c3k

Charles, Wow. It is wonderful to see this kind of information. I, for one, appreciate you posting it. Thank you. Now, get back in your jar! Regards, Ken

RommL, VERY NICE! Regards, Ken

Fires: This is in response to Steve's posting about no fires being set in MOST battles, WWII. I agree that the average rifleman did not kindle a fire in an attempt to confligrate a wheat field, leading to a farmstead burning, which would prevent the enemy from gaining Victory Points. So, we are in agreement there. However, I am reading "The Devil's Birthday", an account regarding "Market-Garden". In it the author, one of the company commanders in the battle, discusses at least 3 different cases of buildings purposely set alight. In each case it was done to illuminate the foreground of a defensive position, or to illuminate a river crossing point. I mention this to refute the position that intentional fire starting was not done nor recorded in after action reports. So, I would NOT like to have every unit equipped with a zippo icon (but if it were, I'd beg to have a tool tip explaining it). But, it would be useful to allow the designer, in the scenario editor, to set buildings on fire. Thoughts? Regards, Ken Edited to correct the name of the book. [ March 07, 2008, 01:57 PM: Message edited by: c3k ]

Gents, I ask if scenarios are important in a fit of rhetorical self-indulgence. Of course they're important. In fact, it has been argued that the quality of the scenarios determines the quality of how CMSF plays. I agree with this sentiment. Scenarios are the heart of this game system. Scenarios will be the heart of any future CMx2 game system. Given the importance of scenarios, how is it that I cannot sort, rank, or organize the scenarios in the game other than by using the first letter of their title? BF.C, we need a user-friendly method of sorting scenarios. I have some ideas on this matter... Seriously, what are the plans, if any, to implement this? Regards, Ken

Count me in for the option of telling the unit which weapon to use. Usually the TacAI would be fine. But in some circumstances, already described above, I would like more control. As if I were the platoon commander and could say, "Soldier! Fire that rocket into that house." Instead, now I have to say, "Unit, using hidden self-deterministic algorithms attempt to target that spot." Thanks, Ken

Gents, Playing 1.07. When I left-click to place a movement order in WEGO, the front-most row of trees (cut off by the bottom of the screen) flash. Has anyone else seen this? It seems to be minor, but it is annoying and possibly indicates other issues. Regards, Ken

Are there any actual soldiers who have reloaded the Bradley's TOW here? If so, how long did it take and under what conditions was it done? Regards, Ken

Darkmath, That's a great idea. But, I still think having some sort of system other than just using the first letter of the scenario title would help users choose the scenario to play. Regards, Ken

Gents, I've pulled out some of my comments from the "Hello Battlefront" thread. The graphic representation of scenario information is being discussed over there. My point is to highlight the usefulness of putting scenario information into an excel style format. That would allow the user to easily and quickly filter through the many scenarios to find the one he wants. Comments? "Also, the oft-requested scenario sorting feature would be greatly appreciated. An excel style spreadsheet which allows the user to set filters to find the right scenario would enhance the game's usability. Right now one of the strengths of the game engine is the ability to create scenarios and campaigns. Going to CMMODs (THANKS!) shows how many there are right now. That pool will only increase in size. THE ONLY CURRENT WAY TO SORT SCENARIOS IS ALPABETICALLY!!! C'mon. Here are some suggested sorting criteria (adjustable/selectable by the user): Date Size, map Size, forces Force type Opposing Nationality Objectives Length Region Have I played it yet? Did I win? Did I lose? Best score/record? Review score by others (is it a popular scenario or is it a dog?) Time of Day Environment Weather Conditions Terrain Types Reinforcements Support: Artillery, Air Etc. Regards, Ken"

Melnibone, Reading is not the issue, REMEMBERING is what's in question here. My memory is awesome; it's just very short. Now, should we start a thread on the printed manual? Or the PDF manual? Thanks, Ken

Melnibone, Thanks for listing the icons. I have a QB which has the following green numeric information in the bottom left of that screen: 411:20; 43C. Now, "43C" seems obvious. It's hot - 109.4F. Very hot. What is "411:20"? Is that how many secret turns there are? Because in-game it shows as a 25 minute battle. Note that in the same location that I have "411:20", the screenshots upstream show "18:20" and "05:30" which ALMOST screams that denotes the time of day the scenario occurs. If so, when is "411:20"? Thanks, Ken

It must be the end-of-times: I am in complete agreement with Michael Dorosh on this. I have read through the manual, yet never noticed the scenario icon information listed there. Frankly, this game has a lot of iconic information which is non-intuitive. That speaks of a closed development environment in which ideas are self-reinforced. In simple terms, it becomes "club centric". If you're in, you get it. Otherwise you're left scratching your head. Tool-tips are a nice way out. If I could float the mouse over the icons and receive QUANTITIVE data as opposed to the picturesque QUALITATIVE data, a lot of ambiguity would be resolved. Also, the oft-requested scenario sorting feature would be greatly appreciated. An excel style spreadsheet which allows the user to set filters to find the right scenario would enhance the game's usability. Right now one of the strengths of the game engine is the ability to create scenarios and campaigns. Going to CMMODs (THANKS!) shows how many there are right now. That pool will only increase in size. THE ONLY CURRENT WAY TO SORT SCENARIOS IS ALPABETICALLY!!! C'mon. Here are some suggested sorting criteria (adjustable/selectable by the user): Date Size, map Size, forces Force type Opposing Nationality Objectives Length Region Have I played it yet? Did I win? Did I lose? Best score/record? Review score by others (is it a popular scenario or is it a dog?) Time of Day Environment Weather Conditions Terrain Types Reinforcements Support: Artiller, Air Etc. Regards, Ken

