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umlaut

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Posts posted by umlaut

    Looking for some nice Bridge Maps?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Hi

    I´ve made a few (all are axis vs AI):

    City Salient, a CMBB operation, february 43, in a russian city divided by a river:

    http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/scenario_details.html?command=search&db=scenarios.db&eqskudatarq=1518

    Guns `n´ Chaperones: A CMAK (ETO) scenario in Normandy, august 44. The map is divided by a river and the bridges are meant to play a crucial part in the outcome of the scenario.

    http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/scenario_details.html?command=search&db=scenarios.db&eqskudatarq=1407

    Jaws of defeat: CMAK scenario set in Italy, july 44. Many similarities with "Guns `n´ Chaperones" - but on a smaller scale.

    http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/scenario_details.html?command=search&db=scenarios.db&eqskudatarq=1338

    Enjoy - and please be so kind as to leave some sort of feed back on The Proving Grounds if/when you´ve finished the scenario.

    Cheers

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    Auto generated maps?

    in Combat Mission Campaigns

    Posted

    Hi

    I´ve got a question about the maps in CMC that I haven´t been able to find an answer to in the other threads. Please excuse me, if I´ve overlooked the answer.

    The thing is this: As far as I have understood you can - whenever there´s a battle in CMC - choose to either let CMC autoresolve the battle or play it out as a CMBB battle. I hope that´s correct.

    Now my question is, whether the battles you play out in CMBB are on maps that has been designed by humans - or if the maps are made by the QB map generator in CMBB (I am of course speaking of the campaigns that are coming wiht the game, not any computer generated campaigns)?

    I ask this question because I fear having to play on the maps that are auto generated by CMBB . I think that especially the town/villages look awful. The computer simply isn´t capable of making any realisticly looking town - in my opinion.

    Anyway, I´m really looking forward to the release of CMC (My wife wouldn´t be, if she knew about it. But she won´t).

    Cheers

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    New mods: Damaged "Stalingrad-ish" buildings

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Originally posted by John Kettler:

    umlaut,

    The real buildings for comparison!

    Hi John Kettler

    Thanks for the link- in fact I´ve already used the same - and other - clip and pictures in my research for the mods. But as you can see, I hasn´t been possible for me to make mods that actually represent real life (!) Stalingrad in every detail. There are several reasons for this: First, most buildings in Stalingrad were far taller than the two stories that are possible in CM. This alone makes a realistic set of Stalingrad mods impossible.

    Secondly, the buildings you see in the news reel clips and pictures are heavily damaged buildings. The ones you see, once you load a game with my mods are damaged buildings. They only become heavily damaged when you hit them with arty and stuff. These should then hopefully look more like stalingrad than the current buildings.

    Anyway: The name "Stalingrad" mods aren´t to be taken too litteraly. I actually mainly used this frase here and other places to convey which kind of mods we were talking about. I thought it sounded better than "Damaged building mods". Hope this hasn´t been too misleading.

    Cheers,

    Umlaut

    [ May 31, 2008, 04:47 PM: Message edited by: umlaut ]

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    New mods: Damaged "Stalingrad-ish" buildings

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Hi Buq-Buq

    Thanks for your very detailed "review". smile.gif You should be aware, that in my opinion you can´t make these kinds of mods perfect - you´ll have to make a lot of compromises. That said, I´ll try to provide some answers:

    the distressed buildings appear to lose their backsides — the two walls the farthest from the camera location — for some reason. The walls are still there, but you can't see them. The result is that it looks like the buildings are literally missing half of their walls.
    I´ll answer here by quoting the readme-file, that came with the mods:

    "Disadvantages:

    No roofs on any buildings - whether "damaged" or "undamaged" (unfortunately I haven´t been able to make a damaged roof that looked convincing, so I have decided that the best solution was to loose the roofs alltogether).

    "Half" buildings: You only see half - i.e. the two nearest sides - of the buildings. The other two sides - the ones furthest away - are missing. I guess this is caused by the my discarding the roofs (in reality they are not gone, only transparent): When the roofs are there, there´s no need for the game to display the two sides furthest away, as they are hidden by the roof.

    This is only a problem when looking down from viewpoint 3 or higher (this is a mod mainly for those of us who prefer the lower viewpoints 1 or 2)."

    There is more than one reason why I haven´t been able to make a convincing looking damaged roof. The first is this: The roofs you see in CMBB are actually put together by several (16, I think) roof-files put side by side. This means that if you make a damaged roof mod with say one hole in the middle, then when you load the game, the buildings will show up as having roofs with 16 holes - set in a very neat, symmetrical pattern. I´ve tried it, and think it looks far worse than the missing far walls. The alternative to that would be to put whole, undamaged roofs back on the building, but I also think that an undamaged roof would look utterly strange on a nearly collapsed building.

    So I am well aware that the current mods aren´t perfect. But I consider the missing far walls to be the lesser evil, and thus for now I do not see any point in changing them. Sorry.

