SlapHappy

Saw that it was listed as one of the damageable items on the vehicle list, but wasn't sure if it was operational. Did a quick test using a group of allied soldiers starting a scenario clustered a round a Tiger tank. It takes a few seconds but you will notice in close proximity to infantry, the tank will pop HE projectiles that air burst a few meters out from the tank. Very cool. BTW, don't think for a second that those nearby infantry guys can't hurt you in a tank, in 2 of the tests the Tiger was immobilized once, in the other knocked out by grenade action!

I did the US Platoon vs. HMG 42 myself using Regular quality gun crew and Elite gun crew. The Regular crew was not able to break up the platoon's advance. The Elite crew did repeatedly. This was from a starting distance of 550 meters.

I could definitely see it being useful as a balancing aid and also useful for making movies.

Hail Mary...full of grace......Hail Mary.....full of grace. heh heh.

Theoretically speaking, you could sort of model that type of behavior using the old "baked" scenario feature found in Shock Force....but Steve thought the feature was er, half-baked and they ditched it for Normandy. I pretty much agree it was lacking, but still saw some good possibilities for it's usage. It was a real bitch to implement in a scenario design, however.

Didn't say they weren't "working". But Steve has said a number of times that LOS in the game is real point to point line traced. If you look at the trench object in the game, you can see that the coverage area for a soldier is only about waist high and that's only if he is in the kneeling position. So without tweaking the numbers a bit for additional benefit, that's all the cover that those soldiers in trenches will enjoy. Which, of course, may be exactly what they did, but it's never been outlined by BFC (to my knowledge) how that works (tweaked or no). Remember, trenches and foxholes are simply objects on top of the terrain mesh - they do not in any way deform the terrain (to conform with the desire for FOW). Doing it this way solves the FOW problem, but may lead to some other undesired side effects, such as the anti-tank gun problem mentioned above......

A large portion of the fan base wanted FOW trenches and foxholes. Well, their arguments won the day, and they got what they wanted. Unfortunately it seems there are some unintended consequences of having non-deformed terrain for defensive works. As far as I am concerned the trade-offs were possibly not worth achieving the FOW capability. But now we don't have the option to "paint" our trenches or holes in the ground with the elevation tools because the "brush" is too coarse for the job. I'm already looking for alternative improved positions I can create out of whatever flavor and landscape objects I can patch together. lesson: be careful what you wish for.

I've only been gambling there on a day trip with some family (who are from Arizona). Never stayed in the hotel, but the resort area seems nice, if not a little hokey with all the Larry Byrd paraphernalia.

Although I'm kind of in a dead spot sandwiched between St. Louis on the West, and Louisville on the East, I have access to an excellent demo site for any future consideration in the Midwest area. At the Evansville Central Library Event Room I have 12 foot diagonal widescreen projection screen, 1080p projector and wall mounted hi-quality stereo speakers. We also have free wi-fi throughout building and wired connections for internet access. Service kitchen is attached which include refrigerator, sink, ice machine and loads of counter space. We even have a popcorn machine! Total square footage is ~2400, but the room is dividable for multi-meeting capability. I coordinate that room and two other upstairs meeting rooms for the library.

Screen sharing utilities like Microsoft Live and Goto Meeting are not really that great with handling video. They are primarily meant to share static desktops and support VoIP. Gamers who want to share their live video play usually use something like Justin TV. It's free and you just need to go to the site to setup your broadcast channel. You can also record your stream for posterity. This guy has been streaming his Fallout: New Las Vegas gameplay: http://www.justin.tv/sajirou#/w/793588400/5

And of course there are the multitudes of potential customers who live no where near any of the possible previews areas in US or UK. Might I make a suggestion that someone elect to be a responsible videographer for each of the sites so that these videos could be later posted to YouTube for enjoyment by all? This won't be as engaging as being an on-site participant, but it will still impart some info and be a good source of entertainment for the message board in general. Or are the rank and file too camera-shy?

Apparently there are some real motivations for at least some publishers about when to and not to release game titles. The small developer team of Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 stated quite plainly that they were told by their publisher there would be no follow-up add ons for that game until some time in 2011.....apparently for "tax reasons". I read that on a message board for the game and it was posted by the head developer.

