rocketman

Quick update - for a while I thought the game engine and the editor would grind this project to a halt, it is starting to show some real progress. Had a first "battle test" on a half made map with the main features in hand and it came up quite well. Fierce, bloody, intense - just like in real life. This game and what it is capable of reproducing is simply awesome. After reading a lot about the battle, and studying several map sources, watching it "come alive" is quite fascinating. Kudos to the developers *tips hat*. So, if the gods of war are on my side I will publish first screenshots of this baby by the end of the week-end.

What I do is paste the screenshot into Power Point, add arrows and such, then take a screenshot of the Power Point slide and you're good to go. That is if you have Power Point. I have also tried the briefing templates but couldn't figure out how to do the map itself. I know some Photoshop, but not how to work effectively with layers. A youtube tutorial would be most welcome

What I do so far, also a budding scenario designer, is use FRAPS (free) to take a screenshot from camera angle "6". Crop it in GIMP and you have a fairly good tactics map. Would be a shame if you have fun designing scenarios and let this stand in your way.

Is there a helmet in that pic

Wouldn't mind taking that into combat - it has APS, right?

@Michael: thanks for the encouragement. I struggle with the limits of the system, but take it as a learning experience. Something will come out of this, even if it is not historically accurate to the point. @womble: I'm starting to consider this solution as well. Noted, though, is that preliminary testing show that the amount of Sten guns that the paras have might be enough suppressive to let the sappers do the marking. But having the paths pre-set makes for a more straight-forward scenario and probably less random in its outcome. In real life the paths were marked by "digging their heals into the ground", as all their mine marking equipment got lost. So, when the paras advanced through the minefield, they set several mines off causing several casualties. If it in the end proves to be a broken scenario I can alway hope for Commandos to be included in CMBN as they attacked the battery on June 7th, as the Germans had taken it back.

That sure looks like a walk in the park ... not!

Me included. But maybe he needs another helping hand. Don't know how far the last batch of donations will last.

Awesome - thanks!

I'm well aware of that and agree. However, certain events were different. The scenario I intend to do is the para attack on the Merville Battery in the morning of D-Day. The battery was surrounded by a minefield 100 yards deep. Two paths were marked by a recon party hours before the paras arrived, in the cover of darkness. One idea I had was to make it a two part campaign on the same map, but since marked mines do not carry over it wouldn't work. The second option is to mark mines with the recon party before the paras arrive, but what fun is fast forwarding a couple of hours of game time in between? It would also enable the recon party to mark far more mines than in real life. The third option (which propted this thread) is to have the recon party and the paras arrive at the same time and force them to mark mines and cross the minefield at the same time while being under fire. That is why I wanted to make a new order instead of "wasting a turn" because of a couple of seconds. I haven't given up on this yet - still some testing to do. The final option is to have the paths marked on the map from the start and skip the recon part. But that would limit the tactical options for the player and make it less fun to play. In real life, the paras had about 30 minutes to carry out their mission, mainly due to a botched drop. At a certain time the HMS Arethusa would shell the battery if a signal that it had been taken out wasn't received. So time is of the essence in this setting, minute by minute, if I want it to be as close to as possible to historical events. It is not easy to make it true to real life, fun to play and challenging. Somewhat of a compromise needs to be made.

Haven't tried adding waypoints after "Mark Mines". For some reason I didn't think it was possible. Will try that. Thanks.

Sounds like something out of "Inception"... You have the basis for a movie script there Ian

I would sure feel fine, but my pixeltruppen might not

Doing some testing with "Mark Mines" for a scenario I'm researching. One thing that struck me is that usually during a turn, your team spots mines. So, next turn you give them the "Mark Mines" command, and wait for a couple of minutes. What is annoying, and happens a lot (always?), is that the sign turns yellow seconds after starting a new turn, essentially wasting that whole turn with the team just sitting there instead of getting a new order. This might be a minor thing, but is actually quite crucial in this particular situation, in which time is of the essence. Would it be possible to subtract just a few second off the time it takes to mark mines, so that the sign turns yellow just before a turn ends instead?

Funding perhaps - his costs spiked with the flood of mods after CMRT. Maybe we should be kind to him and help out with a donation?

I've had planes (Focke-Wulf) shot down in CMFI. But it took 4 Bofors AA-guns to do the trick. I believe it said "SHOT DOWN" in the UI.

Makes me wonder why this happens with some textures and not all? Maybe it is the way it is coded, rather than some feature? In that case, maybe the rest of the textures can be re-coded and patched, and the end result might be a smoother terrain look overall.

I ran some tests. First covering a "peak" in one tile of ground texture and then nine adjecent tiles covering the same "peak" in the center. What I found was: The following ground textures smooth out the peak, no matter if it is only one or nine tiles: Mud Marsh Pavement 1 & 2 (but not cobblestone ) Gravel (like Kieme said, a one tile placement causes new smaller peaks, but nine smooths it out completely - see below) Dirt lot Plow NS & EW One tile gravel: Nine tiles of gravel Unfortunately umlaut, once you revert back to grass or any of the other ground textures that produces "peaks", the peak reappears .

I'll try that. The exact guns won't matter much as they are highly unlikely to come into play, unless you really mess up or go about things the completely wrong way.

Isn't everything about CM "life changing" Jeez, you really make yourself doing loads of stuff for CMFI - do you ever sleep? Is there a kohlenklau clone - clonenklau ? Keep up the good work mate!

In anticipation of the "bitchlock" I'll have to make due with the ditchlock. Still experimenting with bunkers and terrain to make something that looks at least vaguely like the real bomb proof ones that was embedded in the terrain. Not easy at all.

Thank you JonS. But I can't figure out what formation I should "purchase" in the editor to match this. Would the Grenadier Ersatz Batallion of poor quality be proper?

Bulletpoint, the terrain feature in the pics is the tank ditch at Merville Battery, and it shouldn't come into play, unless the player i suicidal - the guns will kill them before even reaching the ditch. But I'm aware of your concern. Not too fond of long walls of bocage without gaps either. The rest of the map is pretty much flat and open - so the experience will be anything but Pac-Man like - apart from navigating through mines and barbed wire that is .

I'll run some tests during the weekend and try different ground textures. In the example I tried desperately to find the elevation causing the "peak", but couldn't find it. I wonder if they can occur even if there is only a 1 m difference between two adjacent elevation tiles? That would make them even harder to find in the editor. It is time consuming, so if there is a work-around, all the better.