agusto

Can we please have this thread closed?

It' his own fault. He could have easily received papers for most of his equipment and police would have never bothered him (well, except for the calibre 533mm G7 torpedo with its live 500kg HE warhead). It' s not illegal to have a Panther tank or an 88 in Germany, you just need papers that proof it' s been properly deactivated. But if you dont have these papers, authorities must assume it' s not properly deactivated. The policemen just did their jobs.

Bil has removed his DL link could you be so kind and upload them via Dropbox or send them to me by other means? EDIT: Ah wait, i found another DL link.

Thanks, i am gonna try that.

I dont believe they' ll cut it into scrap. Germans have done terrible things in the past, but they are not THAT bad. It looks more like each Panther has it' s own camo pattern - painted by the Kreativ-Mal-Division 312.

High Bocage generally stop HEAT rounds (unless pieces of you tank, like the barrel, are poking through the bushes), but other than that, it' s nothing but concealment. Imagine a tank poking it' s barrel through a large bush, that' s about as much concealment as Boacage gives you.

Alright Wiggum, so we know now that you are unhappy with the pace of the CM engines development and that you would prefer BFC to focus on engine improvements rather than adding more theaters to the game. Well, as i said, none of us here can do anything about that. But how about starting a poll? The new forum lets you do that, and maybe it would help to make BFC aware of a certain amount of people beeing interested in them shifting the focus of their work. I suggest the following questions: a- Would you like BFC to focus on CMx2 engine improvements? b- Would you like BFC to focus on adding more theaters to CMx2? If you do that, I ask you to avoid suggestive question, please, it' s in your own interest to create a poll that can be taken seriously. Of course you now could ask again: "...and what would that achieve?". But honestly, i suggest you just try it, it' s at least better than doing what you are doing currently. You know, i am actually trying to be constructive here (something that hasnt happened to often in the past few pages of this thread) and help you despite our different views.

Ok, i uploaded it. It should be available soon. Link: http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=3593 There werent any major changes. As you suggested i tested slowing down the advance of the T-72s so they fire back a bit more, but actually it made things worse. By ordering them to stop and fire every 100 meters (which is the second fastest form of movement the CMSF AI is capable of), they just became even easier targets for the US ATGMs in overwatch. It' s better to have them dash through the open ground into the relative saftey of the built area in the center. Compared to the version you played, the only thing that has changed are the briefing graphics, which are complete now, and the unit designations - you are now not commanding 1st MEU but 15th MEU - a real life unit.

Oh GTOS is cool, and good that you remind me of it, i gotta try how it looks like on my new PC. And what' s wrong with JTS? They do have some cool titles. Currently i am thinking of buying Danube Front '85 because it' s the only wargame i have ever heard of that features the Austrian Bundesheer as playable faction, and for me, as Austrian, this makes this game really attractive, despite all the 1998 2D Hex stuff going on there. I am also a big fan of 1985 Cold War gone hot kinda games in general. You know what i currently dislike most about CM? There is no 1985 game! AH! Regarding JTS, Middle East '67 also look like i might try it soon. EDIT: BTW i still prefer CM over GTOS, just saying, although i do like GTOS as well. What i like better about CM is the Action Spot system, WeGo and the GUI. It just in general feels more comfortable to me.

Ok, so i went through the problems mentioned in the last few posts and the scneario is finished now. I am gonna upload it to the Repository tonight. Regarding the CMBS scenario, i think it will have to wait a few week or months until i start working on it. I got a new PC 3 weeks ago and i am currently so busy playing all the games that i couldnt play on my old computer, i just cant motivate myself to work on anew scenario at the moment.

Can you recommend me a good (free) sound editing software? I am thinking about first doing the german artillery call voices, one of them just sounds awkward to me and i have wished for a replacement for a long time, and it' s also going to be a test of my abilities as voice actor. I need a programm that lets me do to a recorded sound file what the equalizer of my MP-3 player does to my music and then save it, you know what i mean? BTW i also got my hands on the source files of Red Orchestra 1, we could recycle some of those sound files. RO1 had excellent german voice acting, really, and it would add a bit of variety to use to different voices. There are also russian voice in case you need them, but i think i am only going to give the german vocies a try.

