Richard

Wow. I am not even a BTS staff member and I can tell you this looks like a VERY blantant ripoff, except with crappy graphics . ------------------

Interesting thread... I can vouch for Steve's points here. A) Piraters will put ANYTHING up the first date they can snag it no matter what it costs. We had piraters snag our 14.95 and 19.95 add-on packs which cost next to nothing. Heck and BCT only costs 22.95 and it was pirated as well. It's a status symbol to them to get it out there first. The arguments that people pirate because software is so expensive aree ridiculous. I used to do some hacking (not pirating, but breaking into computers ) back in college so I ran with some of the warez crowd back then. You could give it away for free and they would crack it.. The cost BTS is giving you for such a large game manual is a great value. Being involved in such decisions myself I know very well how much that manual probably costs per unit plus the added shipping it may add based on what shipping method they choose. A box is a silly add-on that would DRAMATICALLY increase shipping costs due to a change in the packaging required to shipping as well as weight. As Steve pointed out Boxes are for ONE purpose and that is to catch folks eye's in stores, they serve no other real purpose... It's sad that not all countries have the same standard of living as the U.S. but that doesn't change the real problems an independent game company runs into trying to produce a game. Simply put if they don't charge what they do they go out of business and there is no more BTS. ------------------

Okay time for a SHAMELESS plug.... Steel Beasts has this very feature but it is a modern sim, not something along the lines of CM. Check it out: www.shrapnelgames.com/esim ------------------

BTW never spend the money to have someone fix a partition error like that. Get your win 95/98/2000/NT boot fisk and then do this... fdisk /mbr This will make sure to pull a duplicate of your old Master Boot Record and should fix your problem. Otherwise then go ahead and take it in . ------------------

Double... [This message has been edited by Richard (edited 04-30-2000).]

Since it appears that ex staff members get to post on this... Look they admitted they made some error, FIXED them (get any other mag to do that, it NORMALLy does not happen I know I do PR for a part time living), and then pointed out that the main reason this happened was because their primary PREVIEWER ducked out. To answer Moon they do NOT pay reviewers. In fact even the senior staff members makes next to nothing. The Wargamer is staffed by VOLUNTEER folks who do this because they like Wargaming, that's it. When I was News Editor there we were the FIRST gaming site to cover CM in any way and publishign Fionn's and Moon's peices on the game with TGN and other sites were doing nothing. As to why they don't have a CM section. Well their CM moderator bowed out do to personal issues. Of course one of the reasons it took them so long to put up a section was becuase BTS initially would not send out a Beta copy to then while allowing TGN to have on for CMHQ. But hey that is all in the past, and no skin off my nose to say the least. As far as TGN/The Wargamer relations that is an error too. The leaders of both sites have been working lately for a closer relationship in many ways including giving The Wargamer one of the select exclusive spots for downloading SP:WAW. Also Fionn does not mention that the reason Keith got to read his preview first was because it was a "grognard" review and we wanted to give publishers a chance to look at them before we publish. Afterall Talonsoft threatened to sue TW until it closed last time we published one without consulting them first. This was a simple misunderstanding that has been aggravated by Steve's post and Fionn digging up old dirt that should be left alone (remember we all have reasons for not seeing the leave from The Wargamer in the same light). This could have been solved by a simple email to the editor at The Wargamer asking why this or this wasn't done correctly, instead of airing out dirty laundyry. THAT is more unproffesional than a supposed slight in this review. If I had a problemw itha preview they published at Shrapnel I certaintly would have emailed the editor's at The Wargamer first before attacking them over a MINOR problem. So kiddies why don't we drop this before we get to dredge up problems from the past that have NOTHING to do with what is happenning today. I do know that the problems that caused this preview to be backlogged HAVE been fixed and there is almost no backlog on preview/reviews now. Again this is not a Shrapnel or The Wargamer wanted or needed post. In fact I wouldn't have posted at all if certain individuals had kept this on a civil and PROFESSIONAl level. But I will still buy CM no matter what .

