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mjkerner

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Posts posted by mjkerner

  1. Right now, it's only going to cover Cassino Town, and Castle hill, for the 2nd NZ Division attacks in the Third Battle. We'll see how it goes, and then maybe I'll try the FEC/Indian Div/Polish Division attacks on the summit/Monastery. I think the latter one will actually be easier and look better, because I won't be going from "ground" level to 500+ meters, which so far looks not so good. I won't be going higher than Castle Hill because of that (so no Monastery; it's not needed for those battles anyway)--but rather I can start at a higher level and so the various heights will be relative to each other and will look better. If you happen to have CM Afghanistan, you'll know what I mean.

  2. I vote for the idea of allowing the active player to designate his own units as AI-only. I like being in large, battalion+ battles, but I reallly don't want to manage it all. One company is all I really want to manage, except it would be nice to override the same-side AI when a unit starts to act funky. Basically, the Matrix/Norbsoft Take Command game system, except that had very lousy AI.

  3. Scenario authors don't have to set support fire zones if they don't want to. (They're painted just like AI move zones.) Defender arty uses any arty that is left over after the prep bombardment on targets of opportunity (TOO), but I can't remember 1) if you have to have set a support fire zone(s) in order for the AI to use leftover arty on TOO, and 2) whether the arty will only fire on TOO in support fire zones. Oh hell....from the manual:

    Scenario designers can specify Support Targets for the Computer Player’s

    artillery and air support to use at the beginning of the scenario. Such artillery

    strikes represent preplanned bombardments for a side controlled by a

    Computer Player. If a Human player is in control of a side the designer’s

    assigned Support Targets are simply ignored.

    When Support Targets are specified, all Artillery and Air Support Assets allocated

    to that side’s force are considered available for the AI to use. The only

    requirement is that a valid spotter have line of sight (LOS) to the designated

    target(s) in order to initiate the strike. All normal support rules apply such

    as C2 links, delay times, etc. Artillery and Air Support Assets not used against

    the Support Targets are available for the AI to use during the regular course

    of the battle.

    Up to 20 independent Support Targets can be designated. Simply select a target

    number and paint the zone to be fired at in the 2D map. Zones can be any

    size, contiguous or disjointed, though practically speaking it is best to keep

    in mind the actual amount of assets available. If one target zone covers half

    of the map, but the side only has a battery of two measly 82mm mortars

    available that are low on ammo, don’t expect an earth shattering map-covering

    artillery strike. Instead, it is more likely that the AI spotter will randomly

    pick one place out of the entire zone and pound it until the mortars are

    empty.

    Each target can be assigned one of three possible missions. These determine

    the intensity and duration of the strike:

    Destroy – heavy intensity, long duration. Issue this type to cause maximum

    damage. Available assets, ammo, and size of the target area are especially

    critical here. A couple of 60mm mortars aren’t going to level a city block, for

    example, but 4 batteries of 155mm Howitzers certainly can!

    Damage – medium intensity, medium duration. Good for a quick, devastating

    shock to a particular area Good balance between ammo conservation and

    damage.

    Suppress – low intensity, short duration. This is best used for harassing fire or

    to pin an enemy force down to allow friendly on map units take advantage of

    the situation.

    Preplanned strikes arrive at the beginning of a scenario, but not always immediately

    in the first few seconds. Normal C2 delays apply. Each target is

    attacked in order, and if multiple assets are available, several targets can be

    attacked simultaneously.

    Any support assets that are not used up for the pre-planned bombardments are

    available for the AI Player to use dynamically during the battle as long as it

    has what it needs to call in a strike (e.g. proper spotter, adequate communications

    links, etc.). In other words, the AI Player is bound by the same rules

    as the Human Player, as explained in various sections of this manual.

  4. Fuser, Huberderie was a brilliant scenario. I was amazed at the inability to get eyes on any target before they had them on me. Devious, simply devious. I couldn't get a victory no matter what I tried. I actually went in the editor and modified the US TO&E to add a pioneer squad and a battery of 4.2" mortars. Still was shot up as hell when it was all over!

    Gotta love it!

  5. sdp, I started on a map of the Castle Hill/Cassino Town area for putting together scenarios for the 3rd Battle of Cassino, using Google Earth, a map pack I got from you somehow [i don't recall if you sent it to me or I downloaded it from somewhere] and other maps from an exhaustive web search. It's about 1800m x 1800m. I hope it will be done by the time the Commonwealth module is out. (I will be using thousands of rubble flavor objects, I imagine! A real pain to push around action spots!)

    P.S. Anyone know if there is a way to change the grass green area that surrounds the CMBN maps? I thought it was "Distant Ground" texture but no joy when I "Italicize" it for sdp's mod. I can't seem to find the texture for it, or is it a imbedded code thing?

  6. permanent666, What a lot of work you must have put intothis! I can't wait to hit the beach tonight...plus, I'll be hitting Anzio as well (sdp just released his Italian Mod). A great weekend ahead!

    P.S., no one has commented on it, but I reversed the 29th patch by accident. You have to flip and mirror it before you place it onto the uniform bmp...I forgot to mirror it. Anyhoo, I'll fix that (and re-do all the patches soon) using EZ's uniform/face mods that he released to the community last week.

  7. Great timing, sdp. I'm just leaving work for home, so I have all weekend to devour this. It looks great from the screenies, and I know it had to be an enormous amount of work!

    Thanks for the endorsement of my patches mod, but I am going to re-do it using EZ's excellent US uniform/face mods. I should have them done by tomorrow.

    I will start working on some scenarios for this, too.

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