[Released] Rittersprung (H2H only)

[rocketman]

It has been a long time in the making, and was previously known as the project "Man of the Our", but is now "Rittersprung H2H".

Scenario description:

After being severely decimated in the battle for the Hürtgen Forest, the 28th Infantry Division was sent to the rear to rest and refit. The 112th Infantry Regiment got located in the tri-country area of Lieler-Ouren-Lützkampen, spanning Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium – a six mile stretch of land on both sides of the Our river where the Siegfried Line had its westernmost fortifications, now occupied by the Allies. The 28th ID had just about recovered 100 % strength, with replacement units getting basic combat training, when the Germans launched their massive attack in the Ardennes on december 16th 1944. The crossing of the Our at Ouren would be an important part in the German advance and it was upon the 112th IR of the 28th ID to protect it as long as possible.

It is 10:30 on Dec 17th and the 112th IR was engaged in combat with German forces on the 16th and throughout the night. The morning fog has lifted but it is still misty from the cold and the wet ground. Visibility is reasonable but it is hard to make out units in the mist. Units in Lützkampen and Harspelt were swept aside on the 16th. Sevenig town was also attacked by a green force of Volksgrenadiers but was able to hold on. The Volksgrenadiers suffered a lot of casualties and many prisoners were taken. They are now presumed to be hiding in the woods west of Sevenig.

Semi-historical scenario which is aiming to capture a “what-if” combat based on units and turn of events that happened in the opening days of the Ardennes offensive.

 

It can be downloaded here: http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/uncategorized/rittersprung-h2h/

Enjoy, and all feedback is very welcome.

[Vanir Ausf B]

Nice map. It should be a lot of fun.

[Aragorn2002]

Looks great, Rocketman! I love those screenshots. Certainly a good atmospheric scenario for this time of the year. Thanks for making it!

Edited November 18, 2017 by Aragorn2002

[Aragorn2002]

6 minutes ago, Aragorn2002 said:

Post created by mistake.

 

Edited November 18, 2017 by Aragorn2002

[Sgt.Squarehead]

What a beautiful map! 

[rocketman]

Glad you guys like the map. There is a story behind making it. I had played the "Ramparts of the Pallikoi" scenario in FI and was struck by what dramatic landscapes were possible to make in the editor. When FB was announced I read a book about the Bulge campaign in preparation for the release and there was a photo from the south west overlooking Ouren nested between mountains and the snaking river valley. I instantly felt I had to try to make a map of it. In part as an exercise to get to grips with elevation in the editor and secondary to expand it into a scenario.

[Fizou]

@rocketman Great map and great game, unfortunately I and my oppo get a CTD at file 102 when I try to compute the next turn. Anyone that has finished the game?

[rocketman]

3 hours ago, Fizou said:

@rocketman Great map and great game, unfortunately I and my oppo get a CTD at file 102 when I try to compute the next turn. Anyone that has finished the game?

I'm gald you both enjoy the scenario but a CTD is most unfortunate.

The scenario was tested to its end and I got continuous feedback and made incremental changes. Nothing that should cause the crash. There are no reinforcement due that turn either.

Since it is a H2H scenario try to redo the previous turn. Did you or your oppo plan a lot of movement/combat previous to the crash? Try playing the turn on lower graphics settings and with no other programs running. If it still crashes, send me or someone else the turn to see if it crashes on other PCs. Have you or your oppo had problems with large scenarios before? There is always the risk of a corrupt save file also and that would necessitate going back a few turns.

I really hope that you'll find a way to proceed now that you've played for so long. Let me know how it works out and what the solution was if you find one.

[Fizou]

4 hours ago, rocketman said:

I'm gald you both enjoy the scenario but a CTD is most unfortunate.

The scenario was tested to its end and I got continuous feedback and made incremental changes. Nothing that should cause the crash. There are no reinforcement due that turn either.

Since it is a H2H scenario try to redo the previous turn. Did you or your oppo plan a lot of movement/combat previous to the crash? Try playing the turn on lower graphics settings and with no other programs running. If it still crashes, send me or someone else the turn to see if it crashes on other PCs. Have you or your oppo had problems with large scenarios before? There is always the risk of a corrupt save file also and that would necessitate going back a few turns.

I really hope that you'll find a way to proceed now that you've played for so long. Let me know how it works out and what the solution was if you find one.

