Canuck21

Ok, that makes sense to me. I was hoping the engineers could blow it or something and I couldn't find anything in the manual about doing that, so I thought there may be some little secret that I hadn't come across. Holding it, it is then. Thank you for this .

Is there any way you can blow up a small stone (or similar) bridge in CM: WWII games? Thanks .

Yup, I hear that a lot, not just from here either... . I think I remember my ex saying that a few (million) times... <LOL> Seriously, thanks - that's nice to hear .

Excellent idea!! How much is somebody willing to pay me to give me my rep points back (I heard that Vacillator... )?? (jeez, they're gonna ban me from here for sure..., or report me to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Good Humour... )

OH, but I AM "special"!! I know this because the nice man in the white coat sitting across from me says I am . He should know too. He's been studying me for a long time now and he says I'm one of his most "special" cases... errr, people in his group. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for my meds again (boy, they sure do take care of me here at "The Home"!). (and in case anyone is taking this seriously, don't! I am kidding around here )

I knew when I got the crap beat out of me in that scenario I played the other day, there were going to be repercussions . I should'a taken the pillbox first I guess...

Hmmnn, didn't think of that, and it is a while before they get engaged because of where the airborne guys get dropped so they might be even more convinced that they've got a scenario designed to help them catch up on their sleep . Maybe I will change this to a Canadians vs German AI only . Thanks man.

In this case the attacker does get points for killing the enemy, and must accomplish that without losing more than 50% of its own forces. This is because they must hold the bridge and possibly survive a counter attack later on. The Germans, on the other hand, also need to take out the attacker while not getting all his guys killed. Regardless, there is an objective (the bridge) at stake for both sides. All this is because of the time and situation for this scenario. This battle is very early in the morning on D-Day. At this location, maybe only the odd report is filtering among the various German outposts that something big is happening, but there is still a lot of confusion. It's only now just light enough to see the ships offshore, and that's where most of the German's attention is. The parachute units are paying a surprise visit to various locations inland, the Dives River Bridge being one of them. This is the 'surprise' factor for the Germans and to be honest, even if you (the German) are hearing of drops, you really would have no idea that they were coming for your locations (this is seemingly a minor objective compared with the Pegasus Bridge), never mind in which direction they'd be coming from. After this day, yes, the Germans would be expecting the allies to show up almost anywhere and would be better prepared, and the allies objectives tend to be more terrain motivated, but at this point, no. The German briefing (if playing H2H) strongly reflects their lack of expectation of enemy troops at that time. The beauty of this situation is it allowed me to create an element of surprise by the nature and location of the setups for both sides. As they stand for this scenario, these would be rather lacking in depth and organization were it post-D-Day, but for very early morning on D-Day, I felt the setups reflected the situation at the time. I tried to imagine what the mindsets would be and how "relaxed" things would be when not under imminent threat, and put that into the scenario. That is where the fun parts come in. There is a trigger in there, but it doesn't cause anyone to fire... at least not directly . I don't want to say more as it could take away the suspense and surprise of the scenario, but let's say both sides have some serious challenges in this one .

So just FYI, I did go with the suggestions to simply let the guys sit and "take it", and the scenario is now up. Now I'm not sure I did the right thing here. I used a slightly different approach for the Canucks in the last play test and the bastards shot back this time . That was just not nice of them at all (but it did make for a much more interesting scenario ). Anyway, thank you again everyone for the help. It really paid off and the knowledge banks are just a little bit fuller tonight. That will definitely come in handy for the other one I'm working on .

Thanks man. I just confirmed that my file is updated on The Few Good Men's site (thanks @Bootie - you have great customer support there ). Hope you enjoy

My pleasure. Have a good evening

Good stuff man. If you want to play H2H, please re-download it. I forgot to adjust the German Mission info (only the Germans would see it). That too is up on my site. I'm not sure about The Few Good Men site. I'm trying to update it now. Enjoy .

Just uploaded a new scenario for CMBN + CW forces. After getting a few things straightened around, things went well for the remainder of the design. It's the Canucks again, vs the German AI or H2H. Check it out on my site (in the signature) or at The Few Good Men. Hope you enjoy it .

Oh yeah, doing that . It's what's allowing troops (if they want) to flank well south without getting shot up. I'll let you know when I've got the scenario done (could be today) and you can have a gander, but I've worked with maps since I was a teenager (back then we used stone, not paper <LMAO>) both professionally and for fun (getting lost in the boonies is fun??? Hey, I warned you ) so maybe that's why my favourite part of this is map making. Good advice though - many thanks .

