Wildhack

I've read that non-penetrating hits can frequently cause fragments of a tanks interior surfaces to shatter, ricochet, and cause serious wounds. I believe it's called "spalling"?

Yes, that's an interesting observation and I agree with it. A question might be, though, which type of society provides the greatest benefit to mankind? And maybe the answer is we are better off with a mix. Including even the theocratic oriented nations. Even though I admit they tend to irk me on a personal level. "Flying planes into a building was a faith based initiative." - Bill Maher

I'm almost sure that article I read was in Newsweek, but I couldn't find it using Google. Anyway, I did come across one study that seemed to support the idea that the most successful democracies also tend to be more secular. I'm sure a few people could find fault with the data gathering methods used or such, but someone asked for a link and here is one. This is a long scientific- looking at least - paper, but I sure didn't read the whole thing. Below are a few paraphrases from the conclusions. Take them for what you will. (One note - anyone who says that sexual dysfunction is low in Japan must be on drugs. I've seen some samples of their very large porn cartoon industry (Hentai), and it is so bizarre it is almost beyond belief. Combine that with school girls commonly selling their used underwear to businessmen, etc., and you get the idea. So I'm a little skeptical of this study myself for this one reason alone.) Edit - reading this again, I'd probably also take issue with the definition of "successful". The U.S. has certainly contributed vastly more to the sciences, arts, and the alleviation of human suffering than any piss ant Scandinavian country ever has. There might also be something needing to be said for inventiveness and dynamism. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy, and abortion in the prosperous democracies (Figures 1-9). The most theistic prosperous democracy, the U.S., is exceptional, but not in the manner Franklin predicted. The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developed democracies, sometimes spectacularly so, and almost always scores poorly... No democracy is known to have combined strong religiosity and popular denial of evolution with high rates of societal health. Higher rates of non-theism and acceptance of human evolution usually correlate with lower rates of dysfunction, and the least theistic nations are usually the least dysfunctional... Indeed, the data examined in this study demonstrates that only the more secular, pro-evolution democracies have, for the first time in history, come closest to achieving practical “cultures of life” that feature low rates of lethal crime, juvenile-adult mortality, sex related dysfunction, and even abortion. The least theistic secular developed democracies such as Japan, France, and Scandinavia have been most successful in these regards.

I know I'm out of my depth with a lot of the people on this forum, but I read something interesting recently which may relate to this. The piece claimed that the most stable, happiest countries in the world tended to be the most secular. Perhaps greater religiosity may be more a function a people trying to cope with difficulties and forces in their lives over which they feel they have little control, rather than education levels? But in any case, I think I disagree with your idea on an instinctual basis. If the education you are speaking of is a madrasa or a seminary, maybe. But if we are talking about modern colleges of science, I doubt it.

I fully uninstalled WMP for Firefox months ago myself, but then dropped my guard while doing a 'critical' Windows update and got nailed with it again. Thankfully however, Firefox actually automatically turned it off for me a couple of days ago.

It's to the point now that I'm even sad to see the Nazis go. A very interesting and historically important generation quickly fading into the twilight. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/air-force-obituaries/6299837/Generalleutnant-Gnther-Rall.html

Another vote for Patriot. It was a long time ago, but I do remember anticipating that game for what seemed like years. And then finally getting it and quickly giving up in shear frustration. I think I may have even questioned myself at the time as to whether I was just too dumb to comprehend something so deep... I'll also admit that I'm a fan of MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games), and have been greatly disappointed in all the recent offerings. The dumbed down, linear, so called WoW clones. I do currently play EVE Online, but I long for a better/newer/different adult oriented 'sandbox'.

As far as current requirements for special forces go, you guys may well be right about needing to have completed one hitch, etc.. What I remember about being asked in boot camp happened, err, well lets just say something over twenty years ago. But I do remember one other thing about that day. Not a single person stepped forward and said "put my name on the list, sir".

The one thing I remember is that everyone is given the opportunity to sign up for special forces fairly early in boot camp (at least with regard to the Navy). But after that, I'm sure some serious vetting begins. I'd be a lot more worried about washing out due to lack of character or low IQ than physical fitness. Almost anyone can get in shape if they really want to.

As a yank I've been waiting for years to blithely ask an Australian waitress to 'put a dingo on the barbie' for me. But after having to cancel a planned trip there last year, I wonder if I'm ever going to find the chance. Thanks John, I laughed.

Just (vaguely) remembering a blurb I heard on the tv yesterday, I believe there are about 400 American military advisers currently in Georgia.

