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    CMSF2 - UK-Germany Beta AAR

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 2

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    3 hours ago, Fat Dave said:

    Couldn't agree more. RPGs are the force multiplier.

    I'm currently reading 'Ripcord - Screaming Eagles under siege, Vietnam 1970' and in most (if not all) US infantry encounters with regular NVA units, RPGs appear responsible for most of the casualties. Volley fire was also regularly used. Try to imagine the effect of 10 or more  RPGs all fired off 'en-masse' at a static hilltop US position. Talk about pocket artillery - how about a portable GRAD jungle strike? 😁

    Can you point out a page or a quote in the book that says that most infantry casualties were caused by RPG´s?

     

     

    While SF´s RPG-7, especially its anti-personnel fragmentation rounds used by Syrian and insurgent troops is a deadly factor.

    Many Coalition players even multiply this by not being aware that "dedicated" AT weapons like the AT4 or SMAW are only used against infantry when using a "TARGET" command while Syrian or Insurgent troops launch their additional fragmentation RPG rounds automatically. That is at least my observation in the newest version of SF, if I remember correctly this was not the case in older versions which was really annoying often and I think Battlefront´s current solution here is perfect, especially if you want to safe your AT ammunitions for real tank threats.

    However a AT4 or SMAW can also cause a lot of trouble, especially against enemy infantry in enclosed space like shown in the screenshot, so keep the option in mind to use them with the target command.     

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    How much do you roleplay?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    6 hours ago, Kaunitz said:

    One thing which nobody has mentioned yet is treating the wounded. I've been reading quite a few accounts of Vietnam warfare (which admittedly is different from WWII). But getting the wounded off the battlefield was a major concern. In Combat Mission, I have to admit that I rarely wait for buddy aid (aka "kneel if you want to share your buddy's fate") to be finished, or even move up vehicles to pretend they carry away the wounded (well most of the times it's simply too dangerous).

    We commit a lot of resources (smoke, diverting vehicles to cover, helping hands) to attend the wounded even when it may endanger mission objectives no matter how much time is left on the mission. If I would be forced to choose get the wounded or an additional objective I probably would decide for the first. Thats what I would also do in reality. We even "waste" precious time to secure reported dead (dark red) casualties for roleplay reasons.

    Long ago somebody proposed to have the option to give first aid to enemy combatants for roleplay reasons. Don´t know if this comes with issues coding-wise but really great idea nevertheless. Some may think this doesn´t happen and while I have no exact idea how often this was seen in WW2 -mid combat -, on a modern battlefield like for example potrayed in Shock Force this happens more often than you think.

    But to sum up our CM philosophy,  Erwin nailed it pretty much on point with following statement:

    15 hours ago, Erwin said:

    I definitely play like there are real human lives at stake and am always asking myself what would I do in a given situation, or what can one reasonably expect from the "guys".

     

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    How much do you roleplay?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    I also try to avoid certain tactics like  map edge hogging or specific exploits like for example spraying unspotted enemy AI vehicles with MG area fire in order to trigger a retreat reaction.

    I also try to use every asset and unit for its intended role and job i. e. recon units for localizing and screening enemy units. Also try to keep units like platoons together and relieve units that suffered. Keeping C2 intact is also important for me. Really enjoy the fact that CM awards you for most of these considerations.

    However sometimes time limits or mission goals force me to utilize every resource available. A situation a real commander could also face.

    What I also don´t do is things like sacrifcing units in a unrealistic way. 

    When playing multiplayer with my colleagues nobody gives a damn about "competitiveness". We play serious and fight hard but primarly we do it in order to experience "realistic fun". We don´t have a problem to play asymmetric scenarios or self-planned campaigns where one is pitted against an opponent´s superior force. We often define for ourselves how to interpret the scenario outcome.

    We also never use cheap tactics like baiting long range weapons, "sound whoring" for fences, or holding objectives with shaken canteen truck drivers just in order to score a win.     

