Sgt.Squarehead

I really miss the static maps too Erwin. The problem here is that you are going to have to remodel the map to win.....Blasting walls is going to be a very important feature of the game and whole structures (and/or units) will sometimes vanish in a blinding flash (& shower of debris), otherwise it just wouldn't be Mosul. Combatintman's suggestion of chopping the map is clearly the way forward, now it's how to do the chops in a fashion that works convincingly.....There's also the issue that this area was fought over several times, but I'll cross that particular bridge when I come to it. That sums it up well!

Recently discovered the AI can use the 'Blast' action, this really surprised me, as I don't recall seeing it mentioned elsewhere.....Here's a test file I made that demonstrates it in action (Play as Red, WEGO, Scenario Author Test): [CMBS]BlastTest.btt

Strangely despite the popular perception, D&D got me laid a lot.....Girls with a taste for fantasy can be really good fun! But we digress..... PM sent/added to/updated.

I'm 50 next year but I was never a big fan of Squad Leader, I was more into my RPGs back then.

I'll go with something a little less Soviet first, but it's going to be brutal.....I think a Probe scenario into the IED infested hell-hole Qazah district would be a good start. This followed by a Red attack, the seriousness of which will largely depend on the player's powers of observation in the prior mission. I'm going to start sketching something out in the editor, but in the mean time I'll stick a link to my current messing around in the Mosul PM thread.

@Combatintman Sorry fella it's right to left on this one.....I've just been experimenting and haven't uploaded the test-bed map yet, but I get the gist of what you are suggesting. Minimum map size is 208m IIRC so I may have a little overlap on such a plan, but it's definitely looking the best way forward. @LongLeftFlank I've actually found a couple of reports of booby-trapped buildings full of civilians.....It's a nasty, nasty fight. The suicide-bombers have 'Small IEDs' now, but a bigger jumping booby-trap or two is a reasonable possibility IMHO. Guys, I've discovered the AI has limited ability to use the Blast command in CM:SF too.....Make of this what you will (it's about 50% the blue units make it through the wall in my tests so far) Play as Red in WEGO, Scenario Author Test: [CMSF] BlastTest.btt If the Blue units are fired on they seem to go off mission and never get back on it.....Still experimenting.

Me too. But they will be some proper hard tanks & troops!

So I made this test, to see how reliable 'Blast' is under AI control: BlastTest.btt Works well! I've just discovered that an identical test works equally well in CM:BS.....I presume it works for all the CMx4 games? Not sure how reliable it would be if there were alternative entrances to the structures, perhaps the facing command might have an effect?

Will do.....It's a bit of a mess at the minute as it's been acting as a test bed for my various experiments (some good explosions though)! I've gone through the map with a fine-tooth comb since your last look at it, so hopefully what you see will actually be the final version.....I need to clean up the current 'Scenario' (as opposed to 'Quick Battle Map') version as there are scenario specific flavour objects included. Actually screw it, I'll put it on DB as is, the current version has two AI plans (of five), the first sticks a suicide bomber in a building (with malice aforethought), the second drops him in in the players spawn (with malice aforethought). The VBIEDs are a 'Snow-Balling' experiment and should probably be in a later mission as they seriously remodel the map, they behave differently according to which AI plan they are on. I had intended to add a Mi-35 to the Blue force to determine whether it could pick the VBIEDs out (they are uncon units and the initial population density is set to High). I was hoping to use locating the source of the VBIEDs as a later scenario hook, and having the Hinds mark it out with a series of bloody great craters really wouldn't help much! The other IEDs & ISIS units on the map are just a drop in and massively amenable to change.

I have as many RPGs & board-games as I have kits, then there's my Steam collection.....All of which have been ignored for months, years in the case of the former (this will be changing on the kits front shortly as I'm co-hosting another GB on Britmodeller).

Cheers fella, I'm coming to similar conclusions regarding chunking the map (great term, I like it).....It's already quite small though and once the VBIEDs and Coalition air-support are unleashed in force it can end up unrecognisable. I've tested quite a lot of ideas for this, but all of them are pretty costly in AI groups, 'Snow-Balling' will help in some areas, but it's just damned tricky to set up a plausibly reactive looking defence in such a complex environment.....LLF's original design and my own map changes make for an 'interesting' battlefield, that's for sure.

