Beyond the Beach V 1.2 near complete

[KG_Wiking]

Well it's been a learning experience. I've put about 300 hours thus far into the mod and am starting to really get the process down.

Version 1.2 has the following improvements

New Music SFX that I made
Over 100 new icons many never used in CC5 series. Many from rare photos that I own.
Improved AI for solo play
Battle groups are redone for all five levels.
Reinforcment gruops that DIFFER from the start group. Reserves are reserves.
Took out ability for AT guns to go in 2nd/3rd floor of building.
lowered immobile likelihood for tanks in small hedges and small stone walls
Increased the power of naval, mortar, and arty strikes for each side.


I will post it to the server if any of you would like a copy of it.


I am also workiing on version 2.0 which will be Beyond the Beach 2.0 July 44 St Lo

So far
ALS and GETeams adb files are done - need playtesting of course
Rewrote all the battle groups for this camp all units are historical
Strat map is half way done being resized, came out a bit too small, but the coding has not been done yet.
Maps need to be recoded. I have gotten down to 60 maps that I may use from the folloiwng mods
Stock game
GJS 4.3
GJS 4.4
Bloody Omaha
Meuse
RegExtra
Berlin

Ive also gotten permision from most of the map makers to use these in new mod.

Battle groups are not yet done. I lost all my german teams when I crashed during a switch from real to back up and lost both.
US Teams are half way done. Half the units have full battle groups with reserves for five levels.

Am looking for a new music sound track, or may use the one I made for 1.2

Have gathered over 100 new icons of various units for new look for teams.

Am learning how to use hex editor to modify the number of Air, ARTY (as naval) and Mortar strikes available.

Am learning howt o recode via hex editor to make the GC into a 13 day battle with four battles per day

Am constructing three mini camps and five operations for release with this mod. All will be based on historical battles.

My mod is the only mod that I know of that has changed a real strategic map (courtesy US Army Archives) into a strategic map.

Recoding armor traits for Tigers and Jagdpanthers.

I hope to have this all done and ready for beta by the end of the summer, but who knows.


If you'd like to help or playtest 1.2 OR 2.0 let me know.

A submod - version 1.3 for AI play only is being done by a friend.

KG Wiking

[KG_Quinn]

Keep up the good work man, I should be seeing some combat in a couple of months! and it would be nice if someone could put up a fight... hehehehehehe

Later Q

[KG_Red_Star]

Dropped off the earth a little Wiking. Sorry I haven't got to play much. Got sick and now have to catch up at work. Off back to blighty in 2 weeks also


Red

[KG_Panzerschreck]

this all sounds great man, i cant wait til i can get some time to try this. i have never been busier with CM than i am now and im hard at it with several side projects as well. hopefully by the time i have time to play this, you'll have them done and all the kinks out!

[KG_Wiking]

First of all here are some shots of the new victory levels for the game.
Go to the folder linked.

http://www.closecombatseries.net/CCS/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=thumbnails&album= 106


Some changes have been made to the armor calcualations are still in process.

I was happier with the armor results, but not fully satisfied. First of all the armor ratings in the base file and in many mods is just off. I did improve the overall performance of AT guns by simply going with the set mm penetration as provided by testing during WW2. This information is not too hard to find.

I then went to work on the tanks and still was not happy with the results. Too many tanks were too survivable to lethal fire. An example was a Sherman living through two hits by a Panther at under 300 meters. So I looked at the numbers and they weren't too bad, and had a dilemma.

I decided to do some research and boy did I find some GREAT information. It seems that the German Army for the tanks used homogenous steel which was evenly tempered. However, the US and by extension UK did not use homogenous steel. German war production people were surprised at how well their shots did v the US and UK tanks, and the discovery was that the stell the US used was faulty in that it was not homogenous which would make it become somewhat brittle. Estimates by German and US engineers found this reduced US penetration value by about 20% overall, even moreso where slope was not as rounded such as on the bottom portions of a Sherman.

US engineers also by 1943 were aware of this problem and in 1944 started to use homogenous steel for later models of the Sherman and Pershing tanks. It is no coincidence that these tanks were distributed starting in July of 44, and that by the end of that month most new units in Contenin and units that had been refurbished had the better tanks available.

Interestingly, Operation Goodwind was not so successful, but Cobra was, and a marked improvement of the Sherman.....with higher penetration plate armor .......... of course is a factor.


So.....with this new informaiton in store I ran some tests....and WHAT a difference. Panther shoots at Sherman......BAM......Bailing out is heard....

PzIV hits SHerman from under 500 BAM........Bailing out. Typically Panthers at ranges of under 500 m if they hit they killed.. PzIvs did well up to 300 meters but a the longer ranges, of about 500, it was 50/50 which seems about right.

A Panther could take a hit from a US tank if they were in cover - defiladed or behind a hedge, but when they moved out to attack were vulnerable to the main gun, but even moreso to a 3" gun which had a VERY impressive performance at close range firing - Read Panzer Lehr AAR of 7/11/44 where they lost 11 Panthers and 8 STUGS at close range due to 3" gun and 57mm Sabot shot.

Panthers and of course moreso PzIv's were always vulnerable in the attack. Shermans of course were ALWAYS vulnerable to a Panther and usually a PzIV.

The new data really managed to catch this aspect of tank warfare.

Another slight change that I made was to make infantry more survivable to tank HE fire. I did this by lowering the curve for accuracy when firing HE, and there is some rationale behind it. Infantry pose less of a threat obviously to armor in a general sense, and armor would go into battle more on the watch for enemy armor. So by lowering the base accuracy generated by tank v infantry attacks it makes it less likely for the first shot to be dead on center and therefore give the infantry more time to react and find cover or preferably leave the area.

Another area that I changed and am very happy with is making the .50 caliber a truly devastating weapon. By changing the clasification of the weapon to anti personell to AP, Building and Terrain it allows the 50 gunner to go for buildings and soft armor more agressively. A Marder for example would be a tempting target with its turret area armor of only 20mm. Even better a tracked vehicle with say an armor rating of 8 to 12 mm will now be happiy engaged by a .50 cal which could penetrate that amount. The same holds true for buildings or stone walls. Now, rather than targetting personell, the .50 will just aim at the building and let penetration do its dirty work.


In any case, there are still some kinks to work out. The images that you may have looked at eariler look great there, but in the game some came out a bit distorteed and will need to be softened. Howerver, this mod is close to being completed.


KG Wiking

[KG_Panzerschreck]

Great work man. good info as well.

[KG_AGCent]

BtB 1.2 is ready and here is the link http://www.geocities.com/kg_wiking/beyondthebeach.ZIP

[KG_Mauserman]

I cant beilieve the M-2 is finally gonna get its just deserve. I assume then that anti tank guns are gonna be fair game for the .50 cal too? It will be a sad day for the US when we retire the Ma Duec.