Pierce

I wonder if Quesa would bridge the gap? (QD3D compatible library that can sit on top of OpenGL or Direct3D) Quesa Site

You know, it bugs me also that there isn't a D-day related scenario. I can see BTS point that it would be brutal, but to a large extent, that was the allies finest hour. If you read the Stephen Ambrose book, on the American beaches (don't know about the others), it was basically a matter of low ranking officers, cut off, deciding to do what needed to be done. That's democracy... In other words, while the scenario would be hellish, so was D-Day. The historical significance provides enjoyment. Doing ALL of Omaha would be hard to do, but instead, I think lots of "tiny" operations would be good. Think of a scenario like this: Scenario Name: FUBAR It's D-Day. The shelling that was supposed to take out the fortifications on the cliffs above was completely fubared. Somehow you made it to the beach. Your platoon didn't. Looking around, you don't recognize a single person or landmark. I guess landing you in the right location was completly fubared as well. You toss your maps into the water. All around you, men are dying as they're slaughtered from the machine gun nest on the hill above. The mission you and your men trained for months to accomplish, that's fubar. You have a new mission. You're going to take out that machine gun nest, or die trying. Probably the latter. But at this point, you have nothing to lose. ................................... Scenario Design Details: The beach is filled with soldiers out of C&C, except for those in range of a single Company HQ unit which has found a small spot of shelter. Most of the soldiers are huddled behind small bits of shelter. The basic strategy is to take the company HQ unit and gather up the resources you need to take out the pill box. Scattered througout the map is 5 platoons worth of soldiers, most of who will end up being scenario fodder. In fact, you can probably only gather up about one platoons worth of people out of a starting 5 platoons. The objective, the machine gun, has enough victory flags to make the difference.

Ok, so I found Graftenwohl, and Small Gain (and Tutorial obviously). Any others anyone would reccomend (I've won Chance Encounter (both sides) with some advice, not so good with Valley of Trouble from the demo...) The thing I'm weak on is units and what they can do, I'm a computer gamer, not a wargamer, so I have no idea what the difference is between a Sherman HY6n3 and a Sherman MBQ4 tank is. Pierce

Is there a recommended order to play the scenarios if you're a newbie? Or, hell, what 5 scenarios should I play first? ------------------ Where's the John Wayne option? (All Axis troops miss, and you never run out of ammo.)

Both the installer and directly copying cause problems. The movie won't play off the CD-ROM either (actually the first 17.8 MB will play, then it hangs), so I just have to click. So I've been able to play it. (Or actually, download and install a bunch of mods...) Pierce

Yeah, I figured out you were using some sort of fulfillment house today when my copy arrived: (Yay!) (Kind of a good news bad news thing: Good news: Your copy arrives Bad news: Some files are busted Good news: The update fixes some of them. Bad news: It doesn't fix all of them. Good news: Cleaning the CD with a Kleenex got two more files. Bad news: Down to one: 1000.mov that doesn't copy...

The long answer (I looked up the thread.) was that they'd have to move from RAVE to OpenGL, as nothing in RAVE is carbonized... (The reason OpenGl 1.2.1 shows up in the 1.1 patch is soley to upgrade your ATI drivers...)

Having worked in the CD-ROM, video game and the print industry, I find that hard to believe... Its not like cartridge games, where you have to wait for Sega to burn the ROMs and pay them $10 royalty whether you sell them or not. There are a lot of CD duplicators, and the cash outlay isn't that much. They should be paying 1-2$/CD for duplication with a 1-2 week turn around, lots of 1000. So for $2000, they could get 1000 copies... In fact, since they've been doing this for awhile, it should be closer to $1 then $2... So they could order 2,000 copies to start, then order another 1,000 everytime they sell the first 1,000... They could be in line at the printer, but if so then they need a new printer.... Hmmm... People tell me the manual is thick, so perhaps they have special requirements. Yet companies like "iUniverse.com" print-on-demand... They would have to order the manuals in larger chunks, but 1-month of lead time sounds like a lot, and you never revise the manuals... And you want to talk about cash flow problems? Since they only sell online, they can't bill credit-cards until they ship, so they won't have ANY cash until Feb 26th. So delaying the restock order makes cash flow WORSE not better. Ah, well, I expect they're going to learn "The coffee shop lesson" the hard way. The coffee shop lesson: In a well run coffee shop, the coffee dispenser is marked with a line. That means: <U>Before</U> you dispense any coffee, start a new batch. Why: It takes 7 seconds to start a new batch of coffee, but 2 minutes for one to brew all the way. Even though you have to make the current customer wait 7 more seconds, its better then making the NEXT customer wait for an entire brewing cycle. That little mark on the coffee maker? It's called process control. By adding that little mark, you make sure that all customers get good tasting coffee quickly. Starbucks is the monstrostity it is, because of process control: Brew coffee for X minutes (note the timers hanging on the coffee machiens). Steam milk until thermometer is in red zone. Throw out coffee older then xxxx (note timers...) Pierce P.S. I'm not really this grouchy, just impatient waiting for my copy to arrive...;(

Arrgh! I just went to the order page to see if I could answer your question, and found out CM is backordered till Feb 26th. Gee, I wonder if I got in by the 23rd. I hope so, since I ordered last Friday, I think. It's kind of tacky to run out of stock... They should order the next batch when supplies are "LOW" not when supplies are "empty". I wonder if there is a CM metaphor there? I guess that's why my squad members can't scavenge ammo from dead comrades... [This message has been edited by Pierce (edited 01-24-2001).]