Guess not.

S'true.....Money well spent too TBH.

Having a bit of a design crisis with this one at the moment, the urban warfare nature of the map is making it a real struggle to get the job done with just eight AI groups.....On this map you could easily use three for a platoon. In addition to which, this map really is a completely different place after the detonation of a couple of VBIEDs, they dramatically rearrange the scenery in a way I can't reliably model for succeeding scenarios.....Blowing up walls on this map really matters in a way it just doesn't elsewhere! Help me Obi-Wan-Battlefront-Developers.....Only you can save me now!

Why do so many people who obviously love CM:SF not also have CM:A? Seriously guys it's about the price of a round of beers and it'll give you a hell of a lot more pleasure! The CM:A game engine is slightly more sophisticated than CM:SF (actual water & exit zones too) and the units are better thought out (except the trucks). For unconventional warfare it's the best title in the whole CM series, which is good news when you consider the environment! The game runs from 1978 to.....Wait for it.....1992! You can set your scenarios in the Saur Revolution, the Soviet period, or the Warlord period after the Soviet withdrawal, all with the basic game. That's fourteen years of non-stop fighting all with suitable (if occasionally difficult to choose) units, including some you won't see elsewhere such as the T-55AD & T-62D with the Drozd active defence system. Plus I really could use some more testers & stuff, this game hasn't been very thoroughly explored at all.....It's kinda lonely in here!

Not entirely unlike the recent situation with 'Marine A'.....The enormous probability of 'cock-ups' of one sort or another is just one of countless issues wilfully overlooked in the rush to war IMHO.

That my friend, is how the British fight.....The whole 'tanks charging headlong down a highway' thing, is something we tend to leave to our boisterous little brother in the colonies (or the Russians).

Did we go to the same school?

I'd be willing to buy it in chunks, as I have with CM:BN.....I'm just not interested in other games any more, the current iteration of CM has hit my personal 'sweet spot'. My big issue is that I don't like the current modern game focus very much, I just don't want to model Russians, Ukrainians & Americans killing each other. Head-Choppers on the other hand..... Don't get me wrong, this isn't a religious or ethnic thing with me either.....I find the misappropriation of the name of the almighty by these filth almost as abhorrent as their ghastly practices. That the west has aided and abetted them on so many occasions, initially through short-sightedness and more recently for narrow-minded political ends, is a genuine disgrace IMHO.

Fishing really can be quite dangerous.

I'd be happy to see the CMx4 Engine driving all the old CM:SF & CM:A units, plus drones and a few updated variants. The wider scope the better IMHO.

I've bunged some mines in a current Mosul test, to see how easily they are spotted, problem is triggering 'em spots them too, but I suppose the losses incurred will go some way to balancing things out.....It's not a terribly promising avenue of experimentation really. The absence of exit zones and persistent map damage is doing my head in.....The former because I keep coming up with ideas for 'Exit' elements in scenarios then remembering that CM:SF can't actually do it (CM:A can), the latter because bigger IEDs & VBIEDs really leave their mark on the map! I think I'm going to have to build one or two longer scenarios, rather than several sharp skirmishes.

Random placement via the AI, add the Triggerman & one or more of his IEDs to an AI Group. In the AI for that Group paint one tile in a building in Setup. Save and start in Scenario Author Test mode, when you click start you will see the Triggerman & any IEDs in the group jump to the painted square (inside the building).....The IED(s) will always be on the ground floor, but you can set 'Upper levels' for the triggerman if you don't want a suicide bombing. This only works for AI controlled teams obviously.

You know those 'Don't Go Here' tiles you were after LLF.....I seem to have found one on a road junction and it's royally messing with my VBIEDs! I cannot get them to take that route, Blue can drive down it OK but the damned VBIED just stops, is there some special technique for using VBIEDs that I'm missing? PS - Aha.....Sussed it, the AI doesn't like 'Dash' or 'Quick' moves to a map edge tile, it wasn't the junction (penultimate destination) but the target tile that was the problem.

If ever a game needed more AI Groups it's this one.....I've discovered quite a bit about IED teams tonight, you can for instance actually place IEDs inside buildings, it just requires a certain commitment from the triggerman.