Thomas Davie

Peter; no, I will not have to use the 3d views to any extent at all (note; if someoen really wishes to engage me in a discussion of almost theological proportions about the relative merits of 2d .vs. 3d please send it to my email ). I've board gamed since '68, table gamed since the early 70's and computer gamed since I could weasel onto a card punched main frame. I haven't played a 3d wargame yet, so why should I *have* to know. I am assuming that the engine of Combat Mission is as flexible as Battlefront claims and I have no reason to disagree as of yet. Tom

Peter; I will play the game exclusively from a 2d top down perspective. 3D does not do anything for me. Quite simply I can not play Quake, DOOM, Duke, etc because I puke. SO, to answer you I will not be getting down and dirty in the close up 3d points of view. Tom

Apocal; unless things have changed (which to be honest would not surprise me) there will be no music in the game. But heck, when people were being gassed there was no soundtrack, so I really don't see why there should be any in this game. Disclaimer; this is not said tongue in cheek (I don't play games to listen to music). Tom

>OSCAR, PAY ATTENTION. THE 3D >GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION HAS >NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THE >UNDERLYING GAME ENGINE. Give OSCAR his 2d hex based game then Tom

Fionn; a slight correction re: Elite- Get the other guy to die for you Tom

Fionn; did you get my email on Saturday? My server has been acting up so just thought I'd make a quick check since I know you check here regularly. Sorry to everyone else. Tom

Steve; thanks for your detailed post. I appreciate it. One question that is brought up is that of flanking or crossfires. You said that receiving multiple incoming fire from various angles matters in the game (as it should and does). Does the AI specifically attempt to setup crossfires, recognizing that this is 'good' to do or does it 'pour on' the fire and if a crossfire happens, so be it. Reason I ask is pretty obvious. I KNOW that this is good and can attempt to set up or maneuvere into a position where this can and will happen, but the AI? Thanks Tom

Steve; does this mean that I will get the hex grid on my top down viewpoint of the game? (I'm the guy who pukes when he plays 3d fps games remember ). However, as an honest response to OSCAR; I think that you are trying to simulate something different in a 'computer wargame' than is Combat Mission. Nothing wrong in this....just don't confuse the two as I think you have. Yeah, I get a warm fuzzy when I see a hex, but lately I find that using a felt marker to draw on my monitor works for me.... Tom disclaimer: said semi tongue in cheek. I still have a few thousand sheets of hex paper sitting in my cloest.

Thanks Steve. Heck, skip the beta demo if things will get finished that much quicker Tom

Fionn/Steve; Thanks for the quick reply. Jeez, I didn't even have time to finish my beer No I don't think that any tricks have been used to guide the AI. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I am attempting to differentiate a response (on the AI's part) between a crafted scenario and a randonly generated one. Meaning that; a crafted or constructed scenario will have gone through some human playtesting for balance no? And a randomly generated scenario will not, by definition have gone through any playtesting (or again, by definition, it would not be called random). A crafted scenario will be tweaked, here and there in an effort or attempt to give a better fight. Some forces added, others subtracted....starting locations altered, reinforcement times changed and so forth. And although it is definately not cheating or 'tricking' it is substantially different from what is proffered (sp?) as a randomly genrated game. Again, I apologize if I gave the impression that I thought you would somehow be 'cheating' in the demo. I am NOT implying that in any way, shape or form. But, *I do* perceive a difference between a crafted and a randomly generated scenario. Eh, that's one reason why I sent detailed playtesting reports to Wild Bill for SPWW2. And again, thanks for the reports from both of you re: how the AI is doing. All I'm trying to do is gauge the AI prior to making a purchasing decision since I'm not likely to play anything other than random scenarios most of the time. Tom

Fionn; no, I definately do not think anyone would lie and I certainly do not think that Steve or Charles would. I'd just like to see how the AI functions in a randomly designed game. But, I certainly can't assess what isn't included I guess. Thanks for the info though. Tom

Steve or Charles; correct me if I'm wrong, but I had thought that you were going to include an attack scenario in the demo for both the Allies and Germans. Could you please also include one (1) randomly generated scenario as well? Reason being that you have publicly stated that waypoints would not be utilized as a means of 'directing' the AI and I certainly do not think that you would put in designed scenarios that would make the AI look bad, so.... How about it as a means of allowing us to assess the AI via a non constructed scenario? Tom

Doug; This is of course totally unverifiable, but some of the beta testers were pissed off at the absolute unresponsiveness of the company when it came time to correcting some problems. The response that the testers received with respect to certain issues was 'screw you; it's shipping' or 'screw you, you're wrong'. When this happened to me in a beta testing program, I simply quit and sent an email indicating that I would honor the nda. Obviously, these people have differing conceptions of what constitutes moraility. So be it. C'est la vie. I still plan on buying CC4 Tom

Depending on the province you live in, the difference in price is less than a few decent beer or a few ounces of good single malt. Heck, just wait until Canada Customs opens your package and sees that you have a violent 'war' program. Tom

