Vossiewulf

That makes sense, BV, except for the numerous situations where I've had this happen where there were no friendlies anywhere in the LOF. There are a couple places on the "Road To Moscow" map where I can show you tanks with clear LOS that simply won't fire until they're moved to another location.

Yes Konstantine, I do- but I've never noticed that as a consideration before. I've seen friendly tanks happily shoot at a target that's 10m or less from friendlies. And I've seen this same exact problem in cases where there are no friendlies at all nearby. You can't see the time very well in these screenshots, I can't figure out how to change where Photodump places their branding. Anyway, at the beginning of the turn , we see that he has an area target near some Finns. If anyone must ask why the area rather than targeting the infantry directly, after the first shot those infantry will go to ground, the tank loses the target, and stops firing. He also has a movement order, to reverse and then loop around the scattered trees to the right. And at the end of the turn , you can see he's traversed his turret toward the target, but he never fired a shot, main gun or MG.

I've only seen this with T-34/76 and /85, but I'm not sure that's relevant. Many times now I've given tanks area targets into woods or buildings, where the LOS line shows blue, the vehicle accepts the target, traverses its turret, and then does nothing at all. No MG fire, no main gun fire. I'm PBEM testing a new scenario for Sergei, and I just had a T-34 with an area target along with a movement order do neither. It didn't fire, and it made no attempt whatsoever to follow its movement order until I canceled the area target. I'm not talking about targets that are microinches from being out of LOS, I'm talking about targets that have LOS lines that are as light blue as they get. I can reproduce this condition with several scenarios. Anyone else seen this or have an explanation?

In a semi-related editor question, I have two maps where sections of factory keep disappearing. It's always the "middle" section of a one-row factory. I put them between two ends, preview, and they're not there. Go back to the editor, and the editor shows upen ground again. I've seen this now on two maps, and in both cases the ground is flat in the immediate area, and for the life of me I can't figure out why those factory sections keep disappearing.

Thanks;) I'd like some reviews of the grass mod, if folks don't mind giving it a try. I'm happy with the 3D effect I achieved, but I'm a bit ambivalent on the lightness/darkness, saturation, etc. I intentionally made it a bit on the light side to help with seeing units.

Ok, junk2drive, here is MY OWN TOPIC. Happy now? I just uploaded a new open ground (grass) mod that folks might enjoy: Grass mod And infantry faces for all CMBB infantry: Infantry faces And a few other vehicles I've done in the last month or so: T-34 M43 / OT-34 SU-122 Panther VD Yellow/Green Veined Camo SU-76M T-70 M42/M43 Tiger Pz-VIE (Late) Valentine IX/XI

Trees by themselves are a big frame-rate hit, at least on lower-end systems. Ground doodads aren't too bad (but I don't like them much), and smoke is a big hit. I'm playtesting one of my scenarios with a partner, just had two 81mm observers and a 120mm observer drop smoke for a multiple-company river crossing, and although it's pretty, frame rate went to slide-show time.

To me it's a sign of good interface design that it includes enough display options to allow folks to find what makes them happy. As I said originally, I just can't figure out what the heck is going on with the trees there. Then again I have a tendency to play big battles, where things are already confusing enough. Fredrock mentioned some other important display things. I always have my units on realistic scale; again, I find it confusing to my distance calculations if I increase the unit size. I do sometimes toggle through the bigger sizes, but that is mostly to make sure that I've seen all the little balkankreuzes or red stars that indicate bad guys. What else do I do? I always toggle warnings on and off each turn to make sure I'm not missing anything wrt to the status of my units, and I always have all target lines and all movement paths on. As for unit bases, always on when giving orders and making plans, off for close-up war movies, usually back on for some "big picture" playbacks of the turns.

I've wondered about this for a while, because I realized that I play CM with the trees off 95% of the time- the only time they're on is occasionally in turn playback. Otherwise, they're off. I find it extremely difficult to assemble a coherent tactical picture with trees everywhere I was just wondering if I'm alone in doing it that way.

