First Impressions

[DLaurier]

My comp is down so I tried the demo over here at my bro's house...his specs are very close to yours.

WinXP

Pentium 4, 3.19 GHZ, 4cpu

1 gig ram

64 Megs on board video

The demo would run...It actually loaded up faster on his than CMSF used to on mine...just that the down sampling on the models and textures was horrible. I did some testing and set the game graphics to Best/Best but it would only draw textures for about 30 meters or so...couldn't see grass or flowers or anything unless I was right on top of them. Fastest/Fastest blobbed the textures so bad they made the original CMBO textures look like cutting edge stuff. The turns calculated fairly but camera movement was super choppy. He's got no Anti Aliasing at all. I was able to play a couple turns but it was just too ugly and hard to see anything, so I ended up screwing around in the editor.

So, I'd say if you got yourself a good NVIdia card (say 500 to a Gig. which you can get pretty cheap on pricewatch...and maxed your ram...or at least got it up to 2 gigs...you'll be just fine. I'll bet you could get hooked up for around a $100 or so with just the card and an extra gig.

I was running CMSF pretty good with a 500 Meg Nvidia card, 1.5 gigs of ram and an AMD 2.1 dual core.

Mord.

Thankyou..

[Mord]

You're welcome and good luck on the new rig! You'll be icin' Germies and wastin' Amis in no time.

Mord.

[Sirocco]

One interesting thing for me was that 60mm mortars seem much more useful. Perhaps it's the increased accuracy with the new targetting commands point and linear, but previously I would be reluctant to use 60mm's to deal with AT guns. I used them mostly for harassment to pin units. Now they seem to make short work of AT pieces.

[beckb2915]

Spinkick why dont leave this to BFC Tech Support

Your suggestion is like telling someone to tear down their house

because the front door is sticking

Beckb2915

There are other people that have had some issues with Win 7 64

http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/

Thanks Jeff I will get with the help desk. Spinkick thanks as well but when I said this machine is new I meant new as in like a two weeks old. All other games on this thing I have loaded work like a dream (kick but). I was thinking I must have a setting somewhere that this game just doesn't like and I was trying to see if anyone had any suggestions. (other than a major overhall).

[PondScum]

One interesting thing for me was that 60mm mortars seem much more useful. Perhaps it's the increased accuracy with the new targetting commands point and linear, but previously I would be reluctant to use 60mm's to deal with AT guns. I used them mostly for harassment to pin units. Now they seem to make short work of AT pieces.

Yeah, artillery of all sorts seems to have moved up a notch since CMx1. 60mm in CMBN are the equal of 81mm in CMx1 - just play the tutorial and set up a line mission along the stone wall. 81mm in CMBN are the equal of 105mm in CMx1 - I've had a single 81mm round wipe out an HQ and half a squad. And I'm definitely not looking forward to being on the receiving end of 105mm in CMBN...

[PondScum]

For example, it is nigh impossible to "keyhole" units (AT guns, HMGs, etc...). You drop a ATG on an action square and the CMx2 engine defines exactly where it's going to be within that 8x8 square. A lot of very important things can happen in an 8x8 square. If you're at one side, maybe that opening in the bocage is within LOS, while if you're where the CMx2 engine forces you, you cannot. CMx1 with all of its abstractions had much better placement abilities.

In the Bocage scenario I've been completely frustrated by being unable to place my MGs and AT guns properly. I can't emplace just over the reverse slope of a crest or at a particular break in the bocage during the setup phase. I'm frustrated in the extreme. Frustrated almost to the point of not wanting to play with infantry at all.

+1 to this. Just wait till you play as the Americans in "Closing the Pocket", and your frustrations will increase a hundredfold

SPOILERS AHEAD

You start with two 57 mm AT guns, and a lovely wooded rivercourse/ravine to put them in. Fabulous! Dreaming of perfect hulldown (gunshield-down?) positions halfway down the bank, with bare LOS through the trees, you find that... the engine won't allow it. With the "snap to spot" system, either you're stuck down at the bottom where you can see all of 20 m, or you're up at the top on flat ground on the very edge of the treeline... where every German HMG crew will spot your guns within 5 seconds of the game starting, and will proceed to happily pin and then slaughter your gun crew.

