A Canadian Cat

Plus we have the Market Garden module coming up soon which will involve lots of urban fighting. But given what Steve has already said on the matter I would recommend against holding your breath: because you might die:D It would be nice if some tweak could be made to lessen some of the really silly occurrences that can happen. However; given the background on the way the AI works I, personally, cannot envision how such a tweak could be made.

BF has discussed this many times. A little searching (https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Abattlefront.com+battlefront+gun+elevation) Yields these three specific examples: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=98488 http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?p=1194181&highlight=elevation+limits#post1194181 http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=90522 Plus this definitive answer from Steve: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1194005&postcount=91

This looks really interesting! As you can see from my sig line this kind of thing is at the top of my wish list... I hope to get a chance to play with this tomorrow - at work now though. I have a couple of questions: 1) There is a MS Office Excel 2010 file in the Campaign directory. Do I need to have that version of Excel to use this software? 2) Clearly that campaign directory is a sample project. Do I have to use the same directory for my project or can I create my own directory(ies) to store my projects? I will follow along the help file directions and report back.

If we actually had some benchmarks where the number of mods made a significant difference then yes it would be good to know what was more different about that machine. My machine specs are thus: Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 (64 bit) HP model a6500f AMD Phenom 9150e Quad-Core Processor 1.8GHz 4 Gb RAM 500 GB SATA 7200 RPM HD with and upgraded video card: Radeon HD 6770 with 1Gb memory Clearly JuJu's machine is quite a bit zipper than mine. The new video card gives me 20-30 fps on the best graphics settings and that will hold me over until the next PC upgrade cycle that is approved by the family accountant:)

I have 95 mods installed (very few sound related, also some packed some not). 1.51Gb spread over 1221 files (7 .brz files up to 11Mb). Loading times for "A Deslying Action" Axis. With mods installed 2:23 2:02 2:02 Loading times for "A Deslying Action" Axis. Without mods installed 2:27 1:56 1:54

LOL I'll have you know that we Canadians take credit for that - yes I know it was members of the British regulars that did the deed. We still try to take credit for it;)

Updated file http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=1894

Looking interesting - I think you are on to something. Can you run those tests four more times and see if things stay the same? I know from experience that the numbers can vary quite a bit from run to run. A while back I did some bogging tests and ran 15 tanks over various ground types. Some runs four or five tanks were immobilized in others runs it was ten or twelve. In the end I ran those 15 tank tests five times and still felt like I should do it more to be sure I had good averages.

Yep, what George said. The unit the jeep driver is part of does not get an additional floating icon. Most of us are used to having a jeep with a driver an then we add passengers. In that case we see the jeep icon and the passenger icon. However sometimes the jeep does not have its own driver but instead is driven by someone in a specific unit: HQ Support, Platoon HQ, Assault section etc. In that case the jeep icon is the only one visible. If you bail that team out of the jeep you will have an empty jeep (with a jeep icon) and the unit on foot (with what ever the appropriate icon is for that unit).

Well, as you probably know, one of the great strengths of BFC is that if you create a test that shows that a TC is as exposed as an in the open infantry man they will have a look at the game. They will act if you can show - with a repeatable test - that something is wrong. And I am pretty sure that they do model the tank's armor and the position of the crew. Remember that bug Steve described where the Tiger tank had poorer than expected visibility when it was buttoned up and it turned out to have been caused by the TC sitting in a seat that was incorrectly modeled to be out of alignment with the TC's viewing ports.

Correct it has been posted there. The url is in the thread discussing the mod.

Vin's Animated Text mod? It is great takes those cryptic ASCII text strings that are supposed to tell you which team member is moving, which is spotting, firing etc. and replaces it with a custom font version where the icon for each of the action actually look like a moving soldier, looking, firing etc. It is brilliant!

LOL BF cannot win can they. I think the patch changes make the game better. Now we have to be careful with tanks running around without infantry support. Which is a good thing.

Got it - my brain read "turn" in stead of "run"...

I'm game how did you setup the game? Did you setup a PBEM and time the Axis turn1, Allied turn 2 and then Axis turn 3? Or was it something else?

Interesting I do not remember reading that .brz files are faster at loading. Was that something that was mentioned on the forum?

I just counted my mods - 92. Wow I did not know I had that many. I have 72 installed in my 1.01 install. The thing is I have not noticed a longer load times. I have not measured it like you have but I do have a 5min screen saver and small games load before the screen saver kicks in - just like with 1.01 and larger games finish loading shortly after the screen saver kicks in. I don't have a game that will not load in around 5min. Worst case the game is ready once I have woken up the screen saver and typed in my pw. I was under the impression that 1.10 is loading faster - but again I have not measured.

OK the mod has been uploaded to the Repository and Green As Jade's site as well: http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods/4593/details I hope you all enjoy them (at least some of you anyway:)

I could not agree more. I have posted about it before suggesting ways to make the Elite and Iron modes better.

That would be great - keep it official:-)

Are you playing on Elite or Iron? Enemy AT guns show the infantry symbol at those levels.

Just don't send any to JuJu or he will never finish:D

I'll get right on that - thanks. Any thoughts on updating the mod to make it official? My guess is that the same procedure would be needed for the Poles too.

Oh I realize that - I program for a living - so I get it. And I would be thrilled and have a blast making the AI do cool stuff. The thing we need to keep in mind is that the vast majority of people are not capable of (or more accurately not interested in) learning how to program. While we might want an open programming language for the AI, I am not sure it would fit the target audience here very well. Right now we have a lot of people who can create an AI script that can perform reasonably well. There are enhancements that could be made to the existing AI scripting that could allow those same people to do even better. I personally think that some ability to trigger responses from the AI would go a large way towards that. I also think that to make sure that same group that are creating AI programs now keep creating AI programs, the game needs away to enhance what is there now not replace it with a amazingly flexible programming language. IMHO

OK but I was thinking instead of turning this into a programing language (which BTW I actually would be OK with but that is just me). Keep it really really simple. Currently each AI group has a single track of actions. I am suggesting that give each AI group two tracks and a trigger to choose which. Group 1: Set up in place on the left Group2: Setup in place in the centre Trigger Group2 takes 80% casualties A chain of AI actions (same as now) that move towards the left flank Move Move Assault etc. Trigger Group 3 takes 80% casualties A chain of AI actions (same as now) that move towards the right flank Move Move Assault etc Group 3: Setup in place on the right Group 4: Setup in reserve Trigger Group 1 takes 10% casualties A chain of AI actions (same as now) that moves to counter the attack on the left Move Move Move Move Assault Trigger Group 2 takes 10% casualties A chain of AI actions (same as now) that moves to counter the attack in the centre Move Move Move Move Assault Trigger Group 3 takes 10% casualties A chain of AI actions (same as now) that moves to counter the attack on the right Move Move Move Move Assault And as you can see just by my writing this down I see that you need multiple triggers for each AI group and you also need to decide if once one trigger happens do the other ones get ignored or might they trigger and override the units current plan. Clearly this will take a large amount of effort to design correctly.