sburke

I believe that is the pause the High Priest of the fanboi cult had decreed be included in order to have time to wolf down a slice of pizza. If you could see in the code it actually says - Pizza eating countdown.....

My luck, I would redo it and instead of my tank killing theirs, now their tank kills mine. Messing with the Fates is a line I hesitate to cross.

I am sorry, but the role of High Priest fanboi has been taken. If you are interested in a lower level position in the cult of the fanboi faith you will need to take that up with the High Priest. Applications are accepted..umm well...hmmm... Hey! High Priest! Are you even accepting any applications? Does the suggestion of Pizza apply here as well?

There are probably as many opinions on this as there are players. One of the factors that weighs into it for me is the scenario scale of CMBN is smaller than CMx1 games. There is so much more going on that I want to see that larger scenarios just take a lot more effort. I think order delays at the company level make much less sense than at the battalion or higher. However I do like the idea of order delays at that higher level. I don't see this as something that needs to be resolved in CM but rather for those of us interested in it, at a higher level. I am currently working on the Gamers TCS series Obj Schmidt and Screaming Eagles maps as to try and make use of the planning system to simulate the higher level order delay. Broadsword meanwhile is running a campaign using the St Lo rules for a similar purpose. As it is in CMBN, my units don't necessarily do what I say anyway. I have seen them be both more aggressive and more passive than what I had thought they would be which for me makes the question of order delays a somewhat mute point. It would also limit me from trying tactics that at the individual squad level should be an option as it is the squad making the decision. For example in a recent PBEM with Broadsword I was experimenting with German defensive tactics where if any of my units fired I would either immediately have them displace to another position or if I wanted them to fire at the start of a turn have them displace 20-30 seconds into the turn. The goal was to keep from being hammered by retaliatory artillery and mortar fire. It worked quite well for a while, but if we had order delays this kind of infantry team tactic would be pretty much not feasibile in which case i would likely feel obliged to throw a tantrum on the forum. It's a joke!!

Oh High Priest, can you bless my holy hand grenade? Also can I get a dispensation from playing CMBN while on my knees? Getting too old, and I haven't gotten my medical marijuana card yet.

Whew man I was staying away from this one, but this just grabbed me. When did we start the cult? I got the Steelbook for the game, but nobody said anything about the special nikes and the purple cape. Dang it Steve, I checked the store and I don't see any of this nor did I get offered a psychology test. I am feeling awfully deprived here. I have spent my fair share of time being labelled a fanboi, I deserve my nikes, its just not fair!!!

Sort of like this? Woman in crowd II: Oh! This is his gourd! Gourd man: Ten! Woman in crowd II: It is his gourd! We will carry it for you, Master! ...Master? Man in crowd IV: He's gone! He's been taken up! All the crowd, pointing at the sky: Ooh! He's been taken up! Gourd man, shouting at the sky: Eighteen! Man in crowd III: No, there he is. Crowd: Ooh! Man in crowd V: Look! Crowd: Oh, ooh! Man in crowd III: He has given us a sign! Man in crowd V: He has given us...his shoe! Man in crowd III: The shoe is the sign! Let us follow his example! Man in crowd IV: What? Man in crowd III: Let us like him, hold up one shoe and let the other one be upon our foot, for this is his sign that all whofollow him shall do likewise! Man in crowd III: No, no, no, the shoe is a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance! Woman in crowd II: Cast off the shoes! Follow the gourd! Man in crowd V: No, let us gather shoes together! Let me! Woman in crowd: Oh, get off! Man in crowd IV: No, no, it is a sign that like him we must think not of the things of the body, but of the face and head! Man in crowd V: Give me your shoe! Man in crowd IV: Get off! Woman in crowd II: Follow the gourd, the holy gourd of Jerusalem! Gourdy part of crowd: The gourd! The gourd! Man in crowd VI: Hold up the sandal, like he has demanded us... Man in crowd III: It is a shoe! It is a shoe! Man in crowd VI: It's a sandal! Man in crowd III: No, it is not! It is a shoe! Woman in crowd II: Cast it away! Man in crowd III: Put it on!

Derek, you aren't supposed to give reasoned responses that provide information and feedback to user suggestions. You have a reputation to work on. Sheesh

Wow is there something with the moon cycle? No not you Moon, I mean the Lunar moon. We seem to having more than our usual share of short tempers lately. Werewolves of London again.

This is pure conjecture, but I expect mostly we may be talking about independent buildings including windmills and terrain options like dikes perhaps. I don't know what will be the requirements for modules and what not, but I expect if you build a scenario using either the ToE or map using the items in the module, folks would have to have it to play it.

I leave those for my opponents to post Most of the time it isn't because they are unlikely, it is usually that I neglect something I should have thought about more. What I usually end up posting are the scenes that just knock me on my a** to see how the Tac AI implements during a turn and the scenes it creates.

LOL and it isn't hard to find worse on just the American side. I have been working on this Huertgen map and am figuring I don't even want to try and make a campaign with it as folks will say the same thing. Who in their right mind would push a regiment across a tiny hard to access bridge right into the midst of German defenses with no armor support facing parts of 4 German Divisions including a Panzer Division. :-P But they did and a lot of good men paid for it. At least in the campaigns in the game the attacker succeeded. I figure if I try to make this into a campaign I will get lynched. I think I'll stick with providing a map.

