Scipio

P.S.: You can - in theory - set up a server at home. But this means of course you have to install some Cisco hardware (I'm really no expert for this, so I better don't go into the details), have a high bandwith connection to the internet and a server, both running 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

This is what I am talking about - not having to rely on someone else for bandwidth. It is much more complicated than setting up a server and registering a domain? I know I can't do it with my cable ISP because they don't allow servers. Do you still connect via an internet service provider, or how else do you connect to the net? How exepnsive and how much knowledge does it take to do this?</font>

By they way - I wonder were MadMatt hosts CMHQ, and what he have to pay for it...

Speaking of my own experience - as you maybe know, I offer a bunch of mods at WarfareHQ. You can find several providers that offer WebSpace with unlimited traffic for relative good pricing. But this is nothing but eyewash. You have only umlimted traffic until you try to make use of unlimited bandwith. In one case they simply deleted all zip files without any request or message. There is no cheap solution if you want to offer download stuff in a real big scope. Ask Manx! There are only few possible ways, IMO. 1) Spreat the stuff on many small sites. This would mean a lack of overview. One can try to create an index - some people already do. This means a high level of discipline for the webmasters/mod designers and inform the index keeper about all changes, links etc. There are some other difficulties, too. 2) A P2P solution. Possible and in princip a good idea, but has several disadvantages. Is the mod always available? How do you know if you download the latest version? 3) A sponsored central mod site. I think this is a good solution, but a) who will sponsor? who will run the site, meaning, who makes the dirty work? [ October 19, 2002, 07:36 PM: Message edited by: Scipio ]

thx

Has somebody already created a wav & bmp file list?

I came across this passage on page 221 of the manual: I don't know if this is a true statement or is something that was discussed but then left out of the final form of the game, but it's in the book! Michael</font>

I would be already happy if sombody would camo the plain yellow German AFVs

Well, why does not BFC host the stuff? The mod community is pure and (relative) cheap advertisment for their top seller. They don't even need somebody to care for it - not more then for a forum - some kind of filedepot script can do the same. Qualtiy control of the mods will be done by the customers anyway.

I'm playing the Vienna map in a QB. There's a strange spotting issue I have noticed - an enemy Flamethrower was firing on a building, I'm pretty sure that non of my units has LOS to him. However, I was able to see in which building he is and his target location when he fires - a flame from on building out of LOS to another building out of LOS. Even if this was only a sound location of the unit, it doesn't feel right!? [ October 18, 2002, 06:34 PM: Message edited by: Scipio ]

Well, if BTF wants to share with us their business plan, organization scheme, etc. then we poor dreamers could get a better idea of what they can and what they cennot accomplish. :confused: Come on! Forums are made to float things around, even the impossible ones. :cool: </font>

...and artillery can't to the job, too. I think the heavy artillery should be able.

I have converted Elgars 'British Grenadier March' as startup music for CMBB. Works also in CMBO if no Starup movie is used. Get it in the CM Mod section @ WarfareHQ

Really? We have a 2D topo map with display of height in the map editor already.

Pacific is difficult, cause it doesn't offer many variations. Except they include China-Japan and maybe even Korea. Well, that would mean a time range of 15 years or so. Early war includes also Benelux & Norge. A hypothetical England would be possible, too, but I don't think that it makes any important difference to France regarding units and terraine. I think Yugoslavia & Greece (includisive Krete) belongs here, too. Mediterran includes Nothern Africa, Sicilly, Italy - but in this case, Nothern France (=CMBO) would be automatical a part of it, I don't think that there is a serious difference regarding terraine and units in 44/45. Well, the graphics...I guess this is an issue of the engine. The texture quality is good, even if the terraine, especially the buildings, are a bit one-sided. Can't say much about it, cause nothing about the used engine techniques is known. I guess the engine rewrite will take two years (if one person must do everything), maybe more - what of the new developments will go into the graphics engine? Charles Moylan has surely made a god job if I keep in mind that he has (AFAIK) programed the whole game including the grahic engine on his own. Of course, CM is still state of art, compared with other wargames. The most of them look like the graphic development has stopped in 1990 - but anyway, maybe a 3D graphic specialist could make more out of it?

