The_Red_Rage

Cheers for the link! BF are looking into it, so i can sleep easy.

Hi folks, I finally installed CMSF on my new rig and was quite dissapointed with performance. Specs are as follows: 2.4 Quad core 2xEVGA GTX260 Super Cloak Edition in SLI; Nvidia 178.24 driver; No overclocking done, everything running at stock settings 150gb 10000 RPM Raptor HD 4 Gig DDR2 RAM ''22 inch screen running at 1680x1050 Vista Ultimate 32-bit Rig is brand new with only CM, CoD4 and [non-working]Fallout 3 installed. Latest drivers for everything is well. I maxed all the setting in CM and smaller scenarios ran very smoothy. However, i decided to fire up a more graphic intensive scenario, and RommeL's Battle of Grozny campaign was a natural choice (lots of damaged buildings, and about 20-30 vihicles plus infantry on screen). In the setup phase frame rate was at unplayable level, probably in the area of 10-12 while looking at a large group of vihicles, it improved to 20-25 when looking at smaller groups of objects. Can any other high end PC users please share their experiences of running the game at maximum settings and high resolutions. Is what i am experiencing normal or there might be some tweaking i have to do with a card? Am i expecting too much out of hardware? I know that CM is a system hog, but two of Nvidia's latest cards with 2 gigs of VRAM combined is no joke either, so i am quite confused at the moment. Any advise will be appriciated.

Not in all cases, but track repair on light IFVs is not a very complicated affair provided you have a peice of a spare track. Whole thing can be done by a driver/mechanic and a gunner.

While reading V.Mironov's memoirs "Assault on Grozny Downtown", i notice that he recaps a particular firefight, where BMP throws a track and crew repairs under heavy fire, while infantry cleared the surrounding buildings. Whole thing took 15 mins or so. http://artofwar.ru/m/mironow_w_n/text_0010.shtml [Not a very good] partial translation: http://artofwar.ru/m/mironow_w_n/text_0180.shtml Chapter 3 or 4 if i recall correctly. Most of immobilization damage in CM is track related, so an option to bail out the crew and have them do some basic repairs would be interesting and not too far off from reality. Now, if the process takes 15-20 mins/turns while your crew is completely exposed, I don't see any balance or gameplay wrecking issues. Quite the opposite - another real world tactical scenario to deal with plus a more possibilities for scenario makers (defend a stranded tank, while crew rushes to repair and etc.)

You have 2 special forces companies and 2 mech companies and 9 missions to work with. Firsy two missions are doable with zero special forces casualties, especially in the new version (with difficulty toned down). Trick to the first mission - all AT-14s on the right with a security half-platoon, and the rest of your forces in buildings along the defensive line (first floors, troops on "hide"); normally no tanks will reach your defensive line as those Kornets are VERY effective, and couple of BTRs and some infantry that makes it through is easily cut down by your infantry and RPG-29s. Second mission trick is to take the farmhouse first. To do so, you have to have a SF platoon waiting close to the entrance to the farmhouse complex, but outside of enemy's initial barrage range (there is a little forrest on the other side of the road from complex entrance that is perfect for waiting....while waiting use "Hide" to avoid shrapnel damage). After 5 min mark barrage is done, pop smoke on the road (this is important - one BTR60 overlooking the road will ruin your day), and cross the road on "Fast". Once your troops are in farmhouse, your troops there are pretty much invulnerable (again use only first floors, after enemy armor threat is gone move your snipers and FO team on the roof/upper floors). Position your other 2 platoons in buildings in the center and right flank respectively. I suggest putting 2 RPG 29 teams and a sniper on a little hill overlooking the main road in your center (on the very left of a long group of connected buildings in the certer of the map). Create ambush zones, with 2-3 RPGs firing on enemy tanks at the same time (tanks will use the main road approach, some will flank on the left).

Gents, Check out Flashpoint 2 and ArmA2. Both look to be the new Meccas for fans of realistic war simulations. Trailers and screenies look jaw-dropping.

Great stuff! I'm using your wonderful vests for my Marines as well

IMHO, Hasrabit should've been included with Marines as an "alternative" persepective to give people a chance to try Syrians out in a fair environment. Quality wise, it easily tops every scenario and camapign made for CMSF so far (from extremely detailed and fun to read briefings to incredible map work).

