anybody still playing?

[navwarcol]

ORIGINAL: phoenix

I already modded the jeeps like that too. But would love to try your armaments adjustments as well. Doesn't have to be perfect for you to post it. I can use it as a WIP.

Sure, let me know where to send it. And as I said, a lot of the changes hopefully can be just temporary if the supply issue is fixed... I do think that it should be possible to strike the supply lines, so I have somewhat been nervous about making them too strong, but on the other hand right now they just seem too weak, so you will see what I did to the bases in the interim.

[xeroluck]

Can someone summarize what needs to be done to temporarily fix the supply issue? There are alot of references on this forum, but no actual instructions. Sort of frustrating to have such glaring bugs without a fix or documented workaround.

[navwarcol]

Matt... what Phoenix and myself are discussing here is a workaround.. we went into the estab editor, and basically added vehicles to the bases in question... making it take longer for them to run out..a very cheap workaround, to be sure... also have looked at adding bases as reinforcements..

[Phoenix100]

Matt...you can do it differently, and maybe a little easier - without going into the estab editor, and with only slightly different results - by using the scenmaker and increasing the bases '% of estab' setting to max (200%). This triples their size, almost. As navwarcol says, it's a rough and ready mitigation, rather than a fix. I do it combined with having bases drop or enter as reinforcements, roughly every 2 days. And as you won't be able to use these new bases until the old bases are destroyed, disbanded or exited, I place exit points next to the drop zones. You can then exit your defunct base and the AI will switch to the new one. It's not very much work to do all this but it only mitigates one part of the supply issue - that fact that jeeps and men get quickly lost when you get 100% interdict messages. The other part of the issue - that supply doesn't get through at all in circumstances where it should - remains.

We need a fix. But I'm not sure we're to get one. Not sure where this game is going or whether the plans for it are still current, since there have been very unfortunate real life events for the single coder and creator (Dave), without whom nothing moves. So it's been quite a while since he's been around as he used to be.

Could you send to j.connor@skynet.be, Navwarcol? Would be very grateful!

[xeroluck]

Thanks for the info navwarcol & phoenix, I'll play around with those. I really hope a patch makes it out for this, such a strong game with great potential, but those supply issues are brutal.

[navwarcol]

I am quite sure the patch will come, as well as the "part 2" with the Med... but yes there is just one developer, and he has had some health and family issues I believe. I believe he posted last week that once he gets back into this it will not be long in coming.

[navwarcol]

Phoenix, will send it out when I get home in a few hours. Had not paid attention but the .Be means this is your home area we are playing on, correct? Very cool!

[Phoenix100]

Belgium, Brussels, yes. So all the battlegrounds - except the Greek ones - are a short drive away. 2 hours to Arnhem or Bastogne. An hour and a half to Elsenborn, Losheim, Malmedy etc. Bit longer to the Luxembourg end of the battlefield. I guess it's not much more than a two hour flight to get to Greece too, for that matter. Sadly, I visit none of these places as much as I should, having so much opportunity. I was in Arnhem not so very long ago, but it's a while since I've been down to the Ardennes. Should make the time.

Be interesting to know where people are. I know Ramses is near Eindhoven, Daz in Liverpool, I think.

[dazkaz15]

I'm from the Isle of Wight, a small Island, just to the south of the UK mainland, only about a mile off shore.
I would love to go on a tour of the Ardennes Battlegrounds. I asked the wife if she wanted to go next year but she is still not keen.
I lost out big time last year to Disney Florida. The conversation went something like this:

"How would you like to go on a lovely holiday, to a forest, where lots of men took part in a huge battle, and dug lots of holes in the woods, some of which are still there", said granddad to the grandkids, and waited expectantly for a reply.
"Or we could go to Disney World in Florida!" shouted nanny from the other room.

I think kids are more interested in fantasy than history these days...who can blame them [:'(]

[Phoenix100]

I was once in Alum Bay as a kid when a huge cliff of sand came down with a crump like a gun, burying three kids about 8 foot under. All the men, my dad included, had to dig frantically with their bare hands. No one knew how many kids were under. We kids had to run along the beach asking people if they had all their kids with them - I remember them looking at us like we were stupid, because they had no idea what had happened. The men pulled out 3, they all survived. A helicopter landed on the beach and took them off. My dad had bleeding fingernails. An exciting day. Thus my memories of the Isle of wight.

You can do the Ardennes in a long weekend from the UK, Daz. Don't bring the family - it won't be the same.

[dazkaz15]

Wow! That's a very memorable experience. I'm glad they managed to get them out.
The sea cliffs around the Island are very unstable, and full of fossils, that keep turning up as well.

Your right I will have to go alone to Belgium.
My Honda VFR800 Bike would have been ideal for that trip, but I sold it a few years ago now. I have nerve damage in my hands from years of chainsaw use, and loose the feeling in them very quickly when riding. After about 30 min I have no idea how tight I am holding on. So it had to go [:(]

[vandorenp]

ORIGINAL: navwarcol

I tweaked the weapon accuracy of the main guns a bit in the estab editor. Took a few tries to get one that felt right, but it mostly does now. ...

Did you go immediately into playing the applicable scenario after compiling the estab? Or did you open the scenario and drag the estab to the unit(s), save and run the game?

I changed an estab to static and found it did not go into effect until using the scenario maker to reassign the estab to the unit(s). Have asked if this applies to all possible units, weapons, vehicles estab changes and do not have a complete reply yet.

