Lmandrake

I am running CMBO on a Win98 XP2000+ homebuilt with a ti4200. Hadn't played in a while. Started a QB, starts ok but locks up my PC totally after a few turns. Come here, search threads, decide latest NVidia drivers at fault. Spend way too much time cleaning out old drivers, trying new. Settle on 30.82 version. Start to play old scenario. All is good. Leave computer to attend to some random bleating by girlfriend. Come back 20 minutes later. Totally frozen, have to hard reboot. Later finish another saved game. Run 30 turns no problemo. Next game, locks. PC is watercooled. Heat is not a problem. Does not lock up when running Prime 95, Folding at home, or other "burn in" torture test proggies... Is there a consensus on what is a bulletproof driver for Nvidia cards? I also did a repair reinstall of CMBO. Did not help. Can anyone think of other things to consider? Thanks.

This is a bit of a moronic thread, but I would like to hear some tips about what to do when the terrain you get in a QB just plain s*cks.. For example, you have a M.E. and aside from one or two pockets, your start line is pretty much a plateau while your opponent gets at least one, if not two back corners with high ground. My instinct is to spread my armor out, if nothing else, but I am beginning to think that if I get crap terrain, I should put everything I can in a place where I can at least move to some cover and work from there. Playing the Amis, as I habitually do, I hate to do this, as allied armor concentrated in one spot makes such a nice bonfire.. I also hate commit to one line of attack, that is usually a mistake as well, even against the AI. any input would be appreciated.

If I try to set up a quick battle against the AI and select more than 1000 points when setting it up, if find that if buying my own forces that I am getting 750 more points than I should. All my settings are, to the best of my recollection, at default, so I am mystified. If anybody as any ideas about how this happened and how I can fix it, please let me know. BTW, I would RTFM if I could find it. Thanks

I upgraded to Iwill KK266 and a 1.2 gig Tbird after my bx board died. Kept my Voodoo 5 and started playing CM again. Using the last set of "official" V5 drivers I get weird vertical bars passing from right to left across my screen after exiting CM. The "normal" V5 anamolies are there too - mouse droppings, corrupt text, etc. but nothing I can't deal with. Of course, the moral of the story is that you should never need to do anything with your computer after playing CM - Just get those 4 hours of sleep and try to get through the work day...

Now using NVmax build 2053 and this database option is still not there. Does anybody know if there is a registry key that enables or disables this option? BTW, using the latest Det drivers - 12.41.

There are a number of NVmax builds available at this site: Linkage Purportedly, build 2053 is right here [ 06-21-2001: Message edited by: Lmandrake ]

I loaded NVmax and do not have a database options dialog box. Got it from M3d and installed the update, so I suppose this option only exists for certain cards and drivers. I am running an mx card (though I could hack it to a quadro if I was as brave as Wittman25) I am running the 12.41 drivers. Does anybody know if this fix is restricted to 98SE and 2k, the cards used or the drivers? I would like to have some FSAA.... Had a very hard time choosing between this card and a V5 and, of course, one week after I pay 60 for this card, someone offers me a V5 for $75 (grrr...).

You can add me to the list of people with a similar problem. I have flickering houses and trees. I am using the 12.41 Det3's from Nvidia on an Asus MX card. My OS is Win98 and I have not applied or installed any "tweaker" progs or played around with any of the default settings for my card other than using the reference drivers noted above. System uses a BX board with a 700e, 512mb RAM, aureal vortex 1 sound, and play at 1024x768x16 on a 20' dell trinitron. :confused:

I am playing a large QB and, as usual, am struggling to keep track of my units. In doing a census of MGs to collect with jeeps and move up, I found an immobile .50 cal. It is next to a half-track that got knocked out by arty, so the only thing I can figure is that it got pulled off the half-track. Is this correct? Or can a .50 cal become immobilized somehow? Thanks :confused:

