DrAlimantado

I would love to see a console version of CM. Mainly because ot would piss off all the holy grog-types we got on this board. Well, you know ... the kind of people who thinks that owning a computer made post-1990, is to sell out to the quake 3 crowd. Sorry Andreas, to put this so bluntly, but you need to get laid. Would you care to elaborate on how CM would transform into a piece of junk, if ported into a console game? As far as I know, Microsoft does not send goons armed with baseball bats to the developers, in order to ensure that the game developers make crappy games for the xbox. Oh, forgot one of these: Baby Spice

Hi Seph This game has a rather steep learning curve when it comes to learning the finer and intricate aspects of this game engine. If you find any odd behavoiur, from your point of view, I would suggest to invest some time and do a search on this forum. Throughout the years, more or less every angle has been discussed and very often motivated by BTS. If you cannot find what you look for, just put in a post with the question and an explanation that you have made a search. Most likely you will have a fast and elaborate answer. And no, there will be no major patch for CM. The last patch was 1.12 (me thinks) and that was a long time ago. Not that there is any room for improvement, but BTS is working on Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin, which hopefully will be out within the near future. I hope that you enjoy the game. Mattias

Go to the mainpage of this site and you will find your way from there. Dang, that T35 looks fine.

What is that psycho-analytical term that I am thinking of? Projection? Could that be the one? Yep. Projection it is. Here the whole bunch of us are climbing the walls in anticipation for CMBB, and you begin to worry about grammar. Does the adjective 'old' modify the singular 'fart'? M

At least they're not claiming it's FAT-FREE </font>

Has someone undergone a PC cultural sensitivity training lately? Awh, the selective backwards letters looks heavy metal. Very much heavy metal. Now I expect that CMBB will play 'Run to the hills' every time someone is forced to auto-surrender. But what I do not like is how they have capitalized 'HOT' in the ad. Kinda smells like attention grabbing advertisement that underestimates the prospective buyer. I think that the game will sell good based on its merits, it does not need used-car sales tricks. But I gotta say that I liked the ad. *begins to sing 'Run to the hills'* M

When you get drunk, just don't steer the discussions on to anything that reminds Andreas of Abba. If you do he might get all exited and begin to sing random Abba song. Believe me, I have seen it, and it is not a pretty sight. I hope you enjoy your stay in Europe. M

Can I have french fries and a diet coke with that CMBB? Oh, a question relating the gamesystem? Oki. Has there been any large changes to the way night battles are played? One problem I have with CMBO and night battles is that there is no simulation of lightsources. I.e. a zook does not see a tank that fires its main gun on an open field 150m away, etc. M

*DrA picks up a brick and throws at Tero* *SMACK!* *DrA strolls away whisteling 'Going down to Texas'* Sorry couldn't pass that opportiunity. All in good love. M [ May 03, 2002, 09:48 AM: Message edited by: DrAlimantado ]

Considering his stylish looks I would say yes. M

Heck, I am not even close to being Finnish, but I must say that Tero has a point. I am very doubtful that localizing the games in Scandinavia, (or as it is in this case: Finland) is a good thing from a marketíng point of view. Localizing is an annoying trend that came a couple of years ago. My guess is that it began in France & Germany, and then it spilled over to other parts of Europe. Unfortunately it has brought more trouble in general than benefit to the few consumers who need a localized version. Strange translated manuals is one thing, (they can be funny though), but the problem of localized patches is much worse. The horror example is Fallout 2, where they had a generic EU patch, which always lagged 2 or 3 months behind the original patch. Localized games is a new trend that, at least from my point of view, the game consumers have not asked for, (nothing directed against BTS, just blathering in general), Most people I know go out of their way to avoid buying a localized version by mistake. Here is a smiley to compensate for my negative vibes Dr Grumpy

Don't worry, one day you will also be a true loser. It just takes practice and effort. Don't give up yet. We have faith in you. M

LOL, oh yep. I was just covering up my laziness that prevented me from writing those AAR's. But what the heck I can always blame it on the winter up here in Umeå. It is mid-April and still snow around, I cannot hack it anymore. M [ April 12, 2002, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: DrAlimantado ]

*makes chicken noices* M

I'm stunned. End of story. M

Have you finaly given up on women? Good for you! Hope you find a nice little sparrow or somefink. DrA aka Baby Spice ps. You can send me a setup next week if you want to spank me and feel superior. ------------------ Philosophy is a battle against bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. -- L.Wittgenstein

Did not see that 'political correct' argument coming ... I promise As I tried to point out earlier, that something is only a graphical feature is not good enough to dismiss it off-handishly. Why not just have one generic tank for the whole of CM? The differences can be hardcoded independently of the graphical representation. If we do this BTS won't have to bother with doing all the tankmodels that just suck up a lot of polygons anyway. Right? My point is that if Soviet female soldiers were somewhat common (in frontline service), and that it is not too hard to code, then there is an argument to include them. Even if it only is a graphical representation and nothing else. If that is not the case, (easy to code, common, etc), then they should not be included. May so be. And if my failing memory serves me right there was a very heated discussion some months ago regarding black soldiers on the West Front. I think that the main consesus was that it was very uncommon for black soldiers to see the type of direct combat that CM covers. Mattias

