Erwin

The implication of what you said is that a player cannot stop the unit from Hiding at each waypoint - without presumably deleting all waypoints and starting again. Seems like a glitch. Anyway, glad it's not just me seeing this. And congrats on being the other player of CMBS.

Yes thanks. Just got the very latest as of 5.20pm local. Expect you'll have another few versions by bedtime?

Well of course... the story is from Wednesday's "US News" fer crissakes. Not exactly in the forefront for in depth accurate reporting... not like RT for example.

Have played over a year as Allies in WITPAE b4 burnout and I cam back to CM2. In WITPAE it's very challenging logistically having to deal with pilot training if you want to optimize. Am thinking that vs the AI one should let the computer handle all the pilot training and not try to optimize. Subs should also be left to the AI. It's too easy to swamp areas with human-controlled subs and sink a lot of Jap ships. And don't change HQ's for units unless vital for its survival (like units in the Philippines and Dutch East Indies). The AI is good and comes up with nasty surprises, but can repeat errors that a human can exploit. Am not entirely sure what is happening where I'm at in Spring of 43 or how well/badly I am doing. I lost Port Moresby, but I think I have done a good job wearing down the Jap elite pilots and sending out raiding squadrons of a CL or CA leading a few DD's to ambush Jap supply convoys. At present I "feel" a slackening of Jap aggressiveness. Could be very wrong tho'. Great game... more of a lifestyle actually. What I like about WITPAE over WITE is that the individual named ships have unique characters - it feels less like WITE number crunching.

"I'd have thought it was kind of obvious..." Yes we're all telepathic and can see what's in your head... Gimme a day or two and I'll try again. (Am I the only other person playing CMA these days??)

Correct - it's actual news. Seemed funny to me is all.

And given that CMSF was the only CM2 product for several years, the designers had more time and became VERY good at CMSF scenarios and campaigns by the time CMBN was released.

Nobody cares? Or nobody playing CMBS??

It's understandable that tanks are very nervous about being lased. What puzzles me is that the BMP's in CMBS are much more willing to stand and fight it out with tanks(!). I woulda thought IFV's would be even more skittish when facing tanks.

Ok I fired up The Heist. The first problem is I didn't know whether to choose Red or Blue. I chose Red, and there are all these troops and no briefing. So, I exited as I don't want to spoil any surprises. It will take me a few days to forget what I saw. So... First comment: Be bloody clear exactly what you want the player to do!!

Well, that's almost 7 seconds per shot. A trained person can accurately shoot in far less than that.

Friggin' hell do you ever sleep? Or are you a robot. (OMG that would explain a lot!) Here's another neat design idea I read on Final Blitzkrieg forums: "As they fell back they had to ensure they delayed the Soviets long enough to allow the engineers to mine several bridge crossings. I simulated this by having an engineering unit at the bridges and TRPs on each bridge covered by a FOO (the arty and FOO came in reinforcements near the end of the scenario). The arty was heavy duty stuff which did the trick of bringing down the bridges." Am trying to get through the New CMBS Russian Campaign (se my AAR's there). But am greatly looking forward to all your CMSF and CMA efforts. Was planning to get to Action & Reaction first. Hope you can get a tester for The Heist as I love these scenario/mission concepts of yours. Actually, will take a look. If not too long maybe I'll bang it out. But, can't take screenshots...

It's generally regarded as bad biz practice to kill off your customers. Especially in a tiny niche market. The above would KO maybe 15% of BF's customer base.

This time, I have an inf unit that has several waypoints. I first order it to HIDE. The text "Hide" appear over the waypoints. Then I change my mind, and unpress the HIDE button. The "Hide" text stays on the waypoints, even though the unit no longer has a HIDE command active. I have save file...

My take is that if one used all the hours spent on designing for CM2 on productive work earning money, one could afford to buy xnt professionally produced content from BF and still have plenty cash left over.

Thanks. This is the info I am looking for. So, you are sure that for multiple optional bmp files, you start with <name.bmp> and the next one would be <name2.bmp>? So, one should never have a <name2.bmp> or a <name1.bmp>? ie: Those would not show up in the game. Also, is there no space between the "name" and the ".bmp"? So, it is NOT <name 2.bmp> for example?

