Thomas Goetz

That would explain things - and it would also be nice to know I wasn't doing anything wrong. When I get the time, I'll keep experimenting with it to see what I can do. Might be more useful to bring the HQ up to the firing line, and deploy the mortar just behind it...

No artillery yet in the pics I posted, as this is just the scout team, not the HQ unit. I'll have to try again with the HQ and see what I can come up with for spotting for the mortar. I have gotten tiny glimpses of clear LOS when swinging the line around, but they hardly seem worth it. I can understand the idea of the taller trees blocking the LOS in some directions, but to have virtually no LOS at all despite being on the upper story doesn't seem like much of an observation post. I have played through the scenario several times, putting the HQ unit up there as well - they can't seem to see anything either, no matter how long I leave them up there or move them around.

I've been playing and loving Normandy since I got it last week - when I can fit it in around my work schedule. Been a few adjustments from the CMx1 games, but haven't run into anything I couldn't eventually figure out - until now. In the TF Raff training Campaign, in the first battle, the Crossroads, the game manual instructs the player to first send the Scout team, and later an HQ unit, up to the second floor of the chateau, to the Observation Post objective area. Once there, the manual states that these units should be able to see some of the German units near the crossroads, and that the HQ should be able to direct the fire of the 60mm mortar that you are supposed to set up in the courtyard nearby. I haven't been able to even begin to figure out the indirect fire system, because apparently my units up on the second floor of this building can't actually see anything. Their LOS (I've checked from both of them) extends only to the first major hedgerow, the one where the Base of Fire objective area is. Beyond that, it is blocked entirely, as far as I can tell. To the best of my knowledge, the units are in the right place (the second floor) and facing the same way - see the first image attached - and yet they apparently can see almost nothing beyond the first field - see the second image. Am I doing something wrong? Is there some command I am unaware of? Some change in the game after the manual was printed? Can I put the guys up on the roof or something? I'm sure this is something I'll smack myself in the forehead over, but for now it's driving me nuts. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

JWH: If you want a copy of one of the older drivers for NVidia, I can provide a copy of the two previous ones. Just let me know and give me your email address. I can send them as file attachments. Tom Goetz

YES!!!! The problem has been identified and, if not solved, at least worked around. I did check on, and install, the "missing" Windows drivers, which helped. At least when the game refused to run, it didn't hang the entire system. However, the game still did hang up, generating the same error message. So on to step 2, checking the older video drivers. And what do you know? They worked like a charm! All games are back to full functionality! Hooray! Just to verify that it was the driver causing the problem, I re-downloaded the latest NVidia driver and installed that. Presto! Game wouldn't run, same error message, and I even got the same system freeze from before. Thus a final format and re-install. But this one done with a lighter heart, as the solution was at hand. So, to the good folks at Battlefront, I provide the following alert - the NVidia GeForce driver version 61.76 causes massive game crashes and system freezes with Combat Mission, at least on my system. They must have changed something major in it, because the two previous versions (53.04 & 56.64) work just fine with the games. These crashes and freezes apply to all CM games, and are nasty enough that I'd suggest some testing to see what has happened. I really appreciate all the support and advice - it would have been mission impossible without it. Thanks - you guys are the best. You certainly can't get tech support like this at the corporate giants! Tom

Another update. No luck whatsoever on Microsoft's website with any part of the code I got when my system locked up. I really hope that someone can come up with something, because for now, Combat Mission in all its incarnations is unplayable on my system. Oh, and never mind that bit I included in my last post about the member number. I think I was nearly brain dead last night when I wrote that. Thanks.

