Mike D

I would like to see the separate timer for the set-up phase as well. In fact, I'd go so far as to say there shouldn't be one during set-up phase. But if there is, it should definitely be separate from the one's used during actual play of the gamer. Mikester out.

All versions of Knight's Cross were to be awarded by Hitler. And you went to him typically in Berlin (got a nice little leave to go along with it), he didn't normally come to you. There were exceptions of course. For example, one of the Knight's Cross awards to Jochen Peiper (if I'm remembering the right officer) was actually awarded by ReichsFuhrer Himler, not Hitler. Mikester out.

Steve/BTS, Please go with option 1 and the separate timers. And, a hearty thank you for putting one in at all. I think this shall make for a very interesting way to play the game. Kinda of quasi real time type of action if you will. Regards, Mike D aka Mikester

Any comments BTS? I'd be curious to know how this is going to work myself. I'm also wondering if you have an approximate time frame for when the LAN and TCP/IP patch will be coming out? I know your busy wrapping up things for the game release right now, so it won't be really soon for sure. I'm just trying to get a feel for if it will be a month or two, or longer? Thanks. Mikester out. PS: Also curious if the timer option for playing in this mode ever made it into the game since this is something that I suggested a loonnnggggg time ago. Thanks again. [This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 05-23-2000).]

Hey Titan, This question has been asked at least once before. IIRC, BTS will not divulge this information for competitive / other reasons. And as much as I'd like to know myself, I don't blame them one bit for not telling us. Mikester out.

This sounds like it might be a computer lock-up vs. game problem. Did it finally totally lock up where you couldn't do anything, or did you give up before that? I've had incidences in the past (not w/ CM) where stuff similar to what you described started happening, then the entire system finally just locked up. I'd say you really couldn't say this is a game related problem unless it becomes something that starts happening on a semi-consistent basis, and only happening when you are running CM. Also, as I said in a post last week to others that were having problems getting the game to run, don't have a bunch of other junk like web browsers, other applications, etc., running while you're running the game. This can often times lead to the types of problems you were describing. Not sure if this helps, but that's my 2 cents of advice. Happy hunting. Mikester out.

I knew I'd read this post a few days back when it got started, then lost track of it along the way. The turret lock view is something that has been bugging me in the Gold Demo as well. Thanks Charles for "fixing" this little issue in the final code. Mikester out.

Black Sabot, No, I didn't, but others could. Thing is some people here don't get certain peoples sense of humor and/or understand English very well. Also lots of newbies that may have taken you seriously not knowing any better. So I just thought I'd mention it for those that didn't know. Mike [This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 05-19-2000).]

Prisoners are worth more alive than they are dead in the victory calculations if I recall correctly. So using them to find / trip minefields may not be a good idea necessarily. Mikester out.

On subject of the anti-personnel mines: I'm currently playing VoT in two different games as the Americans. I can tell you for a fact that sometimes the mines can have a very nasty affect on US infantry. One of them killed 4 guys in one of my squads instantly as they came through some scattered trees. Mikester out.

As much as I'd love to have a .pdf, MS Word, or other version of the manual to be able to download and read right now I don't think this is a good idea. Plain and simple it just makes it that more attractive for people to pirate the game later on. It is aleady way too simple for people to get a hold of copies of the CD when it comes out with all of those CD burners out there. Now you want to provide these dastardly folks with a free copy of the manual to go along with their ill-gotten game as well? Doesn't make too much sense to me. Mikester out.

Current game of VOT I'm playing against my buddy I lost 2 of my 60mm mortars to abandonment right during the first turn or two. They both took some brief fire from mortars, the 150mm gun, or the 75mm gun. The first one actually took no casualties. They simply freaked out and abandoned there weapon. Moved back ever so slightly from it and then just stood there for turns on end. Tried moving them right back onto the abandoned weapon marker and the son of a bitches never would reman the thing even though there were no injuries to the crew. The second one was pretty much the same story. They did take one casualty though. Neither unit panicked or broke and ran. Just **** there pants, abandoned there weapon, and then just stood there. Neither one ever seemed to make an attempt to reman the weapon on their own and/or when I moved them right on top of it. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed. And frankly, I think this is something that needs to be fixed in the game. It's rediculous to have guys just abandon a weapon when the first large caliber shell lands nearby and then never be able to reman it. Real troops would sure as hell make an attempt to, right? Sorry for my ranting, but this kind of stuff really bugs me. Mikester out.

