GreenAsJade

The "Things" AAR posted under my name is the version that the review panel rejected as "too short to score points". I subsequently submitted a revamped version ... any chance of having that appear at B&T instead of the reject? GaJ.

The scenarios are awesome, eh? I'm sure glad I joined in this round! It will be great to be able to talk about them!

The scenarios are awesome, eh? I'm sure glad I joined in this round! It will be great to be able to talk about them!

The scenarios are awesome, eh? I'm sure glad I joined in this round! It will be great to be able to talk about them!

If folklore is to be believed, the only BFC person who knows how things are coded is "Charles". The others have certainly showed us that from time to time they don't know better than we do

Hiding at setup is the same as any other time: there is no difference. Hiding _is_ useful to stop tanks opening fire on infantry when you are trying to ambush another tank. It is quite effective to put your tank on "hide" and give it a vehicle covered arc where you want to do the ambush. Your tank won't give itself away while the enemy recon troops try to get it to fire on them. Just dont blame me if a 'zook pops out of a nearby bush and your tank doesn't shoot at him GaJ.

If ya gunna nit pick, go the whole way! It's "spelled wrongly" not "spelt wrong". Ironically, Blah correctly spelled the word "randomness", so that part of the statement was incorrect as well GaJ.

That's 10-15 minutes that could be spent playing... sheesh - some days I'm lucky to find 30 mins to play, so that's half the time wasted!

So this is pretty funny: both Sergei and I appear to have been wrong: - I was wrong: it looks like stationary vehicles give sound contacts (wow!) - It looks like hiding doesn't affect that! Thanks for the test!

Well - you learn something every day! The only AFV sound contacts I've ever seen have been moving along! I guess ideally someone would test it out and see if hiding reduces sound contacts, but that's a tricky test to set up!

80 feet!? Can I have some of those woods?

I'd love to see a version of this for PBEM. I took a look and concluded that with the flags so close to the German side, the Allies would be in big trouble unless they were really boosted. But giving +50% is too unpredictable ... who knows what the effect would be! Can we have one with the flags in the middle, please please? (or with forces composed for attack/defense balance).

Any update on the AAR progress? It'd be kinda nice to at least have the "partners" (enemies) of the current ones, so we could read the battles from both sides.

I agree with Blah that this can be a pain in the neck. Group select isn't the answer, because what you're trying to do is get the squads arranged close to the commander. I guess Group Select helps find the beggars, put you've still got a fair bit of shifting around to do. But can anyone suggest what a good default arrangemennt for troops would be? If there isn't one, then even if they are close to each other, you're still going to have to rearrange them! I have to say that I recently opened a scenario (ROW) and all the troops were arranged in clusters with their commanders and I cheered the designer... GaJ. [ July 11, 2004, 04:45 AM: Message edited by: GreenAsJade ]

I believe that the business about "hide" making tanks harder to spot is at best speculation. I haven't read of anyone testing it out. The reason I think its speculation is that sound contacts only happen when the vehicle is in motion - obviously not hiding. So "hide" hardly helps there. There is only one definite effect of hiding a tank that I'm aware of: it won't shoot at anything unless its shot at, or unless it has a covered arc and something moves into the arc. If you have a tank sitting hull down looking over an expanse of "open", and a not-to-scary enemy tank appears, the friendly one will open fire. If the friendly one is "hiding" it will not open fire. If you give the friendly one a covered vehicle arc, then it will not open fire until the enemy tank enters the arc. (Same with covered infantry arc. It's worth noting that HTs with no ATG capacity don't trigger a vehicle covered arc: only vehicles that can threaten the tank trigger the vehicle covered arc). That, I believe, is what "hide" is all about for AFVs. (And I know this because I tried it extensively, as documented in some long forgotten thread on coverd arcs). GaJ.

Any update on the AAR progress? It'd be kinda nice to at least have the "partners" (enemies) of the current ones, so we could read the battles from both sides.

Thanks Carl - a good general information. Meanwhile, redwolf answered my specific question here: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=002505;p=1#000007

Thanks!

