Another WW2OL's players blog: The Brain Fart
The Brain Fart

I'm going to have to update my links next week. While he's playing SWG right now, he's at least got an active WW2OL account and still plays it, so he deserves a link.
- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, November 30, 2005 0 comments

 
Superman V: The Whole Sordid Saga
the agony booth forum - Superman V: The Whole Sordid Saga


This is an amazing story of the life and death and life and death and 50 million bucks spent SO FAR on Superman the remineinging sequal prequel start finsh life of Superman.

It's very funny, and interesting to see how all the rumors on what goes on in making a movie.
- posted by Comstar @ Monday, November 28, 2005 0 comments

 
Award to the Anzacs
Allied Headquarters :: View topic - Award to the Anzacs

Luggs
BEF
Country Commander
Joined: 01 Feb 2004
Posts: 1485
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 8:23 am
Post subject: Award to the Anzacs

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

To: Allied Players

From: Luggs, Commander British Forces

Subject: Unit Citation

It is my pleasure to award the Anzacs the CINC Unit Commendation.



All Anzacs; on behalf of the CINC I would like to present you with the CINC Unit Commendation for your actions in helping the Allied side this map.

From taking towns to helping and recruiting new players your contribution this map has raised eyebrows and given the Allied player base hope. I thank you for your dedication and hope that your efforts will only increase in the future.

S!

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, November 27, 2005 0 comments

 
For everything else, there's MasterRace
Thanks to Polomint, 40 Commando


ROFL!
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, November 27, 2005 0 comments

 
Salute to the French 1st Army Group in this Campaign
Battleground Europe Forums - For the Record.....

gonzowcs
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Gulf Breeze, Florida
Posts: 697
For the Record.....

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

Salute to the French 1st Army Group in this Campaign.... Your Hard work and Dedication has brought another Massive cutoff of the German Army (2nd One).

Let's Break it down Since 9 November 2005

The Axis was one (1) AB away from Capping Mauberge and held a line South to include Rethel and Signy.

Since that time 1st Army Group France:

1. Liberated/Captured 92 Cities French
2. 5 Airfields
3. Participated in Joint Operations with our BEF Teamates to capture Namur, Liege, Aachen, MonchenGladbach, Koln.
4. Cut off 64 German Towns from Factory Supply

(This does not account for Towns/Airfields captured while in the British uniform)

Any way you slice it folks this was a enourmous amount of dedication and committment to winning. Although it is not completely over yet i wnat to express my thanks to the Officers of the 1st Army Group for having faith in the system and in my leadership in this campaign. But MOST OF ALL to the Playerbase of the French Army you are the absolute Best of the Best. You never gave up on yourselves or on winning! It is you who made this campaign possible and FUN. Thanks for your trust in me and your leadership team. At times you may have thought the strategy and tactics were risky but the payoff here has been huge. You never let up!

To our BEF Teammates our trust in one another is growing stronger every day. I think once and for all we know that no matter what we have each others back. I salute you and will treasure the day that you picked me up to capture Vught Airfield. When the plane landed Mikel had a Churchill waiting for me and drove me to the bunker. I will always treasure that capture. Salute to the British Leadership and Playerbase! Cheers!

Mop up Gerry's shattered remants 1st Army Group France, and Recharge Your Batteries. You have truly earned this campaign and some well deserved R & R. Updated Orders will Be forthcoming in Secure Forums.

Commanders, Players, Friends I Salute You All

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 26, 2005 0 comments

 
Attn GHC: Terms of German Surrender
We Won. Last night lead somewhat a defence of a town Id never heard of deep in the Rhur. Pawned 6 panzers myself.

WOOOT.

Battleground Europe Forums - Attn GHC: Terms of German Surrender

May 8, 1945

Instrument of Surrender
of All German armed forces in HOLLAND, in
northwest Germany including all islands,
and in DENMARK.

1. The German Command agrees to the surrender of all armed forces in HOLLAND, in northwest GERMANY including the FRISLIAN ISLANDS and HELIGOLAND and all islands, in SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, and in DENMARK, to the C.-in-C. 21 Army Group. =This to include all naval ships in these areas= These forces to lay down their arms and to surrender unconditionally.

2. All hostilities on land, on sea, or in the air by German forces in the above areas to cease at 0800 hrs. British Double Summer Time on Saturday 5 May 1945.

