Kilroy Lurking

9000 for no particular reason...

Building on "Chelco"s Post: The Tac AI seems unable to instill (Particularly with vehicles ) any sense of "Threat Axis" awareness. Time after time a unit while'st trying to follow a movement command will make an absurd foray into enemy line of fire. I have seen vehicles with a move command to stop just inside of belt of trees continue right through (their own line of troops engaging the enemy) complete a 180 degree turn in the open move back into the trees shuffle back and forth ending up a few meters away from their original stop point. Vehicles in a plotted convoy down a road will try to maneuver into a minefield or line of fire, to get around a vehicle that is blown away in front of them. In one WEGO turn I watched the lead Stryker enter a city crossroads being turned into a smoking wreck by a Syrian tank sited way back down the side road: With nerves of steel the next two Strykers suffered the same fate as they attempted to bypass the first corpse and make it across the junction. The fourth Stryker only survived because all the smoke from the burning vehicles screened it - it ended the turn smack in the middle of the junction trying to figure a way round it's mates. This situational un-awareness is highlighted in WEGO as it can not be instantly corrected. In Real Time if one is looking it can be, and if one is'nt its not a problem as who knows WTF happened - some time later when visiting that part of the battlefield one just sees a pile of wrecks and corpses. (One of the reasons why I hate Real Time) Having said all this, CMSF is a surprisingly interesting and immersive game that I in no way regret buying Marines and all. ! Yeah but I still prefer WW2. David

Umm, It would also be nice to know (in Game) what ordinance needs to be "Acquired" by soldiers in vehicles before they dismount. I know the Professionals know (Leastwise I hope they do). The AT4 and the M72 LAW do not need separate launchers, Right? But the SMAW does, one picks the missile of ones choice? Like the Javelin - unless your a Marine. In CMSF there were Javelins and a separate launcher to be acquired. In the Marines the vehicles had Javelins but no launchers available. Referring to the Marine manual it says that their squads have dedicated Javelin Teams and no Javelins stored in the vehicles. In the scenario "USMC Road Kill" (My first bash at this module) I found no Teams but plenty of Javelins. However the squads could "acquire" the Javelins but it made for nervousness not knowing if they would be fireable for possible lack of launchers, SPOILER 1 1 1 1 1 SPOILER 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 In the event they were not needed. There is also a Grenade Launcher to worry about. I think that on the whole it is a good to be given the choice to be able to select and equip these different types of ordinance - I wish that the "Pop Up Acquire Table" could indicate which items need to be paired! David

Battlefront Hi! Regarding the Mac OSX version - once it is done for Shock Force (and Presumably Marines) will future Mods and the WW2 Game already be "Optimised for OSX, or will each have to be individually reworked and recoded resulting in long delays for the mac versions of new releases? In other words do I hold out for the Mac version (and replace my graphics challenged Intel Mini which probably won't run SF) or go for the Windows version (and have to upgrade/replace my old PC)? David

Duh- yes I just checked. I keep an old PC for Games (which I really do not want to upgrade). I just prefer the Mac experience and hopefully in the near future will replace my MacMini with a Mac somewhat better endowed in the graphics capability department. David

Hi!, Looks great - but don't forget the Mac!! David

Battlefront... As someone lurking in the wings waiting for the Mac version (of CM:SF) to arrive I hope that I am right in assuming that once the initial cross-coding or whatever has been accomplished all subsequent modules/derivatives will have Mac versions released simultaneously with the PC version; right? David

,,,,,,,,,and the Mac version...? David

It does look as though the engine is getting up steam. One big advantage of waiting for a Mac version is that all those little bugs will have been zapped. Err...., a mac version is still on the cards? David

"As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know". DHR - Dept. of Defence, news briefing - Feb.12,2002 I think the release of CM:SF clearly falls into this category. David

...But does it run OK on an Intel Mac with only the integrated graphic chip set.? David

