Treeburst155

Does nobody else find this curious? Treeburst155 out.

Compare the prices of the three early war Soviet Flamethrower tanks, the OT-130, OT-133, and OT-134. The 134 is actually two points cheaper (53) than the other two inspite of the fact that the turret has significantly more armor than the other two; AND the OT-134 has a 46mm main gun to go with the flamethrower. The OT-130/133 don't have any main gun. I could see no other differences between the units in the unit info boxes other than the fact that the OT-130 has one less MG than the 133/134. Is there a little glitch here, or is there some characteristic of the OT-134 that keeps its value down relative to its gunless, less armored siblings? I'm looking at costs in the editor so rarity is not involved here. Treeburst155 out.

Wow John! Let us know if you manage to get an engineering team out there. Oh, and welcome back to the world of the unseismicly disturbed. Tourney Status Report Emilville Exit completed: 9 (41%) Lab Rats In Norway completed: 10 (45%) North Of Epron completed: 6 (27%) Total complete: 25 of 66 for 38% The only section that has finished completely is the prize eligible Section One (not Group One). There are a few individuals who have also finished. It's a bit early to start revealing results I think. I am keeping requests for scoresheets on file, and will process them when we get to 50%. If you requested a scoresheet, and I do not have all the scores for your games, you have been notified. Let me know if you have any MIA problems. It's time to pick up the pace if you've been slacking. Fight On!! Treeburst155 out.

jonp, If your card is not crashing frequently, you're OK. It's not ALL the earlier cards. You would know it if you had a bad one. If you start crashing to a strange checkerboard pattern all the time you can return the card to Gainward. I have the toll free number on file if and when you need it. Until then, don't worry about it. Gainward makes good stuff IMO. They just had a bad batch. Treeburst155 out.

Hmmmm....somehow I missed the XP 30.87s on the Guru3D site. Anyhoo, it's too late now cuz the card is speeding its way to Gainward as I speak. Thanks anyway for taking the time to post the link. Treeburst155 out.

Thanks, Panzer Leader! I've been working on vid card issues so haven't had time to check your maps out; but I know I want to collect a large number of QB compatible maps. Your work is appreciated. Treeburst155 out.

Visom, In a scenario where half the players on a side slip into auto-surrender and the other half don't, there could be a gap between the two halves as you suggest. The Nabla system does not treat these situations in any special way. It assigns scores based on the scenario median and the standard deviation from that median. Treeburst155 out.

Yep, not ALL Gainward Ti4200s are defective, only some of the earlier ones. I just sent my 128MB Golden Sample to Gainward for replacement. They were very agreeable on the phone. They know they have a problem with their earlier Ti4200s. The replacements people are getting are noticeably different in appearance (HSF setup). I would still stay away from Gainward Ti4200 because you don't know if you are buying one from an early batch or not, especially if you buy online. Treeburst155 out.

The problem, Jerkov, is that MANY games are crashing for MANY Gainward Ti4200 owners with the same pink checkerboard pattern. In my case, only CM is affected, but I don't play many other games. It is much more than a nuisance when you crash in the middle of an orders phase every 2-5 minutes. Mick OZ wrote: "My original plan was to simply increase the RAM from 128mb to 512 DDR, switch my OS to XP (fingers crossed) and boost the CPU speed up to 2ghz. I had also been thinking of swapping my GF-2 32-mb card for a G-4 Ti 4200 64mb. But in light of the discussion, perhaps the RAM and CPU upgrades would be enough to handle CMBB and I could just keep my Creative G-2 card (I use the drivers that came with it..no problems at all). It would certainly save me some dough .. and possibly some headaches... comments or advice? " Mick, I would go ahead and get the 64MB Ti4200 if I were you. Just stay away from Gainward's cards to be on the safe side. There IS a very real problem with some of them. If you are going to WinXP you should have AT LEAST 256 MB of RAM, IMO. 512MB would be better. CM works fine with WinXP/Nvidia except for FSAA. You can use FSAA 4X but you have to go to the desktop (escape) and back to see the text. In a PBEM game, you will not be able to see the name of the turn file as you type it in at the end of your turn, EVEN IF you escape to the desktop and back. The move to Win XP did NOT improve the performance of CMBB for me. It is, however, a nice OS in general IMO. Any of the newer CPUs would be a significant improvement over your 866 mhz. I'd go with an Athlon XP 1800+ or a 2 gig Pentium. The high end CPUs cost to much for the performance gain you get IMO. Treeburst155 out.

