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LongLeftFlank

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Posts posted by LongLeftFlank

    Just one little problem with a door in 1.06

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    As a temporary workaround, I wonder whether BFC shouldn't return to the CMx1 abstraction of allowing entry at any point in a building as a default. This would solve the pathing, assault and adjacency issues more or less instantly. The "realism" of having designated doors just doesn't seem worth the AI hassles.

    BFC could also increase the flexibility of the wall tileset to allow designers to block or restrict entry for (and fire through) a specific building wall by placing an identically textured high wall tile up against it. Note that such walls could be breached via HE or demolition.

    For this, we'd need (a) walls that can be placed at the edge as well as in the center of terrain tiles, and (B) walls that can be textured to match buildings using shift+click.

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    Graffiti mod anyone?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Originally posted by Cpl Steiner:

    If BFC are going to do some work to help the modders, it would make sense for them to simply add another layer to the buildings. If you think of a building as being like an onion, the first layer is the wall texture and the second layer is the windows and doors. Currently this is all we have. It would be ideal for the modding community if there was a third layer, between the wall texture and the windows and doors, that would be used for decals of various types. You could then have a load of textures such as decal1, decal2, decal3 etc., that would be selectable for this layer. As with the other textures, the range could be extended by just adding a new number.

    This third texture layer might also be used to create some cool dynamic effects, such as progressive bullet, shell and shrapnel damage to building surfaces that pockmark the facade and reveal the underlying brickwork or rebar. (Large breaches or holes would need a different function of course). Doesn't seem much more CPU-intensive than some of the other cool effects (e.g. dynamic lighting, smoke) but I'm not an expert in such matters.

    If Charles really wanted to go ground up, though, he could start with a "Zero layer" representing the "chassis" of a typical tilt-up or poured cement building (i.e. the cement floors and structural pillars). As the curtain walls and balconies got shot/blown away, a ragged skeleton would emerge, clogged with rubble. This wouldn't apply to more traditional mud brick houses of course (where the walls are load bearing), but it would appear in nearly all multistory or modern structures.

    While these skeletal ruins would still offer very decent cover, concealment would be reduced and movement would be both slow and hazardous, especially between floors.

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    Skin MOD - Chechen Rebel Fighters

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Originally posted by Bigduke6:

    Nice stuff, an excellent contribution!

    * The undershirt would according to the "classic" rules be a woodland camoflage pattern, not the blue-white striped Red Army issue

    Just for clarity, the striped sailor shirt is worn by the airborne troops (VDV) and their various derivatives (Spetsnaz and airlanding troops) who formed a large proportion of the combat forces in both Chechnya and Afghanistan. They are also worn by the naval infantry, and possibly by Interior Ministry troops as well (I may be mistaken on that).

    So why would Army paratroopers wear sailor shirts? Even though the VDV wasn't formed until 1931, they claim lineage from the 1917 Kronstadt sailors "soviets" whose mutiny was a key element in the November revolution. In Bolshevik mythology, the sailors were the elite vanguard of the new Red Army (although these same sailors were later brutally purged on Lenin's orders in 1918).

    The sailor shirt was selected by the VDV's post WWII commander, General Margelov, allegedly because he had served as a naval infantryman. However, the symbolism also referred to the VDV's political role as guardian of Communist rule against a potential Army coup. Their bases ring Moscow and their commanders had very long tenures as well as a reputation as hardline communists.

    This political role was demonstrated in 1991 when

    they -- as well as KGB and MVD forces and the Taman Guards armoured division -- executed, but then refused to complete, the 1991 coup against Gorbachev. They also tended to be the first units sent outside the motherland, owing as much to their political reliability as their high mobility and elite training (e.g. Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kosovo).

    The VDV may continue to play a similar balancing role today in Putin's Russia, although I haven't looked into this in some time.

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    With enough tech (LiveLeak goodies for background and modders) w/ exotic weapon stuff

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Originally posted by Nidan1:

    cool breeze and John Kettler have found each other.....how nice.

    Always two there are... Master and apprentice.

