First Impressions

[Sirocco]

Immediate impressions; map edges. ToW seemed to handle them much better.

Two issues, one more important than the other. I couldn't get the AT teams to use their last Javelin's against the bunkers in the training campaign. I split them from the squads and gave them target orders, but nothing from any of them, apart from small arms. All had one Javelin remaining.

The second, and minor issue; when selecting a bunker as point target it was flagged as "vehicle", not "bunker".

[Xipe66]

Pretty, fitting music and really hard.

I have no idea on how to conduct MOUT warfare and my men are paying for it.

The sounds, music and graphics are good though, I can't really comment much on the actual game yet (except I'm struggling) after just playing the first two training missions.

The controls were intuitive enough, but I would have preferred if keybindings had stayed as they used to be (no biggie though) - gonna have to RTFM about how to easily change between command groups though.

In the first mission I unloaded my men at WWII MG ranges (about 500m), and lost one MG team and half a squad right away despite trying to suppress the enemy with the Strykers. (my original plan was to unload the MGs earlier, but I didn't know about the Disembark not being among the Movement commands, so my MGs Quick-moved without moving when the Stryker paused).

It's going to be a learning curve.

EDIT: Oh, and I didn't see any map generator in the Scenario Editor - I hope I just need to RTFM, because that's a big reason as to why CMBB has lasted on my HD up to this day.

[ July 27, 2007, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: Xipe66 ]

[Exel]

Impressions after first battle (Allah's Fist):

Controls -

To be honest, really counter-intuitive. The four different command menus are slow to use. Left-click mouse menu would have been nice, but oh well. They are versatile.

The camera controls need some urgent fixing though. The keyboard camera controls have really erratic behaviour; the camera halts, lags, doesn't respond, etc. With mouse the camera works fine, but again the controls are somewhat counter-intuitive. During the first battle I spent most of my time working the camera, not playing the game. I hope it's something one gets used to, but it sure isn't made easy. Suggestion: Make the left-click camera move function have invert axis, so as to 'drag the map' instead of 'push the camera'.

Graphics -

After fixing the initial glitches, works fine except for the shadows. The units look real great! However at times the vehicles seem to sink into the terrain, and when viewed from a distance they often look as if they are floating in the air.

Making out height differences is really hard on the terrain, at least when graphics set to 'Balanced'. Really big of an issue - can't make out line-of-sight, can't position tanks to hull-down. Suggestion: Add a line-of-sight command.

The animations are neat but in some cases really overdone. The Abrams rocks from recoil as if it was a Stryker...

Gameplay -

The tanks behave very realistically - way better than I dared to hope for! Tank battles are fast and violent - and short. Great job there! :cool:

----------

And hey, I found myself in the game!

How neat is that?!

[ July 27, 2007, 12:52 PM: Message edited by: Exel ]

[Bonxa]

Running pretty fine on the following system:

1.8 GHz AMD

512 MB DDR RAM

ATI 9600

My laptop was a bit worse but that's because I'm having problems updating my video drivers which are over a year old...

My first impressions are that this is combat mission for sure but it will take a little bit of getting used to. Camera controls are fine for me, as is real time. The immersion is very good from the get go. Tool tips would be very nice though, but I have already started reading the f***ing manual.

[JohnO]

I like it so far everything for me is running fine, however I did have a problem on how to mount units in a vehicle, found out the hard way and kept at it until I figured it out. Love the scenario Allahs Fist

JohnO

[Salkin]

When first starting it I thought things looked fairly typical "Combat Mission", but as soon as my men and vehicle started to move I was totally blown away! Things looked way better then I hoped they would (and WAY better then in the movies we've been getting).

Watching my first javelin kill was also very nice.

My one gripe so far is with the AI.

I tried a quickbattle on a tiny map vs mech syrian forces.

My first contact was some APC's in the distans.

After a bit of hassle and a few men lost(2) I got my men onto some rooftops armed with javelins from my strykers (all this is very cool by the way, I love getting stuff from my strykers).

"WHOOOSH!"

*silence*

"KA-BOOOM" !!!

Splodey things hit thinly armoured troop transports. A couple of minutes after this I am the winner of the scenario (I think time ran out).

I watch the carnege in the AAR view. The area around the enemy APCs are littered with dead and wounded...voila.

This sounds cool, and it kind of was , but I have a few worries about these quick battles. It seems you REALLY need the right map plans for the right map or the AI may be very inactive in some corner of the map.

This was only my first quick battle , so the second one might come as a positive surprise.

Other then this I deffinitely like the game...this is CM on steroids, with Strykers, Javelins and all those wonderfull details we all love so much .

//Salkin

[Salkin]

As for the camera controls that Exel mentioned above , I definitely believe that this is something that you will easily get used to after a few play throughs. For line of sight tool, try the target button.

Now I REALLY need to go and RTFM.

