M. Bates

I think that most of the later German designs are especially creepy and ugly. The American and Russians tanks look more "homely", if not always potent.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>A given guns muzzle velocity is largely dependent on the length of the barrel. The longer the barrel, the longer the round is being pushed by expanding gasses, and hence the faster it is moving when it leaves the barrel, at which point it immediately begins to slow down.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> So that seems to get to the heart of the question, food for thought! <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Add to the mix that the panther's turret is faster and it has more speed than the Tiger 1 and its worth the extra 20 odd points to get a Panther in almost any situation.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> And have people beaten Jumbos with the Panther? It can be hit and miss with the Tiger at times. Plus the Panther has significantly better speed... I think I have found a favourite new tank!! (The other great thing is, as a German player I can always say, "right I'll send you a setup, let's exclude Tigers and Jumbos to keep the game interesting". Hehe. Also the Panther is classified as a medium tank, muhaha!!)

Excellent, thanks for the answer! So in which situation would a player buy a Tiger, and when would he buy a Panther, assuming that he can only afford one in a game? Advice appreciated. I can see the Tiger having better HE performance, but it surely has better all round armour (80 on sides and back I think), and the Tiger when I play appears to be pretty resiliant to infantry grenades and bazookas. It also gets lots of deflections at long range. So why choose a Panther?

Quick question, how was the Tiger 88mm less effective against enemy tanks than the Panther's 75mm? I looked at the numbers of the info sheet in CM, and the penetration for the Panther is higher. I have always blindly bought Tigers because I think they are the best value tank in long range engagements.

I also vote for 20mm flak. Best tank is the Hetzer, best vehicle the Greyhound.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Just out of curiosity - up here people wear a red poppy flower (mostly plastic these days) on their lapels to mark the day. I've always wondered if that was purely a Canadian tradition or if it is done elsewhere as well? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> We also wear poppies on Rememberance Day in Britain - only difference being ours are made of red card.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I like the fact that the QB generator scales the map size to the number of points selected. The maps with 5000 point battles are rather large<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ever noticed how w-i-d-e the maps get with higher points values? It is impossible for CM to generate a long map, it just can't be done, all you get is wide maps. You should be able to specify the battlefield dimensions in the Quick Battle setup screens.

Okay, thanks for the answer.

The download times for files from the Combat HQ are either fine, or nothing at all happens for ages... often downloads will say "waiting for data" and then give up altogether. At this rate it will be next year before I get all the AAR movies downloaded!! Couldn't these files be hosted elsewhere in some other webspace, with the pages staying where they are? This is just a suggestion for the improvement of this good service.

You know, for all the talk about appealing to a worldwide market, all the best WW2 films have been made by German film companies.

Excellent! It sounds fantastic, but how did you do this: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>-Saves passwords (you don't have to type them in)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Anyway, good work.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I was listening to NPR (National Public Radio) the other day and they had a German reporter on. He was saying that because the US is the last super power (some may disagree) in the world that the policies of the US effect other nations in a big way. He was saying that because US policies can effect other nations that the whole world should have a say in US politics.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> No one would dispute that the US is the last global superpower. But I say again: the people of Europe are not terribly bothered by who wins, but of course they would have found the conduct of the election, and it's very closeness of great interest. European governments would like to have a super block of power to rival the United States. Even with Germany and France as the backbone of this - 5th and 3rd biggest world economies respectively - Europe is surely hamstrung by no common language and not even a common currency. I doubt there is much will in many countries for a common tax and spending powers, so the European Project, IMHO, will never be a cohesive or credible force. Americans, you can rest easy

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Screw the padlock. This is a very intense subject matter concerning the whole world. And if you don't think so, then you're kidding yourself.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> It doesn't even concern America, accept for the United States of America As far as foreign policy goes, I don't see any huge differences. People in this thread - or "foreigners" as they were called - were chastised for a lack of interest. But given that any internal changes in the USA are of a less impact than foreign policy changes to Europeans and Asians etc., I think that the rest of the world can be forgiven for passing this election over.