    But if you can convice me that there IS a better way of making them, I´ll off course be more than willing to look at it. If you prefer the undamaged roofs I suggest you reinstall the original roof files to you bmp-folder. They are numbered: 1200,1201,1202,1203 and 1227

    As for the telephone poles:

    I also was upset that woods terrain got 'paved' when using one of these mods (the 'full'-telephone poles?). That, in effect, rules out the use of any woods in an urban environment. I removed that version of the mod, and got my trees back.
    Again, I´ll refer you to the readme-file that came with the mods:

    "These mods are intended for use in maps with no tall pines forests - and only with woods in snow-scenarios. "

    and

    "Replace any areas of "tall pines" and "woods" with some other feature, for instance "scattered trees". Otherwise you will have forests of telephone poles and woods with pavements."

    As I said before: Using and making these kinds of mods require a lot of compromises - unfortunately you can´t have it all. In this case this is because the "tall pines"-files share the same "ground/terrain" files with the woods-files. I know about the disadvantages of the mods (at least most of them, I hope) and have tried to warn about them and take them into account. When it comes to the pavement in woods terrain that is exactly why I made both a "full" and a "basic" version of the "telephone pole"-mods: If you use the basic, you don´t get pavement under woods, but unfortunately neither pavement in the steets with telephone poles.

    I hope this clears up some of it for you. Thanks for the review and comments

    Cheers,

    Umlaut

    [ April 19, 2008, 03:39 AM: Message edited by: umlaut ]

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    New mods: Damaged "Stalingrad-ish" buildings

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Hi Aco4bn187inf

    I´ve actually had the exact same idea about making rough as urban rubble. But it only occured when as in the middle of making the mods above - and I thought I had enough on my plate at the time. So maybe later...

    As to the telephone poles, they are replacing tall pines. At first my telephone poles became ridiculously tall, as I had made the the same height as the pines. If I remember correctly they are almost half the height now. Why you had two very different sizes, I can´t imagine, never had that problem.

    Cheers

    0

    New mods: Damaged "Stalingrad-ish" buildings

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Despair no longer: You can now create a Stalingrad scenario that actually looks like Stalingrad (at least a little): At long last, Umlaut´s "Stalingrad mods" are finished and ready for download at www.cmmods.com

    The idea behind the mods is this:

    I´ve always found it a real pity that you can´t begin a scenario in a damaged city like for instance Stalingrad at the end of 1942. Yes, you can make a scenario with a lot of rubble in it - but I really think it looks awful: Basicly you´ll have a city with a mixture of completely unharmed buildings - and completely flattened ones. But when you look at pictures of for instance Stalingrad most of the buildings are actually still standing to some degree - all though many are little more than shells. So my idea is to change the appearance of the "normal" building-files in CMBB to make them look more damaged. To me a realistic visual experience is an important part of playing CM - that´s why I generally won´t play a scenario, if the map looks unrealistic.

    There are four packages of mods, meant to be used together in the combination you prefer:

    stalingrad_buildings_umlaut:

    Damaged and heavily damaged buildings. Allows you to make scenarios with cities that are damaged from the onset.

    BASIC_telephonepole_umlaut:

    Paved roads with telephone poles. Replaces "Paved road with tall pines"

    FULL_telephonepole_umlaut:

    Street with telephone poles and pavements with scattered rubble. Replaces "Paved road with tall pines" and "Pavement". For use mainly in city scenarios.

    rubble_spray_umlaut:

    "Sprayable" scattered rubble. Replaces huge craters.

    For your convenience, I´ve also uploaded a little QB-map at The Proving Grounds , prepared for the mods, so you right away will be able to see what it all looks like - and fight a battle in the right surroundings. It´s called "Stalingrad mod QBmap" (http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/map_details_link.html?sku=150). You should also try it with winter settings. More battles made - or adjusted - for these mods will be coming soon...

    I really hope you like the mods, and I´d appreciate comments from all of you. Either here - or in the thread under "design tips"

    Cheers,

    Umlaut

    How to get the mods:

    You can find the mods at www.cmmods.com

    - in the left column, click "CMBB Mods"

    Then simply search for the name "umlaut" or:

    - Click "by designer"

    - Click "+" at "Umlaut"

    - Click "+" at "All"

    - Click "+" at "terrain" or "other"

    - and you´re there. If you can´t see all four mod-packages, you´ll probably just have to click "next page"

    At the moment you should also be able to find them under: "newest mods"

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    Where´s Juju?

    in Combat Mission - Tips and Tricks

    Posted

    Hi there

    Does anyone here know how I get in touch with the legendary Juju?

    I am very eager to hear from him as I would like his permission to use one of his mods along with my own mods in a package, I´m preparing. This package will hopefully give the opportunity to begin a CMBB scenario in a damaged city, looking something like Stalingrad in late 1942.

    The trouble is that he hasn´t replied to the email I sent to the adress that came with his mods. I think that the adress is probably not valid anymore.

    Cheers

    Umlaut

    EDIT:

    This request is no longer relevant

    I found him smile.gif

    Umlaut

    BTW: I´m counting on having finished and posted the mods on cmmods.com in a month´s time or so.

    [ February 21, 2008, 11:25 AM: Message edited by: umlaut ]

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