A Canadian Cat

Newer versions of WinZip support .rar files (not sure when support was added). On my Win 7 and Vista boxes WinZip is associated with .rar files and opens them just fine without changing the file extension. In mjkerner's case he must have a version of WinZip that handles .rar files but does not have WinZip associated with .rar files. Koodos to WinZip for actually looking at the file contents rather than just the extension to figure out how to unpack it. This post is not meant to challenge mjkerner's "all powerful" status. I am much to small a fry to be challenging anyone who is "all powerful"

Yes absolutely, I do this often in the early stages. In a meeting engagement that is now winding down the first 15 minutes I used a lot of "move the whole platoon at once" orders. I started by getting them setup in the setup zone in a good fan pattern and then selecting them all and quicking them into the forest. After a few minutes of quick moves I switched to hunting. Then when I got close to the objective and was in the range of possible enemy encounter (if he had mechanized infantry with HTs then his guys could be close) I switched to assault commands. This was a large force on a large map. Different situations call for different levels of caution. Double clicking on a section will select the whole platoon too. As someone mentioned you can <shift>click on units to add or remove them from the group that is selected. I also use "show paths" (<alt>P) so I can see the movement orders I have already given. It is handy for coordinating where large groups are going when you want to carefully place each unit. No way man we all have to deal with this. The first turns of a medium or large battle always take me a long time to get things setup.

I would only add to this that just before you strike with your tanks try to get the target tank to button up. Use that infantry that you used to find the tank in the first place to scare the tank commander into closing up. That way the target tank has less ability to spot and is distracted by another target - your infantry that shot at him. 30s latter your tanks come over the ridge, behind the trees or whatever with your tank commanders open and spotting. That will help with the odds of who see's who first and who get first shot.

You might be interested in some mad scientist experiments going on over here http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=99092. Mad Mike seems to indicate that he can extract the scenarios from a compiled campaign. If / when he pulls it off it might be useful for campaign tweaking purposes.

I do not thing this has changed in the last few weeks. I have experienced the suddenly not able to download problem before. In my case it was my browser forgot my login credentials and or the server was reset. You already have an account - it is your store account from when you bought the game.

While we were all waiting for CMBN I was introduced to CMBB and CMAK. I was unable to get FRAPs to take a screen shot or a movie either. I my case I was getting strange colours (like the old days of 16 colour only games). I contacted support and they told me to update my video drivers (which were out of date). So I did. Then my screen caps and video were all black - arrggg. Some time passed and I decided to ping FRAPs support again but before I did I noticed they had a new version. Knowing the first thing support would ask me to do I installed the new one first. It worked!! So they are fixing stuff all the time and I found support to be fairly responsive. I really like having it work now. Worth taking time to update your video drivers and get the latest FRAPs and then ping support with examples if things are still not working.

All you need to run is the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) which you can find at the link below. But before you download anything try it fist. Most computers now a days come with Java already installed. Download his .zip file, unzip it so the CMBN_Scen_Organiser_v0.1.jar is in your scenario directory and just double click on it. If after a few moments you get a Scenarios.html file then you do not need to install anything. If you have to install a JRE then download it from here and install it. Then the above procedure should work.

Excellent idea! But I went and wrote an app so I'm good now:-) I can set a threshold (default to 24hours) and the tool can tell me which turns I am overdue on playing and which ones I am really late with. Which helps me play the oldest turns first. Plus, I am working on a notes field so I can keep track of what pw I am using for which game and make notes for use in AARs as I play. So, I am getting a bit more value than just whose turn it is.

Very cool - I really like it. on my non wide screen there are issues with the formatting of the table but that's just HTML tweaking. I would really like to see an optional xml output so people can add useful properties them selves. I for one would like a scenario list with links to the URI of the source of the scenario. That way people can dl there own copy. I have been studiously collecting scenarios and URI links as I go. With some luck (as in I get time) I'll work up some additional feedback and send it to you. Ian

After using dropbox for many games the one problem I was having was figuring out whose turn it is to play (I have to look at turn files in the Output and Input directories). So, I wrote a program to do that for me "Whose Turn Is It?". Whose Turn Is It does not manage turn files but just tells you, for each game you are playing if you are waiting for turns to be sent back or if you owe turns to your opponent. I was ready to let everyone play with it but I sent it to two friends first and it turns out that while they are using dropbox they are *not* using Sync Toy (or any other tool) to automatically copy files. They are still manually copying files. The feedback I got was there is no point in using "Whose Turn Is It?" without doing file management. So, I guess I have work to do still. I will start a new thread once I get there.

