Lucky_Strike

And what's that I see in the distance?
 
Just a moment whilst I put my specs on 👓
 
Is it a 🦅?
 
 
Is it a 🛩️ ?
 
 
... no ...
 
 
... it's 🎅 delivering an early gift ... 
 
 
 
... not really, but ...

...
 
 
... got it?
 
 
... ohh yessss!

... big @ss chimnies'r'us

... is it big enough? Is too much?

... texture needs a bit of work, depending on the size. Absolutely not tested, and unknown what might happen if anyone gets inside which they might be able to do. A free glass of my whisky for me if you can guess the host. Answers on a postcard, closing date for entries tonight, my time.

Repetitive strain injury - what we'll all end up with no doubt 🥴
There we made it for them ... 😝
Not a chance!

So I had a look at the shelter. I placed two wooden bunkers in a section of the Twin Villages master map from FB with snow and everything for added fun. After I had figured out where was a good location I made a big ditch, wasn't sure how big/small it had to be; turned out it was way too much. Both positions ended up being one tile wide by three long, and 2m deep; the bunker at the front, door at rear. One was a regular MG wooden bunker, the other your special wooden shelter. I couldn't really see any difference once they we placed, both were quite well embedded in the terrain. I had four squads of infantry - two scout squads, a breach squad and a FO as lead squad. Two squads per bunker. The MG bunker squads went in, one squad became the bunker team the other their visitors. All happy and warm in their bunker, LOS as expected etc.
With their neighbours in the special shelter it was quite different. As soon as I placed them in the shelter it was obvious they had been beamed off somewhere. I looked in the corners but couldn't find them, no floating icons anywhere. Targeting tool showed they were behind the bunker in the corner. So I elevated that corner by a few meters to see if they would get good LOS over the map, which they did. What I then noticed was that one of the missing squads, the visitors, was actually way down below the map. I could just see their icon at the edge of my field of view, enough to click on it. I tried to lock my view to theirs but I just ended up staring into space. The other squad, the ones who took over the shelter were nowhere to be found, clicking the bunker gave me their LOS but they were just nowhere! This corner of the map was at an elevation of 630m. From what I could see the visiting squad were just outside the edge of the map maybe at sea level? 0, 0, 0 in X, Y, Z coordinates? The occupying squad ...?
I probably need to see a few more examples as this wasn't a very scientific test. But it's definitely mind bending. 🤯
 
 

whoaw I like the details of this picture, and I like all others pictures and movie that you did and will do, in fact I like all what you do 😎
 
JM

Just when I thought that the Mods couldn't get any better, you throw this together and BAM, here you go Red Thunder Gamers. Your uniforms and all of the other items that you added for the Hungarians are Freaking AWESOME!!!! Now it is very possible to have German SS and Hungarian Troops in the same Scenario's or Campaigns. Your work here Kohl is greatly Appreciated, THANK YOU!!!

that could well be a possibility. Hehe. 🤓 At least on some my upcoming maps, which are not all urban as well. But it´s bits more of a map making effort since you got to make the "illegal" placement thing. Vehicle type objects first, then placing  a building on top. Needs bits of planning ahead, as well as memorizing which things go where and in which order etc. But if acquainting and training on it things can go smoothly and rather quickly IMO.
so to say.... 😁
Guess they´re busy with UKR related stuff and/or planning on more DLC with old game engine, who knows. 🤔 As long as CMFB CW forces will be next, I don´t care anyway.

Yeah the flipping is quite useful just extra work and most mappers forget it's even there as a possibility.
For sure - there'll always be those we can't satisfy 😝 ... limitations of the game as far as I'm concerned. 

Yes that would be very useful. And truly 3D ground tiles.
Haha, yes, I only design the stuff I'll leave the click-fest to others! 🖱️

Some screens from my ongoing playthrough of Broken Shields.
 

BFC has only one old vagina. It can maybe have a baby in 9 months. Maybe. Sometimes, just all talk and no getting pregnant. Not too often you see it pump out twins.