Well Jerkov, I can't use the 30.87s with WinXP. I tried your 2x FSAA with the 30.82s to no avail. There's a HUGE thread about the faulty Gainward cards at MadOnion.com. Everyone is RMAing their cards and getting replacements. It seems there's a bad capacitor on many of the earlier 4200s. My card is all packed up and ready to ship tomorrow. BTW, CM is a rather CPU intensive game. It'll heat up a CPU something fierce. CM can use all the CPU it can get, and I don't think it minds a fast video card either. 600 mhz would barely run a large scenario I'll bet. Treeburst155 out.

Aha!! I was just coming in here to post my "Beware of Gainward Ti4200" message, and you guys are already talking about it. Here's the deal. I took out the Gainward Ti4200 Golden Sample and put in the trusty old GF2 Pro. I can't make CMBB crash at all now. It's as stable as a rock with ANY driver. I'm using the 40.72's right now. I still get the FSAA weirdness that everyone gets, but I don't crash. Is the 4200 defective? I doubt it because it runs everything else just fine. The Gainward Ti4200 Golden Sample just is not compatible with CM. I should mention that I bought one of the very first of these video cards. Gainward had them on the market before anyone else and I grabbed one. The thing overclocks really high. If it wasn't for CM, I'd say it's an excellent card. To me it's just a very expensive piece of junk hardware. Anyhoo, I can play CM now, even with a little anisotropy. All is well in my world. Beware the Gainward Ti4200 if you want to play CM!!!! Treeburst155 out.

Thanks Jerkov! That's what I'm getting here, FREQUENT random crashes. I'm glad somebody knows what I'm experiencing. I'll try 2X FSAA with the 30.87s. My fingers are crossed. Treeburst155 out.

I have a $50 HSF setup carefully installed with Arctic Silver III, in a $200 case with four fans. Room temp is currently 68 degrees. Also, it will crash within minutes of boot up in the morning, soon after I start CM. My CPU temps read in the mid 30's (Celsius). I can run CPU "warmer" programs forever. I can run 3DMark2001SE for over an hour. It's not a heat problem. It all began when I went from GF2 to GF4 and the later drivers (28.xx). It happens in WinME and WinXP. I'm going back to the GF2 and experiment with older and newer drivers. I'll bet my CM probs disappear. Treeburst155 out.

Is anybody getting frequent crashing in CMBB? I seem to get it with every driver I've tried. I might be OK for a couple days and then I start crashing again every few minutes. Sometimes reinstalling drivers helps, sometimes not. It's like the computer goes into an "I hate CM" mode. I really can't play the game. It's that bad. I'm not really looking for help here. I've tried everything, even two different OSes. The crashing persists. I'm just interested to know if any other Ti4200 owners are having major problems. Thanks! Treeburst155 out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad you're all having such a good time on the MBT. I'M NOT!! This is because CMBB keeps crashing my computer every two minutes. I have to play bleedin' technician again. So, if I owe you a turn, SOD OFF! If I don't owe you a turn, SOD OFF!! If you work for Nvidia, SOD OFF! If you work for Microsoft, SOD OFF! If you don't work at all, come fix my 'puter or do somefink NOW!! In short, SOD OFF!! Squire Treeburst155 out.

Very perceptive, Vadr. Treeburst155 out.

