Some Final Blitzkrieg basic details

[A Canadian Cat]

Can we see a stream link up with a river, lake or pond. ta

I do not have an example. My first try was terrible and since I didn't need it for my map I never  fixed it. 

They can link up with water tiles quite satisfyingly. 

But don't worry they do link up fine. Perhaps another map author has an example they can share...

Thanks for the screenshots, @IanL. Looks good, nice screenshots always make me want to go for a walk

LOL sometimes these maps will do that.

Even though the stream might be small, it would have had a lot of time to cut down through the landscape. On the other hand, drainage canals would be quite shallow and run in straight lines.

Yes, with the way they are done there is great flexibility. You can make them straight and shallow or meandering and deep or any combination. It does take some work though to make sure you don't get a race track look with banked corners

[Los]

Well its December 16th...Clocks...Maps....Toys...But where are the panzers...and where are the men?

[gnarly]

I think this seems appropriate to quote from the http://community.battlefront.com/topic/121464-the-toe-armor-list-must-be-huge/ thread:

 

 

Here is my last vehicle art tracking list:

 

M15A1

M16

M20

M8 (early)

M8 (mid)

M21

M2A1

M3

M3 (.50cal)

M3 (x2 MMG)

M3A1

M3A1 (x2 MMG)

M4A1

M12 GMC

M7B1 Priest

M8 HMC

M24 Chaffee

M4 Sherman Crab

M4(105) (mid)

M4(75) (late)

M4A1(75) (late)

M4A1(76)W (early)

M4A3(105) (early)

M4A3(105) (mid)

M4A3(75)

M4A3(75)W (early)

M4A3(75)W (mid)

M4A3(75)W (mid) (flame)

M4A3(76)W (early)

M4A3E2(75) (flame) Jumbo

M4A3E2(75) Jumbo

M4A3E2(76) Jumbo

M4A3E8(105) (late) HVSS

M4A3E8(76)W HVSS

M4E8(105) (late) HVSS

M5A1 (late)

M10 GMC

M10 GMC (late)

M18 GMC

M36 GMC

M36B1 GMC

GMC CCKW 2.5 ton truck

Jeep

Jeep (.50 cal)

Jeep (MMG)

Jeep (radio)

Flakpanzer 38(t)

Mobelwagon

Sdkfz 10/5

Sdkfz 7/1

Sdkfz 7/2

Wirbelwind

PSW 222

PSW 223

PSW 231

PSW 233

PSW 234/1

PSW 234/2 Puma

PSW 234/3

SPW 250/1 Alt

SPW 250/1 Neu

SPW 250/10 Alt

SPW 250/10 Neu

SPW 250/3 Alt

SPW 250/3 Neu

SPW 250/7 Alt

SPW 250/7 Neu

SPW 250/9 Alt

SPW 250/9 Neu

SPW 251/1 Ausf. C

SPW 251/1 Ausf. D

SPW 251/2 Ausf. C

SPW 251/2 Ausf. D

SPW 251/10 Ausf. C

SPW 251/10 Ausf. D

SPW 251/16 Ausf. D

SPW 251/17 Ausf. D

SPW 251/21 Ausf. D

SPW 251/3 Ausf. C

SPW 251/3 Ausf. D

SPW 251/7 Ausf. C

SPW 251/7 Ausf. D

SPW 251/9 Ausf. C

SPW 251/9 Ausf. D

Brummbar (late)

Brummbar (mid)

StuG IIIG (early)

StuG IIIG (late)

StuG IIIG (latest)

StuG IIIG (mid)

StuH 42 (early)

StuH 42 (late)

StuH 42 (latest)

StuH 42 (mid)

Sturmtiger

Wespe

Hummel

Grille (early)

Panther A (late)

Panther A (mid)

Panther G (early)

Panther G (late)

Panther G (mid)

Pz IV H (early)

Pz IV H (late)

Pz IV J (early)

Pz IV J (late)

PzIIL Lynx

Tiger I (late)

Tiger I (latest)

Tiger I (mid)

Tiger II (Henschell)

Hetzer (flamethrower)

Hetzer (late)

Hetzer

Jagdpanther

Jagdtiger

JPz IV (early)

JPz IV (late)

JPz IV (mid)

JPz IV/70(A)

JPz IV/70(V)

JPz IV/70(V) (late)

Marder I

Marder II

Marder IIIM

Nashorn (late)

Kubelwagon

Protz 70

Opel Blitz

[BletchleyGeek]

Another (I think) new thing fished from Baneman's AAR (although I saw it first on Bil's): soft shadows

I don't think I have seen these on Black Sea...

