teotwawki1

Well, as a postscript, I tempted fate, and went ahead and loaded the new sound mod through CM Mod Manager....it worked, and did NOT nerf any graphics that I can see. So in the end, I guess I really did get what I want...but don't tell Jagger/Richards, as I don't want to render their fine little ditty moot. (cue the music...acoustic guitar opening riff lol). Now, if I can just figure out why I could not d/l from Combat Mission HQ last night at home. Ah, computers...it's always something. Other than CM, and Half Life 2 right now, I spend way more time on the Xbox for simplicity's sake. It's nice not having to worry about crashes, etc. If only we could get CM on Xbox...oh well, in another lifetime maybe!

Hmmm...thought I replied already...must have backed out before I hit the submit button...oh well. Thanks for the very detailed reply...it looks pretty complicated, and the chances of me doing it right are negligible lol. I'd be quite content if I could just get the damn sound mod to work through CM Mod Manager; everything else I need I got to work in CMMOS. Well, I can live w/o the sound pack if it comes to it. The CM series has to be God's gift to the wargaming crowd...I have played this game for hours, just creating stupid little scenarios and then just playing/tweaking them. A hearty thanks to Battlefront for putting them out, and to folks like you who take the time to help others when they need it. You've gone above and beyond the call on this one, so many thanks are in order!

Okay...since I last posted, I've installed a boatload of mods, and they all seem to work, AND my explosions are normal. For the most part, if I see a pic in CMMOS with CMBO active, it does mean the mod is actually installed (it's slightly different for CMBB,but I seem to have gotten things sorted out, by the fact that I can see my CMBO mods in the actual game). Now, let's try something specific. I like the Mad Dog Newsound mod, and some of the 3rd party explosion and smoke mods. How difficult is it to install these using CMMOS, and avoiding CM Mod Manager altogether? In one of your earlier post you mentioned it being rather difficult...so I'm guessing there may be some work involved at my end getting them to work correctly.

You may run into problems with the playback controls. I could not scroll the replay back and forth...it just went from end to end w/ no stops in between. If that happens to you, disable any and all instant messaging software...I think XP automatically loads Instant Messaging, so you'll have to disable it using msconfig. Once I did that, I had no further issues. Note, this was only for CMBO, CMBB ran fine from the get go.

Phillipe, sorry about the delay...I was posting from work, and had forgotten the I've yet to change my issued password, so I couldn't post from home. Last night, I did a clean install on my main computer at home. Using CM Mod Manager, I installed only the Mad Dog (no relation lol)Map Packs, MDMP1 and MDMP 2, along with the new sound mod. When I started a game, lo and behold, I had the same "bad" explosions...so I must apologize for the alacrity with which I was pointing the finger at JuJu's small arms mod. It appears that ANY mod loaded through CM Mod Manager will nerf the explosions, so I guess I'll just have to live without using CM Mod Manager as my mod installer..too bad, as I find it much easier to work with than CMMOS. That means I'll have to get CMMOS to work right, if I want to use mods. Now, I have NO trouble getting the mods to work for CMBB...you just install the appropriate ruleset, then you can install the mod itself through CMMOS by double clicking it in the dialoge box...at which point, you'll see a very nice spiffy picture of the mod, and it will be added to the list of mods installed. My understanding is that with CMBO, however, is that once you've installed the rulesets, you have to manually unzip the mod itself into the CMBO/BMP folder, and if the mod contains .WAVs as well, they need to go into the CMBO/WAV folder. When installed correctly, the rulesets will generate the tabs for various things like tanks and terrain, and IF a mod is present, you can then click on one of the actual pictures to enable it in the game. (I don't know that I'm articulating it that well, but I *think* I have the principle figured out). Here's a pic of what I see when I've got CMBB selected, looking at the Mods tab in CMMOS: I can choose any of these mods, and actually see them in the game. Now, with CMBO selected, there are only 2 mods listed, even though I have manually unzipped about a dozen of them. The only ones that seem to work are the ones that actually installed themselves by double clicking on them, or the exact same way all of the CMBB mods work. I guess the first question is: will the mods actually work if I don't see them displayed in the Mods tab (configuration dialogue box)? So far, I have installed the Allied, German, and terrain rulesets in CMMOS for CMBO. There are many tabs visible at this point. When I click on some of the tabs, I'll see little postage stamp sized pics of various things. Now, if I grasp the principle correctly, my seeing the little pics is NO indication that an actual mod is installed, right? [ December 30, 2004, 06:51 AM: Message edited by: teotwawki1 ]

The "bad" explosion is a clean install, with only JuJu's small arms loaded via CM Mod Manager (I call it CMod for short). When I referenced "loading Cmod" I just meant that I installed it after I patched CMBO, to use as my mod installer. The "good" explosion is another fresh re-intall with no mods loaded, and no CM Mod Manager...just CMBO as God (and Battlefront hehe) intended it. I've had no luck at all getting any mods for CMBO to run under CMMOS...they work fine with CMBB, (using the appropriate mods for each game obviously), but not CMBO. But that's another problem lol. It could be that CM Mod Manager just doesn't like JuJu's mod, given what you say about mod manager programs sometimes freaking out. The white square you mention seems to be the same problem I'm having. BTW, I got CM Mod Manager from Combat Mission HQ, and don't seem to have any other problems using it for a whole long list of mods I usually install.