IIRC, there are no landing craft. Nor, are there Sherman DD's. There may be a Sherman that is close to the DD model in the game, but I believe there's no actual DD variant. CM is not modeling the Normandy beach landings, etc. There have been a number of discussions on this. Try using the search function w/ keywords, beach, landing(s), etc. No paradrops happening during game either. Paratroops are assumed to have landed already on the map area of play and/or moved onto it prior to the battle starting. Again, this has been discussed before. Try doing a search for more details. Mikester out. [This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 05-18-2000).]

I've been in the Boeing final assy. plant in Everett where they make the 747's, 767's and 777's. It is absolutely enormous. Almost mind boggling to walk through. Largest enclosed building in the entire world. You can get lost in there without even trying. Mikester out.

I'm not sure they actually have a warehouse like we would think of one. But wherever it is, and whatever it is, we should find it and plan a raid. I hear the Final CM Game disks are just sitting there for the taking. Mikester out.

Others will come by and fill in the blank spaces in my reply. However, from what I recall there are FO's for German Nebelwerfer batteries and they are quite destructive (I think Fionn commented on this some time ago). To best of my knowledge, German rocket vehicles are not included in the game. Mikester out.

Once the game is in my hot sweaty little hands I don't plan on coming back here to the chat page too much. Too many people giving out too much spoiler info about what's in the scenarios. So until I've played them all I plan on being very absent from this forum. BTW: BTS, since I don't plan on being here much after getting the game, if there is/are patch(es) released are you going to announce those through the usual e-mail notifications that I've been getting now and again? If not, would you please consider doing so? Thanks. Mikester out.

I've had much less luck knocking out the concrete bunkers w/ the Sherman 105's. I've hit my buddies concrete MG bunker in VoT about 4 times in a row and it didn't knock it out. No apparent damage was done at all as a matter of fact. Of course FOW may not be telling me everything either. Wooden bunkers, yeah they go up pretty easy. One direct hit from Sherman 105, artillery, etc., and they are history. Mikester out.

I voted a little earlier this morning. Gave it a 98. Like others said nothing is perfect and I didn't want the folks over there thinking that we were all just loading up 100 ratings in order to boost the game. Besides, I think the overall rating at the time was approaching the mid 90's anyways. Mikester out.

FYI, I've seen similar strange happenings to the one's mentioned above using the force multiplier function. Playing the Germans in CE I set them to +150%. Got hordes (something like 15) of Panzerschreck teams which seemed a little out of balance w/ respect to the standard number. Also, one of the Stug's was placed way outside the German setup zone out next to the road in the middle of the map by the farm house. So too were one or two of the Schreck teams and a HQ unit or two. Although they were somewhat closer to the German setup zone. Mikester out.

I sure hope we can still get the turret view. I havn't tried that yet, but I used it alot in the Beta version. Mikester out.

I'll have to try this when I get home tonight. I hope there is a way to get the commander's/turret view vs. what you are saying you are getting now. Views from behind the tank w/ view blocked by the tank are pretty much worthless. No? Mikester out.

The CC games were what they were. Something to pass the time until CM or something else better arrived. The CC series became a serious joke for me after I bought CC2. The game was pretty good, but CC2 didn't really fix any of the "problems" and descrepancies in CC1. Neither did CC3. After that, I vowed to never waste any more of my money on CC games. Especially when CC4 came out last Nov/Dec since I knew that CM would be coming out soon. Mikester out.

I have yet to encounter Panther doing strange things, but this stuff sure isn't sounding too good. Panther turning its backside to the enemy (Zamo's post above) in order to get popped and seemingly running around like a chicken with its head cut off (take this w/ a grain of salt BTS ). Sure sounds a lot like the whacked out stuff I remember seeing tanks doing in Close Combat series of games. I at least hope that when the players are controlling such tanks that the TacAI is not doing these sort of things as well. That would be just like when I used to get tanks popped in CC series where they were moving out into open, turning in circles, then turning into flaming wrecks after they got popped VS. doing what they'd been ordered to do. Sounds like this is a potential AI player control problem and not necessarily a TacAI problem that would affect us players. At least I hope that is the case. Mikester out.

If I can't target the damn birds I don't want them in the game. I'm going to either: 1) turn off the background noises or 2) find the little birdy .wav file and make it go bye-bye. Mikester out.