GOPHUR CORNERED RAT

Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Republic of Texas Posts: 6,837

1.29 Open Testing -= START HERE =-

Welcome:
The latest version of Battleground Europe is now ready for pre-release testing. We appreciate your assistance in helping to review the final builds of our release candidate. This test is available to all of our premium subscribers and will run every day until release . Please be sure to check for the latest installations of the test client. Also please read the read me file, stickied in this thread, prior to testing and participate in any focus tests that are posted. Thank you again for participating in our test.

The purpose of this test is to expose the client and host processes to a large number of players to resolve any outstanding bugs that need to be addressed before going live. The server is set up for live game testing. This means that the server is a LIVE FIRE server. Players are free to engage the enemy at will any place on the map except for Area 51. Area 51 is designated for peer to peer testing. Players abusing this area should be reported using the .report command.

Also note that during Open Testing the Game Testing and Bug Reporting forum should only be used for reporting issues relevant to the current open test. Other issues may be posted but will not be responded to during open testing. Our focus is solely on preparing the current open test client and host for release to the live server.


Testing and Reporting:
Please use the following guide lines for participating in this test.

• Install - Downloads will be made available from this thread at the bottom. Players are responsible for keeping the test version up to date. No support is offered from Playnet for any part of this beta including downloads.
• Read Me - Below this post you will find the latest read me file and any previous read me files. Please use these resources in your testing. Report bugs that are based on the read me.
• Focus Test - Each day before testing please review the forum for any sticky posts that indicate we are performing a focus test. The majority of our efforts will be in the focus test and your participation is greatly appreciated.
• Reporting Issues - During a test our primary concern is with bugs in features as listed in the read me files. Bugs should not be posted from the live server during an open test. All bugs should be confirmed on the test client prior to posting. Bugs that are not related to features in the read me are low priority during open test as we are no longer committing resources to additional features and fixes outside of preparing the test client and host for release.
• Schedule - Testing will generally be available either all day or for specific hours during the day depending on the impact to the live server and our testing needs. Focus Tests may also be posted for specific hours and your assistance at those times is especially appreciated. Please review the schedule often as changes frequently are made. Also be aware that you can test the client offline by launching from the 'Practice Offline' link in the start menu for Battleground Europe TEST or by launching the ww2.exe manually from within the test directory (default install directory is /Program File/CRS/Battleground Europe TEST). All times listed are U.S. Central or GMT -6.
• DxDiag - Do not post a full DxDiag unless asked to by a dev.
  If you'd like to post your DxDiag, please post only your System Information, Display Devices and Sound Devices sections.
• This is beta software - Please be aware that this software is beta and may include bugs and other issues that could be harmful to your machine. By installing this software, you assume all risks involved with testing. If you are uncomfortable with testing, please do not participate or download any software.
• Please post all CTD in the sticky thread - CTD logs can be found in the install directory of Battleground Europe TEST. The log most useful is the ww2error.log. Please post this log with any information about the circumstances of the crash in the forum titled for the current version. Mac users should send console logs to gophur@playnet.com.
• If you have a problem - Please reinstall from the full installer and re-patch with new downloads before posting.

- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, October 23, 2008 0 comments

