A Canadian Cat

There have been some discussion of this in the past you and other have touched on many of the same points - the target audience understands that paying a bit more for a game that we can play for a long time is worth it etc. So, right now we have a cadre of players who buy many or almost all of BFC's titles. There are slowly more people added to this group over time - e.g. yourself. The BFC team makes a decent living and they get to keep making games. Serious war gamers spread the word and more trickle to replace the few that do loose interest. If all goes well the market grows and they make more money. Otherwise they get to keep making these games as long as they want. Here is the summary of what BFC is afraid will happen: They reduce the price to get more players. But the players they attract really aren't war gamers and they don't get it. Bad reviews are spread (witness this review as a archetypical example of what could happen: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=110779). The game looses reputation because of all the poorly done reviews and they don`t get more customers because the non war gamer market does not buy even at the lower prices. Bad things happen to BFC`s business.

Well so far my plan is working perfectly. I know where the enemy is and they are wasting a smoke screen on an undefended position. Schumacher's scout team is reporting, by runner, that a smoke screen is forming to the North East of town. They will easily be able to see what comes through the smoke screen before with drawing to participate in the delaying action. Schmidt's scout team has spotted a light tank moving rapidly from the East towards the area of the smoke screen. At the moment it seem the assault will be coming from the North East. On the Nothern edge of town Reiser's team has reported sighting infantry but they are not sure how many and have no additional information at the moment. Here is the over all view showing the smoke screen and the spotted enemy units.

I have deployed my two platoons in Burton and am waiting for the assault to begin. This is the hardest part - waiting. Once the action starts we will have something else to concentrate on instead of thinking about our predicament. Intelligence indicates that the enemy will come from two directions and our options for retreating are extremely limited. We have no transport and no covered safe rout away from the village. Our only AT guns are only 50mm so to win against Sherman tanks we need them to come in close. I have positioned them to have very narrow key hole sight lines and engagement ranges under 400m. Each platoon has been assigned a final fall back position in the area south of the centre of town. They will start north of their final defensive positions in order to ambush and fall back the attacking forces. The recon elements from both platoons are at the north and western edges of town. All scout teams have orders to hold fire and report enemy movement. If the enemy moves to flank us or decides not to come through the town I need to know so my AT guns can be repositioned. We do not have enough forces to man all the forward fighting positions so, we have left many of the trench works unoccupied. Hopefully between them and the scouts we can draw some artillery fire to locations we are not. The AT guns themselves are inside the last stand positions here are their LOS and alternate positions should they become necessary. The final defensive positions are the Southern orchards surrounded by bocage. My men can defend from the bocage lines and then fall back to interior trenches. At the point we will be fighting from those trenches things will be desperate. I hope to spend time fighting in the village and score some victories before falling back. Let us hope we fight honorably and that some of us will make it to fight tomorrow.

That is my thought too too. I cannot imagine playing it without replay.

Rats and it is too late to edit my post to fix it. Now that is unfare, I mean unfair.

indeed. I knew he was a British general who died during battle in the War of 1812 but I did not recall that we was The British general (in Canada) at the time. Leaders of the British Army in Canada did not fair too well on the battle field - at least they when down during victorious efforts.

Hee hee. Actually the weekend is usually a poor time for me to turn turns around - lots of family stuff going on. This weekend looks not too bad. I should be able to get one per day though this weekend. We are under way. AAR post will have to wait until tomorrow.

I am liking this game. Every time I look something up to make sure my memory is right I learn new stuff. Sir Isaac Brock was the British general who led the British regulars and Canadian millitas assigned to defend Canada from the US. He took the job in 1802 and spent 10 years building up and training local troops. He led those forces to several victories against the US invasion before being killed in battle of Queenston Heights. Brockville - which is 40 minutes away from where I live - is named after him. You could argue that he is the reason there is still a Canada.

Ninja'ed by @Baneman Nice pic.

Check out page 105 in the CMFI CM Engine Manual v2.0.pdf. But I'll add to that: for CMFI you can either add your mods into the instal Data folder (e.g. <programs>\Battlefront\CMFI101\Data) or the my documents User Data folder (e.g. <users>\<user>\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Fortress Italy\User Data) For mods that work for any version of CMFI (e.g. aris vehicle mods) place them in the user documents folder. For mod that are version specific for CMFI (e.g. vin's animated text) place the in the instal folder.

Hee hee, poorly asked. I meant what size force? I am just wondering if we have any intell coming in. Plus, some bad news the turn file is not showing up in my game - I have verified that it is in the right place but no sign of it in the list of saved games. I sent an email about game version...

