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HerrTom

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Posts posted by HerrTom

    Update on Engine 4 patches

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    On 4/6/2019 at 11:11 AM, absolutmauser said:

    What better time than to establish with your new bride that she has married both HerrTom and Combat Mission and should expect that between 10 and 40 hours per week will be dedicated to small unit actions? 

    Oh, definitely small unit actions. Wait, in CM? Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be her cup of tea. Maybe I can convince her yet...

    Thanks for the kind words everyone!

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    Update on Engine 4 patches

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    19 hours ago, Thewood1 said:

    Graviteam is not a huge team.  Its a few guys.  Their PR person is the main dev.  He can be a dick, but part of it is a language issue, with a little cultural issue thrown in.  Graviteam responds daily to comments in their forum on Steam.  And they do basically monthly updates to address any issues that come up.  And they are very interactive with their customers on issues with the game and suggestions for change.

    I agree. I love Andrey though. He's clearly passionate about what he does.

    WRT the patch. My guess is it's going to release during my wedding or honeymoon this month, such that I won't be able to play for half a month! :D That's how these things go, right?

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    A discussion about tactics of each military

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 2

    Posted

    17 hours ago, General Jack Ripper said:

    That's why I was wondering about the differences between game settings, because I do recall specific discussion regarding how Syrian buildings seemed bulletproof, and then people posting photos and videos showing how solid that type of brick and concrete construction really is.
    Like little fortresses.

    In The Bear Went Over the Mountain there are many examples of Mujahadeen fighters fortifying in compounds in villages. The 40th Army had tonnes of trouble reducing those strongholds, even with BMP, tank, and artillery and aviation support.

    The houses are practically pillboxes!

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    "Beam up some ammo Scottie"

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 2

    Posted · Edited by HerrTom

    22 hours ago, MOS:96B2P said:

    I've not tested this but the behavior doesn't surprise me.  The ammo sharing distance is 16 meters (2 action spots).  This distance is determined on the horizontal plane with the vertical probably ignored.  So in an extreme case a fire team at the top of a 14 floor building in CMBS could probably share ammo with a fire team (same platoon) outside on the ground and within two action spots of the building.  Same for the case you are showing in the screenshot which is easier to believe than my extreme 14 floor example.   

    I don't believe that the vertical component is ignored.  I can't prove it right now, but I recall in the CMBS scenario Brutal that a Konkurs team on the top of the tall apartment building in the back of the map couldn't get ATGM ammo from the BTR at the base.  Must have been a 10 story or higher building.

    Edit:
    Though it may be a 16 meter sphere, if you know what I mean.  Not the distance someone would have to run to get there.

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    No Tracers

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 2

    Posted

    2 hours ago, 37mm said:

    I've been watching videos of Abram tanks firing so there's that to do. Not all the tracers are done (though red & green for CMSF2 are), I'm still not happy with the explosions (I can see HerrToms problems with them).

    I imagine i'll want to wash my hands of the project within a week or so.

    Yeah, I never really got to where I wanted to get with FX modding myself. The system is surprisingly limited!

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    HerrTom's explosions

    in CM Black Sea Maps and Mods

    Posted

    1 hour ago, CMFDR said:

    Added to CMModsIII so more gamers can enjoy it, and get you feedbacks, hopefully.

    http://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?p=8056

    Thank you for sharing @HerrTom

    Thanks! I'm kicking myself because I kept forgetting to do it myself!

    6 hours ago, Jjduston said:

    Long time lurker here, this leaves me speechless its just 'whoa'. Do you have any plans to further this?

    I have some vague plans to try again with a smoother transition to smoke and making it a little wispier, but haven't come to fruition yet 

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    Turning your favourite wargame into a CM scenario

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    I admit, I wasn't really planning on doing this.  I was mostly curious what other CM'ers played and if there were any good ones to add to my cardboard closet. 😎  Perhaps I didn't frame that well.  Nonetheless, I think there's good advice here.  I've made some four scenarios (finished, though without AI - still trying to figure out how to do that well) and can understand quite well how difficult getting something really good must be.

    Regardless, my example has battalion-scale units fighting over the whole of Berlin on 1-km hexes on 4-hour turns.  Playing a match earlier had me thinking how the CRT really translates to combat, and how you could really zoom in there to make some interesting Combat Mission scenarios showing, for example, the plight of one of the East German battalions pushing across the Glienicker Bridge into the Grunewald.  It certainly doesn't capture the entirety of the game, but it can capture the essence.  Or capture the stubborn resistance of a police unit facing a battalion of Grenztruppen trying to force their way through their street.

    To that extent, I don't think you need to capture the entirety of anything to get good mileage out of the thought, just a creative microscope.

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    Turning your favourite wargame into a CM scenario

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    While going about my mellow Saturday afternoon,  I had a thought on the number of paper-and-chipboard wargames I have in my closet:  How would I turn them into a Combat Mission scenario/campaign/game etc.?

