tarzan

I have had heavy and medium German mortar fire putting craters within nanometers of 37 mm flak Russian guns and they DON'T GET KILLED In my personal world I treat it as a 'Known Bug' and just use arty to suppress them while I kill them some other way. I flank them with a tank and blow them up point blank sometimes

Yup! - KURSK! - the 3 week version, haha BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Quoting Mord: 'If I watch a modern doc, I can jump in and game CMSF, read a book on Italy, I can expand upon it in CMFI. The more the better. It gives me all these options to explore military history over multiple mediums—a truly concrete interactive experience. Learning has never been more enjoyable and exciting' That's exactly my interest - therefore; 'very well said'. BINGO!

I loaded the file into the UPLOAD section at the Repository and went thru all the steps - it doesn't give me much feedback that it 'uploaded' successfully I guess the file is 'checked' by somebody before it will appear. If I can get it to appear after a while I'll post a note that there is a 'new file at the repository'

@agusto - It's a miracle! - it all worked! Thanks a lot - now I just have non-dog non-owl night sounds (just crickets and faraway guns) My problem, which you bridged me over, was that I had also tried to drag my whole unexploded 219mb file onto Movie Maker, which didn't want to take it. Once I was able to drag my post-RezExploded much smaller 15mb 'background combat night' file onto the Movie Maker - that was fine and it accepted it and I was able to trim/clip it. Do think I should try to post my trimmed 'No Dog No Owl - Crickets and Guns Only Night sounds' file up on the repository? - I sure wouldn't want to be the one giving anybody directions on how to use it hahahahah They might do better coming here and reading your directions. I'm probably the only one with the 'dog problem' anyway Thanks again for your patience with the 'illerati' Lance

PS Agusto - the SFX_1c had a file size of 219mb - that free online tool (audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-wav) only will convert files of 100mb or less for free - anything higher and they wanted me to pay. I had to get rid of the whole file instead of just the dog I might want to try to find some different free tool that will convert my 219mb file - I haven't looked around yet - but I have a copy of my original file in case I eventually find one and use your instructions to just cut the dog out Thanks for your detailed instructions - Hanzel and Gretel made it out of the forest this time without too many witches

Perfect, Agusto! That was the trouble - there was no 'input' folder in my 'RezExplode Folder' - I had been throwing my SFX_1c file right onto the 'RezExplode icon'. Successs! Thanks everybody - I found the dog in the SFX_1c and it is no more

@Zane /others Hey - thanks a lot for finding that 'Barking dog' - I'm kind of retarded with this and so far have only managed to find a SFX_1c (that's a 'c' instead of the 'e' you found - and I looked in every file and folder that's in my Data Folder) brz file in a file I had previously named 'Z Folder' within my Data Folder I'm stuck now getting the SFX_1c open to see if that's the one that has the dog - OK - so for the first time I read up on the RezExplode info in the 'Mod Tools Read-Me' file - looks easy - but darn if I haven't been able to use it successfully to open up my SFX_1c brz file yet. 1- I copy the SFX_1c brz file onto the RezExplode Icon, and within a few seconds a folder named 'exploded' appears, but damn if it's not completely empty. 2- I've tried it a number of times and it's as if the SFX_1c 219K brz file just disappeared into a black box RezExplode and doesn't want to give me anything out of it. Anyway - any helpful suggestions would be appreciated - I can't imagine the RezExplode Icon thingee 'doesn't actually work'. I checked out the CMBN FAQs/Knowledgebase etc and didn't see anything pertaining to mods It doesn't really sound like a HelpDesk ticket-type problem , either

Thanks Agusto, Vanir and all - I'll search thru those files

Does anybody know how to get rid of the sound file of the 'barking dog' in CMBN scenarios? I'm not sure if it the sound comes with the game as part of the background ambiance or what - there also is an owl that kind of makes it owl-hoots noise but I can live with the owl. The dog has got to go. This is unfortunate - I actually love dogs but usually end up with a husky mix that doesn't bark. I only have some of Mords Interactive voices and some gun sound mods installed so I think that file must come as standard with the game. Once again CM kind of proves it's realism - I bet the percentage of many 'enemy dogs' that get shot in war for barking all night was probably about 100% if someone could get a bead on them.