Do trenches protect troops from arty? (I think foxholes don't do much in that respect, right?) As with my previous question about a bunker, is a trench with troops thats going to be subject to arty better inside or outside some woods? Also, there's something else I don't know: does the cover bonus from woods add to the cover bonus from a foxhole or trench? (I had assumed that it did, but maybe not?)

Actually, it occurs to me that there's something else I don't know: does the cover bonus from woods add to the cover bonus from a foxhole or trench? (I had assumed that it did, but maybe not?) TIAA!

Thanks! A related question: do trenches protect troops from arty? (I think foxholes don't do much in that respect, right?) Like with a bunker, is a trench with troops thats going to be subject to arty better inside or outside some woods?

How do wooden bunkers fair under arty fire? Do they benefit or suffer from being in woods? (I guess I'm asking "if you are expecting arty, should you hide your wooden bunkers in the woods, or keep them in the clear?) TIA! GaJ.

If you are buying a modern reasonably high-end laptop, you won't have to worry about FSAA. CM looks fantastic on my Dell Inspiron 8600 with ATI Radeon 9600. I can't tell the difference when I turn on FSAA. I don't really care about the fog thing, because I usually turn off fog anyhow... the LOS tool tells you whether you're going to see things or not ... fog is just eye candy. My native resolution is 1920x1200 - wide screen. When I play CM it is automatically displayed at the correct aspect ratio using 1600x1200 ... DirectX knows how to step down. Can't tell you whether 64MB of VRAM will do it - I have 128. (I can tell you that if you are going to play FPS like Unreal etc, you need 1GB of DRAM. I have 512MB ... Unreal plays OK, but 1GB in the same machine is noticeably better. I wish I had got it! That is not an issue for CM though.) Also, fast disks are good. I declined the Dell option of fast disks, thinking I cared more about battery life, but game load time is noticeably slower, and that is something that make you wish you spent the extra money every darn time you load a game! GaJ.

Trees off. If only they were a bit transparent! (I did notice someone did a high-branches-only mod, which might be nice, if only I could find it again!)

LOL! But if you think they were joking, check this (from yesterday's local newspaper): CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) -- Australians living in the nation's drought-ravaged capital have been warned to keep their distance from aggressive kangaroos after the iconic marsupials attacked one woman and killed a pet dog. Eastern Grey kangaroos, which can grow 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) tall and weigh 70 kg (154 lb), have started moving out of the parched bush into inner Canberra suburbs during the day to look for grass and water, increasing their contact with people. A senior wildlife ecologist with Environment ACT, Murray Evans, said on Wednesday the kangaroos could pose a threat to people and dogs, with one woman savaged by a large kangaroo as she was walking her small, pet dog in a paddock last week. "Her dog went near the kangaroo and she followed and before she knew it the kangaroo lashed out, scratching her down the side of her body," Evans told Reuters. Another woman told how a kangaroo drowned one of the four dogs she was walking with a friend, attacking it in a pond and holding it under the water with its hind legs while it hit out at one of the other dogs with its front legs. "My friend started shouting: 'There's a kangaroo in the pond. It's got Summer'. It was surreal, like your worst nightmare," Christine Canham told the Canberra Times newspaper. "She was screaming and screaming. The kangaroo just stared back at us. I will never forget that." Evans said it was not unusual for kangaroos to flee into water if they felt under threat and, as a last defence, they would try to drown their predator with their powerful hind legs. He said most of the behavioral change in the usually placid animals was due to the scarcity of feed after a run of dry years in Canberra, the inland bush capital, as Australia battles its worst drought in a century. Kangaroos usually shelter by day and emerge at dusk to feed during the night but the reduction in available grass meant they were now traveling by day in search of food, dramatically increasing the number of encounters with people -- and dogs. "Kangaroos and dogs just do not mix. Kangaroos see dogs as a threat and get spooked by them," Evans said. "The main message people should remember is that kangaroos may look cuddly and furry but they are wild animals and people should keep their distance and keep dogs on leads around them."