//Salkin

[David Chapuis]

those automatic grenade launchers are something else. Wow! Lots of fun to watch for the first time!

[Exel]

Originally posted by Salkin:

As for the camera controls that Exel mentioned above , I definitely believe that this is something that you will easily get used to after a few play throughs.

Probably. But it would REALLY help if the left-click drag camera control had at least an option to invert the mouse axis (both of them). Invert mouse is that something that you get or you don't - forcing to do against one's nature is like trying to force a lefty to become a righty.

Seriously though I do believe it would be a lot more intuitive that way. You click on the map to drag the map, you push the edges of the screen to push the camera. Now they both push the camera.

[Razgovory]

My first impressions. (Note on my specs 3.3 gig processor, Radeon 850xp pro video card, 2 gigs of RAM. Not top of the line but pretty good) The controls are somewhat counterintuitive; the hot keys seem to change when you click on different menus. That's really odd. As has already been noted, using the keyboard to move the camera is not good. Fortunately using the mouse to move the camera works much better. It's not Combat Mission x1 and that's the biggest hurdles you have to get over before you can enjoy it. After you start to figure that out the game gets much better. So far I've played one quick battle and one training mission. Apparently you have to do something for the AI in the quick battle that I don't know how to do yet so the enemy just sat there. That was okay. I got to test artillery on them which was fun.

Once you get past the new controls the game is really a blast though. I do miss the option to speed up turns in the turn based part of the game though.

[MikeyD]

Take it from me EVERYBODY first cusses when trying to control the camera but VERY quickly it becomes the favorite aspect of the whole game. Hang in there.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Razgovory:

Once you get past the new controls the game is really a blast though. I do miss the option to speed up turns in the turn based part of the game though.

I believe this is fixed in the patch; memory is hazy right now as I usually do RTS.

[Taki]

First Impression i got was some Problems and Driver Updates that didnt Help on that "Camera COntrol" Problem. Laaging, behaves strange and gimmie CTD.

But after all i enjoyed it so far. Have to learn alot i guess. Old WW2 Tactcis CMX1 dont work anymore and that make me Happie somehow.

[Exel]

Two crashes so far, both seemingly caused by the camera, occurred when rapidly dropping the camera from high altitude to ground level - the game just hangs.

[Razgovory]

Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Razgovory:

Once you get past the new controls the game is really a blast though. I do miss the option to speed up turns in the turn based part of the game though.

I believe this is fixed in the patch; memory is hazy right now as I usually do RTS. </font>

[CRourke]

I'm pretty impressed so far. Just finished my first quick battle. Limited ability to pick forces is a little annoying, but I also enjoy getting surprised with force structures I might not have chosen on purpose. Played a Meeting Engagement on hills map. Obj is a house inside a walled compound, placed on a saddle in the middle of the map. Force is a medium eng coy backed up with the ATGM section. Enemy is mechanized regulars.

First hiccup. Enemy evidentally air dropped 2 plts of bmp-1 into my assembly area. Thank god for the TOW armed strykers. Enemy force wiped out, with just some light wounds to the guys riding the strykers. (This shared deployment area is an annoying bug, but easily fixable I hope).

Plan: 1st plt will rapidly advance to back side of walled compound, dismounts will seize compound before enemy can close. 2nd plt will advance to a reverse slow position on my left, which gives them LOS to 2nd entrance to compound, to prevent enemy approach/reinforcement. 3rd plt held in reserve. ATGM section pushes to broad right side of saddle, where there fires can engage any armor cresting the saddle. Having already destroyed the two bmp plts, I'm expecting very little resistance at this point.

Execution: Everything goes well in this first phase. Compound is taken. I see occasion dust clouds on the enemies side of the saddle, so I guess he must have some remaining forces that deployed in a 2nd area. 10 or so minutes in, I order a pair of strykers from 2nd plt to hunt forward, pushing near the center of the saddle. As they reach the military crest, there is a huge burst of fire.. in seconds, both strykers are smoking. I send in the reserve plt, this time playing it caution, having them dismount their infantry just behind the military crest. Dismounts immediately come under very heavy fire. I order 1st plt to leave the compound and join the reserve 3rd plt on the crest. 2nd plt is also order to advance, taking the left side of the crest. Meanwhile the TOW strykers have pushed forward, high and on the extreme right... I'm hoping distance will protect them from the RPG's that I assumed took out the first two strykers. Dismounts take casualties as the enemy engages with AR's, MG's, and RPG's. Luckily (unwisely), the enemy infantry is concentrated quite tightly, and my cresting units have a pretty good crossfire. Even better, ATGM section on the right fires a single TOW that explodes right in the center of the syrian mob. After that, our forces have clear fire superiority. The only significant resistance comes from a clever Syrian innovation, the dreaded Twin BMP. Made from stacked BMP-1's, it offers, Twice the Armor, Twice the Fire Power, 1/200 of the Believability. It also offers a nasty suprise to my ATGM Stryker who was climbing further up the peak on the right side of the saddle. But eventually it falls to superior U.S. firepower... possibly from a twin-TOW.

