Madmatt

Seems to be more than a little misinformation in this thread so let me clarify some things. CMBO:Special Edition, which is available in retail right now does NOT have SafeDisc protection on it! ONLY the European releases of CMBB (which they call CM2) had SafeDisc protection. The UK retail release of CMBO (the one with the extra mod disc released last year) might have had SafeDisc on it but I am not 100% sure as I don't have a disc from that release to analyze. The forthcoming CMBB:Special Edition which will be released to retail by the end of the year will also NOT have SafeDisc on it. We have done this to minimize issues that seem to occur with the SafeDisc system and certain CD drives. So for the person above with the problem, its not being caused by incompatability between your CD drive and SafeDisc because the disc doesn't have SafeDisc on it. To fix your problem try and manually copy the Install.exe file from the disc to your harddrive and run it from there. If that does not work, boot up in Safe mode and try and copy it to your harddrive or you can even try and install it from the CD in safe mode as some people have said that will work as well. Madmatt [ August 11, 2003, 01:44 PM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

There are many factors in the game which affect what units are misID'd as but the most prevalent is commonality. It will usually error in favor of a unit which is more common or likely to be encountered. As to soldiers knowing better, well I can offer up this tidbit from real life. On a trip to Fort Knox last year it was not at all uncommon for a dozen uber-grogs look at the same vehicle up close (even walking and climbing on it!) and coming up with 12 different ideas on what it was. As to your specific situation, I dont find it hard at to accept that units would confuse a Jadgpanther with a Panther. Same gun, same suspension, same chassis, similar size, similar profile from certain angles. In fact, looking here at the Encyclopedia of German Tanks I can see how the two could get confused in the chaos of combat. Attacking a Panther from the front, even in the best situation is dangerous though so I can't agree that this mis-ID cost you the battle. And if it did, well, welcome to war. Madmatt [ August 10, 2003, 05:11 PM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

You are wrong about just about everything you say. The code does no such calculations. What you assume goes against every single design element we have in the game. The calculations are all about reality, mathematics, ballistics and quantifiable environmental factors. We don't fudge number calculations just 'because'. You are making some very sweeping statements about what you don't know derived from VERY anecdotal observations which are flawed. You would be advised to refrain from doing that repeatedly on this forum as it is not looked on favorably. In your first example, the StuG probably scored a hit against such a difficult target. because they WERE an Elite crew. Units also gain target acquisition bonuses after the first shoot for re-engaging the target repeatedly. This represents shell impact bracketing and corrections by the gunner. You said "The reason is that the game "keeps in mind" that the STUG is too expensive to be ineffective and even in an "impossible to kill" situation the game will drastically raise the probability of bailing out even after some accidental ricochets." That is totally wrong. The code does no such thing. The value of any given unit is inconscequential to any calculations that go on with regard to it. If a crew senses that they are being hit repeatedly, even if the result is non penetrating ricochets they may panic and either pull out or in some circumstances bail out, of course depending on what sort of tank they are in, they might just shrug off the ricochets and continue to fight with no adverse effect. You next example was "I was moving my 6 T34M43's in a succession in a row immediately one by one and 2 (TWO!) of them got bogged in an open ground, nothing like trees or rocks was even close. Yes, the weather was damp but its not the reason for 2 T34's to bog at A HIGHER OPEN GROUND at one place, one right after another. The reason is multiple attempts to pass one map tile." Again you are wrong. The game keeps track of each vehicles condition and chance of bogging separate from any other vehicle. The chance of a single vehicle in your situation bogging has no relationship on how many vehicles there are. Of course this means that the more vehicles that cross poor terrain the more bogs that are *likely* to occur. If the chance is high, you will see more vehicles bogging. That's just how stats and %'s work. Third example: My two rifle squads attacked a TigerI with only hand grenades. The tank was standing less then 20m away from the forest and my opponent wouldn't move it for some reason I don't know (was experimenting as well? ). They were throwing it at him unstoppably for two minutes, most of the grenades landed on the ground nearby.. yet in the end of the second turn the beast suddenly exploded as hell - KABOOM! Everybody's applause! When squads are within about 40 meters of a tank they are actually close assaulting the unit. This represents much more than just lobbing grenades, although that is how it is depicted visually. The Tiger crew probably assumed they were sitting ducks and tried to bail out due to a successful close assault which rendered the tank out of action. You conclusion said this "In reality if you CAN hit something and know how to do it then the possibility stays the same.. " Oh really, so if you know HOW to fire a gun and aim properly, that means you will ALWAYS hit the target? I am sure there are several Olympic Sharpshooting teams that would like to talk to you. It seems your vision of reality is somewhat...unique. Madmatt [ August 09, 2003, 09:02 PM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

Looks like there is another thread with this topic. Closing this one. Madmatt

No need to dredge up this topic any more gentlemen. Lets move on. Madmatt

It doesn't take Moon only to lock up threads so let me lay down the law. Kuniworth, your on thin ice, we banned you once we will do it again if you continue to push. Discussions about Rambo. Since his decission to stop playing someone or somewhere due to another persons sexual orientation has NOTHING to do with SC as such, those discussions are not permitted here. We are here to chat about SC, the game, and not to discuss a problem someone has with another based on something unrelated to the game. Keep discussions here on the game and everything will be fine. No one person is so important to this games community that their departure will have any real effect one way or the other. While here, you guys play by our rules, if you don't like it, tough, go somewhere else. That is the law. Madmatt [ August 09, 2003, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

