A Canadian Cat

I am interested in items 1, 2, 5 and 6 on that list in particular. Let me know if I can help you test anything. I am also an experienced Java programmer so you can send me stuff to try out that is only half baked if you want (I don't need no stink'n install program:-).

I am working on a hypothetical and fictional location paratrooper drop to secure bridges. I wanted to do it just for fun and in preparation for Market Garden but I'm not using a historical map I'm basing it on a map of a place I used to live but done in Normandy France style. It will be a while before I get anything worth using because I'm having too much fun playing the game right now:) PS while researching the order of battle for US paratroopers I was sure I came across mention of a canceled plan to use paratroopers during the breakout from Normandy. But I cannot find mention of it again (it was just a one paragraph mention saying that after the paratroopers returned to England they began training for a new drop to help with the break out but by the time they were close to being ready the ground forces had already passed the planned objectives). Was my mind playing tricks on me or do any of you know about it.

Interesting - I thought about rolling my own but decided that syncing folders must have lots of tools to choose from. Sounds like you are targeting more then just one on one play. For me playing several one on one games what will your App offer that a simple sync tool would not? I'm curious.

That was our original thought as well but that actually will not work well unless you only play with one other opponent. We quickly realized that if we could do it that way then every opponent would see everyone else's turns.

All setup now Just a couple more things to make your life easier. 10) Create a short cut on your desk top so when you are done playing you can get SyncToy to copy the turns to the Dropbox folder. SyncToy has a command line that allows you to sync a folder pair by name or you can use -R to sync them all. I have found that SyncToy is quite quick if there is no work to do so I just use the -R option so I don't sync the wrong game by accident. Remember I am prone to have accidents like that and I'm doing all this work to avoid them. 11) You can do one better than manually syncing and use Windows Task scheduler to trigger SyncToy on a few events. I have mine set to trigger when I unlock my screen saver and when I log onto the Internet. That way I don't even have to press the short cut link to get new turns from my opponents. Every time I sit down to my computer it makes sure to sync my Dropbox folders with my game folders automatically. I cannot figure out how to make it auto trigger when new files show up in Dropbox or when a new file appears on a folder but I think there are some synchronizing tools that support that - I could not find a free one though. There you have it. I have been using this method for several weeks now and for four PBEM games and with three other people. I am not sure if my opponents are using SyncToy or not but we all are using Dropbox. Enjoy, Ian

5) Do the same for another folder named "CM Turns JvsI for Ian". By creating folders with the names "for Joe" and "for Ian" it is clear to each player what do do with those folders. On Joe's machine he copies turn files "for Joe" into his "Incoming Email" folder and he copies turn files in his "Outgoing Email" folder into the "for Ian" shared folder. Synchronizing The Files Now if you are like me and you don't trust yourself to copy the right file to the right place - don't. You get the computer to do that tedious work for you by using SyncToy. After downloading and installing SyncToy you can hook up your shared turn folders to your incoming and outgoing email folders thusly: 6) Start SyncToy and press the "Create New Folder Pair" button. Pick your CM "Incoming Email" folder on the left and your Dropbox directory "for <yourname>" on the right. 7) Pick Synchronize. This will mean your files in the "Incoming Email" folder will always be in sync with your Dropbox folder. Do not worry about everyone seeing everyone else's turns if you play more then one person at at time we cover that in the next few steps. 8) Give the folder pair a sensible name. I create mine like this "Turns<opp_name>From" and "Turns<opp_name>For". That way the list of folder pairs is easy to read and each set of folder pairs are listed together. 9) Click on the "Change options..." link to control what gets copied between the folders. Remember we don't really need or want Joe to see turns for Bill if we are playing more than one person. Create a file pattern that is unique to battles with Joe. For example you can have two quick battles and one scenario going with Joe and as long as you name them with JoeVsIan in the name you can use the pattern "*JoeVsIan*". And if your games with bill all have BillVsIan in their names Joe will not see those turns. I often Zip up turns for games that are over so I also add an exclusion pattern so .zip files don't get copied and waste time an space.

OK here are the How to instructions: Assuming you and your opponent already have your Dropbox accounts setup and running here are the instructions on how to set it up to share turns: 1) From your Drop box home page press the "New folder" button and give the folder a name. You can see some iterations of folder names in my account but I think the one I will be sticking with is to use a name of the form "CM Turns JvsI for Joe" where 'J' is my opponents initial 'I' is mine and 'Joe' is my opponent's name. 2) Press the "Share a folder" button and pick "I'd like to share an existing folder" option. Oh look at that you can skip step 1 and just create the new folder here. I'll try to remember that for next time. Press Next 3) Pick the folder to share. Press Next 4) Invite Joe to share this folder (this is the part that lets Joe and only Joe see his turns).

