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Capt. Pixel's Fortress

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2002 7:09 am
by 3/2 ACR
High in the mountains in Germany, there was a Commander, that had to much time on his hand (and to much chipped Beef) he sat for years knowing the day will come when the Big bad Bald Eagle of America will come and run him off
So he sat and pondered how to slow that eagle down. he thought and thought and finally a thought occured to him

MINES!!!!!and PANTHERS!!!!!!! what a combination

I am stuck in some woods trying to find a way into a fortress of mines that is full of PANTHERS

this game has been going on for a couple of weeks and we are a little slow at starting a thread on it
But will try
Rick 3/2 ACR

I have tried 2-3 time trying to attach the file, it keeps timing out

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2002 7:26 am
by Supervisor
How big is it and in what format? Send it to me and I'll post it for you.

Mike

file

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2002 8:38 am
by 3/2 ACR
we have been playing a game for weeks and all of a sudden the files that Pixel gets are corrupt he thinks its his email service we decided to try and post it here
the file is only about 750k I will email it

It's a biggie

Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2002 11:52 am
by Capt. Pixel
But now, even though the email service says the file size is 1MB+, all I get in the attachment is a 227K file that won't unzip. :confused: Most confusing.

(BTW, it's not that many mines. They're just well placed. ;) )

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 12:24 am
by Supervisor
Here is the file. The reason it's getting so large is because the VCR recording file is up to 4mb in size. My suggestion after whomever play this turn. Watch your opponents moves, exit out of the game delete the *.rec file and play your turn that way the VCR file starts over in a much smaller size.

Looking Good

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 12:58 am
by Capt. Pixel
Thanks for the help and the advice. The file unzipped okay and we'll see about stripping the .rec file as you suggested. I never would have touched that file (not knowing exactly what it is.)

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 3:25 am
by Supervisor
The vcr recording file *.rec is a cumulative file that gets larger in size with ever turn, but as we all know it only replays the last move. The original thinking was that this file could play out an entire battle just from the recording, but a player never materialized that could play the file from the start of the battle all the way to the end. It is also used in scenario creation in the pre-bombarment phase of the beginning of the battle ( strike A/C swopping in and shells falling from the sky etc prior to the first turn). But when the first turn is started the player moves are added to the recording and this is what the opponenet sees.

Rec file

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 5:55 am
by 3/2 ACR
thanks for tip that is a great idea


and what is not lot of mines 250+ mines is a bit much in my book
hey hey who's counting :-) I will still destroy your Nazi butt
Rick

Boy! I'll say!!

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 11:22 am
by Capt. Pixel
This was a fantastic tip. Our file dropped to ~550k. (I hope it still works. :D )

This game is through the 20th turn, so it's no wonder the .rec file grew so large. Thanks for the info, Gmenfan.

Rick,

You shall never penetrate my fortress of solitude. I have called for my dogs and hunting rifle. I believe it's time to flush some peasants, um pheasants.

Rick's US forces have managed to keep hidden in the dense forests around Hohenweiler and Hoerbranz. During any of the last twenty turns, I don't think I've ever spotted more than a dozen units of his 11,000 point force. Recon reports from his strike aircraft have been helpful tho'.

Unfortunately for him, he's having to do it moving up a rather steep, heavily forested mountain. (+2000' over 1.5 miles {+600m over 2.2Km}) It's very slow going.

My Germans are providing a motivating force in the form of several onboard batterys of 75mm Howitzers and 120mm Mortars. If you're seen you're shelled.

Despite these handicaps, Rick has managed to mount an offensive against my fortress from Three different sides, West, South and East Fortunately, the Germans were expecting infiltrators and fast scouts to approach from that direction. But we are nearly surrounded. In the West, all we've really seen is some smoke (OBA) and an ill-fated Greyhound. But this might be US reinforcements, so it'll bear close observation.

Dozens of Panthers are jockeying into position to present a solid wall of steel and muzzles towards the US breakthroughs. Flammenwagens watch their backs. When will the Shermans poke their noses through the smoke?

