mazex

Well - graphics that looks 10-15 year old and still run very slow on modern hardware does not help the sales - and more sales brings more features and modules to the ones that have no problem with the 2006 looks. And with a modern graphics engine you can spend your CPU cycles on spotting etc, with super optimized capabilities built into the engine. But more importantly focusing your time on logic that is not built into UE like unit behavior's under fire. And what to do if you spotted something... Or the tank nearby did with a bad radio. Some small caliber munition ricochets off your turret. Close the hatch or not? So, for a small team you can focus on what sets you aside from the competition instead of the work needed to do a game engine. And the Battlefront games are truly unique in their value delivery as a tactical battlefield simulation. Even really big studios have stopped building their own game engines as the time spent to build your own is not worth it. Just imagine something that looks and works like WARNO - but plays like CM2...

How about Unreal Engine 5? Matching version number even though I can live with UE 5.1 Someone has probably already made this lame joke earlier in the thread...

Thanks guys - it helps to know that you are not alone Knowing that Lethaface with similar hardware had it running I continued my quest! Anyway - as I was loosing hope I did an uninstall and then reinstalled the game. Started in 1.00 (from the installer) and all worked. And it loaded without any black screen and felt snappy. Patched to 1.03 and it still worked... Set all options to max and started a new battle. To my amazement it felt snappier than CMx2 has ever felt! Thinking of it I guess I might not have tried it since I swapped my 3070 for a 3080... Anyway - uninstall and then reinstall fixed my problems!

OK - I patched to version 1.03 and now the game no longer starts. I just get a black screen for 5-10 seconds and then back to desktop. No error message or anything. I remember having to do something to get Red Thunder to work with DPI scaling or stuff... Tried compatibility mode for windows 7/8/10 whatever with no luck. Running Windows 11 with an RTX 3080 card and a 1440p monitor so I guess I just have to face the fact that an engine that is 15 years old no longer works on a rig like that...? But Red Thunder starts after a black screen for 5-10 seconds at least. And Cold War worked when I ran Windows 10 - nut I think I had to do something to get it running there as well that I cannot remember.

Yep - when I lost my visa drinking in east Berlin as a teenager in early 1989 I was locked up for hours in the east side of Checkpoint Charlie. When I finally got released I was getting pushed over the white line to freedom with an AK-47 in my back with the parting comment "you are not welcome in East Germany any more!". When turning around after passing the white line I gave the east german soldier a finger, and a black french soldier give me a high five cheering... Guess we had both seen the movie "Gotcha" which played out almost exactly the same way Accept I was a drunk 19 year old instead of a cheesy teenage spy... Later that day I realized we where going by bus through East Germany back to Sweden and that might not be the smartest move. Fortunately the Stasi persona non grata registers updated slowly in this pre computer age so the passport control going back was not updated And a couple of months later the wall fell and I am still welcome in Germany

Was getting depressed and had to try something where those T-72s had to attack instead. Good - look who's burning in the field now? Needed this after that desert Not that I had much left to give in the end and only one M60 surviving... The TOWs and M47s really helped out a lot. Attacking with tanks in ~1980 is not easy. Maybe realistic but it sure is easier with some obstacles and more obvious LOF lines... That M150 that unfortunately paid the ultimate price had four T-72s accounted for. And in a more stationary position the TacAI did fire and then back down nicely to reload in cover etc... Accept that last time when I think a BMP-1 got it with an AT-3 or 5. Felt deserved somehow.

