[Building maps for CMC… you need Mapping Mission.]

Hello;

Sergei just posted this information today in this thread. Including where to locate this software.

A quick scan of the forum will show this thread is still current, and the subject line is clear as to the discussion at hand.

[Is this thing really playable?]

Originally posted by Runyan99:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Bigduke6:

Let's not forget there is little to prevent a pair of opponents from PBEMing more than one battle simultaneously; many of us do it all the time.

I didn't think of that. That does help, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to play two or three battles of a campaign simultaneously.

</font>

[Ok to make maps now?]

Originally posted by TheVulture:

You should find out if there are any special limitations placed on the map. A priori I see no reason why there should be: maps could in principle be completely independent of each other. But you never know. There may be some strange requirements that all maps have the same height setting, or such things. The obvious way to program things is to have each map completely stand alone, but we don't know yet if there are any features in CMC that use data from the constituent maps, and which require certain limitations (sensible alignment of terrain along the map edges to make sense of line-of-sight calculations within CMC maybe).

Precisely; off hand I would see no requirement for maps to be "overlapping" (in other words, have matching terrain on the map edges) but of course, like the rest of you, I have not yet seen the game itself.

[Ok to make maps now?]

I'm wondering if it might not be fun to post our areas of interest, to avoid duplication of effort? I'm currently looking at mapping the area NE of Mtzensk/Mcensk, Tula, Orel which was contested by elements of two panzer divisions in October 1941.

Curious to know what areas others are examining. Stalingrad would be a natural but hopefully some other less well known battles will come to light.

Or perhaps campaigns focussing on specific units such as the Leibstandarte etc.

Italian/Finnish/Romanian campaigns would be especially interesting to me.

[Locked Fortifications]

Originally posted by Peterk:

Fortified buildings in Stalingrad were often several stories tall making a pillbox a bad choice for simulation purposes as well as esthetic purposes

Yes, quite. I was of course referring to those cases in which they weren't.

(sorry, streets full of pillboxes just wouldn't evoke Stalingrad for most players).

Quite. Which is why I was suggesting the ability to put them inside the buildings rather than "in the streets". They would also be harder to spot, and much harder to flank, especially when located in a set of rowhouses where passage between walls is not possible.

However, my suggestion wasn't intended to start an argument about the best way to defend a city, it was a suggestion for being able to padlock terrain during the design process; consider my bunker suggestion just one example of this in action. You may want to discuss fortified buildings and the best way to simulate them in the Tips and Techniques section, as it would almost certainly be more appropriate there.

CMC should probably be able to do both - allow a designer to fix locations, as well as allow user placement. If it doesn't do the latter, people will definitely ask for it.

So your informed....guess...would be that we will either be able to do this...

... or we won't?

Thank you for your replies. I stand by my feeling that padlocking fortifications in the map design process will allow a little more flexibility for map designers, and do hope that it will be possible in the finished product.

Thanks.

[Germanified Russian Place names - can anyone assist?]

Thanks to both of you; Orel does show up closer to 76mm's transliteration than Bigduke6's in Google. A good start, though, thanks for taking the time to respond.

[Locked Fortifications]

One suggestion I would offer for the final version of CM:C would be the ability, if not already present, for map designers to include fortifications as padlocked terrain features on the maps during the map design process (ie before any tactical battles are setup or played). For example, fortified buildings can be simulated by setting up and padlocking pillboxes onto terrain, then overwriting that terrain tile with a building. One could simulate not just fortified buildings such as in Stalingrad by this method, but also coastal batteries and emplaced fortifications; perhaps not so crucial in CMBB but with an eye to the evolution of a CMAK version where such fortresses were in existence at Tobruch, or even NW Europe.

Other workarounds that could make use of padlocked fortifications in the design process would include the use of barbed wire to simulate wire fences that may have historically been present, to name just one.

[Germanified Russian Place names - can anyone assist?]

Hello; I have some German operational maps for the area SW of Tula. The place names in most English sources seem to be German, or anglicized German names. I was wondering if anyone could provide the Russian names, as they appeared at that time (October 1941)? I think I have some of them figured out.

Mtzensk appears to be the German name for Mcensk; or at least this is how it appears in Google Earth and on current Russian websites as well as the Russian version of mapquest.

I'm not looking for Cyrillic names, anglicized alphabet is fine, in fact, necessary, but if anyone could help me out with the following, I'd be grateful.

Saroschtscha

Guschtschenskij

Krasny Lipowez

Werchn

Butyrki

Nischn

Strepurino Golubotschki

Krasnyj Berez

Kawergino Belkow

Tula

Orel

Can anyone tell me what conventions the Germans followed (if any) when converting Russian placenames into German?

Would also be interested in the Cyrillic spelling of the "Russian" names as an added bonus, though I think I can get those from Russian documents.

Thanks in advance