28-20 mm tapered bore gun. 1. How prevalent was this combination ? 2. Will this combination be in CMBB ? The CMBB picture I saw of a troop of 222s going through a wheat field reminded me to ask about 'Gruber's cute little tank'. Cute Toad

Let's add this to the mix. I started a meeting engagement pbem just before this thread was created. The AI gave us both random everything except we knew the forces would be primarily infantry. Lucky me -- I get two mortar spotters with 200 rounds each. I also get 3 on map mortars. Even luckier me -- when I look at the randomly generated map: 1. I have the high ground with some nice areas for the 2 spotters to see a great amount of the map. And of course they can estimate to the places they cannot see. 2. And here's the best part. The enemy has only about five areas where he can hide, and I cannot see him on set up. One is behind a steep hill with a road running over the hill and then on to a village with a large VL flag. Another is tall pines, not too far from the road and hill and at an angle that would help support his attack on the VL. Since this was an AI generated battle, I had no TRPs. I decided to target both of the areas described above as soon as I could. I had not seen any evidence of the enemy. What would you say about this? Lucky, lucky Toad

I don't think using an educated guess to put fire into a suspected area of enemy concentration is gamey. I think it is called Interdiction. Sometimes battlefield terrain just begs to be plastered even if you don't actually see the enemy there. If it works, you're a genius. If it dosen't, you're a fool. ............ Toad

legend42, Could it be that your equating of 'split second timing' and battlefield realism comes from "Hollywood research" ? Such as The Dirty Dozen? Curious Toad