Thanks all you viewers for showing just in time up to watch Pixel get rolled up into a ball and driven through his own minefields. :(

Darn

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 11:23 am
by Capt. Pixel
Now I can't attach this file to the post. I'll try email again, Rick.

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 6:39 pm
by Supervisor
Seems to be a common problem lately, I'm checking with forum administrators to see if they turned certain features off or reduce the size.

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 7:26 pm
by Jim1954
Maybe that's what happened to our smileys?

Just to be Anal

Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2002 8:10 am
by Capt. Pixel
A lot of people post file attachments in their threads. Maybe they should be reminded to delete their attachments when they're done with them? :)

Rollin' again

Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2002 7:06 am
by Capt. Pixel
I tried your suggestion, Gmenfan. It helped alot, but rick says he couldn't replay my last turn. I deleted the .rec file Before I played and then sent it off to him. When I got his turn back, I could replay his turn. But the .rec file had grown to 1.5M. When I finished my next turn, the .rec file was back up to 3.5M. Just about where we were before.

I suspect the .rec file keeps track of various map overlays like fire, smoke and shellholes, in addition to firefights? There's lots of all of that on this Huge map.

Rick is one tenacious begger. He's been pounding at my door for 20 turns. But it's been costly for his US forces.

A partial US casualty list includes: a dozen Sherman 76s, 6- M4A1 Flamers, 3- M4 105s, 2- M12 155 GMCs (God love the Luftwaffe!), an M16 MGMC (hah!), an FO jeep and an Ammo Truck. A dozen or so Greyhounds, M20 and .50 cal jeeps also litter the countryside.

This, plus various infantry units dispatched, amount to about half of his force. And he's STILL coming. :eek:

This last turn he broke in from the East with several HTs and Arm Inf Squads. The ones I could find in this godawful forest were dispatched with impunity by SKI TROOPS. A lone Sherman also wandered in, right into the middle of a fire pocket. He bought a one-way ticket out from a 105 RCL. I sense frustration. ;)

German infantry has been reeling under the incessant 155 HE fire from both the GMCs and off-board. But it was quiet last turn. Perhaps he's finally running low on OBA. I sure hope so. :rolleyes:

Pixel's Fortress

Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2002 11:30 pm
by 3/2 ACR
Well I have finally broke threough in the south I have about 20 tanks that have broken through but with that 1/4 have either broken down or have been disabled. My force has been slowly been erodeing over the few rounds my reinforcement of about a company of M4's will hit him in the next few turns

Rick

at a loss

Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2002 4:58 am
by 3/2 ACR
I cant seem to still post any attachments the file size is only 500k or so

help me out there Capt.

Well c###

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2002 3:08 am
by Capt. Pixel
We've come too far in this game to s***can it now!

Gmenfan, any further ideas? We're stuck to the wall like yesterday's undies. :(

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2002 3:12 am
by Supervisor
I've already upchanneld it to administrators, I hope to hear something tomorrow. I was told with the smiley fix that the upload limitation was also increased to 1mb, but there seems to be a problem somewhere within the software settings. I will kept the forum posted. Can't you just swap them via email until we get this resolved? Please be patient.

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2002 6:04 am
by M4Jess
Guys..for now..just e-mail each other turns...:rolleyes:

Actually,

Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2002 9:25 am
by Capt. Pixel
that was what started this. We had been emailing, but ran into some problems. As an alternative, I suggested the forum. But it seems she's having her own problems.

The real problem seems to be the email attachment size. The .zip file is driven right up to 1Mb due to the .rec file being so large. Even after deleting it every few turns (which really stinks if your the one who misses a VCR playback. :( ) It grows enormously after only one or two turns.

My theory is it's the Huge map (100x240), massive amounts of smoke pumped out by both belligerents, lavish artillery usage, burning forest, moonscaped hexes where earth used to be, etc. is what's making this file so large. It hasn't been due to recording fire exchanges, as we haven't really had much of that.