3. The German command to carry out at once, and without argument or comment, all further orders that will be issued by the Allied Powers on any subject.

4. Disobedience of orders, or failure to comply with them, will be regarded as a breach of these surrender terms and will be dealt with by the Allied Powers in accordance with the laws and usages of war.

5. This insturment of surrender is independent of, without pre- judice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by or on behalf of the Allied Powers and applicable to Germany and the German armed forces as a whole.

6. This instument of surrender is written in English and in German. The English version is the authentic text.

7. The decision of the Allied Powers will be final if any doubt or dispute arise as to the meaning or intrepretation of the surrender terms.

HANS GEORG von FRIEDBERG
KINZEL
G. WAGNER
B. L. MONTGOMERY
Field - Marshal
POLECK
FRIEDEL

4 May 1945
1830 hrs.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 26, 2005 0 comments

 
Kerpin Bound Armor Column
Battleground Europe Forums - Kerpin Bound Armor Column



Thats a lot of tanks.

gonzowcs
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Gulf Breeze, Florida
Posts: 681
Re: Kerpin Bound Armor Column

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

This Column Smashed THROUGH Kerpin Wheeled Left To Bergheim. Right TO Bruhl and Finally Ended up in Neiderkassel....

Salute 1st Army Group France for the 5 ABs worth of Towns and Kerpen Airfield

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 26, 2005 0 comments

 
A little lesson for Rat God Jaeger55.
Battleground Europe Forums - A little lesson for Rat God Jaeger55.

kamel
Member
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Arse end of Oz and up a mountain.
Posts: 4,520
A little lesson for Rat God Jaeger55.

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

1. Leaving your commander up when EI have just blown your FB is not smart.

2. Sitting still and rotating your turret like you are a helicopter is also not smart. Especially when you know there are sappers around. [and If I'd had a charge left you would have found out even sooner]

3. Most important. When someone takes advantage of the previous two no-so-smart habits... Accusing them of clipping and booting them off the server is... well... just silly.


FYI. This is not clipping as I understand it. No part of my rifle was inside your tank. I fail to understand how it could in any way be condsidered 'wrong'.


Picture Ensures of Kamel STANDING on top of the Panzer. Noter if Jager had MOVED his tank, Kamel would have died immidatly.

This is a smart rifleman taking advantage of a dumb Panzerweenie.


You should have twigged as to how I got you when you despawned out fcrom under me.

Maybe next time you'll at least ask before losing your temper?

- posted by Comstar @ Friday, November 25, 2005 0 comments

 
Marriness goes MAD. Mad I tell you
Battleground Europe Forums - If axis didnt have to research two tanks in tier 2...


Quote:
Originally Posted by marines1
There is a need:

1. To stop the madness now; what are new players that log axis thinking?

I don't know, ask the allied players of the last 2 maps. NEXT.

Quote:

4. Stop the madness nowp

I presume the madness being the allies are WINNING for once. NEXT.

Quote:

6. Give underdogs hope NOW

Are you saying the AXIS are the underdogs now? Once again any map where the allies might win is madness! NEXT.

- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, November 24, 2005 0 comments

 
Cmon on Flea, you should be better than that
Battleground Europe Forums - Weert

Can the axis in this thread please tell me where you were the last 2 maps were you WON? Am I to understand you won the last 2 maps WITHOUT camping a town?

Lets look at the Tier 3 allied camping tanks shall we? The Churchill moves slower than a jogging infantryman. I must applud anyone who waited for such a tank to move PAST them before attacking them, as it would take such a long time of patiance. Hardly a tank one rushes to the AB to perform a camp with. By the time EWS goes off for an attack with Churchills and they get in range of the AB, you can drive 2 resupply tanks from a rear town.

Perhaps its the French Spawn list? With a tank a Ju52 can deal with? Granted you might be not able to reach the target (though sucide Stukas will reach any target) but a rifleman with a grenade can kill it.


Horse is right, the reason you are losing is the numbers inbalance. But don't think you can cry about it NOW when the axis generally have it, and the allies don't. CRS needs to give the outnumbered side some advantage which does NOT requrie the side with the numbers to have to be forced to log off to rebalance it. You need people logging in, not forcing the other side to log out.