Thanks for making it and sharing. Really appreciate the tips for a possible resolution. 

Not more combat or movement than the other turns, if anything we are running out of units because of the carnage! I have tried removing mods, lowering graphics, going back and redoing turns. I have sent the file for others to try with the same CTD result. Neither of us have seen anything like this before.

I just tried to load my oppos files and one thing struck me, Im not sure if Im just ignorant but I thought there is always a bar computing the next turn for both parties in a PBEM? Running his turn and hitting the red button send me direct to save the PBEM to outgoing email. Is that as it should?  

[rocketman]

AFAIK the computing of the turn is always done by one of the players in a PBEM. The other one goes to save immediately. Does the CTD happen at the same point in the computation of the turn? Take a look at the savefile - is it much larger than the previous ones? I had one playtester complaining that the save was almost 120 MB which it shouldn't. I don't know if BFC are interested in having a look at saves that causes CTD, I hope so. Try reaching out to tech support. One more thing to try; for one turn both players issue no commands at all. Maybe the crash is associated with something like that (wild guess though...). 

Edit: one more thing, there was a Win 10 update recently, maybe that effed things up? 

[Fizou]

22 hours ago, rocketman said:

AFAIK the computing of the turn is always done by one of the players in a PBEM. The other one goes to save immediately. Does the CTD happen at the same point in the computation of the turn? Take a look at the savefile - is it much larger than the previous ones? I had one playtester complaining that the save was almost 120 MB which it shouldn't. I don't know if BFC are interested in having a look at saves that causes CTD, I hope so. Try reaching out to tech support. One more thing to try; for one turn both players issue no commands at all. Maybe the crash is associated with something like that (wild guess though...). 

Edit: one more thing, there was a Win 10 update recently, maybe that effed things up? 

Guess it has always gone so smoothly I never really thought about it before. The save files have been increasing from the beginning. File 60 is 90MB and file 102 is 120MB (I have seen this big save files before). I have contacted helpdesk and sent the file to them. Hope it can help for the future.

The CTD occurs at about 50% and sometimes around 70%. Thanks again for your aid.. this really is the best community, for content and for friendly and helpful members.  

I really enjoyed the scenario and think we were not to fare from a cease fire. Im pretty sure my German opponent would take Sevenig town, he was well on his way with only scattered Infantry resistance left. His assault was slowing down in general as the US artillery took its toll (I got good use of the TRPs). Most panthers still active though with only one Hell cat left. Well end it as a draw, looking forward to the next battle.   

[rocketman]

Interesting with increasing save file size. From what I remember from all the PBEM games I've played is that once you're beyond the set up phase the save file size remains just about the same. I really wonder what makes up file size, as you stated previously is that there were rather fewer units now than at the start so fewer units, orders, combat - if anything, the size should decrease.

Another wild, wild guess - are there any units on any of the bridges, or ordered to move across one? Bridges still cause buggy behaviour but mosty during playback and not CTD but all guesses are worth looking at. I hate the idea that my scenario would be unplayable to the end  especially as I'm working on an even bigger one.

[Fizou]

11 hours ago, rocketman said:

Interesting with increasing save file size. From what I remember from all the PBEM games I've played is that once you're beyond the set up phase the save file size remains just about the same. I really wonder what makes up file size, as you stated previously is that there were rather fewer units now than at the start so fewer units, orders, combat - if anything, the size should decrease.

Another wild, wild guess - are there any units on any of the bridges, or ordered to move across one? Bridges still cause buggy behaviour but mosty during playback and not CTD but all guesses are worth looking at. I hate the idea that my scenario would be unplayable to the end  especially as I'm working on an even bigger one.

I agree about the file size but to the best of my memory the size have been increasing in my previous games also. Hitting a maximum then staying there or maybe they get reduced a bit closer to the end. Would be great if someone else with a lot of PBEM experience could comment on that.

A lot of units have moved over the bridges, but in the given turn they have already passed so no current movement on any bridges. I understand the frustration of creating something that does not work all the way to the end, but most likely this is a one in a million situation. Just wish we knew what caused it. 

Looking forward to that new bigger project, would love to try it out once its ready

[A Canadian Cat]

6 hours ago, Fizou said:

I agree about the file size but to the best of my memory the size have been increasing in my previous games also. Hitting a maximum then staying there or maybe they get reduced a bit closer to the end. Would be great if someone else with a lot of PBEM experience could comment on that.