We posted a pretty long list on the new CMAK Bibliography page, did you start there? http://www.battlefront.com/products/cmak/biblio.html Madmatt

This issue has been suffeciently covered in various threads in the Tech Support Forum. I would advise you to look there to see the facts of the current situation. Madmatt

What resolution is your computer set to? It sounds like CMBB is running in 640x480 but it needs to run in 800x600 or higher in order to see the full screen. You might want to upgrade to 9.2 (with all its fixes and updated extensions) but do not go up to OS-X as it will not work with CMBB. Madmatt

Ah okay, I didnt realize you were on a Mac. When you put in the Mac CD, you see a window appear with the three installers: one each for English, German and French. Normally you just double-click one and the computer takes it from there. Behind the scenes, these installers run OTHER installers, in a sort of chain. You can see these other installers by scrolling down in the window mentioned above. (we did it this way so that the installers could share data). They're called: Data2H, Data2C, Data3, Data4. Data2H and Data2c are the first batch of BMP files. Data3 has the remaining BMPs and all sounds. Data4 has OpenPlay. So, since it is saying OpenPlay didn't install, try and run the Data4 installer by itself. Madmatt

The manual was printed before we mastered the CD's so it is incorrect about what files are on the CD. The disc will not autoplay, you should just click that one file to launch the installer. Madmatt

Could be a faulty install. Let me ask you a few questions. When you first installed the game, did the installer report any errors or bad files or did it seem to complete with no issues? After you installed the game from CD, did you then install any patches before you tried to run the game? Browse into your CMBB folder on your computer. What do you see inside the "Openplay Modules" folder? Check your "Scenarios" folder, are there any files there? When you copied the openplay.dll from the demo, did it ask you to overwrite the existing file? Madmatt

Try reducing the Sound Hardware Acceleration slider one notch to the left via the DirectX control panel. You can access that by running DXDIAG from the Windows run prompt. While you in that, you should check to make sure DirectX is properly registering your sound drivers. Madmatt

Well, there is no retail version of CMBB, at least not yet so you most of gotten one of the European ones that CompUSA was selling by mistake (long story). As such only the CDV patches should be applied. An openplay.dll error usually means the patch is not installed into the correct location. You should go ahead and delete everything and install once more from the CD. Launch the game and make note of the version in the bottom right hand corner (I was thinking the European version was actually 1.02 out of the box but I might be wrong). You should then apply any neccesary patch in order and be sure they are installing INTO the CMBB folder thats on your hard drive. Madmatt

Damn am I getting tired of banning you. I guess it is time to contact AOL's abuse line since you seem to want to continue to push me. Madmatt

Actually, I am going to look into this to make sure nothing is amiss. I know that units are running out of buildings that are on fire but I need to run some tests for other terrain types. Anything I find will be addressed in CMAK if neccesary. Madmatt

The patch does NOT extract into its own subdiretory. When it asks you where to install you should select your current CMBO folder. By default that location is C:\Program Files\CMBO. Then go ahead and create a NEW desktop shortcut that points to the Combat Mission.exe located in the CMBO directory on your computer. I am thinking that perhaps your existing CMBO shortcut is actually pointing the CD and thats why it keeps asking you to select the resolution and always reports 1.02 as the current version instead of 1.12. Madmatt [ August 02, 2003, 01:17 AM: Message edited by: Madmatt ]

Whoops, locked up the wrong one. Anyway, make sure you have sound enabled from within the game. Shift-S toggles between the various sound settings. Madmatt

Eightball, You can contact sales@battlefront.com about buying a replacment CMBB disc if you continue to have issues with the old one. Madmatt

EightBall, Try and copy the full install file from the CD right to the computers hard drive and THEN run it. For various reasons, it seems that newer CD drives can have problems reading CD's as full as CMBB while older CD drives are much more tolerant. Madmatt

I am going to add that HotFix workaround to the troubleshooting guide although the amount of occurances I have heard of this issue dropped off to almost none since Feb. In fact, I think this post was the first I have heard of this problem since then. I also have XP Pro installed and also had that Hotfix applied but did not encounter that screen problem so it seems to have been a conflict between the hotfix and something else. Odd... Madmatt

Okay, your wish is granted. Never let it be said that I don't listen to forum member concerns and suggestions. Madmatt

We do not have unlimited bandwidth to just hand out (CMHQ is not cheap to host!) but we did look at this at one point in the past when they were having difficulties but the CMMODS site required server/database technologies which we did not utilize so it was not possible. They seem to be okay now and I have downloaded stuff from there in the past just as fast as any other site. Madmatt

Someones ability in the game and their ability to abide by the forum rules we have laid down have no relationship to one another. They are mutually exclussive and this particular person has no place on this forum now or in the future. Your first post, being as it was, is also very suspecious and could be construed as trolling. Consider yourself warned (and I'll probably just ban your account outright if you continue to post in this manner or if I determine you are not who you claim to be). Madmatt