Then again, wern't we in this same position LAST map, at least the BEF was, which made it PAST the river line in much quicker time. The axis still won.

- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, November 22, 2005 0 comments

 
All right all you antitank gunners out there...
Allied Headquarters :: View topic - All right all you antitank gunners out there...

Scotsman, WW2OL's best researcher and generall know-it-everything has posted a movie made up of still photos of MUCH PANZER PAWNING. Ends with colour photos of WW2 reenactors that look SO much better than WW2OL ever will.

And a kick ass music track I must say.

Black Watch Antitank Gunners Video
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 19, 2005 1 comments

 
Dannycon's blog (3D moddeler on the rise)
DannyCon

I found the link of Gunnies blog. He plays WW2OL, though its all about his 3D modeling (some of which looks very good), which cosidering the subtitle, makes sense.

Minor problem:everything is writting in italics, making it somewhat hard for me to read.

Mabye the rats will hire him to do the new weapons, so GRANIK can do more buildings (see post below).
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 19, 2005 1 comments

 
It's THE MOVIES. You can do WW2OL
Battleground Europe Forums - It's THE MOVIES. You can do WW2OL

I havn't yet, but there is costumes for German and British WW1 soliders (aka WW2) and US, German and Russian WW2 soliders. Two "War" sets, one a battlefield and the other a ruined town, complete with Church tower for snipers.

I want to do a WW2OL movie...anyone got any ideas? Plots? Scripts?


My current idea is anti AHC and anti CRS...which wouldn't be very fair. But I would like to do some editorial stuff at some point.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 19, 2005 0 comments

 
Someone keeps stealing my letters
Just Letters - A browser based multi-user Flash game

A fun little flahs MMOG(?) game. I got WWIIOL and TOTO ROCKS at one point, ANZAC. Longest before some idiot stole my letters was To Err is Hum...
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 19, 2005 0 comments

 
New Building. Also the Movies rocks

Battleground Europe Forums - like the new look

The new building, before and after shot. Looks like the ground level IS enterable, which is good.



Also, for the first time in a long time, I played a computer game from midnight to 8am. The Movies is a very very good game right now. I made an epic 10 minute long vampire chick movie that took years to produce, and got less stars than a PC made movie. Also some of the PC randomly made movies are actually quite GOOD.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 19, 2005 1 comments

 
Battleground Europe Forums - Is BC dead?
Battleground Europe Forums - Is BC dead?

BC dead? It's been what, and allied advance FOR THREE DAYS?!! My gawd, the BC is...what?

They ain't dead and it's not over. The French have hardly BEGAN to regain the meuse, and the BEF ain't anywhere near Glitz yet.

Stop propoganding the idea that inbalances are finished. The inbalances are still very much here, and until CRS does something that prevents the postive reinforcment of the losing side, losing, it will STAY here, on either side.


However, it's nice to see a COUNTER offensive actually WORK in this game, we need more too and fro, not the endless steamroller we usually get.

- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, November 16, 2005 1 comments

 
Tomba's WWIIOL Blog
Tomba's WWIIOL Blog

Toomba, another ANZAC has a not much posted to BLOG (I hope he posts more). Consider it LINKED.

In Anzac news, Jamm40 ran a very succsuffel armour op...dammit I hate missing those events. I need to work day shift again.

Also check out KFS1's blog today: VERY interesting reading about brigades. Though I suspect Bilton would be outraged over the fact that they only NOW have started to get the host programmer involved...they need to clone KFS1 I think.
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, November 15, 2005 0 comments

 
3 towns in one day
I was actually online today when we captured some towns. Jogdine fell before I logged on, but I was there for Tienein and Egezzee.

Dinkers quit appenrtly, over the fact that he can't fight non existant french because he can only have 1 AO now. Boo hoo.
- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, November 13, 2005 0 comments

 
God Speed Battleground Europe...
Lets hope it works. And it was released in Australia last week.

Battleground Europe Forums - God Speed Battleground Europe...

Battleground Europe launches today, offering an Armistice Day start to the persistent-state warfare of the European edition of World War II Online:
London, UK (November 11th) � GMX Media and Cornered Rat Software (CRS) have announced that the highly anticipated Battleground Europe for the PC is available in stores across the UK, Finland and Australia today.