Some people love the smell of napalm in the morning. I do too but not as much as I love this time in a dev cycle where we begin to see that we are closing more bugs than we are creating, when we see that our features are almost complete and where we turn to our community to show them what we’ve got and ask them for their feedback on how to make it even better. It’s that time for 1.29 and next week we’ll be opening the doors to the test server and inviting you all to drop in for a look. This time however our focus has been a little different than it has in the past. "It’s that time for 1.29 and next week we’ll be opening the doors to the test server and inviting you all to drop in for a look." Sure, we’ve got some new vehicles and new buildings and even some game play changes but our major focus has been on the future and on the past. We’ve got an opportunity in front of us. An opportunity we haven’t had in seven years- an opportunity to do something great for the future of our game. CHINA PROJECT As many of you are probably aware, next year will mark a huge milestone for Battleground Europe as the game launches into China. This is a project that we have been working on for several years and has finally come to fruition with development starting this year. China is a great market for Battleground Europe, offering an enormous player base that has a love of competitive and massively multiplayer games. Our game fits the bill for both of those very nicely. We’ve partnered with a group founded by a long time player and friend of the company who has brought together several veterans of the China gaming development community to run a premiere service in China. "As we worked together to prepare for a launch in China we realized that this is a great opportunity to improve and add to the gaming experience." As we worked together to prepare for a launch in China we realized that this is a great opportunity to improve and add to the gaming experience. MMO’s have evolved quite a bit since we started and to be successful in China we need to not only provide the basics like translations but also enhance the new player experience and flatten out the learning curve. We also wanted to take care that every system and feature we develop for the China market has relevance to our players as well. Training- One of the things that we’ve always been proud of is our core of dedicated trainers and as we looked to having our first major release of the game into a completely fresh market of players we knew that we needed to build on and extend that training experience for our new players. The first phase of that will be in 1.29 as “Basic Training”. This feature takes new players into the game through a series of guided tutorials that focus on everything from teaching basic infantry movement and firing to using the map and chat tools for communication and planning. New players will have to complete these basic training courses to unlock access to their personas. We’ve even built a new training ground with new ranges and a new tutorial scripting language to allow us to build and expand our training. "Combat training will be next stage of training where players will get to compete in small directed battles so that they are prepared for WWIIOL-style combat before they even step foot into the game world." For v1.30 we’ll continue to build on this training system with Combat Training. Combat training will be next stage of training where players will get to compete in small directed battles so that they are prepared for WWIIOL-style combat before they even step foot into the game world. Training doesn’t stop there though. We plan to expand training into advanced sections as well. First will be “Advanced Combat Training”. Advanced training will allow players to go to the Training tab in the user interface (UI) and select instances to fight in. The fast action battles will allow players to train outside of the main campaign. In addition to combat we plan to continue to add training for most of the weapons systems in the game over time including everything from mortar practice ranges to pre flight instruction. The tutorials will also cover every screen of the UI with a new “Quick Help” system. As new players go through the UI for the first time, help screens will point out all of the features of each page. New players should have a much improved experience finding a battle or joining a squad or chatting with others. Instancing- The instancing and scripting tools that we’ve built for training also give us some very unique opportunities for future development. One of the things that Project China will have is a competitive team fighting system. We plan to morph this technology for our players into things like training instances where trainers can give direct guidance to players and special event scenarios that run in instances on the main server. Take the Special Events Team as an example. We see instancing as a gate way to building a toolset where a SET member can log in and from the UI create an event plan that recreates an historical battle. He can pick the place the fight will happen, decide on the force makeup and deployment of those forces and set the time for the scenario to run. We could literally have hundreds of these battles from which to pick and choose at any given time. This could make intermissions into a whole new play experience. "This tool might be just what we need to do some Eastern Front or Possibly an American landing on foreign soil." These same tools also work for doing things like squad tournaments. We imagine fighter tournaments with last man standing, maybe even ladder rankings. In the long term we want to see if this can be the tool to create pocket battles. This tool might be just what we need to do some Eastern Front or Possibly an American landing on foreign soil. This is an amazing core technology to have at our disposal and this is all made possible directly as a result of Project China. This is by far the biggest new tool that we have ever had in our toolbox and the possibilities are literally mind boggling. Translations- Translating the game is nothing new to us; we’ve had the game supporting English, French, German, Italian and Spanish for some time. Or so we thought! Chinese is a completely new experience and translating the entire game has been a huge undertaking. Not only did we need to translate the UI and the manuals but we also found we needed to translate over 6000 town and facility and vehicle names, something we’ve never had to do before. We also realized that our western translators were really lacking the tools to keep their translations up to date. So we went out and built a new web based translation tool that contains the tens of thousands of translations the game needs. Anyone who plays in a language other than English should find their play experience vastly improved. Anti-Addiction- Apparently gamers all over the world are the same. They all like to play for hours on end, always wanting “just one more mission”. In China they take this quite seriously. If you are a minor and you’ve played more than a few hours the system starts to warn you that you need to go outside and play and to help you with that it will reduce your score and start buzzing at you! This is probably the one feature in 1.29 that I couldn’t find a way to make useful for our own players. [Anti-Addicition feature will not be available to players outside China -Ed] Though KFSONE has suggested there are a few of you out there we might just switch this on for so watch out! The Air War- DOC and GRANIK have spent quite a bit of this dev cycle working on improvements for the air game. First up we have a couple new toys for you guys. The Spitfire Mk 1b will be taking a slot in Tier 1 while the Bf 109 E1 will make an appearance in Tier 0. These new planes should even out these early tiers. The other big news is the tail audit. For years we’ve been unhappy with the part of the flight model that produces such dramatic yaw flop when using the rudder. Time and again we’ve fiddled with the flight model or the drag points or the surface areas in an attempt to tame the beast. This work always seemed in vain until now. We realized finally that it wasn’t the flight model at all. It was the input that was causing such dramatic flight characteristics and lo and behold hidden in the thousands of lines of data that make up an airplane’s flight, control and weapons was a fix. And fix it did. The change is dramatic and probably the best change we’ve ever made to our air game. I think BmBm sums it up best when he says, “The yaw fix has made aerobatics and advanced combat maneuvers possible where they were formerly tricky at best and downright lethal at worst.” You can read more of his analysis here. "The change is dramatic and probably the best change we’ve ever made to our air game. " There are several other more minor changes that you’ll find in the ReadMe. Among them is a fix to some belt files that fell out of our Unity upgrade. It seems that some planes have been misfiring a few rounds in their belt. It’s not dramatic but for those of you who live and die by the seconds of trigger you have you’ll probably notice a bit more bite in your attack. Terrain (picture: exisiting urbans left, new urbans right)- Our biggest art project of the year has been preparing for the coming Unity upgrade by redoing a lot of our content. We’ve been focused on replacing old buildings and you’ll find several improvements with new