Hmm, I just tried it on my system now and it worked fine as far as I can tell, but I didn't use the format you are. I'll try it again in an hour or so and see what happens. I'm assuming you aren't putting in any other characters other than what you are showing above. I'll be back in a bit after giving it a try using your system.

Are you not seeing a sequence numbered suffix when you save the game? For example, "scenario name_002"? That number should increase with each save so in fact, you are not overwriting the old file at any time really. That sequence number is generated automatically; it's not something you do yourself (unless you want to).

Ok, the spreadsheet is now up on my site again after a bit of a graphics rework on the logo . Site Link to D/L is here

Too late... Actually, your advice is excellent, as is @Combatintman (nothing new there ). The original purpose of the thread was to find out why they didn't shoot back, and it sort of evolved into a problem-solving process for me. That worked very well for me and I'm now a LOT more familiar with some of the intricacies of triggers and AI (still lots to learn but this has been a big step) that will serve me well going forward. That all said, as mentioned above as well, at some point some degree of logic has to kick in here and that's where I'm in agreement with you and Combatintman in terms of this scenario. My first step in making this option possible was to reduce the armaments I was throwing at the Germans so there actually is something left of them to fight with at the end. Actually, @Glubokii Boy also suggested simply hiding would be a good option too (however, it IS the REST of the world that's mad!! Surely it can't be me ). That's likely what I'll end up doing in this case. After I take my meds, of course <hehehe>. Thanks to all here. Man, I'd still be at Square 1 (v1.01) without you folks . New scenario coming soon .

It was tea time? Yeah, that's not good, although fewer people get killed in that scenario . I'll have to look up that scenario and have a gander at it. In actual fact, in some ways it would have been better had the Germans in my scenario withdrawn rather than just sitting there and taking it. That said, as soon as they got up out of their foxholes, they probably wouldn't have got far. Yeah, you could say they're "key". Without them, the scenario is over . The premise is that the Germans are guarding the bridge (over the Dives River, east of the Pegasus Bridge by several km). Paratroopers have dropped in to take the bridge from them (not saying exactly where as that would spoil the scenario). The trick for the Canadians is it's all open ground to get to the bridge, so it's an ugly approach no matter what way you look at it. I'm playing the Canadians vs. the AI. So I get the main force into a treeline about 400m away. It is dawn but visibility is decent. I still can't see the Germans, nor can they see me, but the bridge is visible and it's not a stretch to figure the Germans will be entrenched in and around the bridge. So I open up with a boatload of fire, including mortars to try and at least reduce their numbers to the point where an assault from another location is feasible. That route is better, although there is still over 100m of open ground to cross. It's all area fire at this point. Now to the problem. What you @Combatintman are saying is no doubt right on the money about the scenario/idea being flawed in terms of the game, but I'm not so sure in a real world situation. Besides, I'm a problem solver (that's what my ex called me... well, actually, it was words to that effect, but being as how this is a family forum, I'll stick to the polite terminology ). As per usual, I tend to dream something up (I did this when I was in aviation and again when I worked in graphics/photography), then as soon as I hit a block, instead of taking a different approach, I try to work the problem until I either come up with a solution or discover that all the solutions just aren't going to work. I've been described as being "stubborn" (again, family forum, although the guys in the white coats used very polite, if technical, terms ). So... The problem that arose from this situation is I figured once the Germans "saw" the firing coming at them, they would fire back. They may not exactly "see" any enemy troops per se, but would see where the fire was coming from and return area fire of their own. Of course, the AI is computer generated, so they don't exactly "see" (doh). They didn't return fire, but basically just sat there and took it. Now in the original try, I had too much armament and basically there was little left of them after 10 minutes of suppression fire, but I've reduced that armament considerably so that will help. Still, if someone were shooting at me, I'd likely shoot back even if I wasn't absolutely sure where it was coming from (barring a superior's orders to not do so, of course). In the original try at this, there were enough Germans left to shoot back once the position was assaulted, but not enough to put up a viable defence. So ultimately, the problem to solve is how to get the Germans to shoot back and maybe weaken the Canadians to the point where they either can't get into position to assault the shorter open ground area, or even prevent them from assaulting at all. Thanks to @domfluff, the idea of setting a trigger for area fire got me started down a path with a lot of potential. As @Glubokii Boy very aptly pointed out though, I can set up an Area Fire AI command but what if the Canucks don't come from there? It's possible they wouldn't as there are several positions they could come from. However, I at least had the beginnings of a solution. From that spawned the idea of using several triggers, each in a location where the Canucks might come from. That's where I'm at now and will test that idea out today. I'm not sure it will work because if they come from 2 different locations at the same time, that could lead to other issues, but the good news is that other than the one spot where the open ground is only around 100m or so (and I don't need a trigger for that one), every other location requires a run of 400m or better. I don't like those odds at the best of times for the Canucks and if the Germans are still area firing in that direction anyway, they're going to get some of them and possibly rout the entire attack (my force isn't that big). So we'll see what happens. It's quite possible it won't work, but if it does, then great. If not, I may have to change the basic design, but the best thing from all this is, I now have a very detailed set of notes on how to get triggers to work (refined from what I've been told here, and have found in other threads) that may well work for other scenarios down the road. For me, it's all a process and I'm a sponge when it comes to stuff like this . The more I can learn, the better it gets and the more interesting I can make my scenarios. Of course, there's always the danger that they get too complex and then everything breaks down, but that seems to be part of the learning phase. You get through that and that's when things start to really come together. Until you test those boundaries though, you don't know what can be done and what can't. Besides, it's a boatload of fun trying this stuff out .

