Slapdragon

The 66th and 67th Armored, later the core of CCA and CCB of the 2nd AD, trained extensively in rough field driving, and practiced it in manuevers. They also gained a lot of practical experience when the switched from M3 Light to M3 Meduim tanks in the core battalions -- in the Louisiana manuevers the managed to get a large number of their new heavier tanks, not really because they were inexperienced, but because they were new to the tank (Blaker: Iron Knights, 1999). 761 Tank Battalion, according to oral histories of Company B recounted in "The 761st Black Panther Battalion in World War Two" (Wilson, 1999) practiced crossing antitank ditches in Texas which Antitank units were practicing setting up. This included purposeful tests, if a ditch did not get them stuck then it was rebuilt until it did. Th eunit claimed this was great practice for driving tanks. Steve Jackson (an amplification is in order: The "Louisiana Manuevers" happened in 1940 and no tanks bogged down because none left the road. To make the manuevers fair their were resticted to paved surfaces. The Louisiana training were many tanks bogged occured in 1942. By that time, tank divisions were allowed to leave the road.) [This message has been edited by Slapdragon (edited 09-20-2000).]

I have a pink adversary mod that I load in sometimes.. You would be surprised how happy it can make you to see that nasty Tiger shooting holes in you Sherman turn pink the next turn.

In a test of 40 Elite King Tigers and 40 Regular, the Elite bogged on flat ground in rain and mud an average of 345 meters, while the Regulars bogged in 330 meters. This is statistically insignificant. In other word I would bet morale is not a major factor in the CM bogging formula. Two interesting things came out. Elites pivot twice as fast as regulars which can be tactically ver important, and bogging tended to come in clusters, possibly because of the formula that is used to figure them.

I think we should communicate using only emoticons from now on! (And I believe cursing is like a spice: to much and you have Indian Food). - - (My name spelled in Emoticonian) [This message has been edited by Slapdragon (edited 09-20-2000).]

I keep it turned on in the background. My system has two monitors and CM politely clears the way, so I just keep it on unless I have to render a video. Every couple of hours when a PBEM turn comes in I take my break, drink my water and eat some bread, then play the turn.

This has been kicked around before, but I have been thinking about how someone would model horses on the battlefield. First some background. While WWII was the first mechanized war, calvary was not dead, and horses were used on teh battlefield by all participants. The Germans had a Calvary division in the French and Polish Campaigns, that was converted to the 24th Panzer Division, but nearly 80% of their artillery units were horse born. In the Polish campaign the Polish Calvary, far from being run down by tanks, was a set of crack outfits that gave the Russians their only serious resistance, a calvary brigade actually defeating a Panzer Regiment for several days until out of ammunition. In France both Britian and France had Calvary units (Britian though could bost an entirely mechanized army, unlike the Germans), although their performance was not good and they are rarely mentioned because they were quickly overcome. During the Russian campaign Germany raised 7 or 8 (sources vary) Waffen SS Calvary Divisions for rear area work, all of which fought also on the front lines (as even the bakery detachments did on that front.). The Russians had 52 divisions of Calvary, using them alone, to support an infantry advance, as scouts, and in tandem with tank units. The American's, with their "All Mechanized" Army entered World War Two with one of the best Calvary organizations in the world, the long serving 2nd Calvary Division "Buffalo Soldiers" *Mant privates in this cluster of 3 regiments had served 20 years in the military, much of it in action along the Southern Border). The 2nd Calvary was deployed to North Africa in 1942 and served boarder duty, being disbanded in 1943. Ad hoc Calvary units were formed in Italy and New Caledonia even after the last horse unit was officially disbanded. So how do you model something like this? The way I see it horses are not vehicles like ASL, but infantry type units of 6 (gun team) or 14 horses (squad) that can do some unique things. Like Infantry they can sneak, hide, move, and possibly charge. Also like Infantry they have a morale level. American and Polish Calvary horses were picked from good stock and trained well, as was German horses before the war. Russians and Germans during the Eastern Front were catch as catch can, often they were picked up from farm duties. A conscript horse would panic easily, while a Crack calvary horse could charge a machinegun. Horse can "carry" (ie Tow) guns. 6 horse can tow a field artillery peice on level ground, 14 (2 spare) would be needed to tow it up a hill. German and Russian horse casualties were tremendouse because they used them as gun towers right up to the front. Horse are incredibly vulverable to Artillery and machinegun fire. Mounted men are also unless they are charging oblique: but it is even then not a pretty picture. Horse teams can move without an infantry squad: this represents a handler moving them, but they cannot charge or do anything fancy. One hard to model thing: In Russian mud, horse teams, even under fire, were used to pull tanks out of bogs. [This message has been edited by Slapdragon (edited 09-20-2000).]

