[TacAI in the attack: what it can('t) do?]

Originally posted by Chelco:

-Sending more and more troops through paths which are obviously dangerous. More and more troops are sent right into paths where piles of dead red troops accumulate.

This is a particular favorite of mine.

"Hey, let's go see what happened to all those dead guys!"

[What red equiment would you like to see in the next modules ?]

Seventy-two black-eyed virgins.

The way I see it, we airdrop the virgins directly onto the objective (like the Swedish bikini team in burkhas) then maybe my Syrian troops would be a little less likely to get rattled and break for the map edge the first time somebody waves a Javelin in their general direction.

[If sales were not an issue what match up would be the most interesting for a new mod]

No question. Mid-80's, NATO vs. Warsaw Pact.

[Dumb as hell question]

When you choose a movement mode and then place the cursor over the vehicle you want them to board, the icon will change into a 'down' arrow. If it's yellow, the vehicle doesn't have enough room. If it's green, click it and the troops will climb in.

One thing I didn't realize until recently on this... if you have the vehicle moving toward the squad, and the squad moving toward the vehicles with a 'mount up' order, the vehicle will stop (even if it hasn't completed its movement) and let them climb in when the two meet.

The point being that even if they aren't sitting right next to each other when you give the movement order, they can still each head towards each other and mount up.

[When CM revisits Normandy]

We can't even get a creek in CM:SF and you guys are asking for an ocean?

[Russian Terminator Tank Support vehicle.]

I wonder why the Russians hired the surviving members of Lynrd Skynrd to ride around in the thing?

[Recommend Some Scenarios]

Yeah, what the hell? They're not large files. I'd grab all of them, personally.

Have a good trip - and keep your head down.

[How powerful is modern HE?]

It's super powerful!

[Good lord, what had The Guardian come to?]

Personally I've always felt that American newspapers would benefit tremendously from having nude women in them.

If nothing else, it serves as a powerful visual reminder of what's really important.

[I invented a powerful way to protect tanks strongly cheaply an lowtech; implications?]

Originally posted by cool breeze:

...I still don't think any of you will figure it out.

The problem being (presumably) that none of us are 13-year old geniuses.

One of us however, is starting to look more and more like a typical forum attention-whore.

[MikeyD Mini-mod: tinted pickup windshield]

"My other car has 40 virgins in it!"

[Bradley Vision Blocks]

I think they're just fabulous!

[A quick question]

Hell, I run CM:SF with nearly all the video options on 'high' on a Geforce 6600. That's with 2G RAM and an AMD processor I put in there so long ago that I can't remember exactly what it is. I've run the biggest scenarios I can find, and the most graphics-intensive maps I can find, and the game runs smooth and quick. Since the 1.04 patch, anyway. Before that it was pretty rough.

Of course, I run a WinXP system - and I tell you something else that helps a lot. I have a user account created on this machine that I use for nothing except games. I keep it stripped down with no bells and whistles in the OS and virtually no processes operating in the background to hog resources. When I want to play a game I log off of the standard user account, log onto the gaming account and play. Saves me a lot of headaches.

[I invented a powerful way to protect tanks strongly cheaply an lowtech; implications?]

Poetry now?

This is officially the best thread ever.

[I say chaps, how does one remove that awful "rock" music]

Personally I think the game's music was extremely well done. Well, I say 'music' but what we're really talking about here is one song.

But I agree with the people who'd like the option to change it or turn it off. After the 1,000th repetition it gets a little old.

[Suggestion: what do you think of it?]

He makes a valid point, though. Troops in potentially hostile territory don't just automatically belly-flop anytime they aren't moving, and they don't stand around picking their noses, either. 'Taking a knee' is kind of the default state for a halt when you're patrolling and aren't under enemy fire.

In the game I think it would add a level of realism if being on one knee was the default state when a dismounted unit reaches the end of their movement orders and aren't being shot at.

[AAR Captain Kangaroo goes to war]

I wouldn't assume your troops on the roof are safe simply because they're prone. Since the 1.05 upgrade I've been seeing some interesting new behaviors out of the AI, including several battles where I've taken serious casulaties as a direct result of RPG-equiped Syrians blowing the rooftops out from under my troops.

The problem you mention about the AI troops remaining static unless they have a scripted order to act otherwise may have been partially addressed already as well. I don't remember seeing anything in the patch notes about it, but they've actually surprised me a few times since the upgrade. Not always smart moves, mind you - like bolting out of a building and running hell-for-leather down the road right in front of my tanks, for example, but surprising nonetheless.

[The Battle for Schwend. New Scenario at CMMODS]

I was thinking the other day about how much I'd like to create some scenarios based on a couple of training rotations I did with the Blackhorse Cav at the NTC. Unfortunately, I was just a grunt who spent most of his time humping Mojave or riding blind in a vismod BMP, so I don't really have the kind of mission-specific specs I'd need to do any of it justice.

[So what's the real scoop on BFC and Mods?]

Originally posted by gib:

Sure, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what you think (or I or anyone else on the forum not associated with BTS / BFC thinks)

Obviously. In fact, you could say exactly that about 90% of the things that are discussed here - but this is a forum where people have conversations. It's not (or shouldn't be, anyway) simply a feedback system where people try to sway BFC's opinion one way or another. In fact, if that's all it was then I wouldn't bother posting here. I do post here because I (generally) enjoy participating in discussions with people who have similar interests.