"Bil is continuing to fling shells at the bunker" Why not scram-say the men out of the bunker-hay? I would be long gone...

GaJ and Shooting the Elephant: To Target or Let the AI Target, that is my Question With the CMx2 engine I very frequently have a dilemma about whether to actually give the 'red line order to shoot' or to let the AI take the shot when it 'judges it wise', without my explicit order. It seems to me that 'forcing the shot' (if that actually even happens, if the AI even listens to my order, iow) is often not preferable - and I have resigned myself to letting the AI take the shot without the explicit order. [For all it know the AI ignores my 'explict order' and just takes the shot when it wants to anyway, with my order having had absolutely zero effect.] Deeper into my fantasy-land, if the AT gun had LOS to the Elephant but hadn't yet 'noticed' it yet, I will try to 'help out the AI spotting' and give a fairly tight cover arc because I (probably wrongly again) thinking this will somehow aid the AI in 'focusing' on that tight cover arc area. At least it gives me something to do, and I'm careful not to restrict myself if there are any other threats around, since the AI seems to know when I have created a target arc and they can shoot at me 'for free'. I labour under the fantasy that 'forcing the shot' is often counterproductive - and that letting the AI take the shot improves the outcome. I have no idea what is the actual reality about how the engine handles that. Does anyone want to definitively disabuse me/school me with a 'Yes or No' if a 'covered arc' 'improves spotting' at all (rather than just 'excluding firing' at unwanted targets?) Please put me out of my misery before I do it again.

@ASL Veteran - That's GREAT Nuevo Flamenco/Spanish guitar - thanks

In WEGO - I don't often use Hunt orders for either vehicles or infantry any more - my sense is their situational awareness is just too poor and I have been burned too many times. It often seems like Hunt is more like a Move order - strolling along until they have been shot at (often more than once) before they -oops- decide they're getting shot at In CMx1 I used to use Move to Contact in conjunction with a Hide order all the time - I loved that. Infantry would just drop and hide after the first bullet or two. In CMx2 my guys just keep walking along, start getting shot at and kind of stand there half scratching their rears while people the unit catches up etc while my heart/inner voice is screaming 'hit the deck!' - and then one of them just gets shot before they start 'cowering' or something. It's just too painful to watch over and over again - I've given up on it Now - where I would ordinarily like to 'Hunt' I will usually: 1- have Scouts or units 'Quicking ahead' to either cover, concealment, or an accompanying 'HIDE' order 2- then unhide them the next turn - so they can take a look around from an non-strolling position. So basically I QUICK-HIDE with circular cover arc-and-UNHIDE to substitute for 'HUNT'. Often times I 'see things' while 'up and Quicking' the last few yards or so - which is great. I don't trust Hunt and have had too many troops get shot when they seemed to be almost just 'Moving until Shot at several times' rather than 'Hunting' Same with vehicles - I scout better and have vehicles usually FAST to a safe place or a shooting position. I will HUNT a vehicle to try to fine-tune a hulldown position but I don't trust that very much either and put an end to my HUNT order where I think I will lose Hull Down

@ dieseltaylor "Tarzan - Angle is looking very interesting. V2.xx I assume?" Nope - this was prior to the upgrade. They were American units with automatic weapons and I could almost see the astonished looks on their faces as the HT just hosed them down and the unkillable usually sitting duck just sat their smiling while he was doing it. The American units were all within 75 to 100 yds out and the bullets were just bouncing off the fender and shield of the HT

I had an experience with a German half track that was pretty interesting - in a very hilly scenario my HT became immobilized just as it came to the top of a very steep San Francisco-like street. There were about 3 different enemy units in different houses at a pretty dramatic angle down and to the front of the HT with Thompsons and BARs all shooting at it - but finally this CMBN HT gunner had found his element and proceeded to hose those targets down one after another without even getting scared. He was shooting all of them 'down and to his front' and his little metal shield (in addition of the front of the immobilized vechicle itself) was FINALLY protecting him. Was I ever surprised to have an invincible HT gunner just going to town hosing them down with his MG and not even getting suppressed/worried let alone shot dead 10x over. It wuz beautiful

A few 20mm rounds or almost anything else on those Elephant tracks is all it's going to take to turn that Elephant into a dinosaur. I just checked out the 'Overhauling Tanks' cited above with the Elephant episode on YouTube at This was captured at Anzio and had been immobilized (and abandoned) after getting a 75 mm round on it's tracks. I think GaJ should take that sucker out just to show he can What's the point of having one if he can't use it - haha!

