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JSj

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Posts posted by JSj

  1. One of the inaccuracies of CM1 (in my mind) was the relative ineffectiveness of light mortars. The main reason was the light ammo load (27 rounds for a German 81mm). Since some studies* indicate that German mortars (81mm and 120mm) accounted for 75%(!) of American casualties in Normandy, it would seem reasonable to allow mortar crews access to more ammo through resupply.

    You know, these figures are probably true for most combat. Artillery is by far the greatest killer on the battlefield. But does that mean we want 75% of the casualties to be caused by artillery in the game? How much fun would it be to spend most of your time calling in artillery, and taking most of your losses from enemy artillery that you can do nothing to counter?

    I prefer to think of these battles as showing only the final phase of combat. The time after the initial artillery bombardment, when the units are closing in on each other, so that most artillery have to stop firing to avoid friendly casualties. Light mortars and some air support and artillery may still be used, but most of those 75% casualties have already been sustained before the close in fighting starts.

    My point is, you may not want to judge the amount of artillery available in the game against such numbers as the 75% casualties one. Like I said, that number will include the preparatory artillery barrage that happens before the forces close in and start fighting each other.

  2. If the police were given the right to beat up colored people, I wouldn't say "I find it difficult to get upset about this, because I am white".

    I'm not comparing the DRM to beating people up, I'm just saying that you can be upset about an unjust policy even if you're not personally affected by it.

    Clearly, as is evident by what have been written in this thread, some people do upgrade or reinstall their computer systems frequently enough to be affected by the limited number of activations, and that is very wrong.

  3. Moon,

    Thank you for your reply to my concerns. It's this personal customer service that makes me think that true customers won't have any problems.

    Regards.

    Agreed. Having someone from the developers active on the forums is always a very good sign. Lets just hope that the concerns people have expressed with the DRM gets listened to.

    I don't expect to have any problems either, especially since I don't reformat my harddrive that often. But I don't like DRM:s and I certainly don't like a DRM that limits how paying customers can use their computers.

  4. Are you saying that it checks the hard disk for scratches?

    I have no idea how it works. I just know that there have been lots of people on the Arma 2 forums with problems because of FADE having triggered unintentionally on their purchased copy of the game. God knows how many people have not come to the forums, but have instead blamed the game as "buggy", stopped playing and recommended their friends not to buy it.

    The point is, DRM problems are very bad PR, there has never been a DRM without problems, and there has never been a DRM that hasn't been cracked anyway. So, DRM:s mostly cause problems for paying customers, never to the pirates.

  5. JSj, the problems will only affect people who play pirated copies. If you have a valid key and activate the game, there will be no "hidden" bugs. Doh!

    Yes, in a perfect world maybe. I have never heard of a DRM or similiar that has not caused unintentional problems for some paying customers.

    For instance, Arma 2 has something called FADE, that makes the accuracy of the weapons get extremely low if you play a pirated copy of the game. And there have been lots of people on the forums that have bought the game, complaining about the low accuracy "bug", and they have then had to get help from customer support to fix the problem.

    I really hope that you have created the perfect, fail-proof software to make sure that no one will ever have this system triggered accidentaly, but I seriously doubt that this is possible.

  6. And there is one important thing missing: our new online activation system comes with new anti-hacking protection which will make people who play a pirated copy VERY unhappy. They will be surprised to find tanks missing, vehicles not being able to turn, game crashes etc. I don't want to into specifics, though.

    This is a REALLY bad idea. As already mentioned, there will always be some people that have payed for the game but will still run into problems with the DRM. If you can't activate the game, at least you know that and can contact customer support.

    If you have bought the game legally, and are unlucky enough to for some reason still trigger these kinds of features (and this WILL certainly happen to someone), you are going to assume that the game is full of bugs and unplayable and will probably stay away from any future games in the series, and also recommend others not to buy it.

    If you absolutely need a DRM, make sure that people know if there is a problem with the activation of the game they bought so they can get help to fix it. Inserting random game breaking features without telling people it's DRM related is not smart. :mad:

  7. Well no.

    Stalingrad the Germans outnumbered the Russian defenders by a good margin but were fought to a stand still. In the counter offensive they were out numbered.

    The Soviets kept pouring reinforcements into the city. Many more than the Germans were able to send. And in the end they won because they encircled the Germans with more than a million troops in addition to those fighting in the city. So the Germans were totally outnumbered.

    The Ardennes, no air, no logistics, no backup, no nothing for the Yankees

    Maybe not in the beginning, and that's when they got totally crushed. Well, except for the paratroopers at Bastogne that held out. But they were elite troops that could match the Germans.

    The allies then turned the battle around when the weather cleared, allowing massive air attacks against the Germans, and massive reinforcements (Pattons army). Also, the Germans started running out of fuel and other supplies.

    Accounts of the fighting in and around Caen the air superiority did hamper German resupply but did not weigh greatly in the smaller level battles.

    Air, artillery and logistics superiority did certainly stack the odds heavily against the Germans in Normandy. Wasn't it at Caen that the allies attacked with many hundreds of bombers, totally obliterating the German lines? And the allies were delayed by months in capturing Caen, so this example would tend to support the fact of greater German fighting efficiency.

  8. Hey JSj, no worries... I apologize for jumping on you. ;)

    No need to apologize, and you did put a smiley afterwards so I didn't feel "jumped on" at all. ;)

    Tell us your thoughts on the AAR so far.

    I'm a simulator player mostly (Arma 2, DCS, IL-2 Sturmovik) and don't have much experience with wargames. I came here looking for something a bit more relaxed, where you have some time to think about your next move, and don't need to be so alert and totally switched on all the time. A game where you can take your eyes off the screen for a few seconds without crashing or getting killed. But I still want something more exciting and visually interresting than moving a bunch of square tiles around on a hex-map.

    And I think I have found just that in the Combat Mission series! I am very impressed by the realism and attention to detail. I never played any previous game of this series, but I can't wait to get to play Battle for Normandy when it's released. :)

    The AAR has been a great read so far, both funny and exciting. I'm looking forward very much to see how this battle is going to end.

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