umlaut
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Posts posted by umlaut
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I personally have always preferred making fictional ones. I like the creativity and flexibility that comes with that. When making a fictional battle you have no standards to be judged by except "fun". And "fun" is a lot easier to achieve than "historically accurate".
Steve
Amen to that.
I have been making scenarios for CM for maybe seven years now, but haven't made a historically accurate one yet (I think?), though it is defintely my ambition to do so sometime.
Nevertheless, if you have to choose between creating a scenario that is historically accurate or one that is fun to play, I think you should always choose fun - while striving to achieve the highest possible accuracy.
Luckily, we are not always forced to choose. This community has great designers that are able to combine the two masterfully.
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umlaut, I looked thru Repository just now and couldn't locate "Waylaid" in CMBN area. Link?
http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=2086
Here you go
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i didn't see any post about this issue, but lately i see less and less scenarios in the forum. CMFI - havn't seen a new scenario for months. CMMG - no scenarios since the launch, etc etc.
it seems that the community is dying, and the game with it.
i'm sure i'm not the only one who feels it.
I cannot speak for other scenario designers, but if you ask me the reason for this is the feedback given to the scenario designers. Or rather: The lack of it.
It has often been said in these discussions that "you should only make scenarios to please yourself, not the community". That is of course entirely true - and this is what I do myself. But what often seems to be overlooked when saying this, is the fact that the gap between making a scenario that is playable for the designer himself and making one that is playable for everyone in the community is actually rather large.
In my experience the time needed to make a scenario ready for release is at least equal to - and in most cases greater than - the time spent on actually designing the scenario itself.
A personal example: I didn´t record the time it took me to design the scenario "Waylaid", but let us say 30 hours. I played the scenario, had fun and decided I wanted to share the fun with other CMBN players. I then spent maybe 40 hours writing briefings, making screen shots and especially making tests with the help of three or four helpful testers. The testing of course involved making changes to the scenario based on the recommendations of the testers. When I felt the scenario was ready for release, I uploaded it to the repository, made a post with a description and screenshots in the Maps and Mods forum and.................
......nothing.
176 downloads from the repository so far. 0 comments or ratings.
The feedback on my other scenarios have been slightly better, but only slightly. In all I have uploaded 3 scenarios that have been download 746 times. In total they have recieved 4 ratings and 5 comments (the majority negative).
How much of an incentive for releasing other scenarios does that create? You guessed it: Zero.
Don´t get me wrong, I will still make scenarios, because I have fun making and playing them. But in the time I spent preparing them for release and testing them, I could have made a completely new scenario from scracth. So why release it, when the effect is like shouting into a void?
After my last release I decided I didn´t bother to release any more scenarios. Since then I have decided to give it one last try.
I am currently working on three scenarios, one of which is nearly ready for release. If the feedback for this one is similar to that for my previous scenarios, I see no reason to go through the hassle of releasing the other two.
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Funny you should mention that now. I have just made a clean birdsong mod, because I don´t want those distracting guns sounds that don´t come from any real action in the game. Going to upload it soon.
But if you want to get rid of the birds too, then this isn´t much help either, of course.
Personally, I think no background sound at all is going to sound way too dead. I think you probably don´t realize how much the background sounds actually means to the game.
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In general, I think this is a wonderful scenario. But I had one problem with it:
The german platoon of Panthers "beaming in".
When they arrived, I had dealt with all the other german armor - and my platoon of Cromwells were busy trying to flush out the remaining infantry from the farm objective - with the help of one of the AA tanks.
And then - all of a sudden - a platoon of Panthers materializes in their midst! Needless to say the result was a very, very (much too) entertaining turn. Luckily, I still had my Hellcats in overwatch, so in the end the Panthers were all knocked out.
But it wasn´t a very realistic situation. In my view a designer should design the map in a way that ensures that this kind of reinforcements arrives away from the main fighting area - and preferably out of LOS.
