slippy

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you have a lovely time with family and loved ones xx

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you have a lovely time with family and loved ones xx

Thanks theforger that's Christmas week taken care of 😉
 
Really appreciate the hours of hard work you must have put into this mate
 
regards
 
slipper

Thank you Falaise, I will be trying these out straight away. Appreciate the time and effort put in mate 

Here is the new version of the 4 months June July August and September (for @Aragorn2002) which uses @Lucky_Strike mods.
it works on the same principle as the previous version
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gusx1a43oah26px/AAAegFjxuQtbkwb0s58cgNgma?dl=0
 
The goal is to use as many of the fantastic of @Lucky-Strike bmps as possible over the course of the four months.
I took the time to be able to compare and refine, watching the evolution of nature during these 4 months. The richness of the lucky strike mod offers a (very) large number of combinations!!
 
In addition to the Lucky Strike mods other are original textures
I also tweaked the Ramblers mod for the trees by changing the colors and mixing them with the stock and Lucky Strike ones to break the repeat effect.
You will also find the plowed fields of Kieme and Aris modified so that the colors match the Norman soil which is brown.
Finally the whole has been reworked in color and saturation.
For reasons of balance so that if you are flush with the ground or at half height and height, some BMP does not appear "tackled" giving an unpleasant effect
 
You will also find a multitude of small insignificant details but which to put together give a real impression of the Normandy countryside.
 
 The mods that I offer you, largely build and combine with these original textures, I advise you to remove all other vegetation and terrain mods to get the best result.
 
There are 6 files: one called land of Normandy
 
This is to be permanently installed in the z folder
 
Then 5 other files called June, Wet July and Dry July, August and September which must be installed as desired in z
 
You have to choose depending on the scenario which you are going to install in z. As soon as you take a scenario that changes months, all you have to do is put the corresponding "month" folder, thinking that you have deleted the previous "month" folder.
 
 “Rendons a César ce qui est a César”
Without the existence of  @Lucky-Strike  Hedgerow hell mod, this mod would have been impossible. BIG BIG THANK you to him
 I invite you to watch the post very carefully and strongly advise you to use "zzzzzz-LS-new-bocage-straight-1" which gives a big plus to the general aspect of the game
 

june

wet july

dry july

august

september

Tiger in august !!

 

Thanks!!  CMRT Scenario Alarmeinheiten. 




 
 

The longer German campaign is designed in 3 phases, just like the Soviet one. The Germans get armor reassignments just about every 3 battles (Konrad I,II,II - KG Darges/Wiking twice, and once with s PzAbt 509).
It is winnable (in game terms), but it’s the tougher of them - it’s the German side in 1945. The infantry need to watch out for taking losses in that campaign - a concern of the Soviets at this point, as well. Both are designed to highlight the issues that both forces faced historically. This is also highlighted in the lack of transport for the German side during Konrad I-III. Getting that balance is the trick with campaigns based upon historical situations where one force is the focus.

Okay here you go guys, a sample of the proposed style of new bocage to try out, grab it here for a limited time ... unzip it and drop it in your z folder, it should override anything else you have installed. Couple of things to point out: this is just one section, the rest of your bocage will still be the same as you normally play with; if you take a look in the extracted folder (I hope you do) you will notice there are some textures with names that are not used anywhere else in game. This is how I am managing to add extra features to the bocage - eg your ash sapling - and NOT affect the game default bocage nor trees and brush etc. If you don't like it delete the folder and your bocage will be back to plain vanilla.
Enjoy!

You amaze us all again Lucky Strike, incredible work mate again. I would definitely like to try it out please.
Regards

