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Full Read Me and How-To Guide for Beta Patch Inside..PLEASE READ!!!!

Guest Madmatt

By Guest Madmatt
in Combat Mission Archive #2 (2000)

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Guest Madmatt

Guest Madmatt

Posted
Posted

Okay, this is included with the patch itself since there is some great info here (I know I wrote it) I wanted to give everyone a chance to look over the How To guide as well as the List of fixes. The Bug Report Form mentioned comes with the patch.

Please remember, it's a beta folks!

Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord TCP/IP Beta

Battlefront.com, Inc.

November 28, 2000

Welcome to the Combat Mission Beyond Overlord version 1.1 public beta. This software is meant to provide you with an early look at the new live Internet play feature we're adding to Combat Mission. We have extensively tested this software internally but game software development is a complex process and it's inevitable that some bugs slip past our testing procedures. So this public beta gives you a chance to help us find and fix these bugs before we release the "official" version 1.1 update.

IMPORTANT: DUE TO THE UNPREDICTABLE NATURE OF BETA SOFTWARE, WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT USE THIS BETA SOFTWARE ON ANY COMPUTER WHICH CONTAINS VALUABLE DATA. THE COMBAT MISSION BEYOND OVERLORD PUBLIC BETA IS PROVIDED AS-IS, WITH NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. BATTLEFRONT.COM WILL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, LOST DATA, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE. YOU MUST ASSUME ALL RISK WHEN USING THIS SOFTWARE.

Installing The Patch:

Note: The v1.1 Public Beta Update REQUIRES that Combat Mission already be upgraded to v1.01 or later before installing. You can download both the Mac and PC v1.05 Patch HERE.

Windows Users: Run the patch and select your existing Combat Mission install directory as the destination. Unlike previous patches, the Public Beta will install directly into your Combat Mission folder without further manual file copying The patch will create the necessary folders and files in all the correct locations. The new v1.1 Public Beta Update executable is called Combat Mission Public Beta.exe. Double click that file to launch the game.

Mac Users: Uncompress the patch file (your browser may do this for you automatically). Drag "Sound Effects 11" into the "Data" folder (inside your Combat Mission folder). Then Drag the other three files/folders (Combat Mission Public Beta, OpenPlay Modules, and OpenPlayLib) into the Combat Mission folder.

Performance Issue: As this code is a Beta it utilizes much more enhanced debug error tracking and reporting processes while it runs. As such performance will be slightly below what it will be with the full “Official v1.1” release.

Compatibility: Games run and saved with v1.1 Public Beta are only playable with another system that also has v1.1 Public Beta installed. Saved games will not work on earlier versions. You can not play a TCP/IP game with any earlier versions of Combat Mission. You can load any existing game from a previous version into v1.1 Public Beta and continue.

Game Type Conversion: You can change the game type from Hotseat, PBEM or TCP/IP at anytime by saving the game and then reloading it and changing the Connection Type when prompted.

Troubleshooting Guide and Tips

by Madmatt

For several weeks now the new beta patch for Combat Mission has undergone extensive internal testing and I have put this little guide together in order to better focus this phase of the testing as well as share some of the issues we have encountered.

Please use the new v1.1 Public Beta Bug Reporting Form (available separately) when submitting any bug sightings. Be sure to always include the errorlog and autosave when applicable. Also be sure to include the passwords for BOTH sides in any battle. Email ALL bug reports directly to me at: matt@battlefront.com I will review the report, test it and forward it as necessary. Also use the normal Combat Mission Forum ( www.battlefront.com ) if you would like to discuss the game in general or just share with others what you are seeing and how the game is playing.

Quick How-To:

