rocketman

I have consistently had problem with BS and now SF2 in that ERA blocks seldom/never disappear even after being hit. Also, a lot of times hit decals don't show. I know that they can be hard to spot, but in the WWII titles it never seems to be a problem of the scale of the modern titles. Strange as the engine is more or less the same. Any ideas what might be the source of these issues? Usually play on pretty much highest settings and the most recent engine.

So like this perhaps? It is a high res map so can be zoomed in more for details.

I have a good map of Arnhem and surrounding areas. Can you be a bit more specific on the area of interest? Also check the "Osterbeek Master Map" that came with the game. It might include the area already.

'Tis the bone season indeed... Just releasing SF2 is nooooooo excuse for not dropping a bone or two

Thanks for making it. Had a look at the map and it looks like a unique battle. On my short list to play after the SF2 fever starts to cool. Also great that you provided an editor guide for the forts. Will come in handy for a scenario I have worked on, fictional battle in and around Dinant for FB.

Everything is ok. I started it at 3:10 AM and then they have NVGs on. Guess I never noticed that they are always in the inventory even if not applicable.

We finished it a while ago and I started it now to check his side as I played UnCon. He is new to the modern era and asked in one of the first turns if NVGs needed to be equipped or on automatically. So something is amiss. I will change the start time for the scenario and check if they appear.

At 5:10 AM in "UK H2H Brit Mech Plt vs UnCon SF2" My oppo saw the same thing in this scenario.

@quakerparrot67: did you check out my PM with info? There is a community made scenario ( http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-fortress-italy/cm-fortress-italy-add-ons/monte-cassino-the-outcome/ ) which I haven't tried. It appears that the map isn't to scale and I don't know if a real map was used and "condensed". I might also have another asset for more details about the layout of Cassino town and a rough estimate of German positions/strength.

Are night vision goggles modelled in 3d other than just stated in the equipment? British Mech Infantry seem to be without.

Nahh, I once hit a half track gunner at 1838 m. With a pistol

IIRC triggers were introduced with the RT release. The recent addition to AI plans that I like most is having it area fire on suspected buildings etc when it is not busy fighting a spotted target. To my "joy" a saw this introduced in one of the SF2 scenarios and it gave my FO a hard time even though he was hiding.

That there is pretty much the wet dream of this entire community. Who knows, maybe they are secretly working on an entirely new engine all along and one day we will be pleasantly surprised.

I'm just taking the devs word for it. Maybe all the resources needed for the simulation is at hand all the time, even when paused. Just guessing...

Thing is the CM engine is more CPU heavy than GPU heavy, so better and better GPU will unfortunately not help much. It is also on OpenGL. Main thing why it can't be compared to a RTS game that on the surface looks much better, and that is the vast simulation going on under the hood. Especially in large/huge scenarios. So that is the tradeoff for realism under the current engine. There are settings that can help. I find that shadows look the worst in sunny conditions, which is pretty common in Syria. What you can do is open a scenario in the editor and change the weather to "hazy". Won't change LOS range much but will make shadows better. Also try turning on/off shaders in-game as that can help too. There are also mods that can make terrain and buildings look better. Sounds can be improved. So what I'm trying to say is to make it look/perform the best under the conditions at hand - and then enjoy the ride!

The only strange thing I've seen in SF2 are Syrian tanks and BMPs advancing "ass forward" into battle in the scenario (with the fitting name for their sake) "Recipe for Disaster" (I have saves). Probably a faulty "Face" command in the AI plan though.

"Warp speed Mr. Button!" "Will do..." Insane. The opposite of being a coward. I once saw a test run (can't remember which track) when they had put eye tracking hardware on the driver's helmet and put the recording as an overlay on the onboard camera. It was really interesting to see that the driver looks as far ahead as possible and always at the exact apex of the next turn. Never really bothering to look at F1 itself.

When I use it in photo editing I use it sparingly to increase contrast in contours which is perceive as an increase in sharpness (the name unsharp mask dates from the dark room age of phot editing and the name can be confusing). It can also be used in certain areas of a photo/uniform texture. My thinking is to create a more 3d like impression in what is a 2d texture on a 3d model. For example some extra sharpness in folds to make them stand out more. I migh go ahead and do some tests one day. The only uniform mod I have made was just the addition of a uniform badge.

Just throwing an idea out to all the uniform modders - have you tried applying an unsharp mask to the textures to give them a crisper look? Will it have a good effect when textures are wrapped around 3d-models?

Thanks for the radio chatter mod, but it seems to be active for "terrorist" REDFOR as well. At least in the scenario UK Brit Mech Plt vs UnCon.

Was the book any good? I have thought of reading it as the premise of the story is intriguing and I haven't read any of Roth's work.

If, after giving the vehicle command, issue a move order for the infantry and they will dismount at the end point of the vehicle command.

I like the choice of artwork and it works well for a menu screen. The blue tone fits very well with the menu. Haven't seen the original, but it looks a bit squeezed horizontaly. Like a widescreen shot turned 4:3. A suggestion for what it is worth - I would remove the white border on the top and right hand side of the menu box and just leave the black drop shadow. If you publish it, I will use it.

Another aspect is that there is a wide variety of sizes of scenarios and amounts of units in them. Starting small it is no big thing to micro manage all the units, while in the bigger ones it can be intimidating at first. In time also, you will learn in what critical situations micro management is vital and what situations you can give orders to units to carry out over several turns.

Thanks @domfluff. I looked in the manual for all this stuff as I had not played SF1. Extremely weird omission on BFC's part. Hopefully the manual will be updated. Would hate for new players to get this as their first impression of CM-games. Another thing I might have missed and couldn't find in the manual is the artillery option "armour". Is that new for precision arty? Can't remember it being in BS.