Tankist

Any official words yet, reg my little list? Maybe KwazyDog could forward them to the QA/Designer team? Tankist

This echos a similar comment I made last week. Covered arcs are great, but there are some things the old ambush command was better at. I wish we had both. Unfortunately I have a feeling this won't happen until the next game.</font>

This sounds like a graphics driver issue. Get the latest official driver for your geforce (no beta versions), make sure directx 8.1 is installed properly, set your desktop resolution to the same resolution used in CMBB. Do not forget to delete the file 'Combat Mission BB Prefs' in the cmbb folder, after making these changes, BEFORE starting the game. Tankist

I made some further tests reg. covered arcs/hiding. A unit even unhides, if the only 'enemy' unit in its arc is a 'dead soldier' marker! Even worse, an atg unhides, if the only enemy unit in its arc is a knocked-out tank! As it is now, covered arcs are not very usable for ambushes, as nearly everything makes a unit unhide (even a dead soldier out-of-los). And staying hidden is the way, to do successful ambushes. Why was the 'Ambush' order removed in the first place? It works like a charm in CMBO and the covered arcs are not a substitute, but another concept (of restricting fire). Arcs are great for tanks, but are no replacement for the Ambush order, because ambushes in CMBO were triggered events, while arcs are just a way to limit firing. I hope we will see the 'Ambush' order in a future patch back again. Tankist

Not exactly. It is true that units had to have LOS to the marker to target it initially, but after targeting it they could later move out of LOS and still retain their targeting of the marker.</font>

Have you tried it with a plain, standard-mouse driver? Do you use custom mouse pointers? If yes, try to deactivate them. Tankist

I'm not sure if this is a bug, or just a quirk of the engine, because the ambush command in CMBO worked the same way.</font>

I don't think so; covered arcs are only a way to restrict firing, as stated in the manual. And, often units open up fire on their own and everything is fine...but quite often they do not. Tankist

First of all, for a version 1.0 program, this game is very well done; no crash, no game killing bugs so far. Congratulations to the programmers and the Beta Test team for an outstanding job! Here are some observations I made: BUGS 1. Bunker placement by the AI in 'free to setup forces' setup option. The AI places its bunkers/pillboxes nearly all the time right on its own mapedge. Without any LOS to any VLs, without any regard to the terrain. It simply arrays them on its own mapedge. This seems to be a bug. 2. Routed teams displace other units. In a scenario some 105mm howitzers were positioned in foxholes in the open plains. One of them was destroyed, and the surviving 2 men-team runs for nearest cover, in this case the foxhole of another, 30 meter away hidden howitzer. It enters the foxhole and the hidden, emplaced, full-setup and camouflaged howitzer starts to move out of the foxhole to make place for the 2(!) men-team! Well, the moving howitzer was spotted by the enemy (and fired at), it lost its camo-bonus and it needs 2 minutes to set-up new! This, IMHO, qualifies as a bug; a routed team should not displace an emplaced gun. Instead the program should use the same logic as with vehicles; a small vehicle can not push a large vehicle out of the way. This bug is reproducible. 3. Covered Arcs and Hiding A unit with a covered arc unhides, if an enemy unit (anywhere on the map) enters the covered arc, even if it has NO LOS to the enemy unit! I had an at-gun hiding in woods with an covered arc/armor. Enemy infantry was passing my by, some 50 m away. Then, behind a ridge and out of view(!) of the at-gun, a tank entered the covered arc, obviously spotted by some of my other units. The gun immediately unhides (for no apparent reason; no LOS means no shoot) and was seen by the infantry; one dead gun... This bug is reproducible. INCONSISTENCIES 1. TAC AI hesitant to fire Often, the TacAI does not open up on enemy units that are visible and close enough. E.g. in one game, 2 HMGs (lots of ammo, veterans and in command) in woods were facing a patch of scattered trees, 80 meters away. The plan was, that if anything appears in the scattered trees, they should open up. Then I gave an infantry squad order to advance to the treeline. Two enemy squads opened up fire on my advancing squad...and the HMGs (with perfect LOS, no covered arcs, no other enemies in view, not surpressed) did NOTHING! This often happens with normal infantry squads and guns too. 2. TAC AI abandons target order to fast. The TacAI should be a little bit more 'sticky' to the 'Target' order. As this order is a direct player-override, it should not be abandoned this fast. It often happens, that I give a target order to a unit, hit GO and then the very first thing the unit does (in the first second) is to cancel my target order... to do nothing! The enemy is still in LOS, there is still no other enemy in sight, the unit is still in command...so why was my direct fire order cancelled. It should be more sticky IMHO. That's it. Maybe one of the guys from BATTLEFRONT finds the time to comment on these points? Others are welcome too! Thanks for listening Tankist

Have you tried to delete the 'Combat Mission BB Prefs' file in the cmbb directory? It helped me with some grapic problems here. Tankist