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Brent Pollock

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Posts posted by Brent Pollock

  1. On May 21, I posted two "vs AI" versions of a battle on the SD site. It pits Guards Cav vs SS Cav.

    Here are the current download stats:

    WBRP - Company Town (vs Ad AI); 85 downloads

    WBRP - Company Town (vs Ax AI); 64 downloads

    Both are still on the Current Submission table, so the apparent bias in favour of donning SS uniforms can't be due to "Marketing".

    I noted a similar bias in download rates when they were imultaneously available on The Proving Grounds site, although I didn't record the numbers.

    Discuss...well, discuss things other than the fact that I am a lousy statistician...

  2. This is a more detailed version of the guess I'm going to put forth:

    - it will have tanks (non-amphib) smile.gif

    I'll go even further out on a limb

    - it will not have helicopters tongue.gif

    Originally posted by Bigduke6:

    The BigDuke6 Theory of Wargame Developement Says: "Cool Armored Vehicles Sell Games".

    The "How You Milk It" corrolary argues that if you want to maximize your computer wargame sales income, you split up the releases so that each new release contains a previously unreleased combat vehicle, because to impress wargamers you need either a really spiffy engine, or cool war vehicles to play with.

    The biggest gamer market is ww2, and the coolest ww2 vehicles are Panther, TigerI, and TigerII; not necessarily in that order. TigerI and Panther are roughly the same time. TigerII isn't.

    Panther and TigerI give us a time window, roughly, of late Spring 1943 to Fall 1944. There's two of them so that's double the cool factor, so that means the first game must fit that window.

    That leaves BFI the options of Italy, Normandy, France '44 for the basic engine. I agree with the Tom Hanks factor: it's obvious they'll pick Normandy.

    It is true the real Second World War was decided during the late Spring 1943 - Autumn 1944 time frame on the East Front, as that encompasses everything from Kursk through Bagratian. It would be great if CM2 developement went by historical importance.

    But Tom Hanks never rode in a T-34, so tough tankies to that idea. It'll be Normandy and I am sure the hedgerows will be pretty.

  3. If you edit a unit to "PANICKED", the owner will not be able to do a thing with it during set up. If you hit the space bar to call up its orders options, nothing happens other than a CM error warning "beep". So, you can't even:

    - dig in/out

    - relocate

    - rotate

    - un/hide

    - set an arc

    Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere, this will prevent an artillery observer from plotting a pre-planned barrage.

    [This is not mentioned on p. 170 (CMBB) nor p.152 (CMAK) of the manuals, nor did a previous mention of it come up with a forum search.]

    [ June 04, 2005, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Brent Pollock ]

  4. So, rather than relying on the swacking great legion of scenario designers and all their synergistic noggins, you'd rather rely on the handful of guys responsible for the Random Battle coding ;)

    Originally posted by jim crowley:

    [redacted by Brent] Irrespective of wonderful graphics, relative spotting, advanced ballistics or anything else, I really do not want my gaming experience to be entirely in the hands of scenario designers.

    I want the freedom to be able to roll up a random (or otherwise) battle without designer bias or constraint.

  5. ...uh...yes...as I'm sure we all do...and would like to see dug outs & fallback dug outs that we can set up empty, then reposition into...but that's just a tad off-topic.

    It seems that the width of the arc was causing the problem, as suggested by Kingfish's data. I narrowed the arcs on the StuGs down to something pretty close to their actual arc, and now they are holding the cover arc command quite well...I count this as a minor, minor, minor bug, that I am certain never popped up during playtesting (I mean really, ask yourself, just how often do you use dug in AFVs, let alone turretless ones?).

    I continue to be baffled as to why the Wespen, [also turretless, for those who need reminding] which have the full 180 degree arc, have not experienced this problem..."issues" with restricted LOS, perhaps?

  6. Kingfish's narrow arc seems like it is likely the answer, but I don't understand why his Wespe wouldn't keep its arc as it does not jibe with my results. In my PBEM match, both Wespen keep their arcs, but the StuGs lose it.

    The StuGs losing their arcs in the PBEM match are not Green, nor Conscript (and wouldn't even show one in the first place if they were the latter, nor would it come up on their command list).

    Ditto for the Wespen, which are also dug in.

    All units were given the maximum arc (distance & width), centred on their dug in facing, so I don't know why each Wespe seems content to keep its arc.

  7. How long will it be before we begin chanting, "Dutch Trucks Now! Dutch Trucks Now!"

    ;)

    Originally posted by dalem:

    Sounds to me a little like the ASL run.

    ASL rulebook released with Beyond Valor - gave us the basic rules and 90% of what we needed to fight the Germans against the Russians. Then a series of modules that each added some rules or refined extant rules while bringing us a new "front", time period, and/or participant.

    Seems familiar, seems reasonable, seems yummy.

    -dale

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