Canuck21

Many thanks for these @Combatintman and @Heirloom_Tomato. All good points, and I'm finding out that points isn't the be-all and end-all with these as you (Combatintman) said. Heirloom_Tomato (please tell me you're from the Holland Marsh area with a nickname like that !), this really helps a bunch and certainly raises my level of interest and knowledge of how to put these things together. My big hangup on this one (my first) has been figuring out the AI (how to get guys to sit and set up for an ambush, with and without a trigger - still working on that end of things), but it is coming. It'll be a long process, but I'm enjoying it. I'm retired, and as you know, we are locked down pretty tight (supposedly) from Covid now, so I have lots of time to work on these. Anyhow, I really appreciate the encouragement, and not to worry - I'm not the least bit afraid to have people test my scenarios out. You're 100% right - it's the only way I'll get halfway decent making them. I may start with you (you have my undying sympathies ). Glenn

This is something I'll play around with over time, so thanks for this. The tip really helps too. I didn't think that would work on trenches, but it does after trying it out. What's a "memory"???

Cool

Great minds think alike . That's what I did and it works just fine. I suspect when I tried the first time, not all the code was being done away with in going from RTF to plain text. I ended up doing the same thing with the Briefing as well. So thanks for that. I think I actually have the scenario ready (but it's definitely "different" <LOL>). I'll be in touch. Glenn

Excellent @kohlenklau, thanks for this. I've taken note and will give it a try. Sorry for not seeing this sooner. I sometimes forget to check past questions, especially if I get busy with other things . My apologies, and thanks again. This really helps. Glenn

What @rocketman said, but also, what program are you using to convert them to BMP files? Glenn

My apologies for not seeing this sooner @mjkerner . I do have a great memory, but I keep forgetting to turn it on, so sometimes I miss things I wrote earlier (like before 5 minutes ago ). Thanks for this, that does help. The ones I've been placing have gone E/W, but I did try snapping another one to the existing ones and it did change direction alright, but I've not been able to nail anything down that allows me to reliably control the facing. I'll work at it a bit more but this does seem a fairly complex task, unlike most other things in the editor. Many thanks for this, and again my apologies for not seeing this sooner. Glenn

G'Day All. I'm working on my first scenario (yes, still ), and currently am writing up a piece for my Designer Notes section. I'm using Text Edit from my Apple machine and it saves it to the .rtf format. The game doesn't recognize that so I've converted it to plain text using that option in Text Edit. However, when I do that, some of the punctuation is replaced with unicode (I guess) characters. I've tried with both the 8 and 16 options, but neither solve the issue. It looks fine in the document itself, but as soon as I import it into the game, I get the odd characters. Is there a step I'm missing here, and if so, could someone clue me in please? Many thanks. Glenn

Got it . Many thanks. Looking forward to it, eh ?

Ok, I'll give that a try. Thanks much for this

Ahh, very good. Thanks people, that helps a lot .

Is there a way when designing a scenario, to have the FO not call for arty fire until an enemy unit enters a trigger point? From what I gather in the manual, setting up an artillery strike is something you paint in during the design process and then the artillery starts firing soon after the scenario starts. I'd like to hold off until the enemy enters a trigger point (no point to firing at empty terrain ). Thanks for any help.

Working on building my first scenario and I'm a bit stuck on something. I want to face a trench with the long side facing E/W. When I place it using the Deploy Units, the long sides are facing N/S. How do I adjust the facing/angle of trenches? I tried using the 3D Preview but of course, no units show up there, and I can't find anything in the manual or on this forum (searching "trench facing"). Many thanks .

I'm in the process of learning how to make scenarios myself and am running into the same issue of trying to balance forces without a points reference. I noticed in the CMBN manual in the chapter, "The Editor", page 129 at the bottom, says, "Note: Purchase and Rarity points are shown in the Editor to provide guidance on balanced force compositions for Scenario Authors, but play no other roles. A "+" after the purchase point value indicates a "lowest case" value for certain formations." Like Stefan, I also couldn't find those points other than in purchasing Quick Battle units, and I must admit, it sure does make balancing more difficult in an otherwise ingenious system. That said, if one is designing a scenario, one does need to apply some logic (and perhaps knowledge of real world tactics) in ultimately deciding your forces makeup where the unit types are fairly straight forward such as an infantry or combined arms attack on a like force. One isn't selecting forces to be one-for-one or the attacker doesn't stand much of a chance (assuming playing against an equal opponent or the AI). Going strictly by points, I suppose one could end up having a company of infantry attack an equal number of points that are made up of unmanned trenches, mines and artillery (ludicrous example I suppose, but still possible?) so basing everything on points might be misleading. Nevertheless, for similar forces but where fitness and experience levels differ widely, knowing the points would be very helpful. As such, I'd like to add my voice to a wish for having the points displayed in the Unit Editor for Scenario Design. I have to say though, it is a blast (ouch - pardon the pun ) being able to make these and kudos to BF for having this option available to us. It's a major selling point IMO. I hope to upload some once I figure out what I'm doing.

