hm_stanley
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Posts posted by hm_stanley
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20 minutes ago, dan/california said:
how is this any different from every other war the Russians, err.. Soviets have fought? none. This is the Russian way of war and has been for centuries.
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These maps are beautiful... thanks for doing this.
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You can pretty much re-equip any ammo for a basic russian infantry unit EXCEPT hand grenades? Why are hand grenades missing from supply inside vehicles or dumps? Is this just an omission/bug? or is there a tactical game reason why spare grenades are not carried for resupply?
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war is hard..
8 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:From ISW's report of May 15th. More insights into the desperate activity to get more men into depleted units:
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Any plans to update this for Cold War?
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Thanks for posting this.. one thing many of us Mac users don't know about is a tool called RDM (Retina Display Manager). You can get the M1 version here > https://github.com/avibrazil/RDM/pull/51 or you can get the x86 one here > http://avi.alkalay.net/software/RDM/. Good news is you can force your machine into really high resolutions and set the game to use "Desktop" and it will greatly increase real estate for your game. Here is my problem, I really don't see any improvement over using it under the standard macOS resolution (which is big enough). The screen certainly seems to be snappy, but again, I don't see any improvement over gaining more real estate to view and look at. It's already pretty snappy on an M1 with settings set to the highest.. So, not sure if anyone wants to experiment here, but it can work.
On 9/19/2021 at 12:42 PM, Lucky_Strike said:Smoke'n'mirrors ...
Just tried this on both my Mac and PC game rig.
On the Mac (3.1 GHz i5; 40GB DDR4 Ram; Radeon Pro 575X 4GB) - which does 4K natively (actually does 5K natively as well) it just wasn't having any of it. No matter what I set the display.txt to it just defaults to whatever real resolution I'm running at. So running at real 4K to see what effect the rest has - yep things are snappier and scudding around a map is easy. But the UI is unusable small. So experimenting and ONLY changing 3D model quality: fast has about the same impact on speed. Turning off shaders, shadows etc is minimal, plus I like me shadows on a sunny day. V-Syn off causes noticeable screen tearing artefacts for me at least, YMMV.
All of the above at my normal usable resolution, about 2K I guess, and options to my regular set up excepting 3D model quality: fast gives easy performance and a sensible sized GUI - that is to say, not really worth bothering with ...
Moving on to the PC (Intel i3-9350KF 4.00GHz turbo 4.6GHz I think; 32GB DDR4 Ram; NVidia GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6GB) - here things get a bit strange, though whether it's better is very subjective and not at all scientific
(my OS suggested the Petri dish emoji ...).
So applying all the options as suggested then editing the display.txt to 7680 4320 144 did seem to make everything run quicker though with some tearing artefacts (probably the V-Sync being off), FPS overall was slightly improved, but nothing radical, and everything seemed to work okay. Caveats, no shadows looks like s%*t on a sunny day; tearing is not nice; scudding around the battlefield really fast is probably useful for real-time playing, but for WeGo I don't see much benefit. Tried the same at 4K - same deal.
Now here are my very unscientific (personal) observations (background - I do a lot of very heavy duty modding, lots of high res and silly 3D models that are not ever going to give anyone nice fast FPS):
1. The engine is doing something with the settings for the display, but whatever it is it's not running at the higher resolution supplied - if it was one couldn't read the GUI - at real 4K or 8K you would need a magnifying glass to read it; my opinion it's ignoring it ...
2. Just switching off V-Sync increases your speed, notice it says Off (speed) as the off setting
3. Changing 3D model quality: fast is probably the biggest boost to your speed that any setting will give you YMMV; again notice it's called Fast.
4. I like shadows/shaders on sunny days and shaders on not sunny days, there is no way for anything ReShade or otherwise to add shadows or shading as provided by the ingame shadows/shaders. The old maxim applies when using ReShade - s*#t in, s*#t out - ReShade is a fantastic piece of software but it does what it says on the tin, it takes whatever images the game produces and adds effects to them afterwards, it cannot add content ie shadows. At best you can mess with the existing fake shadows as drawn in the graphics the game uses, but this is not dynamically generated shadows as produced by the game engine with shadows switched on. I know the game shadows are not the best and have real issues but they are all that we have.
