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Armchair General praises Final Blitzkrieg


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On 12/14/2016 at 5:00 PM, Bulletpoint said:

This forum has a very nice filter function that you can use to block me and any other horrible person here who might say something you disagree with. Then you can be in your safe space.

:lol::lol::lol: Safe space! Good one. Nah fam I'm good. Just thought I would point out your constant bitching is not productive, but it seems like everyone else here knows what kind of person you are so there's really nothing left to be said. You know there is an in game hotkey to toggle shadows on and off right? Oh who am I kidding, I'm sure than when you try the hotkey it causes your computer to freeze up and immediately start torrenting the movie "Gettysburg" or some such nonsense. Oh well. can't please them all!

I completely agree with what @SLIM said. Its not perfect, but its loads better than anything to come before it, or any other modern "equivalent" that have much larger budgets and production teams working on them. I'll stick with CM over MoW any day. They can keep their fancy graphics and lame gameplay. Plus, a new update to the engine is just around the corner which promises to bring many new things to the CM engine, including new graphical effects like tracer colors and such. Very much looking forward to it!

As a final, more on topic point, it seems that the recent additions to the CM family have all been very well received by websites such as Armchair General and Grogheads, to name a few. BFC may not be able to please every single person every single time, but they are clearly doing something right to be getting positive reviews and sticking around all this time. Heres hoping to many years to come!

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no sense getting personal.  We all have our subjective view and critical points that bother us.  Apparently Bulletpoint has hit his on this. *shrug* You aren't gonna make him like it by insulting him.  Personally I love the game and the graphics issues I see are no worse than some of the several million dollar budget games I've played (and I am not limiting myself to war games here).  Take a stroll over to some of forums for those and see the tirades and hair pulling.  CM does have it's limitations both in graphics and game play, but overall it is the most stable most consistent game I have and yeah sometimes I see some shadow glitches, but other times it is just stellar.

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4 hours ago, sburke said:

no sense getting personal.  We all have our subjective view and critical points that bother us.  Apparently Bulletpoint has hit his on this. *shrug* You aren't gonna make him like it by insulting him.  Personally I love the game and the graphics issues I see are no worse than some of the several million dollar budget games I've played (and I am not limiting myself to war games here).  Take a stroll over to some of forums for those and see the tirades and hair pulling.  CM does have it's limitations both in graphics and game play, but overall it is the most stable most consistent game I have and yeah sometimes I see some shadow glitches, but other times it is just stellar.

Amen to that. I'm also rather surprised by Bulletpoint's points :), but he is a loyal forum member and he should be able to say what he wants. Personally I think CMFB is the best and most polished game so far. Good to see Armchair General acknowledges the excellence of this company and yes, let's hope it attracts many, many more wargamers.

Edited by Aragorn2002
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The troops and tanks, etc. are more than fine. To me the turn-off is the grey/darkish portrayal of terrain. Personally I don't need that to know it is miserable in northern Europe in Winter. The gameplay itself would be immersive enough. 

Sadly today on many forums I see a very negative reaction if someone has a complaint about something or wants something different. Happened to Bulletpoint here and Erwin (?) in another thread recently. I am glad to see some are fine with dissenting opinions.

Onwards and I hope the terrain depictions brighten up a lot. Realize also it may not happen. Take care.

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7 hours ago, sburke said:

no sense getting personal.  We all have our subjective view and critical points that bother us.  Apparently Bulletpoint has hit his on this. *shrug* You aren't gonna make him like it by insulting him.  Personally I love the game and the graphics issues I see are no worse than some of the several million dollar budget games I've played (and I am not limiting myself to war games here).  Take a stroll over to some of forums for those and see the tirades and hair pulling.  CM does have it's limitations both in graphics and game play, but overall it is the most stable most consistent game I have and yeah sometimes I see some shadow glitches, but other times it is just stellar.

Absolutely. (Although, the CptMiller comment about the doll was absolute gold. ;) ) Keeping it non-personal is important. Antagonisms on a forum can grow. For example, I hold no grudge against sburke, despite his constant attempts to seduce my intern away. She is very loyal to me and shows me all the texts, btw. (Your latest limerick was a piece of art. The manner in which you worked "orange" and "inconsolable" into the same verse should be taught in university.)

