ScouseJedi

Surely everything was a dirty industrial black in the big cities. Certainly Liverpool's fine archetecture was a uniform black until the 1980's when centuries of coal fires and industrial pollution were sandblasted from the walls revealing the stone beneath.

I've just bought his book and now Dorosh is saying its a load of poop. Damn

Yeah thats probably a little low on the memory side. </font>

LEFT SHIFT while a disc 'boots up' in the CD_ROM drive prevents it running. Of Course having the 'play game' option actually working from CDV's CD autoplay menu would be just as good.

I have been thinking about the new engine and have come to the conclusion that it will have better graphics and be more realistic (have I surprised anyone?). That got me thinking about borg spotting and how the game would work without it. The game is set at Battalion level (feel free to correct me) with the player as God. In a modern environment perhaps the commander in the field would actually have enough information coming in from his forces for CM:BB to be realistic : ie he can direct individual elements in real time with modern advanced communications. WW2 was not like this. As you can tell from my example I am no expert on squad level battles but, in BoB during the attack on Foy, Easy company were attacking with another Co (Iota?). The inital attack by Easy Co nearly ended in disaster but Iota followed the original plan. Now, transfering that situation into a CM:BB scenario the player would change the movement orders of Iota Company in order to prevent them entering the town piecemeal after the other Co was compromised. Would a more detailed and realistic combat experience (CM2) actually take some of the free will and choice away from the player. Surely the player as commander would spend much time laying waypoints and providing fallback positions and then essentially sit back and wait - interacting much less with squads and tanks. In 'We were soldiers Once' (the book - is the film any good?) the commander stays in the LZ and runs the battle with whatever information is passed to him. The lack of information coming to commanders 25 years before that must have paralysed commanders in WW2 indeed many generals fought the war from stately homes and chateauxs. One solution would be to throw the player directly into the game. Im not talking FPS but something else. On the map we would see all units in LOS with the player. We would see other units shaded out by FOW. Even his own units positions would be estimated once they were out of LOS or radio communication. This would introduce perhaps the most important unit for C & C - the radioman. A company with a living radioman would be in effective LOS other units it was in actual LOS and other units with radiomen still alive. Their contacts would be known within the radio 'net'. Units outside the net would have to either return to actual LOS of a radio unit or proceed with AI only. I am not an expert in how communications affected the art of warfare in this period but I just can't see how a non borg targetting game could still allow the God like attention to each squad and unit that exists in the game as we see it now. If a player can only see LOS enemies, he can switch to another unit see a tank approacing unit A, return to unit A and react accodringly. The player has to be thrown into the field of battle complete with blinkers over his eyes. I don't want this thread to be a wish list for CM2 but what are your thoughts on Command and Control in WW2 and CM2, where actual units independent to a degree which would make a player a spectator?

Shouldn't you keep an empty chair between yourself and this man just to be safe?

I gave up after the first 4. I found it tiresome that so much time was devoted to characters that were not involved in the final story in any way. Of course they might have something to do with the later books set in the 60's (?) I read the Wheel of Time and have only space for 1 indulgent writer. Turtledove's Guns of the South was a much better read.

I think its was a little narrow minded of the Germans to fail to release an English Version. It must have impacted on sales at the time. You see, thats why the Bible is the most sold book - its pushed by its publishers and translated. Ill bet Panther Fibel was never printed in French or Russian either. Nice one Third Reich - way to go to alienate the reading public. .. Its looking at stuff like that that makes me regret learning Spanish and not German in school.