�After months of extensive testing and fine tuning, we are delighted that Battleground Europe is now available to the public�, commented Eugene Perry, COO for GMX Media. �The final product is the culmination of an incredible amount of hard work, both by the developers and the dedicated game community. We are looking forward to welcoming a whole new generation of online players eager to join the fight!�

�We�re really excited about the retail release�, said Al Corey, Executive Producer at CRS. �The game is better and more fun than ever before and is ready for thousands of new players to fight for the fate of Europe during the early years of WWII. It�s the biggest and best PvP environment there is- there�s just nothing that compares.�

For all the latest information and updates to Battleground Europe, report for duty and find out more about the biggest World War II massively multiplayer game available.
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 12, 2005 0 comments

 
Allied Forces Radio
Allied Forces Radio

Sres has done a allied forces radio show. Not much to say.
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, November 11, 2005 0 comments

 
Tier 1 French Dive bomber!!
Now if you'll excsue me, I need to make a post in the hanger fourms.

Allied Headquarters :: View topic - Beaufighter not a dive bomber but better then nothing tier 0



The Vultee V-72 "Vengence"

Initially ordered by France, but do to the fall, the orders were transfered to the RAF. First flight 30 Nov. 1941.

Armament
4x .30 Browning MG forward firing in wings, 2x .30 cal Browing in a flex mount behind the pilot (rear gunner). 1500 lbs of bombs, with 2 500lb bombs internal and 2 250's on wing racks.

Engine
Wright GR2600 capable of 1600 HP

Crew
2 pilot/gunner

Performance
Max Speed 275
Cruise 235
Range 1400 at max econ
Celing 22,000
- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, November 09, 2005 0 comments

 
Strange post from a fourm moderator
The thread link dosn't seem to work, but I posted the following.

AFAIK the only Axis WW2OL blog is in japanese,
I'm hoping someone will write one in English some day. I would
be happy to have an axisbiased on, as I am unashemdly pro allied, and would like a blog other than an allied player (sres, troop or Unnie) I can post snarky comments on.

A fourm MOD sent me the following:

1. Let me know the URL of Japanese.

Is this vicious rumor started by you?

2. you are always reducing Japanese allied player by groundless *****ing. are you the pro spy of axis side?

regards,

Whisky Tango Foxtrot, Over?

My reply:

Um, What? I don't rembemer the URL, I saw it some months ago when I did a search for other WW2OL blogs. It seemed to be a WW2OL blog, but it came up as ???? as all the text, I presumed it was a Japanese player/squad's blog.

As for point 2: Um, what? I can't rembemer when I have EVER mentioned japanese players on the fourms in any other context. Check my CSR stats, I havn't played axis in a long long time, and I don't own any other account at this time, so I could hardly spy on the axis for the allies if thats what you mean.

My point was I don't know of any "pro" axis blogs, the japanese one seemed to be axis, but I could only tell that because all the pictures were of axis gear, and I know there was a large axis squad who were mostly japanese. I would *like* to see an axis player WRITE a WW2OL blog, so I could see their point of view, and if possible, write comments to discuss it.


Please tell me "Is this vicious rumor started by you?" rumor you are talking about?

Please tell me "you are always reducing Japanese allied player by groundless *****ing." what other post you are talking about?

Please tell me what "are you the pro spy of axis side?" is about? Is there some spy I should know of?

I'm going to see if I can find the thread (if it still exists) but then send a question to Bable(?)/Fogbeam(?) asking what was all THAT about.
- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, November 09, 2005 0 comments

 
Allies get ground based laser cannons!
1st CODEC, THEN ROGUE (the churchill) and now THIS!?!? CRS has gone too far

Well he read the blog, so he gets a link to the thread.

- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, November 08, 2005 0 comments

 
CoD II is ok...but VERY short
Battleground Europe Forums - CoD II is ok...but VERY short

I bought it and after having to return it because of a scratch, installed it around Saterday 4pm.

It is now Sunday 2am and I've finished it. It's cool, and looks lovly, and the weapons are easy to use...but my gawd is it short. Doom 3 took me a week.

The american levels are the better ones...geee I wounder why they lock them till you finish most of the british and russian ones. The game is not hard on medium level.

Best line in the game "THE GUNS ARE NOT HERE!." "What?" "THE GUNS ARE NOT HERE!!". The SOUND of the game of the shells is great, I hope MIKE takes note (though the guns sound a lot different, the Bren and SMG's in particlaur).