    Some of them are pretty ripe (I think) for interesting missions.  My personal favourite is actually the first wargame I ever played: Berlin '85 published by SPI.  It details a potential (and at the time, future) attack on West Berlin by Warsaw Pact forces in the 1980s.  It's been criticised as having a somewhat bloody CRT, though from playing CM it seems urban combat on the battalion level is a deadly affair!

    I can imagine some interesting scenarios detailing the initial assault over Checkpoint Charlie or defence of the airport at Gatow or Tempelhof for some heavily mechanised urban warfare.  It might even be pretty doable using CM:SF2!

    So, what would you do if you had the time/energy/inclination? 😎 

    1

    A question about cover

    in Combat Mission Black Sea

    Posted

    4 hours ago, ctcharger said:

    The ATGM was outside in that first wooded zone east/right of town.  They were "nervous" but otherwise OK.

    I've had the same thing happen. Tank, spotted, sitting in the wide open and a Konkurs more than a km away staring at him for several minutes without firing.

    1

    CMSF2 RPG-7 & Warheads, Slat & ERA Armor - Capabilities and Limits Player Guide

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 2

    Posted · Edited by HerrTom
    Edit, because it posted instead of letting me edit!

    6 hours ago, IICptMillerII said:

    Very much depends on the warhead. Single warheads stand a pretty decent chance of being defeated by ERA, whereas more modern tandem HEAT warheads are designed to defeat ERA, and top attack designed to avoid it all together. Though it's not impossible for ERA to defeat tandem heat warheads. I've seen a javelin missile or two defeated by the top turret ERA on a T-72 in SF2. I think the logic behind applying the ERA is that even if it only improves you chances of survival by 10% (or some other marginal percentage) it's certainly better than nothing. 

    Indeed this may be true, but I think the key thing is that even traditional (i.e. non-tandem) warheads aren't really defeated by ERA, just diminished. I found a (wicked cool) shadowgraph showing the instability of the jet as it passes through an ERA panel.

    013005amj4.jpeg

    There is still kinetic energy there - just less.  My speculation was whether you could plant a panel on a BMP-3 that is both A) Powerful enough to disrupt the jet such that it can't penetrate the Papier Mache that the designers call "armour" and B ) isn't so powerful that it caves in the hull.

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    CMSF2 RPG-7 & Warheads, Slat & ERA Armor - Capabilities and Limits Player Guide

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 2

    Posted

    I also believe the explanation of ERA is also slightly incorrect. ERA is an explosive sandwich, with metal plates on both sides. When triggered, the plate is forced into the metallic jet from the HEAT warhead, causing it to deform and break up, reducing it's penetration ability (a fact which makes me wonder how effective ERA actually is on thin skinned vehicles like the BMP-3). So ERA doesn't really pre-detonate the incoming warhead, it's usually triggered by it!

    This is the mechanism which allows ERA to also be effective against kinetic rounds too.

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    Shock Force 2 Unofficial Screenshot And Video Thread

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 2

    Posted

    11 hours ago, IanL said:

    Wow that blurred background that makes it look like a camera took the picture is really nice.

    I personally don't like all this yucky colour filtering that people are using reshade for  - heck I don't like movie mode (yes, I like the true to life colours from CMBN :-). Is it possible to use reshade to get the depth of field effect without messing with the colour rendering?

    Absolutely - they're all standalone shaders you can mix and match as you see fit.  Me, I'm angsty and gritty so I play with the colours.  But that's just me.

    BxfoLSO.png

    Want only depth effects like Depth of Field and Ambient Occlusion? Check.

    9sS8KBo.png

    Or maybe you want to pretend its' 1999 again? :D  Good days.

    The possibilities are endless!

    1

    Concept: Forum Operational Campaign

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    7 hours ago, DerKommissar said:

    By platform, in that regard, I mean means of communication between players, generals and GM. So where TO&Es will be stored, where orders will be declared and updates posted.

    Roll20 does all these things, it's a pen&paper RPG simulator. But you do need to register for an account and take a few moments to learn the interface. Which if people already have accounts and are fairly familiar with the interface, that's good. If people don't want extra hassle, that's also understandable.

    I just checked out Vassal, yeah -- roll20 is pretty much that except browser based. A good free option. I'm curious how it handles rule checking?

    Google Docs is another platform we could use, easy to make interactive sheets, post rules and campaign updates.

    I am currently entertaining a narrative-based system like the 'Matrix' one suggested, with Roll20. Players being able to improvise and write up non-standard solutions. Limited mostly by the RL capabilities of the systems, and GM's discretion. So players will end up caring more about their units rather than rules. So for example, an artillery system will only be able to provide fire within its real range (Roll20 has a convenient ruler for that).

    Sounds like a good fit.  VASSAL is really designed as a virtual tabletop - no rules checking AFAIK.

    Colour me interested as well.

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