Excepting Combat Mission, which I would like to see yesterday , I am waiting for; 1) Close Combat 4 2) Steel Panthers 4 3) Rising Sun (Pacific Front) 4) Age of Wonders 5) Warlords 4 What I am playing right now; 1) Hereos of Might and Magic 3 2) Warlords 3 3) Steel Panthers: WW2 4) Close Combat 2: East Front 5) West Front/ Starfleet Command Tom

Steve I downloaded Office 2000 in 2 hours so, uh wait a second...... In all seriousness if you were to offer Combat Mission for sale via download (and I'm not sure that the tech exists????)why would you say that a T1 equipped person would have problems? I'm getting ~100 kbytes/ sec on a cable modem on average. Say 100 minutes for a full CD give or take. Maybe less if you choose not to download the 'opposing' OS portion. Am I missing something here? Tom

Ah Paulie good thing about the tp. Thanks. I'm gonna have to lay in a supply of that (again, I'll use it one way or another). That's another decent trading good. Tom

Got a couple cords of wood in case the heat goes out. Have a few cases of soup, chili, etc and 50 gallons of bottled water. 10 cases of beer and 5 bottles of single malt. I figure if I can't charge gouger prices or trade for the beer/scotch, I'll eventually drink them Tom

Pixman; if we (the West) really started to turn all of our industrial resources into shipping products to Nazi Germany in 1939, I would have bolted from Canada, attempted to get German citizenship and take whatever the West was willing to give me as a German. This is a thought experiment of course, but I would be willing to bet that when the West could not afford to give more, Hitler would be able to take whatever was left (and I would not blame him if we engaged in that course of action ). Now, if the West had atomic weapons at the beginning of 1939 and had demonstrated or transmitted a willingness to use them should Germany continue in it's ways they would have stopped.... I assume that I possess a different view of human nature than you Regards Tom

Pixman; my best wishes are for your wife. As regards Spock and his utterance of 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few....or the one', I would have to respond by saying 'the needs of the many NEVER outweigh the rights of one'. Consider a dilemma that I was faced with in one of my philosphy classes; 'you're in a desert and you own a water stand; ten people who are obviously dying of thirst come up to you and demand your water; what do you do, and what is right?'. Obviously, the perception of strength balances will play a large part in anyone's decision as to what they do, but I made the claim that it is your right 'as owner of the water stand' to kill all ten people if chosen in order to 'defend your private property'. Oddly enough, despite the claim that I have a bleak view of humanity I would hold the opposite 'that I trust enough in another's rationality to hold my sovereignty from them as valid' such that I do not have to resort to violence to defend what I believe to be mine. But if I do, so be it. Regards Tom ------------------

Steve; when I was taking my philosophy degreee, I never heard of that classical dilemma My choice is simple....seal the doors, kill some crew and save the others/the boat. Personally, I do not see that a choice exists to be made. You hesitate? You lose everything. A Kantian might claim that issues of personal morality cease to exist in a war. If anyone is interested, you can check out Immanuel Kant's 'The Critique of Pure Reason' paying particular attention to a chapter containing 'categorical imperatives'. I've never been in a war and hope never to be in one. However, that having being said, I would do *whatever* it takes to win....or whatever I had inductively concluded was necessary to win. I would rather not engage in atrocities....I would rather not have to kill in order to live....I would rather not have to defend my way of life/existence with the sword....but I would. And, I would make the claim that hunreds of millions of other people would as well. Pretty bleak commentary on human nature? No; it is simply what and who we are. We kill in order to live. Other species we eat. Other humans we kill because there is something existent within them that we despise or fear. Now, if you're not yet thoroughly convinced that I am a barbarian, take a gander at 3 books by Plato; 'The Republic', 'The Statesman'and 'The Laws'. Essentially I am in complete agreement with what is contained in these books. It may not be nice and it certinaly is not kind or gentle, but humans have always distinguished 'outsiders' from 'insiders'. And we do not take kindly to outsiders Very few ingroups do. So....I guess I am saying that violence doesn't particularly surprise or disturb me. I expect it as a natural course of human endeavours. What does surprise and disturb me is that when reason fails some people will give up and let their way of life be overcome rather than fighting to inflict damage on an opposing mode of existence. Consider this a roundabout way of me saying that I have never considerd the USA a 'pure as the driven snow' country'. But I sure as hell am glad that they are the pre-eminent military power in the world today. 200 SS troops murdered? Well, you know what is said.... 'the winners make the rules'. Tom

Steve; your post is interesting, indicative of human nature and pretty damn common (unfortunately). It's lucky that I have little or no faith in the 'supposed' good side of human nature or it would have depressed me That having been said, if I point a gun at you, all rules are off. I wouldn't be surprised if you fired a gun back at me, shot me in the head or committed any number of atrocities in the name of 'self defense'. Actually, I'm surprised that people are not more cruel than they are considering their biological nature. Tom

Every time I go to the States for a weekend (3 times in the last two months) the bartenders always *ALWAYS* end up muttering something about damn Canadians and their 'eh's' or 'aboot's' or their funny cigarettes or their health care system. I say 'to hell with that; I'm there for the good beer'. Tom

Eh, well at least we don't have Clinton as president. You guys want the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario? You got em Tom

Ithai: I live in Tuxedo just near the Assinaboine Park. Tom