Of course not - why?

...show how many air attacks are left in a battle, or at least IF there is still air support available - or at least if I have purchased it? It's just, I'm an old man (already 33) and always loose the overview in my typical amount of PBEMS.

I don't care so much about the next theatre if they will only bring the engine to a new standart, this means to me both the gameplay and the graphic. * Borg spotting is of course the most important * A better artillery system. I would especially like to see the ability to select between explosive and fragmentation shells (which were available all thetime to all nations already since WWI, if not even earlier) for example and different firemodes: Störfeuer, Schnellfeuer (don't know the English terms) etc. More indirect fire by on map weapons. Just to name a few. * Vehicel damage could be more detailed and need some corrections, for example, a tank doesn't loose the full mobility if one track is damaged. A damaged turret (so it can't turn anymore) does not necessarily mean that the tank can't fire anymore. The CMBB accuracy & penetration model itself is IMO mostly okay. At least it is much better then in CMBO. * Aircrafts should be displayed, even a generic 3D model would be better then the invisible dead from above. * More different buildings and fortifications, better building damages. 3D trenches. * smaller map tiles, better minor rivers, brooks, pathes (in woods, for exampl) etc * tank wrecks in map editor

My father served in 1945 in Grenadier - Ersatzbattalion 46(?, not sure about the number) and was wounded on 1st May, somewhere between Dresden and Breslau. He was a MG-42 gunner. My father was 16 years old at that time. P.S.: Do somebody know if or where I could find informations about my fathers unit? [ October 13, 2002, 10:18 AM: Message edited by: Scipio ]

I'm more worried about the partial incompatibilty in PBEM between the US and the German version. It seems that setups that was made with the German version can be opened in an US version. Sometimes the US-CM just freezes when the player try to open my files. Other Germans had similar problems. This is really strange. I had already an email session about it and other problems with Matt, I guess they are working on it.

Why not just both??? Make it optional. The map is already generated when the purchase can be done. There's is only a small switch needed in the QB setup, labeled 'ALLOW MAP PREVIEW', and another switch on the purchase screen 'Show Map'. I really don't understand why people start wars about the simpliest things instead to ask for the simpliest solution...

Well, haven't I said it all the time??? We need a more detailed damage model! The current one is just to simple and causes many missunderstandings.

What is not a problem of the tactic on Battalions level - this was the stratic ordered by the high command. I wonder why you are so fixed on the Somme battle. Is it the only one that was documented on TV?

Just to correct a few things : a) The WWI battlefield was not (always) flat. The troop quality in WWI was not 'Conscript'. The grunts were as good as any other soldier in history. The leader ship on stratic level was conscript. c) The problem of WWI battles is indeed not a lack of action on battalion level. The problem was the strategy, tied to 19th century traditions which were useless in the industrial era. It was the total lack of a new stratic concept. But indeed the Germans started to develop this new concept already in 1916 during the Verdun battle, when using small assault troops - always moving, always advancing, hard to nail down with static artillery barrages. This concept were developed further and more and more used on greater units, but not on a great stratic level before the final German offensive in 1918, which wasn't stopped by the Allies, but by the German lack of supply and fresh men - the assault concept was difficult to realize with the limited mobility of this era. Tanks were moving at less then 10 km/h, trucks were not much faster and relativ rare, so the attack was only running until the troops were simply exhausted. But the assault tactic was the base for the mobil operational concepts of WWII and partially still today, developed by Fuller, Liddeldell Hart, Martel and of course the great Heinz Guderian. They were the key for the German Blitzkrieg success. Hard to say if a WWI battle with a game engine like CM would work. I guess because there are only two important branches (infantry and artillery ) we would miss variety after some time? Games about the Pacific war in WWII have a similiar problem. [ October 06, 2002, 05:51 AM: Message edited by: Scipio ]

It would be nice? IMO this is a gameplay bug and must be corrected.