rudel.dietrich

I will let this go. I have been around these forums long enough to not let the flaming bother me when someone suggest constructive criticism. Yes, I will own up to making two mistakes. I should have kept the install files. And yes, I should have put this in tech support. This is not the place. But the rest of your post is just not helpful. If BF is every going to grow as a company it does not need comments like this from curmudgeons with a superiority complex. You may of not ever had DL problems. Before the last few weeks, neither have I. And I have been a customer since 1999. But have you tried to download a product in the past month? If not, then your comment is not helpful. I am indeed not an IT engineer. And I refuse to get into a dick measurement contest over the interest about my 'IT skills' But I am proficient enough to know that the technology I have should be sufficient to download the ~6 GB worth of files I need in about an hour. Not the 10 days it took me. My suggestions were not to belittle BF. They were meant to provide some alternate ideas in case the download issues persist. And who knows, maybe they could save money on bandwidth costs? I am sure the company has looked into ways to save money. But on the tiny chance they have not, the few keystrokes it took me to type out my suggestions would be worth it. And finally, as far as Steam. I have seen the arguments against it. I like Steam. I like it a lot. It can be a fantastic tool for some companies. But I trust BF has looked into it and if it is not for them, then they know their finances better than any of us. Steam was never mentioned in this thread until you brought it up. And with that. I have said my peace. Normally I don't get offended by random forum posts. But your post in particular was out of line and the kind of thing that drives off casual customers and keeps war gaming a small hobby whose median age is in their 50s.

As an update to my problem. After almost two weeks and almost 60 tries I finally re downloaded all three games. The speeds were terrible and the connection kept dropping but finally with enough persistence I got what I needed. I did in fact drop BF a help desk ticket and they replied very quickly and politely but the advice did not help. Pretty much the standard 'check your own system and connection' I have not used a download manage since the late 90s. I also have a top of the line system and my internet is fiber optic and I would venture to guess it is in the top 1% of speeds worldwide. I don' say those things to brag. I say them because the problem is probably not on the end of the user. I did e-mail ShareFile (they handle BFs downloads) and they were less than helpful. It took two e-mails and four days for them to respond and they answer was 'we have no problems on our end' and 'being an overseas customer, you cannot expect fast download speeds' My location needs to be update, I live back in Europe now. I can accept that many problems are indeed on the users end. But I don't think this is on mine. I have had no trouble anywhere else. And I do a load of downloading. Typically 30-50 GB a week in a mixture of work and entertainment. My constructive suggestions were not putting down BF. I was simply suggesting that I have dealt with software companies of BFs size or even smaller in some very niche game fields (like flight simulation and sports management simulation) and I have seen some nifty ways for small companies to distribute product and keep bandwidth costs down. But saying all that, my problems are now over. It was just a major pain in the ass. A little disappointed at the comment though.

I tried again all day today without success. I am going to open a ticket. I understand BF is a small company but this is annoying. I purchase software from other companies the same size, or smaller, than BF and they offer multiple download options. One flight simulation company I download from offers their products over Google Drive which is awesome since they offer nearly unlimited download speed. Another company that sells sports simulations makes their products and updates avaliable through a torrent. That works well too since it greatly cuts down of bandwidth costs. BF may want to look into some alternate ways of distributing their products. If you have a few minutes, please open a ticket as well. The more tickets, the greater the chance of it being responded to.

Yeah I know 1 gbps fiber optic is tough to live with but someone has to use it

I cannot remember the last time I purchased a PC game on disk. Probably around 5 years. Usually I am very good about putting the install .zips or .exes on an external HDD. Not sure why I didn't with my purchase from Battlefront. That is on me. However, these downloads speeds are horrendous. I was hoping it would clear up but I have tried about a half dozen times for the past 72 hours and I am still getting very low speeds and my file interrupts usually before 20%

Hello everyone, a handful of you might remember me. I purchased the new CM games back in July and ran them on a temporary computer. In the past 10 days I have relocated to a new residence and am have a new computer set up. I am trying to re-download the three games I purchased over the summer and I am not having any success. My download speeds run from 25-40 kbps which is unacceptable. Worse, the downloads frequently quit after 10-20% completion. It is not my internet, I downloaded something off Steam earlier today and was getting 13.5 Mbps. Are there any alternate ways to download the products? Does BF have a cloud or torrent I could use? The default method through sharefile is just not adequate. Thanks! On a secondary note, I loved the games as I played them over the summer. I got Normandy, Italy and Red Thunder and all 3 expansion modules for Normandy/Italy. Very enjoyable tactical combat. Now if I can just get the downloads completed I can update Normandy/Italy to 3.0 and keep my games going and continue work on my very bad user created scenarios.

