RockinHarry

Thanks for trying Barbaricco! Not long ago I suggested in another thread someone to tinker with the shader files and you proofed, that it is doable at last! Works well on my WinXP and NVidia graphics. For me personally the optimal balance of contrast likely would be between standard shader and the tweaked movie shader. With cloudy or rainy weather, the sky/cloud contours almost vanish completely, but on bright sunshine it likely looks more appropiate. Need to test some more, but your attempts are quite promising! Need something for rainy/wet weather in particular.

Generally I like the "optional reinforcement with penalty" idea, but question is whether the mentioned reinforcements are not rather Regt. or divisional assets, outside the scope of the usual CMX2 game? In CMX1 that was handled during operation games I think and this is not directly translatable to single CMX2 battles. But there´s potential for the CMX2 campaign game structure. For "Reinforcements" optionally made available by higher HQ (Rgt. or Div.), I´d either create 2 different missions with enemy bonus points assigned for the scenario variation with friendly reinforcements, or as a different and interesting alternative method, create a small "campaign", where the very first battle simply decides (branches), if the second battle (actually the first) is the one started with or without reinforcements. The first (branching and decision making) battle would just need a single friendly unit, that could move onto a single "touch" map objective worth at least 10 points. Once that´s done, simply hit cease fire and with the "win", you´re automatically branched to the battle that has the desired reinforcement and enemy bonus points. If you´re not touching the 10 points objective and simply hit cease fire, it´s an automatic loss (or draw) and you´re branched to the battle variation without reinforcements and no enemy bonus points. Here´s a small campaign script example that does the purpose: Player red = german Campaign_GE1 = The branching, decision making "battle" Campaign_GE2 = The starting battle that gets (nebelwerfer) reinforcements Campaign_GE3 = The same starting battle, but without getting (nebelwerfer) reinforcements The actual script: //Campaign Header// [PLAYER FORCE]red [HUMAN OPPONENT ALLOWED]no [bLUE VICTORY TEXT]Dummy [bLUE DEFEAT TEXT]Dummy [RED VICTORY TEXT]You won! [RED DEFEAT TEXT]You lost! //Battle #1// [bATTLE NAME]Campaign_GE1// Branching decision file [WIN THRESHOLD]tactical victory// by 10 point touch objective [NEXT BATTLE IF WIN]Campaign_GE3// with Nebelwerfer support [NEXT BATTLE IF LOSE]Campaign_GE2// without Nebelwerfer support [bLUE REFIT %]100 [bLUE REPAIR VEHICLE %]100 [bLUE RESUPPLY %]100 [bLUE REST %]100 [RED REFIT %]100 [RED REPAIR VEHICLE %]100 [RED RESUPPLY %]100 [RED REST %]100 //Battle #2// [bATTLE NAME]Campaign_GE3// With Nebelwerfer and enemy 100 bonus points [WIN THRESHOLD]minor defeat [NEXT BATTLE IF WIN] // end campaign [NEXT BATTLE IF LOSE] // end campaign [bLUE REFIT %]100 [bLUE REPAIR VEHICLE %]100 [bLUE RESUPPLY %]100 [bLUE REST %]100 [RED REFIT %]100 [RED REPAIR VEHICLE %]100 [RED RESUPPLY %]100 [RED REST %]100 //Battle #3// [bATTLE NAME]Campaign_GE2// Without Nebelwerfer and no enemy bonus points [WIN THRESHOLD]minor defeat [NEXT BATTLE IF WIN] // end campaign [NEXT BATTLE IF LOSE] // end campaign [bLUE REFIT %]100 [bLUE REPAIR VEHICLE %]100 [bLUE RESUPPLY %]100 [bLUE REST %]100 [RED REFIT %]100 [RED REPAIR VEHICLE %]100 [RED RESUPPLY %]100 [RED REST %]100 Think there´s lots more potential in all this, when chaining the branch decision files, or including them at various places within a campaign structure. One in example can opt for one and the same battle to either take place at night (no enemy bonus), or at daylight and additionally have air support, with the enemy receiving bonus points.

Yes, it appears to be the way supply dumps work for dismounted trucks from the same supply platoon. They always combine/add up, no matter in what sequence they´re placed. Does not count for dumps deployed from other vehicles, not part of a supply platoon. For normal supply platoon, one can work around (in case of german, which has 4 variations of ammo assortment) by purchasing several supply platoons, choose options and then place amount of dismounted trucks to be deployed. These won´t combine, when part of different platoons. Unfortunately there´s just 1 panzerfaust for each german dismounted truck, when choosing the weapons/AT option. So a whole platoon yields just 4 fausts in total. A bit meager I find.

