Guest Captitalistdoginchina Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 Hi guys, I finally managed to download CM gold demo at the pathetic transfer rate of 0.8 kb/sec, after 10 hours and 2 attempts i made it. After firing up the game for the first time i now know why you guys love it so much - it is awesome, the game engine reminds me of Myth 2 Soulblighter. Anyway i need some practical advice from some of you vets out there. I am new to wargaming and the intricacies of this game - i found the different colour lines confusing,I know they are for targetting and los etc but which colour means what exactly? i did not see any readme file so can anyone tell me what all those different colour lines mean? Please don't ask me to search coz i am at work and don't have the time. Also i am not so familiar with the commands/orders. Run, move and target are fine but is there a reference anywhere i can see what the other orders do in detail? I noticed that my men in buildings do not seem to fire? Am i doing something wrong? Last question, in CE i was down to my last sherman which was immobilised - it was in a position to do a lot of damage to the Germans in the woods and was quite effective, then suddenly it was bombarded by smoke rounds and completely engulfed in smoke - wow. But i have no idea where the smoke rounds casme from? I had toasted the 3 Stugs early on and the german arty had been used up earlier in the game. Go easy on me guys, i am a real novice and sorry if this info is available on the millions of previous posts. I love the game though, Impressed is something that came into my head every time i hit GO. Now where is that pre-order icon? CDIC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tom w Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 I'll try to help first off guys in building need a clear LOS thats line of sight, use the LOS tool or use the target tool. they don't have LOS if they are not close to the out walls were we presume there are windows. Shift P will let you cyle through the line Red are the LOF L O - Fire the other colors are for hunt purple Move blue and Fast or run is white it shift p and you can see them all as you plot the move I'm not sure where the smoke came from but the Krouts like to use alot of it in CE to blind the yanks I've noticed myself but it only lasts a 2-3 minutes I too would like to know where it comes from? what else? did that help? -tom w ------------------ <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>"Remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." G. S. Patton <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KwazyDog Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 And there should be a readme in your COmbat Mission directory. Its an html file and not a text file though Look for a file with a .html extension. Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionn Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 Capitalistdog , 1. Thanks for the POLITE question. 2. As my sig says you'll get as complete and polite a response as I can manage so here goes. A. Move and Run = Green lines. B. Crawl = Maroon line. C. LOS = BLUE line. The brighter the blue the better the LOS to a certain location. If the Blue stops suddenly and the line becomes black from a certain location then the engine is telling you that whatever is at the junction of black and blue is blocking your LOS. If you want to see farther you need to move. D. Rotate: Purple Line. Rotate = Turn to. E. Target Line = Blue line. If LOS to a target is blocked the line turns black at the obstruction it works the exact same as the LOS line and colours. F. Area Target.. If you select an area to target then an ORANGE line will extend from the unit to the targetted area where a little dialog box will say "Area Target". G. If you are targetting an enemy unit then a RED line will extend from your unit to the enemy unit. The brighter the red line the clearer the shot. H. Sneak = Turquoise Line. A unit given a sneak command will silently move towards the enemy slowly until it sees them, Then it will stop and let rip. I think those are the main ones. If you have any further questions just tell me and I'll be more than happy to answer them. ------------------ Ask me politely and you'll get a complete and polite response. Act impolitely and I'll ignore you forever. Your choice. This sig is so NO-ONE can say they haven't been warned about my stance on this subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ol' Blood & Guts Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 Generally speaking, the color of the lines correspond to the color of the order in the orders menu. Red lines are targeting or out-going fire. Yellow lines are in-coming fire. (I know, there is no yellow command, just take my word for it.) Dark Red or Maroon lines are Command and Control Lines from units backs to their HQs. Black lines are lines for units out of Command and Control. The others are pretty much the color of the command. "Hunt" for tanks is a command to use that is where "shooting" is a priority over "moving". You use it when you want the Tac-AI to ease your tank into hull-down positions when firing. "Sneak" is for infantry. That's to make your infantry slowly creep forward as to not make their presence known. Which other commands are you not sure about? Now, one thing you may or maynot be aware of is that you can plot a very complex string of orders for any unit using either or both "waypoints" or multiple orders. Waypoints with the same command are done with a right-click. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Morgue Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 CDIC , also if you don't have a unit selected you will see a "hotkeys" button at the bottom of the page, with the hotkeys it is easy to control the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All American Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 About the smoke in CE, the germs get a 81 mm forward observer so that where it's probably coming from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tom w Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 Just to add to the Sarge.. To 'not have a unit selected" click anywhere on the map where there in NOT a unit and the interface will change, there will appear the "hotkeys" button in red at the bottom, check out the hot keys, all the "goodies" are in there. I typically play with all the tree's turn off (shift T until they all go away) and then Shift B to turn on Bases, (easier to find all your units) and then Shift C to make them all realistic size and then Shift P until you can see all the unit paths all at once (this is VERY handy) I would say it is VERY good 3D game interface design.... -tom w <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sgt.Morgue: CDIC , also if you don't have a unit selected you will see a "hotkeys" button at the bottom of the page, with the hotkeys it is easy to control the game. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ------------------ <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>"Remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." G. S. Patton <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> [This message has been edited by tom w (edited 05-11-2000).] [This message has been edited by tom w (edited 05-11-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MantaRay Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 Hey Terrence, Welcome to the Wide World of CM. I know you are going to get CM for a few bucks there, so I think you should play me in a PBEM(Play By Email) when you get the hang of it. Ray ------------------ When asked, "How many moves do you see ahead?", CAPABLANCA replied: "One move - the best one." MantaRays 5 Pages Hardcore Gamers Daily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captitalistdoginchina Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 Thanks for all the helpful replies, i need all the advice i can get. PBEM will be on my list as soon as i can make a respectable opponent for ya. While everyone is in such a jovial mood can i push my luck with a couple more questions? My virgin mission described above resulted in a win for me and the allies so i must have done something right. When i started i reached turn 8 before i realised my tanks were still carrying the hitchhikers!! I would have thought that they would abandon ship at the first sign of action? When i ordered them to disembark it took more than one turn for them to comply, maybe that is because they were by then far away from their HQ i guess. Will they still fire from the back of a tank? Anyway how do i get men in a foxhole, do i just move them over a hole and they automatically go in? I would guess that the germans only have one artillary strike otherwise they would have shelled my Sherman with HE instead of smoke right? Also is it better to run back or withdraw if you wish to bring your men back into cover? When would you use the "split order" i think that is what it is called at the bottom of the orders list? Oooooh so many questions and my fingers cannot type fast enough (i am in my lunch break) Tonight i will try the Valley map, or maybe try as the germans in CE. I am getting all excited again. Thanks for not directing me to the search button, I have printed this all out to take home with me. Kwazydog i will take a look at the HTML file tonight for more info - i hope it has enough detail to teach me the ropes! Cheers men. CDIC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demangel Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 hitchikers: Do not fire, and will not abondon ship... They sit until you tell em to get off or the tank (transport) is hit by some kind of heavy fire... or knocked out... If they are under fire, pinned or out of contact with the hq they will take there sweet ass time to disembark.... and only at the speed of move (walking) Foxholes: Men should just go in it just like woods or houses if they move into the spot.. when trying to place a unit in a foxhole just walk/run/sneak/crawl/ them. Put the end of the line over the hole (or even large blast craters work too). It should on the help text tell you what kind of terrain it is... Whe it says foxhole or crater just click and they are ordered into the foxhole. Running isn't the best order nor is withdraw, in fact any kind of retreat should be decided based on the kind of situation... If you don't want them to take many casualties have