patched... what du you think?

[dizee]

lo

patched tha game, and played a bit after a long shelving period. i have to say that alot of stuff has been improved.

the battle generator and the editors will give this game a good chance to have a long life.

i realy want this game to be good, since it has so much great stuff in it.

otoh, there a still very big issues which makes the game hard to enjoy properly. i played the first mission of the panzer lehr campaign, i think 4 times now, and it still has the same arcadish feeling.

imho, the biggest flaw of the game is the borked spotting/engaging abilities of armored vehicles, especialy when they are under fire and on the move.

in the first panzer lehr mission, the assaulting cromwell tanks, are just driving through my positions at high speeds, engaging/spotting targets left and right, destroying guns, stugs and jpz's often while on move.

i cant conceal any gun or stug/jpz on the map. it is spotted/engaged/killed instantly.

what are those british flyers all about? i thought air to ground radar etc wasnt realy invented back then. they are spotting/engaging/destroying my guncrews even after i disembarked them before the battle.

i realy hope that the developers are on all of this with their add on. dont get me wrong, i dont think that i wasted my money or something, since there arent realy and good games like this out of there, but pls keep on working on this game. it has the potential to be realy good.

[Stoppelhopser]

Have to wait for the german localisation patch from Kalypso(with many errors expected) so I can't offer an opinion regarding the patch.

But about the Panzerlehr mission I feel the same. Played it about 5 times, first twice on difficult, then on medium, made the same experience you did. Funny how none of the Panzerfaust hit because the men cannot track fast moving targets. Finally decided I do something else with my spare time and went building my 1/48 KV1 model . Now building Rommels SdKfz 250/3, also 1/48.

I'll have another look after the german patch is out.

And you are right, TOW certainly has potential. Perhaps TOW2 might bring what we wish for.

[Bayes]

That was strange. I am a beginner and I was able to annihilate the first British tank charge, mainly by means of the panzer shreks and my assault guns. Actually, I was mainly watching the action, letting my soldiers take care of the battle themselves. It was fun observing the soldiers with the panzer shreks hiding in the ditches while reloading, then standing up and nailing nearby tanks...

[Pike]

Uber planes,

Yes they have Uber planes in RAF. They have no gas or ammo limit. They have IR and radar and some new tech that is invented during WWIII somewhere in the future. I need some uber AA that can fly!

[Hpt. Lisse]

I have to agree here, this too being the first battle I've tried since the patch (playing on difficult.)

The psychic air support seems a bit much, though the two Flak AA guns do a good job if you can keep them alive. Even in death the Brit flyboys get ya - second time through, I cursed as a flaming fighter crashed into an active Pak 40 gun! (Cool, though, that it can actually occur...)

I also think that the damage of the Panzershreck is undermodeled... close range, rear hull hits on those Crommies, and off they scoot, unfazed. I doubt that would happen often in CM, for instance.

A couple of times I've had unresolved stand-offs as well - numerous immobilized Crommies out in the field, all my AFV's DOA or can't move - but it's simply impossible to sneak up on/around those Borg-spotting mothers with my remaining 'Shrecks. Ratt-tat-tat... thud. Buuurraap... arrgghh. A WWI trench rush has more likelyhood of succeeding.

Anyhoo, I look forward to seeing more of the patch improvements - if I can get past this battle. May have to suck it up and lower the difficulty to medium...

[R33GZ]

isnt that the problem.... the difficulty level you playing.

I think I remember reading somewhere that veteran level now gives the enemy AI increased opportunity and medium is now realistic, or on par with player.

From what you guys are saying, that woudl make sense wouldnt it?

I havent played the normandy campaign yet though, so can't be 100% on that.

[Bayes]

Yes, I believe both precision and weapon effectiveness are reduced at the difficult level. I was easily able to win the first battle at medium level, with few losses. And the battle unfold in a realistic and exciting manner (IMO). I already look forward to my next battle, with the panzergrenadier regiment defending a village...

[himmelstoss]

i really like it allot specially MP, great fun.

cant wait now for the add on cuz i really needs that smoke and the possibility to enter buildings for defensive gaming.

weiter so!

himmel

[HLS]

I think the patch brings numerous enhacements. I really appreciate all the work that was done to make it happen.

