Sandokan

I recommend using a 3rd party image hosting site, such as imgur.com. Upload the screenshot there, then copy and paste the screenshot link into your forum post. It will automatically embed and there is no size limit to worry about.

The other day I uploaded my old "Allah's Army" sound mod for SF & SF2. It's been long locked away in the Repos, so I figured I'd give new people access to it on CMMODs. Well, in the readme I wrote this: "This my old SF1 mod of insurgent fighters screaming Allahu Akbars and other phrases. They are edited and numbered so to be heard throughout various situations and orders. As SF1 and 2 do not have Syrian voice files for vehicle hits (like the other titles) I had to make due. There should be enough sprinkled among the voice files to increase the ambience and add some flavor to your experience." Which meant that the mod was and had always been a compromise on what I was aiming for vs the reality of what the game would allow me to do. I bent it the best I could to fit my vision.
So, anyway I'd noticed, that NO country had the vehicle hit voice files in SF. However, those files were in every game since BN, including SF II. I have a tendency to go in forty different directions when I am dicking with mods, so, I scribbled a quick note in my modding note pad, "Check and see if Syrian sounds were implemented".  A few days went by and I decided to take up my note's challenge. So, I took all the US "hit" folders, copied them over and then renamed all the files to their Syrian counterparts (that way if they worked I'd hear American voices coming from Syrians and there'd be no mistakes). I created a bunch of silent vehicle files so I'd have a nice quiet map, and then set up a test. Below takes place after my tests.
My hunch was that BF implemented the files for the US, Brits, and NATO (minus the Dutch) because these files have been in existence since CMBO. Not having any Arabic speakers on hand they just couldn't make anything new for the Syrians. I thought maybe the code was still there though, all it needed was something to point to. HOT DAMN. I WAS RIGHT!!! I am going to redo the Allah's Army mod for SF II shortly. As you can see from the vid, the mod FINALLY works in the way I'd originally intended. Almost ten years and my artistic vision comes to fruition! I am BEYOND STOKED!
ALLAHU AKBAR!!!!!
 
Mord.

 

I believe in real life when a possible mine field has been located the engineers are summoned in to scout out the size of it by marking off the entire perimeter, then they'd lightly fence it off as best they can, depending, on how hot the zone is, the colder the action the more time they have to fence it off and put up all those warning signs we had to memorize in advanced infantry training, Mines, NBC, Gas, un-exploded ordinance, etc... the clearing of mines would happen when the action was no where near it.

@MOS:96B2P
It was an AP mine and I was commanding an FV-432 variant so no dramas but the point remains valid - that lane was as cleared as cleared gets but there were still mines there. The point is not how lucky I am but player expectation regarding mines. So getting back to the 'Mark Mines' command and how it works and is it bugged - I don't think so.

Marking mines only helps infantry to navigate the marked minefield.  Marking mines does nothing for vehicles. 
 
Yes.  But except in some of the WW2 titles (with flail vehicles) engineers don't clear mines.  Engineers don't neutralize mines @MikeyD.  They Mark mines as the command in the user interface reads.  The mines are marked so a carefully moving troop can step around them on his way across the minefield.  If he is not careful and tries to Fast or Quick across the marked minefield his chances of stepping where he should not is increased.  Of course vehicles are not agile enough to step (drive) around the marked mines in a minefield.  
So, outside of some desperate situation, do not intentionally drive vehicles into marked or unmarked minefields.   
IEDs are a different topic and can't be Marked in any case.  

