Faelwolf

I am also a DCS flier, and use a TM Warthog. I have done several swaps and upgrades, reconfiguring my USB devices, with no licensing trouble with CMBN at all. I find it very odd that any USB device would trigger DRM, they are usually based on memory, CPU, etc. direct motherboard hardware, not items on the USB bus, for obvious reasons. Have you checked your system? For example, I have heard of DRM being triggered by memory changes, when a memory stick went bad. Long shot, but you never know, I'd do a diagnostic and look at other items before looking at USB. If I did look at the USB, I'd be looking at the buss voltage first, the Warthog does consume power, (more than the X52 AFAIK) and if your USB buss was already at or near max, an additional load can cause problems in other areas, possibly triggering DRM if the USB controller gets overloaded as it's a direct motherboard item. Not knowing all the details of, or being "eyes on" your system, I can't do more than take shots in the dark. It could also be a registry issue, if you made extensive changes to software recently. I have had a few problems over the years with uninstallers throwing a wrench in the registry. For all flight simmers, I have found that running my stick through a powered USB hub, along with my other flight gear, has worked great. I have done it this way for years, and had far fewer problems. The Warthog seems to be very happy that way, and it's almost a requirement if you are running a CH stick. As for the learning curve, it's not so bad if you break it down into sections, and not try to learn everything at once A10C is about as full realistic as one could expect a household computer flight sim to be. They did basically modify the software for the actual military flight simulators, after all. I was rather surprised by a couple items that are modeled in the cockpit, even as non-functional. Going up with friendly folks is IMO the best way to learn once you have the basics of flight under your belt. I have a small group of friends to fly with that have been extremely valuable to learning. I would also go up on Eno's if I could, but the ping is too high for me.

I've lost one to a spotting round, but never that many. Two more and you can be an enemy ace!

This was fixed in a patch, as well as making the rounds land a bit more realistically so far as spread, etc. Is your copy of the game up to date with the latest patch? I also highly recommend paying the small fee to upgrade to 2.0 if you haven't already done so. It is well worth it. I have not had any artillery problems since the patch, other than the very rare "lucky" spotting round landing in my FO's shorts! If you are having this sort of problem after patching, I am honestly at a loss, and maybe someone with more technical knowledge can help.

For modern, first-world warfare, it's not what you will develop, but what you already have developed, that no one knows about

Been a while since I read up on this stuff, but wasn't this due to the blitzkreig tactic they were designed for back in the 30's? IIRC the Pz III and IV were designed more with fast mobile infantry support in mind rather than to go up against other tanks. So they were given enough armor to withstand what a typical infantry unit could throw at them at that time with the idea that the infantry they were supporting would be protecting their flanks and doing the bulk of the work. Air strikes on the leading edge of the attack would (in theory) have taken out hard targets ahead of time that would pose the most threat to the armor. It worked prety well in Poland and France, but later tanks show the evolution of the war as Germany ran into heavy armor, improved AT weapons, and the loss of air superiority, such as the Stuka no longer being a viable asset. At least this is my understanding of it.

OK, went back in, set unit features to max again. Infantry battalion price raised to 7333 points. Once purchased, purchased value listed at 7958. It appears that raising all to max stabilized the cost of specialist teams and armor, so it looks like that has something to do with what is going on. But the base battalion still went up in price for some reason. But given that the unit prices in the AT screen are changing to reflect the changes in unit quality, I don't think the actual cost should be higher once they are purchased.

It appears to be doing this with any unit I purchase. It does seem to be more pronounced with infantry units though.

Hmm I checked it out, and as I changed those values the unit price changed in the Available Troops column. The price then changed again once purchased. So it appears that the price in the Available Troops column should be the actual price, but that is not what is happening. As an experiment, I bought a unit, and set everything to max, i.e. elite, fanatical, fit etc. so that it would reflect a max cost. The price in the AT window went up accordingly, yet the cost reflected in the purchased unit window was again higher than what was listed. Something seems to be off.

Could be, that is why I asked I am more than happy to learn what changes this, as the manual is illegible to me due to the color scheme. I have a form of shade blindness so that faded brown ink against a colored background makes it just a muddy mess when I try to read it. So the price listed is a base price, and the actual price is from alterations based on the costs you mentioned. I thought the price listed had taken those things into account. I will go dig into this on the menu then, it is something I haven't messed with yet, I have just kept everything at "typical". Thank you very much!