Exactly. And this is why, personally, I have toyed with the idea of self-restraining any attempt to manipulate any unit this is withdrawing or repositioning based on TACAI morale results. At least until after that AI movement has been completed. It's just hard sometimes to drive out the impulse to compound a stupid maneuver with another stupid maneuver....

As an example, the "fighting withdrawal" was something the Germans resorted to often and were apparently quite good at. Unfortunately, CM scale does not permit the unbridled simulation of such a maneuver. The maps are just not large enough to pull this off. What it can do quite well is simulate an entrenched repel-defend at all costs immobile combatant. It will be very helpful with the addition of exit zones to at least try and bring the elastic defense with maneuver element to bear in this iteration of CM. I foresee a lot of narrow frontage, higher depth maps in CM:BN.

I think the one thing left out of the equation as far as the limitations of casualties is time and scale. Remotely competent commanders would withdraw in the face of perceived overwhelming pressure or the threat of high sustained casualties. I think one could safely argue that a commander may choose to simply withdraw forces in the face of contact in many of the scenarios which might be represented in the game. Especially when considering other factors which he may be aware of about what lies behind his immediate front (or the enemies). Trading space for time in real life makes sense, but doesn't make for much of a wargaming experience though, does it? CM missions take place in a vacuum, though, and the idea that some resistance from both combatants is assumed even though such contact might never actually occur in REAL LIFE. I think it is those situations when both opponents chose to take a firm defensive or offensive position is where these much higher casualties DID take place.

They wanted to switch to a much more wildly inaccurate weapon? How many times does the ak vs. M-16 BS need to be debunked?

Will the Wehrmacht soldiers carry their rifles in their dominant-hand during Quick movement as was the norm for such troops?

I'll just say I'm stoked to hopefully see all the novel introductions to the CM2 engine that will come with the Normandy game considering the initial expected release date is now about a year past. That suggests to me big things. Hopefully won't be disappointed.

I posted the above before Steve's response, so I believe he's thoroughly answered the question.

So there's no easy way to give the prone-on-a-cliff soldier enough LOS "latitude" that he can easily overcome this obvious spotting problem without negating his obvious terrain/posture advantage? At least in 90% or so of the cases illustrated in the screen shots? The above shots represent soldiers in highly favorable ambush positions. Achieving these positions is a matter of good tactics. While I fully accept it might be unfeasible for the game engine to reasonably correct these problems, I also believe it can highly diminish the quality of the overall simulation if such tactics can't be employed. That's all I'm saying.

One thing I noticed about the way you play vs. myself (self-criticism coming up)..... You seem to dawdle toward the beginnings of scenarios when you are really just setting yourself up for a much more aggressive movement in the near future. My biggest problem is that I also tend to dawdle at the beginning and then.....continue to dawdle throughout the remainder of the scenario. Seriously, running out of time is still my number one hurdle that I need to overcome. I tend to get wrapped up in what a couple of squads or a couple of vehicles are doing instead of looking at the big picture. I also tend to leave large groups of reinforcements sitting at their staging points once they've entered the playing field. I too often try to push the whole objective with just the initial vanguard I was given at the beginning of the game. And when that doesn't work I lean too heavily on any artillery or air assets that I have available. I still don't know what makes me tend do that.

Sounds like your wife has you on a technicality! BTW, is she implying that CM:Normandy is vaporware? Heh.

You might want to considering compromising at 720p. Still excellent quality, without the incredible CPU and HD hit that you get with the full 1080p. 720p still looks fantastic on Youtube.

Tell that to my two Leopard crews who unloaded three direct frontal hits on a Shilka, who then proceeded to disable them both before they finally brewed it up. Fluke? I hope so.......

SPOILERS I was playing the NATO Alamo mission as Germans and had my Leopard fire three direct frontal hits into a Shilka without any apparent damage. The Shilka is based on, what, a PT-76 chassis? It should have been brewed first round. It immobilized two Leopards before it finally succumbed. Seems wrong, somehow. This was at less than 100 meters range!