Further updates on the problem, which, as you may have guessed, has not yet been resolved. At first it did seem as though it was a RAM issue. I did some checking, and there is no question that ME is unstable with more than 512 megs of RAM. I tested that by installing on of my more RAM intensive games - the flight sim IL-2 Sturmovik. With the full gig of RAM, it was jerky, slow, and unplayable. But when I went into the msconfig utility and limited Windows to only 512 megs, and after that it ran smooth and clean. So I tried out CMBO again under the new settings. No luck. Wouldn't run, and again corrupted Windows. I was able to do a system restore this time, though. So I pulled the extra RAM chip, deleted CMBO and reinstalled, and tried again. Same result - a freeze, and a reboot that corrupted the system again. This time it needed a format and reinstall. 'But now I've got it', I thought. A format and install with only the original 512 megs of RAM. So I did a minimal install, just Windows, and drivers for the trackball, graphics card, chipset, and sound card. This time I opted for some variety, and installed CMAK, which is the Battlefront version, not a CDV special edition like my CMBO disc. Exact same result - a freeze and lockup, with system corruption. This makes at least the 5th time I've had to completely wipe my C drive and start fresh because of this problem with a Combat Mission game. Any other game I've installed has run fine, subject to some instability from the extra RAM. But the RAM issue never actually stopped the game from running, or corrupted Windows, just made some games twitchy and spastic. About the only thing I did get from this was a listing of the error when the CM game froze before playing and then destroyed my system. That is as follows: File name: VDD(03)+0001816 Error: 00 : 0028 : C0231D9E Tomorrow, when my head is a little clearer, I'm going to go to Microsoft's website and see what I can find about those codes. I'm not holding my breath, though. This whole thing has got me mystified. Everything is the same, as far as I can tell - I had all 3 games installed on this computer, and played all of them with no problems, before the format. It is obviously something in the games themselves that is causing the problem, since I get exactly the same error code no matter what CM game I'm trying to play. Maybe its a driver issue/conflict with the latest NVidia driver? I'm using the most recent driver from their website - less than a month old - and that is more recent than the one I had before, which was over a year old. I believe I gave the driver number in my previous post. Bottom line seems to be that if you can't come up with a solid fix, I'm going to have to put aside all my CM discs, unloaded and unplayed. This is a step I would hate to take, as I love the game, but there is no point in having a game on my system that not only will not let me play it, but when I try it ruins my entire system, forcing me to do a complete wipe and rebuild. Please, Please, Please see if you can find a fix. I'll go though withdrawal if I can't do my Combat Mission. And worse, my best friend will kill me if we can't do email games any more. Oh, and one other odd little question. I've been a member for a number of years, although I don't often post. Yet in logging back in, especially after updating my email address, I note that I now have a member number in the 6000's, instead of my original one, which I thought was in the 1000s. Is there anything to be done, or must I look like a CM newbie from now on? Thanks

OK, more information. I started the system rebuild because an engineer friend of mine had convinced me to install all kinds of security software. I'd never had a reason to need it before, but I gave in to his greater experience. As far as I could tell, all those different "protection" programs did was get into arguments with each other and lock up my system in the process - usually repeatedly during a single session. Lots of tweaking and program removal failed to correct the problems, as I think the various programs had corrupted the system settings, and certainly don't know enough to dig around in there. So I decided to wipe it clean and start again. As for "getting a lot of that", I meant requests for system reboots, along with the occasional lock up in the process. But these were always resolved with an additional turn off and reboot, and were never a serious problem. All of these have been installed every time I've tried to get the system up and running again. Chipset drivers installed from the chipset utilities disc. Using Direct X 9.0b, from the Microsoft website. The NVidia driver is 4.14.10.6176, which is dated 7/12/04, and is the most recent one available at NVidia's website. In both previous cases, the Windows Update site was visited and all relevent updates and programs dowloaded and installed. I've no idea of how ME might handle a gig of RAM, but none of the other programs have experienced any problems. As for details on the "Windows Protection Error", I'd like some myself. What would happen on a reboot was the system would process normally up until the "Run DMI Pool" message in the boot sequence, then I'd get the blue screen of death, telling me I had a Windows Protection error, and that I needed to reboot my system. No other information available, at least not there. Rebooting would take me to the Safe Mode of Windows, and call up the Help screen. All of the various fixes suggested by the screen were tried, without avail, until the "Remove Windows and reinstall", which I couldn't do, since ME was the base system. Rebooting from safe mode put me back to the blue death screen, and then back to safe mode, in a never-ending cycle of frustration. Thus, a format and reinstall. As for restore points, there were already multiple ones in Windows, from the various hardware installations prior to beginning the software installs. I tried several of them, and none worked - the system would freeze up before it was able to look for the restore points. I tried the closest one to the game, a middle one, and the very first one. Same result everytime. I will check out the articles you've linked about ME and RAM, and see if they have anything relevent. I'd hate to have to take the extra RAM out, as it really speeds up the system, but I will if that is the only way I can get it to work again. I too am mystified as to what is causing this. I've played all three CM games over many years, and never with anything like this. Had an install problem once with a CMBB special edition disc, but that was a scratch on the disc, not a software issue. I've also installed and played CMBO from this disc on this same system prior to the format and reinstall. I will let you know if the articles turn up any information. Thanks for the help.

