ozi_digger

HTML will still allow cut scenes (imported wmv) hell I made a couple of movies for meta-campaigns and each person that saw them said they were fantastic. Clap clap clap, good work, now where do I pin this little award on that I made for you? Personal gratification is very different again, but just saying no for the sake of your own preference would be personal gratification too. catch-22 Mate. Just saying no for the sake of it? Perhaps its you who needs to re-read a few posts. Especially where I accept the briefing system can be bettered but perhaps we should be careful what we want included. I think your misinterrept what I am saying if you saying MD is on the same wavelength , all I am saying that all these a nice but I would like the briefing area expanded then what it is. I was referring to HTML being the best format. How Battlefront do it or wish to do it, is up to them as long as it is expanded I am happy. I concur up to a point. I still reserve the right to wait to be happy with CMx2 until after I see it.

Thanks for stating the obvious Jon, you couldn't have feigned indifference for a little while longer...hmmm? EDIT to include obligatory smiley (i.e. read: picture!)

Umm, no... but sit tight and hopefully we'll get some help to you real soon.

[razz]I hate to say we are sometimes on the same wavelength MD[/razz], but I was actually thinking HTML briefing screen would be the way to go because it offers the most flexible options. (BTW you forgot Flash as a presentation medium) But, would there be licencing difficulties? (M$ and all that).

Hi Mum Oh, for the record, I have 3.5 copies of CM.

Hey old boy, d'ya know what odds he's got and what race? I feel like having a bit of a flutter on the GG's....

Oh what a short memory that rum-induced mind of yours has. I'm your pet dammit. Hmm, does that make my current incarnation a parrot? I think I'll enjoy sitting on yer shoulder and soiling these poofy leotards you're wearing...

FWIW. As the engine stands at the moment the only way to really simulate the pre-attack fire plan was in a pre-made scenario, not QB. I was tinkering with a scenario and you add a lot of shell-holes and suppress the defending side to a certain degree with a smattering of Pinned, Panic etc. The only problem was the lack of dust etc that the barrage threw up for the attackers to advance behind. At the time Steve (I think) asked for a poll of stuff to be included in CMx2 and I shortsightedly just asked for 'dust'! IMHO the incorporation of a fireplan in CMx2 would be a revelation and a more realistic work-around of the problem I highlighted above. A pre-planned barrage using some sorta method like 'covered arc' gets my vote.

Oh you even changed your sig line as well. Hope you can remember what it was tomorrow Dark Headbasher.

Don't confuse immersion with personal gratification. I get immersed in CMx1 without needing a whole lot of gumf. IMHO making movies for the start of a scenario is just adding another week of your time to what is probably an average scenario in the first place. I mean - its just a scenario...!? Sure, have the ability to add pics and sounds, whatever.... But the more you ask for the more programming time has to accomodate it. Doesn't matter if you are are genius at putting code together, its BFC that has to accommodate it. Like I said, there are much more important features I'd like to see first. You can argue to the cows come home and even say 'I know from personal experience at programming that this is easy...' but it doesn't negate the facts: 1. This isn't MoH, CoD or whatever fps attracts the teenagers. 2. Spending weeks on a beautiful, two minute, multi-media briefing for an average scenario won't make it a good scenario. 3. Inevitably you're gonna provide more information than was actually available historically or whatever. I can see it now... googleearth photos as 'aerial recon photos' in a WW2 brief... oh sheesh!

Y'know Ardem, if I had the choice of the man-in-the-jar fart-ars1ng about with what is basically briefing screen eye candy as opposed to developing strat AI, tac AI etc. I think the choice is fairly clean-cut. BTW, pls avoid phrases such as 'people like yourself...' WTF? What about people like me? Don't look down yer nose at me, mate!

Whoa, back up a second there. I was referring to the look and feel of a multi media type briefing, not the level of detail. Let me draw a picture for you. The CMx2 module we're playing is WW2. You decide to play scenario X and open it up. There briefing features a drive-thru of the battlefield, a voice over from your Bn commander, a situation map and a swag of aerial photos. I'm already starting to cringe. Not only have BFC wasted a whole load of effort trying to make it look like MoH or sumfink but you're deviating from historical accuracy as well. My point is that glamour is only skin deep. Sure I can see a need for the briefing page to be better. And I can see JonS' point - its only as good as the scenario maker. But the more bells'n'whistles it has, is the more a simulation starts to resemble a video game. Be careful what you wish for.