My neighbor swears that Claritin is a miracle cure for her hayfever. And I believe that Zirtec is also another one of these new class of drugs that are used to treat allergies (and that are now sold over the counter). I'm not sure how they work, but I believe they are supposed to be much safer to use on a regular basis than anti histamines or decongestants are? GL

Be sure to (eventually) play CMBB against a human opponent. Even if you have to buy a copy for a friend, or go to the Opponent Finder forum. Multiplayer takes CMBB to a whole new level. And welcome. Come visit in the "General Discussion Forum" as well if you ever have some free time.

My brother recently complained that an HQ unit of his just spontaneously died for no good reason. But I think the one thing I could say is that this problem is exceedingly rare (we are now playing our 20th or so PBEM QB)

The Scenario Depot has a search feature with filters that can be useful, and quite a few of the scenarios have been reviewed. http://ns9.super-hosts.com/~dragonlair.net/combatmission/ Favorite tank is kind of dependant on the time frame. When you're almost completely invulnerable it's easy to start thinking you're the next Patton, but try playing the other side in these situations to find out why a lot of people use various armor limits with CMBB. Here's one example: http://schlepper.hanse.de/redwolf/armorrules/

This site will give you histories and pictures of the vehicles as well as the data. And it covers all the countries involved in WWII. http://www.wwiivehicles.com/

Thanks Valera. I'm relatively new to CM, and have been considering trying to design my first scenario. This is the kind of stuff I'd think might help. Got to say, though, playing the Russian side against my brother (we're currently up to 1943 doing QB's) that open type terrain makes me shudder. His Tigers and Stugs have been handing me my ass in a hat lately!

I was trying to find some information on this subject tonight on the internet, but didn't come up with much. And as some of the people here constantly astound me with their knowledge of WWII, I thought I'd ask what you might know. What I did find out out: 1.)The SS Wahoo, 3rd patrol. Sub captain "Mush" Morton sinks jap transport. Executive officer Richard O'kane writes after the war that a few of the survivors in the water may have been hit by stray gunfire while finishing off the transport, but that was it. Morton is awarded the Medal of Honor, and is subsequently killed in action when the Wahoo is sunk during a later patrol. O'kane becomes an Admiral and commander of the US Sub School. Dies in 1994. But another single source apparently says that Morton ordered the crew to open up for over an hour (until all ammo was expended) with 4" and 20mm cannon on over three thousand survivors. The logic apparently being that these survivors were not prisoners (they were potentially going to be rescued by the Japanese), and that some "fire" had been received from the people in the water. Anybody have an opinion or source on if the latter is true? I didn't feel like buying the book just to read one paragraph. 2.) Another fellow on a usenet thread said (vaguely) that "the Wahoo incident was nothing compared to what the Americans did in Italy". But I couldn't find any substantiation for that allegation at all. Anybody? (Or if you want to read about a German atrocity at the Ardeatine Caves in Italy) http://www.zchor.org/italy/caves.htm (Or about an accusation of an American led massacre in the recent Afghan war) http://www.democracynow.org/afghanfilm.shtml One Note: A number of years ago (long before I had ever heard anything negative about the Wahoo) I had a short conversation with someone who had served on subs as an enlisted man in the Pacific during WWII. And I remember the only specific question I could think to ask him about was (from reading books like "Run Silent, Run Deep" when I was a kid) concerning the Wahoo and Mush Morton. I was kind of surprised when he said something like "yeah, the guy was a c*cksucking bastard". And we both let it drop at that. Note Two: Sorry. By way of explanation. With recent events I'm going through a "why are we so hated" phase right now. - Another supposed incident I just read about tonight. John Kerry's patrol boat shoots up a river shoreline, and a single vietcong is wounded and staggers away. John Kerry beaches the boat, walks behind a shack were the cong has collapsed and shoots him in the back with his pistol. He is awarded the Silver Star for this "kill". No idea if this is true (I'd guess odds are it's not; didn't he get his Silver Star for something having to do with a rescue?), but I'm becoming more and more skeptical these days.

Fantastic job of tracking this problem down BCNU. I'm going to RMA my card today, and am glad I decided to check in again on the progress of this thread. And you were right Schrullenhaft. It was hardware. Thanks again, Wildhack