Great! Thanks all! I wasn't thinking the scouts would be casualties as yes, then the info is lost, but I did make it sound like they'd be lost. Makes sense of course. This does answer my question and for sure, I'll go check out that link. Many thanks again .

Ok, for you experienced folk, I have here a C2 question, seeing as how that's the section of the manual I'm reading now. I understand the concept fine, so this is more an operational/applied question. Let's say I have a squad advancing towards some high ground and I want to find out what's on the other side (and believe me, I'm an "expert" in "finding out" ), so I split off the squad into a Scout Team. I then send them to the other side. Assuming the distance is far enough (and it always seems to be) that they lose the C2 contact with the remaining squad/platoon, how is it they actually get to report back? Right now I'm assuming it's via an audible contact, and that usually being from their screams as the bullets come flying their way as opposed to a slightly muted, "Oh CRAP" coming from one or both of the scouts. Am I right in that basically the info will be communicated via the sounds of the other side shooting at them? Again, I'm presuming they've gone totally LOS for C2 purposes. Thanks.

<hehehe> I'm starting to remember why it was I got "de-married-ized" a while back now...

Yeah, the PC does have a few advantages that way for this game. I noticed that too re the iPad day/night shift. That said, I rarely make it anymore to it's changeover point . I can see where a wife might maybe have some... shall we say, 'questions', regarding that . I guess as long as they are still only coming from the computer, you're safe. But... ...

That's really interesting. I guess you could blow it up quite a lot if sending the info to the TV, but you may find the resolution goes for a dump, and it does get laggy. I'm not sure about that though. On the colour shift, that's interesting as well, but I guess not surprising. You probably have your displays calibrated if you're submitting any graphics/photography anywhere (I have my iMac calibrated, but nothing else), but I don't know the infrastructure of displaying the CM game so it may not be relevant I guess. Not sure I'd be too worried about that however. <LOL> Not sure what CMWC is (I've led a sheltered life ) so I'm not getting your last idea . Does sound intriguing though.

Good to know, thanks

Ok, I think I have it figured out. I suspect I was too close to a bocage. I could fire the main gun, and I had LOS, but I couldn't fire smoke. Once I was out in the open, then it worked as expected. @danfrodo - Thanks for this. Yes, I hadn't toggled the smoke effects off and so that part was working fine. I appreciate the head's up on the 'pop smoke' option though. I was kind of wondering about that and hadn't found it yet. Thanks for that.

Ahh, ok, I'll redo the scenario and see if I can't do better with that. Thanks very much for the help. If I don't do better, I'll try your last idea .

So I was playing the Raff Campaign (the Training Campaign in CMBN), first Mission today. One of the things I thought would be a good idea when I went to assault the farmhouse, was to lay down smoke in the field near the farm. I had 2 of the tanks (Shermans) there and they both indicated they had smoke on board. So I tried several times to shoot smoke mortars out into the field, and in each case, I got the target symbol as being ok (no LOS blocks, etc) and hit the "Smoke" button. Unfortunately nothing happened (well, I did get smoke alright, but in this case it was that *I* got smokED myself during the assault ). I did check through the manual and saw that those tanks do carry smoke mortars on the roof so I'm not sure why they never fired. I'm wondering in retrospect, if you have to hit the Smoke button (which was not greyed out, so they should have been available) and THEN hit the target button? I really don't know. I tried that with 3 tanks and none fired the smoke, and I didn't see any reports in the Damage pane that the smoke mortars were inop. Can anyone clue me in on what I might have been doing wrong or what to check for next time? Thanks very much (and a really big thanks from the survivors of that <ahem> not-so-great outcome of a battle ).

Yeah, I don't really know anything about AstroPad, but it's an interesting idea. I know the Cintiq acts like a second display so I can mirror that on the iMac, and yes, I think Apple does now have a function for doing that with the iPad. I've never tried it though. Interesting idea about the pressure sensitivity though! I never thought of trying that. I may have a look at that tomorrow, but I'd be interested in any findings you come up with.

@Lucky_Strike G'day . Yeah, the Cintiq is what I use for Photoshop but of course BF doesn't support a pen display tablet so I need to revert to the Intuos. Now that said, it was an interesting experiment but when I went back to the trackpad, I actually find it easier to use so that's what I'll go with. It was worth the effort though and I may go back to the Intuos at some point. @Bulletpoint: No, as @ratdeath states, the tablet itself doesn't display the game. If the Cintiq was supported, then I would, but that would be asking a whole lot from BF to do that (ain't gonna happen for good reason ). The tablet in this case just allows you to move the cursor and make selections (L click, R click, etc) which I'm pretty used to. If you're not really comfortable with a tablet though, it would be waaaay more work than it's worth trying to learn it. The Cintiq would display the game on the tablet if it were supported (as Photoshop, for instance, does), but again, that mod would never be worth BF's time to make.