Earl Grey

The AI will most probably be "dumb", in the sense of "not coming up with brilliant or surprising moves" - but it will do what it is coded to do. So, in the end, it'll depend on the parameters the coder gave the AI to act and/or react to a given situation and if those parameters involve some amount of, say, "error probability" like a human player might show. What will happen in the long run is that a regular player will adapt to the way the AI handles things, but the AI will stay as coded, which renders the term "artificial intelligence" somewhat obsolete (my friends and I, for example, rather refer to the common AI as "artificial dumbness" becasue of that) and euphemistic. Eventually we're down to a pure numbers game again for most campaigns - if the AI has a huge advantage in material and supply, it'll get very difficult even for seasoned players. Notwithstanding the fact that the TacAI might still as dumb as ever - which could at least ruin battles in heavily forested terrain...

I wonder that no one did it earlier, actually... Good work there!

Appreciated and not easily done. Took a look at it and I have to say it's a mess sometimes, but it could be much worse. Have been fiddling with the unit portraits and the shared BMPs there are neither logical nor easy to come around! Good job you're doing here!

Since I am either too stupid to figure out how to edit my messages or it just might not work: IT IS OUT!!! Go grab it, people! In case you haven't already done so.

I did spot an error myself, who would have thought... Will correct that ASAP and then post as modder's version. Camouflage is to be expected, of course - just a little bit later.

Okay, people, it is done! Completely zimmerited and as accurate as I could make it: I know it looks odd around the gun mantlet, but that's because the polygons are ALL WRONG! If nobody spots any errors or thinks I still need to improve something, I'll host it at CMMODS.

Me a perfectionist? It's just my philosophy that when I'm gonna do something, I can as well do it right in the first place - something I didn't with my first mods, by the way. Apart from that it would have been finished a long time ago if the Zimmerit wouldn't take that long all the time...

Okay, part of the Zimmerit is reworked. You can clearly see why it takes so long redoing it... The most problematic part, though, is yet to come: the gun shield. But I hope to finish this mod next week, since a lot of people are already waiting for different other mods!

Somewhat, somewhat - I need to redo the whole Zimmerit I essentially had already finished becasue my first pattern wasn't correct. I think i can post a new screen tomorrow, though it'll be a few days before I'll be able to put on camouflage. Anyone interested in getting this as a plain Dunkelgelb modder's version?

Very nice! That way, I won't need to do everything froms cratch, just change a few details here and there (like a new running gear...) to get a much improved texture set! Maybe we should team up, eh?

Wasn't lazy in the meantime and this is what the Jagdpanzer looks like at the moment: Changed the details to make it look like a late Jagdpanzer IV which is more logical with the polygons and the exhaust arrangement. Obviously, I did the Zimmerit pattern wrong and realized it too late - that's why it still looks odd. Hope you like it!

Just uploaded the halftrack mod in a yellow modder version. This is how it looks like: And should you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. If I can help, I will. [ June 23, 2008, 02:13 PM: Message edited by: Earl Grey ]

You're welcome, you're welcome. I would have taken the second one rathe than the first one, too - kind of like Ambush myself! *g* P.S.: Would you like to have my halftrack mod in a yellow modder version? Due to technical problems with my own machine I currently won't be able to upload it, though...

Okay, have reworked the mod so it looks like a late production Jagdpanzer IV: Features now include standard road wheels on all stations and 4 early-type steel return rollers. The following two patterns have been chosen to be done on this template (Zimmerit obviosuly still missing), but you may decide which it will be: 9. or 12. SS Panzer, seen in Hungary, May 1945 9. or 12. SS Panzer, seen in Hungary 1945

Well, actually you paint over the base template - you duplicate it and then just recolor it. Afterwards you erase those parzs you don't need. BUT: to make things easy the great (praise be him) MikeyD compiled a camouflage tutorial after I asked him how he did it and uploded it in the CMAK section of CMMODS. I'd suggest you go grab it and try it! I learned a lot! Regarding the Jagdpanzer I can't find evidence of any comon pattern - on the contrary. There seem to be everyt pattern imaginable: stripes, patches, blotches in different sizes and painted in a two-color, three-color or Ambush pattern. Essentially the same with all German vehicles. Although there seems to be at least some stnadardization in factory-applied patterns, although that is a topic which still needs a lot of research. Just ask more questions, I'll try to answer them as good as I can...

