Has CMBB suddenly gone senile on me?

[Tiresias1980]

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about the below.

I've recently been playing CMBB on a Windows 10 PC, version 1.03 downloaded from GOG because it seems to be the most stable version for a modern OS. And indeed, it was working like a dream until yesterday when suddenly I discovered that I couldn't fast forward or rewind during the action phase. The turn will play, but as soon as I try to move it forward or back, it just skips to the end.

This isn't all: I have animations behaving weirdly and the timecode in the action phase now displays oddly as well (some JPEGs attached). None of this changes if I try to run the game as if using XP, Windows 7, 8, etc.

What I don't get is that I played the game at the weekend and it was behaving absolutely fine. To my knowledge, there have been no Windows updates in the intervening period. Have I done something to annoy it? Or are we witnessing the inevitable decline of CMBB in its old age?

If anyone's got any bright ideas I'd appreciate it. Still love these old CMx1 games.

[Erwin]

Not sure what your issue is unfortunately.  Maybe try a reinstallation.  But, yes, I always thought that when one plays at level 3 or higher a well-modded CM1 doesn't look much worse compared to CM2.

[Schrullenhaft]

Have you rebooted or shutdown this computer lately (rather than putting it into 'Sleep') ? If you haven't, try that first. I don't think a reinstallation of the game will make any difference.

This issue appeared a long time ago (2002 - 2003) and at the time it seemed to be related to a computer's clock/time keeping getting out of sync with the OS. For some of these computers a BIOS update was able to fix the issue, but I doubt that would be the solution for this problem. Other solutions were to shutdown any 'instant messaging clients'. I'm not aware of any in particular that may cause a problem with the CM1 series (many have disappeared now). I don't know if Discord or other gaming chat clients would be considered as such, but you may want to shut them down in case. Another possible solution was to let the computer run for 20 - 40 minutes to 'stabilize the clock' before running the game. I don't know if such a suggestion would make sense anymore, but it is something to try out.

A suggestion from Gog.com's site (though it is a general suggestion not tied to this particular problem):

CHECK IF THE GAME IS RUNNING ON MULTIPLE CORES AND, IF NEEDED, FORCE IT TO ONLY USE ONE
To do this, Alt-Tab out of the game, go into the Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc), select the Processes (Details - Windows 10 users) tab, right-click the game's process, click "Set Affinity..." and make sure that only "CPU 0" is selected, then click OK and go back to the game.

Alt-tab'ing out of the game and then remaximizing it also tends to help with display performance for the CM1 games on Windows 10 (it only needs to be done once). There's a possibility that setting the Affinity might make the game clock a bit more stable (... possibly).

And another suggestion about Power Saving modes (I don't know if that is coming into effect at all while you're running CMBB):

 

CHANGE POWER SAVING MODE
Press WinKey+R. In Run window type:
control

And press Ok. This will open Control Panel, and from here navigate to Power Options and change Power Saving Mode (it may be called Minimal Power Management) to something more power-intensive, like for example: High Performance.

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Schrullenhaft

[Erwin]

Useful to know how to manually make the system run on one core.  Does that help speed up a game that only uses one core?   (I thought that multi-core systems automatically switched to "single core operation" when only one core is needed.)

Had to take a break from sorting out my own new system btw.  Just too annoying...

Edited May 27, 2020 by Erwin

[Tiresias1980]

Thanks so much for the replies to this. I'm afraid that none of these suggestions seem to have done the trick, but I'll keep on keeping on. I seem to have spent quite a lot of the past few years trying to keep my CMx1 games alive and I'd prefer not to lose them if I can!

[Jadore]

Hello
  i have win10 too , i had the same problem too , but it happen very very rarely during some PBEM games ( never  against CPU or in TCP IP play).
I "solve" it by either quiting and reloading the save or if it isn't working i ask my opponent to send again the same file , or to replay the turn
 

Edited May 31, 2020 by Jadore
i suck at basic english

[Tiresias1980]

OK, just to report that I've no idea how but I seem to be back in action on the Eastern Front. Ran it this evening and it worked fine. Absolutely mystified as to how it got fixed, though. Possibly some sort of update - although I checked the other day and Windows didn't need any updates running. 

