Eden Smallwood

If it's not Huge, I'll bite. Eden

After a certain point in a scenario, ( I don't know what point that was though ), my Matildas absolutely positively refused to use their AP ammo for any reason. If the unit still had MG ammo, when selecting a target, it would ask me whether to use the main gun or not, to which I reply "yes, d*mmit", but it will not, not ever, using MG instead. If the unit was out of MG ammo, it would not ask me that question, which makes sense, but still it allows me target, then refuses to fire whatsoever. Even with 77 AP remaining. In the same game, I had a BA64, with 15 ammo left, who would not fire at anything- he just absolutely refused. I saved that game and reloaded it at that point twice. First, he proceeded to fire on infantry normally, second he refused to fire whatsoever, again. The Matildas are consistent- they just won't fire, not even when they are in immediate close threat from infantry. In this scenario I have a large number of infantry who are low on ammo; not everyone, just alot. Hypothesis: is it possible that when many units are severely low on ammo, that something in the code will cause *everyone*, even those with plenty of ammo to refuse to fire whatsoever? Do these strike you as buggy behaviour? Eden

Well if it didn't weigh much more afterwards, then I'd like to know which one that is, wwb. I don't know what OP is asking for, but for me the sense of "Huge" which prevents me personally from playing most ops is the having-a-bazillion-troops Huge, so many that I would be clicking for years to take a turn, if my little iBook didn't burn up trying to render them first. But "cost" or "overall" hugeness, which doesn't impact on my CPU or the number of clicks-per-turn, that is not a concern, for me, maybe neither for OP? Just a thought. It would be nice if we could tell the difference beforehand, between CPU & Click Huge, and Overall Force Huge... Eden [ November 23, 2002, 08:11 PM: Message edited by: Eden Smallwood ]

I was going to say, "...when you come here to take a break!!! GRRRRRRR!! GHRA! GRHAHA!! GHA!! Ha? Eden

GUESS WHAT • • • • • • • • • • • Yes they did come in handy there, though I initially thought I would want those SMGs for infighting. On turn one, I *ran* those turkeys to a more central location, only to *run* them back when infantry started appearing over there! Thereafter, though I had littered the way left field with a good many SovietScum I could not bring the majority of that force back to the middle- small units kept appearing and *pestering* me over there the whole game, trickling in bit by bit... Well it's not that exactly- I don't have a problem playing repeatedly, inherently, assuming there aren't "surprises" or whatnot. But with the number of scenarios showing up at SD, it's about all I can do to try each one once, so the issue is fairly moot. Yes, the one camera left was 'disputed'. In AAR, I see a couple SovSquad over there, eating dirt and wishing to go back to the farm, so I could have walked all over that flag, but the battle was clearly taking place to the right of center, where there was a huge get together of Sovs in that copse/rough area. Sovs kept one T34 alive who was just a chickenpoop staying way in the back. I don't blame him. One schreck I placed with those SMG took a halftrack late game. A schreck I hid way up the road right had his chance to take out the last T34 coming from that direction, but decided to just stand there and aim, though he had only thirty or less meters to deal with. Turkey. Sharpshooter had maybe a chance and a half but failed. Setup took me forever- trying to place units in a good spread, but keeping them in command was almost impossible given the terrain dips. And I've got maybe two boxes of ammo left in the whole field; ammo was really really tight. Eden

Well, what's taking so long? No, I'm sorry but that's not an option. As to this scenario.... Hmmmm. NOT REALLY BUT KINDA SPOILER • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Actually, I don't mean to tease like this, but now I think I have more to say than I can type before passing out tonight- it's a good scenario, although it might not have replay value, (possibly), the setup zones make me wonder if there's a 'puzzle' to be solved there or not (why are my SMGs out, but my Rifles are in???), and I'm not sure whether I knew, or was supposed to know, from whence evil things were coming, though I guess I guessed ok. Would you like my AAR file? Tells almost the whole story, at least to me. ! Got a minor Major, lost alot of good German kids, lost a tiger and a gun. The gun was 'dumb', the tiger I lost to a tank that spent almost the entire game as a generic unit icon being chicken in the back, only to pop in just at the right time to killtiger. Held the tanks back probably a bit too long, costing the troops; they didn't venture more than 100m, doing the lion's share of armor kill from their starting positions. The one flag noone seemed to care much about... Well I guess I type fairly quickly anyhow. Eden

