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We need a FAQ!!


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That's right, folks. We need a FAQ. We get the same questions over and over and then bark at people when they ask them. We tell them to search which doesn't work that well when there are 36,000 messages.

Just think. If we had a FAQ we could just point them to it and save ourselves much trouble. Imagine if we had a FAQ when Manieri showed up? We could have saved him and us a lot of grief. With the release of the game getting closer every day, I think it is incumbent on us to make this forum asaccomodating to new people as possible.

Here is a list of questions I have come up with:

What is CM?

What scale is CM?

What period does it cover?

Why doesn't it cover period X, Y, or Z?

Can I buy CM in stores?

Why can't I buy CM in stores?

I live in country 'X', can BTS ship the game to me?

Why no dead bodies?

Why three men per squad?

Why isn't rubble more 3-D?

What vehicles are in the game?

How big can I make maps?

What is an 'Operation'?

Can I take a force from battle to battle like SP, CC, PG, etc.?

I'm looking for PBEM opponents, whre can I find some?

Is there a ladder?

How big can the battles be?

Are there any fan websites?

What is CMHQ?

Is Madmatt insane? (Yes, but we like his capital letters, exclamation points, POTDs, and especially his POO!!!)

Does Fionn know everything about WWII? (No, he just thinks he does. smile.gifsmile.gifsmile.gifsmile.gif )

What is the CMMC?

How do I join the CMMC?

I'm looking for books on:

weapons

tanks

battles

campaigns

tactics

etc...

I'm looking for websites on:

weapons

tanks

battles

campaigns

tactics

TOE

etc...

Who is this enigmatic Charles I keep reading about? (Charles is a Moylanite from the planet Grammont. Or he is a trained chimp that Steve keeps locked in the basement chained to his computer. Occasionaly he feeds him bowls of Honeycomb cereal if he writes new lines of code)

Can I play back an entire battle all at once?

What is CM2 going to be about?

When wiil CM2 be out?

Will CM cover theaters X, Y, or Z?

Where can I download scenarios?

How can I make good scenarios?

I also think it might be neat to have a section about forum members. Maybe a miniature biography of a line or two. I've been here seven months and I only know most of you from your screen names.

I'm not sure how we could go about collecting answers and I'm not sure wher ewe could post them (CMHQ??), but we are going to be hating life if we don't have a good FAQ when the game comes out.

Jason

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Jason,

Hmm, sounds good to me...

Add more questions to the FAQ list k? Does anyone with a lot of committment volunteer to write the answers or is this a "Matt or Fionn get to do it special" again? wink.gif

P.s. I think you shouldn't knowingly put in errors Jason. I refer here of course to the WW2 knowledge question wink.gif hehe.

[This message has been edited by Fionn (edited 03-25-2000).]

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Guest PeterNZ

I'd be happy to help out with a FAQ. So everyone here consider it worked on!

I'll mail Guachi and we'll go for it :>

PeterNZ

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I'd be willing to pitch in too (I'll email PeterNZ). But what I think would work best for BTS would be if this was an official FAQ on the Battlefront web site (no offense Matt and Fionn) because it should be thought of as coming right from the horses mouth (sorry Steve) and be available at they same place someone went to to order the game. What I would like is if Peter,Guachi and myself or whoever put the list together and had Steve or anyone else that had real knowledge look over what questions were used and how they were answered. This way no one whos time is already taxed would be bogged down (sorry SS) with the bulk of the work.

------------------

"Tryin to be so so bad is bad enough, don't make me laugh by talkin tough" EC

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Guest Madmatt

Hehehe, all you and your silly little ideas... wink.gif

This was the very FIRST thing that I came up with when I joined CMHQ way back in November. Steve was aware of the plan and I am sure we would could get the 'Official Support' that you are requesting. As much of the game has changed since the demo I would suggest that whatever you come up with, send to Fionn and Myself and we can add to it and then get it posted both on CMHQ AND Battlefront. I have always wanted to do a FAQ and have a pretty decent set of questions/answers already but haven't had the time to write it all up..

So send us what you have and we can all make this happen! biggrin.gif

Madmatt

------------------

If it's in Combat Mission, it's on Combat Mission HQ!

combathq.thegamers.net

[This message has been edited by Madmatt (edited 03-25-2000).]

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I think the best answers to get are Steve answers. Lift as many answers directly from text Steve has posted on this board (with permission, of course).

Peter has already mailed me some answers and some more questions. Peter's answer to the Fionn question is REALLY funny.

No disrespect meant for those I made fun of. The atmosphere around here has gotten a bit tense over the last few months ans I was just hoping to lighten the mood a bit...

I figure the rest of us sycophants and slackass-posterboys can pitch in for once instead of saying "Gimme. gimme giime!"