urban buildings starting to roll out, a new munitions building, new docks, new AB walls for airfields, new farm ruins, and several older buildings from the Belgian, town and city sets redone or replaced with newer objects. While these all look better in the current game they will really begin to shine when we release the Unity upgrade. Oh and the capture table has made its last appearance. I’m not sure what you’ll call the new capture objects but we have a pool going at the office and if you call them “happy monkey heads” then I’ll win. I think capture radio will probably win out though. Keymapper- Player, “Sgtspoon” has been a real boon to many of our players by providing alternate keymappers over the years. He’s been after us forever about getting his work into the game and we decided that with our new release now’s the time to finally jump the hurdles that were preventing us from just dropping it in. We’ve modified his work and added some of our own twists but we now have a functional keymapper default for those players who might come to the game without their trusty twisty stick (ahem, no jokes). The game will even auto detect if you have a joystick or not and set itself appropriately. Also now, if you have a joystick detection issue or you plug in a new game pad you can go directly to your “Settings” tab and redetect your input controllers. We’d like a lot of feedback on this during testing so that we can be sure we’ve really nailed this one and offer any future new players the best and most intuitive keymapper we can. Some of you old vets might even switch to the keyboard and mouse to drive your Tigers and Shermans across the Meuse. It could happen! User Interface- The user interface is going to go through some changes as we roll out for China. Most of these changes will probably take place after 1.29 but for this release we’ve added some new in game name tags with better resolution. The old ones were really getting tired looking and since we needed to support Chinese name tags this was a great upgrade for everyone. We also added the ability to zoom the map with the plus and minus keys. That’s something that always pops up in your emails and rat chats. One thing that we are also testing out is the showing the AI on the map. We’re a little divided on the usefulness verses clutter issue so we’ll be looking for some feedback in open test from you guys. As always we like our players to help steer the ship and participating in open test is about the best way to have your immediate feedback become a part of the game we all love. Widescreen- Back in the day people would have thought you were crazy if you wanted a widescreen monitor. After all, reading is top to bottom not side to side. Besides, we were making a PvP game and to make it all fair we should lock the field of view so that all players see the same thing. Well, times change and widescreen monitors became all the rage. Still we resisted. That is until Matrox sent me the modern day equivalent of a fire breathing hydra in their new Triple Head Digital Edition. This bad boy let’s you hook up three monitors and treat them as one. Sure it is the best productivity tool since the invention of the window but more important it makes games AWESOMER! That’s right. 3840 x 1024 is the new king. We support it now in the game world though we still have some UI work to do. This is good news for all of you wide screen users as you will now benefit oh so slightly with a wider field of view. However, if you are as hardcore as me and have a Matrox and a Track IR Pro you’ll basically have eyes in the back of your head. Well, ok, I still get owned all the time but you’re probably really leet and this setup might work a whole lot better for those of you with actual skills. Windows Vista Support- Now that XP is on it’s last leg and with our pending release we’ve decided to nail the last of the Vista issues. Primarily this means that all of you settings and screenshots will be found in your user folder. This goes for XP. With the open test pending we’d really like to hear from any of you Vista users. If you are having any issues we ask you to test them out in open test and tell us what you can so we can lay those bugs to rest. Other Goodies- Chat now has some cool shortcuts you can type. Say you type “/1 I'm on $lead's mission in $unit attacking $targ but we haven't left $orig yet”. Everyone on channel 1 will hear that you are on Gophur’s mission in 3rd Infantry attacking Grobbendonk but we haven’t left Jodoinge yet. Well you know what I mean. Scoring has also gotten a change we’ll be play testing. KFSONE added a guarding bonus which we may turn on if it is received well. Basically you can get score for the dreaded bunker duty. You can’t get enough that leaving you guy online all night in a deserted town will do much for you but it is a little boost for those who pull sentry while their mates are off chasing the local girls. You knife wielders will be pleased to know that your walk toggle sneak attacks just got more deadly as the knife has been amped up. Tankers and infantry alike will be pleased to learn that dead men no longer clutch their trigger in their final throes so no more dead men firing their weapons. There is a host of other minor and major gameplay and unit tweaks that you’ll find in the read me once we go into open test. "The Unity upgrade is that improvement and it will be ready to go into live testing early next year." Unity Upgrade- The coders are chomping at the bit to get this into test and as soon as we deliver the last of the China project and start working on our 2009 plan we’ll be letting this code loose. But first we need to explain a bit about what you can expect from this code and what the implications are for its release. First some definition work is in order. Just what is the Unity upgrade? First and foremost it’s a refactoring or modernization of our entire code base. The Unity Game Engine is fundamentally eight years old. Sure we’ve changed a lot over the years but the basic interaction between code modules and the foundations have not undergone major overhaul. This has been a major undertaking over the last three years. Our game has very specific needs. In order to support infantry level combat in an environment where tanks need to be able to fire on targets at 3000m and planes need to cross vast distances at hundreds of miles an hour require some very specific requirements from an engine. When we started WWIIOL we realized that no engine out there could do what we needed so we built our own. Over the years we’ve realized that there still isn’t an engine out there that can meet our requirements (believe me, I’ve looked at them ALL) and so we need to improve what we have. The Unity upgrade is that improvement and it will be ready to go into live testing early next year. So then, what exactly is in this upgrade? To start, the upgrade is a fundamental rework of the code to improve performance and productivity. We’re not just talking about better FPS we’re also talking about the ability of our dev team to integrate new features with out breaking things. We’re talking about taking disparate parts of code and making them one defined module. We’re talking about rebuilding code bases to get rid of errors. We’re talking about killing the corn flakes bug and we’re talking about rag doll physics. Sure we’re also talking about things looking better with new shader languages and modern rendering techniques but it honestly isn’t all about looks. This hot chick has beauty and more importantly, brains. "We’re talking about killing the corn flakes bug and we’re talking about rag doll physics." What’s this mean for the player? First it means better performance and better content (special effects, lighting, shading, trees). But it also means Shader 2.0 as a minimum and it also means SSE2 support as a minimum. Lots of you probably don’t know what that means exactly but or now let’s just say that it means you’ll need a modern computer. Video cards more than 4 generations old aren’t going to work. This is really only a problem if you are running on a 6 year old Radeon 9800 or an nVidia MX400 series. That’s not really asking so much now is it. As for CPUs it basically means you need a Pentium 4 or better. Once again 99% of you are covered and the other 1%, well I don’t think they can probably play too well any way. I bring these up just so you are aware that if you’ve got an older rig, this might be a great time to start thinking about an upgrade. As we get closer to the holidays I’ll probably do a build guide for a few budget levels. You’d be surprised what you can put together on Newegg.com for just a few hundred dollars. The Future I’m tempted to assail you with some of our plans for 1.30 and for 2009 but I think there’s enough goodness written above to hold you for a while. Yes, it's been a while since our last major game update and I know some of you may be wishing the features included some long-awaited toys, but the work we've done in 2008 is vitally important. A successful (re)launch into a new territory like China can put CRS into a stronger position and give us the resources we've needed for so long. It's been seven years since we've had an opportunity like this and with your help we will have a hugely successful launch and WWIIOL will have another seven years filled with the world’s greatest virtual war and we’ll get to do all those cool things that we’ve all always dreamed of. Maybe even parachuting dogs…