Well I'm not sure this was supposed to be fixed or not; it's pretty close to the problem of a hiding unit unhiding when a dead tank or something is in the arc, the bug that was supposedly fixed. On that one, I don't know, but I just played a scenario where the gun wouldn't quit UNhiding, because there was a tank in his arc, not a dead tank this time, but it was nowhere near his LOS. So... ? "B" word? It's like our problem with using arcs to try and ambush- unhide doesn't happen when "I'm ready to shoot". Bummer. Also, I see the Mtc w/ Arc thing allegedly added; the readme didn't specifically say, so I was hoping that giving an Armor arc would make my tiger Move Till "Something To Shoot At", which with the Armor arc would of course be armor. But he wouldn't budge, so I guess that wasn't in the works. It would be consistent that way, though. I also noticed that a shreck with an armor arc would not shoot at... an Armored Car? I guess only tanks and ReallyHeavyStuff counts as "Armor"? Eden

Oh, sorry! I'm really bad with faces- I thought that was Mr "Ok Maggots?!?" smiley, but now I see it was his illegitimate half brother, Mr tongue-in-cheek smiley. -- Mr Plain Vanilla smiley Eden

We've been waiting for you: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=002225 Eden

SuperSulo: If the preferred avenue of approach is near the edge, then that's where I'm going. My conclusion would be that the map should be a bit wider, rather than feel guilty for advancing near the edge. Mr Dorosh: Yes indeed- shame on me for not reviewing Cemetery, among many many others. However, I have made a bit of progress in the review dept. I have maybe three or four or so, but Cemetery will be absolutely the *last* one I review- the Colonel, ( the first person in recent memory to spell Cemetery correctly in a post subject; I'd expect no less from a Colonel ), is possibly the last person here who does not know very well what we all think of it. As long as I'm behind, I'm focusing on two types of scenarios- those I really like, and those that I like or have potential, but are in some way busted. And scenarios on the CD can wait till the end- we're all going to play them all anyhow! But I guess I'm addressing your other thread here, sorry; back to the Cemetery with us: I've played it two or three times- the first time as defender. Oops, but I was pretty new to CM and didn't know what the heck was going on. I play "cautiously", and do not bring out armor from the back row unless the infantry encounter a roadblock they cannot reasonably defeat by themselves, or unless it's time to "mop up". One set of armor I kept hidden near that corner, waiting for the infantry to get somewhere; the other set I *oooozed* out of the left side of the forest in the middle, painfully slowly, trying to entice that first ATG shot which by all rights should have been staring right at me, but in fact never came. In the corner, I located and took an ATG with infantry, by assault no less, having run out of mortar long ago. It was painful, but acceptable, there being few other options- I have the corner. Now who's still firing at me? Both of my 'bring-out-the-big-guns' prerequisite conditions applied soon enough- the troops were having a heck of a time getting anywhere, and an EFOW cloaked pillbox finally revealed itself way on the back row, where it would take days to get to with infantry at the current rate. It looks like the defenders need just a touch of cold steel to send them screaming anyhow. The troops have taken the corner up to and including the houses, ( yes, they're still standing, you violent people ), around the roadblock; I drove all my fully functioning vehicles to a point just inside the roadblock, and they've got a big score to settle. Ceasefire/Draw on turn 20. Too many troops are low on ammo, but I wish they would have consulted their commander first, because the vehicles are ready to rumble. For me personally it is disappointing not to have a small flag in that corner, since taking that seems to me true progress, but there you are. Eden

And the AI's pillboxes and stuff won't be on the backmost pixel, at a minimum! Also, something which is important to me, but not everyone apparently- I don't like being in contact on turn one. I've found some scenarios will do that if I let the AI place units, but not in the default setup. So for all these reasons a scenario should be played with default setup if one is going to review it. Otherwise, a player's opinion of the Balance doesn't reflect what the designer put into it, at least. As discussed here, the whole rating thing is problematic enough already, without adding complications. Eden