Thanks @Erwin @JM Stuff @slippy @Aragorn2002 your support is much appreciated.
I'll bundle this section up so you can try it yourselves.
Always in the grand scheme. I have experimented with autumn leaves. It's not so much work to make them and is a natural progression from the summer mods. I will probably finish BN and RT summer mods along with some extras for MG before moving onto the autumn/winter sets for FB and RT. Now that I have some repeatable methodology it's all a bit more straightforward. Finally I will look at what I can do for the sprawling mod set for FI. Side benefit is that anyone who plays BS (I don't and have no inclination to) can easily port this stuff to that for themselves with very little effort. It will also partly work in SF2 and maybe CW, but, again, I won't be supporting those games.
For trees I am creating new mdrs and LOD packs, reusing my previous leaf branch texture mods from Hedgerow Hell. LODs for trees need to look like the normal model otherwise there is quite a bit of flickering between LODs over distances. I spent the best part of a week figuring out how the various levels of LOD relate to distance and what is used when, also in relation to game options detail settings.
For the Bocage I am making new mdrs except for what are called endcaps in the mdr object groups, whilst again reusing the leaf branch textures I made previously with some minor reworks for practical reasons. There seem to be some quite specific naming of meshes within the various bocage mdrs which I am carefully trying to stick with since I believe these parts are referenced elsewhere. But there are also instances of seemingly random naming schemata which I don't think are referenced. Bocage is unique within the game foliage, they are treated differently in terms of rendering in game, they have a randomisation element which none of the other foliage have, they are treated as walls when adding to maps and can be combined with other foliage, whereas other foliage cannot reside on the same square together. I also did some blowin' sh*t up experiments with bocage to see what happens to the variously named parts if different names are used. With trees if part names are changed then the tree does not destruct in the expected way, disappearing all at once or suddenly going leafless for instance. With bocage it's either there or gone so far as I could determine. I dropped prolonged barrages of 170mm cannon and 301mm nebelwerfer on a bunch of bocage which made one or two holes in it, the rest just stayed intact, even the added ash sapling was unaffected by direct impacts, until it disappeared along with it's associated bocage section. The game does not treat bocage in the same way as it treats trees and bushes in this respect - in my view a partial oversight.
In terms of their LODs - the ones that exist in game are basically the most distant and only seem to get used when in God's-eye view, and there is only the one LOD for all types of shapes of bocage. I will probably leave these LODs alone since anything I make will not really impact play or improve the visuals of the game particularly.
In summary, and to hopefully give you all something to look forward to, I am now able to magic up new trees, bushes (essentially small trees) and bocage models using Blender, and, importantly, make them work as expected in game, so I can now move on to the making rather than messing about with Blender for interminable hours trying to fathom such an illogical interface.

Yes i defintley agree with yu on this point Lucky Strike, less paved and cobbles and more 'dirt' road/track

Never saw this 1977 gem in my entire career as a Soviet Threat Analyst, a career which began in 1978. Not only does this show the ins and outs of the T-62 and how it operates with BMP-1s and AT-3 armed BRDMs, but it shows US capabilities, too, including the hulldown disparity, telltale reload indicator, low T-62 ROF and more. On the US end, everything from tanks to tacair and scatterable mines (by automatic minelayer or helicopter dispenser) are all there to see. Nor is the terrain the sere NTC, but someplace very European looking. Not only is there lots of great footage, but some remarkable model work, too. Of particular intetest to players will be the comments on open fire ranges, engagememt philoposophies, ammo selection and other game useful groggery. 

Offhand, I can't think of a better intro to the real world which CMCW seeks to depict.
 
Regards,

John Kettler

Yes, just to confirm what Erwin said really Lucky Strike, it's only a game after all mate 😉.
Agree on finding the best way forward, I do definitely like the idea of one texture for all.
May load the free Photoshop alternative and have a look. If anyone knows any tutorials and/or can upload some samples of what they have done maybe.

Thanks Erwin. It's only a game after all ...
This has been a very interesting exploration of some possibilities and we will definitely be making something from it, so keep an eye out for developments ...
Your support is always welcome (as of course are monetary and alcoholic donations 😉)

I will have to take another look at these and compare to Aris's, verge creep is a serious business. Aris's textures are great but strangely they are not all the same resolution. It doesn't really matter in game that much, it's just something that I personally find a little odd, but there may well be a good reason for it.
I also think before going any further with this mod we should probably try to figure the best most efficient way forward. I personally now have so many projects on the go I'm beginning to feel a little @kohlenklau'd 😉. Need to take stock for a little bit.

Brilliant work Lucky Strike! That is what I hoped for, but i must say you have implemented it better than I imagined.
Yes i think a lot of the larger paved roads could be reclaimed in this way. In towns and cities after all the aerial bombardment, artillery, and general fighting, a lot of the roads would have had the appearance of your pictures anyway i believe.
For me personally this would be the way to go, even better if they replace stock textures so that all the current maps are affected.
I know you mention its for a different thread but your last picture of the sunken lane does look very promising. Without knowing how you did it, could the same be done with walls/fences/buildings either side?
 
regards
 
slippy

Gents I'm full of ideas, but have very little knowledge of paint shop and making textures sorry. I did make some for IL-2 quite a few years ago, but I've probably forgotten most of what I learned at the time.
I could have a go but I will have to do some serious revision.
JM, apologies I have not had time to try your textures yet mate, busy with work and kids at the moment.
Are there any tutorials for modding textures in CM?
Cheers all

Yes that why I mentioned all road types having the same texture, so the demarcation is less noticeable
 

Yes that why I mentioned all road types having the same texture, so the demarcation is less noticeable
 

@JM Stuff has already been in the Red Army !!!!