Some more info not in the manual(s), mainly useful for mission designers: Dumps can be placed in buildings, though on 1st floor only. If a dump is placed in a small building (whole AS, or half AS shack), then a HMG team won´t be able to deploy, for obvious lack of space. That counts mainly for small shacks. Might work better in full AS buildings. Not thoroughly tested yet. Can not be "loaded" again on different transport vehicle at setup time or during game play (obvious). If during setup phase, various dumps are placed in adjacent action spots, they´re combined into a single dump with content of both, or multiple, if more than two dumps directly adjoin each other. Tested with supply dumps from the dedicated supply platoon only. SD´s spilled from various dismounted transports and different formations not yet tested. Also not yet tested, if supply dumps can enter the game via reinforcement slots, but my guess would be yes. Edit: Off course it´s quite useful to just access certain ammo via the aquire command and not just through automatic ammo sharing. Moving adjacent to the dump gives access via aquire. Directly moving into the action spot with the dump, is not possible!

If you´re adept (I guess) in shader languages and OpenGL, you could unpack the games *.brz files, look in "shader" folders and tinker with files, later to be put in data/z folder for testing. Not tried myself, as I have no idea about shaders, but that would be the way to try I guess.

Since I tinkered some with the infantry animation files, I´ve now quite a good overview of how things interact with each other, animation wise. HtoH combat situations would not just require a big bunch of new animation sequences, they´d also require lots of new game logics that have a multitude of things taken into account. But....we already have a number of abstractions for micro actions in the game, like close assaults (on vehicles/pillboxes), indoor combat and the handling of pillboxes as vehicles, with all the disadvantageous side effects. Question is, if implementing HtoH combat into the game, could it be more like any of the existing abstractions/simplifications with regard to detailed resolve in the current game engine? Probably not. If it´s not a BFC design decision to genereally not model such things in greater detail, then most likely a more sophisticated game engine is required first, that can deal with any so far abstracted micro actions. Looks like a feature for maybe a V5 version of the game engine at the earliest.

What Womble said. The manuals aren´t yet updated with that particular info. Basically in the editor you can "dismount" any transport capable vehicles (jeeps, kubels, trucks and half tracks, as well as pillboxes) and have their loaded ammo placed as small dumps on map instead. These mostly contain various rifle and MG ammo, with exception of organic heavy weapon transport vehicles, which also spill a good amount of extra ammo, like HE for mortars and such. The actual supply (truck) platoons content differ somewhat for the nationalities, for which the germans have some options with regard to SMG, rifle, schreck and faust ammo, while the US and CW have not. Ammo dumps are also a big attractor to the AI generally, once spotted and when blown up, appear to give some variation for size of explosion. Nothing spectacular though. Beside mentioned game modes, "scenario author test" mode will also remove the dumps and have content distributed among friendly units. Needs some confirmation. Think I´ve seen some mortar ammo dumps removed, without the ammo beeing distributed to mortars. Need to recheck (scenario author mode). Dumps apply for automatic ammo sharing, so there´s usually no need to access ammo by aquire command. Not thoroughly tested that myself yet, so there could be cases where it does not quite work this way.

Neat! ...not that I´d expect to see any sort of CC anytime in the near future. With regards to hand and rifle grenades, I´d like to see them added to the supply dumps and vehicles (incl. pillboxes) soon. That would be neat +1

There´s no true alternative to the Combat Mission series and if "expensive" means keeping BFC further developing it to an even better and better future one, then it´s a great investment! ...yet I miss the times, when the EURO fared somewhat better vs. the USD.

I tested the file and can confirm the problem. Looks like the westerly front wall is swapped with the right hand side wall. The ptroopers actually do not enter from the rear side, but rather through an invisible door at the mentioned side wall.

Party on! If we´d just have that "original" german text. Not that it matters.... It was already made clear repeatedly that you halt for fire, if you really want to "hit" something. Otherwise you can just "suppress" an appropiate (soft) target with moving fire, either with the gun, but more likely with machine guns, if range allows. Very close range armor vs. armor engagements, might allow moving point fire with chance of success as well. But we´re speaking of the norm and that´s what the paragraph is about. First time I´d seen that english translation of the whole text, was at Mad Matt´s combatmission.com site and translation from german "original", was credited to Fionn Kelly I think. The german snippets are equally faulted re translations (to german), from that original faulty translation (from german). Now again moving full speed, to reach the next Feuerhalt....

Looking forward to SDIII and especially TPGII!

Ah..thanks! Good to know! Wasn´t aware of GAJ´s site latest developments. Waiting for completion and further anouncements!

Haven´t seen the AIP use smoke during a mission as well and at times it´s difficult to get the AIP use Arty. at all (1st turn set barrage excl.). Sometimes it also punishes it´s own troops, particularly with mortars. What helps is to let the AIP have several FO´s and a good number of Target Reference Points all over the enemies lines and depth. What I haven´t tested intensively, is whether amount of smoke rounds stocked for each gun has an influence on the willingness of the AIP to use it. Usually there´s few smoke rounds, as compared to HE and when the AIP considers these low right from the start, it´ll more likely spare (for what tactically wise moment anyway...?) them. What also can be tested if the AIP is set up to use a first turn barrage, that uses up all its HE and just leaves it with smoke. Will it use the smoke, cause it has nothing left but it? (assuming there´s no other Arty. or mortar left in play, that has HE and not used during the first barrage).

