Sgt Joch

You are starting to ramble on Steve, I think you all need a holiday!

I have a 8800 GT, also no problem running CMSF in all its glory. All the 8800 problems seem to be tied to the VISTA drivers, I have XP.

very nice!

To Patch or not to Patch, the eternal geek question... I would rather get a patch that improves some things, even though it does not fix all the issues, rather than no patch at all. I presume the plan is to release the patch next week, that we can play with over the Holidays, while the BFC team takes a well deserved rest. This way we can have a new list of requested fixes/features/unreasonable demands ready for them when they go back to work in 2008.

beauty!

I have no issue with the "modular" approach which seems to be the way all wargames are designed now. I am hoping that future improvements or features will be made available retroactively to update CMSF. Steve alluded to this possibility a few days ago when he mentioned that improvements to the core engine through patches may be made available separately from modules. Third wire has adopted that approach, new features introduced in their more recent sim (War over Europe) were made available through patches to update their older titles (Strike Fighter:Project One & War over Vietnam), all of which share the same core engine.

I presume "haze" and "thick haze" in the game also includes mist, fog and sandstorms (based on Bertram's description), although it's hard to say since "fog" and "sandstorms" do not appear visually in the game (unlike CMx1). Hopefully, the visual effect will be added in future by a patch or module.

In the daytime scenarios I tried, under "Thick Haze", tanks would show up between 500-1000 meters. At that range, the Syrians hardly miss and their munitions really mangle up the Abrams. Before reading Yankeedog's explanation, it had not occurred to me that "haze" might be an environmental condition on its own. This is what wilkipedia has to say about "haze" : Haze would appear to be more prevalent around urban areas although I guess it could also occur out in the desert with all the air pollution around these days. I also found this interesting tidbit: so should 'nt the Abrams fancy, schmancy IR targeting capability be able to see farther through the 'Haze?

I was fooling around with the mission editor and setup some simple missions to test out U.S and Syrian tank capabilities. Basically 4 M1 abrams tanks (one platoon) against 20 T72s (two companies of Republican Guards armor) on a flat desert maps at various ranges beginning at 1000, 1800 and 2800 meters. The skill level for both side was set at "typical". Under clear conditions, whether at night or day, the results are as expected, the US tanks usually wipe out all the Syrian tanks in a few minutes with little casualties, with better results at long range and at night. However, when the weather is set to "thick haze", the results are totally different, the Syrian tanks are able to approach to close range before being spotted, allowing the Syrians with their 5:1 superiority to wipe out the US force while losing only 1/3 to 1/2 of their force. So what is "thick haze" supposed to represent? "fog"?, "sand storms"?

no, it's a generalized problem: slowness in the editor it makes working with the map editor a frustating experience.

Steve, what about the problem with the major FPS drop when working with large maps in the 2d map editor, will that be addressed?

I am still sort of confused, would this be example #1 or #2 :confused: : CM:SF IS MILDLY DISPPOINTING! I can not BELIEVE the design decisions that were made! It's worse than a pillow fight and anybody that thinks otherwise must have a good reason for doing so, because clearly there are a few minor issues with this complex software. It has a few bugs and there is no hope for it except to do some minor tinkering with the code, which Battlefront says they are gong to do. So we're stuck with this still quite fun game until the next patch comes out. I'm so mildly disppointed about this I only gave my dogs one treat this morning, instead of their usual two. GRRRRR!!!

Glad to see you back Steve, looking forward to trying out 1.05.

Phil, my newfangled 8800 GT runs CMBB, CMAK and CMSF beautifully with no technical issues whatsoever with 32 bit XP pro. from what I read in this and other boards, a lot of the technical issues with the 8800 series seem to be due to VISTA drivers, especially VISTA 64 bit drivers, part of the reason why I am in no hurry to upgrade (or downgrade ) to VISTA.

in your CMBB folder you will find a file called cmbb.prefs or something similar, delete it or if you are unsure rename it cmbb.prefs_old. when you restart cmbb, you will get a successive choice of resolutions and refresh rate, choose the one you want and a new cmbb.prefs file will be created.

My new build: intel E6750, gigabyte P35-DS3R mb, 8800 GT 512 mb, 2 gig DDR2 @800, XP pro, runs CMBB perfectly at 1280x960, 16xAA, 16xQ FSAA. I understand there were some technical issues with Vista, but no problem under XP. Keep in mind, however, that a large enough scenario can still bring even a new rig to its knees. CMBB can be very CPU intensive.

A bit less than $700 actually for the CPU, motherboard, RAM & video card, all within the past 2 months. Everything else was recycled from my existing rig. You could build the same rig from the ground up, including a 24" monitor for less than $1,500. High end hardware has become ridiculously cheap over the past year, if you choose wisely, which means buying second best which gives you 90% of the performance of the absolute top end for a fraction of the price. My rig will run any game, including the Crysis demo. It runs all of my preferred games, CMSF, CMBB, CMAK, SH4, F4AF, First Eagles fast and well, even "On to the Volga!" is smooth and playable, so I am good to go for another 12-18 months until the next upgrade.

I just got a 8800 GT 512 mb last week. It runs the game beautifully with no issues whatsoever. I think all the technical issues were linked to VISTA and earlier versions of the game, I run XP. My current rig is: intel E6750, gigabyte P35-DS3R mb, 8800 GT, 2 gig DDR2 @800, XP pro. In "Hammertime", with best/best textures, 1280x960, 4xFSAA, I get FPS between 20-50. In "Allah's Fist", my opening FPS is 25, 57 at balanced/balanced. Keep in mind though that CMSF, like CMBB and CMAK are CPU limited games. The switch from a 7900 GTX to a 8800 GT only gave me a 10-15% boost in CMSF, whereas in other games I am seeing a 50-100% improvement.

I like CMSF and it is gradually replacing CMBB and CMAK. As I spend more time with the game, it is obvious that it is an improvement over CMx1 in many areas, although there are still some rough patches. I would expect the USMC module to sell less than CMSF, since expansion packs invariably sell less copies than the core game. I will probably buy the USMC module as well as all the follow on modules. The only black cloud I see in CMSF's future is a lack of staying power. CMBO, CMBB and CMAK are still going strong because of a large and organised multiplayer community with many clubs such as Band of Brothers , of which I am a member (we are always looking for new members, by the way ). In CMSFs case however, from what I can see at the usual sites, there seems to be little interest in multiplayer CMSF games.

That is good news, I was wondering what I would play after I finished "Hammertime".

...moaning, heavy breathing, leather straps being stretched, furniture breaking.. whoops, sorry, posted in the wrong forum again.

Having a "bogged" unit becoming unbogged is common, the question is whether a "bogged" unit which becomes "immobile" can then become mobile again. In all the games I have played, when a unit is "immobile", it is stuck for the rest of the game, although in operations I have seen them come back in a subsequent game.

I have never seen that either in several hundreds CMBB and CMAK games.

buggy...bug-ridden...bugfest, always the same complaints. I have been working through GeorgeMc's "Hammertime" WEGO v AI, now at turn 45 and CMSF with patch 1.04 is actually a very decent simulation which is an improvement in many ways over CMx1. Back on topic, can we get a general timeframe on when 1.05 is expected to come out, are we talking weeks or months? I am trying to decide whether to start the campaign now or wait until 1.05 comes out.

I was never able to run with two cores with 1.03 and before, I would get overlapping voices, CTD's, lockups, but with 1.04, there is no issue. I have a Dual Core 2 6750. Did you update all the drivers? I also installed the power management hotfix which is referred to in the troubleshooting thread, have you tried that?