Bruno: My argument was against the idea that Soviet Female soldier should not be represented because it did not make any difference for the gameplay. As you (and Kitty) points out there is the other question whether the number of female soldiers is large enough to warrant the coding effort. As my historical knowledge regarding the specifics of the Eastern Front is severely limited, I am not in a position to even give a half educated opinion. But what I can say is that the argument that if you start including something then everyone else wants their "stuff" on and everything will go downhill from there, is called 'the slippery slope' argument and is used by middle aged philosophy professors who wants to impress on their new undergraduates. The main reason why this argument does not carry any wheight for me is that it utterly simplifies the argument into an all/nothing situation. What is done in circumstances like this is that you make descicions and prioritisations. And as you point out, there may be stronger arguments for including Cossacks, Rumanians, etc. That is fine with me. That which gets the highest priority gets included, and the rest excluded. Judging from comments BTS made about the M16 which did not get into CM, I would guess that coding efforts and commonality are among the standards of measurement. This means that even though female Soviet soldiers were less common than say Cossacks, it ought to be easier to code female soldier as it mostly involves graphical representation and not new weapons, etc. But then I might be utterly wrong on the last bit as I just pulled it out of my ass. Mattias

While running the risk of taking a piss on someones nice parade, I must say that the argument against a formal inclusion of female graphical representation is slightly problematic. The best people have been able to come up with it that it does not make any difference for the gameplay, and therefore it should not be included. Initially this seems to hold its own weight, but if you think about it a while, it becomes problematic. If BTS would make all soldiers female, or would just have one generic german uniform, there would be a slight irritation coming from the community, (to say the least). The simple reason is that graphical representation matters for the sake of historical accuracy and for the feel of the gameplay. And if the 800'000 figure mentioned is correct, then there is a decent case for including female grahpical representation in CM2. (I have no way of checking this figure, historical research is not my game.) And even if we assume that only one eight of that figure saw frontline action, it is still a considerable sum of women who saw action. To include them would be a nice gesture towards the female veterans of WWII. Mattias

Amazon.com has the following title in stock for $12: "On the Road to Stalingrad: Memoirs of a Woman Machine Gunner" - by Z.M. Smirnova Medvedeva, Kazimiera J. Cottam I must say that I have not read it as I have too many unread philosophy books in my bookshelf that needs some serious attention. But if I would stumble upon some time for some lighter reading I will definitely try to get my greasy chubby fingers on this title, as it looks very interesting. Does anyone know how common it was for the German armed forces to have women serving in supporting roles? M

Let me just say this: The Lord works in mysterious ways .... I definitely like the disclaimer on the produced link: "(Note: If you have arrived at this site through inappropriate references via a search engine, please be assured that we did not utilize this language in our site, our HTML, nor in our internet promotion of this site. What happened was the result of a malicious act and we are pursuing remedies through the efforts of our staff and attorneys.)" Aaah, it is stuff like this that makes me wanna abandon my pessimism and become a loveable little hippie. M Ps. Peter can you tell me why you got hired by your company?

Does killing your own troops out of sheer stupidity count? I was playing an Armored ME against the dear Chupacapra: Out on the left of the map he rushed a platoon of Sturmtruppen behind my swarm of Shermans and into a patch of woods which already contained some of my US infantery. I knew for sure that my reg troops would be eaten up by his vet troop, so I decided to even out the score a little bit. I targeted every available Sherman into the patch of wood against his platoon of soon to be dead virtual soldiers. I was even a little bit proud when I managed to sum up 5 or 6 Shermans to spew death him. .... I was proud until I pressed go and realised what would happen. Most of the tanks were at least 200-300 meters away which meant that there fire missed and hit other stuff in the area. 1 minute later my troops were dead or routed, while his were ... in a remarkable good shape. I think I teached him a good lesson: that I rather kill my own troops than let him do it. Cheers

I can testify that the divide between Analytical and Continental Philosophy is alive and will. The last words my Swedish phil prof said to me was: 'Mattias, if you do not write within the Analytical tradition you can forget to get into the ph.d programme'" And behold! He was actually right. Both schools have their advantage. The problem with a lot of Continental philosophy from my point of view is that they are too fond of transcendence. The main problem with a lot of the Analytical stuff is that they want to see themselves as utterly rational and distanced from everything that is social, cultural and contingent. But thankfully there is somework done between the two traditions. Rorty is a good example from the Analytical camp. Simon Critchley is a good example from the Continental camp. His book 'Very Little ... Almost Nothing' is defenitely worth reading. Mattias

The post-tractataus writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein are defenitely underrated. Unfortunately he got a reputation of being difficult with Tractatus but everything after that is pretty easy reading (for example: Philosophical Investigations, The Blue and Brown Books) ..... philosophicly speaking that is. For more contemporary reading I would suggest the American philosopher Richard Rorty. His latest essay collection Philosohpy and Social Hope, is easy, accessible and relevant for contemporary life. His Achieving Our Country may be of interest for US readers if they want a fresh social democratic view on Us politics and patriotism. Regarding the state of centemporary philosohpy: there is much bad **** out there. But there is enough good stuff published to fuel a career, it just takes some searching to find it. Philosophy has largely deteriorated to the History of Philosophy, or the commentary on the History of Philosohpy. I would say that the problem of philosophy is not that it is difficult, but that it is indulging in inbreeding. I would defenitely want to see more open philosohpy which engages in commentary on the contemporary world. But I would on the other hand not want to lose some of the stuff which is only relevant to the hardcore philsophical junkies ... like Derrida. (His books are the equivalent of cheap crack-cocaine. only few people do it, but they sure get f'ed up) M (Sorry for the bad spelling, grammar, unstructured sentences, etc. But it is early morning here in London, and I am just about to go to work.)