aka_tom_w

Way too much work and tediousness in Elite FOW IMO with respect to invisible friendly units.

I agree COMPLETELY which is why I wanted to see if anyone else still cares about this issue. I would like to see this fix: "Keep the enemy FOW as is or make it even harder but drop completely the friendly units going invisible. Just doesnt feel right." in V1.04 or in the future in v1.05 Thanks

I am talking about Elite FOW The unit next to your own friendly unit (WITH visual contact) diplays as a ? and you don't see the unit until you click on its HQ unit or click on the map to deselet all units. In Elite FOW if you select an inf squad, ALL other icons of other units not subordinate in the chain of command to the inf squad you selected turn into ?'s AND you can't band box select them in a group selection. That is an issue for me.

What kind of suggestions for further work or fixes to Elite FOW should be looking for? How can Elite FOW be fixed. Is it still too tedious to play because it does not display friendly units that are clearly in visual contact with the unit selected. (this issue is compounded by how difficult it is to band box or group select in Elite FOW)

Is this still an issue?

I am wondering if anyone else feels this should be addressed in a patch like v1.04 or maybe v1.05

maybe most of that is for the most part largely a correct assessment of the current patch development stage/situation

The last thing Steve said is still the case. (see the note below) I know this was seven days ago but the testing and the work has not stopped, however nothing worthly of a release with the name "v1.04" on it has yet to raise its ugly head. I hope I did not break any NDA rules. Steve mentioned speed optimizations and they have taken a little longer then was first envisioned I think. The testing is continueing everyday, and everytime someone reports their card gives them performance like Steve mentioned (1.2 fps) then it just takes longer. Something like this Steve mentioned: " So he's got to take it out and we have to retest again. That's thrown off our schedule." Sort the old fall back: "Not yet" And the old favourite "When its ready" [ September 20, 2007, 12:53 PM: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

back to business.. maybe we shall see v1.04 later this week? Maybe (we are all hoping) thurs or Fri for the weekend?

I thought they fixed that in v1.03 If not then I am confused with v1.04 I am pretty sure the fix for "adjust fire" is on the patch list (or v1.04) patch list fixes somewhere.

"Assuming the overall group thought it was ready - that's the judgemnet I was attacking. " FOR sure, if they could post and not get into trouble with the NDA, I would take a WILD guess and suggest, they would all say, they knew it was not ready for prime time! "Ok, it was a contract dead line that predicated the release in an unfinished state, not beta-tester concurrence it was "ready". Now I understand. " I think you can be pretty sure you have right now, it has NOTHING to do with NASA or the Challenger disaster or "group think". There was a deadline and the game HAD to go off to reproduction "ready or not". There was a HARD deadline and they met that deadline. [ September 16, 2007, 11:49 AM: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

I agree with Elmar. To Lt Belenko, I say this: There were LOTS of beta testers, they were ALL under NDA, a real legal document to prevent disclosure of private issues in a private process in the development cycle of the game. The NDA is still in effect, and posting here with their hands tied may be about all they can do to respond to your comments. :eek: [ September 15, 2007, 05:56 PM: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

oops

he may have simply been over writing a entire folder/directory of the same name: "Quick Battles" perhaps

I think you are asking for too much the truth of the matter is I don't think the game can know these things: "The game should be able to know......" Once again the action spots are part of the foundation of why a game of this scope can run on computer hardware perhaps 2-3 years old (granted computers threes old are really only good at WEGO and not RealTiime.) So.... There must be a very valid technical reason why they had to "invoke" the action spot principle, and IIRC it had to do with spoting and LOS and LOF for EVERY unit and every terrain element ALL over the map and the only way the game could "come together" and run at any decent FPS (and yes they are still working on this aspect of FPS speed) was for the action spot concept to determine how to run/process spotting LOS/LOF checks all over the map without totally overwhelming the processor and the game engine. IIRC IMHO and all that...

The bunching up at way points thing is sort of a "big deal" to fix or undo code wise in the game engine IIRC. (I think there was a post about this somewhere that the way points and "re-grouping" behaviour was the foundation of something or other, but its a little hazy in my head now) :confused: The best way to work around it is to use less way points and expect a "regrouping" episode at every way point. For instance the guys in the back of the stryker can be ordered to "Assault" and you can park the stryker and put the way point directly into the building. Just pick the 9 man team on board the stryker, order Assualt and put the way point in the building (pick the first floor, probably), and let the game do the rest. (Suppress the hell out of the building and every other building within LOS if possible, of course) with no other way points inbetween right? How's that? [ September 14, 2007, 04:28 PM: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

Well then I guess today is just another day leading up to Christmas. How many more days until Christmas? Yesterday on Sept 13 Steve said: To me that says: "Maybe sometime next week" :cool:

I can tell you that if you call in an air strike on your own position you can kill your men and destroy your own vehicles for sure! (if that helps)

ok then "Just an educated guess, but it doesn't look like they're doing any kind of animation blending, so essentially - don't expect the soldiers to ever do more than a single action at once. For example - notice how soldiers have to stop running before they can rotate/turn, or how they never shoot while on the move." Good point I wonder if down the road in the next module with Marines perhaps they can take the next step towards animation blending if that is even technically possible. (?)

A couple of testers sounds like a minority to me, why not make the optimization optional via the UI?? </font>

No one here has come right out and said it, so I will, for the time being one much loved feature of the CMx1 was TCP/IP WEGO. TCP/IP WEGO is missing from CMSF, but, you can still play WEGO via hotseat or via PBEM or against the computer AI and it IS WEGO. BUT there no network live action TCP/IP WEGO and by now I am sure they, (the good folks at BFC) KNOW ALL ABOUT IT.

"Combat Mission Shock Force is a deep, complex and taxing game. Players who don’t want to invest time and effort into play may not enjoy it. However, gamers who want to have insight into the kind of operations the US appears to be doomed to undertake in the foreseeable future will be rewarded for waiting for the patches. This game goes beyond the gung-ho products of other franchises. The strengths and weaknesses of the “Western Way of War” in the modern era are shown here clearly. Finding the right mix of force, distance, and time challenges players to make truly tactical decisions. The rewards of success are visceral and watching a plan unfold with all the graphical nuances leaves players holding the breath. Failure is almost a personal loss. Any serious gamer should suffer through the not insignificant bugs—or wait for the patches—and get this game." Sounded like a fair review to me

For sure (like a good wine) it WILL get better with age... The multiprocessor patch is rumoured to be just around the corner.... (somewhere)

no maybe like most of the rest of us they are just CUTTNG back to regular 40 hr week instead of working 16 hours a day 7 days a week. jeeesh!!! Maybe if they get some more rest and relaxation for a change the quality of the patch will go up (even it if takes a little longer to be released!)

10-14 days is a good guess at this point IMHO