In any case thank goodness for that. The fight goes on... 

Thanks to everyone who offered advice!

[Erwin]

Hmmm... I noticed there was a Win 10 update in the last couple of days as well.  I'll have to see if that helped my own issues getting CM2 to run on a new machine.

[Tiresias1980]

Let us know if it works any better, Erwin! Would be interested to know if that was at the root of the issues I was having here.

[Erwin]

Am still experiencing more Win 10 updates.  Will probably wait a few days at least to make sure the latest round of updates are debugged.  

[1ADVet]

The CMBO, CMBB series was always a favorite of mine. The scale tallied nicely with the Battalion Task Force training that took place at Hohenfels in Germany, and struck the right balance between management demands and fluid play. And the amazing historical research done by the community of players who created some of the most demanding scenarios was astounding. The scholarship was simply superb and turned a game into a genuine learning experience that gave an insight into the issues and nature of  WW2 conflict.

The scale allowed one to fight as little more than squad to closely approaching  brigade size operations (although managing the amount of "pieces" became a bit difficult ) and you could tailor scenarios to teach quite a bit using see-saw types of operations that challenged single players to make difficult tactical decisions. And not having to micro-manage air and artillery was a strong point.  I found the means by which this series simulated Artillery and Close Air support quite good.

Has anyone at Battlefront ever given thought to redevelopment of the game, retaining its near perfect scale, but recoding for WIN10, and perhaps addressing things like the issues associated with graphics (for example; vehicles had two sides but both had to be mirror images of each other)? Has anyone tried to do so?

[Schrullenhaft]

The CM1 games DO work under Windows 10; the above issues are not common for most users.

To my knowledge Battlefront has no intentions on revisiting the CM1 code to update it to anything newer. Nor are there any intentions (to my knowledge) of opening up the game code for open source development by other parties. Another game, strictly limited to the Eastern Front, looks very much like the CM1 games, but the mechanics are a little different: Panzer Command: Ostfront distributed by Matrix Games. It isn't seeing any further development, but it is very much in the vein of CM1 games.

The CM2 games are considered the natural development of the series and there's no true change in the scale of the game, other than to have a true 1:1 representation of the units and some sub-squad management. The games do suffer from the need to micro-manage the units, though such management isn't absolutely necessary. It is a common play style however, especially with turn-based play and the desire to issue near perfect orders. I don't know if there is consideration to having some sort of SOP-based orders for future releases of the game. I would hazard a guess that those might not be implemented, but there's a slight chance. But even something more along the lines of SOP-based orders would require more AI coding to address the multitude of situations and behaviors players think their units should react to.

[Tiresias1980]

9 hours ago, Schrullenhaft said:

The CM1 games DO work under Windows 10; the above issues are not common for most users.

Yes, just to confirm the issues above are no longer affecting gameplay on my Windows 10 PC and haven't recurred since they fixed themselves (possibly because of an update as also discussed). Although it was a bit weird.

Schrullenhaft: I wonder if you have any ideas about why they haven't opened up the code for the old CMx1 games for open source development? I recently got back into Steel Panthers, which has come a long way - presumably thanks to exactly that sort of initiative. I can't see how doing something similar for CMx1 would compromise sales for the more recent series, but it would enable a community who love these games to keep them alive and perhaps make one or two improvements in which BF themselves can (understandably) no longer afford to invest.

[STURM-FAKTION]

Sorry to bring back a 2 years old topic...

But the exact same bug happened to me today. The difference (quite important), is: I'm using Windows 11.

(my detailed situation here: 

>Since the options in this thread didn't help the author (even if he says the situation finally now in order), I'm asking for some clarification.

Especially about what @Schrullenhaft said about the OS clock.

How can the clock/timer of the computer can affect the time of the game ?

I swear, maybe my understanding of english is tricking me; but you seems to open the door of some spacetime physics phenomena.