Yeah, that happens sometimes with 155mm shells. But your units were quite bunched up, keep them further apart and arty wont be that devastating. BTW whose icon mod mis this and where can i get it?

What do you achieve here except mischief? None of us here can directly influence the development of CM, only Steve and other BFC employees can, so the rational thing to do would be to take your suggestions for improvement to them and not to us, who we here are condemmed to be nothing but mere observers of what BFC does or doesnt. That does not necessarily mean that they havent read your messages or considered your suggestions. But their lack of repsonse to your suggestions could easily be interpreted as disinterest or disagreement with you, which would settle the case: the answear is "no". Be mature and accept that, it' s their company, their game and their financial risk if they pursue an economical strategy that will lead them nowhere as you say.

Please, can we stop this discussion? I dont not see it leading anywhere, both side are just digging their trenches deeper and deeper. Wiggum why dont you write a ticket at helpdesk or a PM directly to Steve?

Well isnt 4th July an important holyday in the US, with lot of fireworks and parades and stuff? I suggest you meet some friends, drink some beer and blow up some firerworks. EDIT: And dont forget the BBQ!

Ohh, Battlefronts business model! We havent discussed that for at least a month or so. This just never gets boring it seems.

LOL i gotta watch that movie.

Despite all the room for improvement that there certainly is, it is still very user friendly compared to other level editors i have used. Price = (man-hours * wage per hour) / expected number of copies sold. It' s a niche market, which means that the number of copies sold is compareably low, hence in order to get an appropriate wage per hour per man, the price per implemented feature needs to be higher compared to a mainstream game with hundereds of thousand of copies sold. If, by law, every US citizen was required to purchase one copy of every CM game, the price per game could be in the single cent range and BFC could still make a living from it. If onyl a single copy of each game was sold, the price per copy would have to be in the upper 7 digit dollar range. EDIT: It wasnt intended to be that funny, but great you had a good laugh. Regarding representative pricing, let' s look at a little example. CMBN man-hours = 10000 Wage per hour per man = 65 USD * Expected numbers of copies sold: 10000 => game price 65 USD. *That sounds like a lot but keep in mind that there are taxes and other additional expenses, like rent for the office, etc - i have a small business and i calculate 60€ per man-hour and i couldnt charge less because, with all the expenses i have (tax, rent, equipment, software licenses), there would be nothing left for me! If now CMFI was less work intensive to make than CMBN, let' s say 5000 man-hours, while the other values stay the same, we would get a price of 32,50 USD. Battlefront sells their games at 55 USD, which is probably some sort of average value, so it' s not representative for the work-hours required to produce each single title.

Nope, i didnt know that and i think it is irrelevant to my point. The prices i names named in the post you quoted were mere example, as i said, just to show the concept i am talking about. Persoanlly I am fine with the current prices and 55$ is a usual prices for a 3D strategy/tactics game. But that does not necessarily mean that this is a price representative for the work that went into making the game. I disagree with that because, and i now have the pleasure to quote myself; I think that it' s unlikely that the current prices are fully represenative. I think that they are within an appropriate scope, but they could, in theory, certainly be more represantative. We would need more information to accurately judge how representaive are, but i call plausibility to the witness box and ask you: how likely do you think it is that a copmpany can produce 4 obviously very different products and invest exactely the same amount of man-hours each time? I didnt say i want anything cheaper, if this statement was directed at me, you are unjustifiably generalizing here. In fact, i said that, for example, I think CMBN could be sold at a higher price than it currently is because i think that, based on what i know, which admittedly is not much but still more than nothing, it was more time-consuming to make than the other post-CMBN CMx2 WW2 titles. But whether or no i am right regarding the particular case of CMBN or CMRT doesnt affect the concept i am talking about.