I have no doubt that people are blending mods with scenarios, my suggestion is just a request from BTS to support doing this sort of mod switches automagically, by building in a mini-mod manager. Right now, people will have to move files in/out of directories in order to swap out tiles. Annoying to do for each scenario. This way, if you have 10 PBEM games going, 5 in "Desert Fox" scenarios, 4 in "Seigfried Line" scenarios, 1 in a "D-Day" scenario, you wouldn't have to switch around. They kind of did this already for summer vs. Winter, I was just thinking that if they stored a directory name in the scenario that the mod would load automatically... Here are some examples of fun things you could do 1. Have an operation, where the tanks/soldiers gradually look more and more weathered/beat up as you progress from battle to battle. 2. Change the bridge texture to match some actual historical bridge, and have a scenario based on a famous bridge. 3. Three words: Patton, Rommel, Africa For those of you who don't want to download the requiste textures you wouldn't have to! It's just the graphics. The desert scenarios will just look funny with grass.. Really, this is a feature that BTS could use in CM2 and beyond too. .. Each battle could have a set of building textures unique to that region... (In Moscow, the churches have onions on top...) So for CM1, I would see there would just be a single string of where to look "first" for textures. For CM2, there's a string for trees, a string for buildings, a string for uniforms, etc.

It would be way cool if you guys emailed people a third scenario for the demo to play while we waited for our real copy to arrive. Of course, I'm just whining, I really should be working, instead of reading the forums and playing VOT over and over. ------------------ Where's the John Wayne option? (All Axis troops miss, and you never run out of ammo.)

It seems to me it would be really cool if you could bundle mods with a scenario/operation in a neat little bundle. So if you wanted to do a desert campaign, you can make some desert scenarios, along with new textures so that "grass" looks like "desert". The mods would load with those textures. You could also do movie based scenarios, and change the faces of the commanders... And of course, you could have "silly" but fun scenarios that might load kitty's hamster mods, for a "Hamster War 2000: Quest for the Couch" scenario. A simple way to do this would be to have a field in the scenario that lists the name of the relevant "mod folder". CM would then look in that folder for graphics first, and fall back to the originals it its not there. Pierce

It seems to be that before BattleFront releases CM2, they should really try scooping up all the best mods & scenarios and release an add-on pack for CM. Id did this for Doom/Quake and it really expanded the game because it wasn't just a bunch of scenarios, but a bunch of "Good" scenarios. Pierce ------------------ Where's the John Wayne option? (All Axis troops miss, and you never run out of ammo.)

OK, so I've ordered the game, and I'm waiting for it to arrive. I've beaten the AI with "major victories" in Chance Encounter as both the US and Germany, mostly thanks to help from the people in this forum. So now its on to Valley of Trouble (the only other scenario I can play until the game arrives, I guess). Where I promptly got my ass kicked. So then I thought, I'll play as the Germans, and see what brilliant strategies the AI comes up with! So I sat there and clicked "GO" 35 times as the Axis. Answer: Zip. the AI got slaughtered too! About turn 25, they smoked out the pillbox with the tank gun, but then the AI completely blundered whatever sort of attack it was planning... I did learn one or two things: 1. The 105mm artillery can't take out the pillboxes, you have to use the tanks with the 105 howitzers on top of them for that, and hope they can put a shell through the front slit. Not sure what the 105mm spotters ARE good for... 2. The smoke shelling of "tank gun hill" was pretty effective at neutralizing that pillbox. 3. It might be possible to use the first two tanks to take out the MG pillbox on the left along with that platoon and then come in via the left flank. So here goes with some questions: a. What are engineer platoons good for anyways? OK, one has a flamethrower. I guess I can flank a pillbox, then set it on fire? Anything else? I guess I can torch the town too, with all those Axis soldiers waiting inside... b. What do I do about mines and such? (The AI didn't seem to set any off, but perhaps that was because they had used the 81 mm mortar on that position? Do engineer squads remove mines? c. Any suggestions? Pierce ------------------ Where's the John Wayne option? (All Axis troops miss, and you never run out of ammo.)

Why I think I should be able to trounce the AI: 1. I know EXACTLY what the Axis is going to do, because they do it each time. They send a bunch of people into the woods on the left, and some people into the woods on the right to try to get the high ground in the church. 2. The Allies seem to have an advantage. Anyways, we'll see tonight if I everyone's advice has helped. Pierce