Jump to content
Special Upgrade 4 Tech Tips

HerrTom

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    759

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

 Content Type 

Posts posted by HerrTom

    HerrTom's explosions

    in CM Black Sea Maps and Mods

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Mord said:

    The vehicle penetration explosion is down right brilliant and immersive as hell. The ground explosions look great too. The one problem is when things get big and boomy. The texture expands and looks like gray burlap. If you zoom in on your bmp files you can see the banding in them. It must get exaggerated with the increase in size.

    That's definitely true, not sure how much I can do about it.  I have a bunch of explosion animations that I've collected on my computer, many of which I've drawn myself (don't ask me why - I'm not sure myself) and this one ended up looking the best.  This one was collected from some video which probably reduced its quality.

    1 hour ago, Mord said:

    Here's a vid. You can really see the weirdness on the third and fourth boom booms.

    Nice boom booms, I dig.  What I really want to do, and may be inspired to do, is take the explosion animation all the way to the smoke bitmap, so that it's perhaps more seamless?

    0

    BUGS! BUGS! BUGS!

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, c3k said:

    The "Self Propelled Gu" is the German spelling. In English, it's the "Self Propelled Goo". That big tube sticking out the front? It's the Goo Projector. The idea was to lay down a zone of Super Goo; kinda like fly paper. The enemy infantry and vehicles would get stuck and then they would be easy pickings.

    Welcome back!

    Almost - Gewehr der Unterstützung - lit. gun of support.  It does exactly what it says on the tin!  Technically it should be Selbstfahrlette Gewehr der Unterstützung mit besonderem Schwachsinn, or Sfl. GeUnStütz mit bes. SSinn.  (Gotta love those abbreviations, eh?)

    @Mord Great to meet you!  I admire your attention to detail here and elsewhere. :) 

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Battlefront.com said:

    I don't have time to check this in detail, but the BTRs are next to the T-72 so they are considered "in contact".  Remember, the rule is C2 communications *or* LOS.  So as far as I know what you just posted is consistent with what I described.

    I'm sorry - the BTRs in the background which are a couple of hundred meters behind the group of 3 tanks.

    Is it because in replay there are tentative contacts on the other BTRs that they don't dim?  If that's the case, then I'm sorry - I only really have played the modern games significantly.

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by HerrTom

    On 10/26/2017 at 7:38 PM, Battlefront.com said:

    Orders Phase in WeGo does, however, provide this same information by dimming the floating icons of those which aren't in C2 or LOS.  So what you get in WeGo is the same information as RT, but in a less restrictive way.

    Wait a minute... isn't that just showing the other units at that organizational level?

    Maybe it's the icon mods or something but you can see it in my CM:A screenshots (behaviour is the same in CMBS and CMFB)

    XdKZSMP.png

    Mister T-62 has good contact with the two BTRs along the road, as well as his buddies.  But in orders:

    tzbLHVV.png

    There is no dimming for units out of contact... all the BTRs are the same colour.

    I completely understand if you don't want to spend the resources fixing it - since it's quite a niche problem (that clearly only a select few care about!), but it regardless doesn't appear to do what you're saying.

    Cheers!

    On 10/27/2017 at 5:25 AM, sburke said:

    Iron mode rulzzz!  Other modes droolzzz!  :D

    :D Don't drool too much now... it's hard to clean from your keyboard!

     

    Edit: @kraze I think the "replay" bit is a bit more nuanced than that - it appears it precalculates everything for we-go and replays it.  Spitballing, but it probably simulates where all the units go, makes rolls for whatever it needs to, then records whatever results it gets to replay it back.  In real time mode, this is happening, well, real time.  To get a replay there'd have to be a lot of swapping or disk writing or something to get that when I don't think the engine is set up for that kind of action!  (I agree, full replays would be awesome, though I dread to think about how big they'd be.  Each turn I sent for Road to Odessa was like 40 Mb!  Imagine that over 120 turns - 5 Gb!)

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Battlefront.com said:

    Orders Phase in WeGo does, however, provide this same information by dimming the floating icons of those which aren't in C2 or LOS.  So what you get in WeGo is the same information as RT, but in a less restrictive way.

    Man, I feel dumb now.  That's the missing link!  I for some reason had it in my head that that happened in all the other modes too... shows what I know! <_<

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Machor said:

    I wouldn't be able to do that without the Iron mode.

    I told myself I was going to leave this thread - but this keeps coming up and I'm going to try one more time to clarify this.  People keep saying that - how does Iron mode let you do this compared to the other modes?  I'm genuinely curious here.  I'm not sure what will help it get through my thick skull - a couple of screenshots or something detailing how you do it?  If you don't want to bother, no worries! ;)

    1 hour ago, Battlefront.com said:

    That sorta happens in CM right now, except that you do get that information when you click on the unit in question.  And that is mandatory because you are not the overall commander when you click on that unit, you are the Team or Squad Leader of that unit.

    But only with enemy units unless you're playing Real Time in which case this will happen with friendly units in Iron mode.  And that isn't supposed to happen in WeGo, correct?

    1 hour ago, Battlefront.com said:

    The C2 is how we get Relative Spotting, which IMHO is the core of the entire game's realism.

    Out of curiosity, does C2 affect anything else, like morale for example?  Or is it solely an information pipeline?