Result: Total Victory.

Opinion: Very Fun. This is a winner, but there are certainly some glitches left. Aside from the deployment issues, I've noticed the camera key controls have some strange lag.. first the camera moves slow, then it seems to get damped and continue on far after you release the key. But scrolling via mouse works ok. No pathfinding issues so far, but it was a pretty sparse map. I do keep hitting 'M', which orders my costly high tech strykers to advance on the enemy in reverse, but thats pretty much my fault. Thinking back to CMBO, I think it was more ready to go out of the box, but I don't see any show stoppers, just stuff that needs to get patched. I'm sure we'll see the usual whine-fest from people, but meanwhile the rest of us will be too busy playing the game to respond.

[rune]

Sirocco sure they had 1 remaning and not just the launcher?

Rune

Originally posted by Sirocco:

Immediate impressions; map edges. ToW seemed to handle them much better.

Two issues, one more important than the other. I couldn't get the AT teams to use their last Javelin's against the bunkers in the training campaign. I split them from the squads and gave them target orders, but nothing from any of them, apart from small arms. All had one Javelin remaining.

The second, and minor issue; when selecting a bunker as point target it was flagged as "vehicle", not "bunker".

[mgk]

For me it is good old CM but with new fast and beautiful graphics and new tactical possibilities

Great work !

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by CRourke:

Played a Meeting Engagement on hills map. Obj is a house inside a walled compound, placed on a saddle in the middle of the map. Force is a medium eng coy backed up with the ATGM section. Enemy is mechanized regulars...

Sounds like my map from Meeting at High Altitude? I haven't played it in a QB, just with the forces I put in. Too bad about the teleporting set up zones. I just replayed the scen this morning with the latest build; for a sparse map it does have some interesting lines of sight - approaching the crest with caution pays dividends. Still not sure if there is any advantage to avoiding the compound altogether in favour of setting up on high ground to the flank.

[flyinj]

Something I'd really like to see for the camera controls:

Have a "camera modifier" key that puts the mouse into left-hold and right-hold camera modes. For instance, holding down CTRL (or whatever) acts just like holding down the left mouse button. ALT could act as right mouse button. Give the option to make these toggles (tap once to get in, tap again to get out) or hold modifiers (hold to retain mode).

Also, it would be REALLY nice to have smoother WASD camera control. Implementing Total Wars' system would be fantastic, where holding down shift makes the camera move even faster.

[Nidan1]

Got home from work, fired up the computer...downloaded in about eight minutes, flawless operation, no problems with license key.

Game loaded smoothly, came up with less than maximum settings.... up ugraded my 3d settings a bit, and fired up the first scenario. I just drove the Strykers down the road just to see what would happen, frame rates and movement looked good no weird happenings as others have described. Syrian troops then proceeded to blast away at the Strykers killing three with RPGs...so now I am reading the manual. All looks good so far. Great work BFC this is groundbreaking to say the least!!!

I hope those of us who are having problems get them fixed, because this game is awesome.

[CRourke]

Ya, fun little map. I considered putting more of my inf on the flanks behind the right and left peaks, but covering the saddle, instead of rushing the compound, but the engineers seem to lack SAW/M240 support. I could of used the Stryker MG's for long range fires, but I was expecting a pretty good push from BMP's down the center, and didn't want to expose them to it... would be interesting to know how things would have turned out if I'd faced the full enemy force.

[benpark]

Good good good so far. It's good old CM, but all grown up.

One CTD so far (turn played out, then CTD), and if it gets some more speed through upcoming optimizations, we are golden. WW2 will be fantatsic with this new engine.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Originally posted by Xipe66:

EDIT: Oh, and I didn't see any map generator in the Scenario Editor - I hope I just need to RTFM, because that's a big reason as to why CMBB has lasted on my HD up to this day.

There isn't one.

But,...you can bet there will be a slew of maps available, post haste, from the community, so you shouldn't lack for variety.

[David Chapuis]

Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

Sounds like my map from Meeting at High Altitude? I haven't played it in a QB, just with the forces I put in. Too bad about the teleporting set up zones. I just replayed the scen this morning with the latest build; for a sparse map it does have some interesting lines of sight - approaching the crest with caution pays dividends. Still not sure if there is any advantage to avoiding the compound altogether in favour of setting up on high ground to the flank.

I am playing this as a syrian light inf force attacking a stryker group. I have 4 platoons of inf and about 6 mg sections. the stryker 40mm grenade lauchers are pulverizing me. I am about to drop some 82mm mortars on a stryker - we will see how that works.

Can only the US side split squads? My RPG guys keep getting plastered.

Also, please tell me there is a way to get rid of the trees