Mike D

Steve, Thanks for the info regarding my inquiry into The List items and internet play. Bummer internet play is not in, but definitely not worth waiting until summer release of the game to put it into the initial release. Thanks, Mike D aka Mikester [This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 03-29-2000).]

Hoooooorrrayyyyyyyyyyy for us all!!! Congrats BTS, it must feel great to have most of this great accomplishment completed. I'm looking forward more than ever now to the actual game. The movie and related graphics of the game look great! Out of curiousity, what items from "the list" made it into the game? Also, of great importance to myself and my buddy I'll be playing most of the time with here locally, did the direct connect 2 player version of the game via the internet make it into the initial release, or will it come in a later patch? Thanks a million, Mike D aka Mikester [This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 03-28-2000).]

We might need a new FAQ, but I need a new game even MORE! Steve, do not spend one single iota of time on an FAQ until this game is released. Thanks much. Regards, Mike D aka Mikester

Steve, THANKS A MILLION FOR THE UPDATE! Mike D aka Mikester

Release the D*** game already!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, pardon my foul language. But enough is enough. It's high time for this show to hit the road. Mikester [This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 02-23-2000).]

In my opinion, Rommel is the best of this bunch in terms of a battlefield commander. A very close second to him that is still better than either of the other two would be Jochen Peiper. He never rose as high on the ladder as the rest of these guys, but he was one hell of a commander and tactician. Mike D aka Mikester

My friend and I have also been playing the Chance Encounter scenario. I as the Germans and he as the Americans. He was unfortunate enough to lose 2 of his 5 shermans to my panzerschrecks because he got too close. That left it 3 on 3 for his Shermans vs. my Stugs. He saw the same thing happen as Doug though. In one of the one on one Sherman stug encounters I come up over the hill, but am only partially hull down at best. We both fire and I miss, but he hits. Takes out one of my crew members and the stug buttons up. But from that point on the luck / crappy Sherman picture dramatically shifts. I get off another shot and take out his gun. His sherman is therefore pretty much useless. It takes me about 4 more shots on the next turn though (1 misses and another glances off) before I take this lowly Sherman out. Next, Sherman number 2 and stug number 2 have it out. I again creep up over the hill and he is at a lower elevation and has is side turned to me. Before I can get off my first shot he rotates his turret and fires, but misses. My guy finishes bringing gun to bear and fires and hits, but doesn't knock him out. He gets off another shot and misses way high again. I then get off second shot and take him out. 3rd Sherman vs. stug battle then takes place on the other side of the map. He is creeping out of the trees in hunt mode and I'm creeping up once again from small hill to the left of the church. In this exchange he gets off about 4 shots all of which miss. In the process I take him out. He also states that at least one of the tanks that missed a lot was one of his veteran crews. In fact he said something to the affect that they must have earned that status fighting the Italians, because the certainly sucked in comparison to the shooting accuracy of the German crews. I had all of my guys hunting up over the crest of the hill at which time they then stopped and fired when they acquired their targets. Up to this point this fact and partial hull down status is the only reason I can give my friend for why all 3 of my stugs survived while all 3 of his Shermans had been converted to coffins. Result: I've heard nothing but complaints from him ever since. And honestly, I can understand to some degree why. Do the shermans really suck this bad???? He seems to think so, and perhaps at least is somewhat justified in doing so. But he also now claims that what he has seen this same occurence in the other 2 games that we've played where the americans totally suck and are worthless as well. While the Germans he now refers to as "invincible". Furthermore because of this and a few other minor problems that I'm sure are mostly due to it being beta code, he is comparing the game to Close Combat and says that it is just as screwed up. I don't think that this is true, but can't really convince him otherwise. Part of his reasoning behind all of this is that he also had the Shermans firing on my guys in the church and from his viewpoint it didn't seem to kill anyone or do any good in suppressing them. Again, I can somewhat agree with him. While it did kill some of my MG teams in there and even killed half of one, it didn't seem to be very effective to fire his Shermans at the guys in the church. Shouldn't a 75mm gun from 500m range or less at least be able to lay down some fairly effective fire against guys in a building like this? Bottom line is that he pretty much thinks that the game is sub-par at best, and I can't say anything to convince him otherwise. Given the large number of misses I've seen from American tanks I'm beginning to wonder myself. Did the shorter barrel 75mm guns in the basic sherman really shoot so wildly and inaccurately as they seem to in the game? Are the germans guns and crews really that much better? Maybe most of this has been "fixed" and/or tweaked in the final game and we just havn't seen it yet??? I hope so. Or if not, maybe someone can give a reasonable explanation as to the inaccuracy / ineffectiveness of the Shermans fire. At really long range I could buy into this, but all these battles were at 300-500m or so. Seems like Shermans should do better than this at that range. Regards, Mike D aka Mikester

