Philippe

If you are using CMMOS 4.03 (from the CMHQ site) as opposed to CMMOS 4.05 (from the Cmmods site) there are a couple of things you should remember. First, CMBO CMMOS 4.03 doesn't work the same way as CMBB CMMOS. You have to unzip the mods into the CMBO bmp folder for them to work. So the basic drill is as follows: 1) Make sure you have installed CMBO somewhere normal (i.e. C\Program Files\CMBO and not to another drive or to a folder called games). 2) Make sure that the GEM CMMOS program (that's not quite the right name, I'm doing this from a weakening memory) is installed to its default setting (C\Program Files\GEM whatever) If 1) and 2) aren't adhered to, CMMOS probably won't be able to find anything to manipulate. After that, make sure you've downloaded and prperly installed the Rulesets. First diagnostic trick: Run the cmmos program to see if the mods are properly installed or not. If they're x'ed out, they aren't installed. Second diagnostic trick: If something isn't working, look at the log file in the GEM productions folder. When you fire up the CMMOS program it runs through all the rulesets and rules, and gives a short, cryptic description of what happened. It can be a major clue to the embarassingly common problem of clicking on a mod but forgetting to hit the install button (my personal favorite). And, sadly, if you are using a Mac, CMMOS won't work for you. Note that CMMOS 4.05 works differently.

It wouldn't be all that hard to make. The faces don't involve any really peculiar distortions as found in the CMBO helmets. From ear to ear the image is just the face shot dead on, with the two sides of the head tacked on outside the ears. It works because the bmp wraps around the head (a bit like a cylinder). Not sure how well the whiskers will show up, though... And remember: just doing the research and scouring the web for source materials is half the fun. So just put together a collection of your favorite rodents or marmosets shot front and center, convert them to the right size bmp, and you're in business. [ May 11, 2004, 08:22 PM: Message edited by: Philippe ]

I seem to recall having once read part of a transcript of a late-war meeting between Hitler and some of his generals during which there was a discussion about the Indian SS unit stationed near Bordeau. Hitler apparently regretted having armed them because he considered it a waste of good (and increasingly scarce) equipment. Although it was probably just racism on his part, that unit doesn't seem to have been particularly distinguished compared to its Commonwealth counterparts (or even the INA, if memory serves), so I suppose this counts as a nomination for this category.

"Its own folder" isn't an exact address. What you need to tell us is the full directory and folder path. My hunch is that it is very likely that this may be the source of the problem. You should probably ask this question in the technical help section, by the way. I've never noticed anyone having this problem before, but I'm sure Schrullenhaft will know at a glance what your problem is. The best place to get BFC products is on the Battlefront website. They sell the unaldulterated product quickly and cheaply, and you won't have to worry about strange censorship courtesy of someone's over-cautious legal department, or unnecessary delays in patches. [ May 01, 2004, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: Philippe ]

A couple of questions: 1) Do you have a Mac or a PC ? 2) Where exactly did you install CMBO ? 3) Can you make any scenario other than the ones that come on the disk show up ? 4) Are you quite sure you aren't trying to play from the disk ? I haven't counted, but I'm pretty sure I have a lot more than a hundred extra scenarios. I unzip to a holding folder, copy and paste to CMBO/scenarios, then delete the contents of the holding folder. If you can prove to yourself that you can or cannot make a new scenario that didn't come on the disk show up in battles, then you have an important clue. Sounds like you are or are not doing something that you haven't told us about and that you don't think is important (and that, of course, is what is causing the problem).

If you look in GEM Software Productions/CM Mod Option Selector you'll see a file named CMMOSLog. Click on it.