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, October 19, 2008 0 comments

As part of our v1.29 Open Beta Test announcement going up later today we talk a bit about the yaw fix. BmBm was nice enough to write up a little piece for us on it and I'll be linking to it here. his post follows in its entirety.

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Combat implications of the Yaw Fix in WWIIOL:BE v1.29

The WWIIOL:BE flight model is largely viewed as one of the industry’s top offerings with a great deal of organic fidelity and honesty, while at the same time suffering from certain shortcomings borne out of a iterative design process. Its most glaring issue and one that has plagued the FM since day one is its yaw handling, or how it deals with rudder play. With the upcoming version 1.29 the developers have found time to address this issue and arrived at a partial solution that does away with most of the distressing factors.

IOW, DOC has fixed much of the long-standing yaw issues and reduced the ”Flop” to a much more benign state. The yaw fix benefits all fighter and fighter-bomber aircraft to various degrees. Here is the low down on the changes and what it means from a pilot perspective.

Rudder, what rudder?
Because the use of rudder has been associated with so much fear and loathing in WWIIOL:BE, many pilots have ceased to use it or never bothered to learn the utility of yaw in the first place. This is a crying shame, as control of yaw is a fundamental factor of flying and combat: a lack of yaw is comparable to a lack of elevator authority in terms of flight and fight physics.

What used to happen is that full rudder input would cause the aircraft to roll more than yaw, and often cause a violent departure. Furthermore, yaw was more or less uniform regardless of airspeed: full rudder at max level speed would yield almost as much yaw as it would at stall speed. All of this combined to make rudder play a sensitive business and because of the catastrophic results of hamfistedness and over-excitement, pilots shied away from using rudder at all.

Goodbye, Flop
The Flop, or a dramatic and violent departure from normal flight at any airspeed as a result of rudder application, has now been much reduced. The greatest sufferers of the Flop, the Bf 109 and Bf 110 series, the Bell Mle 14 (P39) and Blenheim Mk IF, are also the greatest benefactors of the yaw fix. While it is still possible to induce a bad Flop, normal use of rudder in typical combat situations is now possible. Aircraft such as the Spitfire and Hurricane series were all but immune to the Flop, whereas the French aircraft could and did suffer it to some degree.