Phillipe, I just did a clean install. Booted it up, the explosions looked fine...that was ver 1.0. Patched to 1.12, booted up, everything ok. Loaded Cmod, and JuJu's small arms mod, booted up, got the graphic in the pic. I did not check for the presence of those .BMPs right after the clean install, as I got the right graphic...figuring they *must* be there if I got the correct graphic. I bought my CMBO when the game first came out, mail order direct from Battlefront, so it's version 1.0, and I'd be surprised if this wasn't one of the first 100 copies sold. Now, I just did another clean install...those files do not exist on the CD, or the unpatched/patched to 1.12 version I have. It's probable that this an early CD, and other files were added, and my explosion files are the ones from 1700 to 1717...they look like it when I click on them and they open up in Paint. Here's a pic of the explosions in the un modded most recent install...nanoseconds after the shockwave, overything looks ok.

Well, one thing I've noticed right off..those files don't exist either on the CD, or the intalled BMP folder...I have from 1700 to 1717, then nothing 'til the 18xx files. Weird... EDIT: ok, I've just done a clean re-install. With no mods, everything looks normal. I will now load up CMod, and do them one by one. OKAY...it's JuJu's small arms mod that appears to be the culprit. It pretty much has to be, since it's the only mod I loaded, and I immediately have the same problem again. Here's a tasty pic: [ December 29, 2004, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: teotwawki1 ]

Philippe, thanks for the reply. The problem is on 2 different computers, so it's not related to a specific video card (well, come to think of it, both of them have ATI Radeons of different flavors). Anyway, I usually load up about 20 mods at once, and JuJu's small arms is one of them. About the only way I could narrow it down would be to re-install the game, then load the mods one by one. I'll try just replacing the .BMPs first...if that screws the thing up any worse, I'll just re-install...not that much work for CMBO. Stay tuned..I'll keep you posted. Thanks again!

Invariably, as soon as I start using mods in CMBO, I will lose the animation for normal explosions...mortar rounds, tank round hitting the ground, stuff like that. What I end up with is a white explosion, which of course looks like bat guano. Even unloading the mods won't fix the problem...the only way I know to fix it is with a clean re-install. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I don't know which mod causes the the glitch. I'm wondering if I could just copy the normal explosion .BMPs from the CD, if I knew the numbers, and overwrite the bad ones? If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know.

This is a training scenario all right...it trains you to see your sh** blown up lol. Those AT guns are murder...and it doesn't help that they're not fixed...you'll see them move around each time you play the scenario. I've only beaten it once, and then it was a marginal victory. I've seen the computer do a little better, but it all boils down to a little luck. IF you get Tigers as re-inforcements, life gets much easier...they're not as prone to getting knocked out by the all seeing AT guns, plus the 88mm gun seems to knock the AT guns out much quicker. Generally speaking, I try to deal with the first pocket in the lower right corner...use smoke as best you can to cover the advance, and hope that you can get the first part of the work done w/o losing too much time and equipment from the minefields and the AT guns. If you can take at least one of the at guns out here...there's usually one right up the right side of the map on the hill...it makes dealing with the other 2 easier. Of course, I've seen that one gun light up a whole pile of my stuff before...I had 3 or 4 of the PzkIV blazing away at it before, and watched them all get brewed up...so this part can be a crapshoot. IF you manage to knock that gun out, then wait for the reinforcement (and pray for some Tigers in the mix...not very often, but you'll get lucky once in a while). At that point, what seems to work the best is to mass your armor, and head up the middle of the map from the bottom edge...try to have all your tanks come up over the little rise and in view of the AT guns all at once...6 or 7 tanks will *usually* be able to knock out the 2 remaining guns, but once again, there's some luck here...you never know who's gonna come out on top. If you haven't managed to knock out at least one gun prior to this tactic, it usually ends in disaster. Once (and if) you take out all 3 guns, the rest is pretty easy, really...you only have his tank destroyers left to worry about, and you can usually outnumber them. I've tried to get the mortar spotter someplace where he can do some good, but typically, the scenario depends on your armor taking our his AT guns before you ever really get him placed to direct fire...and those guns seem to have a hella advantage at 1000 yards plus. I'd love to hear some other strategies for this one.