Guest Big Time Software Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 Well, it is only one, but it is a good one I just tossed down a platoon of Brits and 3 Cromwells. This is not only the FIRST British screenshot we have released, but it contains a couple of surprises. OK, ONE surprise, but still, it is a good one www.battlefront.com/products/worldwar/cm Just go into the Resources Section and then into the Screenshots area! Enjoy! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PanzerShark Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 It sure is lovely, Now...gimme another one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 Nice screenshot, Steve, but what exactly is the surprise ? Did I miss something ? Regards, Thomm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest John Maragoudakis Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 The shadows under the tanks right? That's not in previous screen shots. Err is it my imagination laddy or is one bloke playing the pipes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 Christ, you are right ! Excellent recon ! This is just great ! First BTS convinces me that vehicle shadows are not feasible, and then this ! Keep those surprises coming ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Balaban Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 Nice picture. What is behind the tree in front of the 3rd Cromwell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PanzerShark Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 I believe it's called a barn Boris (The Axis invented barns in the late '45....but then ofcourse it was too late to be most effective ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeO Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 Oh yes, excellent. Your tank graphics look incredible. I was a bit critical of your German infantry graphics before but these Brits look great (I think the 'bagpipes' is a Sten!). Blokes sticking out of the hatches are a nice touch! Out of interest the Cromwell's are grey-coloured at the moment. What do your sources say late war Brit-manufactured vehicles were painted? I thought I had the answer to this but a recently released book confused me again. I now have three different versions of what the colour should be! Terry Wise's old 'D-Day to Berlin' says 'Khaki Drab' with older vehicles in 'Dark Earth' and US/Canadian-manufactured in 'Olive Drab'. The revised 'British Military Markings' by Hodges and Taylor says the official colour was Olive Drab (similar to the US standard) with occasional black patches and older vehicles still painted 'Khaki Brown' (like the infantry uniform). This book also refers to Wise and speculates he is simply using non-official descriptions for the same colours. So far so good. Except an excellent new book called 'The British Soldier Vol 2' by Jean Bouchery shows the main colour as 'Bronze Green' (with black patches on some vehicles) which is totally different from the Olive Drab used on American lend-lease! Oh well...What baffles me more is that both the other books are included in bibliography of this latest one. Sorry to go on... Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted August 5, 1999 Share Posted August 5, 1999 John, what I think you've identified as bagpipes is probably a Vickers MMG tripod being held up while being carried. Boris, I think it's a brick building, but is almost entirely obscured by the tree. Mike, we're still researching the British camo schemes ourselves, and adjusting the tint on the Cromwell. It started out too "blue" so we toned it down. Might need a little more though. Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Hey, you know what would be great now: A MOVING SHADOW for the GUN BARREL !!!!! (ROFL !!!!!!! Sorry, I could not help it !) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Okay, serious question: Can infantry and tanks be scaled differently ? Thanks and regards, Thomm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Right now we have a single hotkey that cycles through the various scalings for units, but at the "larger" end, tanks and infantry are over-scaled differently when shown in the distance. Tanks are not enlarged to the same degree as infantry. If they were they'd be too big. Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KwazyDog Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Whilst we are on the topic of infantry, I was wondering if it is at all possible to turn on a little number that floats over the heads of infantry units and tells you the amount of men contained within each (enemy units would obviously not be accutate). I understand this may not be the easiest thing to do due to the 3D nature of the game, but I think it would definately help the wargame side of things, and help you visualise the units you are coming up against. It may already be in, which would be great, Im not sure. Ps : Sorry if this is a double post, my system crashed as I was pushing the Submit button Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lokesa Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Good stuff man, they definetly have character. And we still have a bunch more on the vehicle list I almost drool thinking about how cool it will be to play with all my childhood models again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KwazyDog Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Actually, I guess the same idea I mentioned above would also work for any gound unit, such as mortar teams, MG teams, HQ squads, AT Guns, etc. It was just give a better feel for what you are up against Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Putting numbers over the units is pretty easy to do, but not necessary. You can see the casualties by looking at the number of men shown for each unit. A squad normally shows three men, graphically. But when the squad loses 1/3 of its men, only two men are shown. Finally, only 1 figure is shown once the squad is reduced to 1/3 or less of its original size. Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KwazyDog Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Ahh, I see, I wasnt aware they did that, they does help you judge squad sizes Mind you, knowing how many people left in a particular squad when theyve take 2/3 casulties does rely on you know how many people that particular type of squad had in it in the first place I could still see a use for the feature though as something you could turn on and off, depending on the difficulty of adding it in. A couple of examles may be to see how effective fire is from a certain team against a certain unit, as you could actually see when a unit takes each individual hit. Also, I believe HQ's, AT units ect are always represented by individual men, so it would allow you to easily see how many men are left in those individual units. Finally, when units are far in the distance in forested areas, it would allow you to view them from a distance, and know their amounts without going over to them to have a look. I basically just think it would help with your situational awareness, allowing you to do a quick head count on a couple of hundred advancing troops without checking each squad. Dont get me wrong though, the process of acually loosing men from their represented graphics sounds great (and I image you can find out unit amounts by clicking on them), its just a little feature that would be a nice addition, if it wasnt a too big a problem to add. I image there is a lot more to worry about before little things like that are look at Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Actually you'll find that CM purposely won't tell you how many men that faraway enemy unit has, because in real life you'd have no way of knowing if they'd suffered casualties. All you can see is some rustling around in the woods and occasional glimpses of enemy uniforms... so you fire. Do you hit? You won't know until later... A squad like this is often shown in the info panel as "Infantry Squad?" (rather than the exact type) and headcount is purposely not shown until you make much closer contact. (And all three figures are shown graphically in the squad regardless of casualties which you're not aware of). Even weapons teams will sometimes show up as "Infantry Squad?" until your men can get a better look at them. CM is - intentionally - not a world of perfect information. We're serious about fog of war. Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Peltz Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 With regards to the colouring of the Cromwells- I spent years building models and poring over photos and paint chip refs until I wanted to tear my hair out in frustration. I finally decided that if I ever wanted to get a model done, I would just have to give it my best guess. When the sun, UV, different paint batches, dirt, etc. are done- the variations on a theme are endless. For the Cromwells, I say- green with some brown thrown in (or brown with some green thrown in, what the heck). I believe the black patching was known unofficially as "Mickey Mouse Ears" due to the rounded shape of the splotches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KwazyDog Posted August 6, 1999 Share Posted August 6, 1999 Yup, fair enough, I agree. Thanks for the second reply Charles. I think I understand now the way your tackling this, and I agree with what you are doing and why. The representative method you are using gives you all the info a commander in the position you are in the game would readily have, which is the main aim. Once the battle starts, no time to do head counts, just rough estimates Im not used to games at the scale CM is being as detailed as CM is, actually representing individual people, weapons and vehicles in such detail, and thus I keep tending to think its more of a lower scale than what it is, if you know what I mean, hehe. From what Ive read I think the fog of war is handled extremely well, and I cant wait to see the ability to spot by sound in action. I glad a wargame has finally taken this forgotten importance into consideration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted August 9, 1999 Share Posted August 9, 1999 Kevin, The coloring of all models is really tough for us to do. All nations varried paint color and patterns throughout the war, often with no real "sense" about it. The Brits appear to have used different paint colors at different times for different vehicles, perhaps even from different units The "Micky Mouse Ears" was very common for things like soft skin and armored cars, but not as much for tanks. The Cromwell we have in CM is colored with a single color, which is practically all black. This seems to have been a color that was common for Cromwells, but perhaps not others. It could also be, as I said, related to the specific armored formation this model was designed to represent. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Peltz Posted August 10, 1999 Share Posted August 10, 1999 Steve: I did not mean to sound as though I was being critical of the Cromwell colouring- I wasn't. What I was trying to say was (in response to the sound of all the reference books cracking open)that best guess is good enough. I am sorry if it came out the wrong way. KP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted August 10, 1999 Share Posted August 10, 1999 Oh, don't worry Kevin, it didn't come out that way AT ALL The paint jobs on WWII Allied vehicles is pretty much a mystery to me, especially for Brits. Things were not as uniform as I once thought they were. I thought they generally were OD, but looking through a couple of books here it is clear that this wasn't standard (though it was common). We have 3 British vehicles done so far. The Cromwell, Humber Scout Car, and Sherman II are all painted nearly black. All three models were created by different modelers too. So if three out of three came up with black, there must be something to it Personally, I like the Mickey Mouse pattern. Steve [This message has been edited by Big Time Software (edited 08-10-99).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Peltz Posted August 11, 1999 Share Posted August 11, 1999 Steve and Charles: Here is something that I found re the British camo stuff: http://www.mo-money.com/AFV-news/breuro.htm Hope this helps a bit- this is a good site for anyone who likes to build models of armour. KP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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