Jason - on my way to use the Search function so you don't have to!

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Guest PeterNZ

I'm remember discussing a FAQ when the beta demo came out, but now is as good a time as any!

Since Guachi, Elvis and myself are all in dif. time zones, just you two work on it, then send teh results to me, i'll complile and do some work and then pass it back and so on? Reckon that'd work the best.

Then when we're out of ideas, show it to everyone else and complete it some more.

Then we're done :0

PeterNZ

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Well, it seems to me that the most logical thing is for you all to come up with questions and the "best" answers you can and then send them to Matt and myself. We'll look over them and correct any obvious errors.

Then we can pass them on to Steve and if he has the time he could read it and correct any errors which have still creeped through.

that way Steve doesn't have to correct tons of errors and yet it is still vetted by "someone in the know".

Ps. Jason, any chance of seeing Peter's answer? Might be worth a laugh or a POTD wink.gif.

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The FAQ that currently exists is a great starting point, but it is almost a year out of date! eek.gif

I'm culling through old messages and what is surprising is how many common questions were asked long ago. Dead bodies was first asked and answered first over a year ago.

Fionn and I were posting at the same time so I will add this on to my initial post.

In order to get accurate answers I am going back through old posts and extracting quotes straight form BTS (and other) posts.

This should take the better part of today and I'll mail copies when I finish.

Jason

------------------------------------

Does Fionn know everything about WWII?

No, he just thinks he does. Well, that's what some people say. Secret info is that Fionn is actually over 80 years old and during the Big One, flew bombers, drove tanks, fired artillery and sunk submarines for the Axis powers before hidding in that plane that flew to England and signing up with the Allies where he served with distinction in every service before retiring

to Ireland and Guinness. Of course, this could be just legend.

(Credit to PeterNZ)

---------------------------

[This message has been edited by guachi (edited 03-25-2000).]

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That's why the FAQ should be a product of the rest of us. We sit here saying gimme, gimmee, gimmee when we can serve a better purpose by compiling all common questions so Steve doesn't have to answer them.

The only thing I see us needing Steve for is to check things over.

Of course, this should have been done MONTHS ago by us board members. I'll have a huge list of answers done up by around midnight today (Saturday, Mountain Time)

Jason

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Yeah I too have been spending the day going through past questions. PeterNZ has sent an outline of things to cover and once we have gotten through all of Capt Maneris questions I figure we can move on to others. What I think should happen is they should be be funneled through Steve, Charles, Matt and Fionn for cleansing. But I want the list of FAQs to be so clean that Steve ,Charles, Matt and Fionn have to do very little changeing and spend alomost no time correcting.

------------------

"Tryin to be so so bad is bad enough, don't make me laugh by talkin tough" EC

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Guest PeterNZ

Yup, I figure if we circle the FAQ between the three of us, then finish and polish it, then send it to Fionn and Madmatt to make sure it's generally correct and finally get steve and co to look at it and get their nod of accuracy.

I'm also keen to keep this a fan-based FAQ, since many people 'trust' them more and we can have more fun hassling people =)

PeterNZ

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I'm not done searching, but I do have lots of good answers. I was thinking we should divide the FAQ up into broad categories with specific questions in each. Maybe have a section at the beginning with the top five most asked questions.

Each specific question can be divided into a short answer and a long answer. The long answer could have extra bits like links to other websites; e.g. links to a panzerfaust page in a question about fausts. The long answer can also include an excerpt from an "official" source.

We could also include a section with TLAs (Three {or two} Letter Acronyms) and ETLAs (Extended Three Letter Acronyms, i.e. four letter acronyms). A section with abbreviations. Plus a section of military German. How many people knew what a sPzAbt was the first time they saw it, or even the tenth?

Jason

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by guachi:

We could also include a section with TLAs (Three {or two} Letter Acronyms) and ETLAs (Extended Three Letter Acronyms, i.e. four letter acronyms). A section with abbreviations. Plus a section of military German. How many people knew what a sPzAbt was the first time they saw it, or even the tenth?

Jason<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Having a section explaining all those abbreviations would be great. I can only guess far too many of them.

And for this section of military German, I'd like to have one for military English too.

Dschugaschwili

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Guest PeterNZ

Well, I know Elvis has mailed me and said he's working on the PBEM type questions. G is working on others, and i've worked on some general ones and happy to review and edit.

I'd say, if anyone wants to tackle a particular section, eg, TLA's etc, then just say you're going to do so here, and do it! But also remember to mail Guachi and check he hasn't done it already.

we can have it all sorted relatively quickly then.

PeterNZ

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With all this work going on behind the scenes, you should post who is working on what. Otherwise, potential helpers would risk a massive duplication of effort.

What I appear to be saying is that we need a FAQ update. And, when is it going Gold?

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