A Canadian Cat
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Posts posted by A Canadian Cat
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I can understand there being some issues in dealing with changes in water elevation along a river or stream where water tiles are contiguous and so there could be some graphical oddities along with maybe some computing issues in calculating where a sloping water surface and the adjacent ground intercept each or the (a.k.a. shoreline). And so leading to all such water tiles being the same elevation.
What I do not understand is why all water elevations found across the map must be the same elevation, even if they are not connected??? For example, hilly or mountainous countryside with scattered ponds and lakes at various elevations in the hills and a river in a valley. All these isolated ponds must have same water elevation as the river???
I too see issues for connected water at different elevations (white water would be cool though:-) but:
+1 for disconnected water at different elevations
Could it not be set up something along the lines of that water tiles are:
- all set to lowest mapped water tile elevation (as currently done); unless,
- map-maker specifically hard-codes a higher elevation in the editor (with caveat that they will need to hard-code all water tiles they need to in a water body to ensure their map looks reasonable).
Or even simpler:
- water picks an elevation as it does now - slightly lower than the surrounding ground
- anytime water connects it all goes to the lowest level
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Also, while I like the feature, the way it happens may be a bit unrealistic, no? Buddy aid certainly happened, but the first thing a buddy or a medic would do, I think, is try to drag/carry the WIA at least a little way to safety and out of direct fire. Aid right on the spot is nice, but it's heartbreaking to see those Good Samaritans go down while trying to rescue their buddy.
Dragging wounded a short distance to a safer place would be very cool. I had a situation where a squad zipped around a corner on its way to another building. One of the last guys to turn the corner got hit by a sniper and the rest kept on going. The XO team that was behind them stopped at the corner and one member gave buddy aid to the guy who was hit. A perfect example where dragging the injured just 2m would keep the medic out of harms way. In this case things ended fine - that sniper team had to deal with MG fire from an assault gun so he was to busy to shoot at medics.
I can see that this would be tricky though. How far should the dragging go? Which way - sometimes it would be better to drag forward a bit if it means getting behind something solid. How far from their unit is the medic allowed to go to find a safer place? I see lots of programming. Would be nice, yes. High priority, no.
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I just wanted to say that the addition of Buddy Aid into the game has been the most surprising addition. I love having it.
It is not even about retrieving dropped MGs and ammunition. That aspect is good too but not why I really like it. The immersion is enhanced by it so much. I find my self trying to have my squads get to the injured. As a friend said it adds a tactical imperative that was not there in the CM1x games. It just seems like the right thing to do - to try to get to the injured.
For example I have a night fight going on in a PBEM game where a nasty little surprise in the woods left two of my squads chewed up. The platoon backed off to regroup for another assault. The thing is my guys can see the wounded and they are sooo close. I am trying to both slowly crawl up to attend to the wounded and reorganize the platoon for another try.
In another example a forward squad was cut in half by the assaulting Germans and the other half ran back. The tactically sound thing to do is fall back to the next level of defense but I just could not bring my self to do that. The supporting assault guns are holding their ground in the hope that I can get guys to the wounded. I have decided to give another squad a few minutes to get there and if the make it great if not I'll have to make the hard call.
Fabulous game guys! Thanks
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<snip>
The above approach is my adaptation of a technique developed by Chainsaw in CMSF (see "Assaulting Buildings Fast and Agile" here http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=82927) and I find it works pretty well. Urban combat was and is a sod in the real world and it is in CMBN, unfortuately in both it is often necessary. Good technique will minimise your casualties, but you will burn through ammo.
I had trouble this morning following Chainsaw's instructions for targeting the floor above during the actual building clearing.
In the step:
3. Squads attack route.I was able to create the assault commands through the door to the first floor, then to the second floor and then the third floor but when I selected the first floor way point I was not able to target the second floor. I got the ghost buster symbol saying there was no line of sight there. Same for second floor way point targeting the third floor.
This is my first time trying this technique so it is more likely that I am missing something. Has anyone else had success setting up building clearing commands like Chainsaw's setup?
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ian.leslie,
Here is a link to a post by Winecape (who is a beta tester) in the abovementioned thread. Check it out.
Thanks - I just found it myself and was heading back here to say ooops:D
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womble,
As discussed in this thread, there is an issue with any saving/loading and multiplayer with regard to tree placement which will be fixed in v1.01.
I cannot find a reference in that thread saying that the different tree placement issue will be fixed in v1.01. Was it mentioned some place else? Did I miss it? Do you have magic knowledge?
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I would like to try your scenario but the download link broken. Please reset.
Try this:
http://www.myclubtradingcards.com.au/CMBN/The Eagle Has Landed.zip
it worked form me...
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I agree that a more complicated, gradual revelation of enemy info would be great... probably not something that we're going to see for a while due to other things being higher priority, but it would be a nice feature.
For now, for Iron level play I'd be happy if the text in the unit info on the GUI was simply reduced to "Infantry", or "Gun" or whatever, as appropriate, and we had to glean any other information about an enemy unit from the game display.
+1 for that.
