[AI set up facing - how does it work?]

Because they do! Suck I mean.

Seriously, hope you guys get a reply. Maybe call it "why does AI facing suck?"

[Is there a reason why the Syrians suck so badly?]

Thanks Dave, I gotta play around with that scenario then. The basic idea of having a quick game with "equal sides" sounded nice (for an CMBB oldtimer) but with some adjusted force quality it may actually be fun.

[Is there a reason why the Syrians suck so badly?]

Fat Dave, how complicated is it to change the scenario in the editor?

MissingReality - this is pretty much what I did the last time. Save the BMP for later, get the US attacked in the open, close range. Sounded like a plan to me, until the US Squads just returned fire totally unphased while my Syrian regulars shat their pants and dropped their guns.

I'll have to try the "get them in the butt" idea you suggest, but I'd at least like to see both US and Syrian Troops in that scenario on the same experience level.

[Is there a reason why the Syrians suck so badly?]

Not true - as far as I know, the standard Aimpoint found on many US weapons is a holographic sight, not a scope. Better than Iron, arguable, but still no magic.

Arguments could be made that the two M249 SAWs and the Body Armor also play a part, but should not protect an ambushed squad in the open.

At the end, it may all be right and well, maybe Syrian regulars really have no chance at all vs. US Veterans of same force size. But then I'd have prefered an opposition with a little more bite to them instead of this fictional conflict.

Maybe the ideal matchup will be Brits vs. US.

[Is there a reason why the Syrians suck so badly?]

Guys, thanks for the additional comments. Look, I'm not newbie enough to try and play Syrians same as US Infantry. That's why I had two squads in overwatch, with only short fields of fire to cover and only the third moving. You can't really be more carefull than that, if I could I'd also split off a scout team - yet the Syrians can't do that.

But obviously that particular scenario is porked beyond belief. Because it has symmetrical victory conditions, less troop quality for the Syrians, and even numbers of soldiers and vehicles on both sides.

I tried the ATGM ambush one yesterday, and easily managed taking down the US Troops on the second try. That one is considerable harder from the US Side too, since you only get a handfull of six-man scout teams.

So okay, obviously it depends on the scenario, but I still don't get why Battlefront included Al Huqf if it's as loopsided as a 6-year old beating up a 3-year old.

Can anyone recommend a Red vs. Blue scenario with highest quality Syrian units? (No Marines, so I think Airborne is out for me?)

[Request for paint ball advice]

What John said is important - I always played with a long-neck pullover, but the material in total should not be thick enough to make balls bounce off (it happens with "Bomberjacken" regulary). You won't see anyone ever playing here with less than full face mask either, and you certainly won't get a plain google when renting.

Oh, and contrary to DASmans advice, most austrian paintball clubs do not allow cammo at all - too much similarities with Neo-Nazis "Wehrsportübungen".

[Is there a reason why the Syrians suck so badly?]

I picked the Al Huqf scenario for some of my first trials because it's included and small-scale. Now the sides there are 100% even in numbers, and as I just noticed, the Syrians are in fact "regular" with the US being "crack" or "veteran".

Sadly there aren't that many other platoon-size fights included, and company+ gets a little large for a beginner.

Is it too much of a stretch to argue (Steve, that's for you to answer) that such a scenario shouldn't even have been included, if all the expected outcome is that the Syrians will get waxed over and over in the fight?

Maybe I'll be more happy with the other maps suggested, but finding out afterwards that included battles stacked so badly in favor of one side feels the same as QBs where the enemy doesn't move out of his spawn - frustrating.

[Is there a reason why the Syrians suck so badly?]

I'll try those scenarios (I already have the Ghost campaign loaded, and Hammertime I think) but still, I'm very curious: Why can't the Syrians even hold themself in a 1:1 firefight against US?

I mean, I understand they do not have a lot of the goodies. Low tech etc. But if a Syrian squad or three spot an US squad or two, while the Syrians are set in fixed positions, perched upon rooftops with excellent field of fire downwards, I can't for the life of me understand why the US Squad caught in the open can just shrug the fire off and shoot them off the roof. They do not have that much more firepower in their M4s than the Syrians in their AKs.

The syrian regulars behave like the old russian conscripts in CMBB somehow - scared to hell, breaking and pinning at the first sign of enemy contact.

[Is there a reason why the Syrians suck so badly?]

Hi Folks

I may not have enough experience yet, but seriously, what keeps me from playing this game more is the "snowball chance in hell" that Syrians have against US troops. And I really have to wonder why they suck so badly?

I tried the Al Huqf Engagement battle tonight again from the Syrian side. I had two squads in overwatch positions on rooftops, target arc set, and was moving the third up. Two US Squads run into my target arcs (one each for one of my squads) - one is in a house, the other in the open (not on the street, but sand nearby some walls). Normally you'd think that be the perfect ambush situation - them moving, one in the open, my guys set in position and waiting for them.

