Cameroon

This is with regards to MEs only, right? I guess I'm just trying to clarify whether you're saying that TRPS, at all, are worthless (which I would disagree with) or just TRPS in MEs, which I've got no experience with.

There is absolutely no way I could wait until Sept. 20 to order and then the EXTRA days until it gets here. No, I need it now .

I looked at doing a Mac "CMMOS" a couple of times, but CMBO:Mac doesn't use loose BMPs and resource files have a max file size of 16 megs (and that's pushing it, they can start to go 'bad' earlier than that). There are other issues with resource files and things going "wrong" while manipulating them (rez files). Shuffling resources around between the files that CMBO loads, keeping track of where they are, etc and so forth is just a huge PITA and I didn't want to tackle it. That is the prime reason that I did not do a CMMOS for CMBO on the Mac. It continues to be the reason that I would suggest focusing on CMBB. CMMOS on the Mac would always be "broken" no matter how well we wrote it (unless we did some very not-recommended things ). With CMBB:Mac being loose BMPs, well then, things start to improve drastically. I think I'll take a look at this again, though maybe I'll just offer my coding help to Karch if he wants it (CW pro 5 here, I've mostly moved to OS X and Cocoa so haven't kept the CW up to date). Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't CMMOS just have all the BMPs in the BMP directory and copies them over the appropriate file as needed? If this the case, I'd love to be in on providing some different storage options. My 'ideal' solution would be to allow the user (as an option) to leave the mods in their zip or sit archives. Slower, yes, but less space taken up too (and there's the cool factor ).

Two in one of the PBEMs I'm currently playing. First, a Cromwell VI had recklessly careened down a road into a village partially held by my infantry. The 95mm was keeping their heads down though. So it turned to present its side to me, woot! Or so I thought. I hunted a StuH up over a crest, perfect position. Fire, miss. Fire, miss. *WHAM* a shot from another Cromwell further away takes my StuH out on the first shot!!! Then, my only other AFV (Wespe) hunts up and KOs the original Cromwell. Plays hide & seek with my opponents Cromwell (another VI). This goes on for a bit, neither side doing much. Finally, another perfect set-up where I've got him in my sights but he doesn't see me. Fire, miss. Fire, miss. ARGH, turn over. Now my opponent has targeted me, obviously. Turn starts, 3 seconds later (or so)... dead Wespe in a hull down position against the Cromwell on its first shot after having to rotate to even aim at me. What the hell is he feeding that crew! Two first shot, hull down kills. It was frustrating, to say the least sigh.

For the sake of "well, I'm not upgrading 'cause I'm sure I'm fine..." Got a 350Mhz B&W G3, 576 ram and a 32 meg Radeon. I am absolutely not worried about CMBB at all. Sure, turns might take a little while to calculate, but so what As for the movie playback, I expect things will be fine so long as I don't try to view the entire battlefield with units at +4 size on a 9km sq map with full weather

This is one poor 56k sod who WILL be getting the demo. Others will just have to learn to live w/o the phone for half a day. I just hope to god the server supports download resumes. If it doesn't, then BTS fix or do somefink

Here are some things it sounds like might help you out. Your troops will try to carry out your orders during the turn. However, you must remember that your troops have morale (and not just the Global Morale -- each unit has morale). So if you order your troops to move and no one is providing supressing fire on the enemy, then there is a good chance you'll see results like saw (panicing, getting all shot up). So move in a leap-frog manner with heavy weapons and other infantry providing supression. Once you plot your orders (move, targetting, etc) the turn is generated. Then the movie is played back, and that's what it is, a movie. You can change your viewpoint but not the actions of your troops or anything. That's why your orders in the orders phase are important As for your Shermans, you have to put them into positions of cover Vehicles will usually back out of sight if something they can't handle comes into view, but otherwise they'll do just what you tell them. As someone said, Artillery takes a while to come down. Plot a fire mission, you'll see the time remaining until the fire mission starts. If the spotter has LOS to the target, the time shown is the time it will take. Without LOS, the time is more indeterminate (around 2x as long though). Once the fire mission starts, it will continue unless you cancel it or run out of ammo. You can also adjust the targetting point for only a minor delay (instead of the full delay -- the targetting line will be green instead of blue). The general thing to remember is that real-world tactics work (and are necessary) in Combat Mission. Yes, cover acts as cover. Heavy houses are better than light houses, woods are better than scattered trees and so on. Foxholes provide better cover in any terrain. The ability to move around, rewind etc is definitely not a gimmick Since you're in charge of your whole force you've got to know what's going on in each sector all the time

That would be me and it works pretty well, I'll write up some docs and send it to you. Don't lose heart, my first two or three battles had me at -30 favor, but I had a lucky break in an armor battle. The AI had 4 Wespe's, all of which were taken out with 1 105 shell. That put my favor back up After that, my troops started gaining more experience, and I got better against the AI. I'll get that Excel sheet to you ASAP.