The engineers, in the game, can only locate (red flag) and mark mines (yellow flag). Mines can only be removed by destruction (green flag), I've been told that, in game, the arty shells of 150mm and up are the only way to remove (destroy) them.
I did some sandbox testing with different variant's in locating, marking and destroying mines.
The Engineer ,elite, fanatic and +2 leaders worked the best, they crawled all day long through my saturated minefields and not one of them set off any mines as they wormed their way through them. When a mine was located it took less then a single wego turn to mark the red flags to yellow.
(Crack, Veteran, Regular and Green troops took longer times to find them and even longer times to mark them. Crack troops longer than elite troops, veteran troops longer than crack troops, etc....etc...)
 Also, not one of my Elite troops set off any mines going into and out of a mine field, as long as they were crawling, even a normal walk command leaving the marked field didn't set off any known mines, however, giving them the quick command some of them would step on a marked mine.
(Just as above, the lesser troops set off mines no matter how careful they were trying to navigate around them, they also found less mines than their next higher rank)
In all my testing not even the best of the best found every mine I placed, there was always one or two unknown mines left behind at the games end. Trust me, when, I say, the mines were not located because no troops were anywhere near them, hell, those mines had been squirmed across so many times I still find it hard to believe they weren't found, or ,worse yet, set off.
Also, Artillery barrages of 82mm mortars, 120mm mortars, 105mm field guns never turned those yellow flags to green, even the direct strike precision ammo failed to destroy them.              (I used the Red Sea Sand box along with the SF2 sand box looking for conformity amongst the two era related games that use the same 4.0 game engine)
However, when using the 155mm field guns, I started seeing the yellow flags of marked mines turn into the green flags of cleared mines. Now..., don't get your hopes up thinking your heavy based arty will clear out a mined choke point, in my simulation, I used a field of 11 anti-personnel mines, 2 rows of 4 mines and 1 row of 3 mines, side by side, in the shape of a small square. I then used a battery of 6 155mm field guns, with a fully stocked ammo supply, to pummel the dense area.
With all that firepower, I put into that small patch of land, only, 2 of the 11 plots, of yellow flag marked mines, turned into 2 plots of, green flag, cleared mines.
I, also, think the quality of your troops and the vehicle's drivers determine the final outcome to, find, mark and navigate, safely, through, or, skirt around, the mine field, once it has been properly identified by your engineers.

Hey everyone,
I've attached a link to a QB map I am working on for Black Sea.  It is for company sized urban infantry battles.  Also there is a link to a google drive folder that I will update as I go along.  Should make it easy for anyone to see how its going, and avoid the file upload size limits of the forums.   Upon completion of this I would like to try my hand at AI plans to make this into a scenario.
So far, I have mostly completed the construction of the 2 main objectives and some of the areas surrounding them  The buildings have all of their interior connections so infantry can make their way through as needed.  I have taken some creative privilege with the objective buildings and a few other things so far.  Mainly with placement of the government center to be more inline with the police station towards the middle between the two deployment zones.  The other was the omission of the large building on the eastern side of the map in the attached image.  This is a huge basketball court complex I just can't see a reason to include.   I will either sub it out with a smaller building or turn it into some wooded terrain.   If anyone has other ideas on that I am open to them. 
Also made it to changing some of the elevations before placing buildings, had to fidget with it a little after placement, but so far it looks good and at least is similar to how the land lays in real life. 
My plan for the middle of the map, where it gets quite congested, is to omit a few of those buildings, creating some extra alley ways for maneuver.  Maybe creating groups of 2 or 3 buildings with some room in between.  Both sides will have covered approaches to one of the objectives via wooded areas.  I'm hoping this creates a need for the middle to be fought over in H2H if someone were to give that a go.
Deployment zones have been placed north and south.  This was mostly just me checking out placing them. Will probably move them to the NE and SW corners, mostly to force the issue of controlling the middle for direct approach to the objective furthest from either sides deployment zone.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1scLEy00dDlNoxBER9JTOUtDrVDe9xala
Thanks to everyone who gave pointers and links to useful reference materials, there is so much out there it is almost overload.  I'm gonna keep truckin on this.

