Rocket-Man

Added files for Topo Gridded dirt and paved roads (RM Topo Grid Roads) to the CMMods CMAK and CMBB databases. Also updated RM Topo Grid Terrain files for all wheat fields. Old files had the wheat colored grid in the clear area of the tile.

It is back up today.

Topo gridded terrain files have been added to the CMMods database for both CMAK and CMBB. Also, all CMBB related files have been added to the CMBB database so you don't have to download the relevant files from the CMAK database. Note that the CMAK desert terrain mod does not include files for soft ground because I could not find a single arid soft ground mod for CMAK. If you know of one and it looks half way decent, let me know and I will included it in a future version. [ January 13, 2007, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: Rocket-Man ]

I am trying to find a good set of bitmaps for tree bases to add my grid to. I would like all the tree bases to have a consistent look, but I haven't found any mod that has all the various tree bases included with it. Does anybody have any suggestions on what mods I should use?

I am an engineer and good at geometric drawings like the grid, but I could never create anything that looks natural, so without you the mod wouldn't have been possible. Thanks for letting me use it!

Thanks GreenAsJade. I'm glad you like them. I could never have done it without your original files though. Thanks for making those.

I noticed this weekend that RM-GaJ H/C Topo Grid Grass mod at CMMods had the worng file for bmp 1567. Files at CMMods have been updated to fix the problem. Sure, I absolutely love gladiator movies! Do I have to bring my own toga or will you have a spare one for me? I would love to play a PBEM against you. Any preferences on game/type of battle? And thanks for the kind words on the mod. I am good at doing geometric work like adding the grid lines, but being an engineer, I could never actually draw anything that looked halfway decent without using my $20,000 CAD package. [ January 02, 2007, 09:44 AM: Message edited by: Rocket-Man ]

Hey Other Means. I finished all the terrain mods like you wanted and I am looking forward to you being my best mate

There are a lot to ways to use mods Eric, but I will tell you what I do. First I make a backup copy of the bmp folder before I do anything else. Then I just copy the mod bmp files into the bmp directory because I don't really ever plan on using the old files again, but if I do ever need them they are available in the backup directory.

All high contrast terrain files have been completed and uploaded to CMMods.

I didn't notice that. Thanks Schwabian. Another thing I didn't notice was that the Open I did was actually Grass. Files have been updated to reflect these changes. Note: I use the Grass High Contrast for Grass, Open and Steppe as I like the color gradations for the Grass tiles better than Steppe (in CMBB) and Open ones. To use the Grass files in CMBB, just copy to the files to the CMBB BMP directory (the grass and Steppe files have the same number). To use them for Open, change the .bmp numbers from 1550-1569 to 1570-1589.

Files for Grass Terrain have been added to the CMAK database at CMMods. Edit 12/28/06: Changed Open to Grass. [ December 28, 2006, 11:30 AM: Message edited by: Rocket-Man ]

A single solitary red pixel found its way into the upper left corner of my grid, causing an ugly red smear at the edges of the map. Files at CMMods have been updated to fix this problem. [ December 27, 2006, 06:38 PM: Message edited by: Rocket-Man ]

I will be doing the rest as I need them for games I am playing.

One of the things that bothered me about CMAK when I first started playing it was how very hard it was to visualize the terrain I was fighting on (I was later to find out that the terrain I was having the most problems with was Arid Open). In an effort to improve the basic game, I turned to CMMods. The first thing I found was gridded terrain. That helped a lot, but wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Then I found GreenAsJade's High Contrast Mod and added my own grid to his tiles. This combination worked pretty well and overcame a lot of the limitions of the game engine. However, as I was playing a game using the Gridded High Contrast Arid Open tiles, I noticed that almost all the "bends" in the terrain took place at 45 degree increments around the perimeter of the tile (the exceptions are when the terrain changes 2 or more levels in height). So I added 1 pixel wide lines to the tiles at these "bend lines" and was extremely pleased with the results. It makes it easy for me at least to really visualize the terrain. If you want to try this mod out, go to CMMods and search "By Designer" for RocketMan. [ December 27, 2006, 06:33 PM: Message edited by: Rocket-Man ]

The High Contrast Gridded Open Mod has been posted to the CMAK area of CMMods.

I got GreenAsJade's permission and completed all the terrains this weekend. I will try to get them on CMMods sometime this week.

When I was done with all of them I had planned on asking GreenAsJade if I could post them at CMMods. The grid I added was only 1 pixel wide as opposed to two pixels all the other gridded terrain seemed to have, which makes the grid faint at long distances. The overall quality of the lines at high zoom levels is very poor, but with GreenAsJade's High Contrast Terrain, you don't really need them to judge the terrain elevation when you are zoomed out. I haven't yet decided if I should make the grid two pixels wide or leave it at one. As long as GreenAsJade has no objections to me modifying his files and then sending them out to people, I would have no problem sending you what files I currently have.

I have been adding grids to GreenAsJade's High Contrast Mods as I use them in game. I have grass and open so far.

I would give you some advice, but every time an enemy even looks at one of my tanks it bursts into flames, so I don't think I could help you out very much.

Put me down as another person who would love to play this mod. All your hard work looks great so far!

There is a new version of CM West coming out?

Sarcasm aside, a commander in the field has numerous data sources we do not have in the game world (calls for Medic!!!, runners, etc.).

Yes I do all those things, but in a large battle it can get quite tedious to do that for every area of the map. Remember, each turn is supposed to be 1 minute long, so I don't like to spend tons of time on each turn. I also like to simulate the problems the top level commander would have on the battlefield. In a small engagement (a reinforced platoon) I will watch closely what each man sees during the replay, in a larger engagement (company sized + some vehicles) I will watch each platoon and vehicle, but not individual squads and in a huge engagement (battalions) I will watch individual companies and sometimes individual platoons if they are tasked with a difficult objective. I will also simulate the chain of command while plotting my moves. In a small engagement I will determine what I want each squad to do, in a larger engagement I will determine what I want each platoon to do first and then figure out how to deploy each squad based on those objectives and in a huge scenario I will determine what I want each Company to do, then each platoon, then each squad. And while I notice beat up squads when I am giving them orders, in a huge scenario I can't remember if those casualties happened this turn or not. So I would like a casualty counter for the larger scenarios so I would know to "drill down" the chain of command while watching a replay. [ November 28, 2006, 11:22 AM: Message edited by: Rocket-Man ]

I am in the US and can't even load the page, so my guess is that it is down again.