TownsendVol Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 I have been trying to decided wheter to buy this game or not and that I have been bombarding you with questions and most of you have been kind enough to answer them for me. I got to play my first full demo scenerio last night from beginning to end. I beat the computer in the Valley one. I must admit I did not know what to expect because I am not a big fan of Turn based games as I prefere the decisions to come on the fly and it to all flow uninterupted. But I tell you I had a good time last night after I was able to get into it. I still dont understand alot of things that went on but it was the most impressive combat game visually I have ever seen. Its not up to par with other non combat games but its impressive. I love the viewing options and being able to rewatch things as the entire maps are just to big to see it all good the first time. I got use to the turn by turn mode and had a good time breaking down what to do next. My favorite moments were watching those pill boxes get torn to pieces allowing my infantry to move up. Must say I also didnt know I got reenforcements and that was a nice surprise. I went to see and I had all those new tanks. Man like a kid in a candy store. I almost sent in my order last night but decided to wait and try to get in the other battle. I am Sure I will be buying a copy and look forward to playing multiplayer against some real competition, the human mind. I have a few questions, HEHEHE most of you who know me should of known that was comming. 1. This MOD thing you guys all keep talking about, is it graphics that fans have done that can replace the ones in the game? If so are the other still available or do you have to reinstall to get those back. 2. Does the multiplayer part work okay or are they still working on it? Its hard to tell from some past posts. 3. Will there be any way in the future for two human players to take on one or two other human players? THanks to you all and God Bless. I hope to see you on the battle field soon. "Take the fight to the enemy and keep it there for the duration of the war" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodwood Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 [ 2. Does the multiplayer part work okay or are they still working on it? Its hard to tell from some past posts. I got one thing to say about q2, no its not working perfectly, but when it does, I'm never going to get any sleep, and many other CMers. IMHO the TCP addon was worth paying for in its beta form. No more questions just buy the bloody game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clubfoot Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 Yes, mods are altered graphics files including but not limited to terrain, vehicles, uniforms, game interface, buildings, small arms and so on. Until recently an individual would indeed have to replace the actual .bmp's to see results in game. However a PC mod manager has recently been released that sorts and keeps track of mods present on your machine, allowing you to swap them ad infinitum with a coupla clicks. So yes, new graphics with a click paired with the ability to restore the defaults at will. Play by e-mail works wonderfully, TCIP is still up in the air a little as a number of people are reporting problems (works fine for me however). About the third question, I have no idea. Hope that helped a little. Clubfoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremlin Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 When you get the game, a couple of the best places to find these free graphics, sound, and interface mods are CMHQ and Kump's CM Outpost. With the right mods installed, the graphics are improved enormously. ------------------ War is cruel and you cannot refine it. --Sherman [This message has been edited by Gremlin (edited 12-31-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Arabian Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 My .02... 1. Uh, yeah. What they said. 2. Uh, also waht they said (I've had no problems that are the fault of the game - Mostly a bad internet connection on my opponents end. But the game autosaves before each build, so you won't lose an entire evenings worth of gaming or anything - just a couple of minutes). 3. I've been reading this forum since probably middle of 1999 and this has come up a bunch of times. Basically the BTS response is "Yeah, that would be really cool, but at this point it would be such a major rewrite that its not gonna happen soon". Basically the soonest it will come out will be in CMII (uh, one more pont to help you out reading the forum - there is CM2, which is the eastern front game - that will be a minor rewrite of the engine to improve certain things necessary for eastern front tactics such as improved building fighting, etc. The other is CMII, which is version 2 of the game enging - this will be a MAJOR rewrite - I think have those two right - they could be reversed, but you get the idea ). Anyway, hence the soonest will be CMII but I wouldn't hold my breath even for that. Depends on how they place their priorities. Hope that helps. Incidentally, its a GREAT game - I don't play many computer games anymore, but this one has been really satisfying. Playing against real human being opponents is a hell of a lot more fun than playing vs. the computer.... if only for the trash talk element (ref Peng thread) [This message has been edited by A Arabian (edited 12-31-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Tankersley Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 One expansion on the answer to #3 ... multiplayer (>2 people) CM for TCP/IP isn't gonna happen anytime soon. But if you play by email and have some discipline you can have multiple players on each side. You divvy up your forces amongst the players on your side, and then after issuing orders for your units, instead of generating the next turn instead you save the game and send the resulting file to one of your teammates. When all your mates have issued orders, then the last player hits go and mails the resulting PBEM file to one of the opponents. It's not perfect, and you don't have the limited intel on friendly forces that would be nice, but if you've absolutely GOT to get more than two people into a game it can be done. Welcome aboard! ------------------ Leland J. Tankersley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jd Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 TOwnsendVol: I just finishd a TCP/IP game last night. I much prefer pbem btw. However with 3-5 mins turns on the timer, I was wrung out with the pressure , tension and anxiety of m ovng on the fly. Remember, the "breaks" for the movie only give you one free playback, if you replay all or part you cut into your movement time. So in effect the gap is narrowing between "turn based" and more realtime action. Times up guy, suck it up and BUY! jd ------------------ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 hmmm... does this mean everytime you need to make a move in the game we're going to be polled on the forum about it? john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tailz Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tiger: hmmm... does this mean everytime you need to make a move in the game we're going to be polled on the forum about it? john<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I think it's time to get off the porch and run with the big dogs, don't you?? If you were a soldier, Patton woulda slapped you by now. ------------------ "Poor, poor, pitiful me... these young girls won't let me be... woe is me!" Warren Zevon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 1) MODS are indeed different graphics *and* sounds in the game. There hasn't been hardly anything that somebody hasn't done a mod for. There's also a few sound mods around that change those as well. On big mistake that one can make about comparing CM's graphics to other games is that, don't compare them to FPS games or other 3D RTS games. You have to realize that other 3D games don't show very many polygons on the screen at one time. Yes, they may be highly detailed, but the polygon count is way low compared to what CM has to display. 