Mattis

Because it was a HEAT round

Like already stated gunners when instructed or in case of direct danger can open fire without permission. Triggering the laser range finder gives you normally an instant result and manual or computerized lead for moving targets also is adjusted pretty fast or in most cases (especially the short engagement ranges of CM) not even needed due to the high velocity of the rounds. An further possibility that may contribute to the speed is that some of the modern Western battle tanks (not sure about other vehicles and don´t know about Russian) also have an override function that in case enemy contact allows the gunner or commander to instantly slew the turret/cupola of the other crew member to his bearing. In most cases this happens when the commander spots and target and then slews the gunners turret towards the target. Taking into consideration that both crew members are likely looking towards the expected enemy contact this form of target aquisition takes not even a second. Further account goes to the fact that CM assumes that most Western vehicles in the theatre have superior technology in comparsion to the Soviet/Russian vehicles and also simulates highly likely superior Coalition crew training when compared to their Syrian crews.

Thanks for the heads up Erwin. Downloaded without a problem by using the optional links provided there.

The only minor thing that keeps me from insta-downloading is that the guys look more like some tacticool Airsoft players than soldiers. However the map background and the color palette looks great, very professional.

Well then exclude me when referring to "we". I´ve got a notebook myself which has considerable slower GPU than the OP´s system but a similar I7 CPU system and with a SSD and leaving detail settings on default I´ve just noticed draw distance differences compared to excellent (especially bushes and trees). With this notebook I get 70 fps when not adjusting the camera and 40 - 50 fps when flying mid-altitute over the map quickly which applies good fps stress because this is the moment where many draw calls are happening that slow your game down (sure 100 waypoints executed in the same second would even lower this). I always play with shadows on but toggling that off even raises it to 50 - 60 frames and when completely zoomed out or zoomed in nearly to 90-100 frames without even turning those detail settings down and even kept ingame AA on because I was to lazy to turn it off for this test. By doing that I would even gain another bunch of frames. Thus I can agree and at least from my impressions confirm what homewrecker says and never ever worried about my performance on that system no matter what scenario I´ve booted up. Which of course doesn´t mean that I claim that the engine is super optimized and without faults.

cool story bro

The reason why I often refrain from using the halftracks for more then battle taxi reasons in Combat Mission is that the shielded gunner seems very vulnerable even to longer range frontal infantry fire but to be honest I don´t know much about how halftracks performed in reality and also don´t know if this gunner vulnerability is realistic. What do you think about it?

By being over-present and adressing (silencing) pretty much every thread like an inquisition many get the impression that these guys must be directly affiliated with Battlefront and with their behavior they also do the best job to keep this impression up. I honestly don´t know how the truth looks like, however I second this that it is important to make a differentation between Battlefront and these individuals. Some weeks ago I´ve published a comment (I think it was in this State of CMSF2 thread) regarding about the missed first release date anouncement explaining that while missing release dates or even providing ones isn´t something very important for me but that on the other hand there is no excuse for not not informing us when you know that a release isn´t going to happen. I stated that I perceived that as somehwat disprespectful as did some of you here too. I even made the suggestion that taking 10 seconds to write a "guys release date x isn´t going to happen, we´re working on it, stay tuned!" would probably work fine for most of us as we could then adjust our expectation. This post was completely neutral and included nothing offensive. It didn´t take long and on of these "dedicated" guys here appeared(name starts with a I ends with a L, yes I also can get onto that personal level you prefer so much), uneccessary quoting everything out of my post EXCEPT the suggestion which he conveniently neglected and then proceeded to tell me in a snob way that only me *chose* to feel disprespected, basically telling me that I have a wrong perception, me exclusively being oversensitive, thus my post having basically no value. My post received upvotes (which is nothing to boast about but it shows that I am not alone with that opinion) and many of the other forum members here recently voiced the exact same thoughts showing that exact the opposite is true. What was especially frustrating was that he instantly tried shifting it onto a low blow personal level. To be honest that is a **** move and saldy I´ve seen it to so many other members with great ideas or constructive thoughts here happening but looks like this is a part of their - concern derailing - strategy. Furthermore from what I can tell it aren´t the people who voice concerns or negative feedback that are responsible for many threads going down in heat. No, most these people start voice their concerns or feedback pretty mature which is nothing surprising as a complex game as Combat Mission probably draws more sophisticated wargamers in. My observation tells me that most threads go down in heat because this hardcore fanboys not accepting any other opinion appear and instantly start to engage you, often on a personal level while showing off an arrogant even patronizing attitude which makes the anger or frustration of many here understandable and others probably being put of to even try participating another time in order to avoid that stuff. Just because you self-appointed premium moderators spent half of your life in this forum or made billions of posts here doesn´t entitle you exclusively to have an opinion and opress other thoughts.