On Alexander's alleged dalliance with Thalestris, queen of the Amazons, the following passage in Plutarch says it all: "Here the queen of the Amazons came to see him, as most writers say, among whom are Cleitarchus, Polycleitus, Onesicritus, Antigenes, and Ister; but Aristobulus, Chares the royal usher, Ptolemy [the general who became king of Egypt after stealing Alexander's body], Anticleides, Philo the Theban, and Philip of Theangela, besides Hecataeus of Eretria, Philip the Chalcidian, and Duris of Samos, say that this is a fiction. And it would seem that Alexander's testimony is in favour of their statement. For in a letter to Antipater [Alexander's regent in Macedon] which gives which gives all the details minutely he says that the Scythian king offered him his daughter in marriage, but he makes no mention of the Amazon. And the story is told that many years afterwards Onesicritus was reading aloud to Lysimachus, who was now king, the fourth book of his history, in which was the tale of the Amazon, at which Lysimachus smiled gently and said: "And where was I at the time?" However, our belief or disbelief of this story will neither increase nor diminish our admiration for Alexander." Plutarch, Alexander, xlvi, (Perrin trans.) Note the unusual attempt at a reference to a primary source. Lysimachus and Ptolemy were both in Alexander's army and would have noticed their commander becoming otherwise occupied for the 13 days mentioned by Plutarch's first set of authors. There are indeed some early burials of women near Kazakhstan. It has been ungallantly suggested that some were bow-legged, several were buried with weapons, and one even had a bent arrowhead stuck in her bones. That doesn't make them Amazons. Having said that, disbelief in Amazons (as opposed to Thalestris' visit) is a modern concept. Now that that's taken care of, let's get back to more serious matters. My money's on Rachel Weisz. [ April 21, 2004, 12:35 AM: Message edited by: Philippe ]

And where, pray tell, was Alexander's boyfriend Hephaistion while all of this cavorting with female Amazons was supposedly going on? Out of curiosity, does Tanner have a footnote on this evidence found by modern archeologists for amazons? I would be very curious to see what it was. Evidence supporting pet myths and theories is often larded with a liberal dose of wishful thinking. As for the Alexander story, there are a couple of things you have to remember when reading something like this. Because of an accident of history (or rather, several accidents of historiograhpy) there are no near contemporary accounts of his campaigns. At the same time, the mythologizing of Alexander began during his lifetime. I haven't looked at the Alexander material in a few years, but I think this might be one of the Alexander myths that grew up during his lifetime. If not, the stories had several hundred years to develop before they show up in the histories. Alexander myths were often harmless folktales, but were often politically motivated attempts to acquire some kind of legitimacy. For example, just after Alexander's death, when the Macedonian army was trying to decide whether to give the kingdom to Alexander's unborn child by Roxanne or to his allegedly half-wit half-brother, one of the generals tried to suggest in public that there was a living, breathing love-child of Alexander by Barsine who would make a suitable candidate. The proposal was met with laughter and derision, not just because it was politicaly naive, but also because everyone who had campaigned with Alexander knew that he only resorted to producing legitimate male heirs out of the direst necessity.

To make a CMBO mod work in CMMOS, remember the following: 1) Download and install CMMOS if you haven't done so already. Check CMHQ to make sure you have the latest version (I think its 4.03). CMMOS should set up in its own folder in Program files, and should not be part of the CMBO directory. And CMBO should also be a sub-directory of Program files: if you have installed it in something like My Games, the CMMOS program won't be able to find it. 2) The old CMBO CMMOS doesn't work in quite the same way as CMBB CMMOS, even though they're part of the same program. CMBO CMMOS mods are unzipped to the bmp folder. 3) For a CMBO CMMOS mod to work, CMMOS has to be installed (see 1) above), the rulesets for that particular class of mods have to be installed (you get them at CMHQ in the CMMOS CMBO section), and the unzipped bmp files with the weird cmmos extensions for the mod have to be in the CMBO bmp folder. If these three conditions are met, when you click on the red and white CMMOS icon on your desktop and then go to the tab that corresponds with the ruleset, you'll see a bunch of icons. If an icon doesn't have the one-way traffic sign on it, you can install the mod by clicking on the icon and then clicking on the apply button after making the appropriate selection. [i only mention this last point because not hitting the apply button is the most common and embarassing cause for a CMMOS mod not working -- I still do it myself sometimes]. 4) If the mod still doesn't install, you should take a look at the CMBO CMMOS log file to see what is happening. The log file will usually give you a good hint as to what the problem is. The log file can be found by going to Program Files/Gem Software Productions and looking in the CMMOS folder. [if you ever want to know what something's bmp number is, you can find it by going in a little further and looking at the file list folder (just be careful not to change anything). You should also take a look at the CMMOS readme file, which has some very interesting information (and uses pictures).]