5. I noticed no perceptible increase in load times which says to me the game is not preloading the graphics as it loads the game, but rather it caches them as it goes along, this results in choppy play to begin but then it gets smoother as one moves about, that is - it behaves as it does normally by design.
6. My GPU was not apparently being used anymore than normal, temps seemed normal, couldn't tell you what VRAM useage was but if temps are stable it's probably not struggling; ReShade makes it work way harder.
7. My CPU was behaving as normal, temps were stable and no throttling was noticed.
8. RAM useage was about 5.8GB running the game as opposed to 4.6-5.1GB idle, pretty much normal.
Make of this what you will, for my part just changing the 3D model quality: fast is about as much as I might do. I'd suggest if one wants good speeds then change 3D model quality: fast, turn off V-Sync, and don't run any mods, or at least only run mods that are the same resolution as original game graphics; the rest is smoke'n'mirrors ...
YMMV
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1 hour ago, Aragorn2002 said:
After the Russians are defeated we're going to count how many tanks and other vehicles are destroyed by Javelins, Panzerfausts etc. That should be fun.
the entire AAR of this war is going to be a field day for military historians for decades.. I'm just hoping I survive it (to study it) and not wake one morning to see a bright flash over the bay bridge..
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6 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:
To fully reconstitute the defender's force requires a platoon be moved up or the equivalent in individual replacements. To fully reconstitute the attacker's force requires moving an ENTIRE BATTALION into place. Think about all that is implied here
And you haven't even talked about the ability of the said attacker (Russa) to be able to do this (mechanics wise).
They have lost precious access to western technical goods that make up those "replacements" and the Russian Federation has nothing analogous to western military reservists to pull fast replacement infantry. They are literally in a hole they cannot dig themselves out of.
If what I've read about the CNC of the Russian Military is true, the organization is so vertical it requires you to tilt your head sideways to read their command structure. This new guy, Aleksandr Dvornikov, has seen combat in a theater where he had total air dominance, ample supply and the cream of the crop unit wise - why would he approach this mess any different? He won't, he will blunder his way through, inheriting a disorganized, misinformed and disinterested military that seems hell bent on killing itself.
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1 minute ago, Battlefront.com said:
Just thought about this based on some posts above. We've talked about Russia preparing for a 3 day "victory lap" around Eastern Ukraine. We've all noted that all of Russia's logistics were based on that concept. We have seen how bad this flawed assumption was in terms of Russia's plans.
However, what if they had taken over eastern Ukraine in 3 days? Would things have gone much better for them after? I mean, where were these soldiers going to be housed? Does Russia have stocks of food sufficient for months of occupation? Would they have much better luck keeping their trucks running smoothly even with no enemy activities?
Obviously this is all hypothetical and irrelevant, but it just occurred to me that Russia might have failed at occupation even under the most ideal circumstances. Now there's a fun thought.
Steve
I'm not sure this was ever the point. I tend to believe the "cake walk" scenario was run under the assumption that they would swoop in, Rosgvardiya (who have taken serious casualties) takes over with a large contingent of foreign volunteers and they suppress, turn-over and rape Ukraine from Moscow. All the combat troops come home to a may day parade and the world is minus one more liberal democracy. There was no plan to "occupy", it was to retire, reset and revamp in the model of the kleptocratic criminal organization of the Russian Federation. Yanukovych played the toad perfectly and was rewarded for this loyalty with his 2 billion dollar log cabin resort, this would just be rinse, repeat.
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7 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:
Good question. The answer is no positive effect for Russia, tactically or strategically. First of all because Russia can't kill its way out of the mess it is in. More death ≠ victory. Second, the historical record of chemical weapons having an impact on ground operations is just about zero. Closest example would be in the Iran-Iraq War and I don't think anybody thinks that had a decisive effect. Third, just inviting NATO to get involved.
Steve
Yes, tactical nukes are more likely in my estimation than Novachuck (sp?)
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It runs great on a Mac M1 Pro. Graphics are all maxed and everything runs great. Turns are fast, some weird UI stuff, but nothing that affects the gameplay. It actually is more enjoyable on the M1 than on an x86 Mac.