D'OH!! Ignore my request for help on finding the toggle for objectives: I don't know how I missed it on the hotkeys menu before. Any word on the control issues? Thanks, Ken

Hmmm, I just played a QB that had this. I saturated an isolated green area and never got control of it. No enemy there. Sorry, I don't know what the map was. The good news was that there were no crashes. The bad news was I never figured out how to turn off the friggin' green highlight for the objectives. I know it must be really obvious, but, er, toss me a friggin' bone? How do you toggle it off? Thanks, Ken

Ah, but if there is a variable ending, how many times will "0" show on the timer? MikeyD, thanks. Regards, Ken

Gents, Do we now have variable time limits in CMSF scenarios? If not, why not? And, while I'm thinking of time, why the hell does the timer count DOWN? I mean, I want to see how much time I've used, not how much is left. I know what my limits are: that's what the briefing was all about. So, variable time and time that moves forward. Fix it please. Thanks, Ken

Zartoichi, Thanks for the info! I'm never too concerned with balance anyway. Off to download land.... Regards, Ken

Gents, It's nice to see all the support for CMSF on CMMODS. For all of you who have posted your efforts there, thank you! I'm going to download some scenarios. Do they have to have been created in v1.07 in order for me to play them under v1.07? If so, that would limit the playable scenarios to those with a date of approximately 22Feb, since that was when BF.C released v1.07. Thanks, Ken

sfhand, Giving that a shot right now. Thanks, Ken

stikkypixie, Yes, I've tried up to geforce 169.28beta. At this point, I'm going to try a bit more digging around. The issue, a TDR error which shows as 'nvlddmkm' stopped responding (substitute ATI driver if you use their card) is a widespread Vista issue. Microsoft refuses to acknowledge it. It is widespread, yet there seems to be difficulty in narrowing down the elements in common. I was free of it for several months. Do you know any Apple dealers? Regards, Ken

MarkEzra, Yes! I found the 54 QB maps. That should be nice. I was confused by his comment about scenarios and campaigns. If I can get Vista to work I'll be back on the CMMODS site. Thanks, Ken

gibsonm, It seems that you have bit of emotional energy vested into this software. Shrug. I thank you for your wishes of good luck. Regards, ken

Schrullenhaft, You are correct. I am running Vista Ultimate x64. Somehow, in their wisdom, Microsoft has indeed taken control of installations away from me. I guess I didn't buy this OS, I'm merely leasing it. It has created a Users directory filled with many unexpected files. Some are mirror images of the files on the root directories. ("Root" in the sense that they are the directories where you'd expect them.) For example, I have C:\Program Files(x86)\Battlefront\Combat Mission Shock Force\ with 8 folders. The 8 folders are: Archivos de juego; CMSF, Patches and Updates (this one was created by me); Data; Fichiers du jeu; Game Files; Misc; Mod Tools; Spieldateien. Of those 8, I don't want the Spanish, French, or German language variants. Inside the Game Files folder are 3 folders: Campaigns; Quick Battle Maps; Scenarios. That is it. Now, having searched for *.bts, I found the following: C:\Users\Ken (hey! that's me!)\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files(x86)\Battlefront\Combat Mission Shock Force\Game Files Note that inside this CMSF folder there is NOTHING else except the Game Files folder. It is DIFFERENT than the OTHER CMSF Game Files folder. It contains: Baked; Incoming Email; Outoing Email; Saved Games; Scenarios. Now, having gone through this path of discovery I am going to delete the various saved games I don't want. Why can't we delete them using the saved game menu in the game? That, of course, would have saved me time but prevented me from learning about this operating system. I hope this information is useful to someone. Regards, Ken

gibsonm, Whereas you are correct, technically, about the gist of my statement in the other thread, putting "CM:SF sucks" in quotes makes it seem as if that is what I said. That may be how you took it. In that case, the quotes are misleading. I have not edited my original post if you're curious to check it out. I am quite disappointed with the many bugs and crashes due to CM:SF. In this case, the nvlddmkm problem, the fault is not BF.C's, hence my retraction. If you doubt that CMSF has been riddled with issues, I direct you to the last 6 months' worth of traffic on these forums. So, I believe your use of quotes mischaracterizes my sentiments. Regards, Ken

Yes, you'd think I have it, especially since I never changed any of the default installation routines. Yet, the folder does NOT exist. I do have folders in Spanish, German and French. Some have outgoing and incoming email folders, some don't. My English folder does not. None of them have anything that contains my saved games. Having searched for *.bts, I found them. They are buried; deeply buried. In a bizarre manner I seem to have duplicate directories. This is quite odd. If CMSF is trying to pull files from dual directories, that could be a reason for the crashes and issues. Hmmm, if you're interested, I'll post the complete path/name. Regards, Ken