I don't know what browser your using but this is standard for US military sites. You should have an option to continue to the site with the inevitable not recommended caveat. From there just click on the relevant button to go on to the site.
I use Edge and if I look at the message I get the option to click on 'Details'. Once I click that, it tells me this:
  This site is not secure
  This might mean that someone’s trying to fool you or steal any info you send to the server. You should close this site immediately.
       Go to your Start page Details Your PC doesn’t trust this website’s security certificate.
Error Code: DLG_FLAGS_INVALID_CA
 
 
Go on to the webpage (Not recommended)
I then just click 'Go on to the webpage'.
In my experience you'll get this every time you navigate to a different page on the site which is irritating but ultimately workable.
 
 
 
 

A nicely framed shot. A this point the squad is practically out of 5.56 so the leader has pulled out his sidearm.

Good news for you Dutch armor fans, an improved texture for CV9035 just slipped in under the wire. MUCH better looking than the original CMSF1 texture, and better looking than the texture in the game a week ago.
 

Alamo. Some real close combat.

I know that with BFC a thing is ready when is ready, not a moment before. So I'm not here to complain and, anyway, I'm pretty busy enjoying the demo but, I also think it's high time to change this line "The obvious question out there is "when will CMSF2 ship?" We're aiming for no later than the end of September." ion the main page. It could be misleading for people checking the site only every now and then. 

Every scenario has had work done to it. The better scenarios may have been little-altered (because they started out good). The worse (I call them 'first generation') scenarios have been really REALLY changed, to the point where a few of my least favorite older scenarios are now my most favorite! One scenario in particular, the AI orders went from a single group 'assault' command into the map center to now playing with ALL the AI gizmos. Orchestrating unit movements, AI area fire commands, retreat commands, triggers, reworked victory conditions, expanded and updated terrain maps, adding AA assets and fortification items, proper AI orders for both sides, etc. Just because you recognize the name of a CMSF2 scenario doesn't mean you've played it before.

Boys and girls of NATO engineers!

Just to let you guys know I have updated the sites to now accommodate uploads for CMSF2.
As usual any problems tag me here and I will reply ASAP.
Bootie

My experience comes from being a CV9030 gunner.
 
Let us start with a very real live example. CV9030 company is moving along a road surrounded by dense forest. Enemy contact is possible but not imminent. The company is "traveling" so mounted and expected to move somewhat quickly. Leading CV9030 is moving slow enough to be 100% ready to open fire instantly, the gunner is constantly "pre-aimed" to the next corner on the road ext. and the gunner will engage on his own initiative.
So let us say a meeting engagement happens. What happens in the lead tank?
- Gunner sees the enemy AFV and opens fire.
- Commander knows without words what is happening (gunner shooting + direction the gun is pointed) and acts out his part of the script. Says to the intercom: "reverse, fast!" and flips a switch that pops smoke. Gunner gives a report as fast as he can while/after shooting: "IFV, destroyed"
- Commander informs the platoon/company radio shortly: "contact, heavy" (heavy meaning mechanized force) Also sometimes lead tank intercom is directly connected to platoon radio so the information is as fast as possible and if the lead tank is lost the information is not.
- Commander gives the driver instruction on the reversing (left, right, hard left...)
- Commander and driver have packed up a short distance to the side of the road and the commander gives "dismount, left" order for the dismounts. Same time more information to platoon/company radio.

Just seen this: http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-shock-force-2/

Currently after a battle ends you can see how many casualties each unit has caused by selecting a unit.
In game's final AAR screen there are other summary stats like how many vehicles have been destroyed.
I thought it would be interesting to see on this AAR screen if there were casualties from friendly fire.
Some examples where such casualties could happen:
- your infantry being in some area when it is hit by artillery strike or air support.
- If your units trigger a mine that YOU have placed during setup phase.
- Your tank shoots at buildings or area where your infantry happens to be.

Amphibious vehicles!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good to hear its working as intended!
The key to being successful in this is doing effective combat recce and making good use of the undulating terrain If you can unmask/spot enemy AT assets you can then neutralise them more effectively. Despite the name its a scenario to play cautiously, slowly and carefully. 
Good luck with your next playthrough.
Cheery! 