PC Gamer (UK) gave CM2 'Game of Distinction December 2002' (Age of Mythology got game of the month) Review is painstakingly copied out below, any spelling mistakes are mine. ... This is an appeal on behalf of the Acute Militarisma Society. Sufferers of this debilitating and litte known condition are unable to partake of cinematic entertainment with military content without pointing out inaccuracies to companions. The innocent enjoyment of war movies like Kelly's Heros, Saving Private Ryan and Battle of Britain is cruelly denied them. Where we see Tiger tanks, they see heavily disguised Russian T34/85's. Where we see Messerschmitts they see swastika-sporting Spanish HA-1112-MIL Buchons. The symptoms of AM can also be brought on by PC games and their packaging. Surprisingly, the successor to the most realistic WWII wargame ever caused terrible reactions across Europe. The trigger had nothing to do with the facts and figures behind CM2's incredible rnge of 3D units and thouroughl convincig combat algorithyms, but instead was tracable to the publisher's plan (thankfully now abandonned) to put an American GI on the box-lid. Apart from the appearance of the odd Lend-Lease Sherman, Uncle Sam and the other Western Allies sit out this slow-paced but quick witted Eastern Front sequel. On the surface it seems little else has changed. Visuals benefit slightly from more polygons, higher res textures and 2D landscape decoration, but the fusty CMBO engine is still powering it all, meaning no dynamic lighting or volumetric smoke. I could wheel out most of the other things I griped about in 2000 (unimaginative presentation of scenarios and lack of a strategic layer and team monitor) and add a few new ones that have begun to grate in the interim (the inability to add waypoints for group movement and the way tanks don't obstruct LOS), but this would misleadingly skew a review of a game which delivers the most subtle tactical experience the PC can provide. In CM2, carefully prepared plans are soething you wrap your sarnies in or hand on a nail in the latrine tent. The one thing you can be sure of in the 60 second non-intervention sequence that follows the orders phase is that Chaos & Calamity are waiting just around the next corner, just over the next ridge. A red-hot MG42 jams solid in the teeth of an Ivan infantry assault. A Panzer platoon is thrown into turmoil after the command vehicle crushes a mine. Ask too much from your men and, like birches bending under the burden of dead paratroopers, they will quiver and break. A new suite of orders gives finer control over your fragile forces but also erodes elegance to a degree. In the past, Big Time Software have demonstrated a pleasing distain for micromanagerial excess but this stand appears to have weakened slightly in CM2. Though new tank orders like 'hull down' (vehicle seeks a position where it can engage a target with only its turret visible) and behaviours like automatic unbuttoning (commanders open their hatches on their own initiative) actively reduce mollycoddling, when faced with a choice between eight modes of infantry movement I do find myself hankering after simpler times. Of course, theres no pressure to make use of the extra, fussier, commands right away. It's a testament to the extraordinary shrapnel sharp AI that it's possible (but not easy) to win CM2 battles through inspired use of the 'Fast Move' order alone. Left to their own devices, friendly troops select their own targets, outgunned AFVs scuttle for cover, and more gung-ho units forgotten in the rear move up in search of action. If your tired of playing the role of omnipotent puppetmaster in your strategy games and want instead to experience something of what its like to marshall men whose notions of duty are entangled with visions of homecoming, then this is the title for you. The sense that combatants are fashioned from fallible flesh and bone is nicely enhanced by the new 'death clock' feature whereby gunners pound away at targeted tanks until they see smoke or evacuating crew (Previously they knew immediately when a knockout had occured). A few extra shells and seconds spent confirming a kill might seems unimportant but in CM2 the whole complexion of a battle can change in the time it takes for you to poke your head above the parapet and say "If I was a sniper, I'd be up there in that chur.." Definable cover arcs are another welcome innovation, eliminating as they do the rare but annoying losses in CMBO caused when tank commanders forgot threats once they'd disappeared from view. Other action related changes are in themselves fairly small but combine to conjure up the cut and thrust of WWII land warfare even more accurately and more compellingly than before. The closer you inspect the finely tooled innards of theis game the more impressive the workmanship is. You might notice that your Jagpanthers seem to hit hit their marks more regularly on frigid days. It could be coincidence but then again it ould be down to the fact that BTS have gone to the trouble of modelling the effects of air temperature on Axis tank optics. AP shells in most other strategy games slowly chip away at stamina bars. In CM2 they ricochet, partially penetrate, they flake away internal armour, they kill crew, they detonate ammo - eviserating factory fresh vehicles in split seconds. Befitting a title that takes technical minutae so seriously the 60 scenarios and 10 multi-battle operations are all nicely historicised. Splendidly, the excellent quick abttle maker now allows you to contest home made maps as well as randomly generated ones. New terrain types like factories and cemeteries enhance but dont manage to make urban maps look much more naturalistic. Though, inevitably, this is not the watershed that its predecessor was, its still a towering tactical triumph and the very few games recommended by both PC GAMER and the cash strapped (please send what you can) Acute Militarisma Society. PC GAMER PROFILE CM2 is: Cunning, Cursed with a poor demo, unsually bug free CM2 is not: Simple, Sudden Strike, A huge steppe forward Also worth a look: CMBO and Stalingrad (film) 86% Review by Tim Stone

I wonder if UXcva has a Mac?