Armor Geek Factor 10, Mr. Sulu! I heartily approve:) Since the StuG III Ausf A ceased production in May 1940 after only 30 vehicles, I think you can safely assume the Ausf B pattern;) November of 1941 would suggest Ausf C or D vehicles.

I put an infantry faces mod up on the database today, should go along with Daffy's uniforms fairly well;)

Yeah, after reading what Eichenbaum and company are doing and how they're doing it, I doubt that they have any need to mess with your scenario folder.

Oh cmon, Dey, hitting Done and Preview in the scenario editor for hours on end trying to find the right BMP is the kind of entertainment that people in some parts pay good money for. The SU-76M has a few stealth BMPs too. Personally, I'm praying that the concept of a file naming convention kicks Bigtime's door in, makes itself permanently at home, and consumes all their Mountain Dew and Funyuns for deciding to use numbers in the first place;)

Bravo Sergei! I know several newspaprers, particularly the Weekly World News, that are going to bid highly for your services.

It'll remain up, of course, as long as GJK doesn't shoot off any more bottle rockets.

Long delay here Willbell, but my first thought on hearing the bazooka thing is that I would think it would be pretty danged exciting to shoot a bazooka inside a closed attic. At the very least, if the place had any windows left, it sure wouldn't after. Yikes. All in all I'll take the satchel charge and a long fuse, thank you;)

There were only 18 made, and they were mostly used on the Western Front. Three were used in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. A couple participated in the Ardennes. They were supposedly very effective in the rare times they had an opportunity to act in the role they were designed for, which was explosive-powered urban renovation. AFAIK they just didn't have much of a chance to act in an assault or static defense role. Not to mention that they probably had the coolest muzzle flash ever, with all those vent holes adding to the chaos of firing a rocket-mortar thing that was as big as US Navy cruiser main armament(~12" shell). Hire a company of those things for the next July 4th.

You can always find "hidden" units on a map by drag-selecting the entire map from one of the really high overhead views- like the "8" or "9" level view. Then you can start zooming in and selecting areas until you're sure you know what is where. Eichenbaum is right that it's the CMBB engine that cuts off the bases. That's a particular problem on roads. At least for me.

Something I've always wondered- why do the guns sag down on knocked-out tanks?

Be thankful, in some of the early-war scenarios with KV2s present, that's about the only way you "kill" them.

I uset Outlook 2000, and have had no problems with it complaining about scenario or saved-game files. I much prefer it to Outlook Express, too.

Modern heavy-caliber sniper/anti-materiel rifles are, not surprisingly, a bit more advanced and effective than the ATRs of WWII vintage. They're lighter, have sophisticated systems to reduce recoil forces, and generally are much more capable. The Steyr AMR/IWS 2000 (link below) uses a 15.2mm cartridge firing a sub-caliber tungsten flechette at 1450m/s, and is capable of penetrating 40mm of RHA at 1000 meters. There's also a link below to globalsecurity's page on the Barrett .50cal, they have become quite popular in Afghanistan and Iraq- not for killing vehicles (although they can), but for long-range sniping that is highly demoralizing to the enemy. Can't remember if it was the Barrett they were using, but a Canadian sniper team in Afghanistan set a new sniping record with a shot of 2430 meters last year. Barrett .50cal Sniper Rifle Steyr AMR / IWS 2000 (Austria) Soviet WWII ATRs

You go out and drink with Finns. They make this homebrew stuff that tastes like licorice-flavored gasoline, and it defies the laws of physics by being at least 400 proof. Drinking with Finns=certain death, or worse, living to experience the hangover.

Those are FLIES? Last time I was there I thought the blood-sucking swarms surrounding me were vampire bats. Big ones.

Has anyone ever detected a pattern in how the AI uses "special" ammo types? From what I've seen, Pz-IIIs seem to think of the tungsten rounds as a last resort, only using them when they run out of AP.