A Canadian Cat

Continued.

OK I went and did some experimenting. Here is a scenario with four different prepared tank positions on each side one is T90s vs M1s and one is T90s vs Bradleys. Lot of fun even if it is not realistic. The idea was just to show how a tank position might be made using the editor. Prepaired Tank Positions.zip Here is a screen shot of one M1 just before it sustained mission kill damage. As you can see it has survived a few hits already. Here is the how they are made diagrams. I created four slightly different positions. One two AS wide - I think that one is too wide. One super long which I think looks silly but anyway you be the judge. The long ones can have a lower section that allows the tank to totally hide. During the battle when tanks withdraw after a laser warning they will stop when they reach cover. A few times the tank in the position with the extra low section actually stopped there and therefore stayed in the prepared position most of the time they actually retreated back below the hill. So, if you do create positions like these think about what tanks will do if they pop smoke and withdraw - do they have a safe place to go?

I use it in two instances. 1) when the vehicle almost reached its destination the turn before. I would rather cancel all the movement orders and dismount the passengers and let them finish their move on foot which allows the vehicle to get on the go right away. 2) if a vehicle with passengers comes under threat unexpectedly. I would rather get the passengers out and to cover if it suddenly becomes unsafe to be in the vehicle then you can have chance to get the vehicle out of harms way. So, not the most common need but good to have fun option occasionally.

Looking for fords: put the camera at level one and run the river. You will quickly see where the fords are and with a little experience and comparison spot the difference between shallow and deep fords. Of you can cross with infantry and see if they are up to their knees or their chest.

Not quite the whole picture. It is true you cannot have the vehicle move and drop off passengers and then move again. There is another choice though. You can have the passengers disembark and then the vehicle move. If you have a vehicle with no movement orders you can select the passengers and give them a dismount command and then movement orders. You can then give the vehicle movement orders too. The vehicle will then wait for the passengers to disembark and then it will move.

I personally don't want to see a charge here. Javelins are for tanks and IFVs.

Who gives a flying... what DRM system any title uses. It is not something that matters to us in the slightest. I have no idea what you are talking about sidelines for either they don't work on five things at once so some titles have to wait their turn. I suppose that games could wait on the sidelines, that could work.

Your best bet is to open a support ticket for ask your question about what patches you might or might not need for CMFI.

It sounds not bad to me from what you describe. The BMP3s have a commander's spot with additional visions equipment for the mounted squad commands. As for the M1 hitting stuff through forests... it depends how dense that forest is. Don't forget that trees on grass is like a park. Trees on light of dense forest is a like a forest. You can zip the scenario and any saves and attach them to a post here. Press the more posting options and you will get controls to attach stuff.

Concept, no one has seen an actual vehicle yet. Well not in public at least.

That is the way to look at it. I like your line "reality can have its glitches". That will serve you well.

Cool trick. Glad to hear that the new beta is better. I was afraid they were not going to fix it.

Good explanation there by @Kieme. I'll just add two things. As he said the actual ballistics are modeled and each round tracked. Also after a round penetrates the armor the damage done on the inside will vary with the amount of energy the penetrator has left. Also there appears to be some abstraction for damage to subsystems even though many things get damaged because they are in the path some other things might also get damaged too.

Well ideally we would not have links to all and sundry locations in our threads but instead use an as yet hypothetical revamped repository where you could just update the download and everyone would be guaranteed to get the latest and greatest. Now we just need that new repository...

Are you <several dozen attempts deleted because could be considered a personal attack> kidding? The AI in CM1 was, well a joke. OK perhaps that is a bit harsh - no, no it is. It always did the same plan and half the time the plan was not particularly good either. In a QB I suppose it could be made to work fairly well. But if you factor in a QB with more than one scripted plan available the scripted plan method smokes it. In a scenario it just cannot complete with the scripted AI we have right now. A scenario designer can create AI plans that take into account terrain features, objective priorities etc. and match the forces chosen for the AI groups. It is theoretically possible to create an autonomous AI that can do all these things but that is a crazy amount of work. If BFC spent a fraction of that work in adding new features to the current AI scripting (additional triggers if/then paths) plus some editor improvements, scenario authors could create an even better experience at a fraction of the cost of your fantasy AI. You are just dreaming and you are way off base. Spend your time convincing BFC to augment their existing script based AI. Since they actually want to go in that direction you will have more success.

No you hit me with that beaver - stop swinging it around. Well I am not very interested in being involved in the operational layer turn playing etc. But I am interested in playing the CM battles. However one at a time is enough for me since I have a fair number of PBEM games on the go most of the time. So, make use of me as you can if I am not already fighting something else I'll fight here.

Ouch.

I swear I read someone's post on how to create a dug in tank position but I cannot find it. More faulty memory - perhaps. But it could be done and LOS is calculated from the various vision ports / sensor arrays not from the centre of the object. And LOF is calculated from the gun too. So if you can use the terrain to get a tank into a hull down position relative to a kill zone then you can build a dug in position in the scenario editor too.

Great idea Al That would be one tough AI though - we would have people here complaining that they cannot win scenarios no matter how many times they play them.

Just noticed the red lettering around your avatar. Ooooo exciting stuff....

I guess the old TV show would have been the 2 million dollar man then Seem like this matches up with what Steve said recently on this subject. <editorializing removed on edit>

Nope, it has been requested before - along with being able to toggle crosses on and off. Both of which would be really helpful for screen shot and video takers.

That would be a great feature.

If you only had good luck the game would be no fun to play

I think you are quite correct but I am sure someone will be along to tell you you are wrong I think the AI trigger work is a step in the right direction. Right now it offers a lot to make the AI better. With additional enhancements to that feature the AI script can be made to behave in a much more human like way.