Kevin, Problems like this may be related to the game. However, the very often are related to driver's. I would go to your video card maker's website and download whatever the latest drivers are for your card. It would probably also help if you went to microsoft's web site and downloaded and loaded the latest version of DirectX which I believe is 7.0 something. Mike

It still "is" a bug, unless it has been fixed in the later revisions of the code that we are not able to see out here in non-test land. I've seen it numerous times. Mike D aka Mikester

Well, IIRC: DYO = Design your own IIRC = If I recall correctly Mike D aka Mikester

Wesy, I just got my Dell PIII 500Mhz machine about 3 weeks ago. I went w/ the Nvidia GeForce 256 card. It is quite simply put, *** FANTASTIC ***. Highly recommended and well worth the additional cost over the TNT2 Ultra Card (at least it was when I got mine since it was only $10 more!). In a word, get one. Regards, Mike D aka Mikester

For those that are interested in the entire market garden operation and battles there is an excellent book I just finished reading a couple of weeks ago (getting ready to make scenarios myself don't you know) entitled, "It never snows in September". It is all about the market garden operation from the German's perspective and does get into quite a bit of detail on the German units involved, there make-up, where and how they were employed, etc. Very much worth reading. Can't remember the name of the author off hand other than he is British and it appeared that he did his research before writing the book. Including interviewing surviving German soldiers that were actually there, others, etc. Regards, Mike D aka Mikester

Yup. And mighty susceptible to artillery fire, gernades, arrows, etc. So too are some of the earlier German tank destroyers, as well as many self-propelled artillery vehicles on all sides. Mike D aka Mikester

New beta scenario, Gold Demo??? Hey, I'm not picky, give me either one and I'll be happy for the time being. Mike D aka Mikester

Dear Santa Steve, On behalf of everyone here. Since there is no way we are going to get the real game for Christmas (sniffle, sniffle), would it be possible to throw us wardogz one last bone in the form of a new demo scenario for Christmas to help tide us over for the last weeks until the full game comes out? I realize you guys are working hard on the real game and I don't want to distract any of you from doing the important work that needs to be done on that. However, if you have the time, or if someone else like Fionn, etc., has the time and ability to make a scenario that we could use w/ the current beta demo it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and happy holiday's. Regards, Mike D aka Mikester

Steve, To get this back on topic, what about the Gold demo? Any chance that it will be out soon? Like say before Christmas? That would be really cool since it would help tide us over until whenever the actual game is out. Thx, Mike D aka Mikester

