Screenshot thread

[circ]

Well never heard of Warlock so I youtubed it and saw a beta preview being played. It's just a bad Civ V clone. Take out the civilization part and keep the UI and crap combat engine and you're at Warlock. Despite the perks hinting at something Master of Magic like, I saw nothing MoM like in it.

 

[MetalCraze]

Combat Mission: Shock Force which is essentially ArmA: Commander's Edition
Strong focus on realism. Even has ballistics for bullets and there's wind affecting all kinds of stuff.

^ Fucking ATGM valley. One missile not only can just take out a tank but a half of a squad. As you can see two of them just barely missed my squad but enough for me to bring the tank within 50m of them from the hill operators had no eyes on. ATGM team won't attack a tank so close to it with a missile because that will be suicidal.

Different types of ammunition are also simulated. A HEAT round makes for a big explosion, while a SABOT round is like a giant spike that can blast through obstacles. It can penetrate through houses, blasting enemy armor on the other side upon exit.
Javelin AT systems that infantry carries can be used not only just to blow up enemy vehicles but also to destroy a house wall, killing infantry hiding inside.

Artillery can make all the difference between winning an losing the mission. And it's usually very limited and shots take minutes to arrive - just like IRL. In fact the game even simulates aiming shots coming first before more on-target barrage begins.
In this mission I had an aiming shot hit a retreating tank and blast through its weak upper armor. Different types of arty ammunition is also simulated - f.e. ICM, just like IRL, blows up above ground sending shrapnel downwards, working like a celestial shotgun.

And yet it's just a wargame. Where's your Panzer General now?

 

[mck]

Personally I prefer BattleTanx.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Battle City is where it's at.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I youtubed it and saw a beta preview being played

So you wouldn't believe me if I told you the AI's better than Civ5 and the city management and "Research" is mostly geared toward combat, so the game plays like a faster paced more tactical Civ5.

Also Skyway, you should play the WW2 Combat Mission games. Shock Force is supposedly popamole, though maybe they've improved it by now. I know at launch it was supposed to be a horrendous mess. Still, load up Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin and kill some dirty ruskies. If you talk some CDS bros in to getting it to it multiplays quite well too.

 

[dibens]

Battle City is where it's at.

I remember having a Chinese bootleg NES 9999 in 1 cartridge. 9950 of them were various levels of this one game.

 

[circ]

I played that too once. But it was on Turbo Grafx or whatever the system was called.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Exploring a "The thing" like polar facility.

It seems safe.

Preparing to enter the UFO.

Geoscape action.

Damn I'm good !

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

BLARG

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

 

[Trash]

And yet it's just a wargame. Where's your Panzer General now?

While I really do like the Combat Mission games it must be said that the AI is almost non-existant. It all depends on scripting and triggers. Meaning any mission is as much a 'puzzle' to solve as are the Panzer General maps. Thankfully however there are really a lot of missions from the community with a lot of excellent ones. The expansions also offered much improved campaigns and even more solo missions and military hardware to play around with btw.

BTW, do give Combat Mission: Normandy a try. It's amazing.

 

[MetalCraze]

While I really do like the Combat Mission games it must be said that the AI is almost non-existant. It all depends on scripting and triggers. Meaning any mission is as much a 'puzzle' to solve as are the Panzer General maps. Thankfully however there are really a lot of missions from the community with a lot of excellent ones. The expansions also offered much improved campaigns and even more solo missions and military hardware to play around with btw.

BTW, do give Combat Mission: Normandy a try. It's amazing.

The lack of strategic AI seems to be an eternal problem with many wargames.

Plus unlike WW2 modern war is fought very differently with surgical tactics and good AI programmers are next to non-existent. Alas it won't be enough to just send troops to take back whatever house is captured since AI will have to consider a bigger picture. Tac AI seems to be OK. At least soldiers know when to GTFO from under the artillery fire.

I will check out CMN soon. I'm still considering whether to get 3 modules and whether they are worth $40. But they probably will last me for many months, if not years.

Also Shock Force 2 is coming. Will feature NATO and Mother Russia liberating the fuck out of each other in Ukraine and $30 DLCs.

 

[Ulminati]

The lack of strategic AI seems to be an eternal problem with many wargames.

Plus unlike WW2 modern war is fought very differently with surgical tactics and good AI programmers are next to non-existent.

Good AI programmers generally don't work in games development since they can get better salaries and working conditions elsewhere. Also, a really, really good AI is going to be very CPU/memory intensive, which will cut back on the number of fancy shaders your game can throw around. Finally, every additional interconnected condition an AI has to manage increases its complexity exponentially, which is why grand strategy AIs typically resort to cheating to present any semblance of challenge.