The one thing you will want to avoid, is to give full rudder input in a turning, climbing contest at anything from stall to corner speed. This WILL cause you to depart violently – as it should!

Greetings, Strafer
Coming down to strafe a moving truck the intrepid close air support pilot would hitherto have to draw accurate lead and avoid using rudder at all, or presently find himself gouging pretty holes in the ground. With the yaw fix, ALL aircraft can correct a strafing approach and hold it with the application of rudder. This is a major improvement for the pilot, though perhaps not quite as welcome for the PBI. Note that you will have to counteract a rolling tendency with a spot of opposite aileron – this is normal and expected.

Yaw that shot
The head-on attack, despite its dismal odds and less than tactically brilliant approach to air combat, now rises to the fore as the pilot can actually fly offset from a pure collision course and use rudder to yaw his sight forward in the bandit’s path. IOW, instead of going directly head-on, you can now fly on a parallel track and use rudder to draw lead, thus avoiding the collision while still giving yourself a shot opportunity. This is a major improvement as a result of the yaw fix, and works like a charm when you are saddled up behind a target too. Use your rudder to fishtail, or hose your gunfire from wingtip to wingroot, without fear of falling from the sky.

Aerobatics, sho’nuff
The yaw fix has made aerobatics and advanced combat manoeuvres possible where they were formerly tricky at best and downright lethal at worst. You could do a Boat Turn – full rudder turn with opposite aileron to stay level - before, though not quite as easily as presently (it is not terribly useful in combat, but nice enough to know about). You could fly on the Knife Edge - wing down, full opposite rudder – momentarily: now you can do it almost as long as you like. You could do your Hammerhead – a steep zoom to stall speed with a deft wingover conversion to the dive – though not very well: now it is a joy to execute. Same thing with Loops and Cuban-Eights – go crazy with 1.29.

Lag roll attacks made possible
Coming in hot on a turning H-87, the FW 190 driver can now draw full use of his rudder in a lag roll attack. In the zoom and roll-away to the lag position, the FW, floating inverted, can stomp rudder and cut down to the dive with much greater authority and fine control than previously. Same thing applies for the H-87 booming in on a turning 109F of course, or any other match-up. Get used to your rudder!

Differences and similarities
All fighters and fighter-bombers have been subjected to scrutiny, and have had varying doses of yaw fixage applied. The aircraft that were most prone to yaw issues has been given the most medicine, whereas the aircraft that were largely stable have had less. All crates have improved considerably, which is most notable when strafing and when applying moderate amount of rudder in circling fights. DOC has endeavoured to retain specific aircraft ”flavour” while administering the yaw fix, therefore no single aircraft is exactly the same in terms of yaw performance. This is important to remember, and one of the reasons why WWIIOL:BE is such a convincing game to play – it is not Red vs Blue, but always a challenge.

Enjoy!
Johan ”bmbm” Kylander
Day One Addict and Beta Tester
Reply With Quote

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, October 18, 2008 0 comments

OJ himself, socurge of the Allies, attacking the Viadan FB. He didn't help much, but it was a shock to see him. Later on he was completely useless in attacking the Bitberg Airfield, but at least he tried.

Speaking of Bitberg, here's the AI AAA fire coming out of it.

I got so sick of it I went and persoannly blew up 4 of the guns.

Labels: AAA, AI, Bitberg, OJ, Sapper, WW2OL

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, October 12, 2008 0 comments

The Axis players are, by similar effect in reverse, more patient. First, they know that sandbagging works. Second, they're used to slower moving units. This means that, in the long run, their patience holds out longer. So once Tier 3 rolls around and we're moving past the second month of a campaign, the Axis are not only gaining equipment advantages but simple, psychological ones as well. The population numbers begin shifting their way and so does the whole campaign.

Obviously you make some observations that ring true with many players, not always for the right reasons but that's a matter of perception.

Really strong credibility however, comes from being accurate, and not exaggerating or misrepresenting the facts to strengthen your argument, which if bolstered by inaccuracies and exaggerations, begins to resemble opinion more than credible analysis. You need to be wary of this as it then puts you on the slippery slope of doubt, because one has to wonder if you are truly providing an objective analysis that should be acted upon, or are you trying to sway one side or the other to gain an advantage based on your opinion and which acted upon would only increase a bais that shouldn't be included in any objective design choice where unbiased balance was the goal.