Brick and Mortar stores have been dumping PC100 so it is worth it to look at flyers and ads for memory, but usually you should never buy memory at one of these places. Go to this site: www.pricewatch.com to search for memory prices. Beware of the vendors with the lowest prices, as they gouge on shipping to make money. To check on a vendor's reputation, go here: www.resellerratings.com Off the top of my head, I would suggest trying www.accessmicro.com or www.mcglen.com. I have never had a problem with either and if you can wait for UPS ground, their shipping is reasonable. It alwasys amazes me how some vendors can charge $15 dollars to ship a memory stick. Theirs must be made of depleted uranium. [ 04-25-2001: Message edited by: Lmandrake ]

I must be a masochist, as I usually play as the Americans. Playing on the U.S. side means carefully moving your tanks so they are only exposed at the right place and time. I have, however, lost many tanks when I lay out a route and the tank, presumably because the path I chose for it is unsuitable or impassable, decides to take a waltzing route to the selected endpoint. Of course, when this waltz takes the tank out of cover when the route I chose was safe, I get to watch it burn... This usually happens when I try to snake through clear paths in and around trees or in towns. What I don't understand is why this happens when I lay the route in what the program tells me is open terrain? Is there any way for me to tell when this will happen? Is it a matter of the path being too narrow? :confused:

Ahem.. (embarassed throat clearing noise) After reviewing my original whiny sniveling post and picking forces for 1500 point scenarios from both sides I surmise there is nothing wrong with the picture. I wrongly assumed that a Panther A and the Stug's were more expensive than they are. I just got beat... I lost 2 hellcats right away trying to take advantage of his exposed flank. Got the Nashorn and then should have fled. Unfortunately, they engaged other targets once the surprise was gone and got wasted. It is clear to me now that if my tanks are engaging a target they will not back away even if ordered unless the target is cancelled.... The troops were all of the same quality. I don't know exactly how many panzergrenadiers he had, but it was more than the 72 engineers I started with. (In all his gleeful taunting, he did not reveal what he had) I certainly would have not picked engineers. No zooks, no heavy mgs and those totally useless flamethrowers.

My son and I played a TCP/IP tonight. I hosted and went for a 1500 point QB ME. We were in a hurry to start so I let the computer select equipment. Here is what I got: 4 Hellcats, 1 Stuart, 1 Jackson, 1 Command Car, 1 Jeep, 2 Engineer companies, 3 Flamethrowers, 1 81 mm spotter. He got: 3 Stug III's, 1 Panther A, 1 PZ IV, 2 Pumas, 1 Nashorn, 1 105mm spotter, an 81mm mortar, and mucho Panzergrenadiers with schrecks. Needless to say, I got whipped good and don't think it was all my fault. Is it possible that there is some setting that gave him a points boost or is the above really an equal allocation of points? Save me from further humiliation!

As noted above, you should be fine with that setup. You did not mention what size monitor you have or will have. If you play CM at monster resolutions, a 16 mb card will not be enough. Also, be aware that if you like to use a lot of hi-res mods, you might run into probs with a 16mb card too. You can get a 32mb TNT2 at flea bay for $60 to $70 shipped (Don't get a TNT2 M64) or GeForce2 MX for $100 to $120 at some online vendors. Voodoo cards are a good choice, but beware that 3dfx has gone under so support for the product is gone too - including new drivers. The 32mb Voodoo 5 5500 is a great card for CM and goes for around $125 at some online vendors. Don't get a card just because it has 32mb of memory. Cards with the S3 Savage4 chipset have 32mb and they are pretty bad cards.

M-36 Jackson w/east bloc V-12 - $60,000.00 M-18 Hellcat, w/radial - $60,000.00 Of course, either of these would be harder to hide from your spouse/girlfriend than a new video card. For more info, go here: http://www.coldwarremarketing.com/others.asp (I am not affiliated with the above site in any way, just thought this was fun.)

Sometimes tank crew behavior seems inexplicable. On the plus side, I have had a Hellcat kill a Tiger while making a mad dash for cover. There is defnitely a luck factor in CM. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. Nonetheless, I find it maddening when my allied tanks decide to stop and slug it out. Unless its a jumbo, you don't even need to check on it before the next turn.

