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Steiner14

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Posts posted by Steiner14

    Whiners...grrr...

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

    I had the same experience in CMBO with one opponent, who agreed to computer picked forces, then cried when I got a Churchill AVRE, cried because my troop quality was Green while his was conscript, and after turn 20 of 30 refused to play anymore. I made an offhand comment about my troops quality being low, he demanded to see things from my side, I sent him my password (which at that time was my email sign on password, my ebay password, etc.), he refused to send his and came on the forum to cry about how I was cheating.

    One of his other opponents emailed me to tell me that he played a QB with him under similar conditions, and the map was nearly identical - ie little cover and almost flat, favouring the defender (which he was in both cases).

    I'm still mad about that one, but you roll with the punches...

    Dorosh, stop whining about the whiners.
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    My oppinion of what the AI is good for...

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Ok, now i begin to understand.

    Improvements for the AI with predictable amount of work for Charles.

    Dunno if this one is already in the list, if not you should consider about it:

    Improoved AT-gun capabilities for the AI: trigger levels for unhiding, choosable by the scenario designer.

    Trigger could be unit 'price', vehicle class or hit-probability, destruction probability and which flags the enemy is holding or a combination of them.

    Improved tank capabilities for the AI:

    Give the scenario designers the possibility for trigger-cover-arcs, like for AT-guns.

    But additionally the tank doesn't need to have LOS into the cover-arc. The engine calculates the hit chance from a virtual position in LOS the tank could use, while it is hidden.

    Maybe even the scenario designer could determine the path, the tank should use for his initial attack.

    An additional option for the designer would be handy, that determines how long a vehicle has to be within the trigger-cover-arc or if it needs to stop, until the tank begins with his attack to prevent fast passing tanks triggering the attack but until the AI-tank has reached his LOS-position, the target is already out of LOS.

    [ October 31, 2003, 05:59 PM: Message edited by: Steiner14 ]

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    My oppinion of what the AI is good for...

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Interesting discussion indeed.

    Although i wish JasonC were right, i have to agree with Steve:

    investing that much time into the AI isn't worth it.

    Ofcourse we all would like to have a CM AI as strong as in chess-programs.

    But dreaming about one thing and reality are two different things.

    First we should remember, to see the AI as a training help and not as a replacement of a human oponent.

    If you want the real CM-experience, play against a human oponent.

    Old but true.

    And here lies an enhancement, that BTS could definately make: 1-turn PBEM.

    IMO it would be much better, if BTS invests it's time into making 1-turn PBEM possible, than tweaking the AI.

    Therefore PBEM-playing would become even more attractive, three times faster and playing the AI automatically less attractive.

    But nevertheless, i want to throw in my 2 cent about the AI, although i think they will contain nothing really new:

    AI now works without ANY memory. That in mind shows the tremendous good job, that was done programming it. Unbelievable.

    1. every unit gets it's memory.

    Problem: turn size grows with the time the battle lasts.

    Solution: storing only rudimentary data (i.e. tank/infantry type, threat type & location, moving direction (vector)); deleting 'old' data

    2. the AI gets three layers

    Maybe it is that difficult now to make changes to the AI now, because there do not such independent layers exist.

    Every single tweak now, simply affects everything else.

    lowest layer: 'TacAI' - it determines how the single unit has to act to survive - depending on weapon-class, each one has it's own set of rules;

    units receive their orders from the medium layer;

    medium layer orders have lower priority, except in very special situations, where the individual 'TacAI' rules to survive can become overwritten by the medium layer (i.e. during an attack or advance decided by the HQ from the higher layer);

    under normal conditions the place where the unit is needed and when, is given by the higher layer, but HOW this is done (the path), is determined by the 'TacAI' of the unit (keep out of LOS, in woods).

    To me it seems, this is the strongest point of CM. Units in danger already act mostly as they should.

    medium layer: the HQ-layer - it commands the HQs and determines how the squads are spread/placed and contains also the rules for support weapons for infantry, if necessary;

    tank-tactics are decided here, with the actual information supplied by the 'TacAI' layer about enemy positions and movements and with the needings for the 'StratAI'-layer;

    i.e. it keeps tanks massed when attacking (one of the real strenghts of the AI: LOS-calculations and timing calculations for a synchronous appearing);

    the best advance paths torwards the key locations for the HQs, are given by the 'StratAI' unless becoming obsolete by 'TacAI' experiences;

    where the squads are needed is determined here, depending on the 'StratAI' decisions.

    This layer seems to offer the most improvements for the AI now, 'cause it coordinates single units into formations with certain tasks.

    highest layer: the 'StratAI' - it decides about the victory locations, or key-positions that need to be taken first;

    it even decides, if forces are concentrated on one location (victory flag) only, while ignoring the others; it makes the decisions about the terrain, marks 'allowed' and 'forbidden' areas for the other layers; it predicts where the enemy will start, where he will advance, where his target locations will be and it chooses the own 'force-centers' (infantry only, AT, tanks,...) acordingly;

    it decides about HQ-status between preparing for attack (moving into attack positions) and the attack itself;

    it also contains the cheating for the AI ;)

    [ October 29, 2003, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: Steiner14 ]

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    RT/TB hybrid...how does it work?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    In the order phase, you tell your units what they have to do.