[freeeman]

this seems to be something that should in time, be very fixable .. granted not in the "bug" catagory but small adjustments to placing should be the norm for a game of this high caliber.. unless I am way way off..

at least lets hope so

[akd]

Yeah, artillery of all sorts seems to have moved up a notch since CMx1. 60mm in CMBN are the equal of 81mm in CMx1 - just play the tutorial and set up a line mission along the stone wall. 81mm in CMBN are the equal of 105mm in CMx1 - I've had a single 81mm round wipe out an HQ and half a squad. And I'm definitely not looking forward to being on the receiving end of 105mm in CMBN...

The casualty-causing potential of 105mm HE over 81mm HE is not huge. In some situations, 81mm mortar fire can be more effective against personnel. People seem to assume that caliber automatically equates to increased performance, or that mortars are weaker than artillery because they are "small". The most important difference is range, as the 105mm gun can deliver these effects thousands of yards beyond where the mortar becomes useless.

[Macisle]

Just finished my first battle--the training scenario on Elite.

Total Victory! Whoot!

22 KIA, 18 wounded and 1 tank lost (shreck near the end).

I only had 4 minutes left on the clock, though. -Was being super-cautious until time stress kicked in.

Man, that AT was ROCK. It took a ton of area fire from multiple tanks and still kept in the game. I thought it was knocked out, but saw it spring back to life just as my inf was closing in. They got it. Had I not noticed that when I did, it might have taken out two or three of my tanks at that point. This ain't yer paw's CM!

Luvin' it, luvin' it, luvin' it. It's a massive improvement over CMx1 in most every way.

The only annoyance was my inf getting a bit lost on bridges at the farm and near the crossing. I had to cancel accurate, but long (multi-WP) paths and make single waypoints to get them safely across.

Alrighty, on to the next battle!

Macisle

[c3k]

+1 to this. Just wait till you play as the Americans in "Closing the Pocket", and your frustrations will increase a hundredfold

SPOILERS AHEAD

You start with two 57 mm AT guns, and a lovely wooded rivercourse/ravine to put them in. Fabulous! Dreaming of perfect hulldown (gunshield-down?) positions halfway down the bank, with bare LOS through the trees, you find that... the engine won't allow it. With the "snap to spot" system, either you're stuck down at the bottom where you can see all of 20 m, or you're up at the top on flat ground on the very edge of the treeline... where every German HMG crew will spot your guns within 5 seconds of the game starting, and will proceed to happily pin and then slaughter your gun crew.

A different perspective: what commander would place a high-velocity crew served weapon on a precipitous slope? That perfect hull-down position for your gun could result in the gun flying down into the ravine once it fires. Or, conversely, the slope may be such that even if you could get it stabilized on the slope, the gun could not depress far enough to be level.

Enough of the excuses.

Using what we have, perhaps this is more a map making issue?

Ravine at elevation 15 meters, other terrain at 20 meters. Going like this: 15.20.20.20 would be hard. In game, or real life, that means a vertical change of 5 meters in less than 8 meters horizontal distance. That is steep.

If a map maker did this: 15.19.20.20.etc.etc, the spot at 19 meters would provide a lip 1 meter lower than ground level. That would give you the flat spot for the hull down location.

Another solution would be 15.x.x.x.x.x.20, where "x" represents an action spot at whatever elevation the map algorithm selects, and the numbers represent hard-coded "black" elevation settings in the editor.

Part of this is the 8 meter action spot, part is map design.

[De Savage]

I want to share my first impressions too. I'm a veteran CMSF player (and older CMs too) so I feel like at home with this game.

I play real time and action seems very fast. I'm a little slow guy so I use pause a lot. But after few missions I'm used to speed and action seems just fine.

Rhino-Shermans are neat, very neat! Can't wait to have my hands on final game and get first experiment with a Tiger tank.

WW2 beats modern time war 10x. Also scenario making is much more fun, because its easier to create interesting battles. Modern times (CMSF) lacks real interesting battles on the otherhand Normandy have plenty of historical battles. And fictional battles fits better too.

Please! Hurry up on release!

Oh... AI seems very capable! Good work.

[Andrew H.]

The demo is just awesome!

Remember how in Squad Leader the scenarios were sometimes so well designed that the whole game would come down to hand to hand fighting in the victory location on the last phase of the last turn? I had a very similar experience playing German in "closing the pocket".

***Possible spoilers***

The main objective in this scenario is to occupy the "command post" - a building in a small village. You can achieve this objective by taking the building, or buy occupying a small strip (10-20 meters in size) outside the building.