Well I would have to disagree with you. The manual I found fairly well done and the game ran flawlessly on about every pesons machine that I know of. Of course with any game involved 3D acceleration and high system specs and 3D cards sometimes folks system specs can cause various problems. However this game was not rushed in any manner of speaking. I know Teut and I think he is proud of what he did. In fact the thing he probably regretted the most was not including a tutorial, and THAT was because of time constraints.

Let me clear a few things up about RtM. First off I was a beta tester for iMagic for the game, I used to email James DeGooey back when it was at Arsenal quite a bit, and I was to be the lead tester when it got to the point where they had a stable build for UbiSoft (the new publisher). The game was very stable when I last saw it, the only problem (at the time) was that the larger scenarios consumed monstrous amounts of CPU power because of the daunting task of trying to simulate (IN REAL TIME) every small unit action on the East Front . I would say (and safely say) today that the newer systems coming out would have no problem with it. I have a PII300 with 64M of RAM and it ran for me (even the largest of the campaigns/scenarios) just fine, if not a tad slow. The biggest problem is that this game started development a good 5 years before the technology was there to support it. Imagine CM on a 386 with EGA graphics . Arsenal was a small company and just simply could not support this game's development for sucha long period of time (which was compounded by the underestimate for what sort of computer would have to run this game). After paying a hefty sum to buy the rights to RtM from Arsenal they shopped around for publishers and eventually landed at iMagic. The iMagic testing was going fairly well and the game had just entered beta and we were seeing some real improvement with each build when iMagic decided to go out of the publishing biz. Then Ubisoft got it. Unfourtanetly BDG had been using proprietary iMagic networking code all throughout the game. It literally took them several months to carve this stuff out and put in DirectX compatable networking code into the game. Then some family problems cropped up (Lead Designer's daughter got married and a death in the family) which took more time. Then out of frustration in how long everything was taking there were a few silly mistakes made in trying to baseline which verison of DirectX to use. That leads to now. Honestly these guys have thrown a large sum of money (their OWN money) at this game so I know they want to finish it. I know it is currently still being worked on as we speak, by a one man programming team. What the future has in store for it is anyone's guess to be perfectly honest. I know if Ubi drops them they already have some plans to self distribute the title if it comes to that. So right now I honestly don't know where the game is headed. It is sad that they have had such bad luck with publishers to be perfectly honest. I understand it also because a game like this requires a lot of money in development costs but it probably will NOT sell well because of it's complexity and nature. However if they do pull it off it will be just like CM, a game that redfines a genre as far as realism goes. Just as CM is touted as the ultimate in wargaming because of it's realistic 3D graphics and physics model, RtM was in the fact that you could finally detail war on a large scale down to the individual small scale battle's of a campaign. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to fill the new guys on the block on the real history of RtM. Thanks . ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Okay stupid me forgot about the range not being a factor thingy . You'll have to excuse me but I am used to games where bazookas are useless and if the enemy has a tank and you don't you are DEAD (and Fionn you KNOW what game I am talking about ). That makes more sense now and will DRAMATICALLY affect my tactics (hehe poor PBEM opponents ). ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Actually the biggest problem I had with CC (especialy CC2) was the amazing German machine Gun units. Watch as the Machine Gun units run at full speed, redeploy in zero time, and assault your positions. Simply ridiculous and WAY too powerful ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Yes can we have a discussion about the Bazookas please. I haven't done research but they also seem overpowered to me, killing tanks at ranges they should not be able to. Or so it just "seems" to me. ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

No I can well imagine the colorful english that might follow . I REALLY wish a guy like that could do some work for a small company like BTS or the the other wargame folks around the community. Once you actually SEE what sort of impact pirating can have you will quickly understand how this is simply not an option under any circumstances... Ooops I better be queit I don't want to start ANOTHER pirating thread . ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Check this review of the demo at Game Addict: http://www.gameaddict.net/reviews/gareviews/combatmission/review.html It's posted by none other than Royston of the pirating thread. The review is really glowing and brings up the pirating points he made in the thread on this discussion board. ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