Oh that counts. Someone can create an arbitrary directory and put a bunch of btt files in it and run your program to get output. It does not have to be the actual game's scenario directory. Having XML output that can then be processed by another tool would be awesome! Your program could produce either XML or HTML and internally you could parse the btt files and create an XML structure and then use that to produce your current HTML. Others could then use that HTML and be happy or use the XML and do more stuff. I would be happy to help test / suggest changes. Regarding Mac support if your program is written in Java and deals with the files in the current directory I think it would work on the Mac just as well as on a PC. Mind you I am not a Mac expert either so I could be missing something.

That sounds excellent. I would like to have that for my own machine but what would be even better would be to have a site on the web which had all this information plus the link to download the scenario. At least someone could use your tool to create such a list and add in the url to link to the scenario to the table. Can I run your tool and point it at any directory and have it produce the table? Is your generated HTML valid XHTML? If so it will be fairly easy to add additional information to the table from other sources. I would be interested in trying this out if you need Beta testers. I would be happy to give you feedback on the output and how to make it easier to allow others to augment it with more information.

Brilliant - thanks for sharing your plan. I think that sounds perfect. I would love to see this deployed in a module or patch but I am not sure if your game is setup for that so I'll just be happy with what we have for now.

.rar files are just a compressed archive of files lust like .zip files. The mod files you want to install are most likely .brz files (but can be a collection of directories of .bmp and other files). What you want to do is unpack the .rar file and put the .brz file where it needs to be.

+1 for that Right now I can either add a platoon's worth of individual vehicles to the appropriate command (which means no HQ tank but tanks part of overall command structure) or I buy a whole medium tank battalion and delete everything but a platoon (which means tanks have a leader but are not part of the command structure).

Yeah I see your point but... sometimes it will not work out for him. I am playing a game right now where my friend tried to do the same thing to me. Except I pulled one of my super aggressive moves that I sometimes do just to make sure he has no idea what I am going to do one game to the next and one of my tanks caught this Kubelwagen driving around between some buildings and all of a sudden he cannot call in anything. And since his plan rested on those rockets he is in a bit of a tight spot:) Getting irritated sure - unavoidable sometimes. But in the end solid use of tactics and mixed forces that work well together will win the day more often than not. In the end you will come out on top more than average. PS. Never believe anything your opponent tells you:)

Yep +1 for me. To keep the sanctity of your poll I am a do do. The things is if you cannot have fun getting your a** handed to you some times then you are not going to have the maximum amount of fun from this game:) I appreciate it when my opponent makes a good play and I still enjoy the game.

I have a saved game if needed but it was easy to create during setup just keep adding guns to the truck.

A friend of mine found that he could tow three guns (two 150mm infantry guns and one 88mm AT gun) with a single truck. I am pretty sure this is a bug: You can see the 88 and one of the 150's overlapping and at the top of the screen you can see the unit symbols for the truck and all three guns. He sent me a saved file. If any one from battle front would like me to send it to them just say the word. I have his permission to share the file - he just does not have a forum account. Ian

OK so there is hope. I'll read the dos carefully when it comes out and coordinate with my PBEM opponents. Thanks for the information. I do have experience with saving a PBEM game during orders phase - because of RL interruption and then reopening it, finishing orders and moving on. Thanks!

Not without cracking the file format and or your opponent's password.

:eek:What? Tell me you are kidding. No saved games will work after installing the patch? That will be very inconvenient. Please tell me that in progress PBEM games will work. At least if PBEM can continue I'll survive.

I had the same trouble differentiating between hedges and low bocage. Read this post and don't have trouble any more: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1278607&postcount=3 I hope that partly helps.

Thanks for the pointer - I just down loaded them to try out.

Well I have seen a variety of uses. I have a lot of snipers. I love snipers. I had a sniper on the 5th floor of a building once come down the stairs only to discover there was a US platoon HQ unit on the ground floor. As the sniper team was running down the stairs the SMG guy opened up and took out one of the HQ unit then the sniper stopped at the bottom of the stairs and took out the other guy with his sniper rifle at point blank range - must have been less than 5m. Then he followed his teammate out the door and across the street. While he was running he had his rifle over his shoulder and when he saw some US soldiers down the street from him he drew his pistol and fired away as he ran. So, it seem to be about what is convenient. I gave the sniper team a quick move order from the top floor to the bottom floor. There was a way point on the bottom floor. Then I gave them a fast order out the door and across the street. So the SMG teammate used his SMG as he was moving down the stairs. When they paused for a moment at the ground floor way point the sniper used his rifle to finish the job. Then the both ran out the door. On the move the SMG guy fired some as he ran and the sniper drew his pistol to fire as he ran. The OP wanted to know about an MG team using his pistol. I don't have additional insight for that except to say that they really do seem to be modeling the need to change amo magazines / belts so perhaps it really was a case of no time for a belt change because that guy is just too close. Check out this video of a German squad member using his MP44 http://youtu.be/0ReodAFRvtw There are real pauses when he changes mags.