1 hour ago, Ales Dvorak said:

Miserable? ;)

snow.jpg

This is the perfect CM environment. Have your staff supply the cabin with food and wood. (And make sure they keep the fire stoked up! They'll get lazy about that if you not strict with them.) Meanwhile, you can relax in your study and play CM until the spring thaw arrives.

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I have nothing against criticism or complaints against the game. Hell I've made a few of them myself. (Off the top of my head, I really want to see artillery capabilities expanded on in the modern titles by adding things like DPICM and the like, and I've stated more than a few times that I really want BFC to make a Cold War gone hot CM game set in the 80's) 

I'm all for bug squashing, constructive criticism and posting our hopes and dreams for what games/features come next. I also really appreciate when people do criticize or ask a question about something in game. I find those threads to generally be the ones with a lot of new information in them that I can learn. 

I was just pointing out that a few certain individuals seem to have made it their life's ambitions to criticize the game and find tiny faults/issues with it. If they dislike the game/company so much, why don't they just move on? I understand maybe being bitter over a new feature/lack of a new feature, but to keep up the grudge for months or even years just seems excessive to me. Seems like a new hobby is in order is all. 

 

A more on topic point; I'm glad to see activity from Armchair General again! Seems like they fell off the grid for a while, but it does not appear that they are gone for good. One of the single most helpful tutorials I saw (and occasionally rewatch) are the now famous Armchair General CM Tactics videos. Great production value with a ton of information. What I like best about those vids is that they take the concepts that you can read about in manuals, etc. and visualizes them in CM. Really great stuff. Glad to know that ACG is still kicking so that at the very least we may see more CM related content from them in the future!

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7 hours ago, IICptMillerII said:

I have nothing against criticism or complaints against the game. Hell I've made a few of them myself. (Off the top of my head, I really want to see artillery capabilities expanded on in the modern titles by adding things like DPICM and the like, and I've stated more than a few times that I really want BFC to make a Cold War gone hot CM game set in the 80's) 

I'm all for bug squashing, constructive criticism and posting our hopes and dreams for what games/features come next. I also really appreciate when people do criticize or ask a question about something in game. I find those threads to generally be the ones with a lot of new information in them that I can learn. 

I was just pointing out that a few certain individuals seem to have made it their life's ambitions to criticize the game and find tiny faults/issues with it. If they dislike the game/company so much, why don't they just move on? I understand maybe being bitter over a new feature/lack of a new feature, but to keep up the grudge for months or even years just seems excessive to me. Seems like a new hobby is in order is all. 

 

A more on topic point; I'm glad to see activity from Armchair General again! Seems like they fell off the grid for a while, but it does not appear that they are gone for good. One of the single most helpful tutorials I saw (and occasionally rewatch) are the now famous Armchair General CM Tactics videos. Great production value with a ton of information. What I like best about those vids is that they take the concepts that you can read about in manuals, etc. and visualizes them in CM. Really great stuff. Glad to know that ACG is still kicking so that at the very least we may see more CM related content from them in the future!

One possibility for those that seem to complain frequently about issues in the game could be their frustration at not being able to enjoy the game as much as they would like. I feel I am one of those. I am trying to get into it again but I may just have to give up. If you search my post history you could find lots of complaints probably but a lot for me is borne out of frustration. The game is very cool in many ways yet may not be playable for me. That is a frustration. I would encourage you to bear with us!

But what do I know. I just watched Patti Smith sing Dylan's song at the Nobel ceremony (someone just sent me the link) so I am a bit teary eyed.

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That's how I am... I want to like the game again... I've been with the series for so long (since CMBO). I just can't really enjoy it as I did before, and honestly as superficial people might say it is, the graphics and performance are the main reasons why. I've got other gripes but the graphics/low fps just kill it for me now. Again... I hope to be back as soon as possible. 

Edited by AstroCat
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49 minutes ago, AstroCat said:

That's how I am... I want to like the game again... I've been with the series for so long (since CMBO). I just can't really enjoy it as I did before, and honestly as superficial people might say it is, the graphics and performance are the main reasons why. I've got other gripes but the graphics/low fps just kill it for me now. Again... I hope to be back as soon as possible. 

