mazex

Well, I have an 8800GTX in my desktop PC and a 7600GS in my Media Center computer (AMD 3000+ 1Gb). The 7600GS plays CMSF but not with full details. The 8800GTX also has rather bad FPS so there is no card on this planet that can play CMSF well... The 7600GS can actually play Crysis too - but at low settings and with rather bad FPS, but somehow playable...

Wasn't that actually Luke Skywalkers reply to Darth Vader saying "I am your Father Luke" </font>

I have no problems with the module concept now that 1.07 has proven that the base game is sound... But lets give us something more to drool over - what are the current module plans after the Marines module? There is talk about the Brits - any official take on this? What more? Are all the mods necessarily taking place in Syria or could the year 2008/9 or so be the "CM:SF base"? Just add some grass/tree mod and a russian invasion of Poland in 2010 is possible without to much work... Riots after accusations of rigged elections etc, old style communists regain power and starts threatening old WP countries Possible - nope, but I'm willing to add some imagination to get away from asymetric warfare Well, Russia vs NATO would get assymetrical pretty quick but still... OK, that's really more work than a module so make it a separate game - I'm willing to pay at least. Then add a German mod with Leos and stuff as the russians somehow squash Poland and roll through Germany to the third mod with french units. It takes lots of imagination but really - a US invasion of Syria is pretty much science fiction today... Just look at all the "which is the best tank" threads in forums all over the world. People are willing to add some imagination to try it out...

Hi mom!

Hi! Unexpected release! Just downloaded the 1.07 patch for the Paradox release from GamersHell and I can confirm that it works this time. Some initial impressions: Was just editing a scenario and booted my "work in progress" after patching. Got disastrous performance, stuttering, bad fps etc. I had started and stopped the 1.06 version many times this evening so 1.07 felt like a bad release. Rebooted and I got better FPS than ever before (subjective feeling). I don't think it had anything to do with 1.07 but rather Windows etc... if anyone experiences it, it may be worth rebooting. Running an 8800GTX (169.21 drivers) if it has anything to do with that (with the nVidia driver optimizations and max settings in CMSF). Another thing - loading the maps seems to take longer time than before (stops for a long time at 52% and at 60%). Not that it matters as long as the time is well spent under the hood The "bad" 1.06 behaved like that too so I was a bit shaky at first when it happened. Another one, is it only me or does it feel like the tanks are moving faster at "fast" now? My M1A1:s are speeding through the desert at dangerous speed at "fast", but the pathfinding feels really slick as a first impression - even at that speed. Very nice manouvring throgh trees with tanks and nice avoidance of friendly tanks standing in the path... Started my "Hello World" scenario (Allahs Fist) and less than a second after starting the timer almost all of my Abrams tanks fired at some distant target at the other side of the target area. Don't remember that ever happening before so something has definately changed /Mazex

You mean this one? Made this cheesy photoshop edit long time ago for an old nonsense thread... But seriously - Add it please - if there is time! /Mazex

At some point I was afraid the CMSF code was a dead end as it had so many problems in version 1.0->1.05. After each patch the hope diminished even more as there where so many problems left and the lacking AI and pathfinding made it impossible to "get sucked in", forgetting about the AI and blaming yourself for mistakes instead of the AI. I fully agree with you that 1.06 did the trick. Suddenly I could play the game without thinking about irritating bugs. At some point, a game engine does the job good enough that you think of the heaps of polygons and textures as units and not as something that is produced by a computer program... CMSF version 1.06 does that - for lengthy periods. After 1.12 or something I guess the game will be really good. I am really looking forward to the modules and naturally the return to WWII... /Mazex

What's that up there in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a thread lock!