Amazingly this looks more difficult than I would have expected. Gamespy looks like it is going through some turmoil and at any rate is not free to use so we, users, could not easily setup something there. Not to mention that with the review site shutting down it is unclear if this will survive. I also found Spring. They have a lobby server that is an open source project. We could do the work needed to get that up and running. It does not look like it would be easy though since it is really built to link Spring engine based games up. The only other thing I found that actually looked really good on paper was Glou which was proposed and started design as an open source game lobby but it never got of the ground at all. Any other solutions out there that anyone knows about? For something like this to be implemented by users it would need to be an open source or other free service that we could run our own server for.

LOL Do we have any idea of the composition of the force attacking us?

You can also select all the units in a platoon by double clicking on a unit (note that also selects any vehicles that are part of the platoon). I once accidentally sent a horde of trucks driving across a field unexpectedly because I group moved a platoon in the cover of woods forgetting they left their transport 500m back. Same goes for higher level HQ units as well. Double clicking a company HQ will select the whole company, battalion same. Those are less useful for bulk moving but might be good for a hide the entire company if they come under artillery fire.

I think if you want a better answer than 401 you will need to spend an afternoon in the scenario editor opening them all up your self looking for the same landscape. Cause I'm not doing it 401 final answer.

Well, I for one only find it annoying the odd time some one tacks on "this game sucks without <pet feature> and I cannot believe it is not already in". That is the only time I get annoyed. When new people come in and ask for the same or similar features I think that sends a good message to BFC - the features are wanted. We just need to make sure that the new guys understands that we thought of it too Keep them coming - that way, as I say, BFC can see what features actually have an interest.

We are there because we move fast and we don't wait for silly stuff like chain of command. Bring it. Let me know when there is a file to play.

Men in Trees that sounds familiar where have I heard that before?

Indeed suggestions are good for BFC to hear. No one needs to make all of this in one big bang. For instance having a sever that connects people for H2H RT play would be very welcome - from the sounds of previous posts. I have no desire to play H2H RT but if you do there needs to be away to connect with opponents. Existing ladders and this forum are not well suited since they usually use PM, posts or emails to communicate. Not exactly RT. Some of the other things you are looking for can be done to some extent via the operational layers that are being implemented and discussed on this forum. But none of them will cover everything you are asking for though.

OK. A village fight with two platoons including shrek teams and AT guns. I've defended with less. No one survived then either but I have had less. Hold at all costs. Message received. Is there no artillery that I can call in on top of my own positions once I can see the whites of their eyes? On a more serious note is there a turn already or do I need to do some setup work first.

I find the current bridges work best with a few tiles anchored too. Not the same number but same idea. Question about the ditch lock tiles in your example. For what ever reason the the white on blue numbers are not very readable. They look like 30 but that does not seem right since the 3D view it looks like at those tiles the drop off to 20. Can you clarify - are those blue tiles set at 20 or 30? Are those requirements documented? Or are they a guide that you and other designers have discovered? If they are not going to be documented can you do it here in a post?

Nice, those dead zones drive me nuts when I am playing. And as you said in a more open environment I just shrug and send my guys near the dead zone but in a urban environment it can be really frustrating and prevent more than one team from being in a back yard. I really like your ideas for alternatives. Print that and stick it on the proverbial wall for designing.

Let me start by saying in general this sounds like a good idea and it could be useful. Now comes the however. The current LOS tool uses unit to ground viewing as its test. This type of technique will *not* verify that your unit will stay out of trouble. As an example I have a game going on right now where I have a StugIII that is 700m ish away from a corner of a bocage field where the ground dips. There is a natural area for the enemy to drive into this dip and my opponent is obliging. From where the Stug is located it has *no LOS* to the ground in this dip. That means the infantry screen that led into that area could not see the Stug and the Stug could not see them. But once the area was "safe" my opponents tanks rolled in. He now has three destroyed tanks sitting in the dip. For LOS detection I think we would be better served with improvements to the current LOS tool to accommodate heights. I would like to be able to tell, using the tool, if my unit can see the ground, or if they could see a small vehicle or see higher vehicle at that location.

Well look at that, I found it on page 56-57 of the CMBN Game Manual. So the "Scenario AI" script is translated into specific orders to the units by the operational layer and then the tacAI controls the units the same as it controls ours after we issue orders. I understand. Can we call it the "Scenario AI script"? I read the manuals way back when I first got the game. Clearly some of it did not stick. Having done some work with the Scenario AI scripting I can see that there needs to be something that translates those broad strokes into specific CM commands but I never though of it before. I am looking forward to learning more. To get ready I should re-read the manual.

Oh, I thought I was going to have to learn it:-) just joshing back