Madmatt

The thing to remember with regards to the infantry video was not the animations themselves, which were placeholder at best when the video was taken, and admittedly VERY raw, but the fact that CMSF now models each soldier individually and that there is no more abstracted gunfire 'bursts', but rather that every pull of the trigger from your men is both visually and audibly (although there was no sound in that video, stay tuned for that!) registered, modeled and tracked in game. Madmatt

Try and update your copy of Windows Media Player for starters and see if that makes a difference. Madmatt

Anticipation for this game seems to build each and every day so to bump it up just a notch higher we are making available two new, "early and raw", videos taken while playing. Please note, these videos were taken from an early game beta, so there are many elements which are not yet complete but they still give a good impression of the overall detail you can expect. First up, we see as a M1A1HC (Heavy Common) Abrams tank travels off-road. Watch the articulated suspension system in action (gun stabilization was not yet animated), self-shadowing, the randomized exterior equipment (individualized for each vehicle) and the advanced lighting effects such as sun glare reflecting off the various surfaces. The second video shows a troop of US soldiers firing their M4 carbines, and displays the various firing animations from both standing and kneeling positions, as well as the reloading sequences. Since this is beta footage, there are various glitches still, but this video is meant to showcase the full 1 to 1 soldier modeling now featured in Combat Mission: Shock Force. Combat Mission: Shock Force Videos Page

Yes, that system should do just fine! Madmatt

Yes, remember, that some of the battles will be played on the same map but from different sides. Also, the core maps are very big and normally, not the entire map is used for a single battle, so in one battle might focus on one area of the map and another might focus on a different area. Also, for some of the Russian Front battles, the same map might be used but during different seasons. Madmatt

What is your country? You may have to use the OTHER COUNTRIES shipping option if its not listed in the list. Madmatt

Not sure what you mean, but its all over the site. Be sure and hit F5 to refresh. Madmatt

Same as every other item we sell, its USPS Priority Mail. Madmatt

While most of the news this week is getting hogged up by Theatre of War, and rightly so, we decided to show off a little more color that's been going into Combat Mission: Shock Force lately. The thing to notice are all the new "flavor objects" which we just added to the game. Some people would of course simply call this stuff junk. After looking at previous screenshots, some people were saying that our Syrian streets were just a tad too clean. Well, not anymore. There are now dozens of "flavor objects" which can be placed on the map to dirty the place up, and the screens were taken to show some of them as might be encountered in a typical Village setting. The selection includes everything from street lights, crates, tires, to more elaborate stuff like ATM machines and Air Conditioning units for the more urban settings. A few of the screenshot also show for the very first time the victory screen layout. We discussed more about Victory Conditions last week on the CMSF Blog. Lastly, for those who look carefully you can see some of the new animations we have added. We feel the new animations give a much better sense of urgency and are visually stronger. Combat Mission: Shock Force Screenshot Gallery Page

Depends on how you look at it. In CM, squads were abstracted with just 3 figures, in ToW, you can see and even directly order any individual soldier. The battles in ToW, due to their design also more often than not have more of a back-and-forth feel to them with varying tasks and objectives (and reinforcements) that can change as you play through a given mission. But in the end, the thing to remember is that CM and ToW are two completely different games so its not really fair to compare one with the other. They both depict WWII battles, but they both do it at different scales and with different design methodologies. Madmatt

It will work fine but we have found that in some multi-core systems performance was actually improved by turning off the other cores in-game. This is an option that is available in the configuration panel. Not sure if any our testers used a Quad Core but a couple of guys with Dual Cores did this and got much less lag in Multiplayer for some reason. Madmatt

In our testing, it has run under Vista fine (as long as all the hardware drivers were up to date and not beta) but we consider Vista still too unstable of a OS to list just yet. Madmatt

Yeah, but how is the other hour and half? Madmatt

Avwriter, we are still trying to determine just how early pre-order downloads will be activated but its safe to say it will be "days", not weeks and obviously not hours as that wouldn't benefit anyone. Madmatt

No quick battles, and the battles are all different sizes and shapes. As to maximum number of units under your control at once, it depends on the individual battle but there are engagements where you would have a couple of companies of infantry or more and associated armor support. They can get pretty big. Also, you can control an infantry squad as a single unit or give individual commands to any one person or groups of people in the squad. The AI can not be made to "use points" and buy units although the player can. In most battles the player is alloted a set amount of points to buy units from a certain selection of choices, in addition to some starting units that he could also trade in for their points. Sometimes the player could completely change what units he has, and other times some units are LOCKED and can not be traded in. In some battles there are also hard limits on how many of any one particular TYPE of unit they can have, so a given battle may let you purchase up to 10 squads of infantry but only 4 tanks for example. All of this can be altered using the Mission Editor of course! Madmatt

Thats a slow CPU for sure but a decent video card. Best bet would be to try with the demo once thats released. One of the scenarios in the demo is pretty beefy, so if that runs well, all the others in the full game would as well. Madmatt

Here are a few of my fave war flicks in my collection: Kellys Heroes Cross of Iron Bridge Too Far The Longest Day The Winter War Saving Private Ryan

Okay, it should be fine now. If ANYONE else gets that Random ID error, please email at once at matt@battlefront.com Thanks for your patience. Madmatt

Weird as I have submitted multiple orders to check and I never once got the error. I am currently working with the developer of our order system to make the randomness ever MORE random than I just did. How big of a number is 16 digits? Is that a googleplex yet? Well whatever it is, thats how random the new ID's will be shortly and that should do the trick. The problem you guys are encountering is that as you add items to your order, the system generates a special and supposedly unique random number to differentiate your shopping cart from anyone elses currenty using the system. Well apparently they werent being random enough and when the system detects two identical ID's it gives you that error as a security measure to keep two peoples orders from getting mixed up. What I am doing now is increasing how many digits will be in the random number ID that is created for each order. Sorry for the headache. Madmatt [ March 22, 2007, 02:54 PM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

Sorry, but that impression was incorrect. There are technical issues between our current order and accounting system and PayPal which makes its implementation not something we can do, at least in the near future. Madmatt </font>

Okay, I just made the cart ID # randomness 10 to the 4th power MORE random, so that SHOULD do the trick. Let me know if you still encounter that Random ID error. Madmatt

I am not sure why a few people are getting that random ID error, thats never occured before in such amounts with any previous release. I have emailed the developer of our order system and asked them if there is anything that can be done on either your end or mine to make that not occur. You could try cleaning our your cache in your browser and make sure that cookies are enabled. We are getting plenty of orders incoming so I know its working for most people. Madmatt

Its the same key, allowing for two activations (installs) at once. Madmatt

Sorry, but that impression was incorrect. There are technical issues between our current order and accounting system and PayPal which makes its implementation not something we can do, at least in the near future. Madmatt [ March 22, 2007, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

If you get that Random Cart ID error, just resubmit your order. That should not occur as often as this, but it may be due to the sudden demand. Madmatt