This message is long and picture heavy - I had to split it between four messages. I wanted to share my experience using Drop Box for playing CM PBEM games. The original idea to use Dropbox came from the friend that introduced me to CM games - Stephen. We have refined it and been using it with CMBB for a while now. Recently we worked out how to do it with CMBN and I have been using that method with two people I met here on this forum. So far they are happy so I thought I would share how I have it all setup. <disclaimer><shamless_plug altruism="on aswell"> Let me start by saying I don't work for Dropbox I'm just happy using their service. I only use their free service but they have some interesting pay for features as well. Before going further I will say that while anyone can sign up for Dropbox being invited nets both the invitee and the inviter extra free storage space. So, if you are interested in trying this out between friends PM me your email and I'll invite you and you can invite your opponent and you and your friend will net 2.5Gb of free storage (250Mb per invite/invitation). Other people who are using Dropbox already, or sign up, post to this thread if you are willing to invite people and we can spread the additional storage space around a bit. Even with the bigger files in CMBN a few Gb is enough. </shamless_plug></disclaimer> The Problem (s): 1) The first problem I wanted to solve was my habit of sending Stephen the wrong turn file. I don't do it often but when you only get to play one turn per day it sucks to open the email only to find yesterday's turn again. 2) I don't want to wait for files to upload / download. When I am done playing I want to press a button and walk away. The solution: Use Dropbox to share files between players. Use a synchronization tool to push and pull files between the game and Dropbox. Now that I have this all setup when I log into my computer to do my normal activities (not just CM:-) any new turn files immediately start to download. When I check my mail or get a IM from one of my CM opponents I can just press the "sync games" button on my desktop and start CM. Once I have played and saved my turn I can press the sync button again and walk away from the computer (well I don't have to walk away but I can). As long as I don't turn it off the file will be copied up to drop box for my opponent. To make all this work I use two programs Dropbox: http://www.dropbox.com and SyncToy: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52. I am sure there are other file sharing services that will work and there certainly are other folder synchronizing tools so feel free to swap your favourite tool into the mix. Next the beginning of the how to instructions...

Nope. I am currently watching a bombardment of my guys in a built up area. And after only two minutes (or is it three) there are a whole bunch of buildings totally destroyed. I think it is 105 rounds too but to be sure you would have to ask Gonzo Attacker since he is in control of them:) Ian

This is something I would really like. While it is true the command delay issue is gone but it would be nice when dealing with little mistakes early in a list of way points. That way you could fix it without starting over. Also it is really handy when dealing with traffic snarls - you can tweak the following vehicle to go a bit wider around the corner.

Wow sorry to hear it. I am personally having a great time and I have two CMBN PBEM and four CMBB PBEM games going on at once. Yes, it is a bit much. I never got into using keys in the old games - I'm a mouse guy so while I miss re-adjusting way points after placing them I have not been confused by keys that suddenly changed their meaning. Yay being inefficient pays off for once:) I especially like being able to give combat orders at different way points. That is an improvement over the old game. If I had to pick only one game it would be CMBN for sure.

Oh yeah thanks for the feedback. I learned all those lessons for sure playing this quick battle. Proper spacing is an important idea but more importantly use something else for an assault gun.... I don't know say - an assault gun:-) My friend commanding the IS2 was confused about what happened to the second Wespe so I made this video to show him. And no the crew of the second Wespe did not just abandon it because they took casualties. If you select the Wespes they both show "Knocked out". @Joachim Yes, I think you are correct it was the big boom that killed the second Wespe.

I just got burned, well actually my guys are not dead but they are no longer hidden either, because I thought a field was surrounded by a hedge row. Turns out it was low bocage. Here is the scenario I told my scout team to quickly hop this hedge and then slow move along it to hide from enemy view and get into a house in a flanking position where they can get good eyes on the enemy approach. What did they do? They ran down the road in full view of the enemy (thank goodness the enemy was actually further away than I thought) ran past the house I wanted them to go into and then back down the other side of the hedge. All the while I'm yelling at them "no, no don't do that you are going to get killed and you are giving away everything". At first I as flumuxed as to what happened and then it suddenly dawned on me "it's not a hedge you idiot". If you put a hedge next to low bocage I can tell the difference but low bocage all by itself looks like a hedge especially in a context like this one where there is no other bocage around. IMHO the low bocage needs to be a bit more beafy. High bocage looks formidable and I "get" that it is an impassible obstacle just by looking at it. Low bocage on the other hand looks wimpy and I think my guys can just hop right over. How do other people feel? I am thinking a mod would help here - just to make the low bocage look more formidable.