I have a very odd and incredibly frustrating tech problem with my CMBO special edition disk. I recently had to do a complete system re-format and re-install, for unrelated reasons. In addition to various frustrations too numerous to mention, I got a very nasty shock when I went to install CMBO. The special edition version installed just fine, but when I went to start it up as a test, I got a message saying that a Windows protection errror had taken place, and that I needed to restart the computer. OK, no problem, been getting a lot of that during the rebuild. However, when I went to reboot, I got a message that a Windows Protection Error had occured, and that the loading of Windows had halted. Rebooting put me in Windows Safe Mode, where I attempted to find and fix the problem. None of the fixes worked, always giving me the same "Windows Protection Error" on reboot. So I ended up having to do another format and reinstall. Some experimentation showed me that it was indeed the CMBO Special Edition install that was causing it, as I got exactly the same problem a second time. Yet another format and reinstall later, I am wondering exactly what is going on. I have never had problems like this with any CM game. Sometimes they wouldn't run until I got an upgraded system, but I've never had one totally wreck my entire system, which this did. I'm running Windows ME on a 2.4 gig motherboard, with 1 gig of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 4MX card. Any ideas, help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated - before I pitch my computer out the window and then jump up and down on the pieces. Tom Goetz

Figured out what it was. The actual vehicle was a flak track, with the gun pointing to the rear. So even though the the computer was mis-identifying the vehicle, it kept the rear gun orientation. And so we get an assault gun with a rear pointing cannon. Odd but understandable, in a way.

I just encountered a very unusual and interesting graphics glitch while playing a CMBB game. I'm playing the game via email, as the Soviets. We're only a few turns into the game. I spotted a couple of German units, and one was identified by the computer as an assault gun / tank destroyer - a Marder II. This is almost certainly a mistaken ID, and will no doubt be corrected later. But the odd thing about this is that the graphic I get with this identification has the gun pointing the wrong way. In other words, the breech is sticking out the front of the vehicle, and the muzzle is inside the crew compartment. It traverses normally, even fires - I saw smoke billowing out of the crew compartment, which fooled me briefly into thinking that something had hit it. This makes the vehicle very peculiar looking, to say the least. This glitch does not seem to be a problem with the game as a whole. I've created quick scenarios with the same vehicle in it, and they appear perfectly normal when the scenario loads. I don't know if this might be a corruption of the email game file, or some other unknown cause. If anyone out there has any ideas or suggestions, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. P.S. If anyone is interested, I can probably try to get a screen shot of the mutant tank destroyer. Let me know.

Thanks for the suggestions. Haven't tried compressing or zipping the files - that should cut way down on transmission times, assuming we can get that to work without further incidents. We are both using just one machine for the game, but there are game variations. I'm using the CDV edition, while he is using the internet edition, so that might be contributing. I have noticed the extreme differences in file size on occasion - several megs vs. several k. But that doesn't seem to correlate with problems getting the things to load. I've also noticed that my system, at least, will sometimes save the file as a text file, and sometimes as a generic file - again, without seeming to correlate with the problems loading his files. But whatever is corrupting the files (myabe they're passing too close to some porn site while in transit?) seems to originate soley on his end, so it may be some problem with his machine that has little to do with the game itself. We will continue to investigate, and any further help will be welcome. Tom Goetz

