David Chapuis

And it takes exactly 5 seconds using Windows "Paint" to scale up or down images to precise percentages. </font>

the background map would need to be on the same scale as the editor if you were going to do any kind of trace.

Is that the one where the Polish POW officer escapes from the prison camp in Siberia with some buddies, and walks all the way to freedom in India? That was a great story... Incredible if true... Ken </font>

Fiction or no, it is a good book. Since you were so kind to share about Sajer, do you have an opinion about The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz.

I was thinking more of event-driven messages that are defined in a scenario, as opposed to any kind of tactical tool-tip (which I assume you mean something like the pop-up display for hit/kill %). It seems hard to make something event-driven actually work with a game as fluid as CMx1 was, but thinking about the CMAK tutorial scenario, I could envision something like this: </font> Event 1: Turn one Order Phase A message appears instucting player to move units towards enemy, but not to crest the hill. Also instructs player to sneak HQ into LOS of sand-bags with 3in mortar in CC</font>Event 2: HQ has LOS of sandbags and 3in mortar in CC Message pops up instructing player to Area-fire sandbags w/3in Mortar until he sees 4 hits in that area.</font>Event 3: 4 hits in Sand-bag area Message pops up instructing player to Fast move two vehicles with squads to palm trees and have squads Advance into palm trees</font>Event 4: Brit Unit in Palm-Trees Message pops up instructing one squad to Fast move into building, while keeping other squad in palm-trees as covering fire.</font>Event 5: Brit AFV killed by Gun Message pops up explaining that player should have listened to message #1 & #2.</font> It seems to me like a Herculean task, and I have to agree with Barrold in rather having that development time put into something else. But it would make for a good tactical tutorial, and I imagine scenario designers would love it as well.

I disagree with this. I think a tutorial on tactics would be a very good thing. Especially if BFC could figure out a way to have in-game events trigger tutorial messages. (sounds really complicated to me, but if they could do it for tutorial scenarios, the events could probably be used on non-tutorial things for any scenario.)

So this account from The Forgotten Soldier is probably not accurate?

And what is even a bigger question is how will the guys that run recover? Me thinks it will not be good for everytime a man runs he is out of the game permenantly. But to keep from having 1:1 control, you need to wait for at least 3 or 4 to recover in order to establish an ad hoc unit. [ September 14, 2005, 09:12 PM: Message edited by: David Chapuis ]

Nobody was talking about area firing with zooks. I've been talking about targeting guns.

This quote and another by Dorosh Those really make me wish I had an explanation to how the squad footprint will look. Asked previously here: footprint thread

the recent 'no squad splitting thread' really has me wondering even more about this. Any comment yet?

Dorosh, what actual battlefield decisions does a battalion commander make? Other than giving orders/objectives to the Company commanders, what does he do? Resupply?

Since it was a 150mm, I figured it was worth it to make sure it was KO'd.

sorry, I didnt mean to imply that mortars dont work against guns. I completely agree with your statement I bolded above. When using 60mm, I do like you said (target with two units). And even a lone 60mm mortar will KO a gun in a foxhole with treebursts - but I keep the 60mm firing its entire ammo load on the one gun just to make sure. With the 81mm - if I count three treebursts in the location I assume the gun in KO'd). But I have not had good results with 60mm mortar against guns in rough terrain. Without treebursts, the 60mm lose a lot of punching power. [ September 03, 2005, 12:01 PM: Message edited by: David Chapuis ]

I have to somewhat disagree with this on two counts. 1) Inf wont KO a gun at 100 - 150m range. A zook will. In a game I am playing now, I KO'd a gun at 90m and 160m. In both cases he has an mg and a gun covering 90m and 150m open open ground. Inf alone could not break those positions nearly as quick as the zook. 2) Against good troops in prepared positions, 100m isnt even close enough to consistantly pin a gun. I was targeting these guns with 5 units (including two mmg) in one case and 3 units in the other, and they were only pinning for a few seconds.

I have recently discovered an extremely valuable use for zooks - gun killers. Perhaps everybody else already knew about this, but I didnt. Ok, 'discovered' isnt the right term. An opponent blasted all my guns with zooks, and now that I have used them for that purpose I am quite pleased. I used to hate having to take all those zooks that come with a US platoon, but not anymore. Those 60mm mortars cant barely kill a gun with treebursts - forget about it in rough terrain. But zooks will do the job.

Of course they are including mounted inf. The first release title is Gettysburg.

Katzenjammer was quite entertaining when I saw them.

Well I definitely vote for either less profanity, or perhaps a profanity option. My 3, 5, and 9 year old boys love to play, but they have to play with sound off due to the profanity.

Change 1. Fluid C/C. It can be very frustrating (and highly unrealistic) to have C/C represented as an on/off switch. It should be scaled to some degree. 2. Some changes to make 3rd party uber-campaigns easier. 3. Game Options for dimishing the All-Seeing Eye Problem. A couple that options that I can think of are: </font> A. option for different turn lengths (2 minute or 3 minute turns as opposed to just 1 minute turns)</font>B. Friendly Unit FOW setting. In some limited situations, I think it would help to not have perfect information about what is happening to my units, but still be able to give them orders.</font> 4. SOP's 5. Convoy Rules Dont Change 1. AI Focus. Keep the empahsis on the Tac AI as opposed to Strat AI. 2. QB's 3. Import Map and Troops (always wondered why this option was not in the editor as well) 4. PBEM (or some other asynchronous play option) 5. adding multiplayer to release 2.

My money is on western europe 1940

Dorosh, do you still use the ugliest mods ever created? I remember seeing some of your screenshots once. It was painful to the eyes.

With 1v1 modeling, I have been wondering how the squad footprint will look/act. Will you be able to set the squad in different formations that will affect its footprint? I would like to see a different footprints of space and concentration ranging from a squad defending in two man foxholes to assaulting in an urban environment. And how will you handle routed me in regards to the squad footprint. If 1 man routes, runs away, and then recovers, how do you control him? If you have already answered this, sorry I missed it. But I have been paying fairly close attention for the last 8 months, and dont remember you speaking to this in detail.

"The Russian pioneer battalion is the best recon unit in the game." I was told that (by the best person I have ever played against) as my routed panzergenadiers were being eliminated. And now I am quite fond of them.

75mm Infantry Guns are fast enough to move and escape enemy mortar fire. they can also reposition and find another good target without using transport. 150's no chance.