Polar Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 I had an idea for a mission that seemed like it would be pretty fun... so for the first time I sat down last night and designed a scenario. I have been playing it ever since... it actually seems to have turned out pretty well balanced from the start. The problem is, I know everything before hand... I wish there was a way of quick battling AI -vs- AI just so I could test balance. As it is, I can't be sure. Pretty nifty none the less. The mission is a ME (I know, I know... ). A small U.S. Army recon force locates a major Axis armor push on a small town, but Allied armor and main force is still moving up. The U.S. job is to race to the town and set up hasty defenses before the Germans arrive... the Germans have to take the town from the expedition and secure it before the U.S. armor arives. The really fun part is, the U.S. is WAY out gunned for the a while, but have mobility, terrain, and fog on their side. If they hold out long enough, they get help that will slowly trickle in... if they lose the town, they won't get reinforced fast enough to retake the town without heavy losses. The Germans on the other have to move on foot (damn the CAS!! ) and across open fields... which isn't so bad since you have a fog to hide in... or do you.. those damn yanks move fast!!! Contact is made far too close to make off map arty useful, and overcast negates CAS... so it's just the basics, and a lot of unknowns. Pretty fun! I just thought it would be fun to play a looooong ME mission (90 turns) where essentially you have all the mission types rolled into one... start with the ME, but since the U.S. moves so fast, the ME becomes an Axis attack. Depending on what happens in the first x number of turns, the Aliies very well could become the attacker not to long into the mission. And with all that open ground arround the small town, there is PLEANTY of room for little MEs and A/Ds all over the place. Anyone interested, I can send them what I have done so far. Mission Name: Gradual Mayhem Joe ------------------ "I had no shoes and I cried, then I met a man who had no socks." - Fred Mertz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanzfeld Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 I too am trying to build my first battle (or operation...still testing the waters). I am building a situation where the Amis are pushing through a forest with one road to a town several KM's away. The Germans are weak but they are only there to do a delaying action to the Amis. I have it so the Germans get a towed IG in a reenforcement and you have to blow up a wood bridge before the Amis can capture it. Cool. The Amis have to take a longer route to town then. Some problems I have: AI driving is not the best. LOTS of traffic jams on the one road. Question: Is the AI's choice of going off road less likely if there is wet/mud/deep mud conditions? I know there is fuzzy logic involved but is it condition dependant? Will I see them do it less in bad conditions? Also......The AI is not good at dealing with mines when they block the road. I use Daisy-chain mines so the AI sees them but it still demands to drive over them even when I give them Engineers to help clear. Oh well.... As for the AI using the IG to blow the bridge when they play the Germans I know that is not possible. Oh well.... Still the BEST game EVER! I am impressed with the "general" pathfinding though. Traffic jams aside.....the AI takes the shorter route over the bridge until I blow it.....then, after much shuffling, it finds the longer route over another bridge and continues. Not bad. Obviously, this battle will be better against a human player. After playing the battle that came with the game "Merry Xmas at Hemroulle" I thought the AI driving was better. It seems to be in that battle anyway. Any thoughts on the AI clearing mines? [This message has been edited by Lanzfeld (edited 01-17-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooleen Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 Hey fellas, I will try out both of your scenarios, if you will try out mine. I have one that I have been playing alot, and I hope you guys could Btest it. I will leave my email, maybe we could exchange the scenarios. In fact I am going to start a new thread about Newbie scenario makers. scooleen@steelservicesinc.com [This message has been edited by scooleen (edited 01-17-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wwb_99 Posted January 17, 2001 Share Posted January 17, 2001 Polar, your post brings up something I have been thinking about recently for CM2 or beyond. What if BTS built a special 'Playtest mode' into the game? What I mean by this is a special mode of playing where you can switch sides, FOW, etc. while in the game engine. This would include an AI vs AI mode, the better to playtest with. That mode would be very hand for large scenarios with large OOBs. On a side note, I would like to see an 'Autodeploy' feature in CM2. It would be great for those unbalanced quickbattles I use as a stress relief after work (I.e. 4 Tigers vs 12 Sherman 75s). I want to get to the killin' quick, not ponder deployments. WWB ------------------ Before battle, my digital soldiers turn to me and say, Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutamus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polar Posted January 17, 2001 Author Share Posted January 17, 2001 Heheh... I do that too. I once had a REALLY bad day at work and didn't even feel like moving units. So I took a "firing range" map that I made the day before and stuffed 30 KTs and 30 Super Pershings on it (none of them could move because of the terrain) and let them duke it out in a huge 1800's style duel. Click Go!... watch the Carnage... Click Go!... watch the carnage... I'm sick I tell ya! Joe ------------------ "I had no shoes and I cried, then I met a man who had no socks." - Fred Mertz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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