Playing a TCP/IP multiplayer game is quite easy. All you need is two players with active connections to either the Internet or LAN. One player is designated as the Host the other is the Client. The Host is responsible for picking the Scenario or Operation and selecting any applicable parameters for a Quick Battle. They also have a slight advantage of purchasing units prior to the client connecting. Keep this in mind. The Host should inform the Client, prior to connecting, of any specific parameters, time period, unit restrictions, point totals et cetera, of the battle. This can be done using any normal communication method (ICQ, 3rd party Chat service, like the one at Combat Mission HQ, or simply via email. The host loads the game normally and selects any pre-made Scenario or Operation. The Host can also choose to start a normal Quick Battle. Once the game is loaded, play proceeds normally and the Host selects the side to play. The Host is then presented with the standard Connection Type Screen. The TCP/IP option is now available, click the TCP/IP button and a new Time Limit Option will be accessible. This is the default timer limit for both Action and Orders Phases combined. Select the time limit desired then click OK. You then enter a password and click OK again. The next screen you get will be the Host Connection Page. This will also list the Hosts Current IP address, which the client will need to connect to the game (see below on issues with the IP address). The HOST then waits until the Client connects and once that occurs the game will proceed normally. From this point on the game will proceed almost like playing the AI except the enemy will be Fionn or Moon or Captain Foobar or any of your other fellow gamers! ;)

For the client, connecting is even simpler. They need to load the game and select Join Multiplayer, They then select Join Network Game. At this point they are presented with a screen to manually enter the Hosts IP address. They can toggle through the four IP address windows by using the TAB key. Once they enter the address they will attach almost immediately to the Host and begin to download the scenario info and begin the game. NOTE: A scenario does not need to be on the Clients system in order to play. That info is sent by the Host. See below for specific connection and chat issues.

Some Comments About The Timer:

One of the new features of the game is the optional implementation of a play timer. When the game type TCP/IP is chosen the host is given the option of selecting from a variety of fixed times including a No Timer option. This works as follows:

In the Setup phase you are given TWICE the Timer Amount in order to position your units.

Once the game begins the timer amount selected is shared between the Action Playback Phase and the Orders Phase. You always get an additional full 60 seconds in the Playback phase (the time of one full playback) before the timer begins to count down.

For example, if you had selected 2 minutes as the Timer Amount you would in fact have 4 minutes in the setup Phase to get ready. Once the game was in play each subsequent turn you would have 3 (see below for details on this) minutes to watch the movie and issue orders. Why 3 and not 2? Because you always get the one free minute during the movie playback. NOTE: That 1 free minute is NOT transferable. It is applied ONLY to the Playback Phase. If you were to immediately click DONE in the Playback Phase and proceed to the Orders Phase you would only have 2 minutes to give orders. Think of it as a 1 minute ‘Bonus’ any applicable to the Action Playback Phase.

If you have not completed viewing the movie or issuing orders when the time expires the game will proceed to the next phase automatically. Pay attention to the timer, and balance your time wisely. Multiple reviews of a movie will quickly eat into the total amount of time you have to give orders. The timer will switch to a warning red color as it gets down low.

The timer is not affected by minimizing the game or escaping or alt-tabbing out to the desktop. It will continue unabated regardless of the games current activity level. If you need to get up and leave the computer or just need more time to plot orders or watch the replay you can request a temporary Pause to the current phase. This is accomplished by pressing the Alt and P keys at the same time. This will flash a message on the screen to both sides indicating that you have requested the Timer to be Disabled. The other player now has the option of accepting or denying this request. To accept all they have to do is also press Alt-P (prior to the timer expiring obviously) and a message will pop up indicating that the Timer is Disabled. The game does not in effect Pause as such, but rather the timer stops counting. You can now take as long as you need to issue orders or watch the movie with no concern that time will expire. When you are finished or are ready to continue with the game just click GO, or Done (depending on the phase you are in) and the game will resume normally and the timer will re-enable itself.

TIP: If both players decide that the timer setting was too short to allow enough time to adequately play each turn, the game can be saved by either player and reloaded. At this time you can change the Timer Setting to a more conservative setting. Once you do this you will proceed with the normal Hosting process.

Testing Tips And Watch Outs:

Nvidia Drivers: We have encountered a variety of issues with the latest leaked 7.17 drivers from Nvidia. If you have these drivers you will need to uninstall them prior to running the game or will crash frequently. We recommend the official Detonator 3 release (6.31) or any beta version up to 6.47.

TCP/IP: So far we have tested the patch with Mac OS, Windows ME, Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 98 SE. The only system that has (and still does) had problems hosting or connecting is on a system, running Windows 2000 Advanced Server. For some reason the game can not establish a TCP/IP connection. If anyone else has a W2K Advanced Server system we would appreciate extensive testing on this issue. After ending a game it is normal for the TCP/IP port to be “busy” for several minutes and not permit another game to be hosted until this “busy” period passes. Usually just exiting the game and reloading is enough to clear the port and allow a new game to be started. This issue has not been as prevalent in recent beta versions though.

