[RT and how it has hurt WEGO and single player/AI. (not anti-RT)]

Originally posted by SmithyG:

[QB] At this point i'm not really sure if we should expect a lot of the issues relating to WEGO commands, TacAI and enemy AI to be addressed... or if they're actually design decisions leaning towards a MP RT focused game. Can we get some feedback please?

In the WEGO CM games, the player intervened once every 60 seconds. A refined TacAI was mandatory. Now that we're in RT, or virtual RT, maybe BF expects us to manually pop smoke, reverse the AFVs and retreat the shaky squads to safety. They did excise the Seek Hull Down command so that's become the player's responsibility. If so, I disagree with the decision. As if an actual company commander has the time to attend to these details in a firefight.....The micromanagement would be staggering. And contradicts the philosophy behind real time spotting environment which the game so realistically depicts.

[AI: self preservation missing]

In case anyone failed to notice, troops no longer surrender- as in previous versions.

And yes, I witnessed a platoon of Syrians, firing prone at my Striker from 30m out, stoically getting decimated to the last man. BTW, their were in the open on the HIGHWAY.

[Urban Warfare]

Glad you had a good experience. I found the controls almost too arduous for city fighting, particularly manipulating units in multi story buildings. The TAB function doesn't put you right behind the unit, for one thing, but often a story above. Also, the grunts don't seem willing to camp out in the back of the room in ambush mode. Of course, this could be case of clumsy fingers....

[The reviewers were right, aka, this game is broken.]

Just tried a Tiny quick battle and.... I chose the Syrians, with an Infantry force.

1- The first battle I got an abundance of platoons, IIRC, 3 or 4 plus support units. Problem is, our setup was apparently the same as the Americans. No indication of their setup area. We were wiped out, in less than a minute: fish in a barrel.

2- The second battle, identical parameters. I got

three (3) MG units and a HQ. Again, we awoke to the Americans in our midst. It wasn't pretty.

And, I'm sure it's been mentioned, we can't select the map of our choice? Happiness is diminishing.

[First Impressions]

Did notice one thing: the enemy doesn't surrender any more! No more marching the prisoners off the map edge as in previous CMs. Do the Syrians posses more of that fight-to-the-death spirit than their Iraqi (Or Egyptian, or Jordanian or...) confreres?

[CMx1 Veterans: How Do You Like CMSF?]

7: Too early to tell.

[Can't buy troops????]

Agree with Tom! As if real life commanders can cherry pick surgically appropriate OBs on the fly. Puhleeze. This is a tactical game,after all, reflecting rapidly changing conditions. Now that the purchase screen has been deep sixed players may consider learning to improvise and 'make do' like in RL.

[Can't buy troops????]

Like all balance, unit costs can be modified in patches. This is something that all games do. No amount of beta testing can figure out as much as hundreds of players over weeks, months and years. [/QB]

Hehe, nice try. In response to gamers' complaints, BF constantly tinkered with unit costs in CM1-3 in patch after patch. But in a market as efficient as commodity futures, the grogs always stayed a step ahead. And shared their insights on the forum.

After a while, two thirds of the available units disappeared disappeared from PBEM games. Never to be seen again. Troop purchasing is one of those concepts that sound good on paper, but....

[Can't buy troops????]

Originally posted by PLM2:

A good part of fun in CM is being able to outfox your enemies in purchasing things. Otherwise it might become predictable and the unpredictability is phased out more.

IMHO, Battlefront wisely discontinued the purchase screen. As an owner of the previous titles I can attest that although it was, in a green eye shade kind of way, intitially fun and challenging troop purchasing degenerated into tedious gaminess over time.

Problem was, that after hundreds of games (speaking as primarily a PBEMer) the real cost to value ratio of every unit becomes general knowledge. The effect is an ever dwindling variety of units on the battlefield; the same 'high value' tank, for example, appearing all the time (Stugs, IIRC, in CMBB). The process was very Darwinian, in a boring sense.

[Shock Force suggestions thread]

--Changing the "tab" behaviour to a lower height or angle so that the selected unit is initially visible. Currently I have to pan down and it can be a little confusing.[/QB]

Second this suggestion!

[Shock Force suggestions thread]

Originally posted by flyinj:

I can look around with severe mouselag....

I had the mouse lag problem till I switched out my laser mouse for an ordinary optical one.

[Shoot and Scoot]

Speaking of S&S, is there a seek Hull Down command in the game? Is it even modelled?

[Laser mouse hell]

The back-up mouse is optical. It works. The laser doesn't.

[Laser mouse hell]

Performance was unbearably laggy with the (pricey) MS 6000 laser mouse. Out of desperation, I hooked up the throwaway mouse that came with the PC and *voila* drastically more responsive. It's playable now- it wasn't the video card. May be a compatibility issue here.....

[Ouch. Tom Chick holds forth on CM:SF]

Originally posted by Dr. Zoidberg:

Well, in all fairness, it's not accurate to assert that Tom is a died-in-the-wool RTS man. Here's a gushing review of CMBB he wrote back when:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/combatmissionbtb/review.html?page=1