simovitch

Remember, in Operations you will likely get that immobilized tank back, fully repaired, for the next battle (assuming, i think, that it was bogged inside your final established "front line".) I think that this is a fair representation of repair that CM has incorporated into the game. A repair vehicle waltzing onto the battlefield to repair a tank within 60-odd minutes under combat conditions would not sit right with me IMHO.

april fools.... the big hint was "you heard it here first"

IMHO Being a student of the Ardennes Offensive "Team Desobry" was a big disappointment for me. Both the Map (The town of Noville looks nothing like the game map representation) the vertical relief, and the german forces (won't give away with spoiler) were not accurate . Ahem... Now to toot my own horn, give my "HSG B" scenarios a try. The maps are painstakingly accurate representations from 1:25000 period topo, and the forces are based on my years of historical research. 3 battles and 1 Op available on the depot.

Well, the april fool sentence was in the 2nd page in this post. I had only been reading the 1st one. I hate you, damn joker :mad: :mad: :mad: (simovitch, of course) </font>

april fools I thought for sure someone would try this one before I did.

Hey - I just read this: ATI technologies announces that they will support fog table emulation for windows based drivers using DirectX technology remember, you heard it here first.

I just heard that the Windows drivers for the ATI cards will soon be recoded to allow fog. Now that is great news!

Being a proponent of playing vs the AI, I greatly appreciate it when a designer takes the time to produce both 2P and vs-AI versions. I think it would be tough to find a situation where all three possible versions, as Mr Pollock suggests, would make 3 uniformly "good" scenarios. But if it can be done then all the better.

Well now, my best guess with the information that I have divulged from the forum is: CMX2 will allow the player to engage in some sort of missions that involve combat.

ah yes grasshopper, but is it not also true that the sun never sets on the CM playing empire.

Even considering the inherent flaws of the AI, more and more I feel that playing against the AI gets a bad rap. Sure, the occasional vehicle will move off a perfectly good road for some 4-wheeling back and forth through the trees, and squads will leave the protection of a perfectly good trench and venture like zombies to cross an open field under fire, but my argument is that these odd behaviors can be reduced by the nature of the scenario via the scenario designer. First, If a game is designed for 2 player, then I don't have any grounds for lamenting the substandard performance of the AI, period. I also feel that if I add +XX% forces and +XX experience, it's no longer the scenario that was designed. I may as well play a QB, ugh! (Somewhere I likened the QB's to "Combat Mission Beyond Thunderdome"...) So, on to scenarios specifically designed for the AI. Yes it can be done, in perhaps a limited fashion, but it can be done for both AI attacking and defending. I am still learning the subtleties of designing a good scenario VS the AI, such as: AI attacking: Give the AI open avenues of approach, good quality troops, limited vehicles, and numerical superiority. design the map knowing the AI will advance toward the defender under any cover it can find. Give the AI artillery spotters with good inital LOS, and some locked TRP's at good, probable defensive locations. Keep the starting locations close to the defensive MLR. keep the map size small, or relative to the number of troops the AI has to command. Position flags in quantities, sizes and locations that will direct the course and outcome of the battle. Spread out reinforcements so they don't get jumbled and jammed. AI defending: Keep artifical terrain like trenches and foxholes in the trees or brush; it does seem that the AI won't then be so anxious to leave it's positions. Set up a good default defensive position and tell the player to stick to it (although sometimes the computer will generate a pretty good defense, but I don't count on it often). Position flags in quantities, sizes and locations that will direct the course and outcome of the battle. There is no substitute for playtesting, even if you do it yourself. FOW will effect AI play! Last, I stopped applying troop and quality bonuses when playing scenarios designed against the AI, and as such I don't design scenarios with the application of bonuses in mind. If you are an experienced player, you might just win. If you're a noob, you will likely lose but hey, you might just learn some tactics. Kind of like real life. Points off for battles designed to be played against the AI that are easy Total Victories. Also, I have to throw this in: why would you design a scenario best played VS the AI, and suggest adding +50% to the AI forces??? When I see that, and I've seen it more than once, I'm too baffled to even contemplate playing it. Really these are just general suggestions that may be obvious to seasoned designers. I would like to hear some more tips on designing scenarios VS the AI.

There is alot of good stuff at these sites, thanks McAuliffe. I'm going to bookmark it in anticipation of CMX2. Also UC Berkeley has most of the 1944 1:50000 maps of France and Belgium in storage. One of these days I need to call in there and make some copies.

There is great coverage of the Hurtgenwald though, and the start of Rollbahn A (and B, and C) where the 1SS panzer corps began the advance through the Krinkelterwald during the Ardennes Offensive.

Well, the Nordrhein-Westfalen portion of germany. The orthophotos are so clear that you can just make out some old dragons teeth if you know where to look :eek: . The topo is high quality as well, at 1:25000. Caution though: It ain't from the '40's. joe bob says check it out

Without a doubt scenarios are my preference. In 2 or so years of playing I only tried a QB once, and exited out before playing. To me QB's just seem like "Combat Mission Beyond Thunderdome" two tanks enter... one tank leaves... IMHO

The protocol is to first find out if the person in question is sending files to other people in your group. If yes, then send a reminder (if you haven't done so already). If no, then e-mail me the person's name. As to your second question, I usually give them a few days to respond to my e-mail. If no response, then we go to the reserves. Edit: you may also want to check with your other opponents to see if this person sent out a heads up that he would be offline for a period of time. You may not have gotten that e-mail. </font>

Hey Kingfish, what's the protocol with a group member who has not responded with any emails or setups (comm check OK) since square one? Yes I know we all (well most of us) have lives besides CM, but the clock is ticking away, and if you do the math there is already a bit of catch-up to do even after missing one week. At what point do give 'em the boot and recruit from the reserve list?

Ive had that problem with a guy I pbem'd who was using AOL . You might just need to have your freind zip the file before he mails it. That will do the trick. There may be some PBEM-SMTP guru on this board who will have a better solution.

I set up the pbem helper to mitigate the ROW email management nightmare this morning and I must say it works really swell. One click to play, one click to email, no need to remember passwords, I know instantly who owes me a turn... :cool: I'm sold.

try my "HSG B Fighting Withdrawal" on the scenario depot. The reviews say it all.

I have to side with Hoolaman here. For the 1:25000 topo's: based on the ortho/topo overlay comparison at San Pietro Infini, The topographic quality of the maps, and the annotation style, I would have to say that these are pretty close to the 1940's. This is one for the cartographic forensic files.

AndrewTF I got screen captured bitmaps of San Vittore del Lazio. email me and I can attach them and send them off. cheers. btw - I grew up in Ross :cool: and went to grade school in San Anselmo... small world!

Ok, answered my own question - screenprint32 is freeware and works great. I got a screen capture of the war-era 1:25000 Topo of San Pietro. No web hosting so I can't post it here though.

yes but printscreen doesn't seem to capture the image at the darn Italian website??? someone in the thread said he used "screenprint32 v3.5 and it saves it pretty good." does anyone know if screenprint32 is freeware or feeware?