I am sticking with Warrior too because Ellette uses the infantry symbol for all contacts including AT guns and MGs. I would prefer to use a setting that showed only generic infantry symbol and text in the UI for actual infantry units. Officers try to look as much like regular soldiers as possible but an AT gun does not look like a soldier once it is spotted especially if it fires. The opposition can tell the difference.
I know from talking with my dad that company and battalion HQ units spent effort making sure they looked as close to regular infantry units as they could. Most of the officers he served with carried regular assault rifles so they looked more like the guys they were commanding even though the official "standard" was to only carry a side arm or possibly an SMG.
I would love to see a system that progressed from the current '?' to generic infantry contact or gun contact. After a while of good spotting experienced troops could probably pick out the officers etc. So the next progression after being under observation could be to HQ and MG.
In short the full id that happens is Warrior is not really right (we go from ? to full knowledge of the units purpose). But the never knowing an AT gun from an MG nest from a bunch of soldiers that happens at Ellette and Iron is not right either.
So for now I'm sticking with Warrior since I could not stand missing out on spotted AT guns just because I did not take a closer look.
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The link on the dl page links to the Objective_Crossroad_D913-N13.rar file.
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Hello All:
I have a quick question regarding splitting up a squad into teams. Does anyone know if a team has a harder time making morale checks under fire than a full squad? To put it another way, is it easier to cause a team to get pinned or panic?
Thanks in advance for your help!
I'm not sure about morale effects but I do know that if you split the squad into teams you can no longer use the assault move command. It is my favourite move command.
Having said that I do still split of scout teams once and a while and quite often I split off the bazooka team so the don't get chewed up when assaulting an infantry position.
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My mistake. I thought if you alt-tabbed, that means it's alternating between windows.
I guess we're back where we started, after the flurry of hope and excitement...
Oh man that sucks - I don't see getting a projector setup like LongLeftFlank has.
I now have a sig line:)
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This sounds very promising! Yes, I know you can run the CMBN editor (not the game) in a window -- I've already done that and ALT-TABBED back and forth between the editor and Google earth to check details in certain areas of my battlefield.
How do you do that? I have only ever had the editor run full screen just like the game. How did you get it to run in a window? I have been <alt><tab>ing between the full screen editor and my topo map.
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PBEMHELPER is written in .vbs I believe and you can read the code - of course I read but do not understand.
I just had a look at the code and it is pretty straight forward without all the error handling code:) The trouble is the code is clicking on the app blind (it has clever logic to figure out where to click) and then driving the standard Windows file open dialog box. But that only works with the old game where the PBEM system used the standard windows file open dialog box to pick the email file. The new game displays the name of the game in its own list. The VB program cannot read the screen easily since it is rendered with a custom graphics engine and not windows widgets.
This kind of draw it your self code is one solution to the problem of running on Windows and Mac and since they are already rendering the game it makes scene to use the same kind of code to render the rest of the UI. The trouble is I do not think that finding the game file name on screen will be easy. Nothing is impossible given enough time but the barrier to entry here is probably too high for someone who would rather be playing the game:)
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Do you think you can do the remembering of game passwords and the infilling when the file is opened?
Good point I have that problem too. I was thinking of a simple note system where you could choose to keep your pw. I do not have direct experience with driving another app with mouse and keyboard events so I'll have to look into that. Doing all that is not really in my plans. Frankly exposing command line options for launching the game and opening an .ema file and passing a pw is really something that the game author's should provide via command line.
With a simple set of command line options for starting the game while passing an .ema file and pw would allow all PBEM helper programs that would be really good.
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From my 20+ battle experience, US tanks get "owned"by German Panzer V's. Is there an effective counter against Panzer V's?
Yeah Panthers are great I love having them on my side when I'm playing the Germans.
So far I have had luck with 76 Shermans, night and luck:). I had one 76 Sherman creep up a wood line in the dark supported by another off to the side. They got a head of their infantry support and surprised a German squad and Panther. Yikes!.
The first Sherman when right after the Panther while the .50 cal surprised its infantry support. The Panther spotted the supporting Sherman first so took a shot at it (right into a tree). The supporting Sherman was busy messing up a half track and never saw the Panther. That first Sherman just blasted away and by the time the Panther changed its mind to go after it the Panther had a few too many holes in it and the crew bailed. Unfortunately for the Shermans where there is one Panther there are usually more... Even though I had them reverse out of there the other Panther killed both of them less than one minute latter.
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I was wondering how other people managed. I am playing four PBEM games and Windows 7 is quite handy with saving the file direct to the main folder but I am finding it a tad confusing with 9-10 turns a day.<snip>
I am using Dropbox for several games. I describe how here:
http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=97839
But that is just for moving files around and it does not remove old files like you want. I'm not sure if I want to remove older files since I like to go back and take videos of older turns. I tend to delete only once the game is done (after archiving).
With the above Dropbox setup I can play my turns and press a button to copy files. No attaching files to emails (and picking the wrong ones) no waiting for the mail to be sent before walking away from the computer. Ah file micro managing is over.
