Canuck21

Hey Folks, as some of you may have read, there is a problem with kamikaze German pixeltruppen abandoning their cover to duke it out in the open. @RockinHarry sent me his saved file that shows this behaviour (thanks Harry - appreciate that very much). It is definitely not part of the AI programming directly, but there may be a correlation indirectly, and a way I can fix it. It remains to be seen but I'm going to adjust the plans and see if that will help. So anyone playing this scenario and isn't too far into it (or just wants to replay it - there are 4 defensive AI plans in effect - I will fix all 4), maybe hold off on finishing it for now. I'm going to reprogram the AI and see if I can't stop this from happening. It will take a bit of time, but by later this morning (Eastern time) I should have something up for you. I'll post the new version on my site and advise people here as soon as it is up, so keep an eye out here. Thanks for your patience and for downloading this scenario. Hopefully we can get this fixed quick .

Thanks Harry, I've downloaded them now. I'll load them up first thing tomorrow morning (still middle of the night here) and have a look. I sent you a PM, but to reiterate here, I hope this is something I accidentally programmed in rather than a game issue. It would be a lot easier to fix for sure. Anyway, I'll get back to you ASAP on this, but if anyone else is playing this scenario and notices the same thing, please reply here. It will help me nail down where the issue lies. Thanks, and sorry you are having this problem. Be back in the morning as soon as I've had a look.

@Combatintman - thanks for this. I do prefer the realistic ones as well, but I'm guessing for fictional scenarios, you probably need a fictional map. I'm working on the overlay thing and hope to get that sorted out shortly. Your points are well taken and duly noted and I think we're largely on the same page here. Thanks .

AHH, you found the "Chicken" Sub Routine I see ! That's the one where the Germans all panic and run straight into the line of fire so they can "get it over with!" Ok, I'm kidding obviously. Some of them do move around under all of the AI's I built, but none should be abandoning the foxholes. That doesn't sound good and I'm not sure why they would be doing that. I'll double check I haven't put in an order that I was testing and forgot about tomorrow and let you know. There is no attack order (i.e. no built in counter attack) in this scenario, so what's happening, I'm really not sure. This was built prior to F&R, so if there is a bug of some kind it would be with CMRT. If you happen to find anything yourself, let me know. If I can fix it, I will, but as I say, I'll check it out tomorrow.

In the first built in CMFB scenario I've started playing, as with all the inherent scenarios (I've not yet played 3rd Party scenarios - they may well be equally as good), I found the various maps that go with the scenario extremely well done. They are clear, not cluttered and easy to read. I've looked for maps for my possible future scenarios and have relied on Google Earth and Google Maps, but of course, those are for 202x, not 194x and thus are waaaay out of date and not accurate for what was around back then. My question is, is it ok to make a fictional battle with a fictional map as long as the situation is plausible and reasonably realistic? By that I mean that I wouldn't use Sicily type scenery for a battle in the Ardennes (even if I could), but if I were basing a CW scenario that took place in the Netherlands, is it ok to make up some terrain that may or may not have been in that location? For example, if I wanted to put in a wetland or series of canals close to where my battle is going to take place, is that ok even if it's not quite accurate for how things are today? For historically accurate battles, I'll try to get as close as possible to what was actually there, naturally, but how far can you go if building a fictional scenario (again, within reason)? Thanks a bunch as always .

Thank YOU . One thing I'm going to do going forward is to make better maps and briefings. I've taken some sample shots of what others have done and I'm going to try and conform to those more. I feel mine were thrown together a bit and they deserve better treatment than that. A couple of people, especially @kohlenklau have been very helpful in that regard, and while I certainly took in what they were saying about briefings, I put most of my time into learning the AI and they got left behind a bit. That will change going forward. So I'm still learning, but it is coming .

Thank you for that. That means a great deal to me .

