RockinHarry

Is it possible to fix more of the weapon faults in the game? In example removing german Egg grenade 39 from 1939 infantry (the egg grenade was introduced in 1940!), or removing the Panzerwurfmine (thrown anti tank grenade) from 1944/45 scenarios? Stick grenade bundles are available for all of the war years, the Hollow charge mine H3 in 1943/44 and from 1944, the Panzerfaust should almost be the only hand held AT weapon for germans. Any other stuff is rather rare and exotic.

Yes that would help some. However, the basic looks are only appropiate for static front fortifications and/or soft soil terrain, due to the shown wooden boards in use. More common materials would be fascines made of local material as branches ect. Also the position of fortifications is most important. What I´ve seen in most scenarios just portrays that the designers had no idea about general guide lines for placement of trenches or improved position. To give some ideas; camouflage comes first and then field of fire. Also trenches need to be adapted to local terrain contours and features; IE along edges of fields, using natural ditches and every measure that provide means of camouflage, particularly from aireal observation. Your screenshot also shows that no use of shadows is made to conceal the trench position more. well...this is all looks only, but even when the game does not really consider all these measures within the game mechanics, it simply looks better and plays more realistic. Some reuasable feature from Combat Mission game could be to require fortifications to become detected first. Also some CM terrain (well..just the dirt roads I think) changes color depending upon weather and ground condition (dry or wet). Dry (non grassy) soil off course is lighter in color most of the time, but depends on the basic tone ect. Well,....I keep dreaming....

1. I´m atheist 2. It´s not even 50% accurate 3. We´re about to die anyway, so I don´t care about the world going to end. 4. Thanks...

Link below: VVVVVVVVVVV RHZ Fall Gelb V1 at SDII Battle Description: RHZ-Fall Gelb V1.0 May, 1940 - German attack during french campaign. A german motorized advance guard attempts to cut of french forces in northern france. Author: RockinHarryZ (RHZ) Date: May, 1940 Region: France, northern region Battle Type: German Attack Game Length: 58 variable Time: Dawn Ground Condition: Dry Temperature: Warm Weather: Clear Sky Map Edges Friendly to: W - Neutral N - French E - Neutral S - German Play recommendation: German player vs. French AIP! Second best play could be H2H (untested) Don´t play French vs. AI! It does not work. Computer units setup: Must be left at default! No bonuses. have fun

Paradox version 1.06 Same problem; clicking a vehicle unit and I have a non error report crash to desktop. Oftentimes also happens with clicking infantry units. Did try (friendly) blue units only so far. There´s suspicious and intense hard drive access noises after clicking units and before the final crash, that makes me think the game is looking for files, can´t find them and then simply crashes. WinXP PE, Nvidia Geforce FX5200, 768MB RAM, 1600+ Athlon XP. Didn´t have any such problems before 1.06 [ February 05, 2008, 05:28 AM: Message edited by: RockinHarry ]

Excellent! :cool: Actually I found watching the vid even more entertaining than playing the game!

Good idea! As long as camouflage measures adapt to the local terrain as would require wheat, woods, brush, high grass, trash woods/rubble ect. That surely would be quite an innovative feature, no other game I know of would have. That´s the reason why the improved positions/trenches look so totally out of place in ToW.

Also beeing a CoD and RO player, I notice the ToW team was somewhat "inspired" by these games, when it comes to trenches and sandbag stuff. Is the trenches hardcoded in the game when it comes to width? If one creates smaller ones (in 3D MAX), do the path finding routines will have trouble when infantry is to move into or through them? Other issues? The heavy weapons pit: A small earthen berm and a bit of foliage would do the trick way better IMO. I assume when placed in that IP, a unit gains some defense benefits? (..can´t recall if I had read something in the manual) The wire and AT obstacles are another issue, but it´s more of a problem how (and WHERE)a scenario maker places them.

If I can use appropiate textures in the updated builder, that would be a quick improvement really! I could probably reuse some my stuff I made for CMAK.