I am sure I see some variation in size as the game progresses. But I happen to have hundreds of turn files archived on a back up drive. When I get home tonight I can actually have a look at the files sizes and comment...

[Rinaldi]

When I'm CMing on my laptop and I start to get that CTD I've been able to solve the problem by tuning the graphics down to potato (re: lowest) settings. I watch the turn in the high-fidelity, give my orders, save it, then fire it back up and send in low graphics.

Has worked 100 percent of the time. Side-steps that nasty memory leak problem that usually leads to crashing. 

[rocketman]

I looked through some of my present PBEMs and there is a variation in save file size but nothing really dramatic, and even with huge scenarios like "Hot time in Hatten" the saves are never bigger than 50MB. So saves larger than 110MB seems like something extraordinary. One thought: will the same turn, with the same commands and the same settings always yield exactly the same save file size - no matter which computer it is played on? If we can identify instances when save file size grows beyond what is expected, then that might be an explanation for CTDs?

Fizou, is the save file size huge for your oppo also?

[A Canadian Cat]

2v2 Game sizes vary from 12.6Mb to 20Mb bouncing around between 14 and 16 most of the time

A Temple to Mars: sizes increase from 12Mb to 22Mb and then drop back to 16Mb

Korson: sizes start at 54Mb and jump to 72Mb and then back into the 60 range and then back up to 80Mb where they stay for a while - that game is still going.

A large QB I am playing now: sizes shoot up from 18 to 30 very quickly and then slowly drop back down to 21 where it has bounced around for a long time now.

Swords and Villers Bocage: Started off around 19-21Mb slowly difted up to 24Mb and then back down to around 20Mb

Wax Museum: Started off at 29Mb and quickly rose to 43Mb and has moved up steadly to 76Mb then drifted down to 70Mb and the lately shot up 80 then 90 and then stabilized at around 105Mb and then just in the last few turns shot up again to 138Mb.

So, that's a fair mount of variability.

[Fizou]

On 6/15/2018 at 4:10 PM, Rinaldi said:

When I'm CMing on my laptop and I start to get that CTD I've been able to solve the problem by tuning the graphics down to potato (re: lowest) settings. I watch the turn in the high-fidelity, give my orders, save it, then fire it back up and send in low graphics.

Has worked 100 percent of the time. Side-steps that nasty memory leak problem that usually leads to crashing. 

I tried that but didn't work for me. Thanks for the suggestion. 

On 6/15/2018 at 4:55 PM, rocketman said:

I looked through some of my present PBEMs and there is a variation in save file size but nothing really dramatic, and even with huge scenarios like "Hot time in Hatten" the saves are never bigger than 50MB. So saves larger than 110MB seems like something extraordinary. One thought: will the same turn, with the same commands and the same settings always yield exactly the same save file size - no matter which computer it is played on? If we can identify instances when save file size grows beyond what is expected, then that might be an explanation for CTDs?

Fizou, is the save file size huge for your oppo also?

Yes, file size is the same for both of us.

On 6/16/2018 at 4:04 AM, IanL said:

So, that's a fair mount of variability.

Thanks for checking Ian. 

[Fizou]

Looks like this might be whats happening to me: 

i.e. new Geforce drivers not compatible, and to revert I also have to downgrade my win 10 installation.  

[Bozilas]

Could any high minded vet describe how to remove options in the Editor to make this a pure quick battle map?  For multi?

[Sgt.Squarehead]

For multiplayer all you need to do is remove the existing units, maybe reconfigure the setup zones and then save it under a suitable name to the Quick Battle Maps folder.....If you want to use it against the AI you will probably have a lot of work to do.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Sgt.Squarehead

[rocketman]

On 8/1/2018 at 8:07 AM, Bozilas said:

Could any high minded vet describe how to remove options in the Editor to make this a pure quick battle map?  For multi?

As the maker of the scenario I thought I should pitch in. When I posted in the forum about making the scenario someone asked if there would be a quick battle version and I said that it wasn't part of my plan. But feel free to make one as long as I get credit for the map. Apart from what said above you might consider changing both set up zones and objectives depending on if it intendet to be a probe, attack or meeting engagement. I can envision a interesting battle being two not to big forces doing recon and "hide and seek" kind of scenario.

[rocketman]

Also perhaps keep the US bunkers as they are a terrain feature of the Siegfried Line.