Most atmospheric level I found was the fall BACK to the point de hoc, where you start at a road block and fallback all the way to the last cliff before getting releived.

And tonight I spent an hour or so leading the attack on Gemblox. Sure the grahpics arn't as good (though I love the new sunset). But the GAMEPLAY, as Bilton would say, was great. Now if KFS1 could just add some arrows and crosshathing to the waypoints you can mark on the map, it'd be a real life RTS game playing as the misson commander.


Heres what happens in CoD II: You start on the edge of a village...about the size of Kalmthout, or Diest. You go from A to B to C to D. If you are allowed to pick which objective to take, it wont matter what order you do it in, as A B C and D are all as important as each other. At the end there will be a german counter attack and you will defend objective D for 10 minutes, sap a panzer or two, and finish. It'll be the same thing every time you play it.

Looks wounderful though.


Heres what happens in WW2OL: You start at the FB 4km from town. You get some ATGS and AA guns attached to your truck and orgaizne someone else to get another truck with more ATGS. You drive down to 1km out of town and drop off the ATGS. You set up a MSP and place an objectrive on the map. Infantry starts spawning off and you can "somewhat" DIRECT them to where you want to go. You ask for armoured support, and air support, that may or may not show up, particlay the air support that might just up and then get shot down by the ENEMIES air support. You take a depot, then lose it. Take it, lose it. Armour arrives and secures the depot. You then have to take a 2nd depot which you can spawn at. Meanwhile someone else has got some paratroops to drop on the AB and briefly takes another depot before losing it. You get the spawnable depot and then start fighting your way down to the town. As you take some houses on the way you move the MSP up. Meanwhile the enemy is attacking the FB from a MSP themselves, or flying in a Ju52 to land sappers at it. Eventually the blow the FB and you fallback to first the depots, then the last remenents of the attacking force are hunted down and killed by the defenders.


Did I mention I WOUNDERFUL how Gembelox is layed out? I wish more towns were like that one. Who needs graphics eh? Dear Doc: Please make more towns like Gembelox. Signed: the playerbase.

- posted by Comstar @ Monday, November 07, 2005 0 comments

 
FREE PLAY THIS WEEKEND OF BATTLEFIELD EUROPE
f13.net forums - WWIIOL/Battlefield Europe...any better?:
FREE PLAY THIS WEEKEND

It's the normal server, not a beta or seperate one. Currently the front is stable oin the Meuse. The French have lost Montefucon but the BEF just secured Antwerp again. It's a good time for a free trial.

Also, the game was released in Australia 2 days ago (euro version. Comes in CD sized box, with TPGO colour map, and 50 page manual. There is also a full version of the manual in PDF format on the CD, think Falcon 4 Allied Force style, though it dosnt have training missons, it does have a extensive glossary of terrms including WOOT, WTF and WTH)."
- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, November 05, 2005 0 comments

 
KFSONE lays the smackdown. Ouch
Ouch, that hurt to read. Poor mac user...well it's so rare to see the smackdown in public.

Battleground Europe Forums - I Am an Invisible and Immortal Ei! Help!

KFS1
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Bedford, Texas
Posts: 2,517
Re: I Am an Invisible and Immortal Ei! Help!

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

To address a few points.

1/ A large degree of ignorance would be required to not detect something untoward in your approaching a table surrounded by enemy infantry who repeatedly walk past you, through you, and around you while capturing a table. The scenarios in which this has occured are drastically beyond anyone's ability to believe you were unaware of something strange. Perhaps if it occured once, but 111 captures in 7 days?

2/ The activity has a curious tendency to occur shortly before you attempt a series of depot captures.

3/ When I followed you into Launois today immediately after you spawned in, it wasn't a very long journey into town. After arriving you remained visible up until shortly before you began your attempt on the Launois-Signy Depot. You didn't look backwards after capping it, so you probably didn't notice me turn it back Axis. When you took the Launois-LeChense Depot you walked straight past several EI (Oh, did I say you were invisible, well, not entirely), and made no attempt to kill them. You were quite clearly aware you were invisible (to them). Finally you captured the Launois City depot carefully guarded by an EI whom you showed no concern in eliminating. I've no idea whether you noticed me change that back to axis because you were disconnected before you would have had chance to notice.

