Cameroon

Thought I'd pop in and give another 2 cents after reading the re-posts of Steve's earlier comments. My take on the problem(s) that we've been discussing are the same as Steve's comments point out. That is, the "borg" problem is that every unit knows what every other unit sees. Like he said, this isn't a C&C issue. Solving this leaves the Player with all the information anyway but means that the troops do not. So at the end of the turn you could probably give orders that contradict what the unit knows about, but during the turn the TacAI can only act on what the unit already knows. You could take that a step further. Even if the Player says "target that Panther" to some unit, the unit can't act on that until it spots it (maybe give it a bonus to its spotting chance because you've said "hey, that's over there. get it"). So then units still have to spot on their own, even if you give them an order. This would mean you as the Player still direct everything, but the troops are required to see what's what. Regarding who the Player is: I've always assumed, and am very glad it's the case, that the Player is literally the one in command of each and every unit.

I think you missed a very in there, maybe even two. Oh, and don't forget the annoying chance to become immobile.

Ugh, yeah, what the good Captain said. Of course, I never expected it to be quite as bad as it is.

I'll give it a shot, e-mail's in my profile. I do wonder about the quality of play as the German defense, though, because the AI usually does poorly on the attack coupled with less than at least 2:1 in favor of the attackers. I'll reserve my final judgement 'til after playing though

I suggested this further up the thread, but with the addition of a long delay until even things seen by units out of C&C is revealed to you. The reason is that if you don't, then the loss of the HQs on the map means you'll be out of the game pretty effectively. Take a platoon level scenario/game, HQ gone game over. While possibly realistic, not very fun for the player(s). However, if there is a long delay then you can still play the game even if it is very difficult. Some rationale can be created for that if you really need it, but otherwise it's playability.

I'll prefix this with: I, too, do not want borg spotting and I am not a grog nor do I have aspirations of becoming one That said, I don't particularly like this idea. To put it another way, it would not make me want to play CM (I don't know if it would make me avoid playing, though). The crux of the matter is that I want to play a game that is as real as possible while still being fun. It would be no fun to watch -- wait no I couldn't even do that -- my units sit there for 20 turns because my HQ was killed or broke and ran away. Or hell, the HQ wouldn't even have to run just break for awhile. I think a lot of people would feel the same way. I mean, war is hell but I don't think BTS needs to make CM hell to play. Of course, I could be wrong. For instance, what if you wanted to tell third squad (or that sniper) to sneak up that ridge (out of C&C), see what they could see and come back? Or what if unit X saw a stationary object, like a pillbox, out of C&C. Then, lets say they broke and ran back into C&C, recover and... now what? Do I know the pillbox is there or not? I should, they saw it and can say its there. But how would the system allow it? These seem to be valid possibilities and certainly realistic. Right now they are approximated because of borg spotting. Basically, there are lots of problems for BTS to tackle with relative spotting. We all know that of course, but it seems that borg spotting is currently the lesser of the evils. I do like the idea of not knowing exactly what is troubling those troops out of C&C. Perhaps a compromise is to have a really large delay on when you (the player) learn of details for troops out of C&C but to learn immediately if they are in C&C or move back into C&C. And I am a programmer so I know the difficulties involved in even the seemingly simplest of things. I'm sure BTS will do right by us as always though

Well, like always, control-click in the map editor can be the "right" mouse button for mac users without multi-button mice. And OS X (gotta plug it for hope of CMBB in X) actually supports a real right mouse click. In general, I too want the map editor to be "better", unfortunately I don't know what to suggest to make it better.

Actually I believe you can, there was a post about this very thing (pushing vehicles) awhile ago on the main CM forum (I think it was there). Something about someone being surprised and all but it working. Anyway, that's about all I can remember.

I'll clarify a number of points: Point 1) A resource file has a real limit of 16 megs BUT it can start to get screwy early. So, basically, YMMV. Point 2) Actually CM doesn't do the searching at all. It loads the resource files in the data folder at launch. Then, the resource manager automatically returns a matching resource (type and number) when asked from the open resource files in the "chain" of resource files. Any resource file that CM loads will be available for graphics OR sounds (or anything else for that matter). That's why moving graphics to the sound files works.

Just wanted to point out, 16 is the limit and most of my armor resource mod files (like Graphics 5 for instance) are pushing 15 megs as it is. But indeed, resource files can get flakey as the size goes up. From all I've heard, won't be a problem in CMBB as it's going bmp file like the PCs currently.