A link to this spreadsheet is now up on my site. Please go to My Scenarios to access the link and download the file. I want to reiterate, there are no macros in this file so it should be completely free of viruses (the program was designed in Excel 365 For Mac). Thanks for your interest. I hope the program helps you out. EDIT: Or not. I made a boo-boo in the graphic that could offend a number of people. I've removed the link and it will go back up tomorrow. Sorry about that folks (been one of those days )

Well, that would be just rude of them if they did that . No, it's a good point. When I asked the question, I was trying to figure out why they weren't shooting at all (the enemy was out of sight, but not behind cover). Now that I have that part working, I can start applying some logic to the situation. That's what I was trying to do in the first place and they were getting plastered in the initial suppression fire. The enemy knew the objective and knew it was being guarded, so they just sat back 400m or so and fired/blasted away. The Germans never returned fire so basically got the crap beat out of them. I really wish there was a way you could trigger return fire even if the incoming fire is area fire (the guys 400m away being shot at aren't necessarily going to know... or care if it's area fire or the other side is actually targeting them unless the area being hit is well away from the troops). I've not seen a way to do that yet. By the time the enemy assaulted the position, there wasn't a lot left of them. Now I've reduced the amount of armament the enemy has and that's reduced those effects but it would still be nice to have that other trigger from being fired at.

Jeez, I read that and immediately forgot it . Thanks for this. I think this solves my problem. Much appreciated .

PERFECT! That's even better than I hoped for. Thanks a bunch man Now, for the sequel to that - if I set up an area fire command using a trigger, and subsequently the enemy comes into view, will the Germans switch automatically from area firing to that target?

Got a question for you. I have the Germans dug in near a bridge. It's dawn so vis isn't great, but not terrible either. Their enemy is advancing towards them from a woods. They stop about 400m from the Germans and open up with Area Fire (meaning they can't see any actual German troops, I'm guessing). The German AI has them staying put but have an Ambush 600m command in it. And yet, even with being shot at, they are not returning fire. So, will the AI not shoot at a target unless it can actually see the troops? They won't follow tracer bullets back and do an area fire themselves? If not, is there any way to force them to defend themselves in some fashion? What I'm seeing is that as it stands now, the enemy can stand back and blast away with mortars, MG's, etc. without any fear of reprisal, until the Germans are beat to death and the enemy can simply walk in (or close to it). I need to find a way around this, if that's really what I'm seeing. Thanks .

I'm really glad you liked "Changing of the Guard". It was one of my more "innovated" scenarios to date. I would be interested to hear what it was about "Beach House" that didn't turn your crank. Of course, not every scenario will tickle everyone's fancy, but if there's something in there that didn't work right (and I happen to know there is), then I can watch for that problem going forward. Thanks very much indeed for the compliments on the artwork. Much appreciated . Thank you too for the feedback. This really helps me improve my work, and that's always a good thing