5th SS Div Wiking

That's what I've worked out. The half-track crew didn't 'see' it either, nor did either of the un-buttoned tank commanders. They all had a clear and direct LOS to it as they drove up to it. In the big game I played five times I was having tanks knocked out left, right and centre by shots I couldn't understand. Even one in a field surrounded by three lines of hedges. I figured it was the old "enemy tank commander can spot my tank through three fortunately aligned tiny gaps in three hedges spaced 10m apart each from god only knows how many hundreds of meters away." I lol but it's really not good enough for £75.

Ok, after five plays through the "Honour is Loyalty" battle (the big one, last on the list in 'Battles') I gave up trying to spot what I felt sure was something badly off. I remembered advice from years ago, that what the player can see through trees and bushes etc isn't necessarily what the little chaps in the code can see. Big battle, fog of war, lot of stress on the CPU etc. I heaved a sigh and moved on. On to a campaign battle, the Kampfgruppe at Falaise (eight-mission gig). The first mission is where I finally nailed what I'd been suspecting since I dropped $105 for this bundle a few days ago. This isn't a big mission, it's tiny and should present no challenge to my 2500k (judging by the speed at which it calculates the turns, less than three seconds in most cases). First the video, which I captured with my phone: In big battles one might argue the player wouldn't even notice this (but I do, just couldn't directly witness what I felt was going on). In a small battle like this however...only two MkIVs and one Panther (the Lynxs, pft), it's pretty critical. You can see the MkIV I lost to this invisible cheat. A half-track was also hit and driven off right when I needed its MG support. Far left of the screen was the only US tank I could see, a Stuart, which I suspected was the culprit, even though it and its gun were facing away (turned out it was already dead from my other MkIV down the slope in front of it). So I spent ages trying to identify what could have knocked out the MkIV and what was repeatedly hitting the Panther. Then I spotted what you see in the video. I don't know if this is a bug or some kind of 'game-balancing' cheating going on but it's put me totally off playing any more. On a small battle like this it's the difference between victory and defeat and it's not the experience I expected when I handed over $105. That's £75 in English money, not an inconsiderable amount for a PC game. So I guess I'd like some answers and if this is typical of the code I'd like a refund, under the 'not fit for purpose' clause. I'm not saying nobody else should enjoy this game, even knowing it does this, but I simply cannot. Any dev who reads this, please feel free to PM or email me to resolve the issue. TIA.

Thanks Ian. Having read the link I can say I shouldn't complain. I'm running everything maxed out at 2560 x 1600 and the lag/stutter is no game-stopper. That's running the last battle on the list in "Battles" (2nd SS cutting off a salient, it's a two-hour jobbie). I've been having a blast with it all day, though I need to restart it after reading the manual and discovering group-selection of units is possible. Lol. 2500k at over 4ghz, GTX780 and 8gb RAM.

That was brilliant!

Well, so far so good with the SP but lordy me, a big map and battle can still cause a fair bit of stutter! Would I be correct in thinking this game is still using only one core?! If it's not that it must be the insane amount of calculations going on. I wish to hell this level of detail could be incorporated into RO Darkest Hour. Re the MP playback feature, was it that which was causing the old syncing issues? I have a vague memory Steve said it was connected.

Thanks Ian. Ah, I can live without the playback. I assume real-time is possible via TCP/IP too. I've gone ahead and ordered the bundle but if we get the same sync issues once my brother has his bundle too and we try playing again there will be much loud cursing. At £150 for two copies of something that claims MP one expects full functionality (stable play, start to finish).

Cheers ASL. When you say "no playback" you mean MP is real-time only (no WEGO)? Also, while stuff is coming back to me, how's the sync stability? We were having a lot of trouble with it, even with good PCs (both 2500k CPUs, 8gb RAM and a GTX680 and GTX 780 respectively, both on broadband). The further we got into large and long battles the more sync alerts we would get, until the game finally locked up and/or crashed. We got used to saving the game at every turn but once a file had been irredeemably corrupted it was game over. That was the main reason we gave up playing.

It's been a few years since I last played. I recall having a long conversation with one of the devs (Steve?) about being able to play the campaign missions in MP. He said it was high on the list but didn't know how long, if ever, it would take. So the question is, has it been made possible? I have tried to find out by reading all the reviews out there but no joy. I've actually found conflicting stuff about TCP/IP being removed? I'm thinking about dropping the $105 for the full bundle. TIA for any info.