I don't believe they could be hiding on the tank. I've seen the same thing, but honestly, how could 9 - 12 guys ride on a tank and be hiding? Regarding the W, that isn't a gun notation. Shermans with the W store their ammo differently than Shermans without the W, making them less likely to catch fire. (I believe, though I'm by no means certain, that the rounds in a tank with a W are stored in water or similar.)

I have to agree with the others Gordon, that weathering looks great. If the whole vehicle was dirtied (i.e. the "dirty-ing" was finished), I'd probably be drooling with the rest. I wish I could add weathering myself, I've got a number of mods installed that I'd like to weather. Dings and such are nice.... but I really like when the vehicles look dirty.

After a first reading of the rules (back before my other post), I was of the "cool, but sheesh that's a lot of work..." opinion. Then, I tried it... now it's just about all I've done. After seven battles, my company is now "regular" overall. My "best" moment? One 105 shell killed 4 Crack Wespes. Heh, silly AI. Didn't give me much experience, but the brass liked it I just put together an Excel spreadsheet to try and ease the after-battle work. Guess I've got to play some battles to make sure it works... [edit] I wish the CM Quickbattle generator would let you buy any unit at whatever quality. And/or delete sub-units. That's the biggest hassle with regards to the system. [ August 08, 2002, 02:19 AM: Message edited by: Cameroon ]

Heh, this comes up every so often... and seems to do so in waves. Re: a) It won't be happening any time soon. And, reverse engineering the file format is pretty much right out. Maps are encrypted (with a real encryption system ) to prevent cheating. There are lots of threads on this subject, go ahead and check 'em out. Re: writing software to do Wreck's campaign rules... I had started throwing something together for the Mac... then I realized I was doing so in OS X. How about a show of hands, how many people would want a Mac version that does "Wreck's Rules" but only in OS X? Of course, with the speed at which Wreck modifies his rules, I doubt I could keep up with changes until the rules stablize

The tutorial Actually, for us CMBOers that might not show us the important changes in a light that makes its impact felt (e.g. getting mauled by a lone MG ). Hmm... probably a Tiny to Small combined arms battle to ease into the game.

Sorry man, the files are encrypted. The biggest reason is to prevent cheating, though there may be others. The files that get sent during PBeMs (as well as normal save games) are map files. There's been much clamoring in the past for a way to feed a text-based (or similar) map into CM in order to create the battle. For the same reasons you listed (campaigns). I don't believe any such thing made it to CMBB. Maybe the new engine will get us this feature.

Dirtweasle, ah, then it isn't mac-specific. As for the sound states, yeah but what I'm hoping for is that in CMBB the game automatically turns the sounds off while it's calculating the turn and then restores them (to whichever state had been set) when the turn starts. [ July 25, 2002, 03:13 PM: Message edited by: Cameroon ]

Well, let's hope that this at least gets read 'cause I couldn't think of a better title. I don't know how many people have experimented with this, but (at least on a mac) if the sound is on during turn calculation, it takes MUCH longer than if it is off. Especially in large battles, my sequence of events is turn off sound, hit go, turn sound back on. Now it seems to me that this could easily be an automatic function of the game. I mean, do I really need to hear the engine idle sound for a minute while the turn is generated? And of course, as I mentioned, it makes the turn calculation go faster. What I'm hoping is that CMBB does this automatically for you. I wish I would have thought of this earlier since I imagine it's too close to done to make such an improvement.

*sigh* Oh never mind, that's what I get for not reading the full thread before posting a reply [ July 24, 2002, 01:09 AM: Message edited by: Cameroon ]

I assume you frequently split your infantry squads in the setup? Cause this causes a global-moral loss (don't ask me why), also if you remove troops from the map (like unused transports).</font>

Well, go to a store in Europe and pick CMBO up off the shelves The CDV logo is from the European distributor.

I wonder what this is all about? Sounds like this is some sort childish of tit-for-tat... if true. Why would the entire game community be penalized. Anyone know?</font>

I for one keep thinking of re-downloading the demo so I can get Valley of Trouble since it isn't in the full game (Chance Encounter is though). Unfortunately, I'm on a 56k so downloading a 30 meg demo of a game I already own just seems to get put aside over and over

Maybe if it were downsampling TONS of textures on the fly. I'm pretty sure it would do the downsampling during the "Loading 3D Graphics" phase.

No offense, but that's partially misleading/incorrect I dual-boot my Mac and have two bootable partitions (one 9 the other X). The OS 9 partition is also the partition used when Classic is started in X. And you do NOT have to delete the Classic RAVE extension, RAVE works fine. The extension only loads when running under OS X anyway. Now, I place a caveat on that. I do not know if that is also the case for systems where the OS 9 and OS X systems are on the same partition. As for my video card, I've got an ATI Radeon 7000 'cause I've got a B&W G3 (thus PCI graphics... oh well, no FSAA).

Oh man Tarqulene, that was the best thing I read all day.

See Andreas' comments elsewhere on the board (I wish I could remember which threads, sorry). He's made a few statements indicating that things are running fine with a low-end setup (I specifically remember the video card as an 8mb Rage Pro). In otherwords, yeah I think you'll be fine