BadgerDog

No, all changes to Z directory were external to game operation .... Regards, Doug

I removed Vein's weapons sounds and Mike's vehicle sounds from Z directory ... Installed this mod in Z directory with thanks, in order to do some testing ... Had some oddness.... Tank would fire, then sound was 3 seconds later... Replayed the same shot and there was no sound this time... :confused: Couldn't hear any vehicle sounds either.... Un-installed this mod and everything returned to normal, so I put Vein's weapons sounds and Mike's vehicle sounds back, which also worked fine as they always had... Anyone else have any conflicts with other mods and experienced similar issues? Thanks for any feedback... Regards, Doug

Thanks for the feedback ... appreciate the sentiments, but to clarify my previous post, I really don't want to get involved any further with more book technical specifications versus real world experience type arguments.... all over a GAME !!! Indulge me here, just for a minute. The reverse speed according to the manual is X, however is that with a worn "sun gear" or not? Let's start a new thread about worn sun gears. Also, you lose about 10% of X if you haven't cleaned the air filters, so maybe we could start a thread over that variable and argue until the cows come home. Do you see what I mean? I'm out .... Thanks for listening ... Regards, Doug

I have no idea what you're talking about... :confused: However, according to my wife, if you give me a coffee break, you'll have to retrain me ... To be honest, I should have just let this thread go and spent the time actually playing the game and enjoying it, instead of trying to convince anyone that the M4 Sherman did rock when firing. I was simply trying to address the original poster's incorrect assumption, at least about the Sherman ... I apologize for commenting at all... lesson learned. I'm off to get my daylights punched out by my long time PBEM partner .... Regards, Doug

Some of you guys need to start worrying about some more important stuff ... I used to whine about having no shoes, until I met a man with no feet Regards, Doug

Holy snappin saffire .... :eek: Well, I can tell you that a Sherman M4 rocked somewhat when I was in it. Enough on firing the master weapon that my head would roll backwards a good 6"+ away from the sighting telescope and I'd have to re-lay the master weapon for another shot. The suspension contracted, the barrel rose up and the rear end went down, even with the muzzle brake on the 76mm M4A2E8.... The only time it didn't rock was when we're firing blank rounds on training exercises. The darn barrel never even moved with those loads. I also don't remember a lot of rocking with Smoke or WP rounds.... I was wondering for a minute if I was having a senior's moment and if I had forgotten my personal experiences, or was remembering them incorrectly. So, I just checked some real world footage to see if I was confused and having a bout of early onset dementia. :confused: Here's just a quickie video I found with Google..... Some of the most obvious examples are at about 3:15 into the video. There's different angles and different terrain (which does affect rocking motion), but the bottom line... she ROCKS !!!! Now, the question is.... does the animation in CMBN etc, exaggerate the real life rocking ... perhaps... but it's a freakin game and I love the rocking motion, which I actually thought was a nice real life touch compared to past games I've played using tanks. Regards, Doug

Well, I've been around the game and I suspect around life in general, perhaps more than most folks here. I've been into board games and evolved to computer games starting back in my Compucolor and Apple II days in the 70's, buying my first IBMPC right off their production line (employee purchase program) back in early 80's. Cost me $7,000+ then ... :eek: I've never found any game that I've stuck with so long and that has given me so many enjoyable hours of entertainment per dollar spent, then the BFC line of products. Plus, I've met a LOT of great people and made some long term on-line friends from all over the world playing PBEM ..... Their business model is built around being an entrepreneurial life style business, not something that will grow to the size of Apple. I suspect nobody, owners or otherwise in this company, are driving Maserati's and living in beach front property on Maui from the EBITDA this business generates... Just my two cents from a long term happy customer.... Regards, Doug

Yes, correct, at least as I was trained on the .30 Cal Browning MG. Barrels burnt out fast on sustained fire and also suffered from inaccuracy under high heat. For timing purposes, we were trained to say the phrase to ourselves "son of a bitch" as we pulled and released the trigger, holding the trigger down as long as it took to say the phrase ... Regards, Doug

We used to call those secondary explosions ... Regards, Doug

That's very true .... I see you've experienced being "closed down" with fellow tankers too ... It's an acquired smell ... Regards, Doug

:eek: You've obviously never been inside a Sherman, particularly when the master weapon fires and a huge wash of cordite stinky flame blows back, hitting the inside rear of the turret and wraps itself both ways, all way round to the front, singeing the back of the gunner's head. .... Fresh is not a word I'd use in front of tankers ... Regards, Doug

By the way, it wasn't also an exit used to avoid MG fire if abandoning a disabled vehicle, but we did train to drive over a wounded man and using the tank as protection, haul him inside through the emergency hatch. Nobody would ever volunteer to play the victim, so we used one of those medical training dummies ... Regards, Doug

The bow gunner (and driver) in a Sherman M4A2E8 would use the emergency exit hatch under the bow gunner's seat to escape, if the other standard hatches were blocked with beer cases, or whatever ... It drops away from the belly plates and we used to practice exit drills through it ... my buddy was a big guy and it took a boot in the a$$ to get him through the small opening. Regards, Doug

I think that might be a giant leap to conclude .. :eek: If not, then someone tell me which Shermans I should be selecting as my grunts freak out with the first round hit, usally putting their head between their legs and kissing their a$$ goodbye, refusing to get a grip and engage much of anything after that ... So, I don't think it's a general problem as described, but rather something in the code sequence that went on the for that event. Just my opinion based upon my own experience using Shermans in CMBN(CW).... Regards, Doug

