Eridani

Hey I'm sorry to bring this up again... I was just hoping I could get some kind of response from BTS... its really starting to get on my nerves. I have a Dell Inspiron 5000 laptop with the ATI mobile-p video. When I start the demo, the first screen comes up and the mouse vanishes. Then when I move it it leaves a black box in the center of the screen and works as normal. Whenever I click on menus, the area around the mouse doesn't change to the new menu, leaving an artifact on the screen that doesn't go away until I click again (at which point another artifact is left but the old one is cleared). I can provide screenshots of this if you want When I actually do enter the game, the mouse cursor dissappears. It is as if the game is refreshing over the mouse cursor rather than underneath it. Occassionally I'll get flashes of the cursor... enough so the game is playable, but it is EXTREMELY aggrevating.. I have tried 2 official and 2 seperate third-party drivers for the ati-mobile P (basically an ati-rage pro). While severity differs between the drivers, the overall problem remains the same. I tried slowing down hardware accelleration... one notch (disabling hardware cursor) did nothing. two notches worked... but the game became unplayably slow and was forced into 640x480 resolution. I'm PRAYING that there is a simpler solution to this... especially in the full version of the game. Any input/suggestions that you have would be greatly appreciated... and other Mobile-P users - have you run into similar problems? thanks in advance -EridanMan

Welcome to combat mission Many of the issues you brought up (arty effectiveness and AI in paricular) have been long since perfected by BTS... Realize you're playing the beta of a six month old build... search, or check cmhq for more information... but the full game (from what we've all heard) puts the demo to shame -EridanMan

I'm sorry, I just had to chime in here... I've had a chance to use + see an ibook... DON'T They are large, heavy, with a small screen and very few useful ports.... Get a G3 notebook if you want Apple... I think they are a very impressive machine. I was FAR underimpressed with the ibook... They entire system is just... unwieldy... A very poor design in my opinion. Just a warning -EridanMan

I'm thinking about it... I dont' have anything concrete yet... part of the point of this thread was discussion... and bill, sure, if we work something out -EridanMan

Ok, here we go... I was thinking last night about tying the scenario database in the the ladder (don't kill me Bill ) When the scenario designer submits his scenario, he could give the scenario a "balance modifier", that is, lets say the scenario was 1 company of american troops to hold of 2 battallions of German troops as long as possible... obviously the Americans are going to get slaughtered points wise... but hey, if they somehow manage to knockout a full half of one of the german Batallions then they should be credited with a victory. The Scenario designer, when submitting his scenario, would then put in that the balance modifier for the game was say + 9 (from a scale of -10 to 10), +9 being way in the advantage for the allies. The modifier would then be taken into account when calculating the points spread... a 0-100 score (american/german) would still rank as a spank of American forces (and the american commander's rank would suffer accordingly) but the scale could be set so that if the american commander scored... say 25-75 the ranks would remain unchaged, and if he somehow pulled a 50-50 then he would win... I hope this is making some sense.... Also, by tying the maps dbase in the the ladder, the ladder could keep track of who had played what map, check to make sure that people weren't playing ladder games on their own maps something that I think should be forbidden in general, save for all but the most balanced scenarios, and only if both sides knew the map. I dunno... I don't have any specifics... just throwing out random ideas here... any thoughts anyone? -EridanMan

I'm going to sleep on it and try to post tommorrow... I have a few Ideas but I was also wondering if anyones else had been thinking about this... or what their input on a ranking system in general is... God knows I can't think right now -EridanMan

SS - I've played plenty want me to prove it? I haven't had a good fight in a while scott.cragg@erols.com you be krauts -EridanMan [This message has been edited by Eridani (edited 04-20-2000).] [This message has been edited by Eridani (edited 04-20-2000).]

I meant to say its not the games fault your men surrendered... and, honestly, you deserved to loose if your moral was that low -EridanMan

Hey All I decided that this could use a new thread... I've been thinking alot about the current debate about map balance, including SSs comments about cheating and unbalanced maps. I was thinking It should be possible to come up with a "ladder balance" ranking for scenarios in the CMHQ dataBase. This ranking would merely indicate the ability of each side to better their ranking if challenging and equally ranked indevidual. It would take into account points, role (attacker/defender) and possible an arbitrary terrain value (5 - terrain is neutral, 1 - terrain sharply favors allies, 9, terrain sharply favors axis) and most importantly victory locations, in an attempt to figure if the game is suitable for ladder play. Since it would have so many parameters, it would a negligable breach in FOW (all it would tell you is that you have a scenario that you could both possibly benefit from, it wouldn't give you any hint as to what size forces the other person had, what the terrain was, ect). I'm just throwing idea's out into the open here... wondering what some of you thought -EridanMan

