Sirocco

You might need to contact BFC to change your shipping address. I don't believe they'll be ready to ship in that timeframe.

Rallying units added a certain subtlety to the defence, IMHO. And some uncertainty for the attacker in the sense that lines could be reformed, even if it was in an ad hoc and temporary fashion.

That's the problem. When you're on the defence you're looking - at least in CMx1 - for good setup positions to create an ambush. With LOD as it is I don't know how practical that is, not having had time to try it with the Syrians to date.

I'd either have them rout off the map, finding their own path, or have them rout until rallied, or until they rally themselves, then attempt to rejoin their squad, again choosing their own path. If the current behaviour is down to computation cycles, well, that puts a different spin on it.

It sometimes happened in CMx1, and those were usually about half that duration.

I think there's a real issue here with this implementation of routing. If you're concerned about having too much to control, have the men incapable of rallying. Having them simply disappear is a get out of jail free card if they're only listed as missing for scoring purposes. I presume the reason for not doing that is the extra computation required. But, of course, for the defender that robs them of the chance to rally his forces for a makeshift defence.

Good to hear you got it working.

Have you tried changing the refresh rate of your monitor? I had the same sort of problem and that fixed it for me. A quick way to check: CTRL-ALT-DEL, then resume CMSF. Do you see the display for an instant before it goes blank again?

I like the idea of a "streaming turn" which you can view as it's calculated, but can fast forward and rewind through. But obviously that's a lot of work.

When something happens it's not necessarily designed to happen like that. If that is designed behaviour, well, I will be disappointed, as I said previously.

Of course routed infantry flee. I would agree it wasn't handled perfectly in CMx1, but I would be very surprised if vanishing were designed behaviour.

Hunt and Hull Down are two very different things. With CMx1 I can't recall using the explicit HD command; I'd get down to ground level and find the right spot to go HD on specific points on the map. I don't have enough experience of the new engine to know how practical that is now, given the LOD issue. With RT I'm not sure how practical that is, either, especially at elite level, unless you still have full control over the camera.

As someone who only ever played QB's with CMx1, I feel disinclined to play them in CMSF. I think perhaps it's a combination of both no random maps and pre-selected forces. I didn't like scenarios in CMx1 because I felt the designer had a game plan pre-defined and the trick was to follow their route. With pre-defined maps I feel the designer has a plan in mind, expressed in the map layout. And it was a pleasure just to look through all your force options in CMx1 and come up with an idea of how to employ them together. A pre-defined force is much more non-descript; it's like sitting down to a set dinner menu rather than having a choice.

That worked for me.

You do realise time spent moderating the board is time that could have been spent on the game?

That has been my experience: spot, pulverise, move; spot, pulverise, move. Much more so than in CMx1, given modern sensors, I suppose, and the terrain itself.

I have mixed feelings about the game, and I'm not sure why. I didn't like the modern setting when it was announced, and perhaps part of the problem for me is the lethality of modern weapons, and the visibility of opponents. You can't beat the subtlety of WW2. The LOD, pathfinding, and the UI also contribute. The latter can be corrected, but the former? I do wonder whether when those issues are fixed that the subtleties of modern combat might come through more, or at least be more noticeable.

I think showing the paths might be a good idea, too. I've seen some odd vehicle behaviour even moving off road a short distance - charging up a road taking a right turn, then driving back on rough ground parallel to the road to reach the desired position - and I've also lost an M1 that seemed to want to back up in clear ground instead of following a simple two point movement order. If you could see the path the AI chooses you could cancel and re-plot the more obtuse behaviour.

But it's the same as in CMx1. The difference is that instead of waiting for the turn to be resolved when you press the "Go" button, now you're watching that turn being resolved. Would you really prefer a progress bar?

I read here that you can lassoo multiple units. I assume that's different than double clicking a HQ unit. But instead of RTFM it should be a simple case of left clicking and dragging to lassoo units. That's the behaviour we've all learned.

I understand "Quick" as jogging for infantry, "Fast" as more akin to sprinting.

WEGO is still in. I haven't tried it, but apparently the calculation pause has gone; what you're seeing in the first playback is the turn resolution you would have seen as a progress bar in CMx1.

I personally don't see it as an RTS issue, rather as a general UI issue. And I have played the game exclusively in real time.

I think that's a LOD thing? I believe putting that setting under options is under consideration.

What makes it impractical? I think for most it was the opposite. And perhaps this is the root of the problem.