I hear that someday in the future the CMFB module has the British late war forces? Maybe just wait for that day? 2023, 2024, 2029? hahaha
 
 

CMRT FB TINY BLESSINGS OF SZENT LASZLO
^
Part of the Festung Budapest Attila Line defenses, east of Soroksár, Hungary. 2 November 1944...just over 10 km from Budapest city centre. It is late in the afternoon, the sun sets behind you on a cold and wet day. A light wind blows from the north. 
^
You are a young föhadnagy (1st lieutenant) in the 1./I Parachute Battalion. Your units are well trained and highly motivated. But there are just a few of you to balance against the low morale of the common Hungarian infantry. Your position has several heavy weapons in support as well as a small variety of defensive fortifications to position. An anti-tank ditch has been dug by forced labor. Dark Blue set-up zone is for you to adjust the deployment of all axis forces, foxholes and trenches. 
^
The Soviet tank and infantry force is probing forward to determine the level of resistance they will encounter as the siege of Budapest develops. 
^
Your objective is to block any passage of the Soviet forces through to the west.
^
You are ordered to hold out for 10~15 minutes. The enemy gains points by exiting forces off the west edge of the map via a small exit zone. When the Honvéd (Royal Hungarian Army) stops that exit, it takes points away from the Red Army. You have a parameter bonus if you can keep your own casualties below 25%.

To get this, go to my signature dropbox link, then go to CMRT section and see the folder for CMRT Hungary Mod. In there are the 2 mods folders, 1 mod folder is just the soldier names changed to Hungarian and you can plop in z folder ONLY AS NEEDED, the other folder is modtagged and can probably be in z and not cause any issues. Emphasis on PROBABLY. 🙂
The scenario file is there for CMRT scenario folder. Restart CMRT and have a try as axis vs Soviet AI.
"Based on a true story."
 

Thanks, that´s interesting. Pity I´ve pushed BS Demo off my HD again. But I see concrete barriers in unpacked BRZ folders which I kept for evaluations and maybe "stealing" one object or another. What FO category is concrete barriers placed in in 2D map editor? 🤔 Is it a category we have in WW2 titles as well or a unique BS one?
Otherwise I´d say it really depends on "how" you make your test setup and perceive things. My (WW2) pixeltroopers do place "behind" FO only when one is in the way and a situation requires them to stop and do react on things. From my observations it´s a random thing and no "cover" evaluations are to be made for anything. That at least counts for WW2 titles FOs.  So that´s my perception on FOs providing "cover".

LMAO go bud go...

Bit early for discovery of the year lol. There still might be ill side effects I haven´t accounted for yet. Need more testing for sure. Aaaand everything mentioned happened above ground mesh. Hard to explain so below´s the wooden shelter file and the META data hack was "just" setting Meta1_0 to 1.0. Anything below default value does the mentioned effect on wooden shelter (beeing enveloped by ground mesh and crew "caching"). On my test building (Indi "building000.mdr") it does the terrain mesh thing as well but pixeltroopers behave uneffected. Thus far.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6r5g1eahbb1cj1/RHZ bunker-wood_hacked MDR.zip?dl=0
As for apertures I think I´d noticed changing some the META does have an effect on them. That was 2 years ago, so got to investigate these again. Memory.... 🤪
I´d just tested on the single straight trench section thus far. But just making them somewhat smaller, geometry wise. No serious META hacks on them yet. There´s some limits on how pixeltoopers behave or interact with trench objects. Making them too narrow makes ptroopers either place themselves outside or in unwanted ways. The straight section as seen in my screens above is sort of a compromise here. They´re bits narrower but not too much. For trench shapes I´d intend "remodelling" the existing geometry to look more "natural". Same time sticking very close to original geometry size & shapes so META data and its effects remain preserved. (..until we figure out what all META does)

Here´s some test map examples re wooden shelter resilience vs some selected RU Arty and ground attack AC. (82, 122 and 152mm + 1000kg(?) bomb of Pe-2). What artillery couldn´t do (hit and kill), a heavy bomb did with a near miss.

The blue hit decals on sandbag cover indicate 82mm mortar non damaging hits (3x).

though we got survivers from the initially 9 strength german squad. (see their "Tiring" status from space warp running from map location 0,0 which is about 200-250m away south-west) "Shaken" status seems appropriate considering their little home bits of got moved its foundation. 😅

wooden shelter/dugout #2 didn´t receive any hit and squad no 2 still has a good time in there. (seen in pic #2). If russian spotter FO would´ve had direct LOS to the dugouts, hitting chances would be somewhat increased. (target enemy unit instead of target area + TRP). But it´s hard (to almost impossible) if wooden shelters are level to or slightly below ground. I´d tested with RU spotter FO beeing placed in 8 story high mod building as well. Then dugouts can be spotted directly, if no other LOS obstruction is in the way (trees...).
 