It may of been called last defence.

I was very early. I can't remember if it was PC gamer or the Matrix Games forums that tipped me off, I am thinking PC gamer. I remember getting the demo and playing it over and over and over. I don't even think the full game had been released yet. I remember the demo came with two scenarios. One was fantastic. Two ridges with a valley in the middle and the Germans had bunkers and an AT gun with fantastic LOS. That was a great scenario and if I remember correctly it did not even come on the final disc. Probably late 99 was when I came across the demo.

Below the platoon level most Syrian units do not carry radios How do we let the player split squads but keep them from abusing the function? I will be the first to admit not being able to split squads is less than realistic But just as unrealistic is letting the player split the squad and then run them all over the place outside of visual or voice range. Once you get past that range the squad leader would no longer be able to issue orders. OOB dictater...I like that I think I have a new title

That sounds right The RPG 18 is a cheap light weight disposable AT weapon with good accuracy and good penetration

They should If a few people would please confirm this one way or another I will post it as an issue in the beta forum And really all Syrian ATGM teams should have RPGs

More fixes Do not expect features until a few more patches The Nvidia 8xxx problem is AFAIK a driver problem that has been passed on to Nvidia and will have to wait for them to release in a future driver update

Steve should announce something before it hits the servers The delay has been very very productive We have indentified the source for and fixed several bugs relating to weapons firing and the AIs firing of weapons Combat should be greatly improved

Guys Just give us time We arn't all playing Bioshock and Warhawk and not doing anything for the game Ever since the patch was delayed last Friday we have been every day fixing new bugs (some very big) You guys are going to get a better patch than would have been released last week. The patch will be released soon. We are wrapping up a few more changes and making sure fixes are actualy fixing problems. The patch you guys see will have alot of good fixes. Just please be patient

Nah RT is not the only way forward But there is not alot that can be done with Wego since CM1 sort of perfected it And you have been given both options RT opens the door for many new customers and allows BF the possibility to be unshackled by some of the problems of WEGO I am in no way saying the game is perfect It has a host of minor problems and some very significant problems But there is a element that violently rejecting the new game just on the basis that it is different And I really no not get the clickfest argument either. Calling the game a click fest makes you exactly the sort of person I was talking about. Maybe I am just young and have better reflexes than most But a vast portion of the time it is pretty easy for me to keep up with what is going on For a batallion sized game I really only need to pause and issue orders a handful of times So if you do not like real time I am not saying you are wrong You still have WEGO to fall back on What I am saying is that RT somehow destroyed the game is about a far fetched myth as I can imagine And some of that element is also doing their damndest to try and belittle any new customers that RT would attract I for one will not stand for such a thing. The industry and the genre needs their dollars and we should be more welcoming to such a group.

I find the notion that WEGO is somehow for serious wargamers only laughable I think that tired argument is just being used as a crutch by the crusty middle aged men who would like to keep CM from progressing beyond anything they cannot understand or are not willing to understand It is the same tired argument that we laugh at now who ask why CMBO did not feature true turns and did not offer hexs Or the argument that the computer will never replace good old board games The arguments are rubbish and it is what keeps wargaming buried in the dark ages and continues to make it a niche genre The biggest enemy of wargames is not 16 year old kids, or huge budget games or even market indifference. The biggest enemy of wargames is their fans. The fans who revolt against any sort of change and keep the genre firmly planted in the dark ages. The genre is not going to grow until developers stop pandering to that very limited fan group. In 5-6 years we will look back at this and have yet another laugh when realtime is the norm and 2-3 more CM games have been released. But the arguments and these 'fans' still grate on my nerves. 16 year old kids who love real time games are not the enemy. Their money is just as good as yours. And the more of them that play (and more importantly pay for) 'your' games, the better those games will be. Imagine if BFC had the budget to hire 3 more Charles or a bigger art team or more 3-D modelers Or give Steve an army of pretty 19 year old interns So revolting against change and doing your best to drive off new customers is just shooting yourself and your hobby in the foot. The gap between mainstream games and wargames is just going to grow ever larger. And that is my two euros [ August 23, 2007, 07:02 PM: Message edited by: rudel.dietrich ]

It is a feature I think you can turn it off but do not quote me on that

You can be 100% assured that we are interested in putting in 'fantasy' weapons into future modules. While I disagree with you about current play balance, you see what you see and there is nothing I can do about that. Like the above post, so far the plan seems to be to include airborne forces in the next module. I am going to push to get some weapons added that Syria already has like AT guns and the like. Again I do not speak for BF But the most logical plan to me would be to include a realistic Red formation in each module, and some real weapons that were left out, and some fantasy weapons. A mixing of the three I think that would be the best way to tackle modules for the Red side and make the most people possible happy. When and if I am asked for my opinion that is what I am going to push for. Also like I said, I would like you include the game players to give their input on the fantasy weapons they would like to see. As far as formations, we still have several to add in. Syrian airborne Hezbollah Possible Mujahideen Possible expansion of unconvential forces equipment lists So again I just want to assure everyone that there is someone on the beta team who is a 'defender' of the Red side and as much as possible I will try and push for new equipment and make sure that the expansion packs do not only include Nato equipment