Example:

Quote:
Allied planes are faster - heck, Allied bombers have been known to outrun Axis fighters. Anyone who's flown an He111 knows what a cow it is, and the Me110 is not much better.
In tier 0, the fastest aircraft is the Bf110C-4. The H-75 is the 2nd fastest and the Hurricane Mk.I is the slowest. Naturally the He-111 is a "cow" because that is the nature of the type of bomber it is and the payload it carries. The Bf110C-4 is big and heavy, but packs over twice the firepower of it's rivals in that tier, and carries a tailgunner. It cannot match either of it's rivals in a protracted turnfight but it can match them in instantaneous turn and beats them both in climbrate. In tier 1, the Bf109E-4 assumes master of the throne with the best top speed, the highest climbrate and a turning ability that means only a well flown Spitfire will get inside it in a turn. In tier 2, the Bf109F-4 continues this trend of the Axis having the fastest and best climbing aircraft. In tier 3, The Fw190 is the fastest of the aircraft but is outclimbed by the Spitfire IX, the first time the Axis airforce does not have the best climbing aircraft in a tier.

The point here is that while you make some good observations, you paint them as a whine. You diminish the quality of whatever you posted that could be viewed as reasonable, attracting others who want to yell "yeah! what he said!" and losing the interest of those who might be inclined to agree with you if you didn't dress up your point of view with "axis are hosed" exaggerations.

Another example:

Quote:
The Tiger, the Axis trademark ubertank, is only marginally faster than Char1bs and Matildas. Shermans, Stuarts, even Wolverines, all practically race across the battlefield when compared to the average Axis tank.
The 7 slowest tanks of all (out of 24 tanks) are ALL allied tanks.

There are 24 tanks modeled in the game. Here are the slowest in the game:

Hotchkiss H-39 | 177 sec. 1st gear | 18km/h in 3rd gear | 37km/h
Somua S-35 | 190 sec. 1st gear | 20km/h in 4th gear | 39km/h
Char.B1bis | 201 sec. 2nd gear | 16km/h in 4th gear | 28km/h
Churchill III | 204 sec. 1st gear | 16km/h in 3rd gear | 26km/h
Churchill VI | 208 sec. 1st gear | 14km/h in 3rd gear | 22km/h
Renault R-35 | 210 sec. 2nd gear | 14km/h in 3rd gear | 24km/h
Matilda Mk.II | 221 sec. 1st gear | 14km/h in 4th gear | 24km/h

First figure is standard hillclimb test, 2nd figure is best cross country speed, 3rd figure is best on level road speed.

Now here is the Tiger tank:

PzKw.VIE Tiger | 169 sec. 4th gear | 23km/h in 6th gear | 44km/h

Note that this is nothing like as slow as the Matilda and Char.B1.bis, and when you say "all practically race across the battlefield when compared to the average Axis tank" please note the following data:

Cruiser A13 | 96 sec. 1st gear | 29km/h in 3rd gear | 48km/h
PzKw.IIIF | 106 sec. 3rd gear | 26km/h in 8th gear | 42km/h
PzKw.IIC | 107 sec. 2nd gear | 26km/h in 4th gear | 42km/h
Crusader II | 114 sec. 1st gear | 26km/h in 3rd gear | 46km/h
Stuart M3A3 | 118 sec. 1st gear | 28km/h in 3rd gear | 57km/h
Vickers MK VI | 122 sec. 1st gear | 27km/h in 3rd gear | 50km/h
Crusader III | 128 sec. 1st gear | 26km/h in 3rd gear | 45km/h
PzKw.IVD | 136 sec. 1st gear | 23km/h in 4th gear | 41km/h
StuG.IIIB | 138 sec. 1st gear | 23km/h in 4th gear | 41km/h
PzKw.IIIH | 140 sec. 1st gear | 23km/h in 4th gear | 41km/h
Sherman M4A3 | 140 sec. 2nd gear | 27km/h in 4th gear | 42km/h
M10 Wolverine | 143 sec. 2nd gear | 26km/h in 4th gear | 46km/h
Sherman M4A2 | 144 sec. 2nd gear | 26km/h in 4th gear | 46km/h
Pz.38(t) | 148 sec. 1st gear | 22km/h in 3rd gear | 43km/h
StuG.IIIG | 157 sec. 1st gear | 23km/h in 4th gear | 40km/h
PzKw.IVG | 160 sec. 1st gear | 23km/h in 4th gear | 40km/h
PzKw.VIE Tiger | 169 sec. 4th gear | 23km/h in 6th gear | 44km/h
Hotchkiss H-39 | 177 sec. 1st gear | 18km/h in 3rd gear | 37km/h
Somua S-35 | 190 sec. 1st gear | 20km/h in 4th gear | 39km/h
Char.B1bis | 201 sec. 2nd gear | 16km/h in 4th gear | 28km/h
Churchill III | 204 sec. 1st gear | 16km/h in 3rd gear | 26km/h
Churchill VI | 208 sec. 1st gear | 14km/h in 3rd gear | 22km/h
Renault R-35 | 210 sec. 2nd gear | 14km/h in 3rd gear | 24km/h
Matilda Mk.II | 221 sec. 1st gear | 14km/h in 4th gear | 24km/h

We would really like to take you seriously. Before we do, you'll have to stop posting like you're biased to one side or the other, and that you appear to consider your side bias and how it slants your reporting; as being more important than posting the facts, no matter what they say. For example, like when they say that the Axis aren't gimped in every department you care to mention, and more than that, every department you claim they are that the facts clearly say they are not. Exaggeration and misrepresention of any of your points will draw into disrepute ANY of your points, even your accurate ones.