Elizabeth says that chocolate upsets the stomach, although I've always found the offerings from the Birdcage Bordello most agreeable.

We are looking forward to seeing the result of your outstanding great work🖕

Well, hmm, there's always bits of maps that are just never used, it's in the nature of the game to have a centre of play then some peripheral stuff going on and then dead zones. So having a backdrop of distant objects that are not as far off as the horizon but in dead zones isn't going to break anything in terms of game play IMHO. I totally agree that something in the centre or periphery should function correctly, or as near to correct as we can force it to. In the case of a tall chimney, if it's in the play area, it would be nice if it could function as a tall observation structure - like a church tower can. But if damaged it may be off limits for this purpose, in which case it should offer some cover and/or concealment. Outside of the play area casting a shadow is about all it would need to do, it would have to be explicitly off limits - damaged and hollow.
If it's being used in a corner of the map that's never going to see any footfall - all maps have those it's usually where dishevelled tank crews end up hiding ... then a flavour object could easily do the job. However I have a wondering mind - I may have an idea that would perhaps work in both use cases - another experiment is called for, and possibly a human sacrifice to create another me ...
 

Is it a missile destroyer, can't tell from your image. What's the original look like. Alternatively we just find a model of a WW2 destroyer and swap it in ... it's nice to have a backdrop, but at the end of the day it's not essential.

Well, hmm, there's always bits of maps that are just never used, it's in the nature of the game to have a centre of play then some peripheral stuff going on and then dead zones. So having a backdrop of distant objects that are not as far off as the horizon but in dead zones isn't going to break anything in terms of game play IMHO. I totally agree that something in the centre or periphery should function correctly, or as near to correct as we can force it to. In the case of a tall chimney, if it's in the play area, it would be nice if it could function as a tall observation structure - like a church tower can. But if damaged it may be off limits for this purpose, in which case it should offer some cover and/or concealment. Outside of the play area casting a shadow is about all it would need to do, it would have to be explicitly off limits - damaged and hollow.
If it's being used in a corner of the map that's never going to see any footfall - all maps have those it's usually where dishevelled tank crews end up hiding ... then a flavour object could easily do the job. However I have a wondering mind - I may have an idea that would perhaps work in both use cases - another experiment is called for, and possibly a human sacrifice to create another me ...
 

LOL Ive been called many things but yep this is a first....

If it's only you playing the map then sure, fill your boots soldier!
But for other players, playing someone else's map, this probably won't be the case. I personally would find it less immersive and wholly unrealistic. Consider also that they offer no block to los as well as no cover. That's not immersive to me it's map breaking!

Small flavour objects that would not really present as hard cover or block los in real life are different though. Consider that there are actually very few stock flavour objects that are large, I suspect that's for this very reason. If BF was to use large objects they would have to ensure that they presented as hard cover and blocked los. They haven't because they don't and to do so would be an epic fail for immersion.

That all said, there ARE lots of ideas for objects that are wonderful and would make the game prettier for sure, it's just worth bearing in mind the consequences of these shortcomings for gameplay with larger objects.

Hope that helps! All the best!

Think both approaches are valid, but me personally prefers stuff that is also good for some in game effects like cover, obstacle and LOS obstructions etc. Would be great if one could have both though. For beeing obstacles of any kind I´ve figured out most flavors already. For LOS obstructions I´d have a closer look at haystack and sheds META since these block LOS quite effectively. META Unkn1 and Unkn2 triplets could be likely candidates.
For beeing hard cover I still have doubts that any flavor object offers some. Not even large fountain seems providing cover, although it´s great vehicle movement blocking object. That´s the stuff to look for in pillboxes and trenches META since these are the more "simple" type cover objects. Off course vehicle type object is not flavor type and some the stuff is likely be hard coded and thus inaccessible (to modding). Currently I´m investigating wooden shelter META data and have bits of success already. More to come very soon I hope.
 

Flavor objects do indeed provide cover.
I found this out in 5 seconds in cmbs. I placed 100-200 concrete barriers down and my troops crouched behind them, and also had a ridiculous kill/death ratio when shooting at troops in the open