IP Addresses: When a player Hosts a game Combat Mission Polls the FIRST active IP Adapter. This can cause issues is you have multiple Network cards installed in your system or have a setup that has both a phone modem and a network card plugged in to a cable modem or DSL router. In this case the IP address reported by Combat Mission may not be the one in which people can connect to. In order to get the correct IP address you may need to manually run Winipcfg in Win9x/ME (from a command line) or ipconfig /all for Windows 2K Advanced Server (also from a command line). You will need to decide which adapter listed is the one in which the system is currently connected to the Internet and use the IP address listed there. The Client will be able to connect to this IP address even though Combat Mission is indicating one of the other IP addresses on the Host system.

Lost Connections: If at some point some point during play you lose connection (this IS the Internet after all) each player should be given a message which indicates that the connection was broke and that play may be restarted by loading the autosave that is created when the game detected a lose of transmission to the other player. Usually this file will have retained all the orders given up until the point of the drop. Sometimes, one player or the other will drop to the desktop, even when this happens a usable Autosave is usually created. It does not matter who reloads the autosave and hosts the game. It will proceed like any normal game however, if the connection was lost AFTER both players hit go (committed to going forward with the game) then autosaves that are created due to that broken connection will NOT allow either player to give any additional orders. A message will appear on the screen indicating that each player must press GO and advance to the Movie stage. This is done to prevent one player from purposefully breaking connections during a turn that is going badly and also out of fairness to both sides.

Internet Connection Sharing: Many people use ICS on their home LANs to access a broadband connection to the Internet across multiple systems. Currently a system which gets its IP Address from a router computer can NOT Host a Combat Mission game. These systems can be easily identified as their IP address will be something beginning with 192.168.0.x. They can still attach to a hosted game normally. In order to host a Combat Mission session you MUST have a dedicated IP address that is valid and transmittable to outside of your internal LAN. We could use more testing on this as well as Microsoft claims that a ICS Routed system should be able to host but we have not been able to do this as yet.

Chatting: The new patch allows each player to send a text chat message by first pressing the tilde “`” (tilde) key. This message is also indicated by an audio squawk sound that plays. The Host of the game will also get a message on their screen when the client system has joined the game. At this point it is smart for the client to send a brief message to indicate to the host that they are “in” the game. As such, I usually just send the message “IN”. That tells the host that all is well on my (client) side and play can commence.

Chat Limits: Chat messages are not viewable when you do not have the 3D game screen up. That means you won’t see a chat message while you are in a Briefing screen or the end of game Debrief screen. You may hear the other player squawking though. You can go back into the game map (3D view) and continue chatting as normal though.

Operations: Operations proceed just like normal single battle except that at the completion of one battle you are shown the current Op Debrief Screen. Remember that you can not chat when viewing this screen. As soon as both players click OK the next battle will commence to load and the setup phase will begin.

Have Fun: The best way to really test the game out is to just play through multiple battles and operations and report any odd behavior or bugs you see. Use the new bug report form that I created and be sure to always include errorlogs, autosaves and PBEM files with every report. Also be sure to include the passwords for BOTH sides in any battle.

EMAIL THE COMPLETED v1.1 PUBLIC BETA BUG REPORT FORM USING THE FOLLOWING LINK: matt@battlefront.com

Please make sure the subject field says “v1.1 Public Beta Bug Report”

v1.1 Public Beta Update Changes

The following is a list of changes made since v1.05

- TCP/IP play has been implemented (i.e. "live" Internet play). The game

can also run as a "spawn", meaning that you do not need the CD-ROM in the

drive, but you will be restricted to joining TCP/IP games only.

Quick Battles:

- Ratio of attacker to defender points has been reduced slightly for

Attack and Assault scenarios.

- Fortifications are cheaper to purchase.

- Automatic unit purchaser does a better job of using up (nearly) all

available points.

- Force proportion limits modified slightly (main change is that

attackers have a higher limit on support points than before).

General Issues:

- Allied tanks and guns are more likely to fire tungsten rounds when

available.

- If both sides have global morale below 15%, a battle will end

immediately with an enforced cease-fire.