4/ The footprint of your "affliction" is almost exactly the same as a player we banned last week, a fellow Mac user, who was devastated that we caught his hack so quickly. He was deeply embittered that we hadn't announced our switch to a life-time ban policy for cheaters, with no lenience, and we strongly suspected he might share his information.

5/ When you get to the persona selection screen, the 31,507,200 or so seconds it says your personas are locked for is a 365 day ban that was issued on your account.

- posted by Comstar @ Friday, November 04, 2005 0 comments

 
KFS1 lets the bag out
Battleground Europe Forums - Neglected "core game issues"

KFS1
CORNERED RAT
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Bedford, Texas
Posts: 2,504
Re: Neglected "core game issues"

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

My whiteboard currently says

- missions
+- OIC (promotion if ML goes ld/ctd/etc)
+- mission types w/descriptions
+- dynamic target/origin to keep mission "groups" together
+- scoring for MLs and capture etc
- Brigades
+- on map (toe precursor)
+- attack objectives
+- move obj
+- defend obj
+- resupply obj
+- fallback obj
+- OIC
- Brigade lock for OIC
- Side lock for mission posting
- Spawn at/near mission leader system
- Supply linked "capture" vs non-linked "intercept" system

Hmm. It also says "1.21" so I should get my rear out of the forums

Whats that bit about supply linked vs no linked capture system?


Oh that's true, but if you can freeze a town out by "holding" it, how might that contribute to strategic play?

Most players don't want to occupy a rear-lines town where maybe nobody will show, but we do have some. Our supply/strat players will enjoy diversions and flanks like this, while if they have limited impact our bulk of twitch players can ignore it and focus on occupation fights.

But that's not what it meand at this stage. No-link-no-cap will be here a while longer... Simpler than that, a means of making places other than spawn points, tables, bridges and factories meaningful locations on the map, without depending on TEII

And some VERY interesting ideas.

I know some folks think we just code up a bunch of stuff and then roll it out. We actually try out a lot of stuff that none of our players see - that includes our beta-testers whom we found notoriously difficult to prevent from spilling the beans of experiments despite their NDAs. So, the massive amount of thought and practical experimentation that goes on is generally lost to the public. I mention this because often times it seems like we are single minded in some of our feature developments, when actually there's an awful lot of exploration done before hand. Since we only roll out what we believe will work, you guys miss out on a lot of it, but at the same time even a mention of some ideas will have large sections of the player base up in arms and threatening our livelihoods.

To the point: Yes, we would like to try and reduce some of the dependence on a player account used just to provide a spawn point - it's been great for us in sales of second accounts, but it's not a great gameplay dependency.

We're still exploring a number of ideas, but we're going to try and eliminate the "deploy rush" in this iteration, and we have some ideas for throttling down the per-mission flood.

We've explored a number of notions such a "save points" type idea, which is inspired somewhat by the "with an army" experience in CoD - if you and your group achieve a save point, each of you will respawn there once if you die within a short period of time, with all sorts of caveats, limitations, etc, pretty saying that you don't go back to the map screen but get the choice of respawning instead of despawning, once per N minutes. Die the second time and its back to the MSP for you. Or building occupation -- meet certain strict criteria and you get to use a building as an MSP, allowing you to do things like take a church and spawn in up in the belltower (and as stupid as it sounds, there's something cool about spawning like that).

A huge concern is the "insta" army, but we've been refining a number of methods for dealing with that -- throttles like depots but which go up slowly in discrete time intervals dependent on a minimum occupation of the building and proportionate to the number of people who die; each troop that dies within 10ft of the building costs you a slot.

Now -- let me be really clear here -- these are ideas that have been discussed, I'm not stating whether they have been rejected or advanced, I'm merely trying to share a little insight into some of our avenues of thought.

Those of you who are wondering why "are thinking about this s**t when you should be implementing toe"s - it's precisely because we're *not* at the implementation stage of this stuff, brigades-on-map and toes are discussed out, so our designing and discussionary focuses move on. It's part of development. If you don't grok it, carry on

The idea of being able to CAPTURE indervdiual buildings and then SPAWN at them.....hell front lines. Also a confusing battle (how do you stop someone spawning there?). But at least the're thinking about it.

