M. Bates
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Posts posted by M. Bates
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AFAIK, Europe has its own source of CMBB distribution in Ireland. The question is, do the Europeans get their games despatched on the same day as North America, or do the games get sent from the USA, to the Europe warehouse, and from there to the individual (meaning that Europeans have to wait longer).
Also, is the Macintosh version shipped directly from the USA to Europe?
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Except the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812 that is!Originally posted by Firefly:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Poobear:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Doodlebug:
1) They always turn up three years late to any war.
</font>
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A handful of English football thugs could conquer France in, say, six weeks.
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I think that every type of shockwave has now been exhausted
Good work everyone. Don't forget to submit your shockwaves to CMBB web sites, so that other players can benefit! -
Even a socialist beer would leave a bitter taste in your mouth.Originally posted by Coffin 'Enry:Time for a beer, thinking about the capitalist system is causing depression.
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IMHO, the Citadel scenario has a nice epic feel to it. It's interesting to play around with the new cover commands, and setting up the ideal "kill sack". It's challenging from either side.
Yelnia Stare is only a bit of a stinker because of lack of buildings. A few buildings dotted around would give a bit more variety. I think Yelnia Stare is supposed to show off human waves and the new machine guns.
In short, the demo is ideal for experienced CMBO as it gives a good work out of all the new features. I'm not sure how new players would view it.
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No problem! When yours is done, maybe Pud could put it on his site so that people can choose from different Shockwave Sets.Originally posted by Shatter:Do you mind if base this off your mod? I may start from scatch, because I am not happy with the way it looks.
But if I base it of your do you mind?
Don't forget, you only have room to play with at the top left and top right of the explosion... unless you make the shockwave smaller to have space at the top too.
The secret might be to play around with the use of transparency to create gaps. If each stage of the shockwave is radically different, then maybe it will be even more eye catching.
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Hi gang,
Change the color to whatever you want.
The only reason it starts off yellow is (1) just for visibilities sake, (2) it looks a bit odd when tanks/AT guns fire, to have all the white smoke AND the white shockwaves.
It's fairly simple to change the color, and there are only 6 frames of animation, so it's a good idea to tailor it to individual taste.
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Hehe only just noticed your topic!
Nice screenshot too.
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Okay, the bmps have been re-worked in Graphic Converter and are hopefully now PC Friendly.
The dot transparencies have been removed.
Final version to be released this Sunday.
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Hi, the "dots" are the result of transparencies (pink pixels) and are intentional.Originally posted by Sarge Saunders:Hey I got your e-mail with the PNG files. I like the direction this mod is going. Yet, I am finding "dots" in my sphere.
See image below (note this has been compressed for size):
It was intended to let the background show thru a little, to make the shockwave meld together with the surroundings.
If the transparency of the shockwave is unpopular with people, then I will remove all the pink pixels from the .bmps and concentrate on giving detail to the shockwave blast.
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There is a benefit in that you get a wider POV of the battlefront. Possibly not quite so good for replaying tank to tank kills where you out-flank an enemy Panzer and shoot into his sideOriginally posted by Fred:What happened to the 'ride with the Tank Commander' view (lock to tank, view 1)?
Now your POV is way behind the tank, not near the turret like in CMBO?
Any reason for changing one of my favourite views?
Fred
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Hi,Originally posted by MikeyD:Gasp! (and I don't mean that in a good way!)
What have I done to offend you?
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Hmmmmm.Originally posted by Sarge Saunders:I like the shockwave idea. It looks good in your preview. However, It did not seem to work for me.
Once I renamed the files and copied them to the BMP directory all I got was a strange square shape for your modded frames. In fact, I could not open the BMP files in an image editor since it considered them invalid bitmap files. Could something have gone wrong when you saved them?
I really, really, really want to try them out. Can you send them to me in some other format such as TIFF or PNG. I can convert them (if I can open them) and give it a try. My e-mail is in my profile.