- Infantry TacAI is less likely to seek cover when it would require

moving closer to the enemy to reach that cover. Also, infantry often

automatically retreats from buildings being blasted by heavy weapons that

are in danger of collapse.

- A bug that incorrectly identified (or failed to identify) vehicles as

hull-down when the mouse was pointing at them has been fixed.

- Forward Observers no longer cancel a bombardment on a building that is

blasted to rubble (though any other unit using area fire still does).

- Enemy units targeting an ambush marker are no longer displayed as doing

so.

- Vehicle top speed over open ground reduced somewhat, especially for

jeeps. And all wheeled vehicles are slightly more likely to bog down in

bad terrain.

- Vehicles, especially those with only a few crewmen, have greater

difficulty spotting enemies when moving. The difficulty is proportional

to speed and ruggedness of terrain.

- Vehicles can more readily spot other vehicles at greater ranges (3000+

meters) in clear weather with clear line of sight.

- When faced with a threat, unarmored vehicles will sometimes seek

shelter at a new destination chosen by the TacAI even when ordered to

move fast or in reverse.

- Vehicles which are targeting ambush markers, and are directly hit by

anything other than small-arms fire, will cancel their ambush orders and

react to the attack normally.

- Fixed a bug that caused events happening past the normal 60 seconds of

action sometimes to be "undone" by rewinding and fast-forwarding past

them.

- Fixed a bug that caused the battle number not to advance when both

players in an operation agreed to a cease fire.

- Fixed a bug that often caused airplanes not to show up in Operations.

- Fixed a bug that allowed game saves to be done before the battle was

even underway.

- Passengers no longer immediately jump off a vehicle that bogs down

unless the vehicle becomes permanently immobilized.

- You can no longer trace line of sight (LOS) from a Target Reference

Point (TRP) during setup.

- Vehicles which use up their last round of ammunition are quicker to

cancel targeting.

- TacAI does a better job weighing the importance of hull-down status

when choosing targets.

- Fixed a TacAI bug in the logic that causes vehicles to use the coaxial MG

instead of the main gun (to conserve ammo when the MG is nearly as

effective anyway). The bug sometimes made the vehicle switch to the

coaxial MG when it should not have.

- Forward Observers' targets are never shown to the enemy, even in action

playback.

- Bug fix for group-moves of mixed tanks and infantry, to ensure that

FAST/RUN and MOVE orders are carried out appropriately.

- Pillboxes acquire targets a bit faster than other guns (it's assumed that

they've pre-ranged to landmarks).

- Pillboxes carry a little more 'weight' when calculating the new position of the

front lines in operations.

- Bug fix that makes the 'setup' between campaign battles work out the

same no matter how many times you reload the play-by-email file.

- Bug fix so operations don't have empty white (Allied) or black (Axis)

setup zones.

- Bug fix: passengers disembarking out of sight of the enemy are no

longer 'seen' as doing so by the enemy. A spot marker does not appear

for the disembarked unit.

- When placing cursor over an unidentified enemy infantry unit, your tank

will be shown as "hull down" (if it is hull down) just in *case* the

enemy unit is an antitank unit.

- AI is less likely to fire off-map artillery smoke missions when overall

visibility is poor.

- M3A1 Halftrack, M3A1 Scout Car, and M5 Halftrack are not forced to

remain buttoned up after suffering only one crew casualty.

- Texture fix on Stuart V.

- Fixed it so sound contacts right on the edge of listening range don't

flutter in and out of contact, which made them 'bounce around'.

Data Changes:

- MG Jeep cannot carry passengers.

- PzIV silhouette reduced.

- Firefly turret rotation speed is medium.

- 17pdr gun no longer has shatter-prone armor-piercing ammo (so

penetration is increased).

- Marder III armor changed.

- HEAT/Shaped-charge penetration values changed for some German

weapons: 75mm howitzer, 75mm recoilless, 75mm L/24, 105mm howitzer, 105mm

recoilless, 150mm gun, 150mm infantry gun.

- More AT guns, PIATs, and carriers added to British infantry battalion

TO&E.

- M3A1 and M5A1 halftracks can only carry a team, not a full squad.

- Vehicle point values adjusted slightly.

- Puppchen is available on all dates.

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Guest Madmatt

Guest Madmatt

Posted
Posted

You read that whole post in 2 minutes? eek.gif

You skimmed it didnt you?!? Now when I quiz you and you dont have the right answers you are going to be in trouble mate!

