Stoppelhopser

Oh, I now understand Madmatt. Thanks and I'll be patient. Its just that I have no former experience with Kalypso.

Thork: let us know your findings. Apart from a few missions I played through TOW and am inclined to try überpatching myself. The german localisation is not that necessary to me.

I also remember being astonished hitting the FT17 several times with 37mm AP or APHE from 35(t) or 38(t) in this infamous scenario without doing it any measurable harm. I don't know, sometimes light armoured vehicles seem to be harder than they really were. In the Moscow campaign I had a BT7 that was hit repeatedly by 3,7cm from several PzIII and had no holes in the turret and no wounded and carried on. In reality 20mm AP was quite enough for tanks like BT and T26... I don't know if its the values of these vehicles or maybe some piece of code which gives these results sometimes. In later war scenarios I find the "gun disable" hits happening much too often to be believeable.

Making a new vehicle or weapon system at the moment is a question of the 3D software. As I understand the models have to be in 3D MAX. Shop around and you will find its not a budget software at all Few if any people interested in TOW have it, be sure. What would be nice is if some kind of format converter could be introduced. I mean the ability for the development team to import .3ds or .obj formats. That way, people could use modelers which are not as expensive or even free, as Blender or Wings3D are. Shockwave just works on a process to convert Blender .obj format into their flight sim and have success, see Shockwave forum

Yes, and I would be very interested in your impressions. At the moment its Moscows best kept secret. I am sure that it will be awesome when it comes on the market - in fall 2098

gundolf, I mostly agree. Leading just a squad or two with 1 or 2 support vehicles one can manage things well. Leading 2 platoons and several tanks/guns quickly gets annoying eben with the pause button. Your ideas about Squad weapon automatisms I fully support.

BTW I clearly remember ingame screen shots of russian mortars firing and on the move, from about 2004. Maybe I find them on my HD. However there might have been be a development problem with trajectory and such. Or maybe it was too omnipotent in crushing AT guns which are fundamental to gameplay and missions. I also remember a screenshot of the german 2cm Flak, though that's not the theme here.

Interesting article. Maybe the rifle ranges were made greater when the armor engagement ranges were modified to extend further. I think it's funny when I see infantry with submachine guns start firing from what seems 200-250 meters, and sometimes even hit someone. In the eighties I was with the German Luftwaffe and we did not shoot the crappy UZIs for more than 50 m in basic training. Even at that range I can't remember hitting much. I was okay with MG3 and G3 but I hated UZI and never mastered the P1 pistol. When I was a child, a grand uncle who was in russia mentioned "we let them come very close" when I asked how my little Airfix soldiers should engage. I hope infantry will see a move towards more realism and loose some "issues". Though I realize now that TOW is not for me and I have lost most of my former interest. I honestly dislike commanding individual soldiers to pick up ammo and such and the AI radar and the "kill all" necessity. I'm really hoping for CM2 WW2.

Not high on my personal priority list but more of a eye candy thing I still like the idea. Random secondary explosions, longer fires and the occasional ripped off turret would add visual interest.

Thanks Sneaksie and Webwing. I understand. A cool and adaptive system this actually is. Well, In don't want to do every pothole (at least not yet ) but a railway embankment, a sunken road or 3-4 dimples for say hull down tanks or a battery is hopefully doable per map. Maybe cutting down on the trees and else for balance.

Wow ! Cool work Webwing. With the ability to use custom textures this seems to be a first class map builder tool. Wish the modders for Maddox Games "1946" flight sim had something like that. Yesterday a beta patch was released and it took the slovakian team about three years to build their map. Question: is the terrain mesh and brush size small enough to have roadside trenches or small "pits" for putting in AT guns or tanks "hull down" for example?

I bet a development history of TOW would make for good reading with lots of drama and suspense. You could see nice screenshots from a very early point on, (about the time "Forgotten Battles" was announced by Maddox IIRC) then all was quiet for a long time. I was actually surprised when I read here that it will be out.

You will get a very good sniper. This you can use well in the mission. This guy has best abilities for aiming and scouting. This means he can make out the enemy before they can. Carefully crawling forward with the sniper you can find and then neutralize the AT guns and field artillery. You can work your sniper around to the sides of AT guns and then aim at the crew members. You also should get Brummbär 15cm close support tanks to deal with the trenches. Keep your tanks together and be very careful once you get on top of the first hill. If you got this far in the german campaign you will crack this one, too.

Sneaksie: Thank you for always being upright, precise and friendly. Merry christmas and a happy new year ( I believe its celebrated a bit later in Russia ?)

Sorry for asking, have you yet played a mission with infantry involved? If I am platoon or company commander would I need to tell Private Numbnut to give his Bazooka ammo to his comrade, one meter away, in the middle of a battle? TOW's not bad, or worse as some have it, although I don't like it anymore. It has basically a good vehicle combat system. But its not one of the best in my definition of a tactical game with historical background. It does not simulate unit structure. Infantry has no heavy weapons and engineer facilities or very few. Where are rifle grenades? Mines? Terrain offers next to no cover. Machine gun positions are not particularly dangerous. In reality, once a AT gun was seen it was about dead. Here uncamouflaged AT guns dominate. And if 1C would include mortars which once were to be included (I still have a development screenhot of a russian mortar somewhere), this mission system would collapse as you would easily remove the biggest threat and then walk over the AI with just tank fights remaining. Do you really think you would gain with your high command if you end a mission and basically wreck your command every single time like in the campaigns? I could go on and on. I am just rereading a fascinating book about infantry warfare by two german colonels from 1963, "Infanterie im Kampf". There ww2 company/ battalion size missions are described AND analyzed by what went right and what went wrong. The only game so far able to about simulate something like these engagements would be the good old CM series.

Actually take your time on the patch. Just tried Allied Campaign: St.Lo mission and now I'm fed up entirely. Not my vision of having fun. My honest conclusion is that the mission designers are sadists who like to see pixel men die. I will give TOW a last chance after the patch but after 6 weeks playing if I'm honest to myself I don't like this infantry = AI fodder game anymore. My mate is back to CMAK already and I am reinstalling CC5 and try some mods and wait for HistWar.

As I know its being in the final state of being worked on I am quite content and I rather wait and have a stable and worthwhile release than anything else.

Yes - die Kalypsoversion ist neuer. Ein großer neuer patch kommt aber in nächster Zeit.

It's not a desert camouflage but the standard dunkelgelb which started to be the basic colour from February 1943 onwards. As the Tiger also has Zimmerit anti magnetic paste applied it's from second half of 1943 although I'm not sure if the Feifel air filter system was still around at that time. Too tired to look it up.

Don't want to be overly negative but: I already have "deathmatch" in single player mode everytime ... So Multiplayer deathmatch is about the last feature of a foot long list I am keen about. I came here for a real time tactical game, you know.

I like what you have done to the lighting. Very atmospheric.

Quite impressive. I recently had a french AMR 35 hit in the driver hatch where the driver and gunner fell and also a T34 hit on the drivers hatch where only two or three men bailed out.

I see oho. Interesting idea. I'd love to use fpv more but tend to loose oversight that way.

I see Sneaksie. So there is a plot. Would have been nice though to have a hint about that when you get the order to attack the village. Not so blunt like "shoot the car" but something like "Let no one be able to get away and call reinforcements, german Panzer unit is close by". That would not leave the player stumbling in the dark. I still don't like such terminator missions. Might try again one day but certainly not now.

Why should they ? It's done well and I like it. Unlike "Close Combat IV Battle of the Bulge" or the "Saving Private Ryan" movie where a native has to laugh hard from time to time at the psycho germlish presented ...