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- No theater commander
- replacements culled from destroyed BTGs
- no combined arms
- no air force
- overall morale in the toilet
- fighting a determined and entrenched enemy with very modern infantry arms
- multiple maneuver thrusts with no political or strategic goals (outlined covertly or broadcast publically)
- not enough men and materials to wage this uncoordinated mess
- substandard equipment and supply
- rasputitsa
- rear is threatened and in constant friction
- captured locations are exceptionally dangerous for the average Rosgvardiya
- potential 10k KIA/20k WIA (unconfirmed)
Fundamentally, they are being outfought, outspent (yes) and outwitted on the battlefield. What bothers me is that, add of these things up (they know this in the Kremlin too) and you get a situation where decisions get compartmentalized and validated by a very select few. Those few might feel sovereignty and survival are at stake and move to insure some strategic or tactical goal is met, which might include the destruction and annihilation of a Kiev or Kharkov via chemical or nuclear weapons. We are not too far from that decision I fear. I'm not fear mongering, I'm just showcasing the decision tree that Putin is facing, he has to know this and he has to understand where he stands right now relative to his strength and goals. I have to assume that much.
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1 minute ago, Battlefront.com said:
I don't see it happening any other way, as long as you define "take away" to mean "loss of combat effectiveness".
Ukraine doesn't necessarily have to kill Russians to achieve it's goals of destroying Russia's ability to fight. Causing them to retreat in panic works. Taking them prisoner works. Causing mobile reserves to hesitate works.
The only serious threat to taking back territory is if Russia is setting some sort of trap. OK, show of hands... who here thinks Russia has the capability to conduct traps for Ukrainians above company level? Anybody? No, I thought not
If we're all correct then the traditional risks that go along with retaking territory are, at best, remote.
Steve
And then it's the simple question of "Why would they", there is no reason to "trap" the Ukranians when you have "supposed" superior firepower and capabilities.. it flies in the face of reason to advance with the intent of getting surrounded and cut off in order to "dangle" red meat to the opposing army. It's just dumb and nonsensical..
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They run awesome on a Mac M1 Pro. So, get it.
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Note to self, these posts are from the same guy who wrote on "how hot will ukraine get" that Covid and bio weapons labs in Ukraine are at the heart of the invasion premise for Putin..
I find these posts rather jarring and incongruent (and incoherent) with a person who claims their sources are "of highest quality" when the actual post includes clear delusional far right propaganda from some charlatan who want to take your $$ for their "high quality and sourced" intelligence, when it's complete word salad and garbage fear mongering disinformation.
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20 minutes ago, John Kettler said:
All (especially Haiduk, any other CMers in UKR, Russia; Steve)
Believe I may've found the key to understanding what's really driving Putin ref the Ukraine Invasion, and it's going to blow a lot of minds and likely enrage some, too. The source is X22report.com, an absolutely stunning, long-running OSINT operation focusing on Finance and Politics/Geopolitics, rather than military ops and weaponry, though both come into the discussions as applicable. Six days a week he puts out two segments. Finance runs around 15 minutes and Politics/Geopolitics for around 40. The amount of research that goes into each episode is staggering, and I'm of the opinion he's got high-level classified sources talking to him, too. Having watched his reports for over a year, I can tell you he's extremely sharp and has a tremendous track record of being right on many fronts, despite frequently going against the pundits and supposed experts alike. His main site has some censoring because apparently pressure has been applied to the site provider, but for a modest sum, you can subscribe to the uncensored private server edition, which I have, while the main site is free.
Now, why would you care about this in the context of the invasion? What if I told you there were many BW labs in Ukraine, some practically on Russia's border--funded by DoD but controlled by ruthless globalists? Remember Wuhan? Remember the initial work on Gain of Function for what became COVID-19 was funded by DARPA? Remember what Bill Gates has been saying about a second, vastly more deadly virus? What if I told you that, crazy as it sounds, the Ukrainian government (not including Zelensky, who says he's Target 1 and his family Target 2) is rife with neo-Nazis--installed after the 2014 Color Revolution; that Xi Jin Ping didn't contradict Putin on his public statements ref Nazis in Ukraine; that Ukraine isn't so much as organically corrupt as globalist corrupt and pillaged, much like what happened when Arkansas became a CIA fiefdom for money laundering, sterile arms manufacturing and narcotrafficking when Bill Clinton was governor (see former insider Terry Reed's bombshell book COMPROMISED for the Arkansas lowdown); that Ukraine is the linchpin for globalist money laundering and more? When you look at where the BW labs are and where the Russian missile strikes were...For the above and more, go here.