Well, you are obviously provoking for a cause, but still - reasoning like that you have to put a pricetag on a regular GI and put up a spreadsheet and see which solution is the winner... In that case, how about adding a column where you skip the humvee:s too? They cost a lot of money too and you could train more soldiers patrolling on foot for those dollars, making up for the losses. How about if you cut the training time. That must get you cheaper GI:s too, making the "patrol on foot" alterative even more interesting? /Mazex

With Windows XP: 1. Click on Print Screen button (you can only do this one at a time and the screen save is always the last click) 2 Exit game and go to Programs/accessories/Paint 3. In Paint click edit and Paste. You can now use paint to change size, file type to upload (JEPG usually ) or get Photoshop which I use because ANY dunderhead can get Really good results with it...I'm living proof!) </font>

Well, for me 1.06 has made the game fully playable, and after waiting since day one for satring the campaign (and version 1.0 (Paradox user)), I just want the campaign fixed now so that the syrians start where the designer originally put them. I guess the new engine (It really is that) plays in a completely different way so a review of the campaign battles from a balance viewpoint would maybe be a good thing too? Played some battles yesterday and some where really easy to win now when the troops are off drugs Others are really tough as the syrians are off drugs too... /Mazex

Finally the real 1.06 Paradox patch arrives and what a pleasant surprise! The pathfinding code has gone from the silliest in a game since the 80-ies to what I had expected from the begining - quite OK for a 2007 game! The silly long waypoint deviations are gone (<1.06 could wander off from the plotted path completey). The fine navigation has also improved massively. I put two Abrams tanks nose to nose with a 10m gap between them and ran eights around and between them in tight turns with another Abrams for 10 minutes out o cheer joy The rest of the game just feels soo much better too, as someone put it - you no longer think about how the AI will mess your plan up but think real tactics instead. Finally I will start the stock campaign that I refused to start until the game got out of the beta phase that we have been helping out with the last 6 months. Now I really look forward to CMx2 Normany and CMSF 1.07 - after I'm done with the campaign! You are now forgiven for all your CMSF 1.0 sins - let's hope some sites does a re-review of the game so that it gets the score it deserves now! I agreed with most reviewers then so no shame on them... /Mazex

Still waiting for that Paradox fix... Nope that's correct, but at the other hand the graphics drivers are rather easy to roll back, and as I don't have any SLA obligations to myself about 7x24 uptime on my gaming rig, I can handle the necessary reboot to revert to the old version if the driver seems bad Still waiting... /Mazex

If everyone behaved like that we would still be living in caves Sorry could not resist it - don't take it too seriously! (yes - I'm bored, waiting for the Paradox fix)

Thanks for the update..I will go ahead and ask, is there a chance it will be yet today? </font>

Well, we often hear about QA issues delaying the patches for the CD versions. I guess we know right now why the Paradox patch was released at the same time as the BFC version... They skipped the whole testing phase right off. I worked with some russian devs once. A famous quote in that project was from one of them (told in thick russian accent): "We have tried it once, it will work all the time". You can all guess what happened the next time his module was invoked /Mazex

Hi! Im getting this one too with my 8800GTX using the 169.21 drivers (Paradox CD version). Got the error with my old drivers too (167.75 or something?) so I tried upgrading. Really annoying as the changelog looked like we where finally getting the RC1 version instead of the previous alphas and betas I also tried and interesting thing in a mission with only Strykers... Pressed "=" (select next unit) and the same fatal exeption occurred. So it's not the mouse click that casues the problem. The error (doesn't say much - but still, are you interested in the full dump?): Fatal Exeption: AppName: cm shock force.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: cm shock force.exe ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 00035bf3 Snippet from the wrapper for the error report it wanted to send to m$: <EXE NAME="CM Shock Force.exe" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY"> <MATCHING_FILE NAME="CM Shock Force.exe" SIZE="9392128" CHECKSUM="0x38668240" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x41C5A0" LINKER_VERSION="0x10000" LINK_DATE="02/01/2008 12:22:07" UPTO_LINK_DATE="02/01/2008 12:22:07" /> My system (all drivers updated to latest versions etc - rock stable in all other apps) Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (@3.0Ghz - 1200Mhz FSB) Asus Striker Extreme NForce680i SLI MB Asus GeForce 8800GTX 768Mb 2 x 1Gb Corsair PC6400 XMS2 XTREME CAS4 @900Mhz 4-4-4-15 2,1 Volt 1 x RAPTOR 150GB + 2 x Raptor 74Gb (raid 0) + Hitatchi T7K500 320GB Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional Zalman CNPS9700 Cpu cooler Antec TruePower Trio 650W Antec P180B Chassis Dual boot - Windows XP SP2+ and Vista64 Ultimate Regards /Mazex (hoping for a QUICK fix)

