cool breeze

Haven't been on CM Forums much of late, so missed this. Mom (d. 1993) would not be pleased (SSGT FMFPAC, Pearl Harbor, Korean War)!
Regards,
John Kettler

?? Is that a joke.  Well I'll take it that way
 
Sometimes it is pretty obvious things are screwy.  Sometimes it take a lot of testing to find out what is wrong.  Sometimes its just screwy expectations from us war gamers.  Mostly it is the latter.

I'm on the fence on this one as it goes back to what does the player know versus what does the vehicle know.  When a vehicle is lased, it has no idea what lased it or the threat level.  To have it's reaction be based on the player's knowledge gets into a chancy area for me while I can also understand the frustration.  On the one hand I can see the argument that if I get lased and I KNOW there is a BMP facing me, my best option might actually be to kill it.  Popping smoke is more a defense for the BMP than my M1.  But if that lase had come from something else that now has a sweet shot at me and I delay to kill the BMP..... 
 
What would a real life crew do?  Time for some input from our folks who have actual knowledge....  what would be standard practice?  Survival first by employing defensive assets, or kill the known enemy in the hopes they are the source?

The MoD has just announced its forces, which were conducting a "quickly assembled counterattack against revanchist elements," engaged and destroyed what is believed to be an enemy tank. The Ministry's spokesperson went on state "Combat has how become general and fierce, with the situation being described by the Komandir on the scene as extremely confused and fluid. We expect more details soon." The spokesperson went on to say: "The Defense Minister views the battle unfolding as "the vindication of wise expenditures made to upgrade and expand battle technology of the Ground Forces." 
 
I'll say! The battlefield is so crazy I've got armor headed one way and shooting in any direction other than the axis of movement. Additionally, there's firing going on at I haven't the faintest idea what, still less why. Whatever it is, it's got my guys really worked up. We are only two minutes into combat, and already things are so chaotic it's quite difficult to tell what's happening, why and who's doing it.
 
On a personal note, playing Tiny QB forces on a Large map makes CMBS, for Armor on Armor engagements at least,  a whole new game by restoring real maneuver to the battle. I've been up all night, am exhausted and have blurry vision, yet I'm quite excited by how dynamic and visually rich the gaming experience has become. Hats off to BadgerDog for the capital suggestion of moving from a Medium to a Large map.  
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler 

Im new to combat missions,all i played was the shockforce demo before i got black sea. The campaign i have played so far i think is awesome! Granted i am only on the third mission of the american campaign, but its take me about 4-5 hours to compete each single mission. I have had to vary my tactics wildy to fit the mission, and poking the bear is just awesome i think. All the single scenarios ive played so far ( ive only played 5 and beat 3) are really cool. This is probably my favortite strategy game atm. I might be missing something becuase, like i said, i never played the older title, but i just dont see how anyone could call this unimaginative. This is almost the perfect wargame imho, although i dont play it more than 2-3 times a week, usually i am tired from work and working out and i go for lighter game to relax, since this game requires so much planning, attention, and time, But when i need a tactics fix, this is the game i go to

I warned 'em Sheriff!
Buncha no good "feature rustlers" riding through town hoopin' and hollerin'....shootin' out the streetlights.

Would I be banned if I said (imagine little child having a huge tantrum)"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you"?

But with Upgrade 4.0 still using the outdated CMx2 engine i doubt we will see much improvement in key areas.
Instead on focusing on keeping the old car driving through the addition of a new oil filter, a spoiler and new tires it would be time to move on and invest into a new car.
If money or know-how is the problem...well there is kickstarter, i think we all would support you.

Another thing i dont like is that we now have it Official, the bulge game will only include "minor" changes.
No new trench/foxhole system. No significant gameplay enhancements, no fix for long standing technical issues.

Sorry, iam disappointed !
(But thanks for the heads-up Steve)

Some day we will probably get more specialty AT arty and bombs.  Don't Russia and the US have a lot of smart AT DPICM? Im thinking about the kinds that deploy the hockey puck smart bomblets that look for their own target to hit 'em with HEAT from the top or EFP from the top.

