RuhrRiver

The following "screen shot cartoon" is a faithful reproduction of what actually just happened in a game with Mark Ezra playing Mark et al.'s excellent battle: "Chance Encounter." I may have added some of the dialogue, but all the action is the A.I.'s. See part II for exciting finish.

In a battle between myself and Mark Ezra, he sent my last turn with the first pic of a tank and missle (below). "Neat cut and paste!" I thought. Then I looked at the replay of our latest turn and spotted the secene in the second shot, exactly as the action appeared at "done." Mark was just recording a frozen moment in our game. And "done" certainly summed things up for the tank...

Is there somewhere in the manual that gives details about the medic/healing process? All I can find about "buddy aid" (as the manual refers to it) is that the time it takes to heal less-than-serious wounds varies according to level of troop quality chosen. There seems to be no basic description of how it occurs and to whom by whom.

You're all right. I only described the pics above as "pics," but when aka_tom_w called them "screen shots" in his kind remarks, he was sort of right. They are actually screen shots--with no elements added or deleted except for deleting game lettering ("paused" etc.), the cursor, and the compass. However, a number of whole or partial pic attributes were altered in PhotoshopPro, including contrast, brightness, sharpness, and saturation. At least on my computer and monitor, most screen shots look a bit low contrast, a bit dark, a bit washed out, and the biggest hit against realism (or drama): lack of light/dark variation. I find that using a "darken" tool selectively over expanses of wall or grass makes things look a lot better--to me, of course. I also almost always use some level of the game's zoom-in. Here are a couple more screen shots with some (but very little) attribute alteration from a game with Mark (his missles, my unfortunate Bradley). In both cases the missles are *not* pasted in., I just kept rerunning the movie and hitting "PrtScn" (print screen) until I caught the missle at the point I wanted it. Love those missle animations--whoever worked on those did a great job. --Max (RuhrRiver)

Great scenario. For those who played the original in the CMBO demo, all the same battle decisions come up. Couple of pics:

Guess this is the time to add this: Mark Ezra suggested: "Syrian break dancers celebrate their latest victory over the Infidels!" Other possibles: "I wish Sarge wouldn't make us do one-handed push-ups in these marshlands..." "I told you the wind was strong up here...."

Have you considered, Mark, that some of your opponents are letting you think you're winning? Just wanted to suggest another paradigm..... : )

I thought Ala11_Kal's comment about A Patch Too Far was funny and it didn't get its due: that's funny! There.

Why do you assume Madmatt gets released...?

Thank you, Steve, I especially appreciate your or other BF staff responses about various issues where other game companies simply hunker down and don't communicate with their customers.

Well Mark (as in MarkEzra, above) and I just finished having our second PBEM end in failure as my troops appeared in the midst of his with a resulting brief but comical battle. Then one of his "technicals" trucks disappeared from around his guys, leaving them sitting in thin Syrian air at the end of the turn. As far as I can see, pbem is basically unplayable. These are the kind of bugs I would have expected from other companies, but not BF. 1.03 can't come soon enough. I'm signing my name, as my user name & # doesn't reflect how far back I go as a BF & CM supporter. This is pretty bad--hope lessons have been learned. --Max Molinaro

I second or third that idea, Mark. But I will settle for pbem that works.

I am running V1.02 and can play single-player games without any major problems. In my first PBEM game (ATGM scenario) playing as U.S., a squad that I loaded into my APC has disappeared on turn 12 or so, even though the APC is intact, the door opened after I gave the move order to the squad, and the floating symbol for the squad is still just above the APC symbol. There is no one home inside, however, by visual check. I know that BF is working on PBEM fixes for 1.03, but I am puzzled as to why this and other PBEM bugs reported didn't appear in beta testing. There was beta testing of PBEM, yes?

Yes, thanks again, Mark. You do know that this is Max, right? : ) My question really is: did whoever write the manual think that a five-word description of what to do with the first email turn you get would be adequate to describe the process to people new to CM, unlike you and I who have played dozens or hundreds of CM PBEM? If this is correct, I can't say strongly enough how user unfriendly this is. You just listed at least three steps. Before I said more, though, I wanted to check to make sure I hadn't missed something.

I am enjoying the game, but am I missing something in the manual about PBEM? These appear to be the entire set of instructions as to what you do with an email file you receive from someone else: "...a special save game file is generated. The player emails this file to his opponent who loads it on his end..." Is it correct that nowhere in the manual is it explained what "loads it on his end" means? I'm not asking because I'm totally stuck but because I'm hoping that the manual isn't actually this bad on this topic. I counted at least three steps and three pieces of information that I had to guess at in generating my first reply file--and I've played a lot of email with CM games. I can't imagine being a first-time CM emailer and being able to figure out how to play given the above "instructions" which are actually a five-word description--so am I missing some that are somewhere else in the manual?

Thanks Moon, and Kharnvor. Manual looks very complete, but b&w and small. Not sure if they're different, wokelly.

I didn't see this mentioned: comparing CMBO to CMBB, even with the better graphics and gameplay in CMBB I didn't/don't care for the geography. I like the look of Western Europe (even banged up) far more than the usual USSR battlefields--that's actually more of an "emotional" factor for me than who the sides are. Weird, I suppose. I understand the point about bad guys v. bad guys, but look at all the players (myself included) who love to play the German side..even while part of my brain is cheering as my panzers get drilled.

those multiple window views always remind me of winning at the old Windows solitaire...funny!

Should I even install it since I bought the full download and it's working (with an occasional crash). If I load the game from disk, won't I have to keep the disk in the drive, which I don't have to do with the DL version?

What's wrong with "rock-paper-scissors????" The strategic depth, tactical variations, and less demanding equipment requirements make it something anyone should be able to enjoy for at least minutes. I'm getting so sick of all this whining about a classic game like R-P-S. Next you're going to say that rock-paper-scissors isn't like Combat Mission games... jeez! : )

Sounds good, I'm looking forward to the disk. The patch is something I'm willing to wait on to get as much stuff fixed as possible. I've had two crashes requiring a cold re-boot so far in about five hours of play--worse than usual for me for a new game. I'm trying various stuff as I read about it in various threads.

Yeah, you have to have an outside album. I use webshots, and they give you a line of html code for any particular picture that you can just copy from the webshots site and paste into your post on this forum (or any forum).

fil, thank you very much for this very helpful summary.

I think we could both agree that there is no game that pleases everyone. And, given the passion involved in this forum, I can understand why you would simply dismiss my views as not at all "accurate or relevant" without any specifics. If you want me to understand what you're talking about, though, it would help if you told me what you find inaccurate or irrelevant.

One other possibility when armor faces away from a threat: I had three tanks on a ridge trying to take out some armor in the village in front of them (north). One of my tanks turns around about 160 deg., presenting its big fat iron booty to the enemy tanks in the village below. I was screaming at it (quietly, don't want to tear my wife away from ER) when I noticed it was firing at something. I pulled back and found that a couple of enemy tanks had snuck in at the farthest limits of the southern battlefield--'way in my rear. Now, how that tank had spotted the enemy back there and then decided to turn in place and fire with back exposed to much closer enemy armor is another question. But the tank commander wasn't completely insane. Maybe.