stikkypixie
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Posts posted by stikkypixie
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Do you have a save file? I'm no beta tester, but I'm very curious now
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Yeah, I guess what inspired this post was my experience in the military and from books I've read. Often, when a squad loses track of higher command or higher command loses track of subordinates, drastic action has to be taken to regain contact. This isn't in Combat Mission but it could be.
I totally understand the frustration it would bring for most people. I've always bent towards realism and simulations in my gaming experiences.
This is not the popular opinion.
Isn't it a bit unrealistic that every subordinate does *exactly* what you want them to do in CM? There are a lot of things that are not taken into account in CM, but most of the time it is not noticed, which makes it a good game
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In this regard, what differs in the CM*2 engine from CM*1?
I believe the difference is that CMx1 calculated the hit chance. As in (oversimplified of course) if veteran add another 5% to the hit chance. And then throws a dice to determine whether something would get hit before the round even leaves the barrel.
In CMx2, they calculate the quality of the input information for the gunner. As in (again oversimplified) if veteran gunner the aimpoint will be more optimal, he can adjust for range better, etc... + random stuff like dispersion of the gun
Once that's done, the round is "fired" and if it intersects the polygon of the enemy tank, it's a hit otherwise not (the physics that goes a long with the flight paths is also taken into account).
So the game doesn't know at all if the round will hit or not, and doesn't know what hit percentage will be.
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Only other thing I can think of is to hit Ctrl-I a few times. I believe it cycles through a few options of "no icons at all" "no enemy icons" "no friendly icons" "all icons." I definitely remember seeing ? icons in the demo.... although not necessarily in the setup phase. That depends on the scenario. Have you charged forward to spot a few enemies then pulled back (or hide) so you lose line of sight?
Also if you are playing on a lower difficulty setting, you may not be ABLE to lose line of sight, since enemies are always fully revealed on some of the lowest difficulties.
As for the mortars - sorry, I guess the demo has them not set up, which is a bit unfortunately. No preparation bombardment for you! Is there off-map arty in the demo? Like 105 howitzers? Those suckers will work too.
You can just set them up and them perform pre-prep arty no problem. One thing that could be though is that the pre-battle intel is a bit random and can change from game to game.
Anyway, it doesn't seem a like big problem to me if the demo has some slight differences like this, pressing the deploy button is not that hard, it rest of the video is still a great help.
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I've now checked six of the seven download links for the Mac version of the demo. I skipped ePrison (Germany) because I don't want a German language version of the manual.
All six sites give the same v1.0 demo generated around 12 May, so I suspect the ?-mark floating icons and the set up prep fire capability only appear in the full version of CM:BN.
It's in the demo. You're doing something wrong, have you tried the suggestions made by other posters?
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Hello stikkypixie, lets see if I can explain it better. The color may be correct but if LOS is blocked I can't determine what terrain feature is blocking LOS because the color bar is originating from the present position of the unit rather than from the new position, therefor it isn't shown traveling over the same terrain as it will be when the unit is at the way point.
I knew there was something I didn't get
. I usually move the line back and forth to see where the obstacle is. It's not optimal though. -
Yeah, they're the same company. It says "out of contact" rather than "denied" so its definitely a contact issue.
Not sure how long they've been stationary but if it's a movement issue should they also be out of command? Haven't ever noticed it being an issue before although I may not have noticed units being out of command in the heat of battle before...
However, the company forward observer is currently accessing the off board artillery and I'm pretty sure he accessed the other company's mortars earlier on (although I could be mistaken). He can currently access the off-board artillery but is "out of contact" with his own mortars. He, too, is out of command. So as far as I can see, it can't be a problem at his end otherwise he should be "out of contact" with the off-board arty, not just his own. The link must surely be broken at the other end?
After a movement it takes a while for the platoon HQs set up their radio's, so if they are out of visual range and radio is the only form of communication they will be out of command. It is hard as it is run and talk while not getting shot, let alone using of those clumsy WW2 radio's.
FO's are bit special I believe (or there was a bug).
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That's a good point. As it stands, they have very limited initiative. They'll return fire, retreat, refuse to follow orders when taking heavy losses, and otherwise act with self-preservation in mind. If you're suggesting that having telepathy to order my men around is just a way of simulating squad leader initiative, I can accept that. However, where is the border between simulation and suspension of disbelief?
