GreenAsJade

Backup everything. Format the disk. Reinstall operating system & CM. Cheers, GaJ

This is the only attempt I know of. Note that CMAK doesn't display it at the more distant zoom factors (it's a doodad, so it only appears where doodads appear). GaJ

If you copy everything from your old computer to your new one, then McMMM will keep working, it won't care. I prefer to think of this as "it is smart enough" not "it is dumb enough". It doesn't store mod data in the registry or anything nasty like that. When I say "copy everything" I mean the mod files (.zip) AND the McMMM data files (.mcd) AND the CMAK directories (the BMP directory specifically). IE you _don't_ have to uninstall and reload, as long as you copy _everything_. If you install CMAK afresh from the CD on your new machine, hopefully its obvious that you need to reinstall the mods using McMMM again also. GaJ

Come play with us at WeBoB GaJ

A friend experience the same thing. Gave up and installed it on his XP home PC instead. GaJ

Thanks for that. Now I'm interested in "what scenarios for beginners for H2H with an experienced opponent"? GaJ

So here's the thing. Why is there a CEB. I'll tell you why I think there is one. It's so that a given scenario can be played by playeres of different ability. All games have a feature like this, and so the CM designers needed to provide one. They chose this way. Now suppose that the only thing it does is increase troop experience level. Great - that achieves what I describe above _and_ the effects that MR has described to us. The computer is harder to beat with higher CEB, which is the bottom line of MR's posts, and answers the OP's question. The fact that the AI is not as clever as a human and needs lots of good designer tricks to produce good play (which is a paraphrase of JC's posts) is granted by all as well. FCOL, this is what makes good designers for vs AI games "good" ... the ability to use those tricks to produce fun scenarios. And what MR is telling us is that the AI needs to be given CEB +2 to make his designs work. That seems indisputable too! So to answer the OPs question: it does make a difference. There's a debate about how and why it makes a difference, but it does. So much so that designers tell you what CEB they designed for. It may be that this boils down to "the AI needs crack troops to cope with its otherwise not-so-good thinking" but hey ... so what? (I will note that the CMAK manual tells us at least what the designers were willing to say about what CEB does). Moral of the story: if you're playing scenarios against the AI, check what CEB the designer recommends. Cheers, GaJ

Aesthetic abominations eh? I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Between us, RocketMan & I put a fair bit of effort into making them look good... GaJ (what hex grid are you referring to!?)

JC: I think the example you gave is an interesting one, but not conclusive. You showed an example where the AI does a poor job. This can be easily countered by an example where it does an acceptable job. That example will prove that it is not as dumb as a bag of rocks, it just has limited situations where it can be competitive. The other thing that the example you gave fails to prove is whether +2CEB makes any difference in a 'reasonable' situation. I would rate a 'reasonable' situation as one where the AI has a chance in the first place: one where it's not set up to fail in a situation of known weakness. If there was a situation like that, and the AI played as dumb on +2 as on normal, then I'd be convinced. The sort of test that would be really interesting is one where there's an opportunity to flank ... GaJ

JC, the claim that MR clearly made is that the AI does smarter moves when you give it a CEB. He said: He also said that manually changing the quality of the troops does not deliver the same results. These are the sorts of observations that I recall reading in the past. Are you saying that these are _not_ the case? GaJ (I feel an experiment coming on!)

What are the best scenarios for a beginner to try, vs AI? Relay Race is OK (and at least there are instructions) but are there any fun, relatively easy and simple scenarios out there to get beginners vs AI hooked? Ta, GaJ

High contrast fold-line grid mods are great (Rocketman grid). Schonhult Crater is a must. So small, so much of a help! GaJ

The sky mods are very pretty. Tarkus is available for CMAK & CMBB, it's good. The high contrast gridded mods are good. Schonhult Crater is small but good. Jujus weapons are pretty. MikeyD tanks are pretty. gah - there's so much!

Rocketman where are you!? Can you grid this awesome looking sand?

You should ask MadRussian about this - he hangs out more at WeBoB or TSD. What I understand from his posts is that the AI fights smarter (contrary I know to what the learned JC tells us above). GaJ

Also there are a few good clubs out there where PBEM is thriving and opponents are ready and waiting. We Band Of Brothers comes to mind TCP/IP seems to be hard to find. You need to find a regular opponent who's available at your time. There aren't people hanging around waiting for a TCP game (that I know of). GaJ

Can you VNC to your own machine, thereby having a window?

Wow, that sounds like a lot of hard work. You could get the Mod from CMMODS, and get McMMM at the same time (it's under Mod Managers). The follow the nice friendly instructions on the web about how to install mods with McMMM and save all the fafing around with files and folders GaJ

Yeah - at the clubs people hook up from time to time ... for example, at WeBoB in the challenges forum you will see people looking for TCP from time to time, and WeBoB has a web page where you can register that you're available. Doesn't get used much though... GaJ

Nope, not really. I think that the people left playing CM seem to be on the whole the kinds of people who don't have 2-3 hour chunks of time to spend on TCP/IP. GaJ

Heh. So ... what are we worrying about then? If you like the game, play and be happy. If you don't like it, well then you could worry. But PC Gamer doesn't like it so now we worry!?

You need PC Gamer to tell you whether to like a game or not? :eek:

*shrug* Who likes or supports Microsoft more than they have to? When people take the time to help me improve my software - either hobby or professionally - I take the time to thank them for it. It tends to result in a positive cycle. Shame BFC miss out on that. GaJ

I've marked it in my calendar Steve </font>

Funny how one person's common courtesy is another person's ego stroking? Why do I care? Because I like the games you make and want it to do well. It's painful to think how much more productive it might be with a more courteous approach. But given the apparent lack of like-minded people, well... I'll drop it for another year or so ------------------ Is there anyone home?