Ok, I have my new website up that will be hosting the WWII scenarios that I've made. There are links on it to all the scenarios I've done to date, including a new one I finished off yesterday. There is a contact form there if anyone runs into problems downloading the games or if a scenario is defective in some way. Now, I'm a rank amateur at this still so these may or may not be up to the level of some of the top scenario designers here (almost certainly "not"), but I'm learning something new with each new scenario and hopefully they will at least be entertaining enough to have made the download (never mind the price ) worth it. I will tell everyone up front, my scenarios aren't always "fair". If I have a reference to a particular battle from something I've read, and the battle sounds interesting to me yet rather one sided, chances are that's how the scenario will come out as well. It won't mean that the side with the weaker forces can't win. It's just unlikely. However, given a strong player taking the weak side, anything is possible. Where situations like that have come up, generally I will try to make the time limit be somewhat restrictive, or introduce other characteristics (such as unit objectives, parameters, etc.) balance things somewhat. One example might be my latest, "The Beach House". The Allied forces dramatically out number the Italians, however, they only have 30 minutes to get off the beach and get north off an exit zone that isn't huge. The Italians, even if they are totally annihilated, may pick up considerable points if the Allies don't make it there. Anyway, I tend to play these scenarios for the enjoyment of the tactics rather than wracking up points and that's largely how my scenarios will be defined. If that's not your cup of tea, then you may want to pass them by. As long as some people get some enjoyment from them (and me too ), then I'm good with that. Ok, you can head over to My Site and have a gander at your leisure. There are only 4 up there now, but I hope to add at least 1 more by the end of May. My goal is to add 2 to 3 a month, but don't hold me to that (I do have other things that really need tending to since I blitzed learning to make these and those things got neglected in the process). I hope you enjoy them and a huge thank you again to the many, many people here who have helped me get over the hump, as it were. None of this would be possible without you guys. My Site

Very interesting! I didn't realize it could be a group in the AI. I do still have wire in my scenario, but it's staggered so as to somewhat route the enemy, so it's still working for me. However, knowing the above adds a new dimension to my future scenarios. Thanks very much for explaining this. It sure does help .

Thanks hugely for this!!! Really appreciate that

... Sure is! It tends to get a lot of people quite dead in a hurry . In this case it's warranted. I will be spelling it out in the briefings as you suggest of course, but basically it's part of the beach landings in Operation Husky. Those tend to be in plain sight of the enemy as you know, and they tend to be extremely costly. In this particular battle though, IRL it wasn't bad as the beaches were not heavily defended in this region. However, this particular section was defended and while casualties weren't heavy, they certainly could have been. My play testing is telling me that the casualties are a tad heavier than what actually happened, but not unreasonable for the situation, which I was happy to see. I have made some small adjustments to the forces to balance things a bit. One thing's for sure, if you're playing the Italians, you'll freak when you see what's coming, but it serves to prove that you need a LOT of attackers to dig out a semi-fortified defender. It will be tough for anyone playing the Italians to win, but as there is an exit zone in this one (which I just put in), the balance is actually not that bad. Unless you consider being dead as "bad". Points seem to matter a bit less in those situations...

YES!! Doh, I have that open on my iPad and still I forgot to include that. It's outstanding and a must read! One really, really important note that took a while to wrap my head around in doing scenarios is to remember when it comes to setting the timing, the timing is for the END of the order (except for the SETUP "order"). So if you want to move from A to B to C, with A being the Setup "order" (in quotes because it's not really an order), you set the time for the move from B to C at "Exit After: 10:00 / Exit Before 12:00 (for example). That means for moving FROM B to C, you will start moving no sooner than the 10:00 mark and no later than the 12:00 mark. The timing is for the NEXT move, not the current one. That may not mean a lot to you just now, but write it down somewhere handy and then when you get to that point, if things aren't making sense timing wise, this should help.

I'm trying to "like" your post but BF is telling me I can't do anymore today. It's 07:00 here . I haven't even liked myself yet . Anyway, glad you're playing it. I like that game much better than I expected for some reason.

I'm not familiar with "The Victory Campaign Series". Can you tell me what/where that is? Thanks .

Have a look here. This should give you a list of "proambulator's" tutorials on how to design in Combat Mission. That should help quite a lot, but also search in this forum for my threads. I've asked just about every question you could think of and folks here have been absolutely fantastic at helping. Often in those threads are links to other posts and threads that will give you the full deal on a whole lot of things. Also, the game engine manual is quite helpful at the very basic stuff. Lastly, there is a PDF file included with the game files under Documentation called "The Sheriff of Oosterbeeke" (hope I spelled that right), which is all about how one of the big scenarios in Market Garden was made. It's extremely helpful. After that, anything you don't get or understand, post back here and if I see it, I'll definitely jump in and help in any way I can. As I've found out, the learning curve is steep initially, but once you "get it", you'll find it's pretty easy to understand. Believe me, it's well worth the effort. Being able to program the AI and do your own scenarios is hugely rewarding (I've played maybe 2 or 3 scenarios since I started learning this - the rest of the time I've been designing and testing <LOL>). Don't be shy about sharing them either, once you get them up and running. The people here, especially the ones that helped me, deserve to reap some rewards for their patience . Oh, and one last source is open up some scenarios (tiny is better at first) and have a look and see what others have done. I usually played the scenario first though when I did that, so I didn't spoil it for myself later. Good luck and maybe the best thing you can do once you figure out the very basics, is just do it. Experience will teach you faster than trying to memorize a book. Here are a couple more links to check out: https://community.battlefront.com/topic/120527-no-plan-survives-first-contact-with-the-enemy-planning-tutorial/?tab=comments#comment-1625887&ct=1619695914 https://community.battlefront.com/topic/137031-ai-plans-and-a-more-responsive-ai/?ct=1620910631 https://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-–-a-scenario-design-daraar/?ct=1619696257