I think it's not possible in CMx2 but I would love to see a more advanced AI system that actually interpreted orders instead of being micromanaged. Or, in my dream world, a cooperative mode where other players can command separate units on the same battlefield.
Cooperative mode would be the way to go. Leaving it to the AI is just too complicated. Think about how you would regain C2 (sending a squad to to look for the lost squad, and risk losing that squad because of lack of communications as well?).
It's a problem with all games at this level. Otherwise try operational scale games.
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I suppose they could be ai controlled until they were back in c2.
I don't believe the AI is up to the task for this. There are tons of situations and corresponding actions that it would be impossible to programme.
Think about it, your squad is out of C2 in the simplest case where they just remain where they are; this mean that you some how have to re-establish C2 with them, right?
So how will you do this? Send a scout team with which you will lose control once they go out of C2? Move the HQ unit and lose C2 to the remainder of the force? It's a big can of worms in my opinion. Maybe one day, but not in CMBN.
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I had this idea the other day while I was playing Iron mode.
See, I had forgotten to give orders to one of my squads during an assault. There were some difficulties in maneuvering my guys around accurately due to the varying spot reports for friendlies and enemies which was a result of the broken C2. It was nice, I'm sure you'll agree, to get them back into C2 and into the fight.
However, it completely broke the immersion for me. How did these men who were completely out of contact receive this order? Telepathy? It made me think of the old Take Command series where you had an actual courier that rode out to deliver orders.
My idea was this:
How about a new difficulty level that requires your units to be in contact with your HQ unit, whichever the highest ranking unit on the field is, before they can receive any new orders? Would anyone else appreciate the intricacies of this or is it a 'feature' everyone would hate?
How would you take into account own initiative of the squads then?
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They are within Captain Carlson's command. Should have said. He can bring in mortar fire from these three mortars (but he's at the back and has nothing to shoot at except some unthreatening looking flora and fauna).
How long have the platoon HQs been stationary? Do the mortars belong to the same company?
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High light a way point and you can check the LOS from that way point to another given point, good feature, but I think that it would be much more use full if the LOS bar originated from the way point in question rather than from the present position of the unit. This would enable you to find a hull down position with ease and also to check the LOS from the way point to all other map co-ordinates by utilizing the color change of the LOS bar across the terrain from the way point and you could at the same time identify the terrain feature that is blocking LOS. How hard this would be to program I have no idea. Hope I worded this to where it is at least half way understandable. Thoughts about this from other forum members?
Why is that? Although the LOS line start from the unit, its "colour" is accurate for the highlighted waypoint. Except for it being less confusing I don't see any added functions. Unless I don't understand you of course
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as far as im aware of, their spacing is abstracted, it may look like they are all bunched up but the game treats them as if they are separate and spread out
I think you are wrong here. They are bunched up, but the effects of explosions is tuned down.
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I'm an old-school CM user. I'm having trouble increasing the scale size of the troops and equip. I think it was ctrl 3 on the old games. How do you do it with Normandy? ...hope there is a way...my old eyes have a hard time seeing stuff in actual scale.
No you can't, but you can zoom in and out (although that's not really the same thing).
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Yep! I've noticed that all right: then I ask myself, why they had to make another program installation for CMBN? To go back again to the ASL idea, wasn't it possible for BF to create a single Universal program, where you can later add ANY time period/theater of operation? I repeat, I can't say this is feasible at all, but that would be Great! Are you a Civil War Nut? Then here is the Gettysburg! Module; do you want to research the battles in WWII New Guinea? Here is the Kokoda Trail Inferno; and so on... All these Modules just installing Units, weaponry, scenarios and maps handled by the same exec, and staying on the same directory (but this is not mandatory).
Eventually we will get one CM WWI, another CM WWII, a CM Modern and a CM Heritage, and this would be a great improvement from CMX1, at least one I can greatly appreciate.
This of course is just my 2c.
Because it allows them to break with old code and start afresh if necessary.
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Just to clarify: I'm in no position or in the knowledge to tell BF what they have to chose as a marketing strategy, or a development direction! I'd been working for a while in the VG industry as a tech consultant for 3D SW, so my FOV may be somewhat narrow and limited...
In any case for those who don't know, Advanced Squad Leader (a tabletop cardboard tactical war game) come in Modules; first and foremost is The Book of Rules, and this IMO should be the .exe, The Program: you may call it for example Combat Mission Tactical Wargame Simulator, or CM Thin Red Line, CM Red Badge Of Courage...
