General Jack Ripper

Now those two right there, I heartily approve of. I never was very clear what sort of abstractions are in use for trenches, whether or not they represent waist high crawl trenches, or chest high firing trenches. The same goes for foxholes. I know they offer an abstracted level of cover, but how much? Is it a crawl trench? Or a fighting trench? This type of distinction is important.

Alrighty. Just spent 2 hours smashing things. I'm going to do a few more modifications, then release the firing range as a scenario.

Actually, I figured out what my problem was from before. Not every vehicle can be dismounted or bailed out in the editor. I deleted those vehicles, bailed everything out, hid the crews behind bocage, and now I have a field of active, dismounted vehicles. My quad .50 on the firing line is having a field day!

It's the shortcoming of most personal memoirs. Human memory is fallible. Just keep in mind any memoir is subjective, and often prone to errors in terminology, and timeline. One thing I enjoy memoirs for is getting things like slang correct, such as Sajer's use of the word "Spandau" for the MG-42. Historians tell us the MG 08 was called a "Spandau", but what Sajer tells us is the name persisted in an informal capacity, such as the common word "Tank" referring to track laying armored fighting vehicle. So, instead of using the word "Maschinengewehr", troops used the simpler word, "Spandau". From the amazon book description of D-Day through the German Eyes: "This book sheds fascinating light on these questions, bringing together statements made by German survivors after the war, when time had allowed them to reflect on their state of mind, their actions and their choices of June 6th." When enough time has elapsed from a historic event, especially a traumatic one, you can't expect perfect details to emerge from human memory. Details may be wrong, but you can still gain insight into the psychology of the event. Even many years after the war, the scars are often visible, such as when reading General Grant's memoirs. He looks back on the civil war, not really mentioning major campaign history, (basically, "we went over here to do this thing") but by offering his memories of specific events that happened on the battlefield, and his profound sense of regret over mistakes made by the higher command in the early days. If you want details, dates, and order of battle, you're better off reading historians who can access reports and data from major archives. If you want to learn how things felt, then memoirs are your best references. Sajer's imagery, describing the remnants of his unit late in the war on the Eastern Front. "Like an emaciated pack of wolves, staring across the empty landscape," held together only by the efforts of their commander, Herr Hauptmann Wesreidau, stuck with me long after reading the book.

That's what I'm going to do, thanks Ian.

Yeah, I have to play in hotseat, and set things up beforehand. I've got a handle on it now.

Thanks.

I'm trying to build a firing range for more TTP videos, and I want to place a bunch of empty vehicles as targets. I purchase a bunch of vehicles, but if I set vehicle status to 'Dismounted' I receive no vehicles. If I set them to 'Immobilized' they are deployable, but they shoot at anything trying to shoot them. If I set them to 'Destroyed', they exist, but units refuse to target and shoot them. Is there a way to place non-destroyed empty vehicles as static targets? Or is there some other method to place vehicles as static targets?

All I know is Guy Sajer was found, and he verified he actually wrote the book. Wartime records show he was part of the GrossDeutchland Division. That's all I can say. http://members.shaw.ca/grossdeutschland/sajer.htm There's a few reproduced articles on that page.

Having gone back over all my recorded gameplay, I think I've only ever seen the top 2 scopes. I'm sure the 4x scopes are in the game, but there must be some equipment setting that allows for them.

Forgotten Soldier was later verified. A highly subjective personal accounting, but the author is legitimate. I remember the discussion vaguely. I've never heard of Iron Coffins though, is it not legitimate?

To be honest, I think it is the propagation of games like World of Tanks that's doing the most damage. It's great that they've rekindled so much interest in the subject matter, but now we have lots of people out there whose only expertise is that which they have gained by playing the game. Trouble is, a lot of historical documentation, whether true or false, didn't survive Communism. Meanwhile, here in the west, everything in the archives has been declassified, and freely available for many years now. It's like Harry Yeide found out when he went to the German national archives. A lot of the materiel in there hasn't seen the light of day since 1945.

That's a trick I used well on several occasions, stashing troops in the exact center of the top floor, to grenade ambush anyone entering the house. CMx1 didn't specifically model windows though. Buildings were simply block "structures", with no real walls or doors either.

I have conversations like that on an almost daily basis. The amount of misinformation, and legend floating around as fact is truly absurd.

Yeah, we're finally going to blow stuff up!

Way back in the earliest days of Shock Force, vehicles did drive around more realistically. Then everyone bitched about vehicles not following waypoints closely enough, so vehicle path finding was changed to the current "point and shoot" model. You can either have realistic turn radii, or precise waypoint following. Not both.

You certainly did that! By all means celebrate your triumph, break out the wine, women and song!

The most ferocious battles are often the shortest ones.

Now here's a general announcement: I know I said I'd re-release part 4, but I don't have the time to re-record everything. I've got some family stuff coming up, so I need to hold off on any huge projects. Badger, your feedback will definitely be included in the next maneuver section. But first I'm going to do a video on supporting weapons, HMG's, Mortars, Bazookas, etc.

Well, you can make your own firing range in the editor in about 10 minutes. Start with a flat, open, map. Mark off distances by counting action spots, then paint in sloping elevation. That being said, I could give my firing range a workover and post it up on the repository. I know lots of people make them for personal use, but I've never seen one publicly released. If I have some extra time this week, I'll put one together. The map with the river in it is a modified version of a Quick Battle map, Town-Water-Damaged (1408 X 1152) 015 Meet. You can find it in the Quick Battle Maps section of your Game Files folder in the Data directory.

Darn it. Scratch one thing off the "nitpick" list. There's not much left on it now.

C'mon guys, knock it off. Shake it out. Calm it down.

That's understandable. I would prefer the whole team "Waiting" for a few seconds until everyone is ready to move, but that's just nitpicking. It's a good thing we've come down to complaining about such small details these days, it's a good sign there are no more major problems with the game engine. Eventually we'll get down to the "M1 Garand with Grenade Launcher soldier uses a bolt-action rifle firing animation, and that makes me angry!" Then, we'll officially know there's nothing left to talk about.

We'd have to talk to Charles to find out for certain, but that sounds right based on what I've seen. Occasionally the gunner will fire before the driver rotates the hull, but I think there is a logic calculation going on, as to whether or not it's better to face the armor at the target before firing and potentially receiving counter-fire. I.E: "This target can hurt me, so I'd better point my armor at it before shooting." When engaging infantry, the tank doesn't seem to care where the hull is pointing, unless presented with an immediate threat, such as a bazooka. I think this is more of a "average performance all the time" is better than "excellent performance only some of the time", as far as the game engine simulation is concerned.

That's one of my major pet peeves as well. It doesn't help that when moving an MG team, the gunner is often the last one to get up and move, as a result, all the "best" places in their destination are already occupied by team members. MG deployment is something I've been mad at for a long time. Personally I think any soldier labeled "Gunner" should have the highest priority in placement within an action spot, with whoever has binoculars taking second place.