Going forward, I think infantry really need some help. Enterable buildings should go a long way to increasing their usefulness.

[Sneaksie]

On Veteran enemies have higher accuracy, but weapon effectiveness is the same as on Regular. Weapon effectiveness is changed only on easy level, favoring the player.

[Panzerfest]

Im very happy with the new patch but I also saw crommies getting hit by concentrated schrek, pak40 and Stug fire at close range and shrug it off, it just seems to me that it takes ALOT more to kill tanks. Before the patch I never saw this and any HEAT hit would almost always zap the whole crew. This was on medium difficulty setting.

[theBrit]

So far I have only noticed bugs. These range from even worse AI (Charging tanks with rifles), constantly retreating Tanks, texture bugs and poor path finding....

So what was in the 1.2gb patch exactly??????

[Petrus58]

Maybe my memory is failing, but I seem to recall that one of the biggest complaints re TOW on release was the absence of a QBG. Now we have one, and not a word!!!

[Mcalhau]

Hi

This is my first post and first of all I want to say that I like very much the game ( even with all the bugs that all of us can catch). Like we say here in Portugal ( and other countries I hope ), perfection does not exist, but it would be great if it was close, so, I think we all can help to trie achive that purpose, but I think we should do that in a way that the people behind the game would feel happy with the work that they have done, because I think that all of us, in this forum, were ( and still are ) expecting that this could be THE GAME.

Well, I´ve tried the new patch, and I´m only playing it in the dificult level. I´m now on the 3rd mission, I have played a sort of 4, 5 times each one to win, and I only won it because of micro management. In this time ( besides the panzershrek effectiveness) for me the most boring was to always have an eye on the tanks and SPs that were not with the "hold" button so they wouldn´t start moving around. ( and always played in the slowmotion version )

Just want to say, keep the good work, and we will be here to trie to help make this game even better with your help.

PS:I hate the Pz IV ****ing gun mauntlet, the brits knocked them really easy.

[StkNRdr]

Other than a rare random freezeup problem I mention in another post (which existed previously), I think the patch makes the game much more enjoyable. I am only playing in the middle difficulty level. Sometimes the soldiers do dumb things and die as a result but I write this off to not all of them being seasoned veterans. On the whole I am very please with the changes and look forward to the add on.

[KG_AGCent]

The improvements made in this patch are a vast step in the right direction.

This is a good game, with great potential. There are still some rough patches, in the multi-player especially. The connections just aren't very solid yet. Quicker, yes, but fragile. Played about 8 or 9 Mp games this morning/afternoon with btwn 6-8 players and each time one of the p;ayers, and it was almost random whom, had issues with infantry either not moving, tanks not responding or players dropping with runtime errors, CTDs or freezing.

I am going to play smaller sided games and see if this might help.

[Brian Smith]

I'm very happy with the patch. Started up the tutorial missions to relearn it, and everything worked much smoother and I won all the missions (for the first time).

Saw the new trees and bush affecting line of sight nicely. In the defence mission, there was a PZ sitting back firing it's 20mm at my rightmost AT gun. It was hidden by bushes, no LoS from my guns, but it's LoS was plainly limited, as it was not accurate.

Finally, it crept forward through a bush line and my guns immediately saw it and knocked it out. Loving it.

[chanss]

Dissapointed I am sorry to say.

I have still to micromanage the "pickupp" of stuff thats been drop by kia soldiers, COMPLETE bore!

Only played the addon russian campaign sofar, but its still way way too much micromanagement.

The balancing of scenarious is still laughable. 20-25 geman tanks against 3 antitankable russian tank and 4 AT-guns that cant hit **** and gets wiped out real quick.

Theyr building an addon I read, yeah....I wont buy it.

[Jim Cobb]

I'm still impressed with the game. Admittedly, my review was lukewarm and I don't expect the patch to fix all my problems. However, we must give BF and 1c credit for moving the genre forward instead of recycling old ideas unlike other companies.

[stuka42]

Hello to everyone!