This is made difficult by the fact that the building is in the middle of other buildings that obscure each other such that it is difficult to advance. I.e., while your troops are in a building, they can suppress other buildings with LOS to them - but when they move in the open on the way to taking another building, they will come into LOS of an unsuppressed unit that they didn't have LOS to while in the first building (and in the case of my troops, will be sent fleeing back into the first building). It seems *very* realistic.

So there are five minutes left in the game. I've destroyed all of the US tanks and TDs, at the cost of one immobilized Panther with a non-functioning cannon (but working coax and otherwise in a good location) and two destroyed Marders. I've plastered the town with arty and area fire from my Panthers so that many buildings have been destroyed. But the ground is also pockmarked with craters, giving the defenders additional cover.

However, my infantry is also in bad shape; my first platoon and one squad of my second have been shot to pieces, and the two almost full strength squads won't really advance in the face of any fire (this might be a global morale thing). I am only able to advance into the village at all by bringing up my mobile Panther (and then an armored car) and by firing at the defenders at almost point blank range.

Two consecutive turns of trying to move my good squads into the VL fail, as a spattering of shots sends them howling back to safety. With two minutes left, I realize that I could move my AC to the yard of the VL building. I attempt to do so and the AC *bogs* in a crater 5 meters outside the green VL! The next turn it is immobilized...and the game goes into overtime!

And that's basically how it ends - my weakened troops won't push into the building...and there's no room for my Panther to get to the VL since the one path is blocked by the AC (and I'm worried about losing my Panther). I did consider having the AC crew bail out into the VL, but I was afraid that they would be shot up.

Game ended with a tactical German victory (primarily due to the US tank/TD losses)...but I don't think that the Germans will be leaving the pocket.

The biggest shock for me has been the AI's use of arty; it's *really* good. Arty is what decimated most of my attacking troops; it also killed most of the supporting troops on the heights, immobilized my Panther, and destroyed two Marders and an AC. You can no longer park overwatching units in one place if the enemy has arty...after two minutes, they'll start dropping it on you. To use my Marders effectively, I had to creep them up the slope, let them shoot for a turn, and then back them back down out of LOS. (However, I can report that, unlike in the absolute spotting CM1 days, Marders *can* be effective).

Awesome job. I can't wait for the full game - I'm really interested in how QBs will work.

:-)

[rangerj]

Took five minutes to download and a few minutes to install. Performance is amazing. Wow....I was a big fan of CMSF but wanted to see CM1 with the same engine. You guys didn't disappoint...I love it! I'm looking forward to a long summer of Nazi killing.

Cheers, Battlefront! Well deserved.

[BigJ62]

Love the Regular exp level troops it just feels right. The new morale thingy is perfect.

[Steiner14]

I'm looking forward to a long summer of Nazi killing.

Yes, propaganda can turn people into the demons it invented while they don't even recognize it...

[GhostRider3/3]

Well I must say i am not disapointed one bit... In fact when I get done writing this.. Im going back to replay another mission. the only thing I really wanted to do today was play around with the editor, but its not really working that well.. the colors are screwed up an deploying some of the foilage does not appear to be working... not really a complaint as this is only a demo version.

I hope everyone else is enjoying the demo!\

Oh yeah I almost forgot. In closing the Pocket, I had no halftracks for the Mortar team... not sure if they were to be there but they were not??? Also there was no kublewagen... I could have sworn they were there in the VAAR, but maybe not for the demo.

[mjkerner]

GhostRider, it was mentioned in another thread that to lightened the file for the Demo d/l

that they took out a lot of textures in the editor. Also, in Closing the Gap, the took out the H/T's and kublewagon.

[GhostRider3/3]

GhostRider, it was mentioned in another thread that to lightened the file for the Demo d/l

that they took out a lot of textures in the editor. Also, in Closing the Gap, the took out the H/T's and kublewagon.

Ahhh... LOL I must have missed the memo. its all good, thanks for the heads up

[Frenchy]

Just tried out the demo - I am using a low end system; Win XP with SP3, 2 gigs of ram, and an Nvidia 6200 graphics card. Demo loaded just fine and got right into the action. While the graphics displayed are not the most detailed, they are adequate for my system. What is most important is that I can play it!

[88mnick]

Hi One and all

To me this is a dream come true , The Combat Mission games ( the original 3 ) were on my hard drive for years , much longer then any other games I have bought. The only one that came close was Warcraft 2 , I played the hell out of that one also. Every 6 months or so I would load up CMAK and have some fun with it over the last 5 years ,

( it was my favorite ) and when I would play I always thought how great it would be to have a new state of the art version .