Bascialy the've played CoD II and BF2 and seen some good ideas there.
- posted by Comstar @ Friday, November 04, 2005 0 comments

 
As Promised - A Look Under The Hood...By The Good Graces Of All The Rats - Thank Them
Battleground Europe Forums - As Promised - A Look Under The Hood...By The Good Graces Of All The Rats - Thank Them

I'm going to copy and paste his entire article, because it's very intertesting and is locked on playschool were nonplayers cant see it.



#1 Yesterday, 07:12 AM
scotsman
Motor Pool Liaison
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Arlington, Tx
Posts: 4,021
As Promised - A Look Under The Hood...By The Good Graces Of All The Rats - Thank Them

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With the appearance of the 17pdr in-development picture, and the expiration of my term as motor pool liason, I think the timing is right to uncover some of the details that have been ongoing concerning the Rats concerted efforts to improve their responsiveness in the modeling of all equipment. I have been fortunate to have had a hand in some of this, as the very same issues confound the Army in some of it's own modeling work (in fact CRS and the DOD use some of the same tools in this regard). To that end, the Rats agreed some time ago to see if recent technology enhancements, in this case 3D laser scanning of scale models, could be used to accelerate the rate of equipment delivery within the game. This effort is completely independent of all Beta team efforts...and is largely pure technology exploration.

To that end several different platforms were selected by the Rats for trial runs of these tecnologies. Some of the platforms selected included Panther G, the 17pdr, Typhoon, the LCM(3) and 'others'. This has been a learning process for both CRS and myself as several different modeling approaches were tried on models of different scales and types. The original thinking was that with a sophisticated 3D laser scanner, completed models could be accurately scanned and the entire model built up with the touch of a button. That line of production was shown to be a no-go - as there were far too many shadows being cast by the various model components on other portions of the model. Those 3D scans were largely unusable. Similarly...scans of very small models even with relatively high scan resolutions (less than .2mm per laser line) were also shown to be unworkable. Automated poly reduction to meet game graphics requirements was also shown to be 'no-go' unless significant features on the models were locked out of the poly reduction process. This locking down of features took significant amounts of time, and was judged to yield no significant time savings. Remember folks, the goal here is to reduce equipment rollout times on all equipment types. A significant return on investment had to be demonstrated for it to make economic sense for the Rats to pursue this buildup approach.

From there there work moved into using single and double scans (planar...or flat plate scans...coupled with rotary of 3D scans) on each model part. This approach showed promise...but even with the best equipment there were still issues with laser reflectivity and noise. You will always get noise along the edge of the part(s) unless the scan resolution is vanishingly small (and well beyond the cost of anything CRS might ever be able to afford in this lifetime). The last (And most recent) approach investigated has been to use the same two scan approaches to build a part template for each significant part. These part templates are then used to construct brand new 'clean' 3D model components...which in turn are assembled into fully functional models in the openflight format. To this end all the axles, pins, and moving components of a given model are modeled seperately to allow CRS to execute their proper annimation within the game.

Why bring this up now? Well - that 17pdr you are looking at was one of the most recent exploration runs. The gun was on the CRS model list, and the barrel, breech, and so on, had to be done first no matter which flavor of 17pdr CRS elected for...true 17pdr or 17/25pdr (pheasant). At the time of the scanning and model buildup I had no idea what use would be made of the model or when, or whether it or a variant might be what might enter the game at some point. My job was simply to continue to refine and explore ways of saving significant dev. time...both for CRS and for my own modeling work in the defense realm. Model selection and use remained in the CRS realm...this will remain the case no matter what models are built or added to the stack. The in-dev. picture was as much as suprise to me as it was to everyone else. I had no warning from anyone at CRS that the model was up to snuff and had reached some sort of final and usable form in their effort to reduce production times.