Hello Gentlemen
 
I bring you exciting news of the new Scenario Depot III which has been funded by The Few Good Men.  As we all know The Scenario Depot II was the go to place for Scenario downloads with its most successful period being from the mid-90's to the early 00's for the CMX1 series of games.  Unfortunately it was never updated to encompass the CMX2 series of games but all that is about to change.  I introduce to you The Scenario Depot III.
 

 
The new site is a community wide project and despite being hosted on The Few Good Men servers membership of The FGM is not required.  We have reached a stage where the site is pretty much finished and all that remains to be tested now is its load bearing capabilities.  
 
The Scenario Depot III is the place to upload your completed play tested scenarios for the enjoyment of the CMx2 community and I'm asking if you scenario designers out there would do me the honour of starting to upload your scenarios to the database as a stress test exercise.  If all goes well The Scenario Depot III will be up and running henceforth.
 
The site is available HERE
 
Please read 'The About The Scenario Depot III' section and then go to 'Upload A File' to go through the simple process of getting your scenario into our database awaiting front page post upload. 
 
I would like to thank Gary Krockover the original designer of The Scenario Depot II and The Proving Grounds for his permission to launch the next era of the sites catering for the new games released by Battlefront in the CMX2 series.
 
The site covers all CMX2 games [Afghanistan, Shock Force, Battles for Normandy, Fortress Italy, Red Thunder , Black Sea] and has areas waiting to be opened for the Bulge games forthcoming release.
 
As well as scenarios and campaigns the site also offers the capability of uploading user designed maps for players to download.
 
At present we have just the one map uploaded so please pop over and start adding your content and if you wish to donate towards the endeavour there is a link at the bottom of the right hand column for you generous folk out there.  Donations will go towards the programmes required to get The Proving Grounds up and running which is phase 2 of the project.  I look forward to seeing your work being submitted.
 
Thanks for reading.
 
Bootie

The Eagle and the Bear is a narrative hypothetical campaign of a clash between NATO and Russian forces in the small Baltic country of Latvia. It is a campaign of modern war set in a "could happen" situation where you command a  U.S. Combat Brigade through a 7 day struggle for control of the Baltics.
 
It is designed to be played from the blue side only. Some scenarios are large so it may be slow load times on some systems.
 
It features 11 scenarios, 9 which are playable based on the outcomes of specific battles. I've tried to include a fair number of combat situations from small infantry engagements, airlift operations, urban battles as well as large sprawling armor engagements.
 
You take the role of Colonel Mack Barnes, commanding officer of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team and your mission is to successfully take the brigade as well as other NATO forces through 7 days of modern combat. Below is a list of the scenarios and the campaign path:
 
Battle 1- Never Cry Wolf
(Win- The Water Dogs
(Lose- Campaign Over)

Battle 2- The Water Dogs
(Win- The Crossroads of Naudaskalns
(Lose- Campaign Over)

Battle 3- Crossroads at Naudaskalns
(Win- FOB Lancer
(Lose- Campaign Over)

Battle 4- FOB Lancer
(Win - Hill 289.7)
(Lose- The Bear at the Gates)

Battle 5- Hill 289.7
(Win- Operation Hammer)
(Lose- The Siege of Balvi)

Battle 6- The Bear at the Gates
(Win- Operation Hammer)
(Lose- Campaign Over)

Battle 7- The Siege of Balvi
(Win - Operation Eagle Strike
(Lose- Campaign Over)

Battle 8- Operation Hammer
(Win- Turning the Tide)
(Lose- Campaign Over)

Battle 9- Operation Eagle Strike
(Win- The Battle of Krievkalns)
(Lose- Campaign Over)

Battle 10 - Turning the Tide
(Win- The Battle of Krievkalns)
(Lose- Campaign Over)

Battle 11- The Battle of Krievkalns
(Win - Victorious)
(Lose - Defeated)
 
