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Seedorf81

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Posts posted by Seedorf81

    Gamey Game Play

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    So, the moment you start up the game. They can't leave the game map. They can't setup outside their setup zone. If it's a QB there can't be any reinforcements. May as well not play, it's that artificial.

    Arrant nonsense, and deeply metagamey. The game has nothing to do with breaking anyone's will. There are already stipulated victory conditions, and if you reckon you can't attain those and have to "break the opponent's will" instead, then you're not playing the game. You're playing your own mind games. Not something you can do to the AI, so the AI will be your toughest opponent. How strange.

    Which totally ignore any "issues" with whatever map you're playing on, like tiny, obvious, setup areas for the attacker, FUBAR points values like american rocket batteries, "operationally unlikely" possibilities for TRPs in Meeting Engagements and so on. You know, flaws (tiny ones) in the way the game represents what we're expecting it to represent, which can result in differing understandings of the game.

    So your appreciation is limited.

    Sure, you can play it without agreeing any house rules, but it will be a very different style of game. For example, when mortars were magic auto-killing death tubes, you'd set your QB force up quite differently to how it "ought" to have been, historically, if you wanted to "win". Most CM players have at least a passing interest in historical verisimilitude though, and don't want to play with a force of armour and mortars with no HMGs and very few infantry, even if it will blast the heck out of a "historically" constituted force.

    Hmmm. Perhaps we can.

    You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment.

    No, mutual respect comes from interaction. Positive interaction. Not "breaking your opponent's will" by exploiting artefacts of the game environment.

    Oh, by the way, attitudes like yours are among the factors that keep people away from playing HvH games. Well done.

    I agree.

    My fun at playing multiplayergames (Operation Flashpoint for instance) has been totally destroyed by people who, in their near obsessive desire to win, used cheats or other tricks to become invincible.

    Even so that a naive (?) but fair player like me didn't understand why his adversaries wouldn't go down after taking multiple hits. Ofcourse, one might say that it was all in the game, just like shelling the hell out of someone's setup zone in Combat Mission, but for me that takes the fun away.

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    AI and arty

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    However, I do disagree with him on one point: it depends whether I should move or hide my troops if they are in middle of an artillery barrage. Are you in a foxhole or in a trench, or inside a building? If so, stay there and hunker down! It's much safer to take the chances than run in the open. In case of a multistory building I tend to use move slow command and occupy the lowest level, and then hide my unit.

    I stand corrected. Gekkibi is right.

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    Survey on what folks like best in briefings, tactical map..

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    1. How important is the strategic map image?

    This is useful for setting the stage, but not terribly important.

    2. How important is the operational map image?

    Much more important. CMx2 scenarios tend to feel generic without a clearly-indicated operational context.

    3. For the tactical map, do you prefer a 2D style or a 3D in-game screen-shot type?

    2D is fine, 3D is fine, so long as it is done well. The worst options are (1) a sloppy, cartoonish 2D map or (2) a 3D map that only shows a small portion of the battlefield (and thus is no good for orientation).

    4. For the briefing text, what are turn-offs? Like perhaps too much wordiness or trying to tell you what to do?

    A standard template is useful--I always miss the portions that some people leave out.

    My biggest turn-off is having to read six or eight pages of operational history before I even get to the scenario. If I'm playing CMBN, you don't have to give me a pocket history of the Normandy campaign. I already know it, and the briefing screen is a poor format for it. Include a Word file with the scenario download if you must, but don't overload the briefing with background.

    Also, unless you're actually a talented writer, don't try to write short stories or long swaths of flavor text.

    5. What about the image you see as you first scroll through the scenarios? Is that important to set the mood or just indicate what side you might be fighting on?

    Mood-setting is good! It's a book cover and sets a tone.

    Extra: Always always always indicate up front whether a scenario is multiplayer-only, solitaire-only, or both. Don't make the player load the scenario to learn this.

    Couldn't agree more.

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    AI and arty

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    I rarely move my troops from the AI start-up positions in the direction to which they are pointed. Because that often leads them straight into AI enemy-artyzones.