Agreed, respectful discourse goes both ways. Steve even responded to this thread with more detail on some of what they are trying to do with the UI that I think we should all appreciate.

Curious as well. The timing would fall under the Market Garden module, but not necessarily the building structures and terrain options.

Thanks, that does help. One other question, is that the facing the German units is coming from I expect not as I think that is impassable. Can you take shot of the facing direction towards the armor or even better a shot from the view of the tank?

Elmar I am not sure if I understand the above, but in short IMHO we are having this discussion because there is a group that seems to be more impacted by the AI behavior than others and they are fairly frustrated and vocal and impatient. The discussion isn't about whether the behavior needs to be changed, but how. This thread and many many comments all point to trying to go back to something else when that isn't an option on the table. Not being an AI programmer I have to rely on what BFC says is possible and what they want to do with the engine. So in the interests of keeping this on what BFC has actually said as opposed to us all just expressing how much we liked the behavior in another game I am going to extensively quote Steve's comments from the previous discusion. Please grant me some leeway here is much of this comes from a back and forth discussion of both the % of hits on the move and a discussion about trying to add commands to get the AI to present different behavior as well as alter the UI commands. I've bolded the comments specifically germaine to this thread. I hope this helps somewhat as I think we all need to go back and make sure we actually understand BFC's position as I think it is very frequently misstated. One thing I would ask is if folks on both sides would stop trying to say who is speaking for the majority opinion. I don't think any of us really know and I for one am willing to be patient. From everything BFC has said, they do view it as an issue they would like to address and are trying to come to grips with how. That for me is very respectable response.

I don't think Steve is disagreeing with anyone about wanting to correct the behavior. What he keeps pointing out, and no one seems to want to hear is he doesn't want to spend the effort on a (in his words) kludge fix that they used for CMx1 and try to apply that to CMx2. Their position is they want a real answer and will correct it as they develop it. The behavior that you feel looks easier on the eyes and more believable (assuming they could even apply the same logic in this engine) would require them to spend extra effort on something that they feel is not a good option and possibly create other issues for them as they try to come up with a better answer. They have limited resources and in that light I think the answer is valid. If they do figure it out and come up with a better solution I think we'd all be much happier. Any attempt to do anything else though will only slow down their ability to come up with that solution. That kludge fix could also impact other AI behavior and end up creating more of a mess than we started with. Soooooo we can either wait for them to find an answer and apply it (and we've only had the product since May), or we can continue this discussion which isn't going to get any attention from them as they have already clearly stated they will not apply what they consider to be a broken alternative. If we want to continue it, I don't think he will care as long as we maintain some level of civility. The other thread was shut down because of the behavior, not the subject.

oh damn, that hurt. Sick, but funny. Anybody here happen to watch Wilfred? If so, did ya see the episode on Pride?

Hey you aren't criticizng the Tankers guide to aggressive driving manual are you? Reminds me of a reference I heard at one point about German armor and movement that in summary said, drive fast. Going slow isn't going to improve your ability to fire and just keeps you out there as a target longer. Maybe all CMBN tank drivers have that as required reading. The gunners on the other hand....

Nice! Any small children around to hear you swearing at the top of your lungs? I have seen a lot of misses from that distance and am usually cursing my teams for opening up too soon and myself for not cutting their target arc shorter...and a bazooka round no less. Not even a respectable Shreck. That would be one of those tales that would show up in a history book as an anecdote about the effective range of the bazooka that we could all argue over endlessly.

Actually it isn't quite that simple. There are a lot of different ground terrain tile and tree qty types that can alter things by degree. Also how far into the woods itself can change things. For example in Bois de Baugin, if you stick infantry at the edge of the woods line they are spotted rather quickly. If you take them a little further in and into the hvy forest tiles, that changes dramatically. Am working on a map of a portion of the Huertgen and the number of possible options in creating forest terrain is pretty nuts and it all varies your concealment. If you have a copy of that turn a screenshot of the map at low level of the area of the incident and a screen shot of the game turn itself could do wonders to illustrate your point and remove a lot of the confusion.

Man you got that right! +20 W/O this forum, I'd likely be staring at the wall with a glazed look in my eyes muttering something about lines and dots.

Can we all just take it down a notch? We don't need to be just trashing one another in an already frustrating thread. Personally I haven't had that many issues, but I think that largely comes from the scenarios one plays and how you play them as to how evident behavioral issues are. My opponents and I spend a lot more time slowly reconning etc rather than charging assaults. Those however who play more wide open armor engagements may be having to face the compromises that have had to be included and I can see how they could be getting frustrated. My only suggestion for folks that are finding this frustrating and yet still want to play the game is look for some alternatives that limit the effect. I know that may be a sucky answer, but it can at least reduce some of the frustration temporarily while allowing things time to develop.

Thanks for all the hints and advice. I am going to continue with it and finish both this one and a larger scale one, but I suspect I won't really feel right until I do it again for the Bulge family. I am also taking the tools I am creating for this one to use to convert Screaming Eagles, TCS game of the 101st at Veghel. I just finished making a 4x4 map with 125 yard grid lines to facilitate transferring info to the map faster. The Veghel map as very little elevation changes, but I'll need the MG module to get the terrain right. Hopefully we will get Dikes and windmills.

I have to say I love em, but just doing screenshots can be a little time consuming. I can't imagine the effort to do many of these. I like the idea of being able to drop the UI though for grabbing shots. @ClarkWGriswold nice work.