I need to compliment you on your original take on scenarios. We have so many scenarios painstaking based on a real event which eventually start to feel like cookie cutter missions because the "story" is so conventional and "conservative". I like the way you are taking the "Kelly's Heroes" Hollywood approach to what a scenario can be - using all the potential of the CM2 system(s) to create something interesting and fun. In a similar vein one can envision other "unorthodox" missions. Eg: A special Ops team has landed to accomplish a mission requiring satchel charges to make breaches in several walls. However, some of the charges are lost - not enuff left to accomplish the mission. However, suppose there exist prepositioned AFV's in a laager some distance away. Our Spec Ops team(s) now need to escort AFV crews to the laager. The laager is also walled off and defended by enemy. So, the spec ops and AFV crews have to fight off enemy - have the AFV crews collect weapons, then fight some more and breach the laager walls with the few charges they have, in order to get the crews into the AFV's so they can now drive em out, fight their way back to the original objective and use the AFV guns to breach the walls. The above is the sort of interesting "story" that I think (I hope) that you are pioneering with your designs.

One group played a little trick on another when they sent them out to ambush a band of local tribesmen. According to US News yesterday, a (presumably snickering) Sheikh Anwar al-Assi a chief of the local Ubaid tribe told The Times of London that the militants were hiding in a field about 50 miles SW of Kirkuk when a herd of wild boars overwhelmed them, trampling 3 to death and wounding five others. So, a good time was had by all. Morale was boosted.

I also enjoyed the Dutch Campaign - altho still need to finish it.

Do you happen to know the naming convention when you have multiple graphics options for the same graphic? eg A variety of helmets or uniforms etc?

It continually puzzles me... One can only handle a RT game like the above by viewing from high above - you really can't control or view anything down low at ground level as you'd miss something important in RT. So, what's the point of the great graphics that you can only enjoy at ground level when on Pause. May as well play a RT version of Steel Panthers etc.

That's correct. Waiting for your "completed" version. As you know there's always some comments and tweaks to make.

********** SPOILERS - Mission #3 New Russian Campaign ************ Good set up. The player has about a company of armor plus almost a company of BMP/mech troops and some heavy arty. You have advance over flat terrain with long-ish (well over 1000m) LOS (which is a nice change). The Russian T72's play almost like M1's. I found myself spotting enemy armor with inf then sending a tank or two to the spotter's position where they easily killed any enemy tank or IFV. Very satisfying. Almost too easy. So far killed about 5 Ukrainian tanks and maybe 8-9 IFV's. And for the first time that I recall in CM2, I saw a friendly tank fire and hit a tree and the tree was vaporized! So its next shot killed the enemy tank it was aiming at. The biggest problem are the copious enemy ATGM's hiding everywhere. Fortunately the T72's have Arena and it's been very effective at stopping any ATGM hits. If an ATGM fires it gets killed almost immediately. If this is a good sim of RL, it must be very depressing to fire your ATGM, see it be destroyed by Arena, and know that 2 seconds later you'll be dead. Morale of other ATGM crews must hit rock bottom pretty damn fast. This time there were no suicidal charges by the enemy (until about the halfway point when 3 enemy tanks made a rush down a flank). 2 easily killed, trying to get LOS to the third but my own tanks' smoke is obscuring. Prepping for a Thunder Run of tanks and BMP's down the map. Arty is what slows the Russians down. Mortars in 5-6 minutes. But the heavy stuff takes about 8-9 minutes. So, waiting for the heavy arty to prep the way.

BF could make a version that ships with its own oil drum that the player sits in with little food or water or toilet facilities for at least a couple of days with his computer while an employee "reality assistant" uses a baseball bat to beat on the exterior, while spraying fetid water (or sewer water for the more realistic experience) on the player. The "Totally Wonderful Enhanced Reality Package"? (TWERP)

"...(hate writing briefings, had I mentioned that).....Then one more test of each AI Plan (only two, I'm learning)" Well, I offered to help you write the dam things, so quit yer whining... Did you ever finish 'Action & Reaction'? The two-plan version is pretty much done, but I haven't started on the third plan yet. Waiting for a more completed version. I reckon I can play it once more, but after that burn-out and I'll be useless as a tester.