While there is certainly some overreaction going on about the late demo and release here that surely won´t benefit anybody but this isn´t even the part that annoys me so much. After following this thread and skimming trough many recent I must say what definitely annoys me is the fact that most suggestions and ALL negative feedback , no matter if it is about Battlefront or related to the Combat Mission games itself, no matter if it is valid and very well thought out, no matter if the author invested his time into it, it is always compromised in a perfidious way by the same two, three overbearing forum members to such an extent that productive effort is almost impossible to be made or the thread is turned into a goofy trolling space. It is like if a forum police is going around here 24/7 looking for instantly shutting down anything that is too progressive or could be perceived as criticism in the slightest possible way. Frankly I can´t remember ever have seen such a severe case of that before and I´ve been to alot game or sim forums. If you guys´ believe you´re helping the devs with that, you surely do not.

Correct me if I am wrong but I think he actually meant that by already playing Combat Mission Shock Force 1 he got enough "demonstration" and not that the CMSF2 demo is the same as the CMSF1 demo back then.

Pretty much the solution and way of handling things I had in mind

You did a wonderful job in commenting every part of my comment that wasn´t that significant but somehow missed the keystone: "I am pretty sure that the information that end of July won´t see a release was available to the devs way earlier than that so why not take some seconds an post a simple: " Due to the temporal unavailability of crucial staff we unfortunately won´t see a release in End of July but still need some more weeks before release, we will keep you updated, thanks for your support." In my opinion this is the most obvious way to handle this situation. either way its definitely better than just letting a release date passing by with no communication at all. " What are your thoughts on this? Mattis

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I am pretty new to this forum but must also admit that despite all the hardships that Battlefront must face as a small developer, certain aspects of their communication policy is somewhat that I personally wouldn´t commend. I am fine with release dates that don´t get met, it is a hard thing to do to predict completion and future obstacles and we all surely don´t want Battlefront to lower their quality standards by leaving bugs unattended or by cutting features just to met the date, like many triple A devs do these days. So normally it wouldn´t be a big deal for me when the first announcement date on end of July wasn´t achieved due to unexpected holidays of personnel. However I see no real excuse (feel free to correct me here) that we weren´t informed before the 31st of July. I am pretty sure that the information that end of July won´t see a release was available to the devs way earlier than that so why not take some seconds an post a simple: " Due to the temporal unavailability of crucial staff we unfortunately won´t see a release in End of July but still need some more weeks before release, we will keep you updated, thanks for your support." In my opinion this is the most obvious way to handle this situation. either way its definitely better than just letting a release date passing by with no communication at all. Sure for me there was not much lost despite some wasted time doing bf website checks for release info. However I still perceived this behavior as somewhat disprespectful. I am certainly sure many will disagree here with this perception with is totally fine so please don´t flip the master arm already and lets keep things civil. Especially because I still support Battlefront as one of the few developers bringing us one of the most authentic wargames ever made and wish them best luck with the upcoming release. Mattis

Registration on this forum was for several months not possible but looks like it finally got fixed. So hi there, 1st post, very excited for Shock Force 2. Mattis