I have a few suggestions that could help you out:

First off I do agree that graphics and such do matter. I do not think they are the most important, but I do think that they are important and have a role to play. For me, gameplay (the simulation) is more important than visuals, however visuals inform the gameplay. BFC makes a point about this in the game manuals. If the simulation aspect was the only thing they were trying to simulate, then the visuals essentially wouldn't matter. Here is a quick excerpt from the CMSF manual: 

"A tactical combat simulator, unfortunately, requires the computer to simulate chaos - both natural and manmade. Then, as the simulation is executed in RealTime, the computer must calculate this chaotic environment quickly and efficiently. As if this isn’t demanding enough, the gamers using the simulator require that the computer also devote a large amount of its power to push around polygons to make the simulation seem real. Oh, and all of this should work on the average home PC that has been purchased within the last few years."

I personally think vanilla CMBN looks and sounds bad. The terrain is too bright and not natural looking, the vehicles look a bit stale, the uniform skins are bland and uninspiring, the sound effects are flat and boring,and the UI is very visually unappealing to name a few things. But with a handful of mods I'm able to transform CMBN (visually) into a very enjoyable, immersive experience. A combination of varying visual and sound mods have completely transformed the game for me. 

As a quick side note, one of the things I like most about CM is that in many ways it is a tabletop game virtualized. Instead of having to spend hundreds of dollars buying models and paint, and then going through the long process of building/painting them, I can just load up CM. Essentially unlimited WWII or modern models to play around with. And because modding the games visuals is so easy, you essentially have an army painter at your fingertips. Want to add a cool logo to your tanks, or a distinct unit insignia to your infantry? Easily done with a bit of patience and photoshop (or some equivalent) I find that I have just as much fun "painting my army" to fit my tastes or the theme of a scenario as I do actually playing the game. For a really good example of this, check out the Operation Clipper campaign and its included mod pack. It imports a lot of textures from CMFB as well as using some custom textures (UI and uniform skins to name a few) to fully immerse the player in the battle represented in the campaign. 

Now as far as performance goes, I do agree that at times things run less than smoothly. However I've found a few tricks that really help to mitigate that issue. First and foremost, on large scenarios the best way you can improve your performance is to lower the Model Quality option. There is even a hotkey to do it in game (SHIFT + { or }) I've found that on a very large scenario if I lower the model quality to "Improved" or lower it gets rid of most of the low FPS and stuttering often complained about. Another thing you can do to improve performance is to play the game in turn based mode. I found out while playing some very large user made scenarios in CMRT that I couldn't run them in real time. My frames would drop down to 1 FPS during some of the larger artillery barrages and stay that way for most of the battle. This is of course essentially unplayable. However I found that when I play the game in turn based mode it all runs fine. The only real performance "hit" is the loading time between turns, which is increased slightly as it is simulating everything that will happen in the replay phase. There are a lot of threads out there with other tips and tricks related to performance that are worth browsing through. Just thought I would share two things that have always helped me in all CM games here for convenience. 

 

I could honestly go on and on about how much I love CM and why, but that is a bit too off topic. Besides, I'm sure no one wants to read all that anyways :D Hopefully some of these tips/suggestions help you and others struggling with the same issues. I guess my last bit of advise would be to try and let some of the little things go and appreciate CM for what it is. Its not without its flaws, but at the end of it all CM is essentially a way for us to view real history, and pretty damn accurately too. Something which no other entertainment medium can do. Hope this wall of text proves useful! 

Edited by IICptMillerII
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My love affair with CM is like my marriage. In the beginning you love everything about her. In the first years that follow you're beginning to see her flaws, as she's beginning to see yours. The next phase is acceptance and adjusting. Until one day you realize how lucky you've been to have found her and that you will never be able to love another woman again. Voila, that's CM for me.

Edited by Aragorn2002
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51 minutes ago, Aragorn2002 said:

My love affair with CM is like my marriage. In the beginning you love everything about her. In the first years that follow you're beginning to see her flaws, as she's beginning to see yours. The next phase is acceptance and adjusting. Until one day you realize how lucky you've been to have found her and that you will never be able to love another woman again. Voila, that's CM for me.