'Cause if you go down on the ground with your troops, you'll notice that the framerate speeds up because it doesn't have to display all that much. But raise it to view 3 or 4, then you'll notice a substancial framerate drop. But as for comparing CM's graphics to ALL former wargames, CM blows everything out of the water. 2)PBEM works fine, TCP/IP sometimes has a problem with dropping connections, but like A Arabian says that the game does auto-saves after every phase so that you can just reload the auto-save to continue. 3)And as A Arabian said also, is that Multi-Multiplayer play is not really on the drawing boards yet, nor will it ever be supported is a different story. ---------- I think why new people always are skeptical of the graphics is because CM is 3D, so therefore, HEY, a WWII startegy game with QuakeIII graphics. Not hardly....the truth of the matter is that the reason a game like this hasn't been done before is simply because hardware couldn't handle it. And even today's medium computer and hardware have difficulty in handling the large scenarios with lots of Hi-Res mods. I have a medium computer now and it handles FPS games just fine, but it struggles with CM for its high polygon count and VRAM limitations, even with a 32MB video card. I plan on going to a Gigahertz Thunderbird or Athlon very shortly though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremlin Posted December 31, 2000 Share Posted December 31, 2000 Maximus, re: the graphics, if there's a slowdown that's because the graphics don't seem to be optimized as well as they could be. There's nothing in theory that I'm aware of (but I'm no John Carmack ) to prevent large numbers of units to be displayed at once. Graphics engines can take advantage of accelerator features like on-board T&L. They can also use scalable level of detail: the number of displayed polys and/or detail can be reduced as objects "recede" in the distance. There are apparently a number of different ways to handle this that are implemented now or will be in games to appear in the next year or so. And after all, how many units in CM can you see clearly and in full detail on the screen at once: only a few as you zoom the camera right down next to them. I've seen screenshots from the next iteration of the Unreal engine that feature 170,000 polys on screen at once. Some upcoming games are supposed to feature around 20,000 + polys in single scenes. I'm curious to know how many polys CM currently features in a "typical" scene. Why should CM be let off the hook so easily in this regard, particularly since the 3D environment and units are a major and inherent part of its success and novelty (in the best sense of the word)? A game of this caliber (no pun intended) should be compared to the best games available, not just wargames. Graphics are hardly the most vital thing in CM or any game, but they are extremely important to any game that tries to represent realistic scenes visually. In CM they have a direct bearing on gameplay, with practical concerns like LOS, and with intangible but important things like emotional involvement and immersion. ------------------ War is cruel and you cannot refine it. --Sherman [This message has been edited by Gremlin (edited 12-31-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shatter Posted January 1, 2001 Share Posted January 1, 2001 Here is the deal again BY THE DAMN GAME FOR THE LAST TIME. YES mods are done by us for the most part. Anyone here will help you if you have prolems. To be honest your question are the same over and over. Ya I had alot of questions to, but at least I waited untill I bought the entire game. Don't get me wrong questions are all right, but you have posted should I buy game at least 2 or 3 times now. One thing you said, you had fun playing Demo. If you liked demo you will loved full version. After rereading this it sounds like I am coming across as a jerk. Sorry if you take it this way. Just by the game and ask real questions please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KwazyDog Posted January 1, 2001 Share Posted January 1, 2001 Hi Guys, I just wanted to add a quick note here that if you guys are still experiencing problems in multiplay that I hope your sending in those bug reports TownsendVol, currently the TCPIP feature is in beta, but we will have a final patch out in the not too distant future. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Arabian Posted January 1, 2001 Share Posted January 1, 2001 Hate to differ with ya shatter, but most of TownsendVol's questions have been pretty reasonable. I mean, sure he should buy it (he liked the demo, we told him to, yadda yadda...) but hey - its 45 bucks, and I can't blame the guy for being uncertain. Note that last night was the first time he had had a chance to play the demo battle through. Its his perogative to nail down as much as possible before handing out his credit card number (I, on the other hand, handed out my credit card number to these guys months before the demo was released, if I recall correctly ) Anyway, KwazyDog is right - it is still a "beta", and I know some people have had some problems, but I played PC vs. Mac, one on DSL and one on el cheapo dialup, and had zero problems. Townsend, buy the game. Its basically the only thing I've played for the past 6 months. Well, all right, in the dark times I slip in a couple of games of unreal tournament, but don't tell... OT: Shatter - you in college up in Keller? What school? [This message has been edited by A Arabian (edited 12-31-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shatter Posted January 1, 2001 Share Posted January 1, 2001 OT: Shatter - you in college up in Keller? What school? [This message has been edited by A Arabian (edited 12-31-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shatter Posted January 1, 2001 Share Posted January 1, 2001 Shatter again Ya maybe I did come across a little harsh. Sorry Townsend. I went back and noticed a couple of threads that I thought were yours and they were not. My fault [This message has been edited by Shatter (edited 01-01-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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