But what happens? The two US squads decimated my troops. Even the squad caught in the open sustained only one casuality, while my rooftop overwatch of 9 guys was wiped out. My third squad moved up to a wall in LOS to the US guys (while my other two were still firing) and was then also decimated.

I mean, it's bad enough that the Syrians have no option to split teams, or no air support, and arty that is about as fast as a snail. But when they even lose over and over again in small-arms firefights, despite having a cover advantage AND despite getting off the first shot, I have to wonder what's wrong with them?

Behaviour to incoming fire is also starkly different. US squads, when fired upon by a single enemy squad, will usually recover quickly and return fire. The Syrians get pinned and decimated all the time, as soon as the first shots hit (normally just muzzle flashes visible) I can't even area-target them to return fire, they are just on the floor wimpering.

I really don't get the appeal of this game scenario. If you play US, you win 95% of the time since your guys have X-Ray vision, never pin and kill hordes of enemys. If you play Syria, you start wondering if your guys are shooting blanks.

I tried scenarios with asymetric objectives, and it's still a straight out US slaughter.

Someone enlighten me. With the new patch, the feel of the game is superb. But the way the battles play out is just plain boring.

[Request for paint ball advice]

Hehe Slim, in Austria it is very uncommon outside of real tournaments to carry pods with additional ammo. At about 60 US Cent a shot you figure out why

Not uncommon to see the cover man of a real tournament team getting reimbursed by teammates for the ammo expended - which was usually the only guy to carry loads of extra.

I remember full-day games (with rotating "respawns") where we were trying to resupply some good players in frontmost positions... many a thrown pod that opened upon impact.

Ah, good point Thomm: Don't load dirty or old paint. If it falls down into the sand or muck, you don't want it in the loader anymore. You can always get close and "knife" (gotcha!) someone, that guy doesn't necessarily know you are empty.

[Request for paint ball advice]

Ah, I completely overlooked the fact that you're here from my town. Well, then my stuff certainly applies.

I found this here: http://www.paintball-pilot.de/spielfelder.php?feld=Wien&content=details with one picture.

So you're playing an Indoor range with completely artificial cover, and likely reduced marker speed (200FPS vs. 300FPS we used to run outdoors). That means even less range and precision on the shots (and markers in general are not sniper rifles)

Back in the old days (up to 2000 or so when I used to play) rented guns were CO2 based Tippmans, very low quality. Nowadays I've seen very good entry-level guns being rented out, which will not "cut" the paintball when firing rapidly (on some guns, if you are working the trigger too fast but not full range, or when the loader can't keep up feeding, you have a barrel full of wet paint - forget it then).

That means your game will be fast, close and personal, and you can make quite a bit of way in the initial rush without being too afraid of hits. Flanking is key, direct shootouts front to front are never a good idea in this setup, unless you can scare the other guy enough to get his head down so you can move. Your team wants to hold one half of the field (left right) and agressively push the other side, that's what I did with beginner groups - if your friends are more experienced, it can get more complicated.

What Brian said is right - your thighs will be sore because normally you knee behind cover and lean left/right to look out of it.

Oh, and also very important: Close shots are bull**** outside of tournament paintball (quite painfull). So when you catch someone unaware five meters in front of you, call "Gotcha" instead of shooting him.

Last thing I can think off: Make sure your team gives some names to the cover setups around the field, so you can communicate easier where the enemy is and where you are headed. At Wr. Neustadt, we had a position called "Elvis" for some odd reason...

To reinforce what I said above: Against intermediate or newbie guys, I was constantly surprised how far some guts will get you. Learn to slide into cover like a madman, and run further and faster than they expect you - don't let yourself get pinned and shoot back like mad to force their heads down, then run some more. Agressive and daring play won most of our games.

Bring enough water, paper towels (and a fine water sprayer, if you can find one, for cleaning the mask glass) and have fun!

[Request for paint ball advice]

Don't get hit, it hurts.

I used to play regularly, but that was a while ago. Most stuff depends on where you play, against whom, what environment and what gear. Quite a difference between cheap CO2 powered rental-guns and electrically triggered O2 fueled monsters like the "Angel" in my old days.

Generally speaking:

1) Abide the safety rules, wear the mask where indicated, and barrel plug gets removed only on the field before the game starts.

2) Playing against novices and semi-regulars (not bloody newbies) I found that he who's least scared to get hit can usually score. Meaning if you let yourself get supressed easily by some paint knocking on your cover, you might as well shoot yourself. OTOH standing up and firing back often threw my foe into his cover wimpering.