But again: I really enjoyed the scenario nevertheless.
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Erwin, they should still show up...I have in the past misnumbered my uniform mods on occasion, and they still seemed to show up. But I never tested that. I always figured that numbering out of sequence would merely mess up the way they are randomly chosen. Not that that should make a lot of difference; random is random!
I just made a quick test. It seems to indicate that I am right:
In my "z" folder I have 29 "us-soldier-skin" files.
I then painted numbers 16 through 29 (roughly half of the files) blue - and loaded a test scenario in the editor. The result was this:
I then deleted number 15 from the folder (IE: broke the "chain")- and reloaded the same scenario. This result was this:
Conclusion: Every file above number 15 disappears when number 15 is removed. The numbers have to be sequential.
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Thanks Aris! I also will be renumbering so that I can get all of them as well as Mord's earlier ones show up in the game.
Question: When one has multiple files, do they have to be numbered sequentially with no number gaps, or does it not matter?
I ask cos it's often easier to simply put one extra number in front of an existing number like turning a 21 into a 121 rather than having to change every single number to make them sequential with no gaps. Hope you understand what I am saying.
I am pretty sure they have to be sequential. That is how it works with Force Specific Backgrounds at least. And I can´t see why it should be any different here.
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Never made uniform mods, but what I always do is make what I call a 'panelfinder.' You just color in all the different areas of the image in varying colors, stick it in the Z folder and you can see exactly which color goes where.
This is how I did this with a vehicle:
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Great. Thanks for the replies, guys. Nice to know that is not just me that is entirely incompetent :-)
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smod_american_m42-para_uniform [holland 82nd]
smod_american_m42-para_uniform [holland 101st]
smod_american_m42-para_uniform 2 [holland 82nd]
smod_american_m42-para_uniform 2 [holland 101st]
I think think we may have the same problem, Endymion:
I have tried to mod these files for a couple of days now, but I seem to have encountered a problem (bug?):
No matter what I try, I can only get smod_american_m42-para_uniform 2 [holland 101st] to load in the game.
The other three files are impossible to see in the game - at least for me. Instead of the green uniforms in the files, the troops are wearing the old khaki-greenish uniforms.
Am I doing something wrong - can you guys load the other three files?
Scenario is set to september 30th 1944, Holland (but I´ve tried a variety of other combinations too). And I´ve removed all mods to be sure to avoid conflicts.
Any ideas/suggestions?
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These are high on my list too:
Train engines, flatcars and boxcars.Brush camouflage on tanks and vehicles. ( Like actual brush placed on top and sides of vehicles)
Old style CMBB Campaigns for idiots setup!!!! ( I used to love making Campaigns, but now you have to be a rocket scientist to make a Campaign!)
And - of course:
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For jigsaw texture mappings there are interesting ways to know what goes where, M8 Greyhound is specially crazy,... XD
I´ve tried numbers too. But personally, I find this method a bit more useful:
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I understand the reasoning but I'm not, if someone wants to combine them with others go ahead but I'm not taking my time to. An yes numbering these are a pain in the ass thus why I'm not doing mine over again sorry. I think I tried to pass a lot of what I had on to you awhile ago it didn't work an got no reply back.
Hi Saferight
Yes, I remember you sent me all those files back in march. I just didn´t realise it was the same guy. Very sorry about that.
You see, when you contacted me back then I had just finished my set of CMBN backgrounds and was in deeply buried in the process of making backgrounds for CMFI Gustav Line.
So I had a quick look at the pics and saved them (at least that is what I thought I did) to have a look at them at a later time (I thought, I told you that. If I didn´t then I´m very sorry). Because once I finished the Gustav Line backgrounds I was pretty sick of making FSB, to be honest.
Unfortunately, I just haven´t had the time to get around to them yet. And now you beat me to it.