I have not found that to work. I was about to start a thread asking for the same thing because I have seen this problem several times now. If I do something dumb and just click a way point some place way up a head I am OK with the AI finding a way to get there. However it is only fair that the game give me the tools to know what is an impassible and what is a passable obstacle. Right now I can select a unit and ask it to move across a bocage line I have never seen the ghost buster symbol for "no you cannot move on that bocage". This is what I want. This is what is fair. In CM1x when you were plotting way points for a tank if you hovered over impassible terrain you got feedback. Yes, if you placed the way point on the other side of the impassible terrain you got what ever path the AI figured out. My point is that it was my mistake I failed to pay attention. But in the new game I'm not getting that feedback. You are saying that the feedback I'm requesting is there which is surprising. It sounds like I am not doing the right thing. If I could learn what the right thing to do is I would be happy. I will go and setup a test and try it out to see if I can get the feedback I expect and report back. Could you give me pointers on how you see the feedback "tank you cannot cross this bocage". Please, Ian

I only started playing CMBB a few months ago - while waiting for CMBN to be released. I finally got FRAPS to work with it (newest version has a fix that makes it work). Here is an amazing shot that happened in a QB I was playing with a friend. I was totally in control of things. My infantry supported by a platoon of Wespes was chewing up his infantry left and right. Then out of know where and IS2 showed up. The turn before the platoon HQ in the building next to the Wespes saw it coming and yelled down to warn the SP gunners. They immediately tried to reposition themselves to be ready for the coming threat. They were not fast enough: After that things went down hill fast. His T34 on the other side of the board managed to take out the other two Wespes and slowly his infantry supported by the tanks ground me down. I spent the whole game trying to deal with those tanks and never got anywhere against them. I came close twice but my guys were just two messed up to get close enough to deliver the demo charges.

When you screw up the movement orders of your scouts and they run down the middle of the road in stead of sneaking along the hedge row there is a M10 sitting there covering the road.

Yes, that is a really good point. The first time I played it took me a long time to figure out why one of my tanks would not do what I asked. I finally realized that it was getting hit by MG fire and stopping. The hunt command is great for preventing your guys from walking 100m down a road taking fire all the way but no so good when you want your tank to move up and there are small arms bullets flying around.

Yeah, it sure can happen - even in the old games. While waiting for CMBN I was playing CMBB with a friend. I had two Wespes hiding in the trees chewing up some infantry. Suddenly a IS2 showed up that I had no idea he had. Before my guys could turn their guns around the near one was blasted by the 122mm and the explosion plus secondary was so big it took out the other Wespe too. One shot two kills. I just got FRAPs working and I need to go find that turn because it was pretty cool even in the old game. I learned lots of lessons that game.

Plus, just because the attack kicked off at 0655 doesn't mean anything interesting tactically happened right away. There could be half an hour of getting into position and waiting for the scouting reports to come back.

Yeah I'll rate it once I play it but right now I have four old CMBB games that are finishing up, two new Quick battles in CMBN plus the self training scenarios I'm working on (not the prescribed ones my own choices :-). Then I have plans to do a PBEM scenario and hopefully try out a campaign. After all that this one will be close to the top of the list. So much to see so little time.

When I use the system on the first link in my previous message I see the same times (well within 10min). It is showing local time and no day light savings.

Thanks for the info. That will be very helpful. The orders at way point system is so powerful. I love setting up a tank to move and fire at multiple area targets in a turn. We just need a dismount command that passengers can use at a given way point. Then we could do what ever we want.

I found a few - not really tables but you enter a date and place and it spits out an answer. This one is cool: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/ Use the map to centre the place you want the times for. It suggests clicking on a pre-placed pin that will be in the same time zone. For example Paris and then move the map so the place you want is centred. Then enter the date out pops the times. But here are two more: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php http://www.sunrisesunset.com/predefined.asp

I would be interested but I'm not the most prolific player - usually one turn per day. I am happy playing the Germans.