3) Standing up is not a good idea, however - contrary to what most computer FPS shooters tell us, you want to look out of low cover left and right, not primary over it.

4) You'll be surprised at the lack of situational awarness on the field. If you never did anything similar and lack the experience, you'll likely not see or hear anyone from the enemy team until you get creamed. (My very first game: Run ahead, jump on the tower, get shot in the face before having ever seen an enemy mask).

5) For me this meant that the initial rush counted most when sorting out where the enemys went. Here again: Depending on the quality of markers and players you are facing, you have to decide how far you can make the first run before dropping into cover. He who dares wins, unless the others are great shots.

6) Communicate. I guess I annoyed some other team members some of the time, but I did religiously call out any enemy movement I spotted (unless it would give away my position by ear). If you have a team of loners who do not organize themself and share their situational awareness, you're dead.

7) Find your role and perfect it. I never was a really good shot (despite wielding a pretty decent Automag with O2 and long barrel) so what I ended up was being the lean, small runner who would rush to the front and then ninja it on the belly to the flag. If you are 40 pounds overweight and have a great gun, you may want to sit back and cover the others.

One disclaimer to add: Austrian Paint prices were about twice or three times as expensive as US prices. I guess that US games see a lot more paint flying in total, which means more supression, less chances to take.

[the old CMx1 Operation type]

Agreed on this. The Operations were cool for having a continous battle flow.

[Final verdict on 1.10?]

Okay, okay, I'm sold!

Thanks guys!

[How to identify BFCs original QB-Maps?]

Thanks Mark. That helped.

[How to identify BFCs original QB-Maps?]

Hhmm. Most interesting, didn't know that. Did they fix it ultimatly with subsequent patches then?

There ought to be a way to have only tried and tested QB maps... I was under the assumption that all BFC creations had at least 5 AI plans per side.

Kinda stinks to play for 20+ minutes just to find out afterwards that the AI never got moving.

[How to identify BFCs original QB-Maps?]

MikeyD, I had a look at the "last changed" dates of the files, and they are pretty mixed (ie, not two solid groups of the same date).

SgtMuhammed, that's a most generous offer. It would already help if I knew how many QBs were included originally and with official patches - that way the "last changed" dates would have more meaning since I could then look for x number of oldest maps.

Thanks all so far.

[How to identify BFCs original QB-Maps?]

Hi Gents

Following problems: I've recently run into a few singleplayer QBs where the AI was sitting at their start point and did not at all do anything intelligent.

Assuming that this isn't an engine bug, I guess it means a few of the user-created QB maps I've loaded (three separate packs from CMMODS) have no AI plans.

Now, with 1.10 delivering 35 more QB maps, likely all to BFCs Gold Standard (various AI plans for each side) I'd like to simple get rid of the user-made QB maps in my folder to avoid any future frustration with QBs. But currently, I have all 1.08 original maps and user made maps mixed together, and don't know which ones to delete. Is there any way to identify BFC-made QB maps (by date or name or somefink?)

Or is there a location on the disk (cabinet file) I can just pull the original ones from and delete everthing else? I'd really hate to do a reinstall over something as small as this.

Thanks for the help

RS

[Final verdict on 1.10?]

Hi Guys

I still haven't patched up to 1.10 yet, running 1.08 in the meanwhile. Haven't played in a while to be honest, but going into my first PBEM yet with someone who already has the Marines module.

I know 1.10 brings a great many changes, but some also claimed problems with pathfinding and other small things. Should I wait for 1.11?

[GPS guided munitions, cars , trucks ...]

The military GPS signal is encrypted and relies on specialized access to hardware components as well as diplomatic clearances to become an end user of that system.

Jamming that signal (overpowering the satellite signal strength) is obviously possible, but spoofing/faking that signal should not be, unless you just so happened to stumble about some of the best kept NATO keys.

For civilian appliances however this is of course a massive potential for disaster. GPS is everywhere these days... even civilian air traffic is now going to GPS both for En-Route and soon also for Final Approach Guidance. Now spoofing these signals might actually result in crashed planes.

I think one possible solution would be to have the limited number of GPS Sats each also transmit a key or authentication, which would be known to commercial GPS recivers, but can only not be read directly out of reciver or the sat signal.

[Tape Drives a Viable Alternative to DVDRs?]

Boeman, now I have a more complete picture. What you are doing is similar to what my friend does in his company, albeit he only has about 700 gigs worth of stored data after a few years. 15 gig a week is a heavy collection - if you keep up this speed.

In this case, I would reverse my above scenario. Your primary backup and archive would ideally be with a Blu Ray writer. Put the original data on there as soon as captured, then add edits later when you are sure they are done. This will be "permanent" so no changes afterwards, just as archival storage for your "stock collection".