Cheers
Umlaut
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Well, when I look at these pics, I´m actually more impressed with the number different details BFC did manage to get right. But I´m not much of a weapons grog (ouch! Did I really admit that on this forum?)
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shallow depth of field
Does that reduce bogging when moving among crops?
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Amazing work as always, Aris.
And now at an incredible speed, too.
Please take care not to wear yourself out, you hear? We can´t afford to lose you.
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Maybe you have to choose a certain theatre and/or date?
Edit: Just made a quick test. Made a scenario: August 30th 1944, France. There were several FG 42´s.
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Hi Saferight.
Thanks for making an extra set of force specific backgrounds (FSB). Variety is always nice, and this is why Jim Rinkenberger and myself have already uploaded sets of FSBs each (I got Jim's kind permission to include his set in my own - to avoid "collisions").
Unfortunately your sets collide with our joint sets.
To make sure the community benefits the most from all of our sets, may I suggest you do as follows before you update your sets:
1) Check out (DL and explode) my (and Jim's) FSB set to eliminate the existing - as well as future - duplicate pics. You can find them here:
http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods/4866/details
http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods/4865/details
(These sets arent uploaded to the repository because they are too large)
2) Number your sets sequentially from the highest number of the previous set. That means the first numbers in your sets should be 148 for red and 172 for blue.
Doing this will ensure that players can use your set of FSBs in conjunction with Jim' s and my own - instead of forcing them to choose between the sets.
Looking forward to your new pics.
Cheers
Umlaut
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Hi PanzerMike
Just finished the scenario - and enjoyed it immensely!! Great job.
I was actually a bit miffed about the missing setup zones, but now I agree with your decision: You saved me (literaly) hours of setup pondering, by taking that option away from me. So thanks
Quick AAR
With a couple of
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SPOILERS
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Very intense and nervewrecking fighting during the first 20 minutes.
From the start I decided to move a large portion of my infantry forward to the foremost line of houses. This was to try to catch as many of the germans out in the open as possible - before they could reach cover in the build up area. This gamble paid off, as no germans actually reached the line of houses - except for a Stug and an AA halftrack, that got knocked out.
The weakness in this tactic was that my infantry would be exposed to long range fire from tanks and SPG´s, but I managed to evacuate almost every endangered team in time.
As I said very intense fighting for the first 20 minutes - and when I spotted the StuG´s and the King Tiger I almost gave up.
But the lads held up - and a full cannister of VC´s must be on the way to Oosterbeek - especially for the PIAT guys.
After 25 minutes the germans seemed to had lost their will to fight. And after 40 minutes they surrendered - without me even having fired a single pack howitzer. So if I were to say something negative it would be that the last part was a bit boring. But I wont.
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Great fun
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Hi Aris
Thanks a lot for the Sexton - and all your other wonderful mods.
But I have to ask: Are you sure, you´ve finished CW?
I´ve been looking all over but can´t seem to find any Sherman I (I, IC Rhino and IC Firefly). Have I missed them (if so, I´d be very happy if you could tell me where)?
Please don´t think I´m complaining - I am very grateful for your work, too. Jusk asking
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Could someone tell me what this scenario is called? I haven´t been able to find the title anywhere - sorry if I missed the obvious.
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Well, judging from this pic, smoke was used quite extensively - at least sometimes:
http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22905113?search[subject][]=Italy&search[subject][]=Smoke&search[il][subject]=Cassino&search[path]=photos
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Well, them damned jagged shadows are everywhere - even in RL:
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And if I were you I wouldnt expect BFC to announce a release date: They've never done so before - so they probably wont begin now
Is CM dying?
in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy
Posted
I agree that the Repository isn´t very userfriendly and as such isn´t very helpful in providing feedback.
I usually make a thread in the Maps and Mods section for players to comment in when I upload a scenario, map or mod. Unfortunately, there is no link between file in the repository and the comment thread. If these could somehow become more intregrated I think we would have come a long way.