First i have to say that i'm very please with the patch so far i give a B+. The battle generator is very a big improvment for the repleabylitie, the new lost system is for the better and i like the fact that my tanks now are not too fragile vs the anti-tank gun. And don't forget the new very powerfull map editor!!

Yeah that rigth that we still have to do micromanagement but for me it's not a problem i hit the pause button and do what i have to do to win the battle. And unlike you Chanss (by the way no offence to you!)i will buy the addon because i truly think that 1C and Battlefront will cary this game to highter level.

The bad side now. the fact that we still have to kill the last remaning of ennemy soldier to win the engagement is a bit disapointing and although the lost system is better, at close encounter the ennemy tanks still have there eyes all around the turret and because of that it's always very difficult for infantry to have a hit.

So 1C and Battlefront keep up the good work and thx for this patch!

[theBrit]

An Add-on is an insult imo....fix this before you add more problems!!!

And definately dont charge us for what should have been in the game in the first place!

[Reichenberg]

Considering where the game actually came from (back in 2002/2003) I think it is obvious that the game heads into the right direction. A lot of the problems that ToW still had after the first release where IMHO caused by that needed shift in game preference.

Was the game playable for me before the patch?? Yes, but I had to adjust my playing style quite significantly to cope with the weaknesses of the game. Fun, but had the potential for frustration now and then. (e.g. LoS/LoF issues, level of micromanagement, game limitations, modability and replayability, AI issues(friendly and enemy)...)

Now the patch has improved in quite a few fields and moved my gaming experience towards the fun side (LoS issues reduced through visualisation, others like 360° vision of tanks and no concealment of grass still there; modability and replayability significantly improved; level of micromanagement, game limitations and AI issues more or less unchanged - at least the significant ones for me). Is ToW the perfect game that meets all my expectations?? No way, but until I have enough money to buy my own gaming company....this will probably never happen with any game in the future.

Do I see more potential in that piece of software we have in front of us here?? Oh yes I do - and from the announcements I have heard so far from 1C and Battlefront for the add-on I guess quite a bit of this potential will be unveiled there (e.g. enterable buildings, smoke, concealment in grass, less micromanagement because of smarter friendly AI, scenario ending issues...).

After an add-on release there will be more issues (not to say problems here) that have to wait for a ToW II (no final list out yet, just wishes for a ToW II like a dynamic style campaign).

To come to a subjective conclusion for me:

Yes, for me the money for ToW was worth it. The patch improved it and if an add-on will come out I will go and buy it. Depending on the stage ToW has reached by then I assume I would be in for a ToW II - as long as it will stay WWII and will be evolutionary to ToW. Because I defintely like the direction we are heading to with ToW at the moment. So, I am voting with my wallet for the add-on and ToW II!!

Uwe

[whaco]

Great graphics. That's all the game has going for it. Oh yea and the borg spotting. Gotta love that. AT guns buried in brush and a Russian tank buttoned up takes him out from about a mile away using there new ultra uber optics. I think the only part of the AT gun that was exposed was a MM of the turret. Too unrealistic for me. I give BFC credit for patching it but I think this clunker is off the hard drive as fast as it was put on.

[Tankbuster]

Originally posted by stuka42:

The bad side now. the fact that we still have to kill the last remaning of ennemy soldier to win the engagement is a bit disapointing

I haven't seen this at all. I always get the options to win the battle or continue the battle after I have completed all objectives. There are always still some infantry or disabled tank crews running around on the map when this option comes up so I often choose the option to continue the battle so that I can run them over with some nice heavy armour

[stuka42]

@ Tankbuster

What i had in mind when i said that it's the fact that the game won't progress to the next step (i.e the next wave of ennemies) if you don't get ride of the last bold ennemy infantry (last ennemy ready to fight). If the morale of this ennemy get to low he will flee and the game can go on (i think it's because of the "Trigger" thing in the game? correct me if i'm wrong Tankbuster!) and this way we can have the choice you told in your post: Win battle or continue.

And by the way the english is not my original language so sorry for my syntaxe. Shame on me it's not LOST system but LoS system "Line of sight"