A Canadian Cat

One thing you can do is use Paint.Net which has a Photoshop plug in. It does not perform as well as Photoshop and does not have support for folders in the layers view but for smallish files or just converting to BMP it will do the job.

Interesting defect then.

Oh good to know. Did the mod warehouse version get updated as well?

Yes, I agree with you focusing on the learning curve and finding ways to help people along it. Any of those ideas are steps in the right direction and a good thing. In my opinion though, to really help, there needs to be a tutorial that leads people by the hand through a simple scenario as part of the demo. You want people to download the game and spend some time going though the tutorial and then playing a scenario. There can be more tutorial content in the shipping game and on sites like Bill's too - more is good.

I am sorry to say but this really seems more focused towards "please bring back what CM1x had" and not "here are some ideas to make introducing the game easier" I have a friend I am currently working with to get him up to speed in playing CM2x. He was a regular player of ASL and CM1x. He is having real problems getting into CM2x. But honestly his problems would not be solved by anything on your list. Not one. His problems are around how do I maneuver my men so that they don't get spotted first. How do I find the enemy? If I ever do find them how do I overpower and kill them? In short his tactics were not really where he thought they were because the spotting and firing mechanism in CM1x were so much simpler and less realistic. What he needs is good tactical tutorials that combine instructions on how to use the game commands to execute those good tactics. I personally think that something like what Bill is working on is a great starting point: http://battledrill.blogspot.ca/2013/08/combat-mission-tactical-problems-cmtp.html If there were several of these included with the game that would help but even better would be an automated system in the game itself to guide the user through what commands to use to accomplish a task. Yes, following the tutorials in the manual help. To ease the introduction of new players though these need to be "in game" tutorials. I think that if there were even one or two in game automatic guided tutorials and two or three of the independent study problems like what Bill has produced included with the game that would go a long long way to helping new users get into the game without being put off. That is where any effort to improve the experience for new players should be spent IMHO.

That I agree with figuring out the enemy's plans with incomplete information is loads of fun. What does that even mean? You want some kind of number next to the icon? When I select a unit and see the weapons in the list I an idea of the fire power available to the unit. Five rifles has more fire power than a unit with only two but less than one with and LMG and four rifles. Are you just saying you want some indication from looking at the icon? The other problem is firepower vs what? Other infantry that's one thing. Against armour that is quite another. So how does a bazooka factor into the fire power? My point is this is contextual as in, right now I am trying to deal with an enemy tank which infantry unit(s) should I be considering. Some fire power number is not going to help me and frankly might be more intimidating for a new gamer than helpful. Again what does that even mean? You want some number next to the icon again? What will that number be? If most of my men (but not all) are behind a wall with regard to one enemy contact but not another (flanked) what number should I see? You are much better off looking at things from that unit's perspective and see if the men in the squad are in cover or not. That is visible when you select the unit. Are you asking for this to be displayed next to the unit icon? I like the idea of the fading line but I am not sure about the line from every man. I worry that the line from ever man would be to cluttered. It is the only way to make the fading with range work because you need a different fade distance for the SMG, squad LMG and rifles. This had been discussed before and it just not reasonable information to have. No soldier or squad leader could know this. The might have some vague idea of if their weapon had any chance of killing the enemy vehicle but no percentage chance. Ah, look where they are standing - note that a large number of instances your squad is *not* standing in one type of terrain. That would be awesome. I really wish we could get this. That way we could avoid the "surprise your tank cannot fit between those two obstacles and therefore the TacAI is going to drive off in this ridiculous direction and get everyone killed" problem. I would even be happy to have this happen only on request and not for every way point. Yuck those command lines were just too much clutter. Sounds cool. We do have audio notices that things are spotted and it is useful when you hear you men say "enemy armour spotted". I am not sure if the direction information needs to be in the audio.

Read the section on AI scripting in this thread (or the PDF manual that shipped with 2.1) http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=110294 Basically the scenario has a authored plan that his chosen from the available plans at the start of the game. At that point the AI operational layer issues orders to its units just like you do. As the turn runs the AI "watches" just like you do and the TacAI controls the reaction of all the units in the game for both sides. Both your and the AI tank driving down the road will react using the same mechanism and either follow your orders successfully or give up and flee - or somewhere in between. At the next turn you and the AI issues orders again and repeat. Nope, it just keeps following its plan the best it can regardless of what is happening around it.

Could that just be a visual artifact due to the way video works? The longer copy of the muzzle break looks slightly ghostly.

Also note that your FO does not need to stay still after calling and before the spotting rounds start arriving either. I often move the FO into position make the call and then move them to a totally safe location near by and move them back into their observation location when the spotting rounds start or just before. This is only useful for arty with a long delay like some of the big caliber guns. If the mortar rounds are due in 3 or 4 minutes there is not much point.

Yep that will work.

Actually he is carrying 12 rounds. See the line "45mm HE 12" to the left of centre. That is the list of what the selected team is actually carrying. The Ammo line on the right is the amount of ammo that the team has access to and includes any ammo on his fallen comrades and any other mortar teams from his platoon near by. When me moves he will take the 12 rounds he has on him with him. Any rounds that might be on the ground are only accessible when a mortar team from the platoon is near the fallen men.