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    Do Schtora and APS beneftit close-by tanks?

    in Combat Mission Black Sea

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    Well the trick is with an active transmitting radar on the target you may not need your own radar to pick up its position, just a passive radar receiver, that is exactly how anti radiation missiles these days work which are designed to knock out AA radars. The missile´s sensor head picks up the radar´s emission, at best the pilot invests further time to allow for a better target solution, next you launch the missile and it homes onto the enemy radar source, going fire-and-forget at some point, and hits without the target noticing in most cases. AA radars have also Radar-Warning-Receivers but these don´t react to these passive emission-guided weapons.  Although newer ARM´s often have an additional radar which is often used to pinpoint its terminal guidance. This also makes it possible to hit the target even when it goes dark i. e. switches of its active radar.

    To get back to topic, if it is really an effective way to combat tanks on basis of their APS emissions I can´t tell for sure but for now it looks like this has no priority. Sure it brings the huge possible advantage of engaging ground vehicles un-assisted beyond visible or IR range but at the moment combat aircraft nevertheless have complete superiority over tanks (when enemy SAM and Air threats are covered of course). A conventional optical/infared AGM (like Maverick or KH-29) needs a closer distance but can do the same job, probably cost less then an ARM, and can engage a bigger variety of targets with or without APS.

    However the ability to pick up these enemy APS emissions with passive radar receivers could come with a huge tactical advantage alone already for ground and air forces.

    But never say never when it comes to military technology, who knows, as this systems become continuous proliferated somebody may one day see reason to design specific weapons to exploit the radar emission of APS systems.

    1

    can not play these game any more?

    in Combat Mission: Shock Force Tech Support

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    Windows 10 Home here 1709 16299.431 running SF with all modules 1.32 and CMA 1.03 in admin modes (they´ll launch even without admin mode) with active avast without problems and no exceptions were needed. This machine went trough the same windows update cycles last year like yours.

    I just peeked at the rest of the comments so perhaps you already answered these:

    - what is the current error message

    - You mentioned a reinstall was attempted. Where on the hdd is it excactly installed with complete path?

    - You´re sure you´re running a correctly patched CMSF 1.32 and CMA 1.03? How many .brz files are in your data folders.

    - Did you try to kill off any background processes in the task manager that are not crucial for operating windows? I am also talking about can things like additional management software provided from your computer/hardware manufactures.

    - supplementary to the previous suggestion, did you check the software list if there is any unwanted installed?

    - is your value 1 or 0 for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\LoadAppInit_DLLs

    1

    A long delayed update

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    Some years ago I would be the first on the frontline to argue that BF should put his games on Steam. I always thought "this game is so great and unique, a lot more people have to know" which place is better suited than Steam, also would generate a lot of income (despite the 30% steam share).

    However in the meantime I changed my mind and aren´t sure about it anymore. I am not sure if BF were allowed to bring its License system to Steam, never saw such a system on a Steam game so I guess probably not.  So it would be basically protected by rudimentary Steam DRM which poses absolutely zero resistance to getting cracked in no time. Especially due to the perceived higher price in contrast to the casual games many may choose to go pirate which could then end devastating for business.

    Regarding the BF website getting updated... No offense the current website, especially the navigation elements look somewhat retro 90´style and I can imagine that it acts as an deterrent to some. Never undererstimate how extremely important the look of a website is for your (video game) online store. Glad to hear that they work on getting a new out soon.

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    CMFB Campaign: Fields of Tears

    in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    On 6/10/2018 at 4:54 PM, Silentotto41 said:

    Thanks guys. I did all of that and waited a good 15 minutes and still stuck at 70%. I've never had this problem before with any other download. 

     

    Here additional things that come to my mind sorted from "check first" to "unlikely".

    - how big is your .cam file in the documents folder? Mine is  9.60MB 10.070.951 bytes under file properities.