In the spirit of this discussion, I've just posted a minor revision of the cmak explosion in the CMBO section of CMMODS. It doesn't address all of the concerns that have been raised here, but it does address some of them. It looks better in CMBO than CMAK because it will appear a bit too brown when seen through the dust clouds. (This shouldn't be a problem if the original CMAK textures didn't bother you, because I only changed the color on one of them). It has a brighter version of the cmak initial explosion, and the fireball has been removed. There are no pictures available, but in any case the real effect comes from the changed sequencing of the frames. I've posted it in the hopes that it will inspire Juju and Xavier to produce another generation of explosions along similar lines.

Download CMMOS and go into the File Lists folder. You'll find what you're looking for.

On a related note, does anyone recall if there is a difference in color between the napalm jet of a flamethrower and the flame produced after the jet ignites a target? I only ask because I once made a set of jet textures that matched the flavor and color of the flame set that I use (a mod derived from one of Juju's), but then didn't do anything with it when I suddenly realized that the premise may have been wrong. I made the mod in a burst of aesthetic annoyance that the jet and the flame looked different, but now that I can make them look the same, I'm not sure if I should. Any insights ?

At the risk of uttering heresy in public, if it's merely a question of making the explosions more visible on the battlefield, Juju's explosions were very well done, though a bit high in hydrocarbon content. If you want a more authentic look, someone will need to convince me that the initial flash of WWII explosions was or was not as bright as what we see now (isn't zirconium that chemical that burns very quickly with a hot blue flame ?). From a modding point of view I suspect that the shape of each frame in the explosion sequence should resemble the one that comes before and after it (which is why my own personal solution stinks). If it turns out that WWII explosions should be duller looking, then the best solution would be to convince Xavier to change the color sliders on his mod in Photoshop to make it look a little browner. If not, Malakovski's approach may be better (I haven't taken a look at it in-game yet). At the end of the day, and as much as I hate to say it, it's your game and you can have anything look the way you want it to (I repeat this to myself like a mantra when dealing with gridded terrain fanatics). Sometimes the visual limitations of the tools that the game engine (or your video card) has to work with makes the less realistic solution preferable. E.g. is it better to have turret numbers on the back, the side, or not at all? Anyone for pink explosions ? [ April 08, 2004, 11:30 AM: Message edited by: Philippe ]

One of the problems with this issue is that I have a sneaking suspicion that the chemical composition of a lot of explosives has changed in the last sixty years. So the only way to be sure that you aren't being too hollywoodish is to look at old photographs of explosions. There used to be a site that supported Panzer Elite with an extensive collection of WWII photographs of smoke and explosions. The last time I went looking for it it seemed to have been taken down. The Panzer Elite mod community is very active, so I suspect a little time asking questions on their boards about the fate of Joe Cotton's Particle Effects site would produce a lead. By the way, they modded dust clouds into Panzer Elite several years ago, though, to their distress, they never managed to overcome/deconstruct instantaneous shell impacts and zero flight time. There is a less well-known mod that was issued a couple of years ago by Xavier (I think it was on Appui-Feu) that has a more realistic fireball sans gasoline. The smoke is still rather black, though. [My inexpert interpretation of my memory of Joe's mostly black and white photographs is that the smoke shouldn't be too black -- and that the total explosion effect probably shouldn't be that big and contrasty either. My own personal temporary stopgap has been to combine Xavier's subdued fireball with the end of the smoke sequence of the least obtrusive explosion I could find. I really wish I could take another look at Joe's explosion shots, though. And my impression was that you probably don't really notice a low-caliber mortar explosion that much unless you're up close and looking for it.] Having said all of that, I'm keenly aware that since I don't make a hobby of burning things and blowing things up, everything that I'm saying is just speculation on what it must have looked like sixty years ago. What we need is a chemistry grog to tell us that the chemicals used in explosives didn't change in the late 'fifties and 'sixties, and even if they did, they would have produced more or less blacker or greyer smoke etc. I've never seen Malakovski's explosions, but I'll download them directly. And yes, smoke, fire, and explosions were on my CMBO CMMOS to-do list before I retired...