Thanks to JonS and his excellent guide I have AI plans for the Italians pretty much working and one graphic left to create. This will be playable as US against the AI. I would like a couple of play testers if possible. Send me a PM if you are interested.

Well thanks for that. Perhaps I am a dumb SOB but this is the first example of even remotely reasonable use that still indicates a problem. Every other example was "I drove HT 100m away from the enemy" or "when my HTs are up with my front line troops". Hence my comment about people expecting terminator like behaviour. If we can create some tests that show this problem then we have something to talk about.

Wow, that is pretty dramatic. Can someone from the test team chime in here. I bet this defect will have an interesting story behind it. Seriously! Sounds like a bug. Still doesn't excuse people from driving their HTs around the battle field expecting terminator like effects.

Thanks for the kind words. Not quite over yet but my opponent is being very slow. I need to poke him in real life to get him going again.

LOL indeed. I wrote that with out Word so no grammar squiggly line to save me.

It does look a bit scary doesn't it. It is not but writing it up makes it look kind of scary.

I am sure there are as many methods as there people writing them and no doubt you will make up your own system. Since you asked here is what I do. A bit of setup: MS Word to do the write up. I suck as spelling so I need the support and it allows me to edit and change. Paint.NET for editing the graphics. I do own Photoshop but that sucker is a beast for screen shots Paint.NET is up to the job. FRAPs to capture the screen shots. I try to take the detail action shots at camera level 1 or 2 and with the icons off and the trees on. Setup a directory structure with a top level folder XYZ AAR this directory contains the unprocessed screen captures from turns that have not been written up yet and the Word document. It will also contain any additional graphic files I might need. A sub folder named pictures which contains the produced pictures that will be used in the post. A script that lives in the pictures sub directory that when run creates a file containing a list of all pictures and string to use in front and at the end of each to create an image tag for the post. FireFTP in my Fire fox browser to upload the pictures to my web site's file system. The script looks like this: dir /B /-N > files.txt echo [IMG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/ >> files.txt echo [/IMG] >> files.txt call notepad files.txt And produces this: 736Minute051-050-MovedAway.jpg 737Minute051-050-FoundTarget.jpg 738Minute051-050-Grenades.jpg 739Minute051-050-Grenades.jpg 740Minute051-050-Grenades.jpg 741Minute051-050-TakeOutTheCrew.jpg 742Minute051-050-MoreTDHavoc.jpg files.txt updatefilelist.cmd [IMG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/ [/IMG] After each turn I spend a bit of time copy and pasting those image tags to get a file that looks like this (currently I do this manually but really it would be good to automate this - note the extra space between the I and the M is to prevent the image limitation script from triggering they are not really in any of my files): [I MG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/737Minute051-050-FoundTarget.jpg[/IMG] [I MG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/738Minute051-050-Grenades.jpg[/IMG] [I MG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/739Minute051-050-Grenades.jpg[/IMG] [I MG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/740Minute051-050-Grenades.jpg[/IMG] [I MG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/741Minute051-050-TakeOutTheCrew.jpg[/IMG] [I MG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/742Minute051-050-MoreTDHavoc.jpg[/IMG] files.txt updatefilelist.cmd [IMG]http://www.lesliesoftware.com/forforumposts/EpicBattleAAR/ [/IMG] To write up the turn: Play the turn capturing images as I see fit Copy the newly captured images from the FRAPs directory to the XYZ AAR directory Delete any duplicate or un needed captures Rename the captured images using a format <number><turn><short description>. You can see examples above. Open them all in Paint.NET and crop and tweak. This would be when to add text or arrows to a screen shot. I resize them to 1000 pixels on the long side and save them as jpg files into the pictures sub folder. Drag and drop the images into the Word document for the write up Put a caption on each pictures that corresponds to its <number>. This is important because when you paste the word text into the post text box the pictures in word will be represented by these captions. Write up my turn around the pictures as needed. Edit, proof read etc. Fire up my FTP client and copy the new pictures from the pictures sub folder to my web site's AAR directory Run the file list script and edit the file to contain a list of properly formed image tags for each picture. Copy and paste the turn write up into the new forum post Replace the <number> lines in the post with the fully formed image tags that are ready in the picture file. Press the Submit button Wow, like you the feels complex after writing it down. I don't find that it is and the important thing is it has become routine.

True but that does not prevent you from giving the tank a target order. It sounded like @Lt Bull was saying that when in this state he cannot issue a target order for the vehicle either.

Correct modules aside the two versions of the game being used have to match.

Yes, that would be nice.

That would be really nice. Sounds like a good idea too.

OK I must be thick because you guys are not talking about anything new or I am missing something big right in front of my nose. You can do all that right now. How is default of a non zero pause going to help me? I do not set pauses at way points in the majority of cases so this would actually slow me down if I had to clear them all a I set my way points. Help me out guys. I am not seeing anything new here.

A request. Could you use the clock to indicate your turn. In stead of: Do this Minute 38-37 or similar. Using that format makes it much easier to synchronize the two AARs.

That half track - ouch! Oh, it is never good when your plan involves prayer. Remember the old saying the lord helps those who help themselves