The problem with CM:SF is that it does'nt play as nicely as the previous CMs. I've only played the new demoes but the feeling they gave me was the wish that I was playing the earlier CMs. (Which is not possible as my old Mac is now History and for some technical reasons they not only don't work on Mac OSX but also PCs...). So I for one would fork out for a gold/platinum if it included the previous Uberised CMs. So to that end Ditch the WEGO in CM:SF make it RT only and rake in the cash - AND patch up CM:BB/AK into CM:TFM. (and while you'r at it fix the road movement and winterized versions for all units please). This will fill your coffers and keep your old (Aging anyway) Customers happy. David = The Full Monty

If you have been playing NWN... you won't want to. David It's been a good season for lurkers

Yeah, I was worried that my (son's) Pentium D2.8 and Gforce 6200 would'nt handle it. (But the demo runs real good) Any one know if a graphically challenged Intel Macbook will run this? David This has been a good season for Lurkers

Unbelievable! As fast as my tanks were blowing up ...they were respawning, Even KO'ed three Abrahms before running out of lives. David

CMBB/CMAK The best WW11 games to date,(But) My only disappointment with these two games is the fact that they are both stand alone. When CMAK was released with its enhancements to the game engine etc.it would have been nice if it had been accompanied with a "patch" for CMBB to update that game so that component parts were interchangeable between the two games - ideally CMAK would have just been an "expansion" for CMBB with enhancements to the game engine and scope of the game.. I realise that there were probably reasons/constraints why it did not happen that way, but nevertheless... So I hope that with the coming planned Modules that they be integrated into the main game so that for example if I wanted to I could include MC units into a scenario from the original CMSF. (WW11 modules not necessarialy being compatible with those from CMSF, though this might give scope for some really asymmetrical scenarios.) Not so much as a complaint as more of a little niggle. David

It will be set in Europe sometime between 1939 and 1944..... David

Hi! I think the barrels look out of place....'cause they are not oil drums. David

Hi! Great news,,,,,,,,,,,but I don't suppose on a Macbook? David

Hi! The Macintel market maybe smaller than you think - I understand that a large proportion of Macintels are the ones with only the onboard graphics chip which is lousy for 3D accelerated games (I know, my wife has a Macbook). IMHO it would be a waste of effort and $s to run Windoze on such machines as seeing the way the game is looking they probably will not run them. (Though I would like to be pleasantly surprised). If you are a lucky lad with a MacPro plenty of space, horse power and cash makes installing XP a no-brainer. With a high-end Macintel iMac or Macbook pro running XP from an external Firewire drive would solve the space problem - cash though is something else. This is the (Macbook Pro) route I am thinking of taking sometime after CM:SF, ToW and Napoleon are released. As the latter two will not likely be OSXitiesed its.... XP for me, Please note Battlefront, a "Combo release" of CM:SF with CMBB & CMAK at an insanely bargain price would probably snare quite a few Macmen who are having to bite the bullet, grit their teeth and think of England all whilst running into the clutches of Billy G in order to enjoy quality gaming. David

Hi! I've been running the CMxx series on a B&W G3 (upgraded to 933) wirh an ATI Radeon 7000 - shows fog, dust the whole 9 whatsits. The only trouble is I use OSX Panther for day to day use...... What I really want to know is ...... My son has gone on a years "walkabout?" down under and left me his PC which is a 2.8 core duo with1.5Gig memory and a Gforce 6200 graphics card.......will this run CM's anticipated games? It runs NWN with all Bells and Whistles and Oblivion with everything "turned off" and with not to many crashes to the desktop! For some reason Medieval Total war is unplayable as it crashes instead of loading a campaign. Of course all of this might be acedemic if he returns in 11 months time and thes CM games are still pending. In which case I will be hopefully looking at a Macbook pro, ATI and all, and wondering if it will run them. David

Yeah,,. and the Electricians Unions' Motto is- "Many hands make light work" David

You mean that with each new module purchased the game will be bigger and better.......... David

Steve Hi! Your planned "Expansions ', "Modules " whatever, will they be "stand alone" or additions to the basic game? What I am getting at is if for example your second release is Special Forces in the NW Frontier in Winter will the winter textures, units etc be available for scenarios in the original game and vica versa? David

Hi! While we are at it - how about customiseable sub-folders for - "Played, Huge, small, unwinable" etc... David