    Actually, both John and Coolbreeze seem like pretty nice people. If they want to believe in stuff that doesn't exist, it does no harm and amuses those of us who are slightly more skeptical. And if against all odds they're right, and Henry Kissinger, Dick Cheney and the Knights Templar can no longer suppress the fact that the laws of thermodynamics can be repealed, well hey, our power bills go down, global warming is easily stoppable, and we can colonize Alpha Centauri in our own lifetimes. Rockin!

    A high school friend of mine -- not a geek, oddly enough, but a track star who got all the girls -- has now dedicated his life to the theory that plate tectonics and subduction is false and that the Earth has instead been expanding since its creation. His justifications are very elaborate, even erudite. He's utterly deluded, but still fun to talk to.

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    Graffiti mod anyone?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Thanks for the clarification (pardon the pun :D ) My wife has an old copy of Photoshop Elements somewhere around. I might install that and see what I can do, although that pesky RL keeps getting in my way.

    And as soon as 1.06 finishes slouching toward Bethlehem I might actually PLAY this game some, as opposed to modding.

    Oh, and I second the idea on having the third texture layer. The doodad approach just seemed like something BFC could give us real quickly in a patch based generic versions of existing objects and let us do the rest. A stopgap measure.

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    Graffiti mod anyone?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    I'd assume that in the pre-occupation phase local jihadists wouldn't have had time to do slogans yet, and nonpolitical graffiti would only be seen in poor areas. Big social realist murals of the Assads in heroic profile would be a common and official wall decoration though. You might also see advertising painted directly on walls.

    OK, so here's a first shot at giving a building that "lived in" look. The flat black of the shot out windows looks pretty lame (I might try some purple speckles to give an illusion of an interior), but I'm pretty pleased with the bullet holes... based on an actual wall in Baghdad. I'm going to fiddle with this some more before uploading it to CMMODs.

    Damaged_Bldg1.png

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    Graffiti mod anyone?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Brilliant work! If I have time, I'll try to do some bullet and shell-riddled facades this weekend.

    I'll also make another shameless plug here in the wider CMSF forum for my quick and dirty shopfront mod, which is on CMMODs.

    Shopfront.png

    Any comments on all this, BFC? How hard would it be to add some placeholder panels and doodads for the modding faithful in patch 1.07? Idle hands being the devils playground and all that? smile.gif

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    Graffiti mod anyone?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Btw, has anyone ever seen what happens when a building containing an AC or ATM gets rubbled? Does it just float there in mid air?

    Still, I'd rather have these objects and risk occasional visual oddities than fight in sterile, lookalike streetscapes.

    If MOUT is where the game really gets challenging for both sides, please BFC let's bring on some new texture options and unleash the modders!

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    Graffiti mod anyone?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Nice!

    I've touted this about 5 times now but in addition to the AC and ATM flavour objects that you can slap on walls now, I'd love to see some blank 2D panels of various sizes that we can mod to create things like graffiti, signs, pockmarks and closed gates or shopfronts that we can slap on walls as desired. This would solve the 4 side problem and let us mix and match facades. Wouldn't seem too time consuming for BFC to add into 1.07. They can use either blank, white or one of the existing wall textures. We can mod the rest. I'd also like some 3d DIY flavour objects in addition to the bus shelters (stalls, sheds, containers, machinery, vans etc)

    If anyone can explain how to retain the alpha channel I'd be grateful to know more. I just use the Windows paintbrush program so that's probably the issue.

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    If sales were not an issue what match up would be the most interesting for a new mod

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Love to see WWII Pacific after Normandy, Arnhem, the Bulge, Stalingrad and Ukraine 1943. There was a lot more going on there than just Marines bunkers and dense jungle.

    I'm also hopeful that ELOS and TACAI will have evolved enough by then that we can successfully pull off infiltration tactics, a mainstay of German, Russian and Japanese company-level warfare that has been sadly missing from both CM1 and CM2 so far (albeit for good reasons).

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    *MOD* Splash Screen

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Hmm, and it seems that Mario has already fallen, most likely to an errant backswing from one of his own side. And his comrades Harpo Marx and Owen Wilson look pretty P.O'ed about that.

    However, the Teutonic Knights have already begun to collapse in sneezing fits owing to their decision to form their pike wall in the middle of what looks like a huge field of ragweed.

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