I surrender and leave my buring M60s in the desert to rust. I have reloaded and tried that second mission 15 times. Give me a bunch of goddamn M1A1s and 1989

Yep - and as an old developer myself I fully understand that this really is no easy task. How much autonomy should the TacAI have? If I ordered 5 tanks in line formation to point X and a target to the left and right gets detected by the flank tanks. What should the three tanks in the middle prioritize to assist in getting a LOF for? If they roll pretty far from the destination I picked they might get flanked by some other tanks I knew about and I would scream "stupid TacAI!". But as it is now a WeGo line of 10 tanks where only 1 or when lucky 2 engage a detected solo T-72 because of a small ridge makes it very hard to get the benefit of having a numerical superiority and it ends up with 1:1 shootouts where a single stationary T-72s gets the upper hand on the 10 moving M60s... So you have to creep micro managing all the tanks so that all of them have LOS/LOF on the area where you suspect the enemy is. And as that is VERY hard to understand on the path you plan to travel with the current LOF tools (target line) you have to find a potential end destionation for all tanks that looks like it has LOF. But if you then issue a HUNT command they may stop at the wrong location spending most of the 60 seconds without supporting their platoon mate on peak getting hammered... A LOS / LOF tool like in Steel Division 2 would make it a bit easier to understand why the heck most of your tanks cannot get a LOF on that T-72 that looks like it is in a wide open desert. The worst terrrain is actually the one that is ALMOST flat. When there is a big gully you know that you will have LOF wherever you are on route to your destination. Or you have to get smoke in front of them even though you want that lovely line of 10 tanks storming across the desert that truly would make a solo T-72 back very fast out from the very small ridge that barely covers them from 9 of the tanks instead of firing at the 1 tank they have LOF on...

Great advice - the problem is that this kind of micro management should really be handled by the TacAI in my opinion. If I give a hull down order to a tank it should peek up over the cover with just the gun and fire. Then back down while reloading and possibly evaluating the situation. No World of Tanks peekaboo but "normal" hull down behavior. And when using WeGo that I really like many of the good advice above will not work and you will end up with the scenario I described above where 90% of your tanks just stand there in rather flat terrain - almost with LOF - doing nothing while the solo tank with LOF gets hammered... They might even have LOS but still just idle as some pixel obscures the shot.

I get a feeling that one generic problem with CMx2 is that the LOF is rather "picky", one second you have it - one second not... I try to roll with all my 10 M60 tanks in line / wedge whatnot formation and even though the landscape is very flat and open it is almost always ends up in a one on one engagement when a Soviet tank is detected. Sometimes two of my M60s engage a T-72 together but it is very hard to get the expected result where a T-72 is spotted and 3-4 tanks target it together that should turn the tables? Sure - we do not want any cheating, if there is no LOF it should not be possible to shoot - but to some extent a commander that notice that the target is getting a bit obscured by a rock / tree / gully would reverse 5 meters or similar instead of just staying where they are - almost with LOF? And if you notice that the tank next to you starts firing at some target to the left you would probably have noticed the dust plume and notified the rest of the platoon that would have "micro positioned" their tanks so that no small ridge ends up obscuring the LOF to that target? Try playing a first person tank game firing at a distant target where you do NOT move a bit forward when a ridge just obscures your target etc. When you are hull down and the target gets out of sight you roll forward 2 meters to be able to fire... Not in CMx2 where the LOF and LOS is lost and that tank spends the rest of the 60 seconds doing nothing? So - in a scenario like this where 10 M60 tanks are rolling in a flat landscape and know the general location of the enemy they would not spend 60 seconds where 1 tank is exchanging rounds with a T-72 finally getting punctured and the other tanks around it just stand still doing nothing to help... And they are in both close visual range with their platoon members, radio link etc...

Nice to hear I am not alone. Had not read Bil's advice and rode into the valley of death cocky as... Had only lost one M60 in the first mission so I thought this would be easy... Now that valley looks like the Sinai desert after the Egyptians fled their burning tanks... Or El Alamein where there are still wrecks rusting to this day. I played rather cautiously waiting for the reinforcements while hammering off with arty and Cobras and only lost one M60 before the additional M-60s arrived. No matter how I roll it the T-72s pick us off like it was Desert storm and they have M1A1s and I ride the T72s Lucky for us that the Soviets did not attack in the late 70:ies and early 80:ies. At least with me commanding the US forces. As a Swede I start thinking if a Strv 103 half dug into the sand would fair better against the T-72s? I still remember killing three of them though in a forest at an exercise with AT-4s as they could not turn on the narrow road when my infantry platoon ambushed them with a well placed "pull mine" ambush (tank mines tied together with ropes pulled up infront of the first tank at the same time you pull a string of mines behind them... Like shooting fish in a barrel. Fond cold war memories :)).