I know this is not what everyone really wants, but I always set my battle to view 7 or 8 and take a screen shot, then put it into photoshop and despeckle it then run unsharp mask to bring out the detail. No elevation data of course, but I usually take two or three photographs from different points to help visualizing maps. I have posted one of my old tactical maps at http://www.slapdragon.org/combat/skorpvslapmap.jpg

Heck Oberst, I am teaching a research course right now -- what I wrote Jarmo is right from my lecture notes!!! Actually, I used Quake Arena to teach some of my students experimental research and observational research -- you would be surprised what they can find out once they learn research techniques. Sadly, I use to be a director.

Hey Jarmo, Your test is a good idea, but you cannot generalize based on 6 groups of five necause you used 2 variables. With the test you did, it could be luck that you noticed any bogging difference. IIf you want to perform this test, you need at leasr 40 cases for each cross of your variable matrix, and you need to measure how far the vehicles got before they bogged. With 2 variable (crew experience and speed) you would need to do 160 single tank trails (or fewer with more tanks) AND measure the distance went before bogging. Imagine you wanted to test coin flipping. You could flip head five times in a row, and would not be surprised, but would be shocked if you did it 40 times. That is the reason you need so many tests. A better way is to isolate your variable and test 40 tanks with regualr crews going at each speed range. Then you know about speed, or take 40 crews of each experience level and try that.

I love lots of unloved tanks. While some people get their cranks turned by Jumboes and Jagdtigers, I think the M24 is a hell of a support tank. Never bogs down, fast reacting 75 is good on fast moving halftracks, and good at hiding. I like the Hellcat and Archer as stalkers, but rarely take the Archer or get it in random battles. Perhaps my favorite is the M8 -- cheap and good infantry support as long as you keep it out of the way.

I believe on a Mac they are AIFF files, editing in Sound Edit 16 (interesting choice).

I have posted elsewhere that I am switching my game playing computer to Mac since I am essentially going to work and play CM on my video editing workstation (I haved used Macs for a long time, but I had a Dell for play). So, I mentioned it on a post, and I got a spoofed address e-mail (like a SPAM) that resolved by IP to an Sprint netblock (scared of me?) Please note the poor English is his or hers, not mine. Also, don't send e-mail to any of these addresses listed, they are all either bogus or aimed at getting the person in trouble, I have checked them all. (just to be on the safe side I am blanking the last name listed in the header.) Also note: that time listed was not when it came in, the idiot has his clock set wrong, or lives in the Ukraine. quote... Return-Path: <Stephen_xxxx9909@indiatimes.com> Received: from mail.varnamo.se ([194.236.221.30]) by osgood.mail.mindspring.net (Mindspring Mail Service) with SMTP id ssebk3.h53.30ahi43 Tue, 19 Sep 2000 05:14:24 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smtp.indiatimes.com ([158.252.106.93]) by mail.varnamo.se (Netscape Messaging Server 4.15) with SMTP id G14I3Q00.PEW; Tue, 19 Sep 2000 09:28:38 +0200 Subject: Letter Addressing Your Interests Reply-To: Stephen_xxxx9909@indiatimes.com From: Stephen_xxxx9909@indiatimes.com Message-Id: <gglwmomqimqdfueohkod.nwvsdokqchjdjwex@smtp.indiatimes.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 03:32:52 -0500 To: Burns@yahoo.com Hey slaphapy you idiot, you can't sit the and tell me you prefer to play Combat Mision on a b/w screen? You liek all your color on the outside huh? The guys who made this cool game could have made it even better if they dumped the crapola and designed for a real computer. The toy is why we dont have better houses. I read they are going out of business any day, my school dosen't even have them anymore. Get a life, or a real computer. HackerK