"Whenever Intel comes out with a new generation chip, that usually means a MB upgrade and ram upgrade. It's the nature of the beast." True for the most part, but remember RAMBUS?

Well... Most of the time, unless a game has just come out, you can get it on the cheap somewhere or somehow. Good titles do hold their value longer, but you can find deals most of the time. CM is different. First, there is no mass market distribution. Second, CM is awesome. You can't find it for sale on e-bay. You can't find it for sale on BBS's. You can't find a used copy anywhere. Nobody who has it will part with it. I paid twice as much for CM as I have paid for any game in years. I still feel a little guilty, but I don't feel like I have been cheated. Enjoy it. You will get your money's worth.

I apologize if this an RTFM question, but how do I use hunt to pop out from behind cover, take a shot, and then reverse back to safety. It seems that if I set a tank to hunt and reverse in a single turn, it emerges from cover, engages the target and continues to engage to the end of the turn. This is great if you have German tanks, but not so good if you have Allied tanks. An Allied tank that stays engaged often becomes a bonfire. Is there a way to pop out of cover, take one shot or two, and disengage? Thanks

IIRC, the historical outcome was not good for the attacking forces. The Amis had tons of concentrated arty behind them, including many 155's, and the Germans were repeatedly slashed to ribbons in successive assaults. I think the MacDonald history contains an anecdote where a Belgian farmer purportedly saw young (late teens) Hitler Jugend troops weeping after being told they would be going back for another try. Bullingen remained in U.S. hands and the Germans ran out of troops before the opposition ran out of artillery shells.

Thanks to the demise of 3dfx OEM V5 5500's are becoming available for pretty low prices. I drool at the thought of having FSAA for CM but noticed old threads about V5 probs, know the card is driverless now etc. Have V3 now on a 960 mhz PIII and run CM at 1024 on a 17' monitor (Unbelievably, I was playing CM last night and my girlfriend looks at the screen and says "You need a bigger monitor.") Can get the card for $120 and am sorely tempted. Does it make CM look that much better to justify the $60 to $70 bucks invested after I sell my V3? Thanks

Running CM on 960 Mhz PIII with a Voodoo 3, 128 mb ram, Win 98 first edition, Direct X 8, and latest (and perhaps last) voodoo drivers. After installation of the 1.1 TCP/IP patch, I am getting flickering terrain squares between turns and a full lock of CM once in a while. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the flickering. Just happens. I would appreciate any thoughts or solutions anybody may have to address this. Thanks

A site that has excellent reviews of hardware and lots of good technical info can be found here: www.anandtech.com

When I try to run CM, I get an "unhandled exception" error followed by a second dialog box saying I have an invalid page fault. System itself does not lock up, but CM will not run. It is the full version, not the demo and patched with the latest 1.1 patch. System specs are: Soyo V6BE+ Apollo Pro Plus Mobo 128 mb RAM 566 mhz celeron Zoltrix Nightengale Sound Card Hercules Thriller 4 mb vid card Seagate 9.1 gb IDE HD 50x cd rom 6x burner All drivers are the latest and greatest. OS is Win 98 First Edition. Any Tips? Thanks

Maybe I shouldn't be posting as I don't fully understand this stuff, but you can get the IP the outside world sees by using this link- http://www.babygrrl.com/ip.shtml. You could then use winipcfg and see which device is using that ip. I have verizon dsl and get three devices in winipcfg. Two PPP adapters, one that shows the "outside world" ip I get from the web, one that shows gibberish and my NIC, which has its own ip assigned for a variety of reasons. IIRC if you set your NIC to obtain an IP address automatically by going to your network settings and clicking on "obtain address automatically" for where TCPIP binds to you NIC and you don't have a router or hardware or software firewall, you may be able to host. You will have a different IP address everytime you host... I just have a modem and a NIC and don't know why I have three entries in winipcfg.... Most DSL providers have dynamic ip addressing...