For the data currently in editing and transforming, you can then either use a smaller NAS (4x 160GB drives would give you 480GB of RAID5 storage with the ability to lose one drive at no risk). If the NAS is too expensive, do as Redwolf says and get two 500GB drives mirrored in your system (either trough software, or a motherboard able to do SATA RAID 1). Not as reliable as a separate NAS (since a big hardware crash on the system is likely to fry your data) but you can also one drive in this config.

Normally I would recommend a large "working storage" like a NAS, and smaller archive media to put away old projects, but in your case it sounds like you want the raw initial data and any edits on permanent archive, and just the current working files on a harddrive backup.

Blu-Ray Writers are not THAT expensive anymore (I saw some here for about 300CND) and if you're really short on cash, just add an external USB drive for daily backup instead of a RAID or NAS.

[Tape Drives a Viable Alternative to DVDRs?]

I run an automatic tape loader as primary means of backup and archival needs here in the company, and I sorted out the backup for my friend's digital animation studio with a different system, so I think I can add some qualified opinion here.

First, what I can't quite read out of your posting Boeman, is if you are looking for backup (i.e., when your computer crashes and fails, you want to get your data back) or if you are looking to store old data for later (in some cases, much later) reference and reuse. You say "archival" but that usually means NOT being able to change file structure, folders or update files afterwards - so you seem in fact to require a mix of backup and archival.

Both are different systems - for backup, you usually just keep the latest version of each file - for archive, you want all the version history of each file.

I'm also not clear on how much data you're talking here. 130DVDs are either close to 600 gigs, or 1100 gigs of data. Is that all "current" data you need to access daily and which changes daily, or does that include old data which is stored for potential reuse later?

So, on general terms, without knowing those details:

My company has a volume of about 300gig total data, most of which doesn't change daily or even monthly, but each of my tapes has a volume of up to 600 gig, so we just do a full backup daily, and put the last tape of each month into an external storage safe somewhere else. That means I can replace a damaged file instantly, or find a file that had been changed or deleted 18 months ago.

Problem for you is that tape is relatively expensive for the drives, and does not scale well with less space needed - 50GB per unit is on the low side, but the drive alone would cost you more than your 400CND, and you need some clever software as well to get the best out of it. It also does not do most of the things you asked, like easily changing files and moving them around.

For your budget and situation (as well as I can make it out) what I would recommend is one step above the suggested external USB-Drives - get an ethernet-connected NAS (Network Attached Storage) system. That is a small stand-alone tower case with a network adapter, which runs 4 or more disks in a RAID configuration, allowing you to lose and replace one hard drive out of the 4 without loss of data or real downtime. Depending on the size of the drives, you can get up to 1500GB storage which is basically safe against loss trough mechanical failure of the disks (though a power surge or spike may still take out more than one drive, so get an Uninteruptable Power Supply to go with it). Problem with RAID, compared to just copying files onto multiple disks, is that if the RAID controller hardware fails, you are often out of luck if you can't get the same hardware, since a different controller will not be able to put togehter those pieces of data spread out on 4 disks. But that is a low concern with the right brand name stuff.

This NAS would be your primary storage where you can directly work from, over network share. Bonus is that more than one system can access those files easily from all over your home network.

Still, for long-term storage/archival needs, I would see to get a Blue-Ray Burner when they come down a bit in price, and then write to BR. That's 50 gigs of data per disk, pretty safe long term (though of course tape and DVD has been in use for longer, so more reliable statistics exsist on storage life of those media).

Ideally you want to keep the files you regulary need on the NAS for quick access and moving them around/changing them is not a problem; when you're definitly done with a project and run out of space on the NAS, put those files on an archival disk.

That's how I'd do it - but just for the NAS with over a terrabyte you might need a bit more than 400CND. For that budget, all you can get are indeed two USB disks to copy files on daily or weekly in a rotation.

[How does Marines and Paradox Retail version integrate?]

Thanks, good to know.

[How does Marines and Paradox Retail version integrate?]

Really curious here, as I can't wrap my head around it:

If I add the Marines module to my Paradox Retail version, will I need an E-License key then? Right now, all it requires is the disk in the drive.

Also, if I add the 1.10 patch without the Marines module, will it change the copy protection?

[Area Fire and the Iron Man AI]

Sounds like a better solution than delays. If the unit in LOS can transmit targets as "third window from left, second floor" then that's better than peppering the whole building with supressive fire.

I'm pretty new to CM:SF - what surprised me is that contacts seem to go easier out of LOS than with CMBB, which means more area fire... and at the same time, area fire is much more deadly (totally killed two Syrian MG crews with a Bradley just firing blind, in a 20 minute scenario). In CMBB, area fire way annoying and supressing, but below 100mm HE hardly ever killing.