Another german training video showing "russian" AT infantry battling german Panthers from improved positions:

Well, that´s what I see in the game NOW and what I´m talking about further above! I´ll try to be more detailed: #1: The trenches Currently look like flat versions as used in WW1 (which were at least 1-2 meters deeper). What I have in mind is better camouflaged and smaller trenches as shown here and elsewhere: Trenches Video The german training video show well what I mean. #2: The heavy weapons positions. Never seen something like that except maybe for rear area gun positions and no enemy air attack hazards. Wonder who did use all that sandbag crap, that is totally out of place other than desert warfare or at places where you can´t dig! (urban terrain) I understand that the ToW heavy weapons position is more a "one fits all" type, but current looks are totally unrealistic. The above shown video also shows how it´s about to look more realistically, at least at the frontlines. #3 Forests. What I mean is the ground textures at places where more than just 1 tree is standing. By now in ToW it looks all grassy, which causes the annoying "park" looks. Also there´s noticable differences for all pine or deciduous tree composed forests. Generally forested areas need darker underlying ground textures. Another issue I have with various stock maps is the general tree composition on maps. I.E pine trees seldomly grow singledly unless in mountainous regions.

Still waiting for Kalypso version of the Uber patch so... did anybody try to create more "realistic" landscapes yet, particularly forested areas? (..to get rid of that park landscape looks) Fortifications? Trenches or foxholes that better integrate (camouflage) with the landscape tiles? Improved positions for heavy weapons? (..the netted sandbag thingy is the worst I´ve seen in my life ) I´ll try myself once I have the correct version uber patch and learned the editors, but want to know about public progress!

According to this german website: http://www.theatreofwar.de/news/ Kalypso media will take about 2-3 weeks to release their uber patch version! :confused:

Not just good for XMas, rather for all your wargaming life: Guderian´s "Panzer Marsch!" and Middeldorf´s "Taktik im Russlandfeldzug" (tactics in the russian campaign) No idea whether these are available in english translations.

Off course that counts mostly for lone split squads that have no contact to platoon HQ.

Thanks, good to know! About to try and install later this week!

I have very best results with those methods as described by JasonC AND using small HQ units as reccon units. Small HQ´s have the benefits to be of small size (2 to 4 men), have binocs, are not affected by morale penalties for beeing alone and out of contacts with higher HQ. Complete No Goes are split squads, which I had repeatedly panicking and surrendering when beeing detected by the enemy at close ranges or coming under fire. Also depends upon your selected reccon task (finding enemy and/or combating the enemy if necessary), but my HQs are always up front, no matter if alone or backupped by additional cover units. In the offense these small HQ sections (2 men) are perfect for finding firing positions for heavy MG´s. The slow moving HMG´s then can occupy the firing position once the quick moving HQ has checked it for LOS before. This method works particularly well in closed terrain, where LOS can not be detemined easily just by looking at the map, or finding those keyholed spots where you can put your support weapons without fearing too much enemy return fire. This is also how it was all done in german army of WW2 (reccon detachments finding perfect firing positions, before weapon units move finally in)

Nice! I have the Kalypso DVD too! :mad: Does that mean we have to "purchase" the patch when they decide to release that thing on DVD again in europe?? ..you´d surely rather see my ToW game box at ebay

Thanks! About to download it right now! ..though I´ll try using it for CMBB or AK. Got to check if NATO icons can be changed for more WW2 suitable ones.

In the builder that already is available you can mess quite a bit with the trees. And I'm quite sure you can even go further and change the colors and textures with the mod tools. -- </font>

Here´s everything you need to figure out why scenes like above look so totally crap! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-g5sg4IrwY Even the german "proving ground" as used in the video portrays a real battlefield realistically for good reasons. Another of many reasons I still don´t launch up TOW from my hard drive.

Hopefully future map makers that create western front landscapes will know a bit more what they´re doing, than the bud that created this one! Where does one see fir trees singledly placed around the landscape please? At least not where I live (germany, western europe).

Is things like that still happening in the game? I mean even CM deals with "sound contacts" and a TD at full speed few meters away from a crewed PAK gun wouldn´t be ignored in any case! Several crewman always have security tasks, particularly those that do not directly handle the gun (ammo haulers), as well as when the guns (mostly pairs or x3) are deployed properly there´s the battery CO and machine gun security nearby watching out.

Is there a way to make trees better mold with the background and not to stand out that much like in a park landscape? It´s just a matter of right textures, but I wonder I don´t see any appropiate ones used.

There´s other ways trying to make CM maps in comfortable ways: Map Converter: http://www.pyes-ct.de/mc.html Mapping Mission: http://home.comcast.net/~leland53/ useful thread at BFC: http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=002046#000000