Thanks for the video, but I'm confused ... Are you saying you lost because every American tank with a Veteran crew, rested and +1 leadership behaved with this kind of toughness and tenacity? :confused: .. or, was this an anomaly, in an otherwise regular match where you win some and lose some of these types of engagements ... Just curious ... Regards, Doug

Having qualified and trained on the 81mm mortar, plus experienced calling live fire with it, I can comment on its specific use. It's not as simple as looking at a map and picking a 6 figure grid reference off a map and kapow, away you go. In real life, to call a fire mission without GPS and other modern navaids, you need to know where you are on the map you're staring at, which I can tell you in the middle of smoke, chaos, stress and managing a green platoon leader, is a challenge unto itself. Once you get oriented and are sure you are where you think you're supposed to be, then you need to know that the house on the map you're looking at is the same house you're eyeballing, which in our game terms is simulated with LOS. Once you confirm that by looking at relative terrain features around the eyeballed house and comparing that to the little dinky black spot on your map, then you might feel safe in using the grid reference from the map (converting it to griddle secure coding first), to transmit as a fire mission over the net. Usually, only to find out that the freakin resources are already in use by someone else. To be honest, I really don't have much of a problem with how LOS and use of it in the game for indirect fire works. The tough part is getting into a position close enough to the bad guys without being seen, or buying the farm, so that your LOS you have is effective enough to call the fire mission and provide laterally and distance corrections. Anyway, just my two cents worth from an old fart .. Regards, Doug

Outstanding program ... I couldn't keep up with playing PBEM matches without it ... Regards, Doug

:eek: .. but the beta version I've been using is great ! Regards, Doug

Hmmm.. I have a MacBook Pro running 1.10 and I can't seem to duplicate that anomaly ... :confused: Regards, Doug

An excellent point ... Regards, Doug

ClaytoniousRex .. Are you the same crew who produced "Armored Combat" for the iPad? Even the music is the same? Regards, Doug

While I'm waiting for those ... When can I pre-order Combat Mission: Shock Force for my Mac? Regards, Doug

Hi Ken .. Off-topic and I don't really want to mix threads, but ... I've read the same Internet legends and gossip. I don't know about it being myth, but I collect and own Garands, shooting them regularly at our local range. With some testing we did last summer, everyone could clearly hear the sounds of the garand ping out to at least 50 yards, even with everyone firing at once. We couldn't test further distances because of safety issues, but suffice to say, it is noticeable. Perhaps it's due to the very high pitched distinctive sound it makes, I don't know... but I could hear it, even with ear defenders on. Regards, Doug

After considerable play time with this game (I stress it's a game), I think I've found a good strategy of maximizing the effectiveness and kill ratio of your Sherman tanks, if you're playing as allies. First of all, it really doesn't matter what kind of Sherman you pick, but this tactic only applies to scenarios with lots of bocage. So, here goes…. German tanks, Stugs, Jagdpanzers etc, all suffer from an inherent game deficiency in their usage during battle maps that employ a lot of bocage. I don't know if it applies to Tigers with higher turrets, as I haven't had a lot of playing time with them. The essence of the winning tactic, is to take advantage of the way the game uses LOS and for efficiency of coding, models what you see from your side, when you view a Sherman sitting behind bocage. Pull your Sherman up as tight as you can to the bocage. Even then, the sighting telescope of the master weapon is behind the bocage foliage itself, so in real life, the gunner would never be able to see anything unless they cut a hole with a chainsaw thought the sight line of the gunner's telescope. It appears from the Sherman's point of view that the tank is hidden in behind the bocage and perhaps only the gun barrel is protruding. However, I assume that this is only some kind of graphical representation of what is actually going on within the coding. I say that because the gunner's sighting telescope and hence the front part of the turret, must be sticking out through the bocage to the other side since the LOS for the Sherman has a clear field of view. On the other hand, perhaps since the Sherman's silhouette height (being greater than the German vehicles I mentioned earlier), permits the Crew Commander's LOS view to be clear, it's somehow mathematically tied to the LOS of the master weapon for coding efficiencies? I guess it's possibly an artifact of coding for current processing power using a simplified grid square approach to the game showing less, but representing something more. It really doesn't matter as it is what it is….. Now, to the point ….. if you're the Sherman player, your advantage is that you can see the German vehicle, whereas they're LOS can't see you. For whatever reason, even if they're also up tight pressed into the bocage, they only see bocage on the other side, not the Sherman behind it, which has a good LOS on them. Why, I don't know. Maybe the fact that the German CC's LOS is lower because his turret is lower behind the bocage and so it's blocked, which affects how the software code shows what's out in front? However, that contradicts the LOS shown to the German vehicle which is BLUE right up to the bocage where the Sherman is hiding behind, yet the Sherman can't be seen. Anyway, I'm not looking to start an uproar and I haven't any further comment, except to say that if you are playing the German side and you see Shermans moving into position behind bocage, do not assume they can't see you behind the same bocage, just because you can't see them. I've started a vehicle SOP when playing the German side, of backing up when I see that pattern coming in the software code, or if I'm playing the allies (which is not often), I've taken advantage of this anomaly with some great success. Try it out in a live scenario and let me know what you think. Just my two cents … Thanks for listening .... Regards, Doug

From an old post I made here almost 9 years ago ... Regards, Doug