Well, the first battle would be the same for everybody. Players would all have the same forces and setup zones to work with. They would all be presented with the same exact situation in the setup phase. This would not be true in the future battles of the operation. Oh, I see what you mean. There would be no score after the first battle. :eek: Um...you can't score even the first battle. What might be fun is to play operations in a "relay race" type thingy. Players would be split into teams. The number of team members would be equal to the number of battles in the operation. Each player would play one battle of the operation. For example, player #2 for each side would inherit the operation from player #1. The victor would not be an individual. The whole team would win or lose. This would of course take quite a bit of time because the battles would have to be played in succession; but it could be interesting. Also, it would not be a time demanding event for anyone involved except the players that are actually playing their battle. The guys who play the last battle could have a four month wait. In the meantime, they can enjoy the updates and AARs, and cheer on the team. Here is what it would take IMO: 1) Fairly short operations with fairly short battles (4-5 battles, 20 turns each) 2) Quick turn-around PBEMers ONLY (at least two files per day) 3) Non-playing players would get the game files (at least the movies) so they can follow along while they await their own battle. Hmmm....if we played several operations at once, most players could have at least one active battle simply by staggering the battle numbers they play for each operation. This kind of competition could handle a lot of players too. Hmmm... Treeburst155 out. [ November 15, 2002, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Treeburst155 ]

Jim L, Maybe the B&T guys will be along to answer your questions. Here's my take on it, but they may correct me. The scenarios are designed with the goal of "fun" in mind. Balance is only important as far as it affects the "fun factor". The reason I started this thread was to get an idea about how FUN people think unbalanced scenarios are. If I were playing, I would consider the real possibility of a deliberately lopsided scenario a fun thing when looking at the tournament as a whole, even if the actual lopsided scenario (shoule there be one in the tourney) was perhaps a little weak in the fun department. As has been stated earlier, deliberately lopsided scenarios that are fun for both sides are not easy to create; but, the mere possibility of severe imbalance enhances ALL the other scenarios in the tourney. Players will have an element of uncertainty to deal with. Is this one of those lopsided scenarios? If so, am I on the strong side or the weak side? Players will have to deal with questions like these in EVERY scenario. In Boots & Tracks' ROW tourneys, players will ALWAYS have to deal with the very real possibility of a severely lopsided scenario being thrown into the mix. Will there be one or more severely lopsided scenarios in the upcoming CMBB tourney? Maybe, maybe not. Treeburst155 out.

ubik12, CM will not recognize any resolution higher than your desktop resolution. Switch your desktop to your desired CM resolution. Delete the Combat Mission Prefs file in the game folder, and launch the game. You'll know what to do from there. For the building walls disappearing, etc.. That's supposed to happen. Try playing with Shift-o while in the game. Treeburst155 out.

The FSAA is the cause, not the aniso stuff. Only the drivers Madmatt mentioned will work right with FSAA, although I haven't tried them yet with my new Ti4200. On a positive note, with the 40.72s you can turn up the aniso to max, and it looks rather good even without the FSAA. Thanks Matt, for leaning on Nvidia for us. Treeburst155 out.

I think the HSF installation was botched, and he probably got a cheapo fan too. Panzer Leader, if you want it done right, do it yourself. There are all sorts of technical forums where you can learn how to do it. It isn't difficult. It's just a pain in the rear. Check the sites linked to above. You don't need a new computer. You need proper cooling. Treeburst155 out.

Thanks, Rother. Your post brings back many fond memories of countless deliberately squandered hours reading those threads. Long live the Mutha Beautiful Thread...and may the Cesspoolians Die-A-Lot Now! Treeburst155, Squire to Senior Knight Moriarty, Defender of Lost Causes

Holien, I hear you and Combined Arms are moving on to Head For The Hills now. Keep us posted please. I felt that one was tilted toward the Germans. Could that be because I lost as the Allies? Naaahh!! Treeburst155 out.

Balance isn't really a problem (except maybe for some players ), but scoring is. You could score the first battle OK; but after that, everyone is fighting a different battle. The whole operation would have to be treated as one giant scenario for scoring purposes. Treeburst155 out.

Aaah, Tom is still with us. Excellent! I've been getting killed by work recently; BUT, starting Sunday I have five full days off. This means I will be updating my results sheet and sending it to those who have finished their games, ONLY if they email me requesting it. At this point I'd estimate that 40% of the games are completed. The deadline we are trying to make with this final round is the holiday season. To me that means I should be announcing the winners by December 15th. If you're a slow poke, keep that date in mind please. Fight On!! Treeburst155 out.