ROTFLMFAO!

 

The wife chuckled too..  ;)

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6 hours ago, Aragorn2002 said:

My love affair with CM is like my marriage. In the beginning you love everything about her. In the first years that follow you're beginning to see her flaws, as she's beginning to see yours. The next phase is acceptance and adjusting. Until one day you realize how lucky you've been to have found her and that you will never be able to love another woman again. Voila, that's CM for me.

Could have added.  "My wife is always behind me.  Like right now for example."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well... on a whim I went ahead and bought the 4.0 upgrade pack and the battles pack for CMBN. Even with my i7 6700k@4.5Ghz and 1080 SC GTX I still get average 20-30fps, on improved/better... lol! And of course NCP settings can be low or high makes no difference so mind as well run 8xAA and 8xSS, at least no shimmering textures. I don't mind spending a few dollars to help the development of cmx3 ;) ... I might even get CMFB at some point.

Here's a crazy idea that I'm sure will be "poo poo"ed like putting the games on Steam, or using a new engine, or investing in speed tree... etc... kickstarter/crowdfunding for future engine/games?!? Crazy and I assume DOA. :)

 

Edited by AstroCat
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I'd echo most of the comments here. I don't like the moire patterns, but I'll live with them until maybe I can get rid of them by tinkering under the bonnet with nVidia Inspector. If that doesn't work, I'll live with them anyway. One thing that irks me more is load times, especially when editing large maps. I've just moved from a 2.4GHz Q6600 processor with 4GB RAM and a 1GB video card to a 4.1 GHz i5 6600 with a 6GB video card and I can't actually say that games or maps load any faster. I even moved CMBN to the SSD drive I reserve for FSX, and there still wasn't much difference. I'm not knowledgable enough to know whether it's insufficiently-optimised code or what, but something seems amiss with this experience. When you're in map editing mode, frequently flipping from 2D to 3D to see if it looks right, that can be a major pain on a large map.

On 17/12/2016 at 3:20 AM, IICptMillerII said:

As a quick side note, one of the things I like most about CM is that in many ways it is a tabletop game virtualized.

100% agree - that's why I like it so much.

On the subject of FPS...I've never been conscious of FPS in CMx2, maybe that's because I play turn-based rather than real-time, (and I can appreciate that very slow FPS can be a pain) but from my experience with FSX and all the FPS-related headaches with that (and if you haven't been there, don't go...), I can say that (within reason) the best way to use an FPS counter is to turn the bloody thing off. I'm not saying that it's what's happening with people here, but from things I've read in various places it seems that a lot of gamers seem to concentrate more on the FPS counter than they do on the game.

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Framerate is not as needed in this game than it is in some others. (Movies play at 24 fps...) STEADY framerate is more critical for good CM experience, IMO.

Moire: yeah, I hate it, too. There are mods which eliminate the parallel rows in the plowed fields. They look like rich dirt lots...with no moire. (You WILL get moire with parallel patterns, no matter your machine or resolution. The difference is WHEN will you get it? Which distance, which angle, how pronounced, etc. Other games eliminate it by limiting the camera angle so to positions which do not have interference patterns...or, starting with known camera position, creating art which "hides" the moire. An analogy would be saying, "On sunny days, I don't want to see shadows." Well, you can do that by always having the sun directly behind the camera. As soon as you allow the camera to move, you'll see shadows.)

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I found 8xAA with 8XSS plus using all the great texture mods will improve the quality a lot, including getting rid of 99% of the shimmering textures. FPS don't have to be 144fps, of course, but a nice smooth 60fps would be great for panning around the map. Right now it feels super laggy which is a real bummer for me. I have the game on a Samsung 850 Pro SSD and load times are long as well. That's the thing, the engine does not seem to take advantage of any of the technology available, thus my frustration.

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I read that Microsoft will incorporate a "game mode" in Win 10 in the near future which will turn off as much as possible of the system and background apps to make the gaming experience better. As CM is a CPU heavy game maybe this mode will breathe new life into the engine without BFC having to do anything :) 

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