Lol. Just finished the first scenario - and I am HAPPY with this result

Mmm - I must say that the NTC campaign seems well designed from the pretext that "many commanders coming to Fort Irwing where shocked with the effectiveness of the OPFOR and the enemy equipment they faced"...

Warming up while downloading... We where supposed to be neutral in Sweden when I did my military service in Sweden in 1989 and there where supposedly two different tank recognition books. One with Soviet tanks and one with Nato tanks. We never got a copy of the Nato version (for some reason?) so I only know how to identify Swedish or Soviet tanks. So I got to study up on the US vehicles while the download is running. We got an aircraft recognition book that I still have from the airforce that also included US aircraft but the cover photo kind of gave away who might be the real enemy? The lower aircraft is a Swedish JA-37 Viggen on border patrol over the Baltics in the Cold War... Browsing it there is an interesting page about the possible F-19 that was actually the F-117 in reality (the book as can be seen is from 1987 and the F-117 was not revealed until 1988)... That old F-19 Stealth Fighter game from one year after this book looks a bit like it... The text translated starts with "Certain information is available about this "invisible" aircraft that is developed using so called stealth technology. The project is protected with great secrecy so very little information is available about it...". Getting geared up into Cold War mood now

Great - this one did the trick! In 1920x1080 it's possible to play it and my montitor does an OK job of downscaling even though it gets a bit fuzzy. I guess it was 3-4 years since I played CMx2 last time and unfortunately it's really showing it's age now. At first I actually thought it was CMx1 I had started. But oh god how many nice hours I have had with both CMx1 and CMx2.

No - after fixing the DPI scaling issue the text is sharp (using an RTX 2080). But it was small on 1080p already - on 1440p it is tiny... I can read it but it hurts ;) So - is there a way to force 1080p even though being a non native res this is non desirable. In the display settings I only have some historic settings like 1024 x 768 or "use Display Settings". Been looking around for some config file but can't find it... Naturally a UI display scale setting would be the optimal solution but that would require quite some coding in this old engine...

Hi, Long time since I played this excellent game series. I was going to buy the CM:SF2 upgrade as I have CM:SF1 with all moduled but took CMRT for a spin first after downloading the 2.02 patch. At first I realized that the text was almost impossible to read. Found advice here to turn off DPI scaling and that helped to clear up the fonts. But still - the UI does not scale so at my 1440p monitor I need a magnifying glass to read the text. How do you other guys do to play the game these days on modern rigs? And is there any new engine cooking? The CM gameplay is awesome but I understand that doing your own 3D engine is to much work these days - a port to the Unreal Engine or Unity would be logical way to go I guess...

Indeed it is explained there. As it was so far from the forest line where I started my assault I did not use "Target Briefly" with 30 secs or so as the grunts never would have gotten that far in CMSF which is the game I have played most unfortunately. In CMSF they would have been running in circles/walked/crashed into each other for at least 2 minutes before getting to that hill. Not in CMRT where they gallantly stormed the hill in bounds and two of the guys in the manouvre team got blown to pieces by the 85mm HE rounds pounding that trench... So - I read the manual, ignored it and two of my brave soldiers payed the ultimate price for that Will use Target Briefly x 2 next time I do a close quarters assault...