To go back to the ASL analogy, you can expand your game buying Modules: for example Hollow Legions included the whole roster for the Italian Army during WWII, a few new mounted maps, and a dozen of new scenarios to play both on the new maps or the old ones. So you'll have a single Program you can Update, Patch, etc.; to this single Program you can ADD many Addon Modules that can comprehend a variety of time periods, weapons, armies, etc.
Now and then you are also getting ASL DeLuxe Modules: beuatifully detailed and dedicated maps to some particular battle: Pegasus Bridge, Red Barrikady, etc. With these you get a whole set of scenario to play on the dedicated maps, and some special additional counters. In all the addon you may eventually get some additional Rules' Pages to add to the Book of Rules.
I don't know if this would be feasible at this point of development with CMX2, but I feel would be a brilliant solution to an already brilliant and unique product.
Cheers
I have a sneaking suspicion that BFC is familiar with the modules concept
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:eek:What? Tell me you are kidding. No saved games will work after installing the patch? That will be very inconvenient.
Please tell me that in progress PBEM games will work. At least if PBEM can continue I'll survive.
If CMBN is anything like CMSF, my experience is this. It is not guaranteed that save games started in one version will continue working in the other. However if you a save between missions in a campaign, that should carry over from one version to the other. Also while as said not guaranteed, most of the time it is possible to make games started in 1.00 compatible in 1.01 if you have a save game during either order phase (if I'm not mistaken, could be the other way around as well). Same is true for PBEMs, it is possible to convert them, just not guaranteed.
You can check the CMSF patch notes to for information.
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Instead of posting frivolous links, why don't you send me a turn, you big cheater.
There is nothing frivolous about Yeah Yeah Yeahs!
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Your cheating heart?
I dunno... I'm just spitballin' here.
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The little engine that could.
"I think I Caen,I think I Caen".
Wow,after carefully considering all these witty posts,I beilieve I can say with 100 % certainty that this thread has deteriorated beyond all recognition.We are a sad lot are we not?
As for the above French Caen Caen post,If we are going to have French Women in the game they must all look like Alize.If you don't know who she is you must stop everything you are doing and Google her.Trust me,there is nothing in this World better then Googling Alize.They promised an Alizée unit for CMSF, but they never put in the French army
. Personally I feel the effort to get the model for that unit *just* right is well worth a couple months of delay. -
The C2 GUI has two parts.
The red and green marks tell you the state of C2 going up the line. A red marker next to Btn HQ means that the platoon/company HQ is not in contact with Btn. So even if your rifle squad restore contact with platoon HQ you won't get contact to Btn HQ.
The other part is the one above the suppression meter. It tells you if a squad is in C2 to or not. To what unit depends on which HQ unit is closest in terms of C2 and is usually its immediate superior.
As for broken C2 links, it hampers information sharing which can lead to many spurious contact markers and in some slower spotting. Your guys will also feel less confident (morale drops if a squad is out of C2) and fight worse. And of course you can't call in fire support missions.
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That is only correct for one of the two players, the other player is doing just the opposite.
It depends on who starts the game as to which way your turn works
So you are the one that is not clear on how it presently works
No it's not. You always see the turn first. Try starting a PBEM game against yourself if you don't believe me.
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I'm the same way. I've only ever tried to force buddy aid to occur twice. Once was getting a Panzerschrek to loot the body of an ammo bearer, and once was to get a squad to pick up the MG42 after the gunner had died. Other than that, I don't bother.
Buddy aid is cool to see, and 1:1 kills/deaths are more compelling than CMx1, but there's no benefit or reward in the game to giving aid. Even if there were it would have to be substantial for me to risk the mission to give medical attention to fallen men.
KIA are worth more than WIA. Buddy aid on WIA reduces the chance of them becoming KIA. It is only a small "advantage" though. I only buddy aid when things are safe.
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As for the above French Caen Caen post,If we are going to have French Women in the game they must all look like Alize.If you don't know who she is you must stop everything you are doing and Google her.Trust me,there is nothing in this World better then Googling Alize.
. Personally I feel the effort to get the model for that unit *just* right is well worth a couple months of delay.
(Another) C2 query
in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Posted
There are several free file hosting sites, such as dropbox. Just pick one and put a link here. Maybe it will get picked up by BFC as well.