    You make the plan and give your units their orders accordingly. i.e. Squad1 assaults the house first, followed 10 seconds later by squad2, while the MG 200m away gives area fire on the enemy infantry unit in the house that they have to keep their heads down, while your men are without any cover crossing the street.

    You try to predict, what the enemy will do next and choose your orders accordingly.

    The enemy does the same.

    After the order-phase, the computer calculates with the orders of both sides the simultaneous action on the battlefield.

    Afterwards you can watch the famous, glorious, incredibly thrilling 3D realtime CM-movie. ;)

    [ October 29, 2003, 05:13 PM: Message edited by: Steiner14 ]

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    Calling all master minds for strategy suggestions

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Cyborg,

    isn't that an original scenario from the CD?

    I played it from Axis side, but IIRC the terrain was that open despite bad LOS due to snow or fog, that it didn't really allow for special tactical surprises.

    Here are my 2 cent:

    key here is, hitting with a massive hammer instead of surgical tactics. Combined with flexible use of your armored vehicles. After using the hammer, you can hide it again (depends on situation). Your hammer is your armor:

    Keep probing infantry in the riverbed spread and mass your armor behind it, i'd say. Probe the flanks of your armor task-force with 2 light vehicles or inf, that he can't suddenly jump out of the fog.

    IIRC, the safest way to move armor forward was in the riverbed.

    Whenever an enemy tank appears to your probing inf, simply blow it away by moving all the armor you have into LOS. It's very likely, that the first vehicle you'll see will not be one of his good ones. His better ones will be somewhere behind.

    Therefore timing of your tanks to appear simultaneously in LOS is critical and don't forget to use vehicle-cover arcs, so that your tanks are ignoring his infantry, he will very likely use for probing, too.

    Be careful not to run initially into PAK-positions, if he has some:

    infantry will have to bleed quite a lot, for decent probing.

    Additionally the chances are good, that he will try do do some special tactics (in CM we tend to do something 'special', the more simple the map is, don't we?) and divide his armor or even spread it. :cool:

    I'd say, it is important to use your armor very flexible but massed. Make sure, your tanks have almost all the same LOS, which is not always easy to achieve. Jump forward and hit. Afterwards, instead of sitting down and being happy about the success, reverse into fog (but narrow enough to come back fast) and wait for his answer (it will come too late, ofcourse, if he has divided his armor or is using light vehicles for probing). When his answer arrives, you should be prepared and hit again.

    When you need to support your infantry with your armor, support it with massed forces only.

    The time delays on your side give you a big disadvantage, if he uses flexible armor tactics, too.

    But: the majority of the players do not use tanks in a flexible way: they hit once and stand more or less still - until they become knocked out...

    So i guess your chances are very good.

    If i'm confusing this scenario, forget what i wrote. ;)

    [ October 18, 2003, 07:23 AM: Message edited by: Steiner14 ]

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    See the new Stalingrad documentary?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Originally posted by Patrocles:

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Martyr:

    The film includes interviews with survivors (civilians and soldiers alike), and the review mentions that some Germans commented on the basically decent treatment they received from their Russian captors. That's a sentiment I wouldn't have expected after the fierce fighting on the campaign.

    Has anyone here see the film?

    thanks for the info! This documentary sounds worthy of viewing.

    I, too, am surprised by the comment about the Germans who comment on the decent treatment they received as POWs. I thought I read somewhere that out of ~150,000 prisoners only a small fraction ~5000 survived the POW camps. Does anyone know anything about this? </font>

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    Patton vs Zhukov, USA vs USSR after 1945, who would have won?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Originally posted by Ariel:

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Andreas:

    If all one can come up with is that air power would have saved the day for the W.A., I suggest further study of the impact of airpower in WW2.

    Better yet, study post-conflict BDA from Kosovo and how Serbians fooled today's aquisition systems with (Soviet) WWII methodology... </font>
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    See the new Stalingrad documentary?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    I saw it several weeks ago.

    All in all, it is only one of the usual one-dimensional productions with almost zero hard facts and no rational explanations why things happened how they happened.

    Although it's a way better documentary than the usual embarassing german propaganda-productions (i guess the Finns had a very good influence), it's still far away from being objective.

    Still a lot to do for courageous and independent historicans.

    [ October 17, 2003, 01:37 PM: Message edited by: Steiner14 ]

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    CMAK: grid overlay?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Originally posted by Monty:

    Nice idea's, its tool ate anyway to get them into CMAK or did you ask for these features before ?

    Monty

    Yes, these are old, unanswered wishes. :(

    I think these functions should be easy to implement (no engine-excuses) and the time seemed right to ask for some new info.

    I'm afraid, nothing of these will make it into CMAK. :mad:

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    CMAK: grid overlay?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Will AK

    1. have a grid overlay function?

    2. remember the horizontal viewing angle of each viewing level?

    3. use random background-sounds?

    4. switch background sounds in plot-mode off?

    4. have different infantry faces for summer/winter?

    5. AK allow to choose unit's base colors?

    [ October 15, 2003, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: Steiner14 ]

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