Well, once the template is done (like the one above) camouflage can be done pretty fast, depending on the complexity of the pattern. What does take some time, though, is getting the pattern to fit at the edges of the BMPs. Some people don't look that closely, but I don't like non-fitting patterns. Just doesn't look right... Red oxide primer only would have been pretty scarce since that was only applied from end of October 1944 until the end of November 1944 when base color changed to olive green. Judging from original photographs no Jagdpanzer was ever delivered with basecoat only, but the receiving units could still have camouflaged them at the front if no factory camopuflage was applied - which is hard to tell, actually. I haven't seen a photograph that allowed me to confirm a one-color-only Jagdpanzer yet. As far as I know, at least some patches/stripes were applied before sending the vehicle into combat if the vehicle wasn't camouflaged at the factory which was more or less standard for late-war patterns. And what do you mean by 'layered templates'? AS far as I know there are some templates for the stock textures (mostly Panther, though, if I remember correctly) and Vossie put his 251 mods up with layers... If you want to camouflage the vehicle by yourself I can just upload a 'virgin' version in Dunkelgelb...

So there's still the question what kind of pattern/vehicle you want to have. I actually started this as a late-war PzIV/70 for the now closed-down Lauban campaign... But I think a late Jagdpanzer IV might look more appropriate since it'd get a Dunkelgelb base color pattern which is suitable for every scenario from 1943 to 1945. What do you say? Wanna see some color profiles and you decide which you like best? [ June 03, 2008, 08:43 AM: Message edited by: Earl Grey ]

The Brummbär will get a proper facelift in time. I've already accumulated lots of literature for it and will tackle that one, too. What I've seen of the stock textures I'll probably redraw the bigger part of them based on what I already did for the Jagdpanzer. My aim is getting the details as correct as possible which isn't the case for most stock textures in the game... Just give me time! As it stands now a lot of people want me to do 'historical' mods and drawing from scratch takes a lot of time. But I'll get to it - CMx2 is still some time away and there are still people around playing this CMBB for years to come...

@Vergeltungswaffe: It will get Ambush, be assured! @Tux: According to my sources there were built: - 1141 StuG from December 1943 to April 1945 - 278 PzIV/70(A) from August 1944 to April 1945 - 930 PzIV/70(V) from August 1944 to April 1945 That stands against the number of ~800 Jagdpanzer IV built from January 1944 to October 1944. Therefore I'd conclude all variants are quite rare, but the early Jagdpanzer IV even more than the others.

I have checked a lot of available literature and this suggests that there was a kind of transition model at the end of 1944 with 3 return rollers and the eraly exhaust - will try to find a photograph. Historical accuracy aside, I have to make do with what I get from BFC - and the polygons are horribly wrong either way.

Okay, since you almost figured it out - and any other hints would reveal it, anyway - here it is: I was never really satisfied with any of the jagdpanzer mods out there, so I did my own. It sid rawn entirely from scracth, except the running gear which was taken from MikeyD's awesome PzIV mods. Some details aren't finalized yet (periscope cover and tools), but will soon be. Depicted in this picture is the PzIV/70, sometimes called the "Jagdpanzer IV (lang)". Since all Jagdpanzers share the same BMPs, I'll include a wider range of options for the different models.

Tux is on the right path. Here's another hint:

Since I hope to break some new ground with it, I'd like to introduce you to my current mod project. But so it doesn't get too tedious, I'll let those that don't already know take a guess at what vehicle it will be: If someone solves the mystery, I'll post a full picture of the pre-production model.

Well... the 250 series is definitely possible and planned. It's just that I have only so much time and I try not just to put some camouflage on an already existing mod, but get all the details as historically correct as possible - why I end up most of the time redoing at least 50% of an existing mod from scratch. If you compare - there's not much left of Vossie's mod in my version apart from some interior details and minor componentns. But that way I can at least call it mine, can I? Either way, I have a very special mod in the works you should DEFINITELY love - this time done 90% from scratch. It's an obsession, this virtual modelling. Stay tuned for another release!

Just my two cents: A lot of things that can be said about the Tiger II can be said about the other supposedly 'technically superior' German tank, the Panther (and the Jagdpanther, for that matter). Maybe even about the Tiger I, but that was a rather usual tank design when compared to other German tanks at the time the Tiger I showed up on the battlefields... All Panthers were haunted by technical problems during their entire time of deployment and, in the latter stages of the war, conditions were poor for every German vehicle. Right off the top of my head I'd say at least 2/3 of the Jagdpanthers alone were lost due to technical problems and non-available recovery vehicles. And every other German tank had the same problems, especially those of non-Tiger and non-Panther origin that stressed the base model (or any parts of it) above their originally intended limit, like all later Panzer IV types like the Sturmpanzer IV and the Jagdpanzer IV. Admitted, the efficiency of an AFV is measured by its mechanical reliability, too - but then, the Panther and most other late-war vehicles fail to pass that test. And in more than one respect. Therefore I'd say that the later German tank types had some specific problems never properly solved which made their use quite complicated already without having to worry about proper combat conditions... Therefore, I'd never expect a German tank to perform too well at all (because too many things have to be taken into account) and even more so a tank like the Tiger II which obviously made already existing problems for keeping a German tank combat-ready only worse.