I am not convinced of this mod for CM Normandie or possibly for certain scenarios or campaigns concerning Goodwwod Cobra or the Falaise pocket
on the other hand it is in my opinion essential for muddy roads CM Final Blitzkrieg with tank imprint for the autumn and winter fights
I was interested to know what the roads of Normandy looked like in 1944
The majority of the dual-track roads were tarred and the original color shade in the game is pretty much the real thing, slightly pink (I even looked at an abandoned stretch of road from the 1950s to get the color)

although I think that like today there was a many shade of color
no paved road except in big cities and still not everywhere, especially in squares
the streets of towns and villages were generally tarrred
the countryside and the secondary roads were covered with MacAdam, a mixture of limestone and white lime
I tried a rainy road
but that need to load the mod according to the scenario or to make a rain tag
what was missing are the famous trackprints
if  @JM Stuff can make relief imprints in the mud then and in particular for CMFB it will become essential

JM 
To be honest, I can't remember exactly how it was implemented. I did have a go myself, but with limited knowledge of graphics software it's not something that stuck in my mind mate, old age and all that 😉.
Yes your results look very good. Some good results were obtained n Il2, especially on grass tiles, as it gave it a good 3d relief.
 
I'll see if I can find the info and post it up over the weekend.
Well done JM, great work
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

After months in the making, I have finally completed my campaign Valleys of Death. It turned our to be quite an ambitious project, with 11 missions!
The campaign revolves around a US Army light infantry company, manning a remote combat outpost in an Afghanistan inspired terrain.
Unlike classic CMSF, which highly favors shock and awe and maneuver warfare, Valleys of Death deals with the issues of small units operating in a clearly defined AO. This means that, like in real life, you will conduct operations on the same map many times, with each mission focusing on different areas and objectives. By the end you will come to know the area very well, and this knowledge is key to defeat the enemy.
Features:
    11 missions     A large 2X2 km map and 2 additional maps     Modern counter-insurgency infantry combat     Heavily inspired by Afghanistan related media (Restrepo, Taking Fire, etc.)     Base game, no modules needed



 
Download from Dropbox
Please let me know ASAP if this link doesn't work! I'm not exactly a Dropbox wizz  

I just started playing with this rules and must say I really like them... have not played Combat Mission for quite some time...
Regarding the fire arcs discussion this was one thing that came up in a recent scenario I was playing (single player) and my house rule was to give a cutoff squad or fire-team a choice between trying to fulfill the original order (if able) or go into self preservation mode. I would "role-play" that on a case by case scenario... to be honest that seem to be a very difficult way to write down in hard fast rules when a unit happens to violate an order.
Once a unit or team start panicking or become pinned and/or receiving heavy casualties AND become separated from it's platoon I would likely force them into a self preservation mode and only allow them to fire on anything unless fired upon until they regain C2 with its platoon leader or another HQ unit. This will make me even more forced in C2 as a unit that is pinned and seriously shaken would suddenly forgive orders and just hide unless the enemy get really close to their position. If they have not already bolted they would fire, of course they may fire if fired upon in every case.
But unless the unit was separated from it's platoon under chaotic circumstances there should be very few cases they would change their standing order. 
There also are those situation when a platoon is defending a stretched out area and being out of C2 is a product of design. In those circumstances the squad or team in question are likely to stubbornly follow the last order until the HQ reestablishes contact. The same could happen on a battle drill on the attack. A team might get an order that will take them outside of C2 for an extended period. The team or squad then have to perform that "order" the best of their ability. In my opinion this is also try about recon... they will get an order of what to do and come back or hold position. When **** hit the fan then they will fall into self preservation mode and a different ruleset should apply.
There also is the option of detaching a scout team from an isolated section to run back and find their HQ and report any development and request any new orders. Even a panicked squad might do this after they run off and hide in a forest nearby. Or a platoon leader who lost their radio need to communicate with their company HQ but can't really leave it's post, sending one or two runners probably is the second best option available.
In single player I always give mental orders to squads, platoons and companies and then have the leaders trying to perform them to the best of their abilities until they can make contact and get new orders. There also is a limited amount of orders a company or battalion commander can give and receive in any given 60 second turn. But making hard rules for that is kind of difficult.
At least It makes for more fun games for me and the game become more challenging overall, especially some of the single player campaigns becomes quite difficult to play.