sfhand

Well... it's not just BF...

That, my friend, is what I was trying to say...

Just wondering... is it safe to assume there is no 3.1 patch for CMFI due to upcoming content release? BF has a track record of being sneaky with this title

I've got my fingers crossed... glad to hear you are good to go. Meanwhile, a couple more videos of my initial scouting of the two main roads into the contested valley... This one is a continuation of the last video: While this one shows first contact on the other main road into the valley: (the German soldier who bites it in the foreground is killed right after he arms a grenade, unfortunately I didn't hear any of his squad mates taking damage from the explosion although another grenade is thrown from near the dropped on. All in all, considering both videos, not a good turn for me. But hopefully entertaining for someone.

Same contact, different view to give map size perspective (this is a very small slice of the map). I don't know the muzzle velocity of the gun that's firing but it's flight time is ~2-3 seconds... and it is dialing in on the jeeps.

insert Mac jokes here

A teaser... first contact, second action turn. My recon encounters the enemy (not shown because I wanted to give my oppo some intel and he already knows what he has ). Anyway, I loved watching the units roll down the road and thought I would share.

I'll just put this out there for public consumption... When I was making the map my 7 year old laptop (a very capable machine in its day) started getting OOM errors when I was trying to deploy forces. After increasing the swap file size the OOM went away (but the machine still chokes on the file, i.e., the camera movement stutters, when I play "Frosty Welcome" on it the machine gun bursts sound like rifle shots, I'm guessing swap file related disk access time is the major culprit). My current desktop has an i5-2500k overclocked to ~4GH with 16GB of RAM and an older 680gtx video card. So far it has not encountered any problems and the camera pans smoothly with graphic options set to high. Baneman, I'll happily send you a dropbox invite to see if my desktop can open the save (heh... we can even use it to send pbem turns if you like). Same goes for you SLIM.

I think you and Baneman are going to be good to go... however, if either one of you can't play the scenario I will fill in. I view that as a last resort, however, I'd much rather have both of your input without my involvement in the process.

I hope you enjoy the match! I am still looking for anyone with a capable rig who is willing to playtest a pbem match with me in an effort to balance the forces prior to attempting to make the AI plans. I think it is pretty funny that there is a thread about the lack of feedback for scenario designers after people have played their scenarios when I can't even get a couple of volunteers to play a "developmental" pbem game attempting to bring CMx1 style operations into the mix. (I've got one game going with a beta, but he is understandably too busy for a lot of turn bandwidth) Again, many thanks to you and Baneman. And thanks as well to the two guys who were willing to help but unable due to hardware constraints.

Sadly I have seen invisible trees (if that is even possible) many a time. They have the darnedest knack of blocking what should be a clear line of sight leaving me to think the game is fatally flawed. Then I remember <alt-t>... doh!

Great, one brave soul has stepped forward. C'mon fellas (and ladies if any are present), what possible harm could come from checking this out. The worst that could happen is I might want to continue as your opponent One more volunteer, please.

Hmmm... both of the games I was "playtesting" never got off the ground. Something about my opponents being betas and not having the bandwidth (which usually means good things are happening, so I'm not complaining). Anyway, I am hoping one of two of you brave souls will step up and help by playtesting with me. Ideally I'd like to get 2 games going so I can play each side. So please, if you are even remotely interested send me a pm and we can get a game going.

I prefer to get down in the weeds with the camera...

pnzrldr, just a quick post to express my gratitude and appreciation for you taking the time to do this. So far both you and Bil have been fantastic. Thanks!

I may not have adequately described each battle. What I am striving for is each battle of the first 3 battles being between sides each with 1 Co of mech infantry and 1 platoon of armor, plus some extra stuff. There is also off map artillery and planes but not a lot of each. The last two battle will be larger, one because I expect forest fighting to chew through infantry and the other because if one side is to capture the other's garrison they will have a bloody time doing so. Seriously, if you want to give it a spin (no ai yet so only h2h) you would be doing me a big favor.

Bil, just as with all your other endeavors, I am looking forward to this with much appreciation. Many thanks for the time and effort!

