Philippe

Another tell-tale sound that I've heard is the sickening screech of a tank getting imobilized after it throws a tread (aka bogging). And you know its one of his because you don't have any tanks...

If you put your camera over enemy lines and you hear someone yell "Keine muni!", you've just learned something useful whether you can see him or not. If you're deep behind your own lines in view five I doubt that you will hear that.

Just tried installing the CMMOS 4.03 version and it worked fine. I don't know my way around CMBB CMMOS well enough to provide really useful commentary, but to get meaningful CMMOS help on a public forum there are a couple of things you'll need to do first. The main one is to be very explicit about what you're trying to do and to and with what. We are talking CMBB CMMOS 4.03, aren't we? The first thing you're supposed to do when you have a CMMOS problem is to look at the CMMOS log. What does it say after you click on an icon and hit the apply button. By the way, the most common reason for mods not installing is that you remember to click on the icon but forget about the apply button in the lower left-hand corner. Do that one all the time. Most of the time the log will give you some cryptic message that you won't be able to interpret. But sometimes it will jog your memory and make you realize that you made some basic mistake in installation. Exactly what files did you install? Were they really CMMOS files? Have you installed CMMOS files successfully before? Are you sure you didn't do something different this time? Etc., etc....

padivine ? Who's that ?

I'm not exactly an expert on CMMOS 4.05 (assuming that that is what you're talking about), but I wonder if you couldn't make a copy of the folder with the zipped mods, do a new install to the new location, and then copy in your mod folder. That way the program would be native to where it was sitting, and you might be able to fool it into thinking that you had re-installed each of the mods. I don't think CMMOS itself is all that enormous, even with all the rules and rule sets. What takes up space is the mod folder. Only Gordon knows for sure, but you might be able to get away with copying and relocating that. You'll know if it worked when you check the control panel: if the icons aren't x'd out, it probably worked.

While I agree that it is useful to have a blended numerical rating for scenarios, the problem is that not all scenario ratings should be taken seriously. I won't argue the merits of using one system of calculation as opposed to another. Personally I would be inclined to simply throw out the top two or three scores along with the bottom two or three: that would eliminate fanboys and irrational haters. The problem is that by trashing four to six scores most scenarios wouldn't be left with many evaluations. What I've found myself doing with the Scenario Depot in the past is to scan down the list of reviews, and factor in the number or reject it depending on whether the review was coming from someone who knows what they're talking about, or whether the written review sounds thoughtful enough for the ratings to be taken seriously. The fact is that most ratings, mine included, aren't worth much. Not a problem if you have twenty reviews, but the reality is that you'll only get this in a few very popular scenarios that don't really need large number of reviews anyway. The bottom line is that any mathematical formula for constructing a mean or a bowdlerized mean is fine by me, as long as I can get a sense of where the raw numbers are coming from by inspection. There are few really good players, and even fewer good reviewers. And they often aren't the same people. But if I see a scenario designer whose work I like giving something a 9, I know I should take a look.

I think the two things you want in any site are stability and longevity. The ideal would be to set something up at CMHQ, but to have someone from outside run it. Matt doesn't have the time to run something like this himself, but the CMHQ site seems well-armored against the inevitable events that cause the other sites to eventually wink out. The Scenario Depot is a universal resource, and as such should be aimed at serving everyone, rather than one particular group of hobbyists. One of the nice things about CMHQ is that in the years that it has been in existance it hasn't gone down very often, in spite of the low maintenance. Not many hobbyist sites can say the same thing. Another possibility would be to set the new site up at CMMODS, but to get BFC to subsidize it. That would at least take the financial burden off of COH, though it wouldn't do much about the demands on time and energy.

I'm counting myself very lucky that you had the scenarios. We all owe you a big hand for that.

There seems to be an adult palm tree in the first and fourth pictures. I'm assuming this is a by-product of eccentric gardening. I seem to recall that this also happens in a few spots in Southern England (Penzance? Scilly Isles?). On the other hand, the European climate is a bit milder now than it was sixty years ago.

Which is exactly why someone should post Bruce's CMAK and CMBO collections to CMMODS...just in case.

Very nice photographs from Normandy. Notice the skyline: no prominent mountains in the background. Things that have changed: the roads are now paved, the buildings have TV antennas, and one of them has a basketball net. You might want to check out Mikey D's Normandy Horizon mod.