Well, I bought CMSF, CMBN + all modules and almost never played them - just to get this... The later CMBN versions where getting good but I really appreciate the Eastern Front where both sides can find a tank around the corner that can kill your best tank with one shot (not counting a lucky one). And boy it's worth it! The game may look rather similar looking at screen shots, but it plays totally different from that first experiment (CMSF). In CMSF I was tearing my hair for every stupid action my grunts managed to pull off, In CMRT I'm proud of them! I just played through the tutorial campaign to brush off some rust - and what a joy it was. Soldiers assaulting like they should - tanks that find their way and do it in style. Hit's on enemy tanks where you can replay over and over again to see that critical penetration. The only things I miss now is the CMx1 "enter" unit info screen and roads that are spline based. But that can wait until CMx3! And maybe a unit list / sheet that can be pulled up to see all units with their current status/suppression/ammo/kills/wounded/enemies killed etc. Would be very nice while playing and great for the after battle review...

2:nd of April at 18:17 GMT (Two Weeks™)

I know, the "bulk" was Pz IV:s in the mid war and the long barreled Shermans match them well... And the earlier PZ IV:s are not that far from a regular Sherman. But in mid 1944 and later there where a lot of Panthers and Tigers out there - even though many PZ IV:s still where called Tigers But the reality of 4-6 Shermans per Tiger are a bit boring IMO at least. With some bad luck one of the Shermans knock a track off your Tiger or Panther (fully realistic naturally) but I like scnearios with about equal number of tanks better. But - having done quite a number of CMx1 scenarios (and some CMSF ones too) - I'm interested in the roads these babies sometimes ride on It's very hard to do a scenario that looks good "from some altitude" and matches a historical terrain with the 0,45,90 degree roads. Sure, the forests and towns get a bit "square" too, but it looks rather good anyway. Having spline roads would be really nice, no real need for "softer" forest lines etc... Maybe something for version 4.0? In CMx1 the roads where "on par" with the rest of the terrain - but now the rest of the landscape looks so good Then of course having a vehicle following a road gets a bit harder and as the base engine is "square" based for calculations it maybe gets hard to determine if a unit is on a road "square" or not?

So, been away a long time from CM even though I've bought most of the games and modules in CMx2. Hate to admit it but I have not played them much - waiting for the return to the only front where the tanks where closely matched... It simply gives me no satisfaction blowing up Shermans with a Tiger (more than a few times ) So - eagerly awaiting CMRT and my wallet is on the table waiting for the download version to get released. CMRT looks really awesome and in general it does not look far behind many titles developed by really large teams. I guess that it's not only Charles coding now with the pace that modules and games are pouring out now? One thing that I really think would make this title take that last step to look really "AAA" after looking at the great AAR images is some kind of spline road implementation? The good ole zig-zag roads really look more out of place now that the game looks so good in general? Not that it really matters as it's the amazing tactical game engine that counts but are there any thoughts of doing something like that? I fully understand that this topic has probably been discussed a lot in other threads so sorry for bringing it to the table if that is the case /mazex

Well, either it's Cold War - Western Europe 1989 or Cro Magnons vs Neanderthals. Maybe Space Lobsters as a dark horse? My bet on number one in the list as they now have some western European terrain and a bunch of modern US/Soviet/British/etc equipment...

Be sure!

From my previous research in the matter as I also come here every other year and wondered who the mythical Peng was, I guess this is our man? http://home.comcast.net/~joe.shaw/wsb/html/126944/view.cgi-.html And the other sods and pool hangarounds? Other than that the basic scheme seems to be that one of the knights challenge someone for a multiplayer PBEM game and in the first post of the thread dictate the "rules" that always differ in some way. The rules, the champion and the challenge itself is then torn apart for a few pages and when someone picks up the glove they happily insult each other in the thread while the others hang around punching from the sides trying to be witty? Myself I've always thought they seem to have a good time and guess the day the last Peng Challenge threads dies, Battlefront will have to take down the sign? EDIT: Loving Internet research - here is a summary of the origins by one of "The Olde Ones": http://berlichingen.tripod.com/peng/history.html