I'd like to say in closing, I believe you might have some good points. Until you can represent them as a little less "we're hosed and hosed by CRS choices!!" and more in line with a scientific, unbiased and unemotional perspective, so that I can trust it rather than look for the agenda that hides in there, I am going to treat the exaggerations with the disdain they deserve. If you were me you'd do the same, or you'd be very bad at what you needed to do. Oh and don't take it personally ... I believe there are many reading this who would like to produce a better analysis of the situation and be taken very seriously by their peers ... and I speak to them as much (probably more) than I do you.

If you think my advice or appraisal sucks (I am sure some will) well ... that's life ! You get out of bed, and you're going to have to deal with some stuff that isn't as ideal as you'd like.

- posted by Comstar @ Thursday, October 09, 2008 0 comments

DOC CORNERED RAT

Join Date: May 2001 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 21,237

Re: puma as a t1 upgrade?

.
.
.
Since ToE's

1. Allied won their first ever 3 in a row. FIRST EVER. In 7 years of trying. The Axis have how many of those ? FOUR TIMES already. The Axis also have 1 time with 4 in a row. FOUR IN A ROW. The Allies previous to that 3 in a row had only won 2 in a row TWICE in the history of the game. That's 2 times they had back to back wins, ever. The Axis have twice that number NOT counting 3 or 4 in a row as well.

2. Apart from that first time ever 3 in a row effort (which the Axis have already done 4 times remember) the campaigns have been good for 1 for 1 to both sides since ToEs, except for the Axis putting up another 2 in a row back to back effort. The Axis have already done this FOUR TIMES previous to ToE's, and not counting their FOUR times with THREE IN A ROW and their 1 time with FOUR IN A ROW.

Sorry for the emphasis but I don't think reality is sinking in yet. The game is not unfair to the Axis. Claiming it is means ignoring the games history, and those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Oh I get it now, you want to ignore history (the games history) so you can repeat it, having more wins than the other guys. It all makes sense now. <- that was a joke, but really, come on guys. Try to see the bigger picture. If we were "anti Axis" how could the record so far produced, have come to be ?

- posted by Comstar @ Wednesday, October 08, 2008 0 comments

This A13 unwisely went up to the top of the Roechfort Bridge. As he drove over the crest something from the other side let lose. It kept burning for another 5 minutes.

While Rochfort seemed to be ending in failure I headed up to Havelange- we'd lost the AB, down to 1 depot and 4 Panzers camping it. Fortunately 2 of them got distracted by a friendly tank to the south and allowed me to get both of them in the flank. Behind this PZIVD is another one also getting shot.

After the depot was secured I pushed my 2 pounder north. I heard this panzer and he went through one side of the bush line as I went through the other. I turned around and he was right next to me! READY!

AIM!

FIRE!

Later on I got into the depot INSIDE the Rochfort AB and got 11 kills guarding it from the Entire German Division trying to get it back after I capped it twice. So many rifleman came in I had a parapet of bodies covering me.

Labels: A13, Havelange, LMG, Panzers, Rochfort, Tanks, WW2OL

- posted by Comstar @ Monday, October 06, 2008 0 comments

DOC CORNERED RAT

Join Date: May 2001 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 21,216

Re: Please, for 1.29, Redo Models

Labels: AA, ATG, CRS, Docdoom, guncrews, WW2OL

- posted by Comstar @ Monday, October 06, 2008 0 comments

Vickers Tank near the recently bombed Grobbendonk bridge. A Royal Navy Patrol Boat is behind.

The Germans were desperate to hold the south depot.

If CRS ever adds blood to the game I doubt any of us would want to play it anymore.

Though it's a pity they don't have the resoruces to do proper rag doll phyics.

Labels: grobbendonk, WW2OL

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, October 05, 2008 0 comments

Labels: air porn, allies, spitfire, video, WW2OL

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, October 05, 2008 0 comments

What's that? Up in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it 2 bombs inbound my position?

2 of the bombs have exploded, 2 are about to land to my left.

WWEee.....BOOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM..CRASH.

Smoke rises after the impacts.

Unfortunately for the He111 pilot, the GHC had already called fallback out of the town, and Diest fell minutes later. Diest is so small he probably got at least 1 kill from it, though the bombs landing near me didn't hit anything.

Note this allied attack by Jamm40 was a direct result of the defence of Aarshort listed in my last post.