them withdraw (really fast run) or crawl slow but makes them hard to hit. to have them fight anything that has popped up that may block the move backward, have them move or run... I rarely sneak my men back into cover unless they are intend to hide there and stay hideen for a while... (rare and doesnt often work) As for splitting units, I have only done it once or twice when I needed to outflank a messy machine gun nest and I only had two 12 man squads. It give the machine gun nest more than two targets and only made their individual firepower less powerful... The machine gun nest could only target one unit at a time, so I lost only one of the split teams, and the remaining three flanked it wiping it out. I think if I had just tried it without plitting I would have lost one of the 12 man squads and might have had to fight it for another turn than I had too. Other teams can't be plit I don't think, (machine guns bazookas/poanzerschrek) the other disadvantage is that the weapons are split up, it can be hard to tell which division has what unless you hit enter when they are selected. so if your going for a last ditch Panzerfaust strike on a tank and split your squad be sure to make sure you know which squad has what and act accordingly. Usualy if one has the faust that unit is the one that should not be used as the diversion... etc... you also asked a while back what the differance in movement was... You now know the meaning of the colors, but what does each type of movement mean? Run= They move fast attack only the mostthreatening target or what you ask them to target and do not attck much till they stop moving... They are also easily spotted. Walk= they move slower than at a run, saving you the unhappy task of trying to push a tired weary team forward in a firefight... they attack targets of oportunity as they move, and often stop when they spot the target. (this is like the all around kill move type... balenced between defense and offense) Sneak= the unit will be somewhat hidden (though less I think than if they stayed put and actually are giventhe hide comand) While sneaking they move EXTREMELY slow, and will attack the first thing they see regardless of what it is... even if it's not what you wanted them to attack. This is hardest of the move types to spot... Crawl= this action causes the enemy to pretty much ignore everything, and keep there heads down while they SLOWLY advance someplace... this is good when under shelling, or superior fire... It saves lives too. It is about as easy to spot as walking... hide= unit stays put and is not easily seen at all depending on terrain, and will not fire unless fired upon or a juicytarget appears OR someone near them opens up as well. Withdraw= Unit moves double time backward, doing it's best to just get the hell out of there... It is fast and is the alternative way of retreating when crawling is too slow, and normal running is death... Please not you can only withdraw backwards (the line should be white... if red you can't go there) Tanks armor movement= Fast move= it ignores all but the best or most threatening targets to get somewhere in a hurry... Move= similar to ground troops... hunt= it fires on anything that it can see... with EXTREME prejudice... but it moves a tad slower than regular move. Please note that tanks are hide to hide, and can be spotted easily even if they are hidden. (range to spot is less depending on interveining terain) also note that some units move slower than others, and some don't have certian moevemnt options at all... Any weapon that requires at least two men to use effectively (mortar, machine gun, bazzooka/panzerschrek) usualy have slower movement rates and some such as the machine gun can only use the move command not the run command. A few cannot be moved at all if suficient casualties are caused. Say for instance a heavy machine gun if only one guy remains fromthe team it must stay put... (it takes two to carry the weapon at all) the bazooka and panzerschrek require two men to operate it effectively but if one is knocked out the unit can still run, but it's rate of fire and comlience speed... (pause) sufferes greatly. (one man relaods and acts as guard/eyes for the shooter) Ok I hope this helps and if anyone thinks I got this wrong or it is incomplete... just correct/add to this posting. -Demangel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captitalistdoginchina Posted May 12, 2000 Share Posted May 12, 2000 Thanks for those lengthy and detailed replies, you are all a great help, i found the HTML file and it also contains a lot of info - thanks. I just played the same scenario as the germans, and the forward observer has no smoke rounds to call in...........so where does the smoke come from? Can arty shells take out the shermans? I was pounding them with arty, shells falling all around the shermans but no damage??????? My Stugs took out 3 of the 5 shermans within 2 turns (At around turn 6), i would have had 4 but 3 times a shell bounced off on a direct frontal hit - wow, tense stuff. I now have an unbeaten record with 2 wins out of 2 - bring on those vets!.......oooooh i like this game! CDIC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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