Some folks have asked why the pheasant rather than the true 17pdr was not elected for. From my point of view the answer is probably simple and also economic. First...the 25pdr carriage and gun were not on the short list agreed upon for the technology exploration. Though the 17pdr barrel, breech, etc, were now available...there wasnt a 25pdr anywhere to drop it into. Second...CRS has not used --one dime-- of your subscription money to obtain the model(s). The models generated were being used both as a training tool and as technology exploration for other purposes. There was an economic cost associated with the work and the resources available to dedicate to it were not unlimited. I hope this clarifies the cost issue raised by Jwilly, Gille, and others. The scanner(s) are not cheap, nor were the personnel hours expended in the exploration, and CRS didn't pay for any of it. They were in essence the beneficiaries of free work up to this point....so please don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

So what does this effort buy the game? Well - a tier has in general terms 9 models in it more or less (on the heavy equipment side). CRS estimates that this approach saves them at least two weeks per model ingame. Further they know that whatever models are built using this process are exactly to scale and correct in their dimensionality. (although as we found out with 17pdr even with this there is still part alignment work to do to get the model to fit perfectly within the game world). Please ask yourself what an additional 18 weeks --per tier-- of dev time will mean to the potential of the game - and what other issues can be solved by freeing that time up. What can that 18 weeks of time per tier buy CRS in terms of additional work in the game world? I'm thinking the answer is alot - but you will have to ask them directly if you want the real answer.

At the end of this post...I'd like to share with you some of the pictures of the 3D scanned models as submitted to CRS before the 17pdr in-dev. announcement. These are the photos of the parent models from which the in-dev. model is contructed. For 17pdr, it t took a day and half to scan all the components, 5 days to construct and assemble parts and ship to CRS. CRS had it poly-reduced and in prototype fashion very quickly. Call it a couple of days from arrival of the model to the form you see in the in-dev. photo. (Mo or Doc can probably tell you more on that score than I can)

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The Future - Well we have identified a path that I think 'works' although further refinement is required. The process is obviously getting to the point where it can have a siginficant payoff in delivering game features, but the economics of the process remain a significant issue. My interest here is in exploration of dual use technologies and how they apply to my everyday efforts.

There are obviously several potential paths by which this capability can be used...ranging from an open modeling effort in the community (for you CAD program users out there...get cracking!) to retaining everything internally with CRS. Again - its a technology exploration...if you ask me the honest answer is I don't know how it plays quite yet. I'm quite sure the Rats will give you the same answer. If you ask me how --often-- we can use this to accelerate equipment rollouts across the life of the game I dont have an answer for that one either. The potential is there...and there is a potential you will see further equipments rolled out perhaps quite a bit quicker than has been the case in the past....some of those other equipments are already being discussed. Remember that this just solves the graphics issue...you still have to populate each crew position, damage models, etc.

CRS gave me permission to talk to some of those...but I cant bring myself to do it (sorry Mo!) Sometimes I thinks its better just to be pleasantly suprised. Additionally - Doc and the other Rats don't need to be badgered endlessly about whats around the next corner. Have some patience with them please.

Just be happy your game rests with a company and individuals that aren't satisfied with the status quo. CRS continues to push the envelope with some assistance. Where this goes in the future is up to CRS and you folks - I have done my best to kick the door in. Hopefully you won't feel like my term as liason hasnt been wasted...and that you as community members --can-- and do make a difference in our game. I think you can...and perhaps someday soon you'll have a chance to prove it. Thanks to Mo for approving this post and letting me make it.

S! And Thanks For Allowing Me To Serve As Your First Liason - Please no responses until I close with a 'finished' for posting the pics...

Scotsman

- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, November 03, 2005 0 comments

 
Tha haxis will get the Panzershrek at the same time as the PIAT you wait
Battleground Europe Forums - FYI: Dev Note from DOC from Hanger Thread

Whats really going to be annoying is that the axis will get thier infantry AT unit RDP'ed at the same level as the allied one, probably Tier 2.

Ignoring ofcourse that the allies had the units a year before the axis did. Just not going to happen, that the allies would get a weapon before the axis can. It would be inconceivable.
- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, November 03, 2005 0 comments

 
What game should I buy for my week off work?
f13.net forums - What game should I buy?

also playschool thread

Next week I have arranged to have a week off work. This is mostly so I can spend a week playing video games until I can't stand to play anymore.

In between maybe FIANNALY finishing Balder's Gate (II and the sequel), Fallout 1 and 2, Planscape, a campgain of Falcon 4:Allied Force with the DPRK's invasion of the South, a higher than normal difficulty campgain of GalCiv and the entire Morrowind game+both expansions...

What game should I get?

* Civ IV?
* Cod II?
* NeverWinter Nights+expansions?
* Shattered Union?
* Some other PC game I haven't mentioned?
- posted by Comstar @ Tuesday, November 01, 2005 1 comments