You and me both!!!! I would love to take the Canucks through to the end, and like I've seen some here state, I too like playing winter scenarios. I really like Market Garden, but it's very limited in the time frame, and the Canadians (as well as everyone else) had a big role to play in the Low Countries after Market Garden. Do you know if such a module is being worked on?

Excellent! Good job there. The "interesting" thing with this one is, if you get the timing wrong, OR the AI decides to go with a different plan (there are 4 AI Plans for the defence in this scenario), then you are outnumbered and as the attacker, that's not a good thing . You guys did very well. Nice job.

So, now that I have that sorted out, this scenario is coming along very nicely. The timing is a bit tricky with the AI (there are AI plans for both sides here). I'll be putting out a "caution" for people when they go to download it in case they'd rather not. There are a couple of conventions that I've broken in this one that some may not like, but there is a very good reason I did. The biggest one is that both sides open the scenario in each other's line of sight. Unlike a couple of the others I've done, this one starts hot and fast. More to come.

Thanks for this. Yeah, I've strung out the wire a bit and alternated the depth of them, so I think we're good now. I thought about the engineers but this scenario doesn't call for them. This one is historically accurate so I'm trying to stick to the actual facts as much as possible. In the real situation, the infantry had Bangalore's that did the job, but they aren't specified (that I know of) for this one. That said though, the thread you tagged me in will be very helpful down the road .

Thanks @MikeyD. See my answer above. Yeah, my stuff does look very similar to yours. Except I had wire. My troops don't like wire. They are very fussy. I moved the wire. They are happy now (well, maybe not "happy" exactly. They are getting the crap shot out of them ). Thank you for this though .

Found the answer. In the General forum I posted a question asking someone to confirm that infantry could move through barbed wire. In the manual it states that wire will slow infantry down, but not stop them. @Sgt Joch told me that no, infantry cannot move through wire. I have wire strung along the beach from edge to edge (yep, it's a beach landing I'm simulating ). So I removed the wire and tried it again. Worked perfectly. Everyone started running to where they should. I thought they might at least run up to the wire and stop, but no, they "saw" the wire and decided they would rather stay in the water instead . Chickensh*ts <LOL>. Anyway, the issue is solved. Many thanks for the ideas here .

Oooohhh, thanks for this!! I thought they could. This might explain a bunch of things - many thanks! PS - you actually solved an AI issue I was having (see here ) with this, so again, many thanks .

@Erwin - Yup, they are. Good thought though. @MikeyD - Not a dumb question at all! If I had a nickel for every time I've done that, I could buy Battlefront . However, I just checked and no, the plans are for the Allies, who are the ones in the water. BUT, I tried moving one of them to a new setup on the shore and they still just stood there, so I think the premise is correct. It does seem like they don't have a plan to go with, so I need to look into that deeper. The plan is for the Allies, but it looks like there is a disconnect there somewhere. The fact that your test proved they should move, narrows things down a bunch for me. I'll go back and troubleshoot this further, but at least I have an idea where to look now. Thanks people .

Ok, having a little problem I'm hoping people can help me with. My guys (under the AI plan) are starting in the water - deep and shallow fords to be exact. I've given them the command via the AI to dash for the beaches. I have confirmed that the terrain is indeed, fords. The times are set in Setup for each group at 00:00 and 00:00, although I did experiment with 00:00 / 30:30 just to be sure. The problem is, they don't move. Even when not under fire, they just stand there. They aren't being triggered or anything like that (no triggers in this scenario), so it's not like they are waiting for that. I had one group start from land and they went ahead right away as ordered, while the others in the water just stood there. Is there anything anywhere that says you can't start troops from in the water? I've searched for something like that in the manual but it just says (that I could see) that Infantry can traverse both deep and shallow fords. After several tries, I switched sides and gave the guys in the water a FAST move command on the first turn and they took off just as ordered, so I know the basic setup is right. Thus the confusion. Thanks much.

@Falaise - That's fantastic!! I'm really glad it worked for you. It is tricky with the timing and all, so it sounds like you hit all the "numbers". That's great!