I do not think I saw that. From what I have read the vehicles have not been as effective as first reported. There appears to be a 'dead zone' where the 30mm rounds cannot engage and the missles effective engagement altitude. And the radar on it has proven to be quite suspectable to SEAD flights. How that has been proven I do not know... But even with those problem I think it is a novel system that in another generation or two has alot of merit in that it will be able to fight the dual threat of fixed wing jet aircraft as well as attack helicopters. Also the missle itself is very very impressive. Its speed is such that it a target cannot hope to out climb it and thus has to dive down into the range of those 30mm guns. If the radar problems get worked out than it can be a very real threat to aircraft. Even now the system from what I have read can almost completly protect a 3km zone from the threat of helicopters assuming it can keep the helo in LOS and does not get smoked by said helo. As far as CMSF terms I do not know if it is something BF would want to spend time modeling or not. Syria is supossed to receive shipment of said vehicles begining next month

Modern artillery is also not pinpoint precise either. Some of the larger stuff (155 and 8 inch) has minumum safe ranges in the hunderds of meters Someone a while back posted min safe ranges for calling in air ordanence, I wonder if someone has one for artillery rounds?

The plan has always been to add in sprinklings of red equipment for every new module I am not really sure where the communication broke down that we would never add in new equipment Of course I cannot speak for BFC since I do not work for them But when I did the TO&E for the Syrians all of this was disscussed My plan for the modules is to first tackle things which Syria actualy has and then go spread into the hypothetical stuff This means stuff like AT Guns, on map light AA guns, land mines, more fortifications, fortified houses etc etc The Syrian airborne division is up for inclusion in the next module and that will mean BMP-3s since the Syrian airborne really does have 80-100 of them That will probably leave room for a handful of other weapons Again I am going to focus on realistic stuff and then work my way out to fantasy weapons. And as I said before, I do not work for BFC and there is no reason to assume they will listen to me. But every red weapon you see in the game now is our best guess as to what Syrian does indeed have and a bulk of the information was provided by me. I will continue to provide that information to BF as long as they continue to listen. As for future modules I will see what direction BF wants to go with reguards to red equipment and then suggest weapons to them in a way that seems most logical to me. And that means I will prioritize weapons based on the likelyhood that Syria will actualy said weapon. So plans are as of now to add in more red equipment. The threads saying there are no plans too need to stop. Also the 25 threads asking for the T-80/T-90 needs to stop as well. Those have already made my list (and plenty of varients of each) of potential weapons to add assuming BF listens to me and that modules actualy do get produced. My plan of operations as of now is closer to time is to ask Steve how many red weapons each module will have if any. I will then come out here and do a series of polls asking for peoples opinions on what gets added and that way we can make the most people happy. And for the final time, I do not work for BF. Everything I just wrote is speculation on my part and is subject to never happen

There is no breaking morale and routing in CMSF so I would say chances are extremly low joking joking

I joined the Bundeswehr in 1996 when I was 17 years old just out of highschool. I avoided being conscripted August 1996-March 1997 Armoured Artillery Battalion 345/Mechanized Infantry Brigade 30/10th Armoured Division April 1997-August 2000 Fallschirmjägerbatallion 373/Airborne Brigade 31/Special Operations Division Squad leader from January 2000 until August 2000 August 2000-May 2003 BW reserves Attended the University of Munich June 2003-September 2003 Army Officers Academy in Dresden September 2003-September 2006 Platoon leader Fallschirmjägerbatallion 263/Airborne Brigade 26/Special Operations Division October 2004-September 2005 ISAF in Afghanistan working closely with the KSK And no I was not a member In September 2006 I was discharged and I began work for a private security firm near Washington DC Many fond memories and plenty of good stories over the course of 10+ years [ August 10, 2007, 09:35 PM: Message edited by: rudel.dietrich ]

I would buy a late 70s Rhodesia moudle if they put one out But it is all about time and resources Buy the game and get everyone you know to buy the game and that will ever so slightly increase your chances of seeing more moduels But I have a feeling the modules will see decreasing returns as more and more modules are released This happens with most expansion packs The newness of the game will die down and as the months and years wear on sales will diminish Which is one of the reasons I disliked the idea of Britian getting an expansion pack before Germany