I agree with the option way (I think giving options is ALWAYS the best for everyone, take Imperialism II for a good example). However I have no idea if this would be easy or not to implement if it is hard coded in the executable... ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Here's my two cents worth. First lets look at this from a realism standpoint. Lets say you and the "guys" are planning an ambush. You are going to go over it over and over again and carefullyplan every step. You will make sure to dot the tees and cross the eyes when it comes to making sure each guy needs to hide until X. Now if your guys are hiding and suddenly things change. Your CO yells for you to fire. What do you do? Do you hide or barring a morale check do you rise up and fire? As far as planning. When you are PLANNING an ambush you are already in careful planning mode. Thus you will be thinking along the lines of a checklist and what you need to include in the plan. Now when the situation changes and you now HAVE to have your men rise up and fire in an emergency you are in a hurried state and more likely to fogret things. PLUS this gets old for every freaking unit on the map (especially without a summary sheet to see which units are still hiding ). With the Ambush you have to do this for the few units youa re ambushing with while planning. With the Hide if you Hide most of your units (like I do) then it will get old FAST having to hit H on each one. Especially in large scenarios. Again this is my opinion but I think it makes sense. ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

yes I do appreciate it Steve. However I hope everyone else is happy with this because I don't want to be the fly inthe ointment here . ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Look I understand your POV but I wish we could add a delayed order thing instead (or just use ambush). Anyway its going to be a royal pain in the butt for me but there are worse 'features' I have had to deal with *sigh*. ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Because it doesn't make sense at all. We know the AI can think on its own right? If it panics or doesn't think things look good it won't fire. If it thinks there is a better target it will choose it. So that unit Ai will handle those sorts of decisions. At the least can we make it an option PLEASE. I can see myself loosing more than one large battle because I forgot to unhide ONE unit. I mean this should be common sense for the guy if I tell him to fire. And since I start out all defense scenarios in hide or ambush that could royally screw me over. ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

True (the documentation) but IMHO it is poor implementation to do that EVEN after a fire order. I mean i yell at my guy and say fire of COURSE he knows not to hide anymore . And otherwise I screw up my PBEM game because I thought he would have the sense to fire. Anyway I'll see if Charles or Steve wonder over into this thread. Not a life threatening bug but it is certaintly annoying as hell . ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Hmm I thought I had my ambush marker close enough and they didn't do it, however I will check because I didn't use this option much. However I am CONVINCED about the hide thing. More than once I have gone back to a unit and it has the *Stop Hiding* option lit and they are not doing anything. However the second I unhid them they opened up. ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Fionn you made a SHORT post? Are you feeling okay . *runaway runaway Sir Robin...*

Royston, It is simply not that simple. True folks who have no interest, and pirate (who are the worst kinds since they see the games they trade like some sort of damn tradeable Pokemon card or something) won't buy the game regardless. However if Pirates didn't exist, lets say in my world they don't, so you didn't have that option would you maybe consider buying it? If the answer is no fine. However a large percentage of folks WOULD. Pirating hurts companies and more importantly it can KILL a small development company. Any other argument is just crazy IMHO. ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Okay two things acually, one of them being a major issue the other I don't care about hat much. Can we use Ambush as an area of effect versus a Target? Otherwise I think it is useless because if a unit moves close but not on this target I get no ambush . Now to my major sticking point. Can we PLEASE have unit automatically stop hiding when I order them to fire. More than once I have screwed up a PBEM game because I ordered my hiding units to fire and they didn't because I forgot to unhide them. I think it is common sense that I would want them to stand up and fire versus fire into a wall . ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

No Hypersnap is a standalone commercial product at: www.hyperionics.com They also make a MAC screenshot utility. BTW if you do like Greg's product please register it. He is a great guy who still answers support email and such one at a time and has given us (The Wargamer) a lot of support in using his product to capture screens for all of our reviews. ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com

Actually we are using a vendor for this which comes with a pretty good track record so I am not worried. Plus they are in trouble if it doesn't work . As far as downloads, Steve is right, most places do not have high speed internet and to be honest the costs (server wise) would be too high, not too mention that keeping that many high volume downloads going simultanously is almost impossible. (I am a Unix Admin by trade, the last part I definetle know ). ------------------ Richard Arnesen The Wargamer http://www.wargamer.com