How NOT to Do CMx2--Brothers In Arms

[John Kettler]

When a friend of mine got BIA for the XBox, I viewed it as a tremendous opportunity to see what might be possible in our new engine, as well as a chance to see

what really deep research might accomplish. For those who don't know, BIA covers 3rd platoon, 3rd squad, Fox Company, 502nd PIR, 101st Airborne in a tightly scripted series of chapters drawn directly from period battle accounts, walking and photographing the ground, etc. The visuals are stunning (love the glider landing!) in this fireteam based historical shooter, but the implementation of how the game works effectively hamstrings the player, who takes the role of Sgt. Matt Baker. Worse, for a game with a retired Lt. Colonel as advisor, there are huge technical defects.

Movement

From a motion capture perspective, terrific! Very realistic. Walking, running, and crouching work fine--

for the Sarge only. His men, only slightly dumber than rocks, seem to think that standing fully erect in battle, in the open and under fire, is a good thing, this after being ordered to hard cover. In one notable instance, two men of the fireteam properly positioned themselves behind a sandbag barricade, while the other stayed on the exposed side, his back to the foe while standing erect! Things got so bad my friend was forced to fight mostly a one-man battle, since his men couldn't be trusted to behave even semirationally. By contrast, the Germans seem to generally act appropriately, use cover marvelously, and react rapidly to tactical situation changes.

There is a jump command, but it's useless for anything put a quick peek over an obstacle. Time and again, to our intense frustration, the mighty Screaming Eagles, those paragons of physical fitness, were defeated by humble Norman walls less than waist high. Not only can't the paratroopers clamber over a low wall, but they can't low crawl or go prone either, even the Sarge! To say that these are severe limitations in a tactical situation would be a considerable understatement.

"Facts"

Did you know that the M1, M1 carbine and BAR all share the same ammunition? This must be true, for it's in the manual!

Did you know that the MG-42 looks exactly like an MG-34? This must be true, for it's clearly depicted in photo form in unlockable content on the German 91st Infanterie Division.

Did you know that the MG-42 can conduct sustained fire without ever stopping to either cool the barrel or change it out? This occurs all the time in the game.

Did you know that a tripod mounted MG-42, with a sandbag to hold down the front leg, is simply impossible to move, let alone dismount the MG-42 from the tripod and use that?

Did you know that a fully functional 2 cm. Flakvierling

is completely unusable once captured? By contrast, captured Kar 98s and MP-40s work fine. The Germans have stick grenades and use them, but they have mysteriously vanished when the bodies are searched, Another exciting "feature" is that a respawn on a field littered with dead Germans and equipment found none, leaving Sarge armed with a M1911, on which more later.

Did you know that a satchel charge is about the size of a brick and that one can carry unlimited amounts of them? Sgt. Baker does this when going up against Rommel's Asparagus.

Tactics

Sgt. Baker! Sad to say, that's pretty much it, for his men largely can't be counted on to even properly orient on the foe, much less fight effectively. In game tactics seem to consist of Sarge's systematically killing off various threats, then bringing up the "idiots" (as we called them) to provide some semblance of covering fire for his next advance. This is the complete inverse of the tutorial recommended procedure. He can order them to fire, whereupon they blaze away with no regard for ammo usage or proper use of cover. Sometimes, they actually come on line and fight fairly well from a wall, Grenade use is all but nil, too.

Weapon Effectiveness

The rifles seem to work fine, with the Kar 98, by virtue of its pointed front sight post, having a clear edge over the M1 when it comes to sharpshooting partially exposed or long range targets. This is because the M1's front sight is so wide it effectively subtends the width of a man at combat range, and is hard to discern against dark backgrounds. The MP-40 is not very good, but muzzle climb during a burst from it or the Tommy Gun is well depicted. The jury's out on the Tommy Gun, since we've seen it only once so far.

Sarge must keep an eye on his ammo load and should plan on changing weapons repeatedly, but from what we could tell, the men never run out of ammo. There is NO provision for swapping weapons or ammo within the unit.

Grenades are scarce for the Americans and come only as pineapples. No offensive grenades, no WP, no smoke. There is no training whatsoever in their use, either, making combat employment multiply dicey. No Gammon bombs or rifle grenades either. A well placed grenade is a thing of beauty when given, but a horror to receive! We saw a bazooka used, but not versus armor.

The M1911 .45 is, bluntly put, grotesquely undermodeled. I personally observed four center of mass hits to the torso fail to drop a fully exposed German reloading his rifle. Later, a German survived an entire clip into his helmet at close range.

Immersion

On the whole, pretty good---until some blatant ridiculousness occurs. Sgt. Baker issues orders, and the men acknowledge and carry them out. Sort of. You'll hear the telltale ping of an expended M1 stripper clip, men reporting their ammo situation, health status and observations of the foe and his doings. There seems to be no "ripping linen" characteristic MG-42 sound. Incoming mortar rounds don't sound like the descriptions I've read, but their detonations will curl your hair. The chaos of battle is well modeled, and for sheer pucker factor, may we recommend a close-in German infantry counterattack? Interestingly, Landser CAN climb over fences, but our guys can't! The thundering and muzzle blasts of the the German quad 20 are most impressive. Should you blow one up with a "satchel charge" at the base though, the gun remains upright, with barrels bent. Hmm. Always remember to reload before engaging the foe! Wasn't impressed with the flat sounding sound files for the M1 rifle or the Kar 98, both of which I've personally fired.