 

[MetalCraze]

That or a nice mission design. Like that ATGM valley. It has only 4 ATGM positions (that nonetheless covered almost every approach) and almost no other enemy forces - and it still was a real hell for my much larger armored force. Going out on foot is dangerous too because of specops and sniper positions. I think I've spent like 4 hours tearing through that mission. It makes you appreciate every bump in the terrain.

Trash btw do you own any of the modules? Worth buying?

 

[Ulminati]

That's nothing to do with AI design though. That's just a cleverly masked puzzle map.

One of the things me and some programmer buds frequently 'sperg rage about is how few RTS games implement an AI threat map. Basically, the way the AI typically handles decision makings is by having several virtual overlays of the mission map that identify things like pathways, resource nodes etc. What we'd really like to see is a map that reminds the AI where it lots a shitton of units and paints it in big blobs of virtual DON'T GO HERE. (That would decay over time of course). That way, AIs wouldn't repeatedly funnel wave after wave of troops into your dedicated killzones.

It's so easy to implement, but so few games even make the attempt.

 

[Trash]

Trash btw do you own any of the modules? Worth buying?

http://www.tacticularcancer.com/content.php?id=57

Played both Marines and British Forces. Both offer a much improved campaign and a slew of solo missions. If you dig the base game you'll enjoy those. Never played the Nato one though.

Normandy is fun because they (amongst all the other improvements) improved the AI scripting. Meaning that the AI basically uses more and more diverse battle plans for every map and is thus less predictable. Squad AI is also improved and together with improved controlls and graphics it really makes for a much fresher game.

Do avoid Combat Mission: Afghanistan like the plague btw. It uses the same engine but was made by a different (Russian) studio that somehow screwed up in countless ways. Campaign, mission design, bugs. Waste of a good license and an incredible setting. Shit.

 

[MetalCraze]

Afghanistan was developed by a studio where our mondblut worked

That's just a cleverly masked puzzle map.

A puzzle map would be something from Commandos where it soon becomes obvious that the whole game is like "guess how mission designer wanted you to complete it". CMSF maps are open and realistic enough to not have hidden corridors.

 

[Suchy]

 

[Trash]

"guess how mission designer wanted you to complete it"

Actually that is one of the big negatives of CMSF. Plenty of missions are like that. Especially when you figure out the different scripted triggers. Thankfully the tools at your disposal are often diverse enough to provide alternate solutions and avenues of approach. Plus it is obvious that Battlefront learned to use more diverse scripts as they went along so missions and campaigns from the expansions and patches are usually much more intricate.

What I really like are the high quality custom maps from the community. One of the best gaming experiences I ever had involved a custom mission in which a US SF team with a high value prisoner is diverted to a small police station in a small town because their extraction point is compromised. First you have to travel with your small team in their flimsy humvees along a dangerous road to reach the police station with a handfull of friendly local forces. Upon surviving the possible ambush and reaching the town and station the insurgents launch a massive assault on it. They even involve a BMP that can wipe out your force in seconds if you don't deal with it fast enough. If you survive long enough with the aid of artillery and airpower a friendly abrahams tank arrives to help you out. That one is a gamechanger as it can easily deal with anything the insurgents have. Unfortunately it arrives at the other side of town so it has to either take the direct route through the by now rpg wielding insurgents infested place or take a long way around it. While your station is now probably on the verge of falling. The insurgents meanwhile get a vehicle borne IED that either picks the tank or your station as a target and can wipe out either with ease. Best mission ever and the only time I 'won' it with mininal losses I still lost because apparantly destroying the entire town with airpower and artillery costs points. :D

Afghanistan was developed by a studio where our mondblut worked

I know.

 

[ManjuShri]

Suchy Is that Syberia 2?

 

[Suchy]

Nope, it's Gray Matter (written by Jane Jensen of Gabriel Knight fame). It's pretty good. Maybe not as good as GK games, but definitely worth getting.

 

[RRRrrr]

Sorry for the offtopic, but might I suggest/remind the future posters to include the tittle of the game from which the screenshots are in order to avoid the occasional question about the tittle of the game?

 

[Ulminati]

Sorry for the offtopic, but might I suggest/remind the future posters to include the tittle of the game from which the screenshots are in order to avoid the occasional question about the tittle of the game?

What's the name of the girl in your avatar?

 

[potatojohn]

Some slut.

All women are sluts.

 

[RRRrrr]

What's the name of the girl in your avatar?

Raleigh Holmes