A friend and I have been doing a PBEM game of CMBB, and having a great time - mostly. Everything was fine for the first 5 turns or so, as was a tiny test scenario we ran to make sure we could exchange files without problems. But more recently we've been plauged by a rather annoying and inconsistent bug. He has no problem reading my files, but about half the time when he sends me his files, when I try to load it up during the opening of the game, all I get is that windows sound - "plunk" - and nothing loads. First time it happened, I assumed a corrupted transmission, and asked him to send it again. Still no good. So he reloaded my last file, and then finished his turn and sent it to me. Worked fine. Thought we had it licked. Turns out that was only the beginning. About every other file he sends me refuses to load. If it were every one, it would be more understandable, but some come through fine, while others refuse to load. So far, we've been able to keep going with the game because when he reloads my last file, and does his turn over, whether just watching or plotting, that seems to fix whatever it is, and then that file loads fine on my system. As I mentioned, he has never had any problems loading my files. This is driving us crazy, especially since neither of us has high speed internet, and it takes forever to up or down load the files. So a non-working file means lots of time wasted and no gaming action for another day. If anyone has any suggestions or comments or questions, I'd be grateful. Tom Goetz

Thought I'd add one to the list, with a qualification. It is a war movie, set in the Western Desert during World War II, but has no combat scenes in it. It is "The Hill", starring Sean Connery as a British tank sergent sent to a military prison for punishment. If you want to see the 8th Army against the Afrika Korps, you'll be disappointed, but this is a very good film that deals with a different side of the desert war. I caught it by accident late one night, and my father and I stayed up late to finish it - I was captivated. The hill in the title is part of the punishment in the prison camp - I will leave it at that. This movie is available on video, but I don't think it is on dvd yet. Well worth watching if you get a chance, even without any battle scenes.

I have finally resolved this issue, the hard way. Because the new sound card I had was giving me problems, and it wouldn't support my subwoofer, I got another. That still produced some of the same unwanted sounds with CM, although not nearly as loudly or frequently. After a good deal of tinkering, including downloading and installing new drivers for my motherboard, graphics card, mouse driver, and sound card, I have finally managed to eliminate those annoying sounds almost entirely. Combat Mission (all 3 games) seems to finally be raspberry free! And, in keeping with my purpose in getting a sound card originally, it now runs much faster and more smoothly than ever before. Thanks for all the advice on the forum.

As far as modded sound files, only one or two, and that only in CMBO and CMBB. Yet I get the problem in all 3 games, even after doing a complete reinstall on CMAK. I will check out the link you posted and see if they can help. Thanks.

One other note - I get the raspberry sound during the game intro music and setup screens as well, and I never got the breaks then, only during the gameplay itself. So I rather doubt adjusting the sound settings in the game will help much. It almost seems like the sound card hates the game and is trying to make it unplayable.

Yes, I got the breaks in most of my other games - the newer ones, anyway. In CM, they happened only every couple of minutes, but in some other games they occured every few seconds. With the new sound card, the breaks have disappeared in all the other games I've tested, with no other side effects. Only the CM games (all 3) produce this raspberry sound so far, so I'm wondering if it is something in the game rather than the system. This sound is much more frequent than the earlier breaks, as well, so I don't think it's the same problem manifesting in a different form.

Got a kind of unusual problem with the various Combat Mission games. My relatively new muscle computer has been prone to sound "breaks" when playing a game - where the sound, and in more graphically intensive games, the graphics as well, freeze up for a second or two. Very annoying. When I looked to update my sound drivers, I found that I didn't have a sound card, just a chipset on the mother board. So I went out and bought a sound card (Sound Blaster Live) to install and hopefully make those breaks go away. It worked. All of the games that used to do that no longer do so. Hooray! One little problem, though. All 3 Combat Mission games now give me mechanical "raspberries" at intervals ranging from a few seconds to a minute or more. They are loud and very disruptive, even more so that the earlier breaks. Any ideas about what is causing this, and how to make it go away? I have not noticed anything similar in any of the other games I have tested. I also deleted and reinstalled CMAK, just to see if that might help. Nope. Thanks for the help.