The best feature regarding maps is the editor overlay that was introduce with the CMx2 v2.0 upgrade, IMO. Do you have any idea how awful it was to build highly accurate maps from satelite images in CMSF? I had to print out the satelite images i wanted to use, draw a coordinate grid on them and then transfer the terrain square per square into the Scenario Editor. But now, with the editor overlay, makeing maps from satelite images is so fast, it' s really cool.

I agree -partially- with Wiggum as well. To me more specific, i agree with the following part of Wiggums critique: BFC could vary game prices on the amount of recycled content and the actual man-hours invested in making a new game. This could result in more representative prices. For example, CMBN (base game), with all the newly created vehicles, engine features, textures, buildings, etc could be sold for 75$, while CMRT, which has a certain amount of recycled content and only some new ground tiles, buildings and 1 new faction and some new engine features could be sold for, let' s say 37,50$ (CMBN/2). CMFI could be sold for the same price as CMRT. CMBS is difficult to rate, because on the one hand you have some obviously recycled content (some textures, 3D models, etc), but on the other hand there are lots of new engine and gameplay features (APS, LWR, SAMS, etc), so i would rate it somwhere in between the previous titles at 56,25$. Of course these examples are not actual pricing recommendations but just supposed to illustrate the concept i am having in mind. EDIT: Currently all base games (except from CMSF and CMA) cost exactely 55$ USD, and i doubt that they really invested exactely the same amount of time in the development of each title, hence i have to agree with Wiggum that the prices are not necessarily a representative compensation for BFCs work, which is what he is criticizing. Now, of course someone is going to bring up the arguement that in our capistalist society work and items are normally sold for exactley that amount of money that the highest bidder is willing to pay and that, would BFCs prices really be inapproriate in a capitalist sense, the market would "punish" them and force them to sell their games at lower prices. But in fact, this has absolutely nothing to do with how representative the prices of their games are for the invested man-hours - a smart salesman would always sell his work for as much as he can and not for as much as would be representative for the invested man-hours. The question now is: is that behaviour morally acceptable? Or would it be more moral to have a more representative pricing policy instead of a classic capitalist one? It' s difficult answear that, i think. Is anyone interested in derailing this thread into a lengthy philosophical discussion about captialism vs. fair trade vs. marxism? I will be in front of my PC the whole afternooon, got some office work to do.

His fault was that he didnt take care of the necessary paperwork. Collecting deactivated arms is entirely legal in Germany, but if the german law classifies them as "weapons of war" (RGPs, howitzers, tanks, etc), you need a license and proof they have been properly deactivated. His small arms (about 70 rifles, pistols, etc) were all registered, but he had no papers for the big stuff. The authorities will now check whether or not his heavy weapons are properly deactivated and then a court will decide whether or not he gets his collection back. If he gets it back, he will probably have to pay a hefty fine though, + the costs for all the legal proceedings. I think the authorities reacted appropriately. Source: http://www.kn-online.de/News/Aktuelle-Nachrichten-Ploen/News-Aktuelle-Nachrichten-Ploen/Staatsanwaltschaft-sucht-in-Heikendorf-nach-Kriegswaffen-aus-dem-2.-Weltkrieg

What amuses me most ist that he had torpedo. A freaking Torpedo! Calibre 533mm and filled with about half a ton of high explosives! According to one of articles, he initially even had more than just one torpedo but he sold the others... my guess is because he couldnt get a submarine.

According to german newspapers, they also found an anti-tank gun. Some of his neighbours in the village where he lives (Heikendorf) knew he was collecting arms, he also was occasionally seen driving around in one of his tracked vehicles. More images: Sources: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/menschen/weltkriegspanzer-in-keller-entdeckt-13681655.html http://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article143477395/Weltkriegs-Panzer-aus-Ostsee-Villa-geborgen.html

BTW If you ever make a sound mod again, i could try doing the germans. I am sure you had a lot fun making Mords Vocal Mayham Mod.