Here is a list of the combatants involved:
 
NATO:

Latvian 1st Infantry Brigade
Latvian 2nd Infantry Brigade
Polish 2nd Mechanized Battalion
Polish 1st Tank Battalion
Polish 6th Airborne Brigade
1st Stryker Combat Brigade Team
1st Calvary Regiment
3rd Armored Combat Brigade Team (Core Unit)

Soviet 20th Guards Army:

9th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade
5th Guards Motor rifle Brigade
27th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade
16th Spetsnaz Brigade
56th Airborne Brigade
100th Reconnaissance Brigade
6th Guards Tank Brigade
4th Guards Tank Brigade
1st Tank Brigade

(Special Note: Due to game limitations the Latvian forces were taken from the stock Ukrainian forces with standard camouflage. The Polish forces are Ukrainian forces with digital camouflage to distinguish them differently.

The Latvian military primarily uses western equipment so they have been equipped with humvee's mostly. However I used MT-LBM's as their APC's. The Poles have the KTO-Wolverine APC which I used BTR-4E's to simulate these as well as the PT-91 Twardy MBT which is simulated by the BM-Bulat MBT.)
 
There are a number of personalities besides Col. Barnes that you will meet as the campaign unfolds. Each will play a part.
 
As with my previous campaign I have included modtags and the needed files. However I do highly recommend Kieme's outstanding CMBS mods to get the full immersion.
 
I am looking for a few playtesters to check it out and help me weed out any bugs I may have overlooked. If you are interested let me know and I will send you a dropbox link to the campaign to try out.
 
 
 

DISCLAIMER: i am not promoting hamachi,if you know some better software with clean and simple interface ,ditch hamachi
 
 
i'd keep it simple,concrete points without unnecessary stories
 
1.throw 120 dollars on 1 hamachi 252 slot room which would last 1 year (12 months)
 
2.make a youtube video promoting it (nothing special), no need for hollywood effects or get some fanboy to make it
 
2a   ask diplex heated to promote it in one video or someone who has lots of views, or better,ask everyone you know
 
3. post a sticky thread about it get people to talk about it 
 
 
4.get some people to manage the network for free (like theres anything to manage really,a 10 year old could do it)
you would spend 120 dollars and few hours of your time and will probably get a large (for our non mainstream universe anyway) multiplayer comunity for Real time and Wego* (course,pbem wont be banned there,it ll boost pbem aswell) games
 
and those who want to play real time or wego, will get the actuall channce to play
 
i guess it would boost the community aswell
 
 
again,i dont wana be labeled as hamachi propagandist,as i said, i am mentioning hamachi because its on my mind atm
 
thats it,my sincere,objective,non political suggestion

Lacroix, how do you think privately owned businesses work? Yes, you pay for their gas. Or did you think that the money sent to them in exchange for their games they make goes to someone else? That money is called "income". It pays "salaries". Salaries enable people to buy gas.
 
And this is why I find your posts to utterly lack any credence.
 
Regards,
Ken

I'm trying to read between the lines here, is having arguments and criticism dismantled and countered point by point somehow painful to read so you want it to stop? People resort to the fanboy-card when they run out of things to say, which is why they are laughed at.
 
Many people here have close ties with BFC, so having someone with vague knowledge on the subject walk in and start insulting people you know is annoying. This is very normal and rational human behaviour. Ignorance and arrogance isn't exactly beneficial.
 
Hyperbole: 10 years ago this place didn't remind me of Tumblr. Not that it existed back then, fortunately.

Dang Jargon that was so deep and good I want to give it TWO thumbs up.  It's like I just climbed a mountain to meet a guru and heard the words of wisdom.  Although I gotta admit I kinda already knew those particular things (not that I follow them   Anywho great post and appropriately positioned if you catch my drift.
 
And Mord I'd give you 2 thumbs ups too because that cracked me up hard was hilarious. 
 
Wisdom comes with time.  I would really like it if everyone would update their profile with their age, might be interesting what kind of patterns we would find.  I'm going to update mine if it's not already.

