WWB

Well, one of the best ways to test and see if the machine is running hot is to run it with the case off for a while. That will also let you see if any of the fans are not working and/or cut out, etc. A more permanant solution, should it appear to be heat, would be to add a case fan, exactly where and how depends on the layout of the case. A fan in the wrong place, or going in the wrong direction, can leave you worse off than you already are. WWB

Uh, yes it is possible to enter a save-game name in the dialog box. You just can't see the onscreen echo. Same goes for PBEM saves, and it is pretty easy there if you have any sort of short term memory, as all you need do is backspace once and hit one digit higher. WWB

I don't know about 'free', but check out the 'Arnhem Battlefield Tour' book. Saw it in Barnes and Noble last night, includes a really, really nice foldout map and plenty of photos. A man could go nuts with that sort of thing. WWB

Several points: 1) Your opponent is a gamey bastard. I would not play him again. 2) #1 aside, presuming the tank is buttoned, it is quite possible that the tank did not actually spot the other tank yet. Buttoned tanks are nearly blind. 3) Are the crews solidly IDed? Note that AT teams are often identified as Crew?. If I were in a tank, I would be a bit more worried about the potential zook/shreck at 20m than the enemy tank at 500m+. 4) Remember that the TacAI is still an AI, and can only get so smart before you would need a 200+ processor clustered computer to deal with all the calculations. It actually does a damn fine job with the resources at hand. 5) BTS is not known for half-assed attempts. WWB [edit: I often hit post too quickly, #4 needed to be covered] [ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: wwb_99 ]</p>

Ok, I stand corrected, there are other methods. Still, blowing bridges is not supported by the game engine wihtout making some extra efforts. WWB

Well, no PO has handled bridge crossing operations too well, and CM's is no exception. So it is kind of inadviseable to make the scenario where the computer is supposed to attack across a bridge. But they might do a decent job of defending the bridge, if the flags were placed correctly. Probably in front of the bridge, but it can vary. No, you cannot blow bridges in CM, except with very heavy arty. WWB

Got your email, USTanker, but Schullenraft was better able to answer your question. The only thing I have to add is that a GeForce Mx of any sort will bog doing even 2x FSAA if you run resolutions much above 1024x786. WWB

Sgt Kelly, First, I reiterate what Doug and the Commisar have said. The TacAI will break for what it thinks is the best nearby cover, which sometimes is not your idea of the best way to go and might in fact lead them into a deadly hail of bullets. It is only a computer program, not a human being, and every situation cannot be modeled perfectly. Moreover, it probably adds realism, as people under fire do not do the most logical thing. Sorry you lost a platoon. WWB

Kyro based cards have big issues with CM. And it seems that the GeForce/Win2000 issues are close to being resolved by the newest drivers. Note that I have the thing working perfectly with a GeForce, but I might be an odd case. WWB

WRT price-performance curves, one is better off buying the old GeForce models rather than the titanium line. The GeForce2 Pro, with 64mb DDR is avaliable for about $100, or at least I got one for that price. It has slightly better benchmarks than a GeForce2 Ti 200 for less. The GeForce3 has slightly worse performance than the GeForce3 Ti 500s, but it is significantly less. And it is not like one can actually push these cards to the limit in CM. Driver support is a moot point, there are no signs that nVidia is going to drop support for some parts of the line to force people to upgrade. WWB

To answer the original question: You do not defend against massive arty. That is kind of the point. You dig in and wait for attack, and someone lobs shells at you instead until you decide to dig in elsewhere. WWB

I would argue that guns should have transport, and start limbered, in an ME. In theory, the force is on the move. On a deliberate attack, there is a large precedent, stretching back to the invention of the cannon, for pre-emplaced guns firing in direct support. In fact, you should probably be able to dig them in. WWB

HiRes mods will definitely heat up the GPU, which probably is rather close to the CPU. Which means that even if they did not directly increase the load, and therefore the heat, on the CPU, they might well cause some difficulties WRT heat dissipation. WWB

Well, I would highly advise waiting for the upcoming operation, Steckenroth Roadblock, which is designed with a linear advance and a very small no-mans land, as well as some nasty suprises. It is also only 3 battles of 15 turns each, making it reasonable enough-sized for multiplayer gaming. Mortain does show how good the operations engine can be when you design an operation to work within its limitations. There is another smallish operation which also uses the engine properly, but I am blanking on its name. WWB

Rune can also be recognized by the general stench of death and decay which follows him, as well as the trail of dead and dying small animals overtaken by Raw Evil. WWB

It ain't gonna be too pretty, but it will run. WWB

It just gets kind of confused. WWB

One point about TOAW's PO: it is not an AI in the same way CM has a StratAI. You give formations objectives, routes, etc, and it follows them. You can do some fancier things to make it react. But it is much better at being pro-active on the Offensive then being on the defensive because it is hard to setup a pre-programmed defense. CombatGeneral: it sounds like you have been defending or playing MEs against the AI. Go try to attack the AI, it does much better when it does not have to wander in search of targets. Preferably in a well designed scenario or operation. Drive to Mortain, on the CD, comes to mind. WWB

There goes another weekend. . . WWB

Congrats Wild Bill. Now, do you start them making scenarios before or after the first step? WWB

I do agree briefings are an essential part of the experience, and should still be numberically rated and counted overall. And lord knows that I can't write them. What we really need is a rather general scale easily viewable while people rate scenarios, to keep them on the same page so far as ratings go. I looked at the very interesting discussion over on the depot's BBS, lots of good ideas there. Probably the best one is to make replayability a yes/no category, as it really is not that sliding a scale. WWB

So far we have five distinct replies to what is a damn good question (thanks Ben): just how are scenarios rated at the depot? The real answer, as shown above, is everyone has his own definition. But, given that we have a nice database with normalizeable numeric scoring, we should probably be on the same page. Admiral Keth has given us some fine scoring parameters, but they are encased behind a 'review tips' window. It might well be easier to score a scenario if those could be displayed with the definitions. Possibly by popping a separate window, where the ratings definitions are displayed beside the score scroll down. Also, it might make sense to update the scoring definitions, since they do not reflect some of the more updated features. Or another option is to take this time to create succinct (1-2 sentence) definitions of each value to be displayed to the end user when they are updating the DB. Going to a five point system, as Ligur suggests, is a good idea IMHO, but probably very painful at least from a DB/web design point of view. We could, however, concatenate ranges of values, so as to effectively make it a five point scale with half scores. But the bottom line is the definitions need to somehow be in one's face when one inputs his opinion. WWB

I don't know too much about books, but there was a website with some great color eastern front photos about a while ago. I think I have it at work and will post it if needed. WWB

Glad to hear. Learned that trick after spending 1.5 hours doing everything I could to get our EVPs home computer to boot. Finally unplugged the modem to take it in, realized I needed to look at one more setting, and lo and behold it booted. After that I have always eliminated that variable on non-booting machines. And after dealing with dell tech support, there is little wonder why good white-box buys from a local dealer with personal service make much more sense. WWB

Gotta love Dell. Instead of getting competent people, they write a manual which generally starts with 'Weird problem--Reinstall from CD image.' What you can do: 1) Disconnect any extraneous devices, especially ones that can catch a power spike like modems or NICs. 2) Try to start. If it works, you know it was a fried piece of hardware hanging when windows starts. 3) If that fails, try starting in safe mode by hitting F8 when it is booting. Then do START-RUN and type in SFC, which will check your system files. If any are found to be corrupt, you might need a windows CD. A better description of the problem will lead to a more accurate solution. WWB