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What would happen if I shot at a fuel-filled jerrycan with a...FLARE?!? Ken

But imagine if you could fire a FLARE at that truck's gas tank? And that truck was carrying, you guessed it, FLARES! The burning pyre would shoot FLARES out all battle long! Chain reaction FLARES!! Ken (Points for the "Flare Witch Project" comment!)

Flares, flares, flares... I want flares that can be fired into haystacks! Big inferno-causing flares! Flares that cause forest fires! Flares that burn down buildings! Flares! I want SOLAR flares! They'll disrupt radio comms at the WORST time! In a more serious note, although it is, perhaps, a flare too late for that, signal flares were an important part of German tactical doctrine. That would relegate them to a flavor object status, since the all-seeing player should already know what's happening. Would that make them "flavor flares"? (Although, the old-timers will recognize this, early CMSF had no way to tell the player that units were taking casualties. The player had to watch each unit. The current version of CMSF incorporates a flashing icon to signal the player that a casualty has occurred. In the same vein, a CM:N unit firing a signal flare could signal the player that something's happened based on the color of the flare. So, flavor object AND gameplay value; win-win!) Illumination flares would be nice for night fights, whether fired from artillery or a Very pistol. That would mean the night-time lighting coding would need work. Headlights? Gunflashes? It could be too much for BF.C right now. But watching a red flare rise over the far woods at the beginning of the AI's attack would be a very nice immersion addition, leaving you wondering what was going to come your way... Enjoy! Ken

Don't dazzle me with effort: pshaw! Dazzle me with...(wait for it)...FLARES!!! Yeah, eye-popping, LCD screen-breaking, jaw-dropping, 2 million candlepower, combat-rated FLARES! Trip flares on the wire; flares from the airmen who've bailed out of shot down aircraft and are FLOATING on the WATER in their rafts; flares from the hatches of German narhvalewaffe-whatever-you-call-it; flares from sergeants; flares from forward observers; flares boobietrapping a trail; flares signalling tanks; flares for illumination; flares JUST FOR THE FUN OF BEING A FLARE! I won't even mention the possible COMBAT USES OF A FLARE! C'mon, every time a flare is shown in a movie, what happens? Yeah, baby, the bad guy has to get shot with the thing! Model THAT BF.C! Flare-sniping; THAT'S a game! Flares, flares, flares. Gimme flares... Ken (Oh, Dietrich, thanks for the "schmolt"! I'll see what I can do...)

Yeah, flares. I need a lot of friggin' flares. I want night illumination flares. I want signal flares. I want German NCO's to fire purple flares when they see tanks. I want to sit back on a hill and see a friggin' tangled skein of purple flares trailing smoke up into the sky when the Allies attack the Germans. I want the illumination flares to cast moving shadows causing spooked troops to fire at ghosts. I want the shadows to change based on the height of the flare. I want the swaying of the flare under parachute to be simulated. I want the AI to react to the flares. If my German AI sees a fellow unit fire a purple flare, I want it to react correctly. Without flares there is nothing. The flare firing animation and flare reloading animations need to be correct. Yeah, that's right: bolt-action, smolt-action, just get the friggin' flare firing (fff) animation right. The first time! Carry on. Ken

What Operating System are you using?

Blackcat, A reasonable price is different for each individual. ATI has several options with their latest generation. They're the 5000 series; e.g. Radeon HD 5870. There are so many pro's and con's for various video cards that it's hard to just say, "This is the one for you." Check newegg.com or your favorite online vendor for prices. Generally, the pricepoints are sub-$100, about $150, $200, $300, and up. Choose your pricepoint and you end up with your card. Good luck!

bulldogchurchill, Others here are FAR more knowledgeable than I on these matters, however, I understand that 32 bit means 2^32 maximum addresses for memory. Without doing binary math, I seem to remember that gives a theoretical 32 bit OS limit of 4.0 Gb of memory. Your video card memory IS part of that; so, for example, if you have a 1 Gb video card, that leaves a maximum of 3.0 Gb usable memory. Some more may be subtracted for cache use; I forget the details... So, in short, of that extra 2 Gb, you may not see too much of a boost. Now, if you upgrade to 64 bit OS, then the system can use more than you can ever stuff in the machine (with present day tech). It will help, I just don't think it will be a tremendous amount of increase. Please let us know what happens. Ken

MeatEtr; sorry, no video. Create a QB using urban terrain (or any map with buildings). Set the time to night. Then AREA TARGET some of your guys. Their muzzle flashes will light up ALL the building faces as if intervening obstacles don't exist. X A B C D E Given unit X, above. If it fires at night, only the face of building A should be illuminated. A blocks the light from illuminating B, C, D, and E. The bug nvidia introduced means that each building, A through E gets the side facing X to be illuminated whenever X fires. Range does not matter; intervening obstacles do not matter. Ken

His 5770 is, IMO, a very over-powered card for CMSF. I am very willing to be proven wrong on that. (I assume he's not gaming over 1920x1600.)