Ok, that was a marathon read... after thinking about it- SS I see your point, not on the realism end, but for gameplay, I see you desire to want to keep you your men fighting to the last man, after all, its your name and rank on the line. I also see the arguement for realism... honestly by the time ur down to 13% (or 8%), no offence but ur men are pissing in their pants... they are going to surrender personally, well, I hate to tell you guys, but this issue is moot. The game is code complete and I do NOT consider this big enough of an issue to delay it... I'm sorry, but I've waited long enough. Althought I fully understand where you are coming from SS, I have to say I don't agree. The last thing I want when I'm playing ladder games is a truly beaten opponent making a horribly gamey charge for a victory location... I definately believe that you were truly beaten in both cases. not only do 'cats only have 12 rounds of HE, the longbore 76mm HE is noticably less effective than the sherman's 75mm. You might have been able to knockout a few halftracks, but nothing else... and those 'cats have paper-thin armor. If you've lost, you've lost. Its not the games fault you surrendered. God knows that LD is extremely winnable by the Americans (if you don't believe me, scott.cragg@erols.com, I haven't played pbem in a LONG time) I understand your frustration watching one of ur tanks being the man, then suddenly not being able to continue battle... but hey, this is war, **** happens. and as for the cheating with maps... personally I think that ladder games should be played only on 3rd party maps that should be ranked on cmhq for LADDER balance (i.e, does the map present either side with a fair ability to upgrade their standings, this would take into account points, terrain, objectives, ect). If you play someone who has created an unbalanced map and you loose to him, it really is your fault for not checking on the map first... (I do understand we might have an issue with people creating look-alike maps that resemble fair onces in the dbase but give one side an enormous advantage. Doing this would take a great deal of work, however, and I think anyone caught doing such should have their ladder rank reset to buck-ass private (it would be easy to tell after the fact) When all is said and done though, this ladder is for fun, it isn't competitive. If you **** up you loose points... oh dear, its not the end of the world. A gamey charge to lessen the spread somewhat while your men (realistically) should be balling up in the fetal position and asking for mommy isn't going to make the ladder any more enjoyable. my .02 -EridanMan

Poor Madmatt... all he does is play the full version of CM all day... but somehow, he managed to pull himself away from his tedious work to throw us a bone let us all thank him for his generosity in the face of such adversity hehehe keep it coming Madmatt -EridanMan

My bro lives in Redmond (former M$ employee)... last Christmas I was up there, and he and I went to a nearby indian reservation to buy (mortar)fireworks... that night we drove around redmond shooting them off randomly then jumping in the car, peeling out to somewhere else, then getting out of the car and shooting some more off (you'd never guess that my bro was 32 with two kids)... hehehe not quite 81mm but still fun -EridanMan

Steve- I have mentioned before in a new thread - There IS a driver issue with CM and the ATI-Mobile-P video cards... the issue is with the cursor, it appears as though the cursor refreshes before the background so it is visible with you move it around a lot, but when you stop it goes away. I have tried 3 different sets of drivers and tried turning off hardware cursor, all of these to none avail... I would definately appreciate a response.... I'm praying things work ok in the final version -EridanMan

Eridani is a star constellation... I picked the handle up years ago because I thought it sounded cool and it has just kinda become my name online... I'm too used to it to change.. -EridanMan

OOO! I'm lucky today! I get to be the first person to see madmatt's update!!! yay!!! (god, how to know you have no life anymore -EridanMan

Sabot- LOL, don't worry, no offence taken ... All I'll say is some of these guys do spend thousands of hours to make their programming dreams reality, they then publish their source code for anyone to take and fix and build upon their idea... Personal gain doesn't matter to them. As I said, I am completely undecided on the issue... I was just trying to hint at the fact that there are definately two *Intelligent* sides to the matter... (and I love playing devils advocate... but that's just me)... Either way I do believe that it is a healthy discussion (and its interesting to hear what other people have said, I'm going to pop a few of the points made here on my friends when I see them again)... -EridanMan [This message has been edited by Eridani (edited 04-11-2000).]

You know you put that last picture in just so you could have one called "DAMstrait.jpg" At least I would have -EridanMan

Lewis- I didn't think I was straining, what your talking about sounds exactly like the DIVX model. And I'm not trying to justify my actions... I'm simply explaining my thinking (there is a difference). I understand that my actions are illegal... I dare anyone here to tell me that they have never done things that they knew were illegal... But I have a reason, and I do go out of my way to give credit where it was do (purchase a full copy of any software I find to be helpful or that I use on a regular basis). Either way I had to chime in to this thread, it is a topic I have done a lot of thinking/debating with others about. I have a few friends who are the aformentioned copyright crackers... Absolutely brilliant guys who believe very strongly in freedom of information... I've had some LONG debates with them about this very topic... I don't know where I stand really, I definately do think that intellectual property is important so writers can get what they deserve(BTS), but pure-profit motivated programming is definately not... I think the world has had too much of a taste of what code that is written with the bottom line and not functionality looks like (m$)... I do enjoy playing devils advocate in these type of debates, especially when Its something I have experience with... as to my own personal opinion... It's... interesting ground -EridanMan