Martyrs...in the old days you burned them and that was that....in the age of the internet the victim-hood is eternal.
 
 
 
Mord.

I believe that politeness is key for good critiscism.

The first thing to do is to never, never attack your opponent directly. Always remember: Engage the problem, not the opponent. Else you won't be able to move forward.
 
Second: Make the other person feel understood. If you say "I believe that this and that needs improvements" and somebody else says "nope", first follow point one (don't attack) and then show them that you are on their side: IN this case, you both want to get the best out of a game. Don't say "You are a fanboy", or "F****** old breed", say "I can see where you are coming from, and, while I agree with some of your points, I do believe that further clarification is needed, so that you can understand mine". Be constructive.
 
Third: Be careful how you open up an issue. If you say "This is s***, this should change!" you'll immediately see the answers you got: If you attack something others will defend it. Instead, try to show everybody what your motivation is, and why you believe your way is better.. "I'm seeing other games with features I believe might improve the experience for everybody. I know that my position might be controversial, please help me make the game better."
 
Also, note how you should try to, immediately, inlude the people you are talking to. They can help you, you can help them. You aren't engaging each other, but you are tackling the problem. Include them, and ask them to include themselves!
 
And, fourth: Don't hunker down in your position. The moment oyu hunker down is the moment you feel that everybody attacking your position is attacking you and you start attacking them. Take a safe distance from all of your arguments. And, if you realise that you are wrong, take a step back. You aren't loosing if you got the best result for everybody!
 

Criticism doesn't equal attacking something. You can criticize in a polite way. I have never seen something good coming out of anything that startes with "your s*** is s***." While having a discussion in of itself can be fun, I don't think that's your goal here.
 

Techincally not true, atleast if you are refering to the comment I have in mind.
 

Nothing about death. Just about complaining somewhere else. But please don't misunderstand me, I do not agree with this statement.

You always say "be nice and we can have a discussion"...
But how "nice" can you be if you want to criticize something ?
After every suggestion for change the first thing you hear is either:
- no its fine you are irrational
or
- will never happen they are a small team

Them you say "hey but the BFC marketing suggests this is a ->new<- game so whats ->new<- about it except textures and scenarios"
Then it goes one downwards from there people are calling you aggresive aor wish you would die in russia (actually happened)...

Im done with it, you cant criticize anything about the state of the engine or BFC's business model without getting your thread locked.
And by the way i dont see all those threads criticizing CMx2 or BFC, they are non existent. Only "polite" bug reports and happiness.

I dont know how much longer you can ride the CMx2 train without significant change, i just hope you dont wait till its to late.
I was always a BFC and CM fan...

I had some curiosity and went to look at these DayZ forums. Never heard of the game. I am 50 and listen to old music too. Still have my Columbia Music club 1 cent CD's.
Anyway, I had to read about this game. in development. In alpha still I guess. Since about 2012. Huge sales as the so called early access deal. 175,000 copies?
Big moola. Hired another development team of 25 people. Maybe one is salary to deal with the forums. The head dude is Dean Hall and I searched that forum and saw no posts by him or anything with DHall or Hall. maybe I just didn't find it. 
 
I did find a locked thread. It was a developer appreciation thread that melted down into an argument.
 
They use "fanboy" and "fanbois" over there as an insult. pretty regularly it seems.
 
I am obviously from a very different world than those type folks. I hope CM gets better. But to express it outside the manner that i would in turn like to be treated in, that is not my style.
 
I don't know what to say. We gotta call a spade a spade here. Some of these recurring folks just are being what they are. 
 
Anyway, that is my 5 cent report. 

Plenty of people manage to criticize the game without being passive-aggressive.

I think there might a generational thing to this as well. BattleFront seem to develop their games in the traditional top-down way, where the designers work on something in a closed off garage, while we wait patiently to see what they will bring out next. Then they hope that we will buy it. And probably we will. So far, their business model seems to have worked for them.
 