Since we're playing the what-if game, and I'm in a particularly dark mood, I'll add my two pfennigen. The Germans win Kursk, but not by a knock-out. They take heavy casualties themselves, and the net effect on their West Front deployment is negligible. Next summer the Western Allies invade Normandy and the Soviets launch the offensive that in the real world caused the destruction of Army Group Center. No change from reality in the West, but in the East the Russians are really playing catch-up: damaging the Germans and rolling them back, but nothing like the catastrophic events in Byelorussia. The end-game plays out much as in reality, but the Russians are many months behind schedule. When the Western Allies drive into Germany, the Soviets are stalled at Brest-Litovsk. So now comes the big departure from reality: Eisenhower caves in to the generals who want to go for Berlin, and sends Patton and Montgomery racing each other for the final prize. Patton gets to Berlin first and the Germans are pleased as punch to surrender to the Americans. By this time the Soviets have liberated Warsaw, and Stalin feels betrayed. The Americans drop their A-bombs on Japan as scheduled. It's September, the war is over, and there is considerable ambiguity throughout Eastern Europe because the Americans and the British are administering territories that should have been under Russian occupation. In the midst of the bickering about relocation of displaced refugees a Civil War starts in Greece. The British intervene and Stalin has had enough. He attacks. And I have no idea what would have happened next.

Birdgunner's collection of CMBB scenarios and operations, along with his Excel spreadsheet, have been posted to the CMBB section of CMMODS under the title Scenario Depot Salvage. A very temporary stopgap measure, but at least it's a start. Now we just need to have the same thing done for the CMAK collection and the CMBO collection. All three sets, of course, will become out of date fairly quickly -- think of them as a large, unsorted map collection that just happens to have scenarios attached. We really need the Scenario Depot Phoenix -- I know there is at least one Blue Division scenario I'd be curious to take a quick look at, but I'll never have time to find it without a search engine. Having too much is almost like having nothing.

I've posted Bruce Doiron's collection of scenarios and operations that he had downloaded from the Scenario Depot over at CMMODS in the CMBB section. It comes as seven zips and a notes section, but is still difficult to use -- there are so many scenarios it is very hard to find anything, but at least its a start. Hopefully a new Depot will rise from the ashes very soon, making it redundant (otherwise I would suggest that someone put together a sorted version). The exercise needs to be repeated for CMBO and CMAK.

I've posted Bruce Doiron's collection of scenarios and operations that he had downloaded from the Scenario Depot over at CMMODS in the CMBB section. It's difficult to use, even with the notes -- there are so many scenarios it is very hard to find anything. Hopefully a new Depot will rise from the ashes very soon, making it redundant.

Just to clarify a very minor point, "Field and Stream" was the global terrain change section of my CMMOS terrain edition. It doesn't apply to any one particular modder's work, just to my edition of all of their terrain work. What Juju's Field and Stream or DD's Field and Stream actually means is "the sum total of mods by Juju that can be accessed through the Field and Stream edition". If you go into the F&S control panel you'll find that each modder has an F&S mod -- that is tongue in cheek, however. F&S exists for two reasons: to save you a bit of work if you can't be bothered to go into "Leaves of Grass", "Wet and Wild", and "Shrubbery" to make individualized selections; and to allow you to build your own favorite mix and match set, save them, and invoke them at the touch of a button. That's what those icons along the bottom of F&S are for. One of the driving forces behind Field and Stream, by the way, was the realization that many mods would ultimately be lost when their host sites went down. Number one priority was to make sure that Magua's mod got preserved no matter what. It's sad to see that the same kind of thinking will need to be applied to preserving scenarios now that the Depot is gone.

I think there are two different issues here, and we need to keep the distinction in sight. When we lost the Scenario Depot we lost two things: a) a collection of over 3000 scenarios for the three CM games; and a powerful sorting tool that was essential to making sense out of the collection. I've frequently found myself using the Scenario Depot for getting a handle on scenarios that I knew I already had. The database sorting provided by the Depot was at least as important as the preservation of the scenarios. I'm worried and, in fact, quite certain that something like this is going to happen again. That is why I would eventually hope that the successor site, in whatever form it takes, gets some kind of sponsorship from BFC. In the meantime the first critical issue that needs to be addressed is basic preservation. All the existing (unsorted) scenarios could at least be posted in several large files for each game. This could be updated by normal CMMODS methods until (and perhaps even after) the successor site is established. Working out the design intricacies of the database will take weeks, at the very least. The mass of scenarios which need to be preserved, assuming that someone actually has the entire collection (and I know that's a big if), should take priority from a preservation standpoint. The posting of the unsorted collection of scenarios (sorted only by game) could be done in a couple of evenings, provided that the raw data is there. I'm not sure that CMMODS is the best venue for the ultimate successor site to the Depot. It may be, but there might be other approaches that should be explored. In the meantime, while solutions are being explored, we need to preserve the scenarios, and CMMODS is ideal for that. I would like to see an additional set lodged at CMHQ because of its guaranteed longevity, but that's another story. The gestalt of the Proving Grounds does not seem to be about maintaining Encyclopedias, and that is what we are talking about here. It might prove to be a very good site for this in the end, but would require some careful rethinking by those who run it. What follows comes under the rubric of intermediate interim solutions (as opposed quick and dirty interim solutions). I wonder if there is some kind of quick and dirty relational database that could be bundled into the CMMODS downloads. It would be nice to be able to do a scenario search off-line. The idea being that if there were a common program (a bit like My Mailing List) that the scenario data could be keyed to, updates to the scenario dump and updates to the database could occur at about the same time. The result would be that CMMODS would not be swamped by bandwidth traffic when 2000 users decide to search for scenarios at the same time. I suspect that the majority of us still use dial-ups, and uploading and downloading from CMMODS is slow enough as it is. The reason I mention this is that just deciding how a new database will work will be very time consuming (but very important). But in the meantime there are some quick fixes that would put a temporary bandaid over the hole while a better long term solution gets worked out.