Man that map is hallucinogenic

When I heard 'war movie mode' I thought there was going to be a mechanism for a continuous 'replayable full battle length movie', rather than the one minute WEGO current replay. Then I could watch the whole darn 1 hr 100GB battle at once - haha

I love CM for taking my best laid plans and treating them to big can of Whoopass Reality - it seems so much like real-life in that regards. Gotta love it after the tears are over GaJ's tank is like the AI - the shot is in the air at the end of the turn and then there's the break for commerical. It reminds me of an old fashioned duel and your opponent took the first shot and you're gritting your teeth to see if you will ever have a chance to fire back, even it his shot hit's home but you're still alive

@Bimmer: "Consider it from the designer's point of view' Oops. I've never left any reviews on the 100s of the scenarios I've downloaded and certainly never have really considered it from the designers' point of view - thanks. Part of my problem may be that I never thought my input particularly valuable enough to clutter up the reviews with all these experts around - I've even had to restrain/stop myself at cheating at solitaire/the AI at certain points. I haven't really appreciated what a labor of love it must be to make a scenario. I'm guessing that some of them must take 24 hrs of solid working hours to create if not considerably more. It would be like making 5 Thanksgiving feasts-worth of time and only a couple of people even say thanks and then two people throw tomatoes as well. Everybody burps and enjoys them but not exactly much in the appreciation dept Thanks everybody for making these over the years - and I know I speak for plenty of people. Maybe if people thought of a really mindblowing scenario as worth - oh say 5 bucks - but that if you leave a review and thanks then the fee is courteously 'waived' and it's free. Nothing beats free... 'Gee - thanks for that free Thanksgiving dinner'.... "My pleasure - same time next year?" Hell, that sounds better than being a bum! And I'll go back and leave reviews for the CMFI scenarios 'Salito Sunrise' and 'Palma di Montechiaro' as part of my rehab program. Hopefully it's not too late in the game for that

great maps and lots of fun - these mountains really impressed me -wow- and the Troina-town fight at the end was a change of pace and a kicker. I kind of felt that I was in for the long haul on this one but I could kind of keep track of the strategy of it all (thanks to the maps, briefings and possibly because it was kind of straightforward)- that was a great part of this for me

@MEmrys - I do play QBs but have never gone into the editor to create my own scenarios (partially because that is kind off a spoiler for me - definitively learning how the AI 'thinks', haha, as if I don't already kind of know) - is the level of AI planning on a QB plan roughly equivalent to what a 3rd party-generated scenario might provide? I mean, in your opinion - will the AI (roughly) give as good a fight off a generic QB as off the generic 3rd party scenario? I liked your point about using different combinations of forces on the same QB map - I think I usually play the QB maps only once or at most twice from the other Allies/Axis side but not really with substantially different combos of forces to get more mileage out of a particularly good map. I'll have to remember that

Thanks - hopefully some of these creative geniuses can get on the ball and crank some out

Are QB Maps somehow substituting for what used to be large amounts of freshly 'community generated' 'Scenarios'? - I'm a little confused that there aren't more 'community generated' games in the Battlefront repository I'm really enjoying CMFI but I only see a couple of battles uploaded to the repository over the last several months - am I missing some source for scenarios that is located somewhere else than the official Battlefront repository? I've always enjoyed the contributions so many people have made so I can continue my bad merry habit of only playing scenarios against the AI not having to be bothered by 'other people' while doing it. I live in Tibet in a monastery and have a mystical power supply for my laptop So my question is - are QBs with their embedded AI action plans the 'new thing' vs all the creative new scenarios that people used to upload for CMBN, CMBB, CMBO, etc? (I used to go to 'Scenario Depot' and download a bunch of games sufficient to destroy large quantities of my lifetime left on earth) Did I miss some vast depot /treasure trove of CMFI games that are available? - I just finished playing all the CMFI official scenarios I see plus the couple that people have uploaded (Salito Sunrise and Palma-something) Thanks, Tarzan Namaste