simovitch

jtd, the best news in many months on this board was to hear that Tom is back in the modding business. just to get things rolling, and if there are no objections from herr Klimisch I will post my renumbering of his TBM winter roads and tree bases to cmmods tonight when I get home from work. oh crap, im at work...

Uzi, I agree with your statement regarding historical maps. This topic has been brought up before on this board and the bottom line is that sometimes accurate topo information is not available to the designer. In the vastness of Russia, accurate topo becomes irrelevant maybe, but in the smaller confines of Western Europe and Italy I think rendering an accurate map should be given more attention. I personally have some good mapping resources and I'm using them in my current designs for HSG, a scenario design group that strives for historical accuracy. Try the CMBO battle "Rollbahn A" (shameless plug) covering the 1st hours of the bulge in 6th Panzer Armee sector. The map was taken off a 1:25000 topo circa 1937 gridded at 100m and transposed in the editor. you might like my other CMBO scenario "The Prumerberg" as well, though the map is credited to someone else. Wait a few weeks for HSG's release of a "bulge pack" of scenarios for CMAK. you will find some more of what you're looking for.

anyone up for play by mail Tactics II? I got the stock market page ready...

Very nice looking mods heinzbaby. you can post the screenshot here on the forum by: 1 right clicking your screenshot at cmmods 2 click "properties" at the bottom 3 "copy" the URL address click "image" under "instant UBB code" tabs and paste the URL address voila!

The search for the "fog for radeon cards" Holy Grail is the only reason I pop into this tech forum from time to time. Looks like the quest continues...

j2d - I just got my dsl modem here in the mail yesterday, and next week I will install it down at my work hideaway where the mods are. dsl comes on line the 30th and then I can start uploading some stuff!

Im not sure if my icon is perferred over Gurra's by the CM community. but I can easily redo it showing Italy AND NW europe from the main bmp file next week (if I can find it). sergei and others - drop a response here if this is something you want to see.

The scenario is available on Boots & Tracks excellent website, although the scenario seems to be misspelled: http://www.bootsandtracks.com/ScenarioDetail.php?ScenarioID=92

As soon as I break down and get DSL at my place where I work mid week I can upload all the buildings/skies/Toms bulge light snow&roads/NW Europe icon and a screenshot. I've done most of my modwork down there (where there is no interference from wife/kids) but I dont even have a RW CD rom to copy it to yet!

I found that using CMBB buildings (with a bit of renumbering) to replace the Italian "villas" gives a quick Northern European fix to CMAK. I also use CMBB's horizon bitmaps, after stretching them to match CMAK's size. All with MS paint. I plan to bundle these up with a "consortium" Northern Euro & winter bulge mod pack and post to CMMODS in a week or 2. (consortium meaning I only renumbered other peoples mods without modifying the bitmap)

Slightly off topic, but I find that Pink Floyd's "when the tigers broke free" is a great one to listen to at the end of it all while reading the AAR. Very moving...

I think that Tom K.'s light snow/dotted tree bases/snow roads from his CMBO bulge mod pack give the best look for the ardennes in CMAK. uncle tgt's ltsnow mods seem to give too much contrast imho. As far as I know the .bmp numbering is the same for the snow, tree bases and roads from CMBO to CMAK. I think junk2drive can confirm this. Now if we could just get panzertruppen's building mods converted to CMAK with the damage .bmp's...

yes, I play (and design) with the historical approach paramount. It all began when I was using halftracks to spot 88's in panzerblitz/panzerleader and I started feeling bad for the hapless cardboard soldiers, their wives, and the now fatherless cardboard infants. incidentally my wife said she would fell better if I play CM only with the Hamster mod. Not that she hates hamster's, she just thinks their cute. Must have 3D hamster faces. Does it exist? kitty?

Wait a tick... here's a mind bender - if you mod say, the buildings with MCMMM and then you mod again using a CMMOS mod without uninstalling the first, and then you forget which MM you used and try to uninstall the CMMOS building mod with MCMMM you would be on your way to a losing both the MCMMM mod and the original BFC file. am I right?