OK - I hope that the Paradox patch does not take two weeks to finalize after that... The wait after the dl patch is out is unbearable. Why did I buy the paradox version then? I simply like to buy boxed software with a CD, call me old fashioned or whatever

Hey Rune, you realize that you have just broken a number of Geneva Convention regualations that would make Saddam Hussein look like a boy scout? /Mazex

Sounds good! I hope that Charles does some optimization he talked about regarding at least the "move" or "slow" commands to make the vehicles select the plotted path instead of making up "their own" way... Example (version 1.05): Allahs Fist - an initial simple order through flat plain desert with no obstacles. Observe that it is a "slow" order - the results are the same with fast, accept that the leftmost tanks forgot it's move order after getting close to the other tank on the left side and simply stopped (dropping the order)... The orders: The result (with added original orders) - trick question - which tank belong to which original path?: I really do have problems with this - why do they NOT take the plain and easy route that I planned for them? Instead deviating A LOT and ending up zig zagging between the palm trees at two different places... The two leftmost tanks arrived a good time after the rightmost tanks - and exposed themselves in places I did not intend to! I've read the 300 post thread recently about this and your answers to it, and a game does not need "super duper driving AI" to sort this out. It takes all the immersion away from me at least. Even if I plot the course with number of waypoints one of the tanks ended up among the trees! EDIT - comments like: "A real commander would issue more detailed orders instead of 'long' orders like that" will be disregarded An order like "Advance slowly to the gap between the trees over there" should be prefectly realistic as there is only flat sand between the starting location and the gap... It would be almost impossible to give another order as it would be something like "drive to coordinate xy (somwhere in the flat sand on route) and then to... Regards /Mazex [ December 20, 2007, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: mazex ]

Well, the completely insane pathfinding is actually my biggest issue with CMSF so it's depressing news that it has not been fixed. As it has not been fixed after so many posts about it there has to be something fundamentally wrong with the whole movement code in the game. This has to be a prime candidate for 1.06 even though it should have been fixed in version 0.7! I've posted a few images way back when of M1A1:s beeing given a long "single" ~30 degree movement order in a plain desert and they go 45 degrees until passing the point where they can go 0 degrees to get to the destination. In a flat desert and a long "leg" the deviation from the plotted course can be rediculus - and they expose themselves to the enemies I tried to sneak up on using MY EXPLICIT ORDER. They have to be taken out and shot in an ad hoc court marshal if they survive... As I don't have the 1.05 patch yet (living in Sweden and bought the boxed Paradox edition), I haven't been able to test it. I guess my 30 degreee test will fail then to. Until a simle order like that is executed correctly it doesn't matter how nice the dynamic lighting is - for me at least! /Mazex

Just fyi, I reported this scenario's los problems earlier in an AAR thread. This is why a better bug reporting system might be useful. Hell, I did beta test for you guys for a number of years... </font>

Wow! That's what I call a patch readme! Can't wait until the Paradox version... /Mazex

Go the other way instead of modern, lets say a thousand years for fun. To keep the force balance of US vs Syria - how about a "Hordes of mushroom loaded Vikings vs. small and peaceful fisherman village in France" setting? Reminds me of that olde viking war game? What was it called? Stamford bridge? OK, I'm bored waiting for the patch /Mazex

Sounds interesting with a mod tool! I guess I have missed a month of posts or so getting tired of waiting for 1.05... I suppose that we will not be able to add new units etc as that would hurt the sales of BFC's modules? At the other hand, it could give the game a well deserved boost if 1.05 fixes the LOS/LOF/Pathfinding issues as promised and community content adds some interesting scenarios instead of US vs. Syria which is not a favourite of mine. /Mazex