handihoc

I appreciate what you're saying, Steve, but I've had squads expend all their smallarms ammo trying (and sometimes failing) to kill a single crewman hiding under/behind a wreck. This isn't realistic.

I really like the old ones too. They look genuinely weathered and 'lived-in', like they've seen better days. Maybe more suitable for some less developed nations' armies. Lovely work. Thanks.

Stunning!

Does the fact that it's open for at least two months mean that we've still got to wait at least two months for the Marines module?

That rapidshare download site is insane! First I had to wait for over a minute, then enter some preposterous code of stupid symbols 'attached to a cat'!! Huh? The symbols were so obscure that I couldn't make out which were effing bleeding cats and which weren't. I gave up after the third attempt. What a load of b******ks.

Multiple buildings definitely lower framerates. Any decent size urban maps have a significant effect. It's been improved somewhat with recent updates, but the problem still remains, and affects even high-end multi-core systems like mine (that is, sometimes - apparently not all systems suffer the same lag).

No extra artillery, no. The only artillery has been the two mortars (one at start, one at arrival of second company) plus a helicopter.

I seem to have found a bug. *******SPOILER!!!****** With an hour to go in Buying The Farm (and I'm buying it at a hell of a cost!) I get notification that Reserve Tanks Have Arrived. But they haven't. Three turns on and there are still no more tanks, just the two from earlier.

And is that WATER I see before me?!

Wow! I think we're being teased! How cruel!

****SPOILERS!!!*** I finished The Barrier. Great stuff. Got a Total Victory - it wasn't too difficult to win. I sat behind the crest and maintained a semi-static defence. That way I was able to take out the enemy as they came over, or around. Some dicey moments, and a lot of fun. Good to see the AI putting up what was a pretty challenging attack. I seemed to have the full complement of forces, despite earlier losses. Now I'm half an hour into Buying the Farm and . . . I think this one was designed by The Devil! I've taken the Farm but the rest of it's going to take a lot of clever tactics. My tanks are currently unable to advance because so many enemy missiles are out there waiting, so I'm having to crawl infantry forward to search 'em out whilst waiting for an artillery bombardment on the central compound.

I'm happy to do that. I know that's the way you've designed the campaign and if I get my ass kicked, well, I'll have the bonus of being able to go back to the start and replay what is a thoroughly enjoyable campaign.

Webwing, yes, I realised you were joking. In fact, so was I. I'm not sorry at all!!

Sorry, mate. I do apologise. I still don't understand why they don't turn around and face the enemy after they come under fire, though. I mean, they do eventually, if they live long enough, but I seem to remember it took them a few turns. Also, in Hasrabit, I had to restart the mission due to my initially pathetic performance. First time in I remember the offending mg opened fire on me. Second time it didn't, and that's when I discovered it was facing the wrong way. So, if I'm right, this suggests that it was facing correctly once, but not in the second setup. Can this be so? I don't know, not having tried to design a scenario.

Webwing, you may be right, but it happened to me in one of your Ghost scenarios. Can't remember the number or name, but it's the one where the Blue player has to take out a couple of occupied buildings and a hilltop then advance to that tricky ridge and descend into the village below. In that battle there were some Red squads on the far side, sitting on the wrong side of a low wall, facing offmap. They were under fire from my guys on the ridge for quite a while, but they didn't turn around or return fire. It has happened since, admittedly to my knowledge only once, with a single mg squad in Paper Tiger's Hasrabit campaign. I'm not knowledgeable about setting up from a designer's pov, and it would appear that the problem isn't reproduced for every player, which suggests it's an AI problem ie a bug. Can't say for certain, but it IS something that needs to be checked.

I've mentioned this problem from a player's point of view elsewhere. I've often come across enemy forces facing away from me when they were obviously intended to be facing in my direction, waiting for my advance. Can't work out whether it's a bug in the coding or the inadvertent fault of the scenario designer not placing units with full specifications for facing etc. Hopefully, if the former, BFC will be addressing it now. If the latter, maybe clearer instructions are needed to clarify it for designers.

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. I just completed Hill 142. I thought I'd done reasonably okay as I took the village, albeit with pretty heavy losses. But I got a Total Defeat. I'd forgotten I had to hunt down the FO - but in fact, ******SPOILER!!!****** when I reviewed the map, his position was somewhere almost impossible for me to have got to. Because of my losses in the previous battle I was a bit slow on this one. Had to wait for the tanks to arrive before I could do anything very aggressive. Thankfully, ***************SPOILER!!!!*********** there was a second FO, which gave me access to the mortars and air support. I sorely needed these. Even so, it was a hell of a tough battle. I'll play the single scenario version one day, as it's a great battle. I do think your placing of that enemy FO is a bit questionable, though, given his apparent importance to the mission. I did take a mass of punishment getting into the village and beyond. There were some very well set-up ambushes and some dastardly surprises. Loved the transition from night to light. I'm really enjoying this campaign. I'll let you know how the next battle goes.

I've mentioned it in the Hasrabit campaign thread in the Scenarios forum. Other players have also discussed it. Yes, it's a great campaign,and yes, FF is a problem, particularly for me in mission 2, but also 3, as you say. It's great that FF is included in the game, but it's quite excessive now when playing with low level troops. Possibly it wasn't such an issue before the improvements of v1.08. Hopefully, it'll be addressed and moderated soon.

All that's missing is Santa with reindeer and VIED sled.

Looks damn good!

Damn right it's worth getting. It's pretty much the only game I play, and that's more than nine months after purchase. It's getting better and better.

Great suggestion. Don't know how codable it would be, but I remember something similar in, I think, one of the old X-Com games. Worked well. YOu could even include an element of randomness to allow for the dumb f****s in your squad who are going to get it wrong no matter what. [ May 23, 2008, 04:19 AM: Message edited by: handihoc ]

One other inf prob/bug I have come across several times, including v1.08, is finding enemy inf on the wrong side of a low wall, facing the wrong way, backs to the attacker's (my) approach. It's my guess that the designer gives them the order to take up position behind the wall, but the coding fails to specify which side, so they can end up 'behind' the wrong side. On occasion when it's happened (with red, I haven't tested with blue) they've remained in that wrong position and facing even after coming under fire, sometimes for more than a minute or until dead.

M1A1TC, I was joking. I was amazed at the size of the list.

Is that all?