Zarquon

But we could hope for scriptable clouds, couldn't we?

Pooooooh. Let's try an example : you want to write a function for better AI placement of AT guns. You would definitely need access to - all map data - AT gun data, so you can place the more powerful guns farther to the back - concealment calculation functions, including weather modifiers - a list of things that are hardcoded elsewhere to know what you can influence and what not - ballistic calculation functions, so you could avoid to place the gun too far behind your lines - and lots of other things I forgot Of course, you would expect BTS to give a little support to AI modders. Without that, you wouldn't go anywhere. How do you compensate BTS for that? What's left secret of the work BTS has done? Graphics, mostly. Graphics engines are a dime a dozen. Same goes for graphic designers (sorry). Six months later, we might see the first, flashy, bug-ridden, watred-down installment of Micro$oft Battle Mission:Barbarossa to Berlin. Add a million dollar marketing campaign and BTS can close down this website and open up the Big Time Software Pizza Parlor, historically accurate food and prompt service guaranteed. Open source CM: Lots of people would ask themselves "Why buy the game for $49 when i can download basically the same (or even better) game for free?" and BTS would be out of business. Even if not out of business, it would seriously hurt their sales, the same as pirated copies do now. Linux got off the ground after years of low-level development when the number of participants reached critical mass - thousands. Not very likely to happen with WWII wargaming. However, there always was and is a large core of reliable, determined hackers that supervised and coordinated the different projects. Remember, the appeal of an open, stable and free OS is a little higher than wargaming. Anyway, we'd see lots of people with a little time on their hands and a little programming experience trying to improve the game. Most would give up after investing a few dozen hours trying to come up with an algorith to improve AT gun placement. BTW, even if you finished it, how can you tell that your algorith is *different* from the current AI? I'd like to know before I started. Doesn't that mean that BTS would have to tell you the details about the current AI functions if they offered an API? Adding and supporting an open API to the engine rewrite would add thousands of hours (and bugs...) to the task. I don't want to wait until 2010 for CMII. I don't. I really don't. I don't want to download and install a bug-ridden, half finished, user contributed minefield function that is even worse than the official one. Just my 00000010 cents. Jörg P.S. : it's been said before : what we really need is the possibility to add scripting to scenarios. It would not help QB gaming vs. the Artificial Incompetence, but imagine pre-made scenarios where the designer could mark different paths for an AI attacker, set movement modes (cautious, overwatch yes/no, sneak, rush...), designate reserves and their trigger conditions etc.). Even simple scripting options would vastly improve solo gaming. If anyone is interested, please open a new thread. [ November 05, 2002, 03:28 PM: Message edited by: Zarquon ]

Self-quote from http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=002775 Originally posted by StellarRat: I still think that BFC should give us an API that lets you see what your units see and manuever/fire your units (all within the framework of the rules of course) that way anyone could try writing their own custom AI if they wanted. ----- To make this really work, they'd have to give you much more info about the program than they probably want to. Not that I wouldn't like an CM-OS (Open Source) version, but can you imagine BTS make a living from hotline support only?

I've also noticed that real estate price soar when the first few houses of a village are blown up. Shouldn't they go the opposite way? That might be a bug.

Try the article section at http://www.combatmission.com/

I'm in turn 12 of 'Defense of Verkhne-G.', playing Russians vs. the AI. It is the first turn of my 82mm OBA firing for effect. After watching the movie I waited for the 'Done' button, but nothing happened, the game was stuck at 60 sec. This was not due to the usual post-60sec shell delays, I waited several minutes. I tried replaying it a few times for no effect. No savegame available, as you can't save during replay. Would last turn's autosave be of help?

It would be nice to have a 'fanaticism indicator' for troops (only with FOW off, of course). The way it is now you cannot really say if a unit is fanatic or just plain lucky when rolling for morale effects. Another question is the definition of 'being more resistant to fire'. I think in CM troop experience implies higher morale (i.e. stress resistance) as well as the ability to make better use of all available cover. This should be reflected by making veteran troops harder to hit, especially while using Assault/Advance, than green troops. Or is it that exposure is already related to experience in the game and nobody told me? Afterthought : imagine the cries of disappointment in the forum when BTS broke with wargame convention and made veteran troops hit the ground earlier than greens.

The Panther for living up to it's name, the Hetzer for cuteness. Runner-up is the T-26 for it's long, erotic neckline.

I remember seeing footage of high-altitude bombing runs where CMBO-like shock waves were clearly visible, at least with 500 pd bombs and from 10,000 feet. But the only thing I really miss is the nuclear stove, found in every french house in 1944, exploding when the house is destroyed. BTS, fix or...

I have a 1200 Mhz CPU, a TNT2-M64 card with only 16 MB and it's fine. There's one battle (On to the Volga) included that's too huge to play for me. My machine took about 30 mins. to calculate the first turn. With all other scenarios is just a couple of seconds. Buy it.

What's the square root of 79876567 (just to make sure this is not a fake)?

I'd rather invest my time in an interesting scenario. Here, 90% of the terrain is made up of uniform factory floors.