    Sorry for all the questions, Steve.

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    But how does iron give you any idea about C2 like sburke was saying if it literally does nothing during the command phase where that kind of information is useful? Do you go through your units in the replay phase and memorize the patterns? Why not behave like it does in the replay phase where that information is not useful? It just seems a little backwards. I'm not trying to be combative here, it just seems like you're writing off a central feature in Iron as WAD when it's clearly inconsistent.

    In the end its your  game so do what you want, I'll still be a customer B)

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by HerrTom

    Thanks Steve!  In case you want screenshot proof - I took some just now.

    Unit selected in replay phase:

    fJxfuox.png

     

    Unit selected in orders phase:

    pbicYaO.png

    Pardon the different camera angles. :) 

     

    And it's the same in CM:A which definitely isn't engine 4 haha!

    In replay phase:

    XdKZSMP.png

    In command phase:

    tzbLHVV.png

     

    Edit: This is why I was so confused in this thread - since what people were saying happens in-game versus what actually happens seemed to be completely different things to me! :blink:

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, CAS said:

    In WEGO you can always see all units while giving orders anyway.

    So it's good to see I'm not the only one.  I don't think I've ever played real time since I've gotten the game!

    Funnily enough, the v4.00 game manual says this about Iron mode:

    • Iron is an optional setting that goes even one step further than Elite, and introduces special restrictions on what the player can do and when. While even more realistic than the other settings, this option introduces a number of interface limitations which might put off the casual player, so it is strictly an optional choice. 
      • Friendly units need to be spotted just like enemy units. If you have a friendly unit not in line of sight or in contact with another friendly unit, then the only way to find this unit is by either re-establishing contact with another friendly unit or by clicking through the chain of command in the game interface, jumping from unit to unit

    Clearly the mode doesn't even do what Battlefront intended (indeed what they wrote in their manual)!  I can see why they're reluctant to add more things to it or add another mode like Sly mentioned.  The inconsistent behaviour between RT and WeGo for this mode further confounds the issue - almost makes it seem like it was never really fully implemented...

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

    Iron mode makes it more difficult to get a big picture view of the battlefield, which interferes/retards strategic planning and tactical micromanagement

    I don't really get this because it really doesn't. Maybe I'm missing something but everything appears the same to me except if I select a unit during the replay phase. Everything else looks exactly the same as the other difficulties.

    I see your point. Things like command delay work in games like FPCRS or Graviteam Tactics because it's acceptable on that scale in the former and there is a more independent AI in the latter compared to CM's tighter scale and finer control.

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    Something occured to me. What about never getting solid contacts from units out of C2? You can still react as the NCO that there is an enemy down the street but it becomes much more limiting in how the player is able to process the information?

    Or with order delays, short distances have zero delay to allow you to get out of Dodge City, but you can't get them to hump it across the battlefield?

    I like the idea of increased fog of war, just trying to think of some solutions to the stated problems, even though it seems very unlikely to be implemented! B)

    0

    Irratic Framerate Issue

    in CM2 General Tech Support

    Posted

    Is CM2 really large address aware? I haven't really looked to see, but the normal limit for 32 bit programs was 2 gb, less than 32 bits would have you believe. I think this had something to do with  leaving RAM for  the OS and background apps to keep them front crashing, but don't quote me on that!

    0

    A More Realistic Iron Mode?

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

     I'm a little lost, I have to admit. Iron mode restricts what you can see when you're selecting a unit in replay mode but in the orders phase doesn't appear to do anything. What real gameplay effect does it have beyond other settings that puts it similar to this (cool) suggestion.

    I'm particularly a fan of the C2 restrictions. I play computer games so I don't have to do the bookkeeping like in the classics. While I like the idea and would use it, I don't think I'd go out of my way to use Bil's Aide de Camp...

    0

    By the Beautiful Blue Dniepr

    in Combat Mission Black Sea

    Posted

    Expanded the buildings that (I believe) represent part of the 208th Guards Air Defence Brigade.  Barracks are below.

    KnGJR6c.png

    If they weren't part of the brigade before, they are now!

    JuUSGug.png

    Looking back to the Dniepr from higher up.

    QKREDa7.png

    I changed the weather conditions to match the actual day this takes place on (thanks @Ithikial_AU and @IanL for bothering to put together that data! :wub:)  Here we look from ground level back to the river in the same spot.  Mostly to show off the haze effect that I added to reshade to better reflect the conditions: foggy and warm.

    I also replaced the highway bridge with a rail bridge like it's supposed to be!  I'm thinking of adding an objective for the Ukrainians to evacuate the SAM complex, while the Russians need to search the buildings and exit their troops off-map.

    0

    Ukrainian "Guardian" Tank Supporting Vehicle

    in Combat Mission Black Sea

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

    Well, depending on what "near" is that sounds right to me.  I'm guessing what that thread is talking about isn't "2m above the engine deck" or "1m directly above the turret top".

    Steve

    I'm definitely not talking about ATGM warheads!  I was looking at artillery shells in nearby hits within around 10 meters.  It's the fragments from the shell that pose a danger though, not the blast itself.  As far as I know, ATGM warheads don't produce much heavy fragmentation, so you'd only be worried about the 'jet' of metal from the HEAT warhead.

    0
×
×
  • Create New...