Combat Mission: Black Sea Up for Pre-Order

[Asid]

You're a nightmare...everytime I see you on these forums I think "I must get back to Steel Beasts"!!!  :P

Theres always a beast for you in the Dogs of War :)

[panzerde]

If anyone from Battlefront would like to learn about using AWS as a content distribution network that scales with demand, please call me. :-)

That is exactly what we use. And, as I understand the system, the bolded bit is what is happening now. Chris just posted this:

"Just checked in with the superiors about the slow speeds. Apparently the master download image (the file that you download) is still propagating around the cloud, so many of the download servers are not active yet. So speeds should get better through the day as more servers come online."

That's good news, and explains why I'm seeing progressively better performance. Getting it seeded in advance of opening the floodgates is recommended, however.  :)

[Elvis]

If anyone from Battlefront would like to learn about using AWS as a content distribution network that scales with demand, please call me. :-)

That is exactly what we use. And, as I understand the system, the bolded bit is what is happening now. Chris just posted this:

"Just checked in with the superiors about the slow speeds. Apparently the master download image (the file that you download) is still propagating around the cloud, so many of the download servers are not active yet. So speeds should get better through the day as more servers come online."

That's good news, and explains why I'm seeing progressively better performance. Getting it seeded in advance of opening the floodgates is recommended, however.  :)

Yeah, but that means delaying the release......which is the lesser of 2 evils? We know which BFC thinks, others may disagree.

[RyanE]

I would suggest delaying the release.  What's the point of giving us a download with 12 hr to 2 day downloads.  That just wastes my time.  It keeps crapping out and I have to restart it.  I have given up on this for now...so what is the difference other than wasting my time.  Very poor planning.

[panzerde]

I'd say it's pretty well seeded now, at least to the US nodes. I'm seeing 1.5 Mbps and am at 4.3GB downloaded. I'd guess it'll be pretty good the rest of the evening.

[RyanE]

I am still seeing no more than 400, but as low as 100.  I have had 10 crap out since preorder was released.  I am done if this one craps out.

[Elvis]

I am still seeing no more than 400, but as low as 100.  I have had 10 crap out since preorder was released.  I am done if this one craps out.

A couple of other things that you can try (if you haven't already) is using a different browser. I get the best results with Chrome but others swear by Firefox/Firewater. Also, try setting your computer so that it doesn't go into "sleep mode"

[RyanE]

Tried both IE and CHrome...same result.

What bothers me is the wild cycling up and down of the speed.  That is over seconds, not minutes.  That says to me there is a misconfiguration on how the servers resources are leveled out.

[jomni]

Yes I go from 1 mps to 500 kbps.  They won't allow parallel downloads to accelerate the download.

[WallysWorld]

Battle Pack 1 for CMBS released: CMBS Battle Pack 1

[Yskonyn]

Bought.

[Apocalypse 31]

Battle Pack 1 for CMBS released: CMBS Battle Pack 1

Glad to see that there's still content being released.

I'm skipping this one, though. I'm done with CM:BS until they can improve the engine to allow it run larger maps more smoothly.

Currently, I find that CMBS scenarios don't allow for maneuverability - they're mostly just knife fights where you start the mission already in contact with the enemy. The modern weapon systems usually results in a scenario starting with me moving a tank/APC 10 feet and receiving a hail of artillery, tank cannon, or ATGM fire.

[RyanE]

I will skip it also.  I am burned out from dealing with the licensing process.  As much as it pains me to say it, Steel Beasts is where it do the majority of ground warfare now.

[Apocalypse 31]

Steel Beasts is where it do the majority of ground warfare now.

This

And...

Oddly enough, I find that DCS does large-scale ground maneuver surprisingly good. The game engine feels much more powerful than Steel Beasts, and I can maneuver larger forces (multiple, company-sized elements) over a vastly larger area (think-flight sim, sizes). I've had some scenarios where I was able to maneuver a full Brigade of vehicles, plus support echelons.

The fidelity of ground equipment and terrain within DCS is obviously not the same as Steel Beasts, but DCS' lack of detailed terrain actually works to its advantage and allows for maneuver space.


Sadly, the infantry model in both DCS and Steel Beasts is severely lacking....ok, its awful. This is one area where Combat Mission clearly shines.

[RyanE]

I actually, I find the opposite with SB vs CM.  CM artificially clusters infantry, has no SOP, no formations, no scripting, etc.  BFC admitted they had to nerf HE impacts to account for clustering infantry.  The only areas that I see CM having an advantage is in all the tuning they finally did to machine guns and some of the AI decision making on seeking cover.

The SB 4.0 update and the ability to use infantry in a more wargame-like fashion is what finally tilted me to SB.  I see SB and CM about even in infantry, with each having its pros and cons.  But SB's ability for Tank/Infantry combined operations and the engineering capabilities of SB so completely outpace what CM can deliver.

At 3.0, I would play SB and just not get my itch scratched and go