The problem I have left is remembering whose turn it is? So, I spend to much time looking at file numbers in the Incoming Email and Outgoing Email folders. My plan instead of deleting the older files after a turn is played is to instead have an app that will show me the PBEM games I have in my folders and whose turn it is for each. I am in the middle of writing the app now when I have it I'll let people know. My plan is to keep things simple but I am also writing the code that looks at the email files and figures out what games are there and whose turn it is generic so others can use it in their PBEM apps if they want.
We'll see how it goes.
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A projector borrowed from work used to superimpose an IGN map with a perfectly matched grid over the game map.
That is a feature I would like to see provided in the map editor. Surely it could be done better, simpler than projectors or third party apps.
Not saying your method is bad it looks fantastic compared to what we have. Given that I spent a couple of hours this morning very slowly drawing contour lines and <alt><tab> flipping back and forth I would take a projector or a third party app right now. I'm just saying given how much time must be collectively spent making game maps from topo maps I don't think there would be any feature that would be worth more bang for the programming buck than image overlay in the map. After all they could support zooming on the map -> zooms the overlay, scrolling the map -> scrolls the overlay. All other methods could not offer that.
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Groovy little program that lets you place an "always on top" image on your screen and make it transparent. So you could open the editor underneath and Bob's your uncle
Groovy - now there is a word.
That looks fantastic I will be trying this out tomorrow.
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I save my glorious victories, not my embarrassing defeats
LOL I am partial to my defeats actually - good for more laughs.
Do you know which QB map this was on? If so can you describe where the reverse slope you used was? For example on the left side of the objective from the setup zone.
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I have also only seen 1 TC casualty from my time playing.
With the demo version I played the Road to Berlin scenario several times. When moving my tanks across the first open field on the left towards the wide opening in the bocage I lost a TC over half the time on the first couple of turns turn from MG fire form the cross roads.
Currently I find that moving in an unbuttoned AFV into a field simply a good way of getting all the enemy to reveal themselves to me. I feel this is rather unrealistic and bordering on "gamey" as things stand.First and last time I did that I lost two tanks in the first two minutes to an AT gun that they never saw. I spend the next n minutes working away at the edges with tanks and infantry trying to find it.
Sadly it was "found" by one of my squads because it opened up on them with HE rounds. Bet the AI wishes it had the armour cover arch command available to it:)
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Two ways:
1) If you want a platoon of them then you have to buy a whole battalion that includes assault guns and then delete the stuff you don't want. Select and delete the companies you don't want. Then you can delete the battalion HQ. Expand your remaining company (that has the assault guns) and delete the platoons you don't want then you can delete the company HQ. You should be left with a platoon of assault guns and your points should be a lot less.
2) Switch the drop down on the left from "Formations" to "Vehicles" (I think I have those names right) and then select the assault gun you want and press purchase a couple of times to buy the number you want. I believe that you can only do this if you have an HQ selected on the right hand side to assign the vehicles to. So even if you buy individual assault guns you still need to buy a whole formation and whittle it down like in number 1).
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The concept is simple and genius. You can import background picture to map editor. Make sure you choose right pixels to make map right scale. Then simply "over draw" your game map. From experience I can say this works perfectly. Especially making contour lines is much more easier when you have something in background and you simple draw marks to over background map.
That would be fantastic.
+1 from me
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I have four PBEM games on the go right now in CMBN and some games are going smoothly with one turn per day and others slower. I have to keep looking at file numbers in my Incoming Email and Outgoing Email folders to correctly determine if I am waiting for a turn or I owe a turn for the various games.
I have things setup nicely for most of them to use Dropbox and a file sync tool to automatically get and send turns. See this thread for an explanation of how I have this setup: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=97839
I am planning to write a little app to help me identify which game(s) I need to play a turn for and which I am waiting for a turn from. Of course then I thought about all the other things I could do. One of which is start CMBN with the right ema file open. So I tried executing the game passing the ema file path as a command line argument and it did not use the file path.
I found this thread which seems to indicate that there is no command line support but there was nothing officially stated: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=96968
Can someone officially say that there is no command line arguments supported? Can someone official say that there are and here is how to use them? How about unofficially? Is this something that is planned?
Typically the work involved in supporting a command line interface is one of those things that can be simple if you only offer a few options but can quickly grow at an astonishing rate. But given how good the CM developers are at prioritizing feature work I am sure you guys could come up with a few useful command line options that would not cost a huge amount of work.
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Is it possible to rotate units (trench) in the setup phase?
I do not yet have experience rotating a trench but for tanks etc you can use the face command on the Combat commands tab (pp 85 in the maunal). Is that available for trenches?
New file at the Repository: Juju's TweakedUI (2011-06-24)
in CM Normandy Maps and Mods
Posted
I tried it this morning and I really like it. Nice pictures of the units, ranks, better unit status. Nice job.
I did however really miss the colour coded command chiklets. I know they look like kids paint but I really really missed them. So I exploded your mod deleted the super cool / coordinated command chicklets and re packed your files.
I am now running with a mode called "Juju's TweakedUI Tweaked":)
Thanks for all your work.