I'm with Dar here in that I really, really, wish this thing had come out for Christmas. Please, pretty please w/ sugar on it? How bout it BTS???? But alas guys, this and/or before Jan. 1 is just not meant to be. If it was going to be out before Christmas they would have had to have gone gold with the master CD on or about Dec. 1st in my estimation in order to have time to get the thing reproduced in quantity and then shipped to us (or some/most of us anyways) before Dec. 25th. Since it still hasn't even gone gold as of today, Dec. 13th, and isn't likely that it is going to for at least a minimum of another 1 to 2 weeks, you can pretty much kiss off any hope of getting the game this year barring BTS pulling some magical rabbit out of the hat that they've been keeping secret from us. Furthermore, I'd imagine now that they've waited this long that they also have little incentive to release the game before next year for tax reasons (this is just a guess by the way, not sure how business's taxes really work). Just imagine shipping all of those games out and having to report all of that revenue in this calendar year vs. next assuming that BTS's fiscal year ends Dec. 31. Regards, Mike D aka Mikester

Yes, I've managed to do both in the Last Def. scenario. I've knocked out a Hellcat with German mortars at least 3 times. I've also knocked out German HT's at least 2-3 times as well w/ US mortar teams. 1 or 2 of the HT's were even moving at a moderate speed. Bottom line is a mortar team w/ direct LOS to a target, especially one that is not moving, is down right deadly. Apprently the German one's w/ FO's are as well. My conclusion is that it must be pretty easy to correct mortar fire vs. the bigger stuff, although I don't know if it really is easier, or not. I can guarantee you a team w/ a direct LOS to a target can correct fire very easily and quickly though. Mike D. aka Mikester [This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 12-07-99).]

SHIP IT NOW! Now that I have your attention. Yes, I want the TCP/IP, but I want the game even more. I can live with it (TCP/IP) coming in a subsequent patch no problem. Just get me the game before Christmas, OK? Mike D aka Mikester

Seems like I've seen full 12 man squads and HMG teams riding on the backs of Shermans at the same time too. I don't think the tank is even big enough to hold that many guys, let alone carry them safely into battle. Mike D aka Mikester

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth My two front teeth My two front teeth All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth And I'll wish you a Merry Christmas _______________________________________ And now that the song is over... My one and only wish right now is for the final release itself. Anyone wishing for this, that, and the other to be added at this point, is, for the most part, doing just that IMHO. Let's get this thing out before Christmas, eh? Mike D aka Mikester

Just got an Nvidia Geforce256 card w/ 32 MB of ram in my new PIII 500Mhz machine. It is so sweet, especially w/ the 19" monitor! CM looks and runs fantastic. Steve, I would say that there are a lot more people out there 32MB video cards than you might think (and even more w/ 16MB cards). And those numbers are growing fast! There are at least 3 or 4 other people I know that just bought systems and they are all getting 32MB cards. I also know at least 1 or 2 others that are looking to upgrade their existing systems w/ 32MB video cards. So while one might not be able to say that they are "prevalent" yet, my guess it that they soon will be. If nothing else I would guess that about a year from now something approaching at least 1/3, and maybe even 1/2, of all PC computer owners will have at least a 16MB video card as people such as myself w/ early Pentium I / 486 systems upgrade to new ones. The fact that the millenium bug will probably bite some of these same folks will also accelerate this process as they are "forced" to get new systems. Just some food for thought. Also, I'm in favor of having user chooseable settings for video in the game so that those of us w/ better video cards can take advantage of them. I'd even be willing to pay, oh say $5, more for the game just to have this feature available. Granted, those that don't have better video cards would complain that they are paying for nothing, but then they would have some incentive to quit being such tight-wads and ante up and get some better equipment too! On a lighter, and much more important note, when can we expect the game to come out??? You know me, Mr. Impatient and all. Thanks, Mike D aka Mikester [This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 11-24-99).]

Thanks much BTS!!! Mike D aka Mikester

Ron, I've been kinda wondering the same thing. This sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Although I don't think it should go as far as showing info that would state that one more hit on the building would bring it down or anything like that because in real life it would really be pretty hard to tell if 1 more, or 3 more, 75mm rounds would bring it down. It would matter where and how they hit etc. However, having a general indication of the state of the building's remaining overall structural integrity sounds like a pretty good idea. Regards, Mike D aka Mikester

NO, NO, NO AND NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Mike D aka Mikester