Edited December 17, 2015 by BletchleyGeek

[weapon2010]

what do you mean by soft shadows?

[MikeyD]

Everybody's graphics card is different it seems. Some have got the anti-alias thing nailed. I'd kill for some peoples screen images. I wouldn't pay money, but I'd kill.

[BletchleyGeek]

what do you mean by soft shadows?

Look at the outline of the shadow the tree projects on the house walls. It's on Bil's and Baneman's screenshots that I have seen shadows like that in CMx2.

Everybody's graphics card is different it seems. Some have got the anti-alias thing nailed. I'd kill for some peoples screen images. I wouldn't pay money, but I'd kill.

What kind of card do you need to get that? I've got a NVIDIA GTX 670 and I don't get shadows like that on CMBN, CMFI, CMRT or CMBS. I am not saying that a hardware upgrade isn't warranted, though

[Ithikial_AU]

I've always had a close to top of the line graphics card and never had brilliant shadows in CMx2. It's always been a hit an miss affair. It's not a deal breaker by any means but one of those shrug your shoulders issues and hope for better in the next update. Fingers crossed it's a sign of further improvement with CMFB.

[BletchleyGeek]

I've always had a close to top of the line graphics card and never had brilliant shadows in CMx2. It's always been a hit an miss affair. It's not a deal breaker by any means but one of those shrug your shoulders issues and hope for better in the next update. Fingers crossed it's a sign of further improvement with CMFB.

Indeed, if Phil has managed to have shadows like that on reasonable hardware, it is quite an achievement. High quality shadows in games with cameras that are unrestricted as in CMX2 are hard to get.

[akd]

Yes, there are soft shadows, but only on 3D objects with shaders.  You can see hard shadows from the hedges on the ground just beyond the house, or in the change in the roofline shadow projected across the ground and the jeep.

Edited December 17, 2015 by akd

[sburke]

Thanks both to you Ian and MikeyD for that info!  Looking forward to toy around with the new streams, like the other guys around here.

One wish or idea remains though (for V4 and up). Having more than 1 mud type tile available to create different parts of the map to have increased bogging chance and slowed down movements for most CM units. That would add to terrain FOW, although many players would hate such a feature, as simple grassy terrain could be in fact "mud". In example in summer or otherwise "dry" conditions, lots of terrain could be very soft, like grassy areas beside creeks, or low lying grounds generally (Netherlands). Setting the ground to "muddy" overall wouldn´t do the trick, as would not using the standard mud tile, as you see at a glance that it´s mud and not very soft grassy grounds. I could imagine to solve something like that with the "tag" system and the AI does not necessarily need to know about that and adapted. Well, it´s just a brain fart... 

I had a similar idea for urban battleground (well maybe not entirely my idea - lots of folks I think are thinking in the same vein.). By modding mud to appear like other ground tiles you can effectively place mud with complete fog of war.  Result is you'd have "rubble" tiles with increased bogging chances that the player would not be aware of.  For me that is entirely applicable and would force players to be more conservative about running around towns around in shattered urban locations.  Throwing a track trying to traverse the remains of a building that have collapsed into a street.. yeah that sounds about right.

[mjkerner]

 

I had a similar idea for urban battleground (well maybe not entirely my idea - lots of folks I think are thinking in the same vein.). By modding mud to appear like other ground tiles you can effectively place mud with complete fog of war.  Result is you'd have "rubble" tiles with increased bogging chances that the player would not be aware of.  For me that is entirely applicable and would force players to be more conservative about running around towns around in shattered urban locations.  Throwing a track trying to traverse the remains of a building that have collapsed into a street.. yeah that sounds about right.

Plus one million!

[BletchleyGeek]

Yes, there are soft shadows, but only on 3D objects with shaders.  You can see hard shadows from the hedges on the ground just beyond the house, or in the change in the roofline shadow projected across the ground and the jeep.

Thanks for confirming that akd.

[RockinHarry]

I had a similar idea for urban battleground (well maybe not entirely my idea - lots of folks I think are thinking in the same vein.). By modding mud to appear like other ground tiles you can effectively place mud with complete fog of war.  Result is you'd have "rubble" tiles with increased bogging chances that the player would not be aware of.  For me that is entirely applicable and would force players to be more conservative about running around towns around in shattered urban locations.  Throwing a track trying to traverse the remains of a building that have collapsed into a street.. yeah that sounds about right.