Not really specialist. I remeber we took an "alternative" route during a "hasty retreat" simulation, and entire company equipped for FIBUA (yep, bangalores, ladders, and other engineer contraptions) ended up moving against the side of the cliff covered in very thick bush and trees, accopmanied with lifting Carl Gustafs/C6s/engineer crap on ropes and some very hilarous/scary falls. I remeber eating my smoked salmon IMP midway through that ordeal with my legs hanging off a 30 ft cliff. And that was done by a reserve infantry unit (albeit a Para one) without anything remotely resembling alpine gear. But with respect to CM, doubt it will ever happen. Cliffs were always out of touch and pretty much the only true natural obstacle in the game.

Definately yes. Russian, French and Israeli are 3 modules i would love to see. All three seem to be finacially viable with large target markets and have alot of interesting gear that haven't been covered in any game yet (Mercavas, BMP-Ts, Leclercs FTW!)

All pre-marine mods except Red Air Power mod seem to work OK.

I can't see basic NVG models adding more polys than the current steel-welder glasses (I'm surprised those things got past beta testers, they went from an "interesting addition" category to "completely annoying" within 5 mins of playing Marines). A radio box on the back of one guy per squad won't add much either...

I thought a proper modern warfare CM was planned as well, where all the feautures from CMSF could be "recycled". These are just a few eye-candy additions we're asking for to give individual troops a little bit of personality (they added flying brass and reload sounds, why not add NVG models, radio model for a radioman, few LAWs slung over shoulders). It's silly to imagine stuff when CM engine is fully able to recreate pretty atmospheric and visually impressive battles at ground level, and adding "little things" makes the experience even more convincing (hey, BFC started it with all the eyecandy and the fanbase is totally spoiled compared with rather Spartan in appearance CMx1 )

After having completed original Hasrabit 4 times, I'm finding first two missions extremely easy. In the old version, I managed to complete Ambush with 3 men wounded - it was very doable once you got the placement right (ATGM line with security platoon on the right flank and two platoons split into teams waiting in ambush by the buildings on the left - whatever got through ATGMs was destroyed by 3-5 RPG29s firing from several directions simoultanously). New version is abit of a cakewalk considering that all my infantry is not only protected by buildings, but fences as well forcing the enemy into narrow corridors covered by crack SF units. Second mission sufferes from the same problem as well - I managed to occupy Farm house before the enemy sneaking in a platoon reinforced by snipers (tip: move your men into the forrest near entreance to the farm house complex 3 mins into inital barrage, on 5 minute mark pop smoke on the road and book it for the other side into the complex). After occupying the complex, it was slaughter with Red forces pouring into doorway size gap in the Fence covered by two crack sniper teams, an infantry team, and RPG29 unit. Enemy's attempt to force my right fank faired even worse fate with 2 destroyed T72s brewing up and taking out at least a platoon. Btw, this is all probably a good thing since alot of people found Hasrabit extremely challenging and toning down on the difficulty should push Red on Red to the "masses" more How is the progress on Road to Dimas btw? I'm itching to use BMP-3s and T-90s in proper campaign setting

It only occured to me on the drive home today...after playing the game since it's release and having completed Canadian Forces comms course. So no shame there whatsover. Some sort of idle anim with squad leader using the radio mike would be extremely cool as well and give the squad a less robotic and more organic feel.

+1 on NVGs appearing on models. It sould take an experienced 3D animator/modeller whole 5 minutes to make, however it might take weeks to code to work properly and thus be at the very buttom of priority list. Radios is another visual addition that i would LOVE to see. Infantry section just doesn't feel right without a guy with a backpack radio

Please point out where I am masquerading ignorance as knowledge? My stock Toyota FJ Cruiser has better all-terrain performance than vihicles in CM (Humvees with reinforced suspensions spinning around their axis after bumping a little rock). We've worked with LAVs in 4 metres of snow, and they did just fine, while CM LAVs have trouble navigating 20cm of sand with an odd rock thrown in... Also, i like how you took out "correct me if i'm wrong" from my statement.