In this specific case, I'm honestly not all that interested in whether or not BFC decides to allow mods with their engine. As a 'niche' gamer, I'm more interested in the mod movement as a whole, and how it poses both a potential threat and a potential asset to small developers. The threat, as I see it, is that by allowing extensive mods developers basically give up the option to make money from expansions. The asset lies in the potential for increased sales of the basic game by having significant value added to your product without any real investment. So my question (and the ongoing gist of the thread) wasn't directed toward persuading BFC one way or the other. The question was to find out what their reasoning was behind the conclusion they've reached.

Originally posted by Andrew:

Maybe I missed this on their site, but it looks like the only modding going on is for things that you can already mod in CM - new maps and new scenarios.

It goes a little further than that, to the extent where new weapons, mounts and equipment can be added in addition to skins and maps. I also think it's really interesting the way they don't just promote the work of the mod community, but really move them to a front-and-center (almost fully-integrated) position on their website.

[So what's the real scoop on BFC and Mods?]

Perhaps, but it's hard to ignore examples like MadMinute Games. It's not a perfect comparison to BFC, but is similar in that they're a small group targeting what has to be considered a 'niche' market.

Their first game TC:Bull Run got some good reviews and sold fairly well. Their second game TC:2nd Manassas, was really little more than an expansion pack (new units, new battlefields, some tweaks to the engine) so you'd normally expect it to sell to the same people who bought the first one, right? Instead the sales of the second game have far outstripped the first, and as I understand it MM feels the primary reason for the increase is that they opened the second game up for mods. It's literally exploded what you can do with the basic game, and seems to have drawn in a lot of buyers who may or may not have been interested in the ACW.

It's not just gaming, you know. Paradigms are shifting all over the place and consumers not only like, but are growing accustomed to having some influence and creative stake in their entertainment. Mods seem to me like one way that impulse gets channeled (and utilized by forward-thinking developers) in the gaming community.

[I invented a powerful way to protect tanks strongly cheaply an lowtech; implications?]

Originally posted by cool breeze:

If the forum convinces me a weapons expert who wants to hear about my idea is completely trust worthy...

Oh, why wait for the forum to convince you?

You've already demonstrated such sound judgement, mature reasoning, and unquestionable intellect (by posting about your brainstorm on a public forum in front of a group of completely anonymous strangers) that I would think you could certainly trust your instincts on something like that.

Although now that I think about it, we're all weapons experts here - so your best bet would probably be telling us all about it. Then we'd be convinced and we'd all feel really bad about mocking you.

Originally posted by handihoc:

Why does Gort wear metal underpants?

I think a better question would be: Why doesn't everybody? Especially when you consider what a dashing figure Ol' Gort cuts while sporting them.

[I invented a powerful way to protect tanks strongly cheaply an lowtech; implications?]

I like the Nerf Tank approach, personally - although there's always something to be said for going the "Naked Venezuelan Hotties" route.

No matter how goofy this 'idea' turns out to be, I admire your sense of responsibility. When I was 21 I would have been trying to figure out how to utilize my invention to make an obscene amount of money and get laid a lot. Well, come to think of it, I'm almost 40 and that would still probably be my primary focus.

[So what's the real scoop on BFC and Mods?]

Crap. That thread was just a few weeks ago and I missed it - but I appreciate the link, Ww. That's exactly what I was wondering about. While I have to say I disagree with BFC's conclusion, reading their thoughts on the topic certainly answered my question.

[So what's the real scoop on BFC and Mods?]

I realize this has probably been discussed over and over again on this forum, but I missed those conversations and a thread search turned up a lot that was irrelevant and nothing that was pertinent to the actual question - so I thought I'd toss it out there and see if any of you old-timers could explain the reasoning.

In a nutshell, what's BFC's problem with mods?

To clarify - I'm not talking about 'mods' as in 'skinning'. I'm talking 'mods' as in "taking the basic game and adding troops, vehicles, weapons, buildings and terrain to it." Real mods, in other words.

The gaming industry as a whole has embraced user-generated content. Admittedly It took awhile to get there, but (most) developers have finally realized that allowing (even encouraging) community-made mods adds significant 'legs' to the basic game. Not to mention the fact that a thriving mod community can really pump a game's sales by creating a wide variety of 'games' all based on the same engine, all of which require the basic game, and some of which will appeal to a segment of the market that wasn't interested in the original.

If my recent thread 'Am I the only guy here who is sick of WW2?' illustrated anything, it's the fact that there are people in this community who would dearly love to see the CMx2 engine utilized for just about any conflict, real or hypothetical, from near-future US versus China all the way back to Clubs versus Rocks.

So why exactly doesn't BFC want to capitalize on that kind of interest? What we're talking about is basically a win-win situation for them. It's essentially free labor, and if a user-generated mod sucks, the modder gets blamed and it doesn't reflect negatively on BFC at all. If a mod is great, it adds value and sales to their product.

As I said, I'm sure this has been discussed, and I'm sure their reluctance has been explained. I'm even reasonably certain that there is probably a good reason for it - these obviously aren't dummies, after all. I just can't find the right thread and I was hoping someone could give me the rundown.

["Floating" LOS issue, v1.05]

Originally posted by c3k:

Is it poor form to always self-bump?

Self-bumping is fine when practiced in moderation. When you start growing hair on your palms, you'll know your sad little self-bumping habit has gone too far.