I have noticed when selecting units in QB that the points listed in the Available Troops column are not the points the unit ends up actually costing me. For example, I decide to add a team to one of my companies, and I am told it costs 79 points. I add it to the company and find it cost me 82 points. Another unit says 90 points, and it actually costs me 88. Sometimes the difference is much more substantial. Also, the point prices change after purchasing a unit, so that the next vehicle or team costs more. I assumed this part was a method of limiting purchases, but I would think that the total point allocation would be enough for that. The new higher prices are also changing after selection. I currently have rarity off, as I am still learning the capabilities of different vehicles, etc. so am not worried about historical accuracy at this point. This has been consistent since 1.0. Is there something that modifies the point costs at time of purchase, or is this possibly a bug? It is certainly not a game breaker, but I find it rather annoying to be charged a different point cost as I select units, and not knowing how much a unit actually costs until I have purchased it.

The only way I can think of is to delete the weapon platoon, then buy them attached to the HQ you want it under. Assuming Quick Battle purchases. I haven't tried it though as C2 for those units hasn't seemed to be much of a problem so far. I mix them in with my squads and let them do their thing, and try to avoid putting them in positions where they will take incoming fire without support. Now that you've mentioned it, I think I will do that next game, and see if it makes a noticeable difference. I am sure it does, but I am by no means expert enough on the game to be able to tell you how it works or how much the effect is.

So, I have all my forces sorted out and hit the start button. I am waiting out the usual QB first turn artillery strike by the AI in the empty field in front of me. A stray round lands dead center into the back of one of my half tracks in the setup zone.:eek: So anyone else have a good "aw h***" story?

I am an old USAF telecommunications specialist (80-84), so let me see if I can explain without writing a book, or screwing it up too badly with my lousy writing skills The problem was mainly a technical one. In WW2 and even up through the mid 60's, field radios were single crystal sets to reduce size and weight. Considering WW2 was before transistors, size and weight were relative terms. Vehicle radios could be larger and had more power available, so could be multiple crystal sets and have a wider frequency range. There were communication jeeps that had a radio setup that looked like something out a 30's science fiction serial Larger HQ units also had the multi crystal sets, and multiple radios, but a Coy commander was not as likely to be as well equipped. The Coy HQ support unit would have been equipped with radios for command and control, not relaying mortar requests. Even if they had radios with the right frequency, they would not likely be tuned to those channels. Communication protocols were in place that kept radio communication into separate nets so they would not be monitoring that net, and would be too busy monitoring/relaying C&C traffic to switch over anyway. HQ was also not likely to be in position or have the inclination to sit and relay mortar requests either. The radios were issued in frequency sets, with different units receiving different sets to keep communication separated to prevent confusion and reduce enemy infiltration of the comm net (in theory anyway). We discovered the hard way that it also prevented inter-unit communication as well. Remember that back then radios were a fairly new item for the military, and the protocols were developed in peacetime when it was easy to overlook potential issues. So, if the crystal in your radio did not match the crystal of the radio back at the mortar section, or there was not a multi crystal/radio setup near them, they would never hear you. Due to protocols, someone with the right radio wouldn't be tuned to you and wouldn't hear you. I will skip the other problems like terrain issues, enemy jamming, equipment breakdowns etc. that could interrupt comms, especially since they aren't modeled in the game. If anything, the game makes radio communication to the mortars too easy, though given the lack of runners, field telephones and carrier pigeons I think it's a decent compromise If the game was thoroughly realistic on radio communications, it would be a major pain to do any comms. I just accepted the limitation with HQ support as a nod to realism, and was glad they didn't take it further. This is just from the U.S. point of view, radios were much more limited in the other services, so it would be worse if you were playing on those sides. These days it's all digital, you can switch comms with the twist of a dial, and we rely on digital encryption to protect the net. I also wouldn't be surprised to find troops texting info to each other on their cell phones! But it makes it easy for us to forget what it was like to have a single crystal tube radio with a HAF battery strapped to your back, calling for support and hoping the slob back in the rear could hear you.

I was just about to order CMFI when the announcement came out about the expansion so am waiting for the bundle. (Money was too tight for a while to pick it up right away) So while waiting, I have been reading these boards to bring myself up to speed a bit. While reading a thread about so many different nationalities fighting in this theater, and given it's length and scope, it occurred to me that something very odd has happened. When I am out and about, I make it a point to go over to the old veterans when I see them, shake their hand, and ask them about their service. I have been quite fortunate to meet both men and women who served everywhere from Pearl harbor, the fall of Bataan, through D Day and the bulge. Even one man who fought in the Aleutian islands. I have met folks from all branches of service, including a civilian contractor at Pearl who had a rather unique perspective of the battle and the aftermath. I have been privileged to hear some amazing stories that never made it into the history books. But over the course of 40 years I have yet to meet anyone who served in Italy or North Africa. Very strange. I recommend to anyone to not be shy, and talk to these old vets. Most are touched that anyone still remembers their sacrifice and has an interest in them. You will also learn a lot that you would never know otherwise about the war.