-Better cross-terrain performance from vihicles (not just IFVs... Humvee should act like a Humvee, instead we get a Lada that can't cross a little rocky patch without doing three 360 degree turns). In mission 3 of Semper Fi, Syria i arranged for a nice convoy to push for the route tiger, with cover arcs, proper pauses and etc. (whole thing must've taken me 7-8 mins of plotting). To my horror, my nicely arranged convoy turned into a mob of vihicles running into each other and spinning around their own axis on the first patch of rough ground... after about 2 minutes [well over the time it should've taken the convoy to clear the open ground] Syrians, whose ATGM launching ability rivaled Marine driving skills, finally managed to land the hit on one of the trucks. Trucks were the worst culprits of "traffic jams" as well (and losing a fully packed truck to such BS was painful). Correct me if I'm wrong, but pretty much every vihicle in CMSF should be able to clear rough patches under 100m in distance at at least 25-30 km/h. Tanks shoud be able to smash through forrested areas, especially with momentum (we are not talking Karelian pine forrests here, this is Syria with dinky palm trees and bush). Detailed suspension damage would be a nice "risk" factor for the player if he desides to run LAVs full speed through rocky patches. At the moment, suspension is probably the least detailed aspect of CM vihicle simulation - on field track repair (takes about 10-15 mins to change a track on BMP-2 under fire), detailed visual wheel and track damage modelling (blown off wheels that are actually blown off on the models) would all be welcome additions.

I had tons installed as well with 1.08. So far all work fine with exception of Red Air Power mod (Russian/Syrian AF mod), which causes the game to crash within minutes of starting.

Definately interested in this! Agree with all the points made by Peter Panzer, especially with adding variety of options we can play around with all include them all if we like (particularly i would love to see the woodland camo NBC gear option a la Generation Kill, as well as helmet options (Normal Dude's plain helmets from Spec Ops mod would fit right in).

Very good work! I'm definately using those helmet textures for my regular marines as well. face mask looks very good as well. You absolutely must do one of the many Spetsna"zes" for Syrian spec forces for us RvR lovers (with those intimidating looking masks and maybe even bandanas if those are possible to do ). Again, GREAT WORK!

Gamespot reviewing CM is similar to National Enquirer Magazine attempting to write a serious political peice... I have a hard time digesting reviews by people who have zero knowledge on the subject matter and thus zero appreciation for what BFC has done. On the other hand, Gamespot editors seem to be in awe from garbage like Dance, Dance Revolution , Guitar Hero and Donkey Kong (and those are 30-year-old men writing reviews :rollyeyes: ) So, no matter how good and polished CM becomes to us, your average Gamespot goer will always consider it some sort freeware-indie-semi-independant-release with glitchy graphics and impossible difficulty (WAHT?! I can't charge a horde of tanks across an open field and win?!! not-L337, d00d - not L337 at all), and in the end will go back to his GTA*insert a numer* /end rant

The pirates don't exactly take the cargo only - they take the WHOLE SHIP. Somalian coast is the modern version of the Pirates of the Carribean, but this time with modern super-fast speedboats, RPG rocket launchers, and GPS systems. I doubt that any sub or military vessel was shadowing the captured ship either - the only navy willing to get involved in combatting piracy off the coast of Somalia have been French, and they are terribly overstreched with one military base in the area, and have been calling for help for years. Noone wants to get involved, because solving a problem at sea involves solving the problem on land in Somalia. And the problem is getting more and more serious with 80 ship hijackings just in August - certain port cities in Somalia are literally converted into heavily defended pirate towns where they tow captured vessels to wait for ransom. So, no special forces, submarines or other developments like that - that stuff only happens in the movies. This was a straight hijacking in a place where 3 vessels a day get attacked. From what I've read from Ukranian sources tanks were valued at around 800,000-1 mil each. Ransom is posted at 35 million, however it is unclear whether tanks are included in it.

A rag tag version would be much appriciated as well, with different 5-6 slightly different combinations. Army one worked great in game!

I can confirm that Marines runs much better under Bootcamp (I'm running older bootcamp 1.4 beta under Tiger as well, with ancient Nvidia drivers). After initial crashing problems caused by a third party mod (Red Air power), everything is going smooth now. Fewer redraws, better fps, and alot fewer graphical glitches. VAST improvement in performance and probably the best/most polished CM to date! I got older MBP 2.2 Ghz too (second gen i believe, purchased in the beginning of Sept. 2007), so you should be able to get even more performance out of CM with a newer 2.5 model. Steve, You seem to have been using Macs for a while and I have abit of a Mac question - is it worth upgrading to Leopard just for newer Bootcamp vid drivers? Are they that much better for performance? (I'm primarily concerned with CM performance, and Call of Duty 4 to a lesser extent).