I'm trying to gather some information about why tanks retreat (or do something as useless as fire a smoke shell before doing so), but all the threads on this topic seem to have disappeared. For example all the links in this recent thread (Timid JS2s) are dead, and doing a title search for the suggested terms (coward(ly), retreating) produces nothing as well. I've tried searching the archives and CMBO forums as well. http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=005287#000004 Anyway, if you guys would mind going over some tips again I'd appreciate it. Here are the only practical tips I've found so far myself. (The most recent problem I've been having is with PzIV's behaving cowardly). _________________________________________________ IIRC, one of the more useful pieces of information from the previous threads (which I did read) on this topic was that if you order an IS-series vehicle to SHOOT AND SCOOT, it is MUCH more likely to stop, take a good shot while standing still, and then get back to safety. It's when you order the IS to just HUNT or MOVE up onto a ridgeline or something that you are likely to see it back down without taking a shot at all, or take a low percentage shot while already reversing back into defilade. Realistic? I have no idea. Useful when I'm playing CM? Very. ------------- The seek hulldown command uses the behaviour of the move command according to BFC. This means that a tank using this command does not expect to have enemy contact before it has completed the command. It also means that the tank is unlikely to fire while using this command. And moving units are more likely to get nervous when they are under fire. Considering this, you really shouldn't be surprised if the TacAI overrides a seek hulldown order and reverses back out of LOS when your tank is targeted by an enemy tank. -----------

I'm trying to gather some information about why tanks retreat (or do something as useless as fire a smoke shell before doing so), but all the threads on this topic seem to have disappeared. For example all the links in this recent thread (Timid JS2s) are dead, and doing a title search for the suggested terms (coward(ly), retreating) produces nothing as well. I've tried searching the archives and CMBO forums as well. http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=005287#000004 Anyway, if you guys would mind going over some tips again I'd appreciate it. Here are the only practical tips I've found so far myself. (The most recent problem I've been having is with PzIV's behaving cowardly). _________________________________________________ IIRC, one of the more useful pieces of information from the previous threads (which I did read) on this topic was that if you order an IS-series vehicle to SHOOT AND SCOOT, it is MUCH more likely to stop, take a good shot while standing still, and then get back to safety. It's when you order the IS to just HUNT or MOVE up onto a ridgeline or something that you are likely to see it back down without taking a shot at all, or take a low percentage shot while already reversing back into defilade. Realistic? I have no idea. Useful when I'm playing CM? Very. ------------- The seek hulldown command uses the behaviour of the move command according to BFC. This means that a tank using this command does not expect to have enemy contact before it has completed the command. It also means that the tank is unlikely to fire while using this command. And moving units are more likely to get nervous when they are under fire. Considering this, you really shouldn't be surprised if the TacAI overrides a seek hulldown order and reverses back out of LOS when your tank is targeted by an enemy tank. -----------

Well, I have to report this video corruption bug is still happening to me, though at a greatly reduced frequency. But still enough to be annoying. Notice how we both have Gainward Ti4200 cards Bncu? That's interesting.

Ok, problem definitely solved for me. I have over 15 hours of play now without this glitch happening, and I was never able to play more than 1/2 hour before. I changed two things: 1.) I had AGP timing set to 2x, and bumped it back up to 4x. But I doubt this was it. 2.) I changed Advanced Chipset Features > AGP Timing Control > "AGP Read Synchronization" to "enabled" in the BIOS. Apparently this setting provides comaptibility to some "outdated" software, and is default set to off on most newer systems. But turning it on did the trick for me. Please note, however, that people seem to say this setting may cause problems in other software applications if left enabled. [ October 28, 2003, 06:58 AM: Message edited by: Wildhack ]

It appears to me that allowing a greater number of turns during a probe/attack/assault quick battle would favor the attacker, and allowing less would favor the defender. Do any of you guys have a formula you use to try and achieve balance in games against a human opponent? For example I'm just gearing up for my first PBEM quick battle against my brother. It will be a 500 point assault on a medium map in dry conditions. How many turns should I make it?

I just lasted about 20 minutes with Ultrabright off (don't think I made it past about 2 minutes in ten previous tries), and was getting hopeful. But no joy. I think Ultrabright is pretty much a gimmick that simply cranks up contrast and brightness. I did try to take a screenshot, but because the screen is also corrupted in Windows I couldn't see to paste it into Paint. The best I can describe the appearance of the glitch is a complete covering of the display with small squares of light blue to bluish white (but the squares are larger than individual pixels). The mouse cursor is a slightly different color, and is barely discernable as a square rather than a pointer of about half an inch by half an inch. I can hear the game playing in the background, so this is not a CTD. Alt + tabbing brings me back to the desktop (sound stops), but like I said, this area is also corrupt. Returning to the game (without re-booting) doesn't clear anything up. I actually read something about anything other than the lastest Logitech mouse driver causing problems in Star Wars Galaxies (horrible game) just a few weeks ago, so I had just updated this driver directly from Logitech. I'll try going back to a Windows driver (but this will probably still be autodetected by XP, and come from Logitech), and I'll update this post tomorrow if it does any good. But my trackball doesn't have a 3rd button so...? I knew when I couldn't find dozens of people whining about this glitch in the forums I was probably going to be in for a rough time. Thanks again for trying to help. Again, I'll update this thread if I find a workaround or a cause.