Labels: Diest, he111, jamm40, WW2OL

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, October 05, 2008 0 comments

From what I gather the removal was related to promoting someone more than 8 ranks. The MAX rank skip allowed is 2. True or not true I have no idea but if true regardless of the benefit the promotion would have been it is not allowed. Think of the effects on the rank and file HC Officers who are working their way up the ladder to be jumped over by 8 ranks.
If I understand it right (and I think it's one of the few things I understand), it was not literally a promotion of 8 ranks, it was a promotion of 2 ranks, from one Armee to the other. The leadership thought it was within the rules, but to encourage people moving up within their own chain of command, the Rats apparently count lateral moves above a certain level as promotions, because you are essentially being promoted into a CoC you weren't previously in, over all the people who should have moved straight up into that position. I actually see the benefit of this policy, to a certain extent. I don't think it's any reason to dump the entire senior staff, and since we are not privy to anything that justifies the dismissal, most of us are mystified. But I hope that answers your promotion question.

Labels: CoC, CRS, fiasco, GHC, WW2OL

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, October 05, 2008 0 comments

Labels: CoC, CRS, HC

- posted by Comstar @ Sunday, October 05, 2008 0 comments

drakhl

Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 128

Axis Command and Recent Events

The players deserve to know as much as we do in terms of what happened regarding the removal of the OKA staff. I will tell you as much as I know myself and hope you can find it a satisfactory answer. All of this is based on talking with other HC officers and what little I have picked up from talking to the former top three myself.

CRS has given us very little in terms of details unfortunetly, I am not sure even if gaspipe and the new Cinc were even contacted ahead of time about it.

The story as I know it is that the top three (Eyeshank, Katonka and Greatone) were removed due to a breach of the AOC. From what I have been told it was regarding the promotion of officers within the OKW at a pace that was forbidden by the AOC, meaning they were promoting a few people too many places at a time.

There is no word on who those officers were, why there was an issue about it or why it warrants such severe discipline. But there was a breach of the AOC (Articles of Conduct, basically the rules that govern HC in the game).

I know CRS did meet with the top three to discuss it in TS, but I was not privy to the details of the meeting.

I also know that it was a shock even to Katonka, who literally woke up this morning and found herself banned without a clue to what occured.

As to the timing of their removal it couldn't have been worse. I am assuming since it was a friday and the map had to be reset CRS had to do all of it fast before they left for the weekend.

I know the new OKA staff is working overtime to get into gear and fill all the holes in the CoC and things will be smoothed out soon.

For now we are making sure one of our best map movers is on at all times possible to keep things as smooth as possible in terms of strategy, as well as full briefings between incoming/outgoing BCs as well as working with the branch command for more generalized standing orders.

We spent a lot of time today at the beginning of the map discussing the strategic situation, we have accomplished several goals including taking Longwy and pushing back the 12e division. We also bounced the air in Etain and put our own LW in Metz.

Pablin in particular took much care shifting our divisions into positions where they could support each other, and our line is as strong as can be expected. Ciney is holding which is a major key, and losses have been slight other than two towns in the center. The majority of incoming RDP raids were pwned, and our factories are still at 90%.

The junior and middle-rank officers have all been briefed on the situation and the strategic status of the map, so we are starting this campaign very well in sync (ironically, but absolutely necessity creates motivation).

As for an exodus in HC, don't expect one. There has only been one resignation regarding the top three incident, and I expect that officer will reconsider once the drama dies down.

As you can imagine however we are in need of new OCS cadets to fill our ranks, especially during the australian and european time slots. If anyone is interested please sign up for OCS on the main axis command page (click on OCS pages). We will hopefully soon be offering new supplementary "War Academy" classes for the OCS recruits covering basic town attack/defense tactics and in the more advanced classes, map strategy.

I won't blow smoke in your face and say we are strong and perfect and sunshine John Denver on my shoulders... But we will manage, and we don't plan on going anywhere.

We will try and keep the players informed of events and subsequent news if at all possible. If you need more details please PM as I don't always read the thread every three seconds.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, October 04, 2008 0 comments

DOC CORNERED RAT

Join Date: May 2001 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 21,208

Re: Complete change of Axis Command

We didn't do this lightly, nor did we even want to really. The people concerned declined to return our messages for 4 days prior while we attempted a resolution that would not have required that they be removed. They could have remained in command had they chosen to act accordingly. On the fifth day with no response, and continued infractions by them ... we had to act, and it just happened to co-incide with the reset. That wasn't our choice that the campaign run it's course on Thursday night while all this was going on. We did what we could, with what was available, and to the best of what the situation offered us.

If you have already decided our fault without knowing why, then nothing we say will likely convince you that you might have misjudged the situations circumstances ... and you will be forming your opinion based on your preferance, rather than the actual issues we faced.

- posted by Comstar @ Saturday, October 04, 2008 0 comments