It's been awhile for me; have you tried using engineers with a BLAST command into the bunker? Keep some savegames; if there's an issue with programming (I'm NOT saying there is), the savegames are very important for the troubleshooters. Please let us know what happens... Ken

Ah, disappointing to hear nvidia's latest drivers (250's ?) don't fix their broken OpenGL support. I will second Schrullenhaft's observation that the 186.18 drivers render CMSF correctly. Unfortunately, I've moved beyond them for my other games and I am not willing to swap drivers back and forth just for CMSF. This is an Nvidia issue. hattrick1: I've already done as you suggested and posted a thread on nvidia's forum about their broken OpenGL rendering. No response. I also sent in a ticket to them directly: no response. Instead, on a machine I just finished building a month ago, I went out and purchased an ATI videocard. Problem solved! When it's time to upgrade this machine from it's 8800gtx (obviously an nvidia product), if their drivers aren't fixed, ATI will get MORE of my money instead of nvidia. It's their product; it's my money. I make the choice. Best of luck! Ken

Yes, I would like multi-threaded coding as well. In fact, my 3 running computers (2 others are not being used right now - age, OS, etc. Although, I may resurrect one as a home server, but that's another issue...) are all quad-cores, overclocked, etc, running on a cat6 home network with gigabit rated network hardware. Because of that, I think BF.C needs to work on DISTRIBUTED processing across multi-threaded machines. It's a travesty to think of all the wasted capability my personal setup leaves unused when I play CMSF. In fact, if somehow BF.C could get into the "cloud" and create a program similar to the "Folding at Home" software, we would all benefit. Imagine having ballistics and AI being run on thousands of otherwise idle machines and getting the results back to your own machine? Okay, okay, a bunch of sarcasm there. Yes, it would be great if BF.C could create programming to utilize multi-core systems, especially since they are becoming more and more prevelant. However, as others have posted, there are few if any gains made in real world gaming when using multi-threaded coding. A few hundred more mhz are worth more than another core. (Now, if you're playing a game, encoding some video, and surfing the web, then, sure, those extra cores really shine.) To moeburn; 24fps minimum? I don't know. Schrullenhaft may know. For what it's worth, it seems that buildings and elevation changes take a lot of RAM. I've got one machine with 8 Gb, one with 4 Gb. (Use a 64 bit OS so you can use more than the 32 bit limit of approx. 3.5 Gb.) The RAM allows me to rarely be slowed down on ANY map. Based on what you posted, it seems to me that would be the cheapest and quickest way for you to boost your system (you stated that you have 2 Gb of RAM). Enjoy, Ken

Awesome! This was EXACTLY what I was trying to ascertain. For the pedant, the drop down menu item in the editor is MISSION|DATA, then, at the bottom, "Force vs. Force". Thank you, hoolaman. Ken

Gents, I've seen it done, but I cannot quite figure it out. How do I get the scenario editor to allow me to use Red and Blue forces TOGETHER (as blue) to fight against Red? (This would also be the perfect thread to discuss how to achieve the other permutations: Blue vs. Blue, Red vs. Red, Blue and Red vs. Blue, etc.) Thanks! Ken

Woot! Demo at lunch time!!! I'm psyched. I may even skip my food! This awesome! What? "Launch time"? WTF? Who ever ate anything at launch time? When is launch time? THAT'S when the demo will come out?

Lanzfeld, Yes, I've been using that sort of workaround right now. However, if, as in the situation I quoted from (but didn't include all the details), the dead ground was a ravine running parallel to the US position. The length was far greater than the width. The length was also longer than the distance from the center of the ravine to the friendly lines. An Apache gun run parallel to the ravine was called for and successfully executed; an area target circle in CMSF could not replicate this without including the friendly positions in the target circle. The prospects of friendly fire (in game) would be too high compared to the real world situation. Paper Tiger: True, this could be targeted at the start of a mission. However, the Apaches didn't arrive until 45-65 minutes after the attack on US forces started. Giving US forces air support at the outset would not adequately model this battle. The ability to "blind target" air or artillery is certainly within the realm of all modern combatant forces. That's one reason why units use map coordinates. The game allows us to use this targeting at the beginning of a battle (assuming the assets are available then). DURING a battle would be nice. Add a delay or a greater spread for ordnance. Just me waving my "I have a wish" wand. Ken

Gents, Right now, in order to call in air support in an area target mode, the observer needs LOS to the center point and a perimeter point. The resulting line creates the radius of a circle used for the area target. However, here's a quote from an AAR: "The Apaches immediately began gun runs into the dead ground to the north and east of the OP, suppressing the insurgents lying under cover in these areas engaging the OP, and driving the insurgents back from the OP." Now, the mentioned dead ground was totally out of LOS of any friendly unit. Would it be possible to allow area targeting for air support on dead ground? This could simulate passing map coordinates or verbal descriptions to the air element. Ken

LOL! You've got me thinking about all the threads I started or added to asking to implement a change to the targeting UI. Main gun/coax should be separately commanded. Each should be able to be given a TARGET or TARGET LIGHT (yes, I know, they're coaxial; the main gun should always get priority). That would let the TC's or Loaders MG be targeted on an area target separately from the main targeting system. Toss in a similar approach to snipers and their security element. How many times have I posted about that? Still, these are tweaks, not gamebreakers. Ken

Gents, We missed the opportunity for CM:N to be released on the 6th of June. Perhaps this was BF.C's attempt at maskarovka (sp?); they WANTED us focused on the West, while they sought lebensraum in the EAST!!! I think CM:N (screenshots included) is all a hoax. BF.C will BYPASS the Normandy campaign and plunge us straight into Operation Typhoon!!! 2 weeks will tell the tale!! Keep the countdown going. Ken

Wow! That is a fantastic map. I cannot imagine the work you put into. Now, get back at it and create a battle or campaign worthy of all that effort!! Thanks, Ken

Oh, yes, the annual "6th of June will CM:N be out soon?" thread. This is a perennial favorite. I enjoyed it the first time it popped up, what, 5 years ago? Nay, 6. The one constant in this ever changing world we live in is that as the each of the seasons come and go, every summer the few faithful cling to their misbegotten last shred of hope and begin to pant in anticipation every June 6th. Till next year... Ken

Resolved! Fast and accurate. Thanks, Ken

Martin, Thanks! Email method abandoned, web-based ticket submitted... Memorial Day battles must ensue... Regards, Ken

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