American Shermans did use T rounds -- in fact they were yelled at for wasting them (as in Iron Knight by Blaker and Seven Six One by Borden). An armored Battalion during an exploitation rarely had them: they shot them off right away and never looked back, but Division and Army commanders -- through their rear area supplies, regularly "broke the rules" set back in Washington and made those round available for units expected to be in contact with German Panzer formations. If you were 716th Tank Battalion facing the 511th Infantry Division you would be unlikely to get more than a few by steeling them, but if you were 761 relieving Bastogne or CCB 2nd Armored in Aachen, then you had them because of the chain of senior noncommisioned officers who broke the rules with the full knowledge of their division commanders. I think in this case it may be more realistic to change the values of the American Tanks. One set of values gives you a random chance of getting some tungsten, and would be used in scenarios where historically, the units did use tungsten (761 in the West Wall and Bastogne battles, CCB at Aachen. ) Another set would give you no chance to get tungsten, but puts the Shermans more on line with German tank values. The process of "purchasing" tungsten represents using your clout and resources to get some good ammo -- resources that could have been used to get more Arty support, or perhaps an attached Engineer unit. The game unit would not even have to be modified, just a subroutine written in that assigns tungsten rounds if that model is purchased. Of course tank destroyers always had Tungsten -- even though restricted supply.

I don't think the AI is always at fault, but I was stalking an armored car with an M18 when the car pulls behind a house and woosh, the turret returns to zero and the hunt has it drive right on by to get creamed from the rear. Very frustrating.

I am in the process of switching from A Dell Optiplex to a Macintosh as my personal computer. always used Macs in video production and graphics multimedia -- and as my primary secure server (running WebTen), but I always used PC in my home for SPSS. So, I am setting up my new Macintosh and right off playing CM -- while CM on my Dell worked well it began a major headache of up and down grading DirectX files to make CM and Steel Panthers run. Well, I am a refugee from Wintel now and it is a great feeling. It is not for everyone.. I am taking a lot of heat from my friends, but I have like twice the time to play CM since I switched -- I am not spending it messing around with Windows (which is why I had a Mac server in the first place. Don't ask me why I bought the Dell -- brainwashed I guess.

I have just relegated my Dell Optiplex to running SPSS and have switched to a G4 Power Mac 500mhz. Two monitors cannot be beat, and I don't have to worry about damn direct-x errors!!!! I am free, no more Wintel for me!!!!!

I am sure they are reading it. This sort of AI tweek would probably be easy to do (if they coded as tables) and we should also expect that it will take a bit of further kicking to tweek it right -- we may find the AI fires tungsten at halftracks and then a new tweek happens, all part of the process. Somethings, like more varied buildings and more detailed bridges with superstructure, and other things like that are tougher, and impossible is the fractal mapped water and stuff like that which Swamp-idiot wanted. At least impossible on my machine. And for the person who e-mailed me and told me that the game would be ten times better if Big Time dropped Macintosh development -- why e-mail me about that? I am just a critic!

Damn Straight! What ever that means... Now if I can just get the computer to fire tungsten, I will be happy

Una aplicación del mac! Mostro I podía besarle! Maravilloso si puede ser hecho. If an application could track both sides without being hackable (need the password to get the file) it would be great.

João, Seu inglês não é tão mau quanto meu português! Minha esposa é de Brasil. Eu falo algum português, na maior parte palavras do xingar de dirigir em Sao Paulo. Se você necessitar alguma ajuda com inglês, E-mail justo mim. Estavo Jackson [This message has been edited by Slapdragon (edited 09-19-2000).]

I think that a text file AAR would help, as it could be used for Campaign games and hacked to provide startup forces for the next bout.

I thought this discussion needed to come back up top after Swmp-childs little rant. Swamp-- Learn something about how computers work, or go play Quake against the other children. If anyone else wants to have a reasoned flameless discussion of SOTA graphics and 3D models -- lets talk!

I am going to pull back my older response to this tripe and see if it makes any sense. Any more "complex" graphics and your puny little Pentium would melt down. This is just the beginning and a good beginning it is! Steve Jackson PS-- Unlike Swamp Sparky people can disagree with me all they want -- and DirectX is no solution except to make the game die a horrible bug ridden death.

Anyone into RPG and Campaign games?

To echo Vanir here I have been tweeking ammo loads outs in increments to find out when the AI feels "comfortable" with using tungsten rounds (silly term to consider a couple hundred lines of code "comfortable"). It was not until I got the tungsten to 2:1 ration (10 tungsten and 20 AP) that I could even get the AI to use it in the E8. The M18 is turning out the same except it uses them faster because it carries less ammo (higher ratio) while my cross check on the Jumbo 76 is the same.