John, I am looking forward to playing this scenario many times... it should be a hoot!

It is unplayable on my 7 year old laptop.

Baneman and SLIM, thanks for stepping into the breach! I am inboxing both of you as soon as I finish with this post so I can get the scenario to you. I would be happier if you don't look at it in the editor until after you've played it through and have offered your feedback. Here's what I can tell you about it. I took a topo map from the mid 90's of Marin County, CA (where I live) and selected an 8x2km section of it that has 3 valleys (separated by hills... of course) with a river running through the central valley. One should imagine a large body of water to the east and mountains to the west both of which prohibit off map flanking actions - this actually does not deviate much from reality. There is one bridge over the river with no other way to cross. Keeping the bridge viable is central to the aims of both sides (both players should agree if you destroy the bridge you lose automatically AND players should not try to cross the bridge without being confident they will succeed). I may need to add more ways of crossing the river, time will tell. The way the battle progresses is as follows. In this alternate reality the Axis and Allies share a border (the river) and are not yet at war - Allies are north and Axis is south. Both are planning to attack the other in the near future (both are in the process of massing their forces with the Allies conducting joint military exercises nearby). Unexpectedly (of course!), a skirmish breaks out between an Axis patrol and the Allied border guards resulting in the Axis patrol crossing the border. The Axis HQ is furious and orders them to hold the ground without advancing until reinforcements arrive (good luck with that!). There is an axis phase line on the north side of the river with "do not pass until xx:xx" instructions as its label. The Allies send what forces they have from their garrison in San Rafael. Their plan is to push back the Axis all the way to their garrison in Mill Valley. They know reinforcements are on the way so they have set up a series of phase lines that they don't want their forces to cross until the reinforcements have arrived (no bridges too far). As the allied player you will see the phase lines which have "do not pass until xx:xx" instructions for a label. Failure to comply with the phase line instructions will break the scenario! A final note. Many of the hills are steep. They are steeper in realty than on the map. The combination of CM editor created cliffs and thick forest makes controlling the road networks a crucial component to success for both sides. I recommend turning the trees off and scrutinizing the map closely. I also recommend turning the trees off to plot movement orders on the winding roads over the hills. While the editor has some road design limitations I assure you the roads are very twisty in real life. Thanks guys for being willing to take a look at it. Anyone else up for the challenge?

Matt Taibbi does a good job chronicling the causes of the financial crash of 2007/2008 in his book "Griftopia" - it's a pretty entertaining read for such a depressing subject.

I have made what I consider to be the CMx2 equivalent of a CMx1 Operation. One needs all CMBN content patched to v 3.11 to play the scenario. One should also have a stout rig as the scenario takes place on an 8x2km map. Over the 4 hour battle each side will have fielded ~2 battalions of infantry and ~1 company of armor plus some extra stuff. The scenario consists of 5 battles across a real world location set in an alternate universe. I hope to add AI plans to both sides but will wait on that until after the forces are finalized. I am currently playtesting the battle from each side but I would like input from a battle I'm not involved with. So, if any of you are looking to start a new pbem and want to help move this forward please send me a pm and I'll get the scenario to you. Thanks in advance...

I am currently making a 2x8 km map for CMBN. One of my pbem opponents casually remarked that he was getting into modding the game. As one who as only used pinetree's base mod and ramblers trees and bocage mod I experimented with some of the more popular terrain mods. The map I am making went from resembling the area I am modelling to looking nothing like it... so I uninstalled those mods (and the sound mod too). I kept the vehicle mods though, and yesterday while looking at units to include in the "CMx1 style operation" scenario I am making for the map I realized I didn't like the weathered look on the vehicles either. So I'm probably going to remove that mod too. I am still using an effects mod, but not because I thought the stock effects were horrible, the truth is they didn't bother me and I don't really notice how things go boom! The point I'm getting at is, I know first hand there are those who like what BF has done over what the clearly talented community has put forth. It all boils down to personal taste.

No pbem... no wego... no sale!

Chris, my understanding is currently in QB's one can not mix forces on the same side, e.g., no Luftwaffe and German Army mixed forces allowed. Has this changed or are you speaking of scenario design?