Morning guys,
once, somebody in this forum said that when you play the same scenario for the third time you should be as good as Patton.
Well, this Patton completed the Rolling thunder scenario yesterday for the third time scoring a minor defeat. Which is, anyway, better than the two previous total defeats.
This apart, is one of the more entertaining scenario I've ever played. The fact is in the demo is a kind of bonus,  I say.
So, for everybody who hasn't still tried the this demo, download it now! You wont regret it.
Ps. I publish this here because I presume people checking the CMBS forum knows this already.
PPS. Guys like me, used with CMSF, beware! CMBS batttle environment is a lot deadlier.

Not unlikely at all, Emrys was a camp follower in the First Crusade. 

For nigh on ten years now my biggest projects have always been my portrait mods. I have invested weeks and months on end, that have added up to hundreds and hundreds of hours of time and frustration creating them. I have made easily over ten thousand portraits, through trial and error, redesign, and updates. It's been a true struggle at times, and I am never happy with the outcome, though I'll say I am, once a project is complete. But I am always fighting the design decisions I started with way back in SF1 and it's hamstrung me artistically. After the FB portraits I decided I wanted to redo all the portraits for all the titles (the BN mod is long over do for an update) . So, after a long hiatus, I set about trying to get to someplace that would finally make me happy. I decided to start with RT to get ahead of the module release, and after a week or so of fiddling, resizing, making test bmps, and checking in game, this is what I came up with.

For about two seconds I thought they looked good. But once again I was confronted by the poor design decisions I adopted all those years ago. You see, I have been in a constant fight with what I term the "bobble head effect", which causes the portrait heads to appear bulbous and fat-headed. It occurs because I opted to show each portrait with a split face on the bmp. It has been my bane since my BN mod and it frustrates me to no end. And considering how I built each face from screenshots, pieces of faces from all sorts of pictures, and the fact I only worked on the left side of the face, well it doesn't leave me room for presenting them in any other way. And On top of all that, I have always felt there was inconsistency in the quality of the faces, and that they appeared too cartoony.  So with that said, I am putting these portrait mods to rest. I have taken them as far as they will go and they have reached a dead end. They had a good run but there really isn't anything more I can do to improve them.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Now, check out what I have been doing for the last two weeks and tell me I didn't make the right decision...



Now for some comparisons of the old style and the new.


 
Now the portraits in the context of their own mod. It'll give you an idea of the overall design.


 
And within the context of the game UI.


 
Some of the portraits are tentative/place holders until I find something that really blows me away. Or will be replaced later. The Heer Armor and Armor Infantry come to mind as far as that goes. Luckily I haven't made anything yet with them, just tests.
Now, unfortunately I will probably have to share a lot of the portraits (mostly Germans) across games, however backgrounds and the like will be changed for each setting.  And I will of course do all the battalions and regiments etc. Whether or not I will be able to keep the quality across titles remains to be seen but I will do my best. It is going to be a colossal amount of work, already has been. For the Germans alone I have created and discarded over a thousand portraits. LOL. Every time I think I have one down and start producing keepers, I stumble across a better pic, or I adjust some color to better fit the portrait into the overall look and I have to redo a ton of work. I just replaced the Heer Infantry yesterday, now I have to redo 374 that I had already made, as well as the SS Arm Infantry. I have done this a couple times already. But getting it right is what's most important. Perfection is what I am aiming for.
I don't know how long it will take. Getting the right pics is painstaking and laborious as hell. For every good one I make I throw out five. But this style will be the definitive version of my portrait mods from here on out. As I complete them I will remove the old versions from the planet. I'll start threads in the corresponding game forums as I progress.
Welp, that's about it. I was gonna keep all this to myself and wait to surprise everyone, but I have been working in a vacuum for a month and it feels good to talk a little bit about it. Especially as I have been going full bore, night and day for two weeks straight. I Hope you guys like what you see. I think it's the best work I have ever done.

Mord.