StellarRat

Maybe I should have said, "He wants to be a lion tamer!" ASL's post was worthy of any cost accountant.

I want to be a lion tamer!

At our software company has moved away from mutiple projects and started doing one at time with massive resources. It's much easier for the management to focus on one project at a time (they were going crazy with five or six projects running at once) plus the clients see rapid progress which makes them happy.

They only stayed down for a few hours most of the time. Probably you would need to reduce the speed by guessing how much time they are spending underwater and averaging the surface and underwater speed together. Also, the AVERAGE surface and underwater speeds were not 17.5 and 7.6 knots. The engines were only run at high speeds during attacks and emergencies. The endurance was greatly reduced at high speeds and the chance of breakdown increased.

So are you guys saying the AI is better in later expansions of the game? I mean if I buy SC2 and WAW I won't get the best AI opponent?? Isn't the AI part of the core game? Or is it updated in different versions?

I'm interested in this game, but with all the expansions and versions I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to buy to get the latest version with all the bells and whistles. Is there an all inclusive version?

Well, there are a couple of BIG companies that have put out some "deep" games, IMO. I think CIV could be a "deep" game and maybe NWN2, but for the most part I have to agree with Steve. Fortunately, we have Battlefront, Shrapnel and a couple other players still in the game, otherwise, we'd be screwed. Sometimes I long again for the golden years when Microprose and the others were putting out "good" games. I can't imagine X-COM, Railroad Tycoon, Harpoon never coming to light because they weren't "BIG" games.

Hey bright guys! Maybe 666th is a GIRL! No one seems to be tossing ovaries into the ring.

Yes, I'm a programmer by trade...I didn't say it would be easy, but I think in the long run it might be worth the trouble. I'm going to think about this problem and see if there is a way to short cut it. Sometimes there are mathematical or logic tricks that can be applied to make a complex problem much easier or less cpu intensive. For now I'll just plot slow down points.

Steve: I understand your reasoning on the "cornering" problem, however, it seems to me that since you bothered to simulate acceleration and decceleration with CM2 the cornering issue should be worked on at some point. To me, this is much more "gamey" then accelaration and decceleration not being simulated (a point you made earlier) specially since there are lots of sharp corners in cities. I can see the complexies of the coding since somehow the computer would need to scan the desired path and determine if a sharp turn existed in it then determine the proper speed to enter the turn at. My suggestion is to look at the path during order calculation then automatically insert a waypoint before and after the turn that reduces the speed to whatever is required then increases it back to ordered.

No, I'm not saying you should have to slow the vehicle down yourself (micromanage.) I'm saying the computer will do it for you in anticipation of making the turn. You would just need to realize that it will take a little longer to get where your going if there are a lot of sharp turns in your desired path.

I'm a little confused here...if someone is dumb enough to request a vehicle to turn 90 degrees at 50 mph there are two reasonable solutions. 1. Have the vehicle slow down to a crawl before it tries to make the turn no matter what speed the orders specify. (just like you would do if you were driving. OR 2. Have the vehicle flip on to it's side and wreck or spin/slide (depending on the terrain and height of the center of gravity.) Personally, I think number one is the reasonable answer since you aren't really driving and no one will purposefully get into a wreck.

WARNING: I got an AVAST virus detection from the above link!

No software is flawed beyond patching. The question is only how much time and money you have to fix it and how big and numerous the patches will be.

Hmm...tough one...I think I'll have to go with the X-Com series. They had everything, great theme, role playing, strategy grand and operational, and tactical combat. In fact, the whole idea is dying for a decent rewrite. I still play them (with special hacks that allow them to run on XP.) You could debate whether or not they were really wargames, but I think they were.

I disagree with you. I learn something new all the time when playing games including wargames. I still have "AH HA!" moments. I admit that pure strategy games are probably better. Any game that forces to you plan, balance and execute can be as challenging as you are willing to make it. Only shooters are mindless.

I'm 48 and I still love games. Old men play chess in the park. I'm sure this will be a life long hobby for me. It's good for your mental health/capacity to have to solve problems, especially when you get older.

Cool, I guess the only way to beat them is if the US forces call Spiderman.

"Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battlestation!"

Well, I use magazine reviews to check out games too. I have yet to be disappointed by a five star game in Computer Gamer and have generally been unhappy with low rated games. So, I do take reviews seriously if the source is reliable. It's a lot better than wasting my money. The fact is that by having a game released with bugs and getting the resulting poor reviews the publisher loses sales. I wouldn't buy a game that Computer Games said was buggy. Luckily for BF some mags will give a "post patch" review a couple months after the initial release.

I think the game is getting confused with both the CH Throttle and CH Fighterstick in use at the same time. I've had this problem with other games (not IL2 or Falcon flight sims.) They seem to think the throttle is another joystick and get confused.

Ah HA! Well now! No wonder I've been doing so poorly when playing alone. Now you will all die! Er...OK, NOW I WILL HAVE A CHANCE...

Is there some secret way to control all the bots?

Thanks for investigating this. If I had an extra set of everything I'd let you borrow them. I can tell you that CH can use software called the "control manager" to integrate all the hardware. I tried it with and without running this software and had no luck either way.

Maybe I was behind one release, but last night the update option appeared on my screen and I told it to download. I'm now running 1.3.1. I see no mention of this release here. It downloaded something called Hoodoo. Does anyone know anything about this release? I'm at work so I can't see any read.me on my machine at home.