Buildings and Terrain

As noted before, beautiful and researched in depth, but with only the most limited deformability and possibilities for interaction. Most of the buildings can't be entered at all, even with explosives. There are lots of different types of cover, in the form of crates, barrels, wood and stone fences, gullies, low spots, etc. And yes, vehicles provide cover, even when not burning! Because of limited command options, even nonobstacles become major barriers, acutely channelizing movement and constraining the player.

There's no way to get around or through wire, always abutted to a hedgerow, and definitely no wirecutters. Likewise, troops can't clamber over even a broken down hedgerow segment or hoist each other over a wall, time and agian feeding them to the enemy's guns. For elite, highly trained troops, these guys are incompetent dolts.

While you will find sandbagged German fighting positions atop the ground, we saw no foxholes or entrenchments, though we're only to D+1 or so (runs through D+7). Can't comment on armor, either, since we only last night advanced to the point where we get a tank,

Rifle loopholes are poorly implemented (rifle graphic thrust through stone wall), and solid stone walls can be

terrifyingly porous. Saw shots drill right through one a foot thick!

Relevance to CMx2

I lay all this out because we're talking about playing at the fireteam level in the new game, because there is much in BIA which could potentially be used in our new game. I direct readers to the situational awareness view (game's generally played at ground level);the superb building exterior models; the modeling of cagey, pop up targets; the effective use of terrain by the foe; the beautifully done sky and lighting, complete with gliders at appropriate times; the types of crops in the fields; the treatment of water (splash loundness and intensity are proportional to speed through it). The hedge row looks fairly good until up close, whereupon it looks bad in the foliage department.

Despite what my friend and I consider to be not one but a series of fatal design flaws (so bad he won't even attempt Authentic and will trade it in once through the chapters), BIA is a top-rated, heavily promoted game. With it as an object lesson in how NOT to do certain things, and some great approaches to a number of others, I believe CMx2 can only benefit. What do those of you who've played BIA think?

Regards,

John Kettler

[ March 19, 2005, 10:29 PM: Message edited by: John Kettler ]

[Herr Kruger]

Is there really a need for this in the CMAK forum? Besides, I think they are different game types, lol.

[PLM]

This really worries me about CM2. I do not see how AI fireteams can manage themselves at all. If it even reaches an acceptable level of AI, this game'll win the award of the century for AI

[Cull]

"When a friend of mine got BIA for the XBox, I viewed it as a tremendous opportunity to see what might be possible in our new engine, as well as a chance to see what really deep research might accomplish."

//stops, re-reads above, disregards post//

[Denwad]

I have it for PC, and I don't have any problem with my guys taking cover.

[John Kettler]

Denwad,

Maybe the XBox version is processor limited and can't support a robust fireteam AI? Bad porting job? Whatever the explanation, hours of sitting in with my friend more than show that dumb fireteam behavior is entirely typical in the XBox version of BIA.

I expect the CMx2 engine to run rings around even the PC version of BIA, but I'd love to see some of the great

terrain and buildings reflected into our new game, together with a bunch of things we can't yet do. Would love to see a glider assault, followed by troops leaping out and deploying into battle. Paras with demo charges are cool, but why not implement Gammon bombs, Hawken mines, etc? The drainage ditches both look great and are important tactical features. Thought BIA did a great job with the dawn sky.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Mace]

I don't mind BiA and am having a hoot playing it.

But when it comes down to it, It's definitely not a tactical wargame per se and I don't think anything in the game bar the terrain engine would be of use in CMx2.

*shrug*

Btw there is the same discussion going on in the general forum.

Mace

[Crinius]

Originally posted by Denwad:

I have it for PC, and I don't have any problem with my guys taking cover.

Same here. The only point Id comment is that it is too much scriptet. Otherwise tactics work great IMHO.

[Tarkus]

Interesting post John. I was wondering a bit about this game, although I honestly confess I am not very surprised by your observations.

I'll probably play the game (I'll buy it cheap in a year or two) at some point for its immersive side, but what you are saying do sounds like the main critics Medal of Honor received.

About the CMx2 relevance, from what we have been reading recently, I think we can safely assume BFC is definitely geared toward quality AND realistic modelling of building and terrain. What I am beginning to wonder is whether or not the scope will be narrower to allow more variety in any given theater. What I mean is that perhaps with the capacity to release more games more rapidely, they will stick to specific campaign and/or Battle, like, say, Normandy, The Bulge, Ruhr Pocket or whatever, so to provide with more accurate terrain feature for each and get away from the generic feel CMx1 currently has.

Cheers

[Wicky]

I concur with this feeling of a more limited battle simulation within a theatre - My hunch is CMX-BoB with a surprise 16th Dec release date

Originally posted by Tarkus:

...What I mean is that perhaps with the capacity to release more games more rapidely, they will stick to specific campaign and/or Battle, like, say, Normandy, The Bulge, Ruhr Pocket or whatever, so to provide with more accurate terrain feature for each and get away from the generic feel CMx1 currently has.

Cheers