Some thoughts regarding CAS and Combat Mission. CAS was used frequently to help open a major attack, especially one where the lines had been relatively stable and prominent terrain features could be used to help pilots orient themselves and identify targets. Another use for air to ground attacks would be what the Air Force calls "interdiction", that is, roaming well behing the enemy lines to pounce on moving troops in the open. This is the type of air attack that restricted the Germans to moving at night during the Normandy campaign. The type of CAS that is in CM is, in many ways, the least common of the methods used for air attacks on ground targets, and for exactly the reasons everyone is complaining about - without precise coordination between air and ground (I haven't seen any Forward Air Controllers in CM yet!) it is extremely difficult for pilots to correctly identify targets, and the likelihood of mistaken attacks is quite high. I think it would be fair to say that the pilots disliked that sort of situation almost as much as the ground troops. Trying to provide CAS over an active battlefield means you are almost certain to be shot at by both sides, and you have a pretty good chance of attacking your own side. Maybe that's one of the reasons for the reluctance to fly such missions. BTW, far more Allied aircraft were shot down by ground fire than were ever destroyed in air combat - it was dangerous for the flyboys too.

Just a thought - I can't remember where I saw this, but it seems logical. Mayber Doubler's "Closing with the Enemy"? I read somewhere that it was SOP for Allied units entering a town with a known enemy presence to automatically put a few large caliber rounds into any church steeples they could see. The steeples' height made them excellent observation posts and snipers nests and for that reason they received regular attention. As for simply destroying buildings, that was done, although not very often. It was actually more common for infantry to blow holes in the connecting walls of buildings, and assault the new one from the cover of the old one. But the US Army, at least, did not hesitate to bring up the big guns when they needed to knock out large buildings or fortified locations. Doubler mentions that when the Americans were having trouble with bunkers and fortified buildings in the assault on the West Wall, and 75mm and 105mm wasn't having any effect, the Yanks simply brought up some sp 155 howitzers and used them in direct fire as "doorknockers". Also, in Arnhem during the Market Garden offensive, when the Germans were having trouble digging the Red Devils out of the large buildings near the north end of the bridge, they simply brought up a number of Tigers. These tanks then used their main guns to systematically level all the buildings in the area. It worked, too. Killed or drove out almost all the remaining paratroopers. So no, I don't necessarily think this would be a 'gamey' tactic, just one that wouldn't be used very often, as it would not be very cost effective.

I haven't downloaded the demo, as I decided to wait for the full version instead. I have limited experience with aircraft in any of my CM games, so I can't comment on the frequency of mistaken air attacks. But I thought I'd offer a few comments on the subject from an historical point of view. First, there should definitely be something in the game to allow friendly AAA fire at any aircraft, unless the situation is part of a carefully planned operation, where the air support was factored in and was known to ground troops in advance. Many Allied aircraft were lost to their own AAA. I'm also sure that many Allied pilots were saved only because the AA gunners were poor shots. Perhaps the most famous of those killed by friendly ground fire was Major George Preddy, an 8th Air Force ace with some 20 kills, who was shot down during the Battle of the Bulge. Preddy was in hot pursuit of a Fw 190 at treetop level, when they flew over an American unit. The Fw 190 surprised and alerted the US troops, who laid down a curtain of fire for the next plane, which was, unfortunately, Preddy's. Something I think everyone needs to be reminded of when dealing with CAS during World War II is SPEED. We all get used to being able to take time to look carefully at the battlefield and enemy units. Of course, as gamers, we have much more time than soldiers did in real life. But a pilot in a plane overhead is moving between 175 and 350 miles per hour. At that speed, especially at low altitudes, it is extremely difficult to even locate, much less identify ground targets. It is only a matter of seconds between first seeing a potential target on the ground and flying past it. Unless there is very clear and unambiguous evidence as to which side the target is on, it is extremely difficult for a pilot to say with any certainty even what the target is (tank? truck? halftrack? sp gun?), never mind which side it's on. All sides eventually worked out reasonably effective means to identify friend from foe for the flyboys, but even that was not foolproof. for example by late 1944, the 9th Tactical Air Force in Europe had worked out fairly effective tactics to provide on-call CAS. These involved small detachments of circling fighter-bombers (usually P-47 Thunderbolts), dedicated ground-to-air communications to talk to the planes, and the use of various colored smoke signals to indicate targets and friendly units. Even with these measures, mistakes happened. Without such complex techniques, battlefield CAS, especially if the two sides are pretty much mixed together (and from the air, a separatlion of even a kilometer is almost unnoticable) is very risky for both sides. I can't really comment on the frequency of mistaken air attacks in CM, and I definitely think there should also be friendly AAA fire, but historically, without pretty sophisticated air-ground tactics and communications, mistaken air attacks should almost be a given. Just my two cents.