Kudos for the effort. If you (or someone else) can accomplish a nice mod for the explosions then all the explosion gripes will be solved!
-Sarge
The bmps were edited on a Mac in Photoshop. I'm at a loss as to why they don't work... I'll email them to you as PNGs.
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Hi,Originally posted by Wicky:Mister Bates,
No joy with the dl link for the 'plosion, could you please e-mail it me
(see profile )Cheers
If you click the Shockwave link, it takes you to a page with a preview pic and a link to download the zip.
Don't worry, I will email the mod to you (plus anyone else who prints their email in this topic).
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First of all, I have found a rough fix to the lack of Shockwaves in CMBB.
The CMBB Shockwave Mod affects one half of the explosion animation, combining elements of BTS' original design with an animated spherical shockwave. I have tested and tested many ways of achieving shockwaves in CMBB and this is the result, though it won't be to everyone's tastes.
Secondly, I have made a CMBB Interface Mod which is 90% completed. It tries to achieve a retro CMBO look with the CMBB interface system. Includes a new easy to read info font. The orders menu is also modded (still needs 5 orders or so to be modded),
At the moment I do not have web space to host the interface mod. If anyone can host it (few megabytes) then that would be most helpful. I don't want any credit for the mod, I just want it to be an option for CMBB players.
[ September 05, 2002, 02:39 PM: Message edited by: M. Bates ]
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Dorosh - I like what you've done with the weapon graphics. I'm not familiar with ASL, though it looks like a nice "board game" retro style.Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:Thanks guys - and to the guys that emailed me. As stated, I won't have any zips til the weekend.
Little bump here for the day shift, too.
M. Bates complained about the weapons graphics not having any names attached to them, perhaps this will be easier on his eyes and sensibilities?
As it happens, I have my own interface mod to be released this weekend.
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View 4 in CMBB is alright, but I can't re-create CMBO View 4 using the Shift-A Shift-Z tilt. Zooming looks a bit weird. I think CMBB's Views are biased towards looking at the horizon, whereas CMBO was more "top-down". Problem with seeing more of the horizon/treeline is that you see less of your units. I think CMBB's cameras were made with AFVs and Kursk in mind.Originally posted by mfred:I'm for Shift+A at 20 for a permanent camera angle, it doesn't effect view 1 or 2 but greatly improves view 3,4, and 5
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There are still remnants of the CMBO militia in the hills over-looking Western Munkeeland! Since the year 2000 they have become severely inter-bred. Find them and KILL them!!Originally posted by CMBB Borg:This constant barrage of independent thought is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
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Despite the realism/humidity/metereological discussion, at the end of the day, shockwaves made it easier to see what was going on.
I like CMBB's more realistic graphics.
However, throw in the lack of the shockwaves along with darker terrain and it can get tricky to see what's happening. I wouldn't support forcing shockwaves on to other players, so it would be good if they were optional.
In any case, the decision has already been taken, the game is days away from release and it is too late.
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I wish I had your confidence...Originally posted by MrSpkr:The new Dust Cloud effect should be sufficient.
Wahh! I want text instead of pictures of weapons! - Deal with it. The pictures are important because they tell which half-squads or damaged squads still have their MGsText or text&graphic would do the same and better.
Since the squad can't split it's weapons up to fire at different targets,Squads can't split? What game are you playing?
why do you need text to tell you firepower?Because if CMBB is filling a 16th of the screen with pretty weapon graphics, why not tell me something useful at the same time?
Wahh! I don't like the unit portraits! Deal with it. They are moddable.The point is that the portraits inadvertently let you know the rank of unidentified AFVs.
I agree! Brush your teeth more.It is simply amazing to me the levels to which some people will stoop in order to shove a stick in someone else's eye. -
Um, yes, actually, they do. Go to the Yelnia scenario. Find a Russian squad with a couple of PPD SMGs. Then go find one with a couple of PPSh SMGs. Note the difference. They look NOT AT ALL alike.Originally posted by demoss:</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> Do the graphics actually tell you what the weapons are? No.