I couldn't let this thread go without chiming in. Username... your idea sounds remarkable similar to one that was just in the news... the new great way that we were going to watch movies... it was called DIVX, ever heard of it? well, if you haven't the idea was this- you pay a small fee (5-10 bucks) to buy a movie on DIVX (similar to DVD). You take the disc home and get 24-48 hours to watch it from the time you first put it in your DVD player. AFter that point you have to go online to "order" additional playings at some small fee (less than 5 dollars) per showing. great in theory, for those who didn't like spending 20 dollars for a movie that they were going to only watch once... it was going to put both retail sales and rental places out of buisness... but then a poor little thing called reality struck. When someone purchases something, they expect/feel like they should have rights to OWN that product. I personally am extremely offended at the Idea of spending the money for a product and then having to ask "permission" to use it as much as I want. As Bill said, the Allies won the war... BTW, if you didn't know, DIVX is dead The second problem is very simple- if you secure it, someone else will hack it. It is a very simple, straitforward equasion. Programs that are bastards about copy protection will only get hacked that much faster because more people will have a reason to try. I personally thing that a lot of sharware companies have it right- they make versions of their software that are mildy annoying to unregistered users, but not so annoying that they are not functional (and therefore demand the attention of the hard-core crackers). Then they get you in the basic mindset that "hey, its worth a few bucks to make this program work smoothly, but its not worth the time/effort/angst to find/make a crack for it", so they get buyers. Don't underestimate the intellegence/persistence of these "pirates" who you so easily group together in one lump sum. Look at how quickly DVD encryption was cracked, that had a multi-billion dollar industry behind it. The people doing the cracking aren't idiots, they are in some cases extremely intellegent, and do what they do because very strong ideological/philisophical reasons (freedom of information, against the commercialization of the web, ect), and I'll tell you many of them are a hell of a lot smarter than you are. Now I'm not about to go and debate the merits/flaws with these beliefs, I'm just saying they arn't all acne-faced teenagers who don't want to spend a few bucks. I have had several friends ask to burn me a copy of CM when it comes out, I said hell no. Were BTS another company I may think differently, but I think one of the major bonus's of Steve and Charles's business model is, well, the fact I know their names. The fact that I can interact with them and I know how much time/dedication/energy they put into CM. Now I'm not saying that other software companies don't put time and energy into their work, but with CM I really feel it. My money is going to help two great guys make awsome software, not to some suits who care only about the bottom line. And I promise that If I do ever find a Hotline server, or anywhere that is offering combat mission I will do my best to... make life difficult for them... I will pay for one, maybe two copies (For me and my bro) because I honestly beleive that Steve and Charles deserve it. But in the same breath, if the magic link were to appear before me, I would download the game in a heartbeat. but then make sure no-one else who hadn't paid could (and of course I would still buy my two copies) I know this will probably piss a few people off. Steve, I do understand your strong anger toward software pirates. I can't say I haven't download a few programs in my time. But I'll also tell you that I HAVE purchased any software package that I downloaded and actually started using on a regular basis. If those actions label me as a pirate in your eyes I'm sorry. I believe in giving credit where credit is due, but I'm not about to pay 50 dollars to try every software package I'm interested in. *shrugs* -EridanMan [This message has been edited by Eridani (edited 04-10-2000).]

Ok, this is CM, not CNN... quite frankly I'm sick of hearing about this sh*t... its nothing more than a political game of chess... just with small pawns... so I ask that we just shut-up about it, and keep to blowing the crap out of shermans and other fun things like that -Scott ok, -200000000 cool points for anyone who continues to post to this lame thread [This message has been edited by Eridani (edited 04-05-2000).]

hehehe, works for me -Scott

Ok, now you really know I am a looser... I saw POEM and thought "PBEM, huh? what is POEM, I don't know how to POEM, Ahhh, it was probably just a typo... if not he better explain himself..." hehehe, who'd of ever though, a poem... wow, something exists other than cm... strange -EridanMan

Bill get on icq (nice ranking btw ) -Scott

Good news Stupid question though- I hate to nag on a day with such great news, but I was curious- is it the Gold Demo that will ship at the end of May, or the full game? If the Gold demo ships at the end of may, that would mean I could expect CM on my door in June right? Curious though- if the game is complete, why are you waiting so long to release the gold demo? I'm sure theres a reason, I just can't see it in my ingorance thanks, and congrats BTS -Scott

Here ya go again ppl... getting your hopes up that it will be released soon... Quite frankly I would LOVE for it to be released this week... I think that would be fantastic... but I don't think it will.. All your setting yourself up for is dissapointment by constantly setting dates for release and then letting those dates slip by... I personally am operating under the assumption that I'm not going to get the game until September (after summer)... if it comes early, then great, I'll be thrilled, it not, then oh well, at least I won't have put my self through the anticipation BS of waiting for it every day, praying that It'll be at my doorstep... Who knows what the end of the month update will be... I quite frankly don't care... Steve and Charles are Busy perfecting their brainchild, I say let them work... whenever they get around to letting me play around with it, fine by me Have a little patience people -EridanMan