Regards,
John Kettler
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I really thought the interviewer didn't really do his homework before this interview.. there were a ton of hairbrained questions, like "do you think BFC will update CMBB or CMAK in the future?".. no, why would he ever do this? those engines are a technical dead-end, fun to play in 2001, not fun to play in 2022. Anyway, I thought Steve was being nice and I'm not sure I would have reacted the same way.
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I also believe the 4.0 installers hold the entire set of modules/games, vs. the old days where you would install on top of the game in 3.0. So, if you don't have a license to R4V or Gothic Line, your game will still be huge, since it contains those modules.
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@Vacilllatorwould love a copy of this campaign.
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It's working great for me Ian, as said, no issues running this build and I've had it up for two days straight.
On 1/8/2022 at 11:16 AM, IanL said:Actually I'm a little frustrated at the moment. I have things running again in a development environment. That made me happy. Then I finished the official build and packaging and tried to test it on a clean machine. It just will not run. I cannot even see what the problem is. I have an open question with some Mac experts on what I should be doing. Honestly I was hoping to contact some people today who had previously offered to test but there is no point yet if the packaged app doesn't run.
Sigh. The story of development.
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On 12/22/2021 at 5:09 AM, Thewood1 said:
I like the Graviteam games a lot. They bring in a lot of tactical combat from WW2 east front. The armor model is every bit as accurate as CM2. And they provide a lot of the background behind the armor model in-game. The battles are generally on larger maps so there is more room to maneuver. The battles can last long enough that resupply and minor repairs are relevant. It also has the operational layer if you want make battles more relevant to a broader campaign-like environment. They also provide the option of very detailed orders or having the AI take general orders and handle the details. The AI is pretty good at it. There is also an event viewer so you can maintain situational awareness. You can have the event take you to the unit or pause the game as an option. Something that keeps me from playing CM more.
The downside...its too realistic sometimes. Forgetting to string comms wire or cutting of comms wire means your units are sometimes on their own. This can be set up in the options, but only before the battle. Its also focused on very narrow battles and the scenario builder is not very flexible. The do cover battles that CM will never cover, but its still feels limiting. The ability to give very detailed orders makes the interface seem overly complex for micromanagers. But if you are more hands off and like to give general orders, its actually simpler than CM. There is no wego, but there is an active pause that be set to pause every X seconds. And there is no replay. To me, thats why I still come back to CM now and then. But the AAR is very detailed in showing shots, hits, damage, and destruction.
Overall, I play it and Steel Beasts much more that CM because of the tools you have available to manage the overall battlefield. CM's inability to take advantage of advancement in technology also plays a role.
I found it impossible to play. I actually purchased one of their first releases of that simulator. It only ran on Windows and it was so complex (and I love detail) that I thought my brain was going to explode. I've watched others play the game, but I just can't get into it. I just like the "unknown" aspect of wego, you do your stuff, and click and pray, just feels more authenticate somehow (not in Iron mode).
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any update on this? I would be happy to test a mac version.. I can't seem to get Shock Force 2 or Cold war to be listed as games, I'm sure there is a way to do this, but can't seem to figure it out. I browser to the .app and it just doesn't work and the path seems to double up the Shock Force 2. You edit this and it still doesn't work.
If we're all correct then the traditional risks that go along with retaking territory are, at best, remote.
Mac OS X 13.0 Ventura
in Combat Mission - General Discussion
Posted
Here is also the crappy thing.. each time you update ventura you need to go through this all over again.. I did this once with 13.01 and then again with 13.1. Seems to be some OS level thing, but the fact that this game runs at all on macOS is a good thing.