What's especially nice about this mod is that it works in CMBO as well as in CMAK and CMBB, and that it comes in versions designed for high end and lower end machines. Great work, Ed !

To put a little realistic fear and hesitation into your CM game, all you have to do is have both sides in a PBEM place refundable deposits at one dollar per point with BFC. Whatever survives the battle gets refunded to you, and BFC keeps the difference. This approach would instill a realistic fear of taking casualties and would also guarantee that BFC would be around for a long time. And it's not gambling, because, just like war, you can't really win.

On a related note, if you're as befuddled as I am and tend to leave the battlefield cluttered with ambush markers and hate the way it looks, a useful trick is to make an invisible ambush marker bmp: a small square using the invisible background color. You can still find the marker easily enough when you pass a target or a line of sight line over it, as long as you remember where you left it. I find it looks much better. (I'm not sure using the same trick on TRP's is such a good idea, though).

Just to clarify, I don't think anyone ever seriously thought of the six late war "Marine-Infanterie Divisionen" as anything other than naval infantry (or at least I hope they didn't). I'm assuming that German usage of the word "Marine" is similar to the French. It normally has a specialized meaning in English, but even the more common international usage is preserved in the term "Merchant Marine". Among other things, sailors make very good gunners and boat handlers, and have been used in specialized capacities by ground forces for a long time. Napoleon, for example, used a very large contingent of them in the 1809 Danube campaign (bridging and manning the guns that protected the bridges). But if I understand correctly the units that we are talking about here were mostly scraped together in the last six months of the war as a better-trained and organized alternative to Volksturm.

I'm not enough of a uniform grog to have your answer at my fingertips, but in the hope that this will catch the attention of the more learned, a partial answer (with illustratrions) can be found on the WWIIdaybyday.com website. There's also some information on unit histories on the Feldgrau site and the Third Reich Factbook site (which seems to have moved, but you can still find it). The short answer seems to be that they wore feldgrau uniforms like the Heer, except that their buttons were usually gold instead of silver or gray, and the silver trim around the collar and shoulder tabs tended to be gold. There were anchors on the buttons (surprise !), and the crossed anchor motif shows up on many of the shoulder boards. I suspect this applies more to the dress uniform than the field uniform. And I wouldn't be surprised if the unit in that scenario you mentioned was wearing just about anything. AFAIK there are no mods for that uniform because it only shows up in one scenario that requires you to really like playing with a lot of trees.

Nice work ! It just goes to show that you are never fully modded, even when you think you are.

Quite right. I actually started out calling it that, but then realized that using a descriptive title would be a little clearer to everyone. I think what clinched it for me was the result of several google searches. So I settled on coiled wire, even though I probably prefer concertina wire because of the Great War overtones.

Not sure if coily was a word this morning, but I guess it is now. Thanks!

Many thanks, especially for confirming that it works in CMAK.

I've just uploaded a high resolution coiled barbed wire mod to the cmmods.com database in the CMBO section. The mod is an alternative to the excellent straight wire texture that comes with CMAK, and pays hommage to the original low resolution texture that shipped with CMBO. See my announcement in the CMBO section of this forum for more details.

I've just uploaded a coiled barbed wire mod to the cmmods.com database in the CMBO section. See my announcement in the CMBO section of this forum for more details.