WWB

I think AI scripting is a must for CM II. Quite simply, the PO cannot be left to its own devices to devise strategy, even if it might be able to handle tactics. One thing that might be implementable for CM 2 would be faux flags, invisible to players and holding no VP values but very much visible to the AI. WWB

I would much rather see 'Fulda Gap: 1950' than Korea or early war. WWB

One tank which I am suprised has not been mentioned here is the Comet. It has the cromwell's few advantages, speed and cost, combined with a quite effective main gun (a bastardized 17pdr, not nearly as effective but effective enough). WWB

Keep hope alive Bill! Thanks for these and all the previous greats and all the future ones. WWB

Various responses: 1) Yes, 1.5ghz Celerons might require liquid nitrogen cooling solutions. But it is still pretty cool that a chip designed to run at 533 mhz can push that kind of speed. And you are right GenX, in this day and age, OCing is not worth the risks any more. The speed gains are insignificant compared to those you could make 1 to 2 years back. 2) WARHAMMER: That 11 mb 'Video' card you have is actually an imbedded video processor of some sort and is sharing system memory. Neither of which is a good thing. Unfortunately, in many cases motherboards with such processors lack AGP slots, which means your choices in graphics cards are going to be both slow and expensive. 3) Col Deadmarsh: OCing the video card is not reccomended for those who are not very attuned to their hardware. If you really want to do so, you need the coolbits registry hack which I currently lack the URL to find. Also note that it does not really play nicely with CM; my text gets odd flaws from time to time which I am sure are caused by overclocking. And it is really not worth it if all you play is CM, the GeForceMX is prefectly adequate and CM is not frame-rate dependant anyways. Now if you Counter-Strike, it is a different story. 4) Mac vs. PC thing (especially Rob and Max): Get over it. Macs are more expensive, but not intrinsically better. Nor are PCs intrinsically better than Macs because they are cheaper and more customizable. And those clock cycle comparisons are meaningless unless one is comparing similar CPUs anyways. That is all I have to say, you can continue on. WWB

I am with you jshandorf. I have my Celeron 533A running at 800. It could do 897 with a better fan and possibly a gig with a different motherboard. I have heard of the same chip that I have pushing 1.5ghz with the right cooling solutions. And the GeForce2MX is running about 10% over spec. Overclockers of the World Unite! WWB

In general, civilians in the european and Russian countryside knew what to do when armies got near: bury everything of value and hide out in the woods until they pass. In general, they would not be too close to the actual shooting per se, except in odd cases. WWB

The article online is actually a slightly edited version of the article printed in CGO, with the same screenshots. WWB

I have seen good information that Black Ice Defender is pretty worthless as a firewall, especially one for $39.95. Zone Alarm fares much better in independant tests. See www.grc.com for details. WWB

RAM is very easy to put in, just a simple matter of finding the right place and plugging it in. Buying is a bit more complex. For simplicity's sake, the best thing to do is order direct from Cruical, as they have reasonable prices and quality RAM. WWB

I guess my original point was unclear. Basically, it is a matter of balancing and eliminating the bottleneck. If you have a slow processor, you cannot use 1 GB of RAM. CM is choking on the data it already has, not all the extra stuff in RAM. On the other hand, a fast processor will be hamstrung by having only 64mb of RAM (which is what many 6-800mhz machines are sold with today). This was my case several months ago, I upped to 192mb on an 800mhz processor and CM got a whole lot faster. Later on, when I replaced the TNT with a GeForce2MX, I saw no difference save hi-res grass. And a fast processor with plenty of RAM will be hamstrung by a slow video card. So it really depends on what you have in your box. 128mb is probably adequate, but more never hurts. Oh, yeah, and Maximus: PC133 RAM runs at motherboard bus speed, so it is not any faster than PC66 on a 66mhz bus or PC100 on a 100mhz bus. DDR is a much different story. WWB [ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: wwb_99 ]

Well, it depends on what kind of processor you have. If you are 667 or better, RAM is a good idea. Much slower, and you might want to upgrade the CPU too. Note that ram is nearly free now, so upgrading RAM would not be mutually exclusive with upgrading the processor. WWB

I second the scenario designers reasons for needing this. Sometimes you need to watch how things might play out in general, as well as make sure reinforcements come in at the right place and time, are not under fire immediately, etc. Also, it would be nice if BTS gave us the ability to switch sides or FOW levels for scenario design purposes. WWB

Uh, Mike, my tournament is using historical scenarios, made by His Evilness himself, Rune. See http://wwb_99.tripod.com for details. I would not run one in any other form. Nor would I participate in a straight QB ME tourney. And before I get flamed for this, sorry, I did not advertise; it is my first one and I wanted to keep it small. If it works well, then wait until CM2 comes out. . . WWB

I think that need is already being fulfilled by the many CMBO players clubs/ladders/whatevers. Check out Band of Brothers at http://stryker1.home.att.net/index.htm They are putting together several at this point in time. I am also running one for the Dogs of War (see sig for link) but it just started. WWB

Yes, your IP address remains static thru your internet session (i.e., dialing in and hanging up.) Presuming you are on a windows machine, you need to run 'winipcfg' to see your IP addys. WWB

Rune just made one called XXX Corps Attacks. And believe me, it is insanely huge. And, did I mention that it is EVIL. WWB

I second deanco's request. I would also like to see a 'reverse' order for guns. WWB

Well, looking over at www.tomshardware.com today, I saw an interesting article on a GeForce2MX. Apparently someone has goosed the speed up enought that a SDR GeForce2 MX 400 runs pretty much even with a GeForce2 GTS with DDRAM. WWB

I vote for the GJs. Studies in mediocracy really do not interest me all that much. WWB

First, anything running over the net is subject to the occasional crash due to minor technical difficulties. There is clearly a file-corrupting ding-crash bug out there, the causes have not been identified. In all likelyhood, this issue is currently being revisited in CM2 and when solved the fix can be made in CM without too much trouble. The best that TCP play has been described is that if PBEM is like coffee, TCP is like crack. Instant and in your face. You might never want to go back. It is by far the superior way to play. WWB

What about 'Turret Down' position. For those unfamilliar with this state, not simulated in CMBO, it is the time when the commander looking out of the top could see over the rise, but none of the vehicle is exposed. It allowed the commander to spot without exposing the vehicle to fire. Not to mention one man is alot harder to spot than a turret or superstructure, making it a way to observe without being ovserved. WWB WWB

Charles did publish the numbers for when different levels of reserves are called in. Unfortunately, search does not work and I do not recall. WWB

Well, unarmed vehicles and the AI really do not work too well. WWB

Steve, on a related issue, are there any plans in the works to let AFVs hide in ambush in scattered trees or bushes? WWB