Madmatt

[This message has been edited by Madmatt (edited 11-29-2000).]

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Guest Lord General MB

Guest Lord General MB

Posted
Posted

Sir,

Nah, I just looked for links. Were do we get it?

------------------

Salute!

Lord General Mr. Bill

Supreme Commander

1st Army

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aka_tom_w Senior Member

aka_tom_w

Posted
Posted

yup

Blah , blah blah, bhlalb blahblahbha bhal, blah,blah bhal MORE TUNGSTEN, blah blah

WHAT!?? Only half a squad in a yank halftrack? blah blah...

(It was so good the first time it was worth repeating) smile.gif

Great Work Charles! I'm sure it was a VERY fine Team effort, VERY cool!

Now we all can't wait to download it!

Will see it tonight? smile.gif

-tom w

[This message has been edited by aka_tom_w (edited 11-29-2000).]

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Milt Smegma Member

Milt Smegma

Posted
Posted

" - M3A1 and M5A1 halftracks can only carry a team,

not a full squad."

hmmm,almost never bought them before...now certainly won't...

"General Issues:

- Allied tanks and guns are more likely to fire

tungsten rounds when

available."

WooHoo!! smile.gif

Now stop teasing! where is it?

[This message has been edited by Milt Smegma (edited 11-29-2000).]

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Pud Senior Member

Pud

Posted
Posted

No baggage in a MG Jeep, frown.gif , there goes "drive-like-crazy-to-the-front-line-dump-your-sniper-in-a-good-pozzy-and-carry-on-to-harrass-those-FO-which-will-be-on-that-distant-hill-in-turn-1" tactic!!

Pud

[This message has been edited by Pud (edited 11-29-2000).]

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Mord Senior Member

Mord

Posted
Posted

Read through all the additions and fixes and having read many of the arguments and discussions for so many of these I know there sure are some happy Gamer's tonight! Excellent job all around fellas. Thank You.

Mord.

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Jarmo Senior Member

Jarmo

Posted
Posted

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dano6:

What happened to the M15 and M16 US HTs. When are these going to be added to the game?

dano6<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Too bad, but at least our games will have puppchens galore now on. smile.gif

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Nitsud42 Member

Nitsud42

Posted
Posted

Thank you so much for this patch/upgrade! We have been looking forward to it for what feels like forever. You guys at BTS are GREAT! THe divorce rate in America shall sour to new heights as thousands of wives will no longer find their husbands in bed but on the computer play CM!

------------------

Are you gonna pull them pistols? Or whistle Dixie? --- Josey Wales

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martimer Junior Member

martimer

Posted
Posted

It sounds like you have done a lot of work on the latest version. Thanks a bunch!

Sorry to bring up what may be a sore point, but do you have any idea when a fix for the Mac ATI bug will be attempted? I am much more interested in seeing that bug eliminated than just about anything else.

Marty

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Buckeye Senior Member

Buckeye

Posted
Posted

Hey Martimer, there is a fix for the ATI bug. The new Open GL extension fixes it. Head over to the tech forum; there is a long thread that describes the fix and how to get the new extenstion.

------------------

"Don't lie to me, Gustav! You're a stinkin' Mac user!"

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Guest aaronb

Guest aaronb

Posted
Posted

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Madmatt:

Internet Connection Sharing: Many people use ICS on their home LANs to access a broadband connection to the Internet across multiple systems. Currently a system which gets its IP Address from a router computer can NOT Host a Combat Mission game. These systems can be easily identified as their IP address will be something beginning with 192.168.0.x. They can still attach to a hosted game normally. In order to host a Combat Mission session you MUST have a dedicated IP address that is valid and transmittable to outside of your internal LAN. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In principle, the publically-known router/firewall/nat device's IP address can 'host' the game, and (at least with a LinkSys or WinGate) the router can be set to re-direct incoming traffic on certain ports to an internal address on the same or different ports.

This is how web servers are setup behind firewall/routers. In this context, CM is a game server, only instead of port 80 it uses ??. The CM machine can't tell it isn't getting local traffic, and the Internet machine (client) can't tell it isn't getting internet traffic.

So, if you tell us what ports CM uses, we can try it out, yes?

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