    - Did you ever install something on top of engine 4 (i.e. an patch)? Are there exactly 10 .brz files in your "Data folder"?

    - Did you remove ALL mods from Z folder and try if the campaign works? Keep in mind mods can be located in the "mods" folder in "Documents/Battlefront"  or in the "data/z" folder in your blitzkrieg game dir.  Remove all CUSTOM .cam files except this one.

    - try the ol but gold "launch as admin"

    - kill all background processes, overlays, whatever running in the background in the task manager, disable antivir... everything that is not cruicial to operate Windows and CM in order to test if the problem is there located.

    - set all ingame performance related settings on low, disable shaders, change high priority process

    - Do you have different hdd´s and partitions? If so, cut & paste the CM Blitzkrieg folder into another hdd/partition and see if a wonder happens.

    - did you ever tamper with windows pagefile settings? How big is your RAM? Does your windows partition AND the game partition have some free space left? (at least some GB)

    - test a windows 7 compatibilty mode

    - while the campaign loads check the combat mission process... Is it still causing hdd activity? 

    - check your device manager for any alerts and upgrade your common drivers (this is bs but I have no other ideas)

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    CMSF needs an active screenshot thread

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    17 hours ago, IanL said:

    I recently started using mogrify from ImageMagick (https://www.imagemagick.org) to script the cropping. I used to have to hand touch every image and now I just run a script that crops them.

    I typically rename my screen captures and then run this script:

    This is what I use for AARs where I have renamed all the files to follow the format GameName-01CoolsCaption.jpg or GameNameOrders-02WhatIamDoingNext.jpg

    This is run from a folder with the raw renamed images a directory named "final" for the images that will be uploaded and one named "originals" since I want to keep them at least for a while. The  mogrify (yeah crazy name) command can do several things at once "-path final" means the output of the operations goes to a sub folder; "-unsharp 0x2+0.2" slightly sharpens the images (they look better); "quality 70" means the .jpg files are saved with quality set to 70; "-crop 1815x880+0+32" means the compas and the order UI and the strip with the pause are cropped out; and finally "*GameNameOrders-*.jpg" selects the orders files for one cropping and "*GameName*.jpg" selects the other files for a different cropping.

    Have to try this, thanks.

    Sharpen also contributes a lot the game´s visual quality. Never seen a game profiting so much from it like the CM2 series.

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    What will the next CM be?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by MANoWAR.U51

    22 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

    That is almost exactly what I'm planning to do with CM:SF II.  ;)

    My story will be set in the backdrop to the war, Iran's first line of defence is Shia militias in Iraq & Syria, to counter these the US & allies arm & encourage the local Sunnis.....I'd imagine you can already guess where this is leading. 

    My hope is to use @LongLeftFlank's Ramadi map and the superior AI capabilities of the new engine to make some low level (no tank battalions to be seen) MOUT madness.....Big(ish) maps (I will slice & dice the original), small(ish) units, lots of sneaking around & lots of big explosions.

    PS - My assumption is that the US will be going it alone in Iran, after no proof of Syrian regime involvement in the 'Terrorist Attacks' that provoked the war was ever found (Hey don't blame me, I'm just following the historical precedent!  :P ), NATO units will be restricted to peacekeeping duties in Iraq & Syria (which will be fun for them).  :D

     

    Sounds like an outstanding idea, seeing a campaign like this would be awesome.

    I also noticed the detail you put into the briefing on that Golden Division scenario. While I understand that it is somewhat dangerous waters for an official game release to include real world factions like religious faiths (Sunnis, Shiites) as a custom scenario designer you have much more freedom to model such important aspects. Especially in such an environment it isn´t just about knowing and defeating your enemy anymore but about knowing the country and the population there. Some hard lessons were learned in the not very successful "hearts and minds" campaigns seen in AFG and Iraq and some may even argue that it contributed to the partial failure of these operations. Keep this good work up.

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