Yup, experimented with mud terrain to look like grass (with no doodads though) and the like as well. For rubble I found it to be less usefull due to its terrain mesh "smoothing" capabilities. And I like the rubble to pile up high!  For to vehicles impassable rubble (smoothed) I´d even attempt to use marsh, as it also gets you extra rubble billboard doodads on top (or none with opaque alpha channel). Just mix and match what is not used elsewehere on a map. One problem remains. The (Tac) AI is always fully aware of all the underlying terrain types and while a human player can be fooled some, the TacAI can´t. Thus I´d wished for an extra mud terrain attribute that can be layerd beneath any halfway applicable terrain type, but also keep that layer info secret to the AI. Brain farting V2.0 .....

Edited December 17, 2015 by RockinHarry

[sttp]

Yes, there are soft shadows, but only on 3D objects with shaders.  You can see hard shadows from the hedges on the ground just beyond the house, or in the change in the roofline shadow projected across the ground and the jeep.

Still very cool. Having that style of shadow and good game performance seems like quite the feet of programming, trigonometrically speaking. Those soft shadows, IMO, add a kind of depth and accuracy to the battle scene that could really increase immersion.

[Harry Speakup]

Yup, experimented with mud terrain to look like grass (with no doodads though) and the like as well. For rubble I found it to be less usefull due to its terrain mesh "smoothing" capabilities. And I like the rubble to pile up high!  For to vehicles impassable rubble (smoothed) I´d even attempt to use marsh, as it also gets you extra rubble billboard doodads on top (or none with opaque alpha channel). Just mix and match what is not used elsewehere on a map. One problem remains. The (Tac) AI is always fully aware of all the underlying terrain types and while a human player can be fooled some, the TacAI can´t. Thus I´d wished for an extra mud terrain attribute that can be layerd beneath any halfway applicable terrain type, but also keep that layer info secret to the AI. Brain farting V2.0 .....

The "mud that doesn't always look like mud" idea sounds great. That field near the stream looked a great place to send your vehicles over until they started sinking down into it and going nowhere fast. I'd definitely nominate that as a V4.0 feature, although I have no idea if it would prove to be a nightmare to code to avoid an omniscient AI among other things

[MikeyD]

Don't forget if you're playing in 'muddy' scenario-set ground conditions (or when its raining out) you don't need the special mud tiles to get yourself into trouble. Dirt roads and open fields can become bog traps. I've found myself in rainy battle conditions moving my armor from hard ground to hard ground, trying to avoid the fields.

[Sequoia]

I don't know, "mud that doesn't always look like mud" might tick some players off. It'd be something like a vehicle mechanical breakdown/Out of gas feature which pretty much everyone was against. 

[Macisle]

Don't forget if you're playing in 'muddy' scenario-set ground conditions (or when its raining out) you don't need the special mud tiles to get yourself into trouble. Dirt roads and open fields can become bog traps. I've found myself in rainy battle conditions moving my armor from hard ground to hard ground, trying to avoid the fields.

A few days ago, I had a Stug bog and become immobilized in dry normal grass terrain. Looks like an outlier, but I guess some risk is always there if you're not on a paved road.

For awhile now, I've been thinking of trying a defensive line technique (in the Editor) with tank obstacles, AT mines, and mud-filled ditches mixed together and spread out to make a fairly large approach area (like a map edge) rather unattractive for flank sweeps.

[Michael Emrys]

Hope I'm not too late to this party (it's been a hell of a year and only now is my life just beginning to get back to "normal"). What I am reading here sounds very good. BFC continues to be an industry leader, for which we may be grateful.

Just in the last few days I've found myself replaying "Task Force Raff" with pleasure and I look forward to the new terrains, organizations, and features this new family offers.

Michael

[Wicky]

Welcome back!  Just in time for the prerelease party and crimbo.   Hope you've taken all your meds and some some, so you hang around.  You've been missed.

[Bradley]

Welcome back Michael!

[Michael Emrys]

Thanks, Wicky. Strange as it may sound, I have missed—somewhat—this crowd of sick puppies and howling baboons. Can't say if I will be the same chronic obsessive-compulsive fixture I was before, but time and circumstance permitting, I'll be hanging around observing and reporting what I see to responsible authorities...if I can find any!

Michael

[AttorneyAtWar]

Hope I'm not too late to this party (it's been a hell of a year and only now is my life just beginning to get back to "normal"). What I am reading here sounds very good. BFC continues to be an industry leader, for which we may be grateful.

Just in the last few days I've found myself replaying "Task Force Raff" with pleasure and I look forward to the new terrains, organizations, and features this new family offers.

Michael

Good to have you back Michael, I am glad you are feeling better!

[MOS:96B2P]

Hope I'm not too late to this party

Welcome back Michael!!!  Good to see you posting again.