SlowMotion

If you think of how it was in WW2 times communication methods were nothing like they are now. It might have been that after giving orders the higher officer had no idea of what was happening *for hours*. So you couldn't change the "big picture" plan all the time. So IMO ability to give orders every 60 seconds is actually much faster than how it really was. An example of those comms problems: in the beginning of the war some Soviet planes used a system where only the leader of group of planes had a radio that could receive and transmit audio. The other planes could only hear what their leader was telling. If the leader was killed the rest could only communicate using hand signals etc.

WeGo 99%. Can't handle big maps in RT and I like to see all events that happen during the battle. You miss too many things in RT.

Well even infantry can really hurt you if you are infantry soldier But yes, from what I read it seemed more like area fire & psychological effect.

I've read some descriptions from the East front of Soviet tanks shooting while moving. This happened when tanks and infantry were attacking some German defense which had little armour to use. So even when the Soviet shells didn't quite hit the target they probably forced defenders to seek cover and this way made it easier for infantry to reach enemy trench lines.

Actually PBEM is better now than in CMx1 games. You don't need email anymore. But it's true that turnbased online games are missing.

What about those cases where one tank is just behind a hedge and enemy tank is somewhere far away? The one behind the hedge can target & shoot through the hedge, but the other cannot. I'd think if a tank intends to shoot through the hedge at least part of the gun barrel would be through the hedge and the tank position would become known at least after enough delay. Now it doesn't matter how long you stay behind the hedge. You can stay there for ever in sniping position and the other tank just can't target you. The far away tank gets just the partly spotted icon which cannot be targeted. All you can do is area fire which rarely works.

You can take screen shots with Fraps

They are spreading fast. Here's one security application: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/12/27/japanese-firm-will-deploy-drones-for-home-security/ The story says a drone montly rent will be 58$. I could pay that much for a 30 day "trial".

It happened often in early versions of CMSF. Haven't seen it in CMBN yet. I think when the game thinks it cannot show proper animations it shows those scarecrows instead.

Basically you can play pre-made scenarios or quick battles which use pre-made maps, but you can buy units when the the game starts. Maps can be fully made in scenario editor. You can decide dimensions, elevations and the content of each 8x8 meter map tile. The same with units used in scenarios - fully selectable. And objectives, reinforcements and so on. Multiplayer is possible only against one opponent.

It would be cool if one could view the whole battle also so that ALL units of both sides would be visible. Maybe the unspotted would be shown half transparent or something, but it would be very interesting to see what was happening during the first turns when units had not been spotted yet.

It would be great if tank "behaviour" could be tweaked in the future so that things would work more like when humans do part of the stuff. Like comms adding delays, crew member aiming probably isn't as accurate and fast as today's computers and so on. Now some things are closer to how things work in modern tanks.

I saw Stuart's canister round for the first time this week when playing a scenario. I wonder if it's the only tank in CMBN that has it? I remember some Soviet tanks had it in CMBB.

I did try that as well, but results were still the same. m8s were much better.

Ok, I suppose it's because of crew experience then. While playing this I must say I often missed spotting based on hearing. You get very strange situations for example when there are vehicles on opposite sides of a hedge, maybe 10 meters away. Engine sounds and gun firing should be very easy to hear, but because spotting happens based on vision, an AI vehicle may continue idling even though another vehicle just started burning few meters away.

Just played Cats vs Dogs scenario as Germans vs AI. CMBN 2.0. [spoilers follow, so if you haven't played the scenario press Back button] it felt like my Pumas had been fighting during midnight and their opponents in daylight. In spotting duels they lost to their allied m8 opponents time and time again. Killed by light armor before they had gotten even vague idea that something might be there. Is there some reason for this? I can't remember spotting difference this big from any other scenario.

Very good videos. They show both the possibilities as well as risks. Hope the US officials making 2015 legistlation will take a look - especially the Russian video. In the NY filming it's easy to see why regulations are needed. Lots of very close situations where steering error or HW malfunction could have caused bad damage. In the Russian video it was intentional.

These little gadgets are becoming available: http://www.indiegogo.com/robotdragonfly/x/917596

And when a *drone* hits a plane http://defensetech.org/2011/08/17/midair-collision-between-a-c-130-and-a-uav/

...like birds flying to jet engines?

I was mostly thinking about book called Apache Dawn.

They did CMSF as the first CMx2 game. That's why they probably left out many things - so many things needed to be added to the engine. But map-fired mortars were added in British module. I've read some books about how Apaches were used in Afganistan. Those stories gave me the idea that Apaches often had missions where they supported ground troops for long periods (limited mostly by fuel). Spotting enemies and giving fire support. No exact times were mentioned, but to me it sounded it didn't take anywhere near 30 minutes to use cannon/Hellfires/rockets.

I would think that in the game the cost of drones would be lower than current air support and delay of calling strikes would be shorter if they can loiter nearby longer.

If you're making a map from a satellite picture you'd love to have the new CMx2 2.0 map overlay feature for CMSF. It's very useful. I'd buy 2.0 for CMSF if it was available.

In one game I'm playing a German anti tank gun shows some weird behaviour. When you give a gun/tank a covered arc command, it should turn the gun towards the middle of the arc. But this gun just won't turn the gun - it points to direction slightly outside the arc. As if it could see an enemy unit in that direction that is actually several hundred meters away, behind a ridge. So the gun crew acts as if they could the through the hill.