What's the scenario? In some scenarios the concrete is still wet. (This, btw, is how the Russians captured so many German AA guns - wet concrete traps.)</font>

Excuse me for using the word "refusal"; just the opposite really, of course, I'm referring to what was touched on before. At end of turn, you manually target the enemy and he fires willy nilly no problems and the enemy is pooping hard and you're wishing you could have targetted him a minute ago. I personally believe that I've seen this "lack" of friend saving fire before in cases where neither LOS nor any other "silly" thing is a problem. That's what I believe, and... that's what I believe. It's not a big problem for me, I play every day, I'm not saying it's frequent, I'm not saying the coding sucks, I'm not saying it's not a great game, I'm not saying, nor have I ever said that I'm seeing "horrible problems without Cover Arcs [which] will most likely continue..." Ack! If there is official disagreement that this behaviour exists then so be it! I'll live! Honestly, my troops do just fine in 1.0, and so far in 1.01 so good! ( Just played SP-Library; the best one I've played so far from SP, imho. I took the board with basically just infantry- I didn't even *move* the tanks until turn fifteen, when I moved them to the side of the road so the halftracks could get by! I used the HTs somewhat, but ended up leaving the tanks there the whole game. ) I swear to you my infantry is just fine. Now I've got Abbot (Abott? Abbott? sorry) quoting me while suggesting that "those who still have problems should use vets till they get it" or something... I'm sorry to rant but I don't see why is it so difficult to discuss these types of things without being pigeonholed into a whiner or someone who doesn't know how to play or what have you. Well that's good to know also, and helps explain why I can survive without them. If we add that statement to the preceeding blurb, perhaps we have the most accurate understanding yet. But if you focus on the word *maximize* in my inferrence, I think you'll agree that what I said does in fact follow directly from your previous explanation; it's just pure logic. I thank you for your continuing explanations which do after all affect play. I wish we could discuss these rough edges and/or subtle nuances here more often without adversity. Over and out, Eden

A halftrack, bogged in "Road". Concrete type o' road, even. Is this supposed to be possible? I mean, it's not a big deal to me, personally, but I know that 'excessive bogging' is one of the things tweaked in the patch, and I've never bogged on concrete before, so, er, I dunno... anybody want the saved game, or should I just eat my Wheaties™? Eden

Well, well, well. WELL! I believe this little gem belongs in the FAQ, or in the patch "manual updates" section, or something. I've been waiting since the demo to know what's going on with those *&*$(#$ arcs! And may I say that, if Steve has been using Arcs, which engender fire, and I have not, (which is the case), then perhaps we need look no further for an explanation of why Steve doesn't ever see the egregious refusals to fire that I have. Hmmm well it sounds good on paper, but I still don't think I'll be using them. In critical situations this is good to know, but... that would add an *enormous* amount of clicking to the average battle, to be sure that every unit is maximizing the usefulness of his "attention". My troops will simply have to make do, won't they? Eden

Hmmm well I didn't think so, but now I'll look for an image anywhere in the post- maybe that's it. Eden [ November 21, 2002, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: Eden Smallwood ]

Are there any "wrap margin" settings you would consider tweaking for me/we who have smaller screens? Some of these posts are so wide I swear I need to scroll over a whole screen width to read each line... Eden

Hey. Tanks are really tough in this game to "perfect", much more so than infantry, imho. One problem is, if you don't know the difference between a T34 produced in this week of September versus that Panzer made in that week of August, you're already at a disadvantage. You need to really know each of these units, or you'll get blown away. If you do the slightest thing wrong, you'll get blown away. If you misread the terrain, you'll get blown away. IOW, for a newbie, armor can be really frustrating. You *can* trust my opinion on that one. So consider playing all or primarily infantry until you really kick butt, then start adding armor to your battles. It can also make a world of difference if you can take out that one enemy tank with your infantry unit, so knowing how to get that unit to where he can do the damage helps alot. I'm not saying it's impossible, or give up or anything, just that it does take awhile, and during that while, you'd be a special person not to find it frustrating when all your armor gets blown away... Eden