Thanks for Info! I´d just made some for my own purpose and would like to share, yet I can´t upload anything at GAJ´s ATM. So I post it here for now. https://www.dropbox.com/s/fy21w5ba0so6699/RHZ%20Foot%20path%20editor%20tiles.zip?dl=0 Edit: Some pic might be in order as well.

Is there any demand for some unique files, that replace the dirt road clones in the 2D map editor? Have some at ready, in case these have not been replaced by anybody else. At least I haven´t found anything at GAJ´s yet.

Yup, Aris made some files included in his CMFI terrain mods and maybe elsewhere. Could be, that the shader file "water_simple.frag" is responsible for water reflection color changes.

That´s true. Obviously cause they´re treated as vehicles to the enemy TacAI. Also the AIP knows exactly, when a pillbox is actually occupied or not, once it´s spotted. There´s no "silent" movement with friendly infantry into the pillbox, even when hidden behind the pillbox (rear side) and not spotted. Once the first soldier makes it into the pillbox....Wham!...the pillbox becomes priority target for any enemy unit in sight. Well "silent" ain´t possible anyway due to the highly visible mounting and dismounting process. If you get any survivors back out of the concrete trap again, it gets ignored instantly, while the survivors get mowed down nicely, when rushing the neighborhood due to the "like from a vehicle" dismounting process. No fun...

I forgot to mention, that I very much like the animations in the game generally and one can highly praise the work that was done by BFC 3D modellers! With regard to cower or buddy aid, it´s rather a matter of taste, as well as gameplay reasons to make them the way they are now, not quality of the animations themselves. Personally I prefer the "modded" cower animation, not just it looks "better" and is more "realistic", but also adds to fog of war. The modded version at least gives an option that everybody can decide to use or not. Yup, it´s just speculation on the part of so called "hitboxes" to be used for soldiers in the game, or not. Some board members suggest, that all of a soldiers geometry is used for tracking and registering a hit, which would be quite an advanced and accurate method. From my extensive observations, tracking single bullets causing hits and WIA/KIA, I´d confirm that either the hitboxes are very tightly modelled around the soldier geometry, or the geometry is the hitbox itself. If sort of "die roll" comes into play, I´d suspect the seriousness of a hit/wound to be resolved this way. I´d suggest that the changed cower animation has the smallest overall effect, of all the changed ones in the game. The soldiers footprint for enemy fire and spotting is rather negligible and whether one pose or the other is more likely to catch a bullet, remains plain luck I´d say. Buddy Aid is a slightly different sort, but to make it short (again), ..in an environment where a medic has little chance for survival generally, a prone one will not fare much better, most of the time. Presumed the buddy aid action could be triggered or completed at all.

Only BFC can tell, but in the case of cower animation, it´s firmly tied to the heavily suppressed/pinned state of the cowering soldier, with all its inherent penalties (no active spotting attempts, not able shooting...) Different stance cower animations, just makes a cowering soldier a bigger or smaller target to the enemy, both with regard to spotability and being hit chances. It appears, that the game really evaluates, what it actually sees (3D geometry), which is dependent on target size and thus a soldiers stance. You can help testing and evaluating, by trying the mod!

If it´s just small creeks and such (1 AS width), then something like footpaths would be imaginable to create something not bound to terrain elevation differences. Just some sort of graphical top layer, that otherwise has little to non cover or obstacle effects. Too bad, foot path is non moddable for this purpose, as it draws from the basic tile, also used for dirt roads and dirt lot texture. Maybe BFC could think about offering a moddable map maker tile, just for eye candy and otherwise with no further influence on game mechanics. Preferably one that works the same way as roads, that smoothly connect with adjoining action spots.

It´s all there, but Fusilier Hans just realized that BFC training program is deficient!

Yup, they got the icon for "recon troops". Actually Fusiliers are the late war german infantry divisions reccon detachements (Aufklarungs Abteilung), although they are little to non used in that role at that time. Usually they are the prefered local counter stroke reserve formation of infantry divisions, as they have slightly more automatic weapons and have limited mobility (bycicles). Everything ok. No bug.

I have a dropbox link available to the now completed "mod", that includes all of the "features" discussed in this thread. Cower and Buddy Aid is included optionally in the RAR file (no BRZ). Otherwise it´s the same animations as available at GAJ´s. If anybody likes to give it some test play, contact me by PM!

Edit: No problem with sniper rifle and MG gunner assistant. Simply forgot to rename and add an additional file. Sometimes amount of certain stance animation files do not coincide with related ones. I.e there could be 4 variations of a single standing stance animation, but only 3 of the connected kneel one.