Remo

Oooookay...that's odd. I decided to try the servers again, just in case. And it worked. One of the servers I've been seeing all along gave me a "your username and password are invalid" message instead of the "Go play on a demo server!" message. So I created a new account and I was able to log on. So as soon as I figure out what the heck I'm doing in-game, I'll be able to get killed early and often!

No, the same four servers turn up consistently. But whenever I try to join any of them I get the "you must play on a demo server" message. But no demo server is apparent.

Now that Claytonious helped me with getting the demo installed in another thread, I am also unable to find a demo server. I went into the firewall via YAST and opened the port mentioned above, but...nothing. Can someone suggest any other ideas? Or give me an IP address for a demo server I can type into the "Direct Play" box?

Ah, okay. Thanks.

Thanks, that did it. I dropped the downloaded file into the lib directory and the game will launch now. Another question--should I have to create a new username and password every time I launch the game? When I start it the only option I see under account is "register a new account." Is that right?

I did that and the game installed. Yay! Then I tried running runClient.sh and got the following error message: "./SpaceVikings: error while loading shared libraries: libslang-utf8.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" Any suggestions?

I downloaded the linux demo. I'm not sure how to install it, though. I unzipped it with bunzip2 and then unpacked the resulting .tar file. I have a folder for the DropTeam MP Demo with the files in it, but I cannot get anything to work. The runLinuxinstall shell script doesn't do anything when I click on it. I'm not sure the game is actually _installed_ and I don't know how to accomplish that. I'm running SuSE 10.1.

Well, as a newbie (maybe half a dozen small scenarios played so far), I'd say that I usually let my units pick their own targets. They react faster that way, and generally seem to pick the targets I'd want them to attack. The only exception is when I specifically decide to hammer a particular enemy unit, either to suppress it or destroy it quickly.

I'm a newcomer to wargaming. I started playing ROLE-PLAYING games back in 1977, and haven't stopped. But wargames never interested me much until two critical games appeared. Microprose's X-COM: UFO Defense was the first computer game that I liked enough to play for more than a few minutes. I _still_ play it once in a while. It's not really a wargame, but it involves moving your troops around to find (and eliminate) alien invaders. The first real wargame I got into was STARGRUNTS, a tabletop SF combat game. Large numbers of computer games have looked interesting to me until I saw the dreaded words "Real Time" in the description. I am not now, nor will I ever be, as organized and as fast at manipulating my units as a computer's CPU can be. So I refuse to play those games, despite the fact that they've virtually taken over the market and turn-based games (like X-COM) are nearly extinct. It was while investigating rumors of an X-Com like combat game (computer Squad Leader) that I stumbled across glowing reviews of Combat Mission. So I downloaded the demo, and the rest is history!

So CM is sold out (again), eh? As someone who got his copy exactly two weeks ago, let me just say: &LTDaffy Duck Mode&GT Bwah hah hah! It's mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! I'm rich! Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha! &LT/Daffy Duck Mode&GT Boy, I'm glad I discovered the game when I did and got it in time to avoid a lengthy wait (and as it was, the 10 days it took for my package to arrive was excruciating). [This message has been edited by Remo (edited 01-26-2001).]

Yeah, my wife's machine is 850mhz, but it runs Windows ME, so while the graphics look great, I have troubles that weren't apparent immediately. Mouse troubles. Fer instance, in the after-action reports, the mouse vanishes so I can't click back to the map OR exit. If I minimize the program, I can bring it back (with wonky colors) but trying to return to the map crashes the program completely. I may be able to get that straightened out, but it's definitely a strike against the faster machine. Mine is way slower, but more stable. I'm not about to con her out of it. She put up with the oldest, slowest computer for two years before we replaced it only a few months ago. Now it's my turn to play catch-up. And its not like I can't use hers--it's the family games computer in addition to being her email/usenet machine, which is why we sprang for 850mhz--but she gets first dibs.

"Just like Remo in the movie...." I prefer to think of as just like Remo in the novels. The movie had it's moments but was overall pretty bad. The novels are great fun. I fought my second battle (Allies charging the ridge occupied by "friendlies" according to my superiors) to a draw. Learned from that one too. I have to get my FO up to the front lines much faster; he spent much too much time out of LOS of any enemies. I also wasted some artillery on flushing bad guys from cover, instead of waiting until I _knew_ where they were to hammer them. (Even so, I saw just how devastating an artillery barrage can be on unlucky troops. I eliminated three squads with artillery.) Looking at the screen and suddenly realizing that that gray blob there (not far from one of my squads) is German armor was a horrifying moment. Fortunately, I had a bazooka team handy and they smoked it before it could do any damage. The REAL HORROR was installing CM on my wife's computer (850mhz CPU vs my 166mhz dinosaur) for use when she's not using it. The difference in performance was amazing. The trees actually look like, well, trees instead of abstract art. The camera pans and zooms with smooth motion instead of jerkily. And the scenery overall is more detailed and realistic. Nonetheless, my computer where I'll spend most of my playing time. It isn't as pretty or as fast, but I don't have to fight for time to play on it.

After toying with CM for a week since receiving it, starting and aborting a lot of scenarios because I had no idea what I was doing, I finally played through my first complete game. The result? A Major Victory for the Allies (i.e., me) against the computer. Yay! It was a tiny, 10-turn game (I forget the name) holding a crossroads with a minefield and roadblock vs. Axis advance. What did I learn? That the manual is right--split squads don't do nearly as well as full squads. I split one squad to do recon in the forest on my left flank. They discovered German troops moving up from that direction, too, just as I suspected. But I failed to withdraw them once they'd made contact. The lead half-squad got cut to pieces and eliminated, and the other half panicked and routed. I'll know better next time. Otherwise it went pretty well. My other squads and machineguns managed to hold off (and actually beat back) the German assault, killing a couple of halftracks in the process. One squad spent most of the game exchanging fire with a German squad in the woods (same squad that capped my scouts). They held firm, but lost three men to the German fire--and the Germans wound up less than 50 meters from my routed half-squad (who had recovered!) and found themselves taking fire from them as well. My two squads were at 90 degree from one another relative to the Germans, so I had hopes of eliminating them but after the battle I saw that they hadn't taken a single casualty and were ready to kill bears with their bare hands! I had full Fog of War on in this scenario. A question: if there is _no_ fog of war (as the manual says is useful for beginning players to learn what they're doing) I assume that hiding and ambushes are a waste of effort, yes? And once a bazooka or panzerschreck team is out of ammo, what's the best thing to do with them? Retreat them? Use them as scouts?

I've only got the demo now, so maybe the manual will answer this, but--is there a compass rose in the game? Or some other indicator of directions? Or do I just assume directions based on the scenario description (i.e., capture the hill on the east side of the intersecting roads)?