Which versions are you all using? I have no textures CDV 1.01 edit : added spec amd 2200 GeForce 4600 30.72, 512 Mb Ram Win XP Home SP 1 nVidia common link? [ November 21, 2002, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: ScouseJedi ]

MatMatt - is there a reason the two versions are so different in size? edit: Stpid question really, answer is yes. So, what is the reason for the size difference please? [ November 21, 2002, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: ScouseJedi ]

We can all not d/l now and swift can never play another game against a human. With European patch this size could BTS try to get it on a few magazine CD's for the broadband challenged.

Before anyone starts on Battlefront for all we know it could be a patch that was used to test compatability only and not the final release. 43Mb copy protection is extreme in the least. I can only think that the patch will include lots of video adverts for other CDV products (or an early beta of CM:Austerliz to Borodino

ill let you know Phil in about 33Mb 30 minutes ish edit prevented Phil being called pil [ November 21, 2002, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: ScouseJedi ]

Either they forgot to zip it or CDV's copy protection is 43Mb I've got CDV version CMBB so Ill install it and let you know what it is 24% so far 14kb/s

Thats what I thought but the 'monks were the best damned shots' implied that there were Germans and Monks in the monastery at the same time. Given the fact that the German commander was a devout Catholic and had pledged to keep his forces away from the building I thought this was the case. After the destruction though all bets were off.

Does this quote mean that before the bombardment the Germans had men inside the monastery? This goes against my (less than perfect) recollection.

Thank you for the link. A guy my father employed was in Tarento when the John Harvey was sunk and told my dad some information - very little as it was all hushed up. With this link I can make my Dads day - thanks a lot.

VE and VJ day?

Are you sure you're not trying to boost your post count?

I thought that whinge was an Australian word mainly, often combined with the word Pom. Customer Service is easy with a small customer base. With the arrival of CMBB it is good to see very little negative customer relations posting on the boards. How many people that are satisfied post their satisfaction compared to the numbers of disaffected customers? (I want P numbers as well) Great job Battlefront.

Right, you had to didn't you. Now I have to get dusty digging out some old Dragon magazines to find out how long. I always thought that that was a great advert. I'll post it in an edit when I find it. edit: thank God it was in Dragon 137, I have 99% of pre Clan Battletech but it was too out of reach... Centurion. 'You ride in 250 tonnes of molecularly aligned crystaline titanium, wedded to a ceramic ablative shielding. You carry a 200mm Gauss Cannon, two massive 10 Gigawatt lazer, two SMLM fire and forget anti-tank missiles, a Vulcan IV point defense system, and a medley of other equally lethal armor defeating weapons. Your vehicle is the ultimate product of 5000 years of armored warfare. Your life expectancy is less than 2 minutes.' [ November 05, 2002, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: ScouseJedi ]

Im becoming a grog... I saw the MG mounting ring on the turret cupola and thought - hey thats a Panther. Maybe Ill be able to win against the AI by the time CM10:Berlin on a wing, a prayer and a Pentium VI. Mind you I just modelled the MG ring on my Panther model for OFP so maybe it was too wasy.

OK, here my thoughts... I would tend to agree that the present law in German works better as a piece of revisionism. However it does serve a useful function as well: I had just changed my German flags 440, 420.bmp to replace the iron cross with the correct swastica. I wanted to know exactly how it looked so in google.co.uk I enter 'flags ww2' searching for images. Sure enough, on the first page of results was exactly what I was looking for. I clicked on it and made my images. The site I clicked on gave full instructions to make this flag - complete with stiching arrangements etc. Now what the hell would you want to make this flag for? Germany's law protects me from the people who have produced this site. On another note, does the European Convention on Human Rights give EC country citizens the right to freedom of speach? If CMBB was a historical or education tool I would get a bit more worked up but sadly its not, its entertainment. Historically accurate and education entertainment but I'm afraid it must legally be classified as a game.