Yes, I had the same exact experience- Scotty transported my reinforcements right into the middle of the battle. That shocked the heck out of *everyone*, I can tell you. Doesnt' bother me overly- I just pretended that they arrived in a snafu manner, coming up the wrong alley, or something... I agree that it was a bit of a pushover, though I'm not sure I would not want *any* reinforcements. Otoh, I didn't lose a tank, (snigger), or really anything else, for that matter. But for a better example on the subject of unneeded, I just played "Eye of the Storm". Not only do I consider those reinforcements unnecessary, I was utterly convinced of that *when they arrived*, somewhere in the middle- I had to chuckle out loud! So to keep it even approximately a fair fight I drove them all right off the map pronto!! Neither was I wrong- Total Victory 90/10. But that's a different story, and there's a bit more to it anyhow. [ PS or is it "Scottie" ? ] [ PPS I don't want to leave the wrong impression with Commute- it's a good scenario, particularly in that I find many city scenarios to have "problems" wherein they aggravate some of the limitations in CM. Those problems are not present here, so yeah, it would be worth fixing that reinf thing for everyone else... consider beefing the defense by... 15% (???). *Close* to a very good scenario, imho ] Eden [ November 21, 2002, 02:34 AM: Message edited by: Eden Smallwood ]

Oh yeah? http://angelfire.com/mac/programming/cmbb/AreaFireNoLOS.html Eden

Ha!! Exactly what I predicted, t'other day. Makes sense, and all that, and I for one can live with missing a few opportunities to inflict damage here and there, for the next couple years, but... Could we forward the suggestion I made last post to the programmers for consideration, that an enemy who is or has recently been wacking my friends should be considered a "good" target, where it would otherwise be considered a "pretty crappy" target? That would fix a good proportion of this Reluctance problem, for me, since that is really the one critical time where at the end of the turn it is simply exactly Too Late to tell my troops that I really really really really want you to spend that precious ammo. Yeah, even your last bullet. You can Withdraw afterwards, if you like. Assuming, (guys?), that we mostly agree on this one...? I have to feel that it is very possible that it is very easy to fix. And if you haven't seen this... YOU WILL! Eden

Oh! Ok, didn't realize- next time, NO problem! I haven't said that I see that most egregious non-firing, (when friends are being slaughtered), "all the time", but it does happen. I play *alot*, I think- a couple scenarios a day, since I got this crazy game delivered by Harrier jet... For a person to say they *haven't* seen this or that, is not quite as conclusive as to say they *have* seen it. Possibly they did, but didn't even notice- the battle continues. Yes. That's ok...(sniff)...limited resources...(choke, sob)...I really don't need to effective area fire behaviour to advance, I'll make do...(sob, sob, cry tantrum moan)... Eden

I've been wondering whether Advancing troops use their own cover fire with merely *suspected* enemy positions. IOW, do they announce themselves sonically to an enemy who may be near, but not yet in sight, ( and vice versa! ). Follow? IOW, do they fire their weapons when no enemy is yet seen, and are therefore loud and noticeable even out of LOS? Eden

Done! Being called a "dork" by someone named Mr. "Organ"... Hmmm. Ironic, but unimpressive without citing proper sources. I don't speak Peng- possibly this behaviour means you have Goodale Syndrome, and are looking for an education in how to be defeated gracefully??? Ah.... GRRRRRR! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: Now how did that smiley get in there? I just can't get the hang of this... Eden

Ah yes... "THE BATTLE OF CHEERY WAFFLE" - recently discovered ME, 194?, Cheery WaffleGrad, Ukraine (er... GRRR!) As self-anointed commander of the peanut gallery, I would like to formally petition for the Autosave files to be posted... somewheres. Then we (just me???) could actually load them and "watch", I think...? Eden [ November 20, 2002, 10:29 AM: Message edited by: Eden Smallwood ]