As far as I know the process used to generate topographical maps in the 30's and 40's was similar to modern techniques of aerial photogrammetry using aerial stereo pairs and stereo plotters. The process was only a lot slower than it is today because the maps had to be drawn by hand by the photogrammatist. And we still don't have a cost-effective way of dealing with mapping the terrain beneath dense tree cover. It is interesting to note that most of North America was mapping on a datum established in the early '30's (NGVD 27). This datum was held as gospel until the mid '80's with the development of NAD 83, but NGVD 27 was being used by FEMA flood mapping until only recently. Even today, mapping standards only require that aerial topography used for construction be accurate to within 1/2 of a contour interval.

jrrich, There are "gridded terrain" mods available for download at cmmods that allow a better visualization of the 3D terrain undulations on your screen. I'm a little suprised that this forum missed your point and led the topic down an interesting, yet unhelpful path... hope this helps.

2 years off for CMX2 equals alot of campaigning time with CM. And thankfully the work of modders and individuals like Mike T (CMMOS for CMAK) and Battlefront (future patches) are not allowing the planned obsolesence of the CM series to cause premature stagnation.

2 years off for CMX2 equals alot of campaigning time with CM. And thankfully the work of modders and individuals like Mike T (CMMOS for CMAK) and Battlefront (future patches) are not allowing the planned obsolesence of the CM series to cause premature stagnation.

stoffel, your Clervaux battle is definitely a beauty, but I had reservations, particularly about ammo after 120 turns, and the fact that my computer choked on the map size. I probably should have commented while it was at the Proving Grounds. I should drop Chris a line to see how it played out. I myself was doing the research for the same battle for CMAK (as an operation) based on Dean Essig's "Bloody 110" game, which seems to have alot of reliable information on that battle. Happily your OOB does seem pretty accurate when I looked at it. Keep 'em coming.

Why has there has been hardly a trickle of good bulge scenarios made for CMAK? A new "monster" battle for clervaux was released by stoffel, (too big for my tastes) The Noville remake (good, good...) and a fictional battle featuring elements of the 1SS (huh?) vs the 2nd Inf. (huh?) at St. Vith by CSDT. Butgenbach, Rocherath/Krinkelt, Bastogne, Losheim Gap... who needs King Tigers anyways? Let's get on with it people!

I think map designers need to keep looking at soft ground, marsh, or even rough/rocky to represent a minor open channel (streams, creek) in cmbb/cmak. It seems to me that BFC is not so far off the mark with the "single level" water feature. the slope of most riverbeds are so flat that in game terms there would be no drop in elevation across a 2000m map for a water feature deep enough to prevent a tracked AFV from crossing it. This would seem to be a realistic representation of an European river. In hilly areas, one can find more significant channel slopes, but it is usually not the depth of the water that prevents the tracked vehicle from crossing, but the steep and rugged banks. If they can negotiate the bank, then they may have a chance of crossing without bogging. This would seem to be a realistic representation of an European stream or creek. Someone just came up with a "watery" soft ground mod. I think that may be one idea to use for a stream or creek if you want visible water.

Gurra, I like your Northwest Europe icon with the highlight over the landform. I only have MS Paint and limited knowledge thereof so my icon was pretty basic to fill a need. Perhaps someday I will enter the foray of true modding... keep up the good work!

Tired of looking at the "Boot" when your playing a Normandy or Ardennes scenario in CMAK? so was I. Available now at cmmods simovitch

Monterey, California

I have often wondered this as well. A norman hedgerow was (is) quite a barrier to passage and LOS. I assume a CMAK tall hedge was never intended to represent true bocage. But in CMBO it was, yet even there it still seemed innocuous compared to the protection a real life hedgerow would provide. I wonder if anyone has studied the difference in game terms between CMBO Bocage and CMAK tall hedge?