From the site: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The story proposes an interesting alternate world - though the bomb hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan continued fighting regardless. The Soviet Union regrouped sufficiently to direct forces toward an intensified land war in East Asia, and the result was a divided occupation of Japan, similar to Germany during the Cold War. This corner of the Cold War rapidly heats up, however, resulting in a Korea- or Vietnam-style conflict between the US-sponsored southern half of the nation and the communist North, backed by China and the USSR. By 1964, there is open warfare between the two territories, with one important difference from comparable conflicts in modern history: giant robots. More precisely, "multi-legged walking tanks," known as AFWs for short (Armored Fighting Walker, or somesuch - the Japanese are big fans of weird initialisms).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Sounds like Vietnam but with robots.

*bump* it's great to see so many people getting involved!!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I am now writing the next scenario "Black Panther Revenge" and waiting for the play tests on Come Out Fighting to finish. One interesting topic I am reading is Jackie Robinson, to understand why some black units had moral problems. I am going to post a discussion of Robinson tomorrow with regards to designing scenarios around black units.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ah come on, this is patronising stuff!! Black people can defend or speak for themselves. Please don't post another discussion on race tomorrow. There are bound to be political insults and disguised accusations of racism.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Wet, so tanks bog, rainy so visibility is reduced.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I am not saying that I don't believe you, but surely those conditions would favour the defender?? I mean, imagine a German Tiger in those conditions for starters. Wet ground would also make it more difficult for him to manouevre out of your killing zones.

Cuberfox the new ladder page is down! By the way, will the new ladder allow games to be played over TCP/IP?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Polygon counts are fine, but realize that PC monitors have a much higher resolution than most peoples' TVs. Until HDTVs come down in price, you're going to be getting 66 million polygons of blurry eyestrain at 90 fps.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That's a good point. By the looks of it, there is a new Ridge Racer game on the PS2, it looks so good, such an advance over the original game, you can tell this because the new Ridge Racer uses the same tracks. Maybe the next generation of consoles will have near photo-realistic games. But will TV technology have to improve as well? I know that we are moving to widescreen, but in most regions of the world the effective resolution is exactly the same. Aliens vs Predator on the Jaguar was close in places, but then that was just boxy corridors and good textures.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Soldier! BUT.... PS2's.....suck. Suck. SUCK. SUCK!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> HAHAHA!! Ahem. I would love to see a World War II type game on the PS2, whether it be action or strategy. Just think, you could have slightly better PS graphics but with *hundreds* of soldiers!! How about an eastern front tank sim with nice playability!! Yes please!! The only problem might be this 299Mhz chip, I mean will the graphics be pretty but the games unintelligent? My Mac runs at 400Mhz, so does that mean that the AI is better than that of the PS2? Anyway, the new Playstation will be superior to the Dreamcast in every way. I bought a Dreamcast, and regretted it. When I bought a new Mac, not only were the games better, but you can do other stuff on it too.

Try to think of it as an international group ladder which supplements the ordinary single player ladder. Just one question: I am already in a group, but do I need at least 5 players before I can start playing matches or can I start right away?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I'm not sure what the reviewer in the Games Domain article has against 3D rendered humans. There are good examples of 3D rendered humans in a lot of games. The thing is many people don't understand is that 3D rendered doesn't immediately mean that the artist is trying to duplicate reality. Who accuses 2D artists of doing that? Maybe the 3D artist is trying something with .. *gasp*.. style? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That's an outrageous slur against the reviewer, who for his part never wrote anything to even suggest he has anything against 3D renditions!!!

Would it be possible for the sky ground limit to be brought down a bit?? For example, at the moment the only way to see the sky is to play in view 1 or 2. But if the sky covered more playing area, I could see the sky in every view mode except the most zoomed out view. I would like this, because zoomed out, the weather looks miserable and dark, but in views 1 and 2 it is a beautifully sunny (or moody winter) sky.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Ok, im gonna buy it.... don't you guys think i fell for the marketing but... i dunno i just want it... and i live in Toronto... so could someone tell me how much evrything is going to be.... S&H blah<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That's the spirit!!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>may i ask why you charge so much?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Come on, you aren't buying any old game here. Those other games have massive development teams and big ad campaigns. These people can make many games a year!! In any case, Combat Mission is a privately made and sold product, so if a prospective customer thinks the price is too high, that's okay, but there are lots of other people who think that it is a reasonable price.