And all that for a virtually trivial difference in game terms.</font>
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Funnily enough, I just checked and CMBB no longer has tank buttoned and infantry morale status in the same place which is better than before.Originally posted by deanco:Yep, we literally ran out of room, and there was no other place to put them. If you can go through all the indicator labels and figure out where buttoned, et al, can go, I'm sure Steve would like to hear about it.
Okay, the typewritten font was not pretty. But (1) it was not all in capital letters and (2) it was always printed as white text on a black background.IIRC the CMBO version is in white typewritten letters. I don't know what was so beautiful about that, or why this version is so ugly, but once again, if you can make a better font, please do so. I'm sure it will be a popular mod. In alpha we went around and around with this issue until a compromise was found.
AARs in CMBB are a vast improvement. As for the other stuff, well why is the space alotted for movie controls and map controls actually *less* than before? And since CMBO people will have increased monitor size and monitor resolution, making the buttons appear still smaller.The amount of info being passed on to the player has gone up by around 30%. It's bound to be a little more cluttered. As far as the AAR screen goes, The AAR screen in CMBO sucked, period. If I want an Excel readout, I'll use Excel. When I play a video game though, I want something a little more colorful. Having said that, the font used in the AAR is 'wrong', meaning it's NOT the font I had in mind, and hopefully it may get fixed in the first patch. Despite repeated emails, somehow this detail slipped through the net in the final hectic days.How nice of you, Mr. Bates. Remind me to say something nice about you the next time I see you. Care to explain WHY they were 'total rubbish'? Or is a simple assertion enough for you?I am not referring to any author/mod in particular: I accept also that 'total rubbish' was a silly thing to state.
Now, after playing the demo for three days, suddenly everyone's an expert when it comes to the GUI.In a creative process, the movie director is often the last person to realise that other people will not view the finished product in the same way that he does. CMBB's interface is very different to CMBO's interface despite the fact that both games are essentially the same, accepting the point that new features have been added. I believe that CMBB's increased interface is not justified by the number of new features in the game.
It is inevitable that people are going to comment when a demo is released. anyone who creates an interface for a video game is clearly talented. Just because I disagree with decisions taken does not mean that I think you are a poor designer. (
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This is just a personal opinion, but ALL of the CMBO interface mods were total rubbish. Gimmicky graphical substitutions for perfectly good text originals.Originally posted by von Lucke:In the spirit of "to each his own", here's my two cents:
Seems like there's a lot more info on the bottom of the screen, so it does tend to look more cluttered. After a little more game-play, I'm sure I'll adjust. One question tho: For regular hand-grenades, are the icons equivalent to one grenade each, or is it more?
What is the point of putting infantry weapons on the status bar? Do they give a firepower figure? No. Do the graphics actually tell you what the weapons are? No. Either print *in text* what the weapons are or take away the entire panel altogether! Presumably, someone purchasing CMBB already knows what a German rifle looks like, and if they don't, well the 3D men are actually holding one of the ruddy things!
I now know what the mini-map does. Yet again, is it really needed? Isn't this information already available a million times before in the briefing? Do we really need this distracting, useless waste of screen space?
Why not cut out this stuff and *increase* the size of Combat/Stealth/Morale/Command bonuses???
European manual query
in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)
Posted
The problem appears to be that CMBO "veterans" in Europe cannot get their PC game direct from battlefront.com.
Is the size of Western European based PC CMBO players - who have been part of the "CMBO family" for two years - large enough for someone like CDV to insist upon having their custom.
I.e., CMBO Euro PC players who purchased CMBO from BTS must be small in number.
But on the other hand... why couldn't the people who are complaining about CDV, simply get their copy from a US-based retailer, like Amazon.com? Also, people will be too busy playing CMBB to bother with the manual.
Europeans fighting to get their hands on the "enhanced" CDV CMBO game with extra CD containing extra ,mods and scenarios seems like a very long time ago!!