An intermediate step that might be possible would be for the Admiral, provided that he actually has copies of all the scenarios, to put them into a giant zip and post them at CMMODS as a temporary measure. Though scenario files aren't that large these zips would still be rather big, given how many sceanrios there are. Perhaps dividing each game into groups of 10 Mb zips would do the trick. That way he wouldn't have to post everything all at once, and a 10 Mb upload, though not exactly comfortable, can still be worked into an evening if you have a dial-up. The project could be spread out over several weeks, if necessary, as an interim preservation step while deciding about what the final solution should be. I only mention this in the hopes that that scenario collection is not totally. I would be very sad if the only encyclopedic copy went up in smoke with the death of the website.

I hope for a Phoenix as well, but its depressing to think that about 3000 scenarios in the three CM games have just winked out. Even if a stable new home were to be found (I hope you're thinking about this, Matt) the labor involved in re-posting all those scenarios would be daunting. Many scenarios will be permanently lost. The Depot was an important asset for keeping the games alive, and I hope that BFC can find a way to sponsor a rebirth on a secure and stable site. The key will be to work it out so that it doesn't involve any allocation of BFC time. I would hope that BFC could look into setting up a new Scenarion Depot section at CMHQ run by the Admiral. [ July 21, 2005, 08:24 AM: Message edited by: Philippe ]

I seem to recall that in CMBB if both sides are low on ammo it will trigger an automatically accepted ceasefire. When that happens the units in the game are telling you that it may be a game for you but its real life for them, and they need to be relieved.

I only wish that mine would stay there, since out of my sight is where they belong.

Doing a quick poll on a design issue is a bit like having your design done by a committee. And a camel, as we all know, is a horse designed by a committee. Having said that, I like tank interiors, even if they're relatively inert. It's not that I want the designers to lavish programming skill on the interior -- a motionless interior that is an intermediate moment between other views will do just fine. I want to know that I'm not missing anything, and I'll know that when I see the dandruff on the back of the collar of the guy in front and not much of anything else. A few static (and boring) interior views should do the trick. I doubt that the instaneous shell flight time of Panzer Elite came about because the designers were pressed for time after doing the tank interiors. Think of it this way -- Silent Hunter has raised the immersion bar a couple of notches. If you have a one-on-one tank or flight sim, you want it to look like a sim rather than an abstraction. I don't know what the inside of one of those tanks looks like, and this is probably the only way I'll ever find out.

It always gives me pleasure to see someone acquire a new skill. (It also gives me hope that there's a chance I may learn a few new ones as well). I like the way the uniforms are shaping up for the uprising mod. I remember when I was looking for faces for the Ghetto uprising I went through a lot of photographs of German soldiers, and happened to notice that most of the photographs were of SS in their pearl grey uniforms. My uninformed conclusion was that the SS probably didn't wear camo smocks for city fighting. Now I realize that the rebels would have gotten their pilfered uniforms from a variety of sources, and much of it from the surrounding countryside. But perhaps it would be nice to make an alternate set of grey German uniforms with armbands. I really like the eagle on the hat -- so much that I almost see the visor. It's a pity we don't have more control over the shape of the headgear.

The flag in the still shot looks like a regimental flag, but is a good source of eagles. But it's fascinating (and conclusive) that the eagle is so prominently displayed in the film. I need to watch it a few more times, because I think the eagle on the banners has texture (i.e. feathers). Was it my imagination or were those Polish recruits signing up at a table manned by three Russian soldiers? I like your Hidden Unit Marker. Remember, though, the hidden unit marker is one of the ones that needs to be reversed to keep it from showing up backwards when it appears in-game.

I've found that you can dispense with those buttons altogether if you just copy the correct line at Imageshack. Imageshack accounts, by the way, are free.