[Phoenix100]

I wish I understood all that, Vandorenp. Perhaps you could apply it to what I just did and tell me if it should be working? I took Navwarcol's estab, xml and images folder and put them in the estab folder in the BFTB folder. I then took out the original estab (and the xml and the images folder)and renamed navwarcol's so that they had the names of the originals - so that when the program looked for the BFTBestab files it would find, in fact, Navwarcol's. I then opened up the scenario in scenmaker and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. So I ran the scenario and it seemed ok. You think it might not have worked? What else should I have done?

[navwarcol]

ORIGINAL: vandorenp

ORIGINAL: navwarcol

I tweaked the weapon accuracy of the main guns a bit in the estab editor. Took a few tries to get one that felt right, but it mostly does now. ...

Did you go immediately into playing the applicable scenario after compiling the estab? Or did you open the scenario and drag the estab to the unit(s), save and run the game?

I changed an estab to static and found it did not go into effect until using the scenario maker to reassign the estab to the unit(s). Have asked if this applies to all possible units, weapons, vehicles estab changes and do not have a complete reply yet.

Yes, it is a bit of a drawn out process, you need to remove the units, then re-add the ones you modded into the scenario. From trial and error, this seems to be the case each time, with anything.
For testing, I basically just keep a testing scenario with nothing in it except an easy map, and that way I can test them each time.
I did run a test against the pesky American M3 and M8, as I had not specifically tested against those before... the Panthers knocked them out entirely once ( I cheated and put 3 platoons of Mk V in a triangle to keep the American unit from easily running away) and the other two were more mixed, with the American unit taking over 50% casualties but escaping destruction. In all three experiments, a total of 4 Mk Vs were lost, 3 in a single one, 1 in a second, none in the third.
Test repeated with Mk VI, with no panzers lost in 2, 1 lost to anti armor(somehow) in the third, and the same general result with the American unit, except that the two it escaped in, it lost an additional M8 in one, and 2 in the other.

[navwarcol]

ORIGINAL: phoenix

I wish I understood all that, Vandorenp. Perhaps you could apply it to what I just did and tell me if it should be working? I took Navwarcol's estab, xml and images folder and put them in the estab folder in the BFTB folder. I then took out the original estab (and the xml and the images folder)and renamed navwarcol's so that they had the names of the originals - so that when the program looked for the BFTBestab files it would find, in fact, Navwarcol's. I then opened up the scenario in scenmaker and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. So I ran the scenario and it seemed ok. You think it might not have worked? What else should I have done?

Actually that will work if you leave everything as the same estab I think also.

[vandorenp]

ORIGINAL: phoenix
... I then opened up the scenario in scenmaker and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. So I ran the scenario and it seemed ok. You think it might not have worked? What else should I have done?

As navwarcol wrote.

(the estab file is the compiled file of the xml file)
After opening the scenario file you open the subject unit. Tab to the estab. Find the unit estab. Drag it to the Unit right under the unit name (the spot will get a yellow box)and drop it. Then save the unit. Then save the scenario. Then run the scenario.

[captskillet]

navwarcol, please shoot me a copy too and muchas gratias in advance!

capt56ATattDOTnet

[jimcarravall]

ORIGINAL: dazkaz15

ORIGINAL: jimcarravallah

1. If you wait for something better before using what exists, you lose out on the good embedded in the original.

2. As information on the technology and user expectation evolves, at some point you have to commit to a baseline so you know the foundation you can build on.

3. If you're holding off because what you see isn't "perfect" in your eyes, see 1 above.

That's a great analogy Jim!
Is it a quote, or did you just make it up?

I've been away from a connection for awhile, so sorry for the late reply.

The foundation for an analogy I used to get "the glass is half empty" people to consider the benefits of tactical software updates while I worked software logistics for a US Army weapons system.

It went: "Why do you insist on getting a Cadillac solution to your problems when a Volkswagen solves it?"

Another was "Waiting for perfect stands in the way of solving the original problem."

[Phoenix100]

Yep. Loads of that stuff. Never let the perfect get in the way of the good. etc etc etc.

I got sick to death of all that stuff when I was working for the UK government. Business self-help books have a lot to answer for.

I think it's fair to say - as a gross generalisation - that Americans (meaning people from the USA) tend to be more 'positive' and 'optimistic' than people from the UK, or even Europe. But people are different and it's not a sign of anything particularly bad to be either more pessimistic, or more optimistic - just a cultural difference. It irks managers, of course - because pessimistic people mean more work for them and harder interpersonal relations. What the employer and the manager always want is for the people below them to just shut up and get on with it, no matter how bad it is. I know, I managed a lot of miserable lawyers at one point.

another analogy might be telling people to just drive the car on the hubs, since the wheels are missing, otherwise you won't get to appreciate the beautiful soft leather seats and fantastic steering.... And whilst you're scraping along, keep smiling and stop griping about the noise!

[wodin]

I really want to do a tour of WW1 battlefields and find my great great uncles name on the Loos memorial..Also try and locate the area he was killed.

ORIGINAL: dazkaz15

I'm from the Isle of Wight, a small Island, just to the south of the UK mainland, only about a mile off shore.
I would love to go on a tour of the Ardennes Battlegrounds. I asked the wife if she wanted to go next year but she is still not keen.
I lost out big time last year to Disney Florida. The conversation went something like this:

"How would you like to go on a lovely holiday, to a forest, where lots of men took part in a huge battle, and dug lots of holes in the woods, some of which are still there", said granddad to the grandkids, and waited expectantly for a reply.
"Or we could go to Disney World in Florida!" shouted nanny from the other room.

I think kids are more interested in fantasy than history these days...who can blame them [:'(]