I recognised that as the central theme of the thread and just wanted to put stuff in perspective. The only problem that I see is that you give CMx2 the capability to do wizz-bang briefings and it can be used to create unrealistic or unhistoric effects. The same can be said about a multitude of CMx1 features I s'pose, but be careful what you wish for. A multi-media WW2 briefing (for example) may create the wrong 'look and feel' and be 'gamey' instead of a simulation of a given era.

Y'know, as soon as I read that in Pong, I just knew you'd be over here ranting and raving. Now MD, adopt your best officious tone and go over to the Cess Poolers and inform them that they've posted an AAR in the wrong place, blah blah blah it belongs in Scenario Talk blah blah blah.

this is worth a bump

After reading this thread I had to go back and have a look at the start how far it had wandered off track. Well, technically it hasn't, not by much anyhow. I reckon CMx2 can probably jazz up the briefings a bit but it will depend on the era we're talking about. I made the same mistake a few weeks ago - someone starts talking CMx2 and I start assuming its gonna be WW2. Well, a module or two will be anyway. My point is this: ACW brief - yeah sure, have a sketch map. WW2 - maybe a map with latest guess at enemy dispositions. Modern - same with maybe a photo. A briefing's bells and whistles are proportional to how contemporary the era of the CMx2 module is that your playing.

Jon, it seems to me we've just gone full circle. In my first post, we've already taken care of our casualties without losing pixeltruppen from the 'container'. Its done by the abstract, ephemeral non-pixel truppen. Personally, I just wanna play the sharp end. Statistically we know that only a small % of troops actually would fire their weapons. Thats fine. But if you wanna take it to the nth degree - you purchase a company of blokes and only 1/3 bother turning up for the match? Where's the fun in that? EDIT: I just had an afterthought about the fun factor. Equally unfun would be after the first odd angry shots are fired in an engagement and you click on a squad and it shows. 7 OK, 1 WIA, 5 MIA. I like it when Steve just sorta says STOP! I'm sick of all yer book-learnin blokes coming in here with how we can make CMx2 more realistic, I mean its gotta be playable too! [ September 15, 2005, 10:16 PM: Message edited by: ozi_digger ]

See, this is another pet 'peeve' of mine. I think brittleness is already modelled accurately with the experience levels of sections. I know that some texts point to it happening, but some I've read (Oz WWII Official History for instance) mention some Bn/Coy/Plts taking 50%+ casualties and still being in the fight. I'd bet my bottom dollar you'd find it in some instances from all countries. Basically conscripts will be brittle and veterans aren't. Why make things too complex?

G'day 76mm, I don't play campaign at all but I was curious and went to the website. Downloaded the instruction pdf and had a look. This looks awesome mate, good work! Now I reckon I might have a go at a homegrown CMBB campaign someday.

Here's how casualties are handled in *my* version of CMx1. A soldier in a section gets wounded. When I click on the section it shows, for example, 9 fit blokes, 1 WIA. The Bn stretcher bearers, wearing their Red Cross © run out and pick him up and take him back to an aid station. CM is an ideal world that follows the LOAC and no wounded guys get shot at again, nor do my stretcher bearers get shot at. All of this suits me fine and it is done in my Imagination . If I wanna simulate picking up casualties on a battlefield I'll go and get a copy of Chopper Rescue or sumfink. The bottom line of this rather flippant post of mine is this: why do you want casualties modelled so accurately 1:1? Wouldn't you rather get on with stuff involving the pointy bit? I have to agree with Steve's priorities - animations of a mortar crew would be the duck's guts. Animations of stretcher bearers, losing 2 additional men for every 1 casualty, having a clearing station etc just doesn't do it for me. Not to mention individuals in the section straying away from their 'container' and back again. Why does it need to be so accurately modelled? :confused:

*stops staring out window and starts paying attention* Who me? Yeah, Gav's been just as tardy with me also. Call me a typical laid-back antipodean if you will *shrug*, but I just didn't bother mentioning it in the hope that Gav would pull his finger out.

Yeah, no worries, have your homework on my desk by 9am Monday, please.

Yeah, good on you you feckless git, you win. Oh, I know, I have a better idea. Instead of just letting this thread die a natural death, lets keep revisting it every 10 days or so and resurrecting it to the top of the page! If you don't have anything constructive to add MD, there is always the Peng Challenge or the General Forum to bring you up to 20000 posts.

You can document that? I would have thought the 25pdr too heavy to be carried in any of their trucks. And I am assuming that would just be for transport. Firing one off the back would seem...unlikely. Michael </font>

Plus the LRDG used portees... 25pdr portees in some cases...!