Strontium Dog

Hi Headhunter I missed this earlier. If you could try them out in CMBB that'd be great to know. I guess they'll only not work if the number of bmps used in CMBB is different but even if that is the case you could just duplicate a couple of the ones at the lowest and highest elevations. (I think?). Thanks too. Glad you like the water mod

Hi Panzer Ace I use Zipit and this seems to generate zip files which PC folk are happy with. Wouldn't things be easier if everyone had Macs

Hi Brett Just use the load selection option under the 'Select' menu. You can choose any of the currently active layer masks by making the appropriate channel selection. Once the selection is loaded all you then have to do is save it to the new layer mask.

Good to hear that a few of you have braved the rather large download I thought I ought to point out (just so you're under no illusions) that the mod only includes hi-res terrain and road tiles (and some blanks instead of tree bases). The trees and so on come from a mixture of DD's and Gary Kump's snow mods (which are available at http://www.combatmission.com/ I also lifted some of the winter trees from the CMBB demo as I thought they were better looking than the ones I had (actually it'd be nice to have the snowed on equivalents at some stage too). I've got a winter water mod to go with this as well but its not finished yet. I'd also like to make it clear that this mod owes a lot to Tom's battle of the bulge mod so the credit should really go to him. P.S. Does anyone know if these would work in CMBB? I really must upgrade my system so I can try that out.

Wow!! Fantastic stuff panzermartin.

Hi guys Just thought I'd mention that I've uploaded a snowy/muddy/slushy mod to the database (http://cm.cozog.com). Its very similar to Tom's Battle of the Bulge mod but I put it together as I wanted a muddier look to my battlefields. While I was at it I thought I might as well make the texture maps a little bit more detailed as well. Here are a couple of screenshots:

Hi Quintus I hadn't actually realised that the Germans invented these in WW2. As you say they are certainly nasty enough to have been used effectively. It does beggar the question as to why the Germans didn't use them doesn't it? Perhaps it was just down to Hitler's somewhat schizophrenic personal 'morals'? I've just been looking around the net trying to find out a bit more about why they weren't used and it seems that there was a reluctance to renounce the Geneva convention (although presumably only in a selective way) amongst the German military staff. According to Albert Speer (at Nuremberg), Goebbels tried to promote the use of gas after the Dresden raid but was apparently not sufficiently influential (taking anything Speer said with a pinch of salt of course). Perhaps they weren't all bad after all? Although saying that its still difficult to see why these gases weren't used towards the end of the war when the German position was desperate.

As Franko pointed out, Hitler most certainly did use gas in WWII (cyanide). The thing about gas is it doesn't work too well in the open air. To be effective it needs to have a low LD50 (lethal dose) and be relatively heavy and hence not too easily dispersed. In WWI everyone was sitting in trenches so lobbing a heavier than air gas (e.g. chlorine) into a trench was reasonably effective. The gas moved down and through the trenches and bunkers and anyone who tried to get above it got shot. However, as has also already been mentioned it was also difficult to control. A lot of friendly gassing occurred in WWI. The gas was released (literally from a big cylinder in some cases) and wafted off towards the enemy only for the wind to change and suddenly there were lots of 'friendly fire' casualties to deal with. I also don't think the gases availbale in WWII were toxic enough to be used effectively in a non-trench warfare scenario. That has all changed now of course.

Thanks. I'll see what I can do. Glad you like the water kevsharr - the water mod isn't cmmos compatible I'm afraid. I'm a Mac user so I don't know how to do that.

I think it's probably this: "guter Schuß" which means "good shot"

Oops! Sorry about that guys. I'm not sure how I managed to miss that bmp out. I've just uploaded a new version to the database with the missing bmp included this time. Thanks for spotting that sniper. Peter Panzer - I have been thinking about modding the winter water. Do you know the numbers of the offending bmps?

Hi guys I've just uploaded a new water mod for CMBO to the mod database at http://cm.cozog.com/ I started with Magua's water mod and have added more detail to the edges. There are now rocks along the riverbanks and you can see the riverbed in the shallow parts. I also changed the surface colour and texture and roughed up the outlines a bit to make the overall effect a bit more natural looking (in my opinion that is). I left the ford largely unchanged as I liked it the way it was. Here is a picture: I'm not sure if it'll work in CMBB as I don't have it yet but it might?? Hope you like it. Stront

Just thought I'd add my 'Jagdpanther' vote. Strangely alluring. I also have a fondness for the T-72.

I've just noticed that when designing a scenario, if you choose say the East edge of the map as an exit edge for one side then the troops and guns (but not vehicles) of that side will all face in the opposite direction (i.e. West in this case) when the game starts regardless of how they were positioned initially. I don't really understand why this should be the case. Could someone cast some light on why this happens and whether or not this can be prevented?

This site has some useful information under the 'How To' section: MODs and MODers

Thanks for you thoughts Agua. I think I'm getting a better feel for what the AI can and cannot do well and I'll certainly make sure I playtest my scenario as much as possible. I've actually just run into a small problem which one of you guys might be able to help with. I've been playtesting the scenario I'm working on with fog of war turned off so I can see whats going on and playing both sides alternately (I'll play test it against someone else later). One really weird thing I've noticed is that when I play as the Americans all the German units are rotated 180 degrees from their setup positions i.e. they all face backwards! Has anyone seen this before? If so how do you stop it happening?

Thanks for that Frunze. I'm just about to give up trying to persuade the AI that exiting the map is a good thing to do. It just doesn't seem to want to know. The AI is the defender in my scenario but its a bit more subtle than that and that just throws it completely. I think I'll have to stick to making it a 2-player affair only.

Hi Treeburst155 Thanks. I've actually done that already but the units still seem to just sit there and do nothing. Any other ideas? Strontium Dog

Following on from the above please see the thread I posted at in the Scenario Talk forum (I thought maybe that was the place I ought to have posted first but now I'm wondering so thought I'd mention it here too ): http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=002157 Any help greatly appreciated. Strontium Dog

Thanks Treeburst155 Sounds entertaining. If you don't get enough vets then I'm keen to be cannon fodder. Strontium Dog

I'm not quite sure what a ROW tourney is but I'm keen to find out. Strontium Dog

Hi guys I'm working on a CMBO scenario and am experimenting with various flag positions and so on to get the AI to behave in the way I'd like it to. I've also built in a map exit as part of the axis objectives and I had assumed that the AI would try to maximise its score by moving units off the map (at least towards the end of the game). However, it seems that this isn't the case. I just whizzed through the scenario to see how the AI reacted to having an exit edge but all the AI units just sat there and did nothing. Am I expecting to much of the AI? Cheers Strontium Dog

Thanks Kingfish That makes sense and explains a lot of what I've been seeing. Its quite a tricky business balancing all the points and getting the AI to behave in a relatively intelligent way. I'm starting to appreciate all the work that has gone into a lot of the scenarios out there! Strontium Dog

Hi guys I have a couple of questions about scenario design that I wondered if someone might be able to help with? 1) Do the victory flag markers have a major influence on the AI? So, for example, will an obviously strategic position only appear as such to the AI if its marked by a victory flag or is the AI a bit sharper than that? 2) How are the bonus points for units exiting the map calculated? Cheers Strontium Dog

Great job! Thanks.