Well after playing the Demo I think I can say The BEST war game around will be on my hard drive soon ( yes I ordered CMBN today ) good thing I upgraded my grafix card for Starcraft II a few months ago , So I am ready to roll..............

N

[wadepm]

Ok, played a couple of games against my son and the AI. First, I am not a real-time guy. It's cool but I can't keep track of everything the way I like so it's email for me.

The game is very cool, feels very realistic. I have a lot to learn (I skipped the whole CMSF era) and I'm looking forward to reading the manual cover to cover on the train ride into work every morning for as long as it takes. I need to get ready for ROW...

Excellent job Battlefront. I look forward to the full version. And the Eastern Front...eventually.

One weird thing happened in the Bocage scenario (I think). One of my AT guns blasted one of my 'shreck teams, repeatedly. Happened in real life I am sure but a bit disconcerting in the game!

[kulik]

Ok, played a couple of games against my son and the AI. First, I am not a real-time guy. It's cool but I can't keep track of everything the way I like so it's email for me.

What would you say if the game would be realtime but it would pause each 60 seconds for a period of time (fixed or it would wait till both players unpause) so you can check the battlefield, your troops, rethink your plan and most importantly issue orders like you do in wego?

If you like it, support the noble cause by replying in this thread: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=96573 .

And add this to your signature "Wish List for CMBN: Please oh please a "pause key" for RT multiplayer games. '

[Gamer4ever]

I've a lot yet to experience with this game, but I am pretty much happy with it. I played CMBO, CMBB, and CMAK (a LOT) and they had features that I wish CMBN had.

Like moving waypoints, colored bases for the troops, and the CMx1 way of scrolling the map.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this but I wish there was a way to mute the inane troop chatter without muting all of the sound effects. The phrases are way too repetative. I don't see the chatter adding much at all to the game. Maybe we can delete those sound files?

Over all, I am glad the game is here. Uh, the demo, I mean.

[massive1974]

well, having played the demo for a couple of hours now i have to say that this games kicks major a...rsch.

back in the day, i always felt that WEGO was just to slow for me and...khrm, unrealistic. i mean what kind of a simulation allows you to take infinite pauses and rethink a hundred times every decision that you're supposed to make. war is hell boys, you've got seconds to make decisions which will either cost you the lives of your men or not. fluidity and organized chaos, that's what makes a good wargame for me, and that's what RT delivered primarily.

in this sense I welcomed RT play. The fact that there was still is a lot of micromanagement and now real-time, did make things a bit hectic. With CMSF and co. RT might actually and ironically be just too much. With the kind of capabilities that a modern army carries things are over in seconds.

CMSF for me has always been just plain asymmetrical warfare, no way around that and also lacking the mythology of WWII ( i gues that will be rectified in the next 20 or so years, once all the books are written and movies made about Iraq and Afghanistan).

So it's all clicking together for me: RT and a WWII setting which allows for a slower pace yet seems totally realistic, forces which are pretty much even. There wasn't a moment yet since I started playing the demo that I thought: wait a minute, that looks weird or funny or naw, that can't be. There's such a flow to the game, it's unbelievable.

Ok, if there was one thing that I found just a tiny bit enervating is the way the AI seems to be prodding you forward with successful mortar strikes. there's just no stopping anywhere on the map, they'll find you. as much as I love RT, I just wish they gave me a brake once in a while. I sometimes feel like medic Irwin Wade in Saving Private Damon." just give us a f... chance you sonomamitch." spittle in the wind.

so congratulations to the BF crew, it's an awesome game, you did it again as the blonde lady used to say.

[Gunfreak]

I've never played the older combat missions nor the ones with the modern stuff.

So this is my first venture into this series.

First the game playes alot better on turned based, I have only played the torurial so far becasue it's really very good mission, I did not get the hang of MG and mortar in real time, but started to get a feel for it in turn based.

I finnaly started to get a feel for the whole thing, I spent 20 minutes routing the crauts out of the hedges on the right flanks, fire and manovre with 3 rifle squads and an MG,

On the left flank by the farm, I used up all my mortar ammo to just take out the craut mg, and layed supressing fire with the second mg.

In the end by the cross road, I got the germans in crossfire and flank fire and massacard about 20 of them by thr AT gun, it was a victroy but a costly one, 44 dead 23 wounded 4 tanks out of action.

I'm gonna give it another try tomorrow I want to get less then 20 killed. Or the brass is gonna have my head. Can't go around killing of 50% of my company routing out some POWs and second line troops.