But in many companies, modern game development has changed. Lots of small developers now involve the community while they build the game, taking in their feedback, having active dialogue with them, even staging polls to ask what the fans feel is the most important things to improve/add. While BF does do a bit of this, there does seem to be a difference. Younger gamers, used to be seen as equals, might come across very spoiled in the traditional point of view.
 
I'm not telling BF what to do, I just think it's interesting. And I'm not proposing that developers should just follow every whim of their fans either.

Nah after reading all your posts I realized it is utter tosh.  (I think I got that right, I always wanted to use that expression.  Thanks for granting me the opportunity) They are totally inconsistent, illogical and childish.  I want what I want regardlerss of the reality of physics and coding restraints and if I don't get it I am gonna throw a tantrum.
 
Then you have the usual - "no one can criticize CM or the fanboys jump in".  You know what? I HATE bridges in CM.  They are still buggy, they break my immersion worrying if my unit is gonna do something goofy... Oh crap!  Stagler, Wiggout and Wroclaw, did you see that?!!  A Fanboy criticized CM!!  Hold on I think the world is about to end!!!
 
And Yes, we won, you lost.  Don't ask we what yet I haven't figured that out, but it must be about that as otherwise all the last 10 pages would have been wasted nonsense and we can't let that happen.
 
Woot USA, USA, USA... don't ask me why I am chanting about that. Leftover from World Cup maybe?  As to the Germans caring so little about Women's soccer, I expect that...cause you lost.  Go England!!  Hey I am an American, how much do you think we care about soccer (football, LOL yeah right), and we still won.
 
Have I so derailed this thread yet that it can be closed?  Please?
 
I am gonna starting typing out Green Eggs and Ham next.  I swear, I WILL DO IT!!

Human beings generally feel safer and more secure when they are near someone else.  Tight formations were a means of maintaining morale, discipline, and control over soldiers for centuries until weaponry became too deadly for such methods to remain viable.  Only the most highly trained and disciplined soldiers can maintain their fighting effectiveness when out of close contact with other soldiers.  Clumping in combat is a fact of life and artificially maintaining perfect or even expanded intervals between soldiers would be just as ... incorrect (I can't find the right word here) as how it might be in the game now.  Does anyone here think that a newly minted sixteen year old Volksgrenadier with about three weeks of substandard rushed training is going to maintain perfect field manual intervals with the other members of his squad at all times?  Even combat experienced American units with years of training would clump behind cover such as walls or in buildings and such.  Getting something like what appears to be requested in this thread into the game would be just as ridiculous as how some view the current behavior in the game.  There are numerous first hand written accounts by American veterans that describe German soldiers on patrols walking along in single file "conga lines" as some describe it.  Apparently German soldiers didn't pay that much attention to noise discipline either - from what I can tell late war German soldiers were noisy, incautious, and not very concerned about intervals.  To assume that all soldiers marched along in perfect Field Manual V formations with everyone maintaining perfect intervals is really a fantasy in my opinion.  Heck, I think we've all seen that news footage of those American soldiers in Vietnam firing blind over a wall at the enemy.  Where is that behavior located at in the Field Manual?
 
Edited to add that - I realized I'm in the Black Sea forum and not the WW2 forums, but changes in the game are typically ported back to the other titles and I'm not sure that all this complaining - at least for the WW2 titles, is justified.  I think a case could be made for modern American soldiers, but even there you should probably expect some clumping at some time.

One thing that you can do right now is use shorter move segments.  The coga line thing gets worse the longer the distance the squad has to move.  So if you give a squad a move order that is 500m they will spend a large portion of that distance single filing.  If you instead give many moves that are 16-24m long each they will do it a lot less. 

One other possibility is to stay with 8m X 8m but change it so that a team can be in any two adjacent AS - that would double the possible placements for soldiers without us having to direct each solider.  That would mean a three team squad would be able to occupy more then three AS.  Still a bunch of dev work but will not increase the CPU requirements by the same factor as moving to 2m X 2m squares.