Tris

kevshar wrote: Er... all software, always, all the time can benefit from patching. There is no such thing as "perfect" software, and never will be.

I'm clear on where my FO's were and what they were doing. The unfriendly rounds were definitely "real" and "live," not part of the ambient background. And my opponent isn't playing against me but in a test with me--we exchange information when it seems appropriate.

But that's where the enemy's own troops are. Besides, this is against a human and it's a scenario test. We're in contact. Along the same lines I had explosion sounds the game's thrid turn pretty much in the same place where my own shells are now landing (it's sixth turn at present) but I could never see any explosion effects, could find no shell craters, etc. Worse yet, my opponent claims he didn't fire a thing.

. . . yet the targeted area was filled with explosions from both for nearly the entire 60-second turn. Anyone else seen this? I believe it's the first time I have.

Ace, that's precisely the conclusion I've come to. I sent Matt what saves I still had and he can do what he wants with it. I understand an issue with small buildings, but foxholes are 1) rationalized re "space" and 2) in any event can accomodate full squads so why not two split squads? Besides, that foxhole can accomodate the full squad eventually . . . after they are successfully joined. It's a hole in the system. If, in fact, this is a known issue it ought to have been dealt with before now. If it's something new, now's as good a time as any. By the way, none of these units was under fire, most of them were veteran, two of the squads were crack.

Matt, I've studied this issue somewhat carefully. I've tried variations or orders sets to see if particular commands might trigger this odd behavior (e.g., orering the squad to hide when it gets to its destination if the target squad is also hiding, to hide and rotate, not to hide but rotate). I've considered the possibility that if you order them to rotate then the direction has to be the same (or close) to the other squad orientation, etc. I've gone to both level 2 and level 1 views to micromanage the placement of the final route box so that it ends up directly on top of the target squad--or as close as I can get it. And as I've noted, this only happens in half or so of the cases, so it's not as if I'm unclear on the concept. Look, you guys. this one ought to be easy to replicate at home. Go to it! And like the other guy said, splitting squads during scenario creation is a serious bugaboo. I never bothered to whine on that one as I just assumed this was a known issue and would be taken care of one day. Why that hasn't arrived yet is something I don't know.

I hate to ask this, but . . . which is which?

With the latest version of the game I've experienced problems rejoining split squads. Not only do half (or more) of the groups refuse to rejoin their squad brethren after the two groups have moved back into close proximity with each other, but upon further inspection I notice that about half of these subunits then turn around in the same turn and of their own volition and head back to where they were originally ordered from. In a few cases the originally ordered squad (say, 1b) will stay put where it was ordered to go, while its sibling (1a) gets up and walks back whence 1b came. Has anyone else seen this behavior? Perhaps I'm just tumbling to an old issue now. Was this a problem with earlier versions of the game as well?

Well, you're still mistaken re the Geocities snafu (I don't make this stuff up), but I'm very grateful for your effort to get me the files. I owe you one.

2. If you copy the URL and paste it into a new browser window (or type it per hand), this securing-mechanism does not work - so you can get the file. You're mistaken.

I've read your entire series, Todd, with interest and carefully, I thought. But somehow I missed your entire German recon section (or it came up before I saw your header for the movies) so I went with that intro of yours which alluded to recon but didn't specify. As for the results: yes, this system has huge holes and serious recon's out. You'd have done better--perhaps a bit better--by rationalizing elite sharpshooters as your RT's, but even these guys get spotted rather too easily and die immediately when they are spotted, as a rule. As you note, the AI is ruthless tracking down anything it spots. For the rest: I assumed you would play the Germans on attack to thoroughly test out your defense. AI usually does better with the latter, and I discarded the possibility of you hotseating it. So, you did play the German side, yes? Or is this exercise being conducted versus another human opponent? If you specified all that elsewhere I simply missed it. My apolgies. Anyway, my other question still stands. Having seen the attack develop, would you change the American dispositions in any way or are you satisfied your defense was the best possible?

Geocities wants a username and password. Is there any way you can make this mod available somewhere more accessible?

Todd, a couple of observations. First of all, though, Movie 4 doesn't want to load no matter what I do. This file might have become corrupted on your end saving it or somesuch. The game seems to have issues with saving/exiting PBEM games--something to do with a "cheating" is all I get out of it, according to my conversations with Matt, though I was under the impression this had been rewritten or eliminated altogether. Matt might want to comment further on that. That American 57mm AT sold its life dearly. I found it a bit incredulous that a regular crew already down to three men could reload, acquire and dispatch a second StuG so quickly, however. The fortunes of war? Perhaps. <g> Also, I noticed that one of your second German team's HT's had unloaded its 20mm AA gun? Why? Any thoughts on your part as to the original American dispositions? Finally, that Puma went scooting along the road through all that snow as if it were a NASCAR entrant. What's with that? I was under the impression that speeds in snow would be greatly reduced. Apparently not so. [This message has been edited by Tris (edited 02-25-2001).]

Thanks. I wondered about that command and tried it but with no clear idea as to what to do next. I'm off to watch your movies now. By the way, you didn't answer my question re recon work in your last thread (Part 3). This was rationalized, yes?

Has anyone been able to actually view these movies? Copying the movies and saving them as text files doesn't work here.