I'm very excited about the flaks added to CMFI, and am hoping we will see them in the next expansion (or sooner as a add-on pack) for CMBN. I know a lot of people are looking forward to flamethrowers, and I am another who would love to see motorcycles added as well. I would love to see utility trailers added for jeeps/vehicles as an option, and have them carry extra ammo and such. There are some flavor objects also that I'd like to see that I don't recall being mentioned. Any chance we could have camouflage nets, tents (pup tents, command, & medical tents), and canvas flys? There seem to be a lot of sundries that are missing for a camp/headquarters setup that could be interesting for a scenario or campaign. I don't think static items like these would use up too many resources to create or use. Livestock for farms could be fun, but I can clearly see that the code for animating and AI actions/reactions would take too much in resources that can be used elsewhere. But maybe a dead cow here and there... Anyone else have any thoughts about small items like these?

Not only the tools but a detailed text file laying out the info you need to make your mods work. I wish other companies were as generous to modders as BF!

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat or are locked out in it for a particular file, you can open and edit .pdf's in Photoshop. It treats it as an image, so it won't save all the formatting data, etc. but you can still change it about any way you want to, it just will save as an image .pdf instead of a text based one. Converting to black text would be pretty simple. You can also use photoshop to convert the .pdf to a jpeg/other format image (or series of images) to be read by other software as well. Since both programs are Adobe products, they made .pdf to be somewhat portable between the apps. I use this trick at work to edit forms that we are sent by other agencies, when they forget to set editing on. (Then of course want us to electronically fill them out before printing or e-mailing them back. Government, feh) Of course, all copyrights are to be respected and appropriate laws obeyed!

No, it wouldn't. Having a personal, private backup of the files you paid to download is ok, and is authorized (even recommended) but a torrent is creating a public document for the purposes of distribution. The files are a paid distribution that is the intellectual property of Battlefront, and it would be illegal and unethical to make an unauthorized distribution of the files. In cases like this, you are actually not purchasing the files, you are purchasing a license to download and use the files. While BF is giving you an non-expiring license for use (playing the game) they are giving you a limited time license of one year for downloading due to the expenses they incur in storage. The $5 for downloading after one year is actually the purchase of a download license extension/renewal, not a repurchase of the files themselves. Frankly, $5 is cheap, and likely does not fully offset the actual costs of storing and maintaining the files. Pay the guys already!

Witchcraft!

Movement attracts attention almost as fast as opening fire. Some ideas: Use the terrain to your advantage, for example don't move along a hedgerow right at the hedgerow, pull your men back a bit, then move them, so that the hedge blocks the enemy's view of them more completely. Look for dead space for larger troop movements, like behind a hill or woods, sometimes these areas can be quite large, and an entire Company can move in them without being spotted. Don't rush up to the crest of a hill, or the edge of a woods, etc. Stop short, and make your movement order for the last action square or two as a slow movement to lessen the likelihood of them being spotted. Be sure to set small target arcs for units like forward observers, scouts, etc so they don't open fire and give away their position. You can also do this for fire teams and mortars, so they don't fire until they are fully deployed, then cancel the arc and let 'em have it!. The hunt command can be useful. But you can also move in shorter movements, with a pause command for 10 seconds or so to give your troops time to observe and possibly spot the enemy better. With a bit of practice, you can set the timing to have teams "leapfrog" into position so that half of them are observing while the other half moves. When plotting a movement, use the target command to check your lines of fire at the new way-point before committing to it. This can also be used to give you an idea of how visible you may be to the enemy but don't take it as a certainty, sometimes the enemy can see you better than you can see them. This can also help find hull-down positions for your tanks to help protect them from return fire, as well. As a last thought, if you haven't watched the Armchair General series of vids on YouTube yet, I recommend them highly. They cover what I just wrote in more detail, and have a lot of other very useful things as well. They are also very entertaining to watch.

Any time I have to do a download for a program, including patches, add-ons, etc. I always put it in a software archive folder as soon as I am done with it, which is then backed up to DVD disks on a regular basis. I also keep all data (which would include the software archive folder) on a second hard drive, so if I have to wipe the main drive for any reason, I still have my data. The data is untouched, and I don't have to rebuild the data archives from disk, which saves a lot of time. When I upgrade computers, I can also just install the data drive into the new system, to the same effect. The disks serve as a backup in case of catastrophic failure. My computer is set up to download directly to the data drive as a matter of convenience, to a segregated folder. That way I don't ever have to hunt for a downloaded file. Learned those lessons the hard way!

If he lives long enough after the lady of the house sees her carpet!

With what I've read of the deployment bug and others, I am waiting to see what they do in the patch before buying the upgrade. I imagine others are, too.

Another old curiosity laid to rest. Thanks Fernando!

When I first saw this post, I thought I'd be the old man at 50! Nice to know I am not the only geezer in the group