    And when your experience grows, you will learn to see where the most obvious routes of approach are, and that's usually where the AI will point most of it's arty.

    And sometimes you'll get arty, just because it's war, man!

    (Oh yeah, to save other forumboys the bother: split your squads and when under arty-fire, do not wait or even hide, just get the f#*k out of there. Run boy, run!)

    Good luck.

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    Do we really want them?

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    I think that what Seedorf is trying to say is this:

    Are we aware that using flamethrowers leads to human torches writhing and dying slowly in agony - and to we want this in the game as well?

    This games is wonderfull, it really is. Just a few minutes ago I saw an advancing Tiger in the distance. And it disappeared so lifelike in smoke (from Aris his beautiful smoke and dustmod) that it left me bewildered.

    I never played a human opponent, and even so I love the game.

    But sometimes I'm a little bit worried that we might forget how horrible real war is. And yeah, I know that I might be considered a sentimental old fart..

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    Shall try to start an unofficial screenshots thread?

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    cm13.jpg

    Sherman providing cover to my infantry:

    cm15w.jpg

    Do you have tactics and techniques when it comes to cleaning building with infantry? I always loose a lot of infantry when I have to capture towns/farms etc...

    My infantry always get slaughtered when entering building with enemies inside.

    If you have enough HE shells in your tanks, just keep on firing at the most important and/or heaviest occupied buidings untill they collapse. (If you don't see the enemy, use AREA FIRE.) It takes a while, but can do the job nicely.

    If you do not have enough HE, don't attack untill you secured the area around the building and get enough troops who are not too tired. Giving covering fire (again, if you don't see them, use TARGET AREA) and attacking from at least two different sides should do the job.

    Don't be like me, much too impatient, but take your time.

    Have fun.

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    Yet More Newbie Questions!

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    Thanks, all. I'm still a bit confused, e.g., as to:

    • what an action spot is (a field behind a bocage hedgerow?)

    • how the enemy could see troops move behind a bocage hedge. I thought that would block all sight.

    • how, once the mortars are positioned, one can get any observer to get LOS on a target without getting killed.

    • also, should I use smoke to set a screen to move my infantry behind it?

    Thanks, guys!

    Very good questions.

    1. The battlefield is made up of squares. Maybe you've played or seen strategygames where the map/playingfield was made up of hexagons, wich looked a little like a piece of mesh wire layed flat.

    In combat mission these hexagons are rectangular and invisible, but they're still there. (At the repository there are mods that make them visible, so you can see the lay of the land much better.)

    These are called action spots.

    2. Don't know whether Battlefront modelled it after the real-life thing, but like in a dense forest, or in shrubbery, there are gaps and holes in bocagewalls through wich you can see (parts of) the enemy, or at least some flashing of units moving. it all depends on light, density, foliage etc.

    3. Well, it is tricky, but think of how you would do it in real life. Ever played Cowboys and Indians as a kid? Sneaking up on each other while trying to stay unseen for as long as possible? That's how to do it. Be carefull and count your blessings that you can, unlike the real soldiers, try and try and try again. Be inventive!

    4. Yes, that's a good idea. Unfortunately it comes down to real good timing and if you have a lot of bacage, you'll soon run out of smoke. Again, trial and error.

    PS: I'm playing this game for some time now and more often than not I get frustrated when I lose a forward observer or get whole squads mown down because I couldn't get rid of them boys behind bocage. The game gives a nasty sense of reality of how difficult fighting in the bocage was in those days.

    Keep on trying and good luck!

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    Off-Topic: TMA Soviet Infantry

    in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy

    Posted

    @Seedorf81

    I would agree with your stance on free speech except that maintaining free speech is not the purpose of this forum. I believe this forum is intended to further the discussion of CMBN not a place to try and educate the ideologically ignorant.

    Look for Steve to lock this up as soon as he gets off the yacht with Charlize.

    You're right. Lack of Market Garden news gets to me, I reckon.:D

    The best way to end non-topic talk would probably be a new release or patch or module or something like that.

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