Out of curiosity...is anyone still playing this? Is it worth re-installing and exploring. Wondering if it will even run on Win10.
I'm a fan of the game and last time i played, it worked without issue. I have a windows 10 64 bit computer, there's been more than a few updates since last time i played. which was a couple of years ago. I just tried to play, it crashed every time i started a scenario, selected a unit or tried to give an order. I'm sure Rick over in the Osfront forums would help me get up and running but i don't feel like making the effort. I always thought Matrix should put more effort into the game, maybe a new engine going forward. Can't explain it but when i was playing the game a lot, i preferred it to CM games, graphics not withstanding.
To sum up :) I wouldn't invest the effort.
I played it somewhat on my old computer (i7-920 with GTX 970) and I thought it is a good game. Not great, but good. The frame rate is quite bad though so I had to limit it to 30 fps which is tolerable and even with that, I only got 20 fps on the larger battles. That's what really stopped me from playing it more.
On my new computer (i9-9900k overclocked to 5 Ghz with RTX 1070 Super on Windows 10 64-bit), the frame rate is better, but I still limit it to 30 fps or else it gets quite "stuttery". I think of it like the early CMx1 games in terms of gameplay and graphics. I fire it up once in a while. If the frame rates were better, I would play it more often.
Two screenshots of a battle that I am playing on and off.
(https://i.ibb.co/QCzDDMB/screen-3-27-2020-4-59-55-PM.png)
(https://i.ibb.co/mtv55vL/screen-3-27-2020-5-00-28-PM.png)
Maybe I didn't spend enough time with it, but I found the controls a bit confusing. Firing it up always made me think "This seems cool, but I'd rather just go play Barbarossa to Berlin instead."
The dynamic campaign generator (and related bling), was the big selling point of this game over CMx1 (and all CM builds afterward I guess).
The campaign and battle generator are outside programs, a modder made it if i'm not mistaken and gave permission for them to use it. A nice thing about it was on the generated campaigns/battles you could pick your chosen time setting 40/40 was standard, run 40 seconds, then you would have a chance for reaction orders, the another 40 seconds rinse and repeat. You could pick 40/40, 60/60, and 40, 60, 80, without a reaction phase. The reaction phase allowed limited orders you could issue. Last i heard Rick and i think it was Mobius were still tinkering with it, slowly.
Is this game newbie friendly? :D
Have they ever modded the code so that troops can get into buildings? I remember that being a significant headslap compared to CMx1 games...
I like the idea of 40 second turns. I actually think I would play CM games more often if they had that option, since 1-minute turns tend to drag out longer than my anticipated orders.
I have it and play only occasionally now, but I think it is a good game whose development ended all too soon. Worth getting if there is a sale.
As I recall, generally players were happy enough with the Armour model but the infantry model was quite basic. I stopped playing it for that reason. The graphics are also very basic for by current standards.
It is a shame development ended as it did have potential.
I also had low fps performance issues last time I tried it, a few years ago. Wasn't using a potato either. :-\
It is a shame the game never got its sea legs. Unlike Battlefront, the developers really "walked the walk" in supporting mods. They had a very open and well documented backend that could have supported taking the engine almost anywhere in WWII, or perhaps Korea or WWI. Oh well...
Open Source the sucker.
Of limited use since it is written in C#, but still.
Quote from: Redwolf on April 04, 2020, 08:23:16 AM
Open Source the sucker.
Of limited use since it is written in C#, but still.
They never tried to open up the engine itself, nor did they claim to be "open source" as far as I remember. Instead, the architecture allowed for users to mod maps, create new units and armored vehicles, and even tweak the combat data (such as changing penetration or damage values). Data files were in XML...an innovation at the time. The map editor was effective, but required some technical understanding of heightmaps. It was good for its time, but quickly got beaten to a pulp by CMx2's excellent map editor. The best part was that they documented everything. Not something often done. For example, Matrix Games Armored Brigade...AB has a database editor but I have never been able to find documentation for it.
Always wondered why Matrix didn't jump into and support these types of games. Seems like there's room for competition with CM games. There's Panzer Command, Combat Mission, Theater of War, and maybe the Graviteam games but those are different.