I really wish it were possible to create convoys with the AI in charge but you can't. Well, you can set it up but the AI will not do what you want it to. And yes, awhile ago I had tried what Slappy suggested with exit for points and an exit zone. Still no joy. And if you're really lucky, the AI won't even unmount the troops in the trucks. If you want a convoy, you'll have to play the side with the convory. Maybe this will be improved upon in CMBB. If not, the next best solution is to build the scenario such that the convoy is already partway (say half?) across the map towards their exit zone. Anyway, convoys+AI do not mix well

I'm interested, send it my way please. E-mail's in my profile. Thanks.

ResEdit has a verify resource fork option that you might want to try (if you've got it) and/or run a disk utility program (like Norton or Tech Tool). The other thought is that you may well have maxed out the resource files. Each resource file can only hold 16 megs of data. That's OS imposed so yer outta luck if that's the case. Please note though, that you should be able to stick the images in ANY of the resource files that Combat Mission uses and they will be found. Of course, the mod managers don't let you choose where they go. As to why MCM doesn't work... that sounds very strange to me. MCM needs the bmps inside the "mod folder". Like if you've got a mod folder MyNewCromwell then the bmps need to be in the top level of that directory for MCM to see them. The other possibility might be quicktime, but I'd be surprised if that wasn't installed. Hope some of that helps.

I'm guessing that you've got a mac. What I would guess you did is overload a resource file. They can only hold 16 megs of data. What generally happens (say with MCM) is that it fails silently. That is, it can't install the mod due to lack of space but it doesn't tell you that. Then one or more textures will be missing from the game and CM puts something in there anyway. In my experience the problem isn't a filesystem problem but a silently-missing-texture problem. Thankfully that's gone in CMBB (yay, no resource fork graphics).

I'm going to guess what you had was a sound contact of a pillbox. Sound contacts appear "in the area" of where they actually are. So, likely you're troops heard the pillbox. Thought it was "over there somewhere". But then some troopers (or your armor ) actually spotted it and the location became accurate. Personally, I wish that sound contacts (and "last seen" markers) were not so strongly linked to the object causing the contact. For instance, if a "last seen" marker is selected and the unit that it represents is spotted somewhere else -- even across the map -- the marker disappears and your selection pops to the proper unit. So much for keeping your opponent guessing.

You lucky SOB. In my experience this only happens later in the battle when you've spent the majority of your HE. Then, ratio-wise, you've got "lots" of smoke and "few" HE rounds left. So the TacAI chooses the most plentiful "effective" rounds available to fire first. Since smoke doesn't "work" against a building/area target, it won't be choosen. On the other hand, smoke does "work" against live targets so the TacAI chooses smoke when it has lots of smoke and relatively few HE left. I'm not touching on shell selection against armored targets , though I imagine similar things go on.

*sigh* And I see this is entry #2. Ah well.

Yup, with the same restrictions as terrain hull down status. That is, if the enemy unit is above your position (i.e. looking down) then you won't get hull down, otherwise you will. And, infantry hiding behind a wall are completely covered (0% exposure).

You may well be seeing artifacts from the conversion from screenshot to web-postable, e.g. jpg compression.

I've been tempted on numerous occassions to try Franko's rules, but every time I think about it I re-realize how painstaking a process that would be. Tends to suck the fun out of it for me, but I vow -- one day I shall play a game, fully, with Franko's rules. From those of you who have played this way, how much longer does a game take from a "normal" game time? Like, twice as long? Three times? Please don't just say an hour longer, 'cause if your games normally take like 10 hours it's not that big of a difference

See Bullethead's reply to this post What those designations REALLY mean. Quite a classic really. [ February 26, 2002, 11:25 PM: Message edited by: Cameroon ]

Last I heard (on this forum somewhere) each tile is 20m x 20m.

Great work Tom. Though I'm blaming you if it pushes me over the edge to go buy a vid card with full screen antialiasing.

Just FYI, Chance Encounter is included with the game. I too somewhat miss the other demo battle. I've considered re-downloading the demo to get it (assuming the map file format is the same).

As I'm sure you have seen and will see again (both here on the board and in your games) -- do not have the AI attack. Except in unbalanced scenarios where you are fighting tooth and nail to hold on. The AI is just pretty bad at attacking. Which isn't to detract from the AI as an AI. When it comes down to it, unless the scenario notes that it's good as the defenders, play as the attackers. Sometimes the AI does a really nice job of it too. Especially when us human players get cocky I only managed a draw in a QB today because two AT guns managed to hide long enough and well enough to ambush my armor and then harrass my infantry. And arty pinned down and wounded some of my other troops. It was actually pretty cool to watch some of what the AI does when things are going right for it (i.e. not routing, broken or otherwise ).