My first full game of CMBB was the Dzerhzinsky Tractor Works as Germans. There are 3 huge halls. Veteran Germans in the first one, Green russians in the other two. The Germans advance/assault for a few turns, reach the third factory, win, game over. I can't imagine it's more fun playing the russians here as the scenario doesn't really allow for maneuvering. The tanks/mortars/rocket FOs are completely useless. I've played some 'Rune' scenarios before (CMBO) and they were excellent. Interesting terrains and situations and lots of nasty surprises for both sides. Now, this one is a waste of time (sorry). Has anybody had fun playing this one?

Diiiiiiiiiinsdale! Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinsdale! CM3 : Spiny Norman vs. Army Group Center

To make this really work, they'd have to give you much more info about the program than they probably want to. Not that I wouldn't like an CM-OS (Open Source) version, but can you imagine BTS make a living from hotline support only?

I have to admit my only experience with flying WWII fighter-bombers comes from IL-2, not Real Life®. Now I imagine being ordered on a mission like this : "Comrades, your orders are to start at 7:30 next morning, fly about 2 hours NW towards Vodkagradyinsk until you see the ruins of the power station, then turn west. Cross another 100 miles of open steppe until you reach your target (points to completely empty operational map, showing 10.000 square miles of completely empty steppe) here. It's an area 500 x 500m, supposed to be occupied by fascist troops of unknown composition. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait another 30 or 40 years until some imperialist nerd invents GPS, so you'll have to rely on your gut feelings to find that spot. Good luck to you. And good luck to our own troops in the area because they will be about 800m away from your well-hidden targets. By the way, I can't give you the air coordination frequency because it's top secret. Never mind, most of our radios aren't working, anyway." I'd drop my bombs on my own hangars (for practice) and land again. Next mission. IMHO, you couldn't allow ATRPs on rural/open/small maps, simply for the lack of landmarks identifiable from the air. Such landmarks that could be designated as target areas could be bridges or villages, provided they are not likely to be confused with other small villages nearby, etc. etc. A flying can of worms. As I see it, AC in CM can not be regarded or used as dedicated support for your force (unlike artillery) but instead as random events. Nice to have them drop by but ultimately unreliable.

I think the point is not to improve the Artificial Incompetence's chances by giving it more troops to waste. The Ai drives 10 tanks on a coverless hill in the middle of the map. All get knocked out in 3 turns. Give it 20 tanks instead. All get knocked out in 5 turns. Does that make it more fun to play vs. the AI? Use the AI for learning the game, then go play vs. humans.

My nickel on C3. It has reached the point of statistics for statistic's sake already. I just imagine Steve and Charles reading this thread, shaking their heads a little, then closing their browsers and going back to work again...

Ahhh, the old days of the C64 version. I had to overclock my machine with 0.99 Mhz to play the larger scenarios. Modding required you to sketch the bitmap on rastered paper, then entering lots of zeroes and ones. My datasette took 15 minutes or more to load the game. Too bad it was never available on modern floppy discs. You've come a long way. Keep it up.

Thanks for the 3.6 MB pic, it's worth every single bit. JPEG, next time, please.

Just set up a test scenario with some guns in woods, opposite tanks at different ranges. Use the LOS tool. Chances for first hits are displayed with the target. This obvoiusly does not account for moving targets, obstructions, suppressed gun crews etc. but it should do the trick. BTW, do not forget to post the results here because I'm too busy playing to do this test myself...

To be fair, I don't think the grogs, übergrogs and metagrogs on this forum show an elitist attitude. Quite the opposite. And without the people posting 10-page essays the thought of, say, trying a reverse slope defense would never have crossed my mind. Not that it ever worked, though. Maybe I should read a book...

I believe the AVRE fired a shaped charge for use vs. bunkers, so the blast from the explosion was (partly) directional. This could explain a reduced blast value for this shell.

Steve: CM is a game, among the finest I've ever played, and this forum is about CM gaming. It is not intended to be a place for ideological shouting matches. And I'd be more than happy to keep my mouth shut and let others have their opinions if it wasn't for the post by Schoerner. Schoerner, you must be living in a country very different from the place I know. I don't want to elaborate on this, I just couldn't let it stand uncommented on a forum site I've grown fond of. Jörg out

Just to add my 2 cents, despite the fact it has been discussed to death already.. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) the law prohibiting the display of swastikas as well as the SS runes was introduced shortly after the German republic was founded, sometime in the 1950s. The country was still full of old-time nazis in government, the education system and the media. No one knew which way the new state would go. So a deliberate decision was taken : allow freedom of speech/expression, but apply a certain degree of censorship regarding nazi propaganda. Lots of thinly disguised nazi propaganda writings were legally published after the war anyway, only the display of those quasi-mythical symbols of 'power' was prohibited. Remember, the concentrations camps happened and some people were really scared of such things happening again. Whether this was justifying censorship or not is up to you. No sane german politician today would propose changing or abolishing that law, for obvoius reasons. Anyway, as a german I still feel somewhat uneasy about seeing nazi symbols being displayed without them being put into some kind of context. Symbols *are* powerfull. The Wehrmacht mythos still *is* powerfull. I suppose there are more SS re-enactment groups in the US today than in Germany... Regarding CDV's decision to change the name: it is not 'verboten' to mention the SS (although the double S-rune is), so it could be called Political Correctness being overdone. It was probably done not to alienate customers like me. And I doubt (sorry, really) that most people complaining about historical correctness know what the SS organization really was. As a second thought, maybe most members of the SS at the time didn't know, also... Jörg