Just to clarify my above post - I'm not running down British designs and engineering overall. Especially in the field of aircraft engineering, they produced some superb, world-class designs. However, when it came to armor, the best the British could manage during the war were a few adequate tanks like the Cromwell and Churchill, and a number of flawed designs, like the entire cruiser family. I must confess I cannot understand how the nation that invented modern armored warfare could not come up with even one really great tank design during the war. OK, I'll qualify myself - the Centurion was pretty good, but was just too late to see action. And I stand by my point about occasional eccentric engineering. Couple of examples from the MGB I used to own: 1) Speedometer cable. When they moved the steering wheel from right to left for American export, they didn't bother to relocate the speedometer cable attachment on the tire from the right to the left as well. Consequently, the cable went from the instrument on the left to the attachment on the right, and in the process made not one but two 90 degree bends, which kinked the cable so badly I was never able to get the instrument to work. The needle would simply bounce over about a 30 mph range, and your actual speed would be somewhere near the middle of that. 2) Electric power supply. The car used a 12 volt electrical system. So naturally, it drew electrical power from two very small 6 volt batteries, hooked up in series. To further complicate things, the batteries were located in two recessed open metal frames behind the driver's seat. This location actually accomplished several thinigs simultaneaously. It made it impossible to replace the 6 volt batteries with a 12 volt, since there were no 12 volt batteries small enough to fit into these wells. Since the cables were connected to the sides of the wells, that was the only place they could go. Further, the batteries rode only inches off the pavement, completely exposed to anything the elements could throw at them. They were badly coroded, which was why I tried to replace them. And of course the metal supports that held the batteries were rusting away. To top it off, the batteries were located directly in front of the gas (or should I say petrol?) tank. Every time I drove the car, I had visions of hitting a larger than normal bump, having the batteries drop free, hit the pavement, spark and then slam into the gas tank. I could go on, but I think NewSocialistMan is correct. Much (not all, but much) of British vehicle engineering was, by the standards of the mass production of other countries, especially the US and USSR, not as shaped by the principles of reliability and ease of use.

The M3 medium tank that the British liked so much, and called the Grant (it had a different turret than the American version, which was called the Lee - lower, and without the little machine gun cupola on top) was a big step up for the British armored forces. Here was a tank that had decent armor (not great, but better than British cruiser tanks), good speed, was mechanically reliable, and the main 75mm gun, even if the traverse was limited, was much superior to any gun on any British tank of the period. For all that, the M3 medium was an interim model, produced only because American industry was not yet up to producing a tank hull and turret ring for a turret large enough to take a 75mm gun. That vehicle was in the works, of course, and became the M4 medium, the Sherman. The same principle applies to the M3 light in British service. In this case, the gun was small, but the US 37mm had a useful HE round, something the British 2 pounder (40mm) did not. The big thing about the Stuart, or Honey, was that it was reliable. Compared to British tanks, it ran forever, maintainence was simpler, and it was simply a more durable vehicle, apart from combat. In a theater such as North Africa, where logistics are so stretched, these traits were certainly enough to endear the vehicle to British tankers. By the way, most of the tank names given to US tanks came from the British. Although many US vehicles later picked up unofficial nicknames (Stuart, Sherman, Wolverine, Jackson, Chaffee), the official US designation was always just numbers and letters - the Sherman could be the M4, M4A1, M4A3, or M4A3E8, for example. For some reason the Brits seemed compelled to name anything with an even remotely military purpose. Further, this name was often part of the official designation as well - Churchill Mk VI, for example, or Spitfire Mk IX. They even named the engines that went into their airplanes. Those included the famous Merlin (named after a small hawk, not the wizzard), the Kestrel (another hawk) the Griffon, the Hercules, and the Goblin (an early jet engine). To sum up - the Brits loved American tanks and other combat equipment as much for its mechanical reliability and ease of maintainence as they did for its combat capabilities. Anyone who has ever had experience with certain British motor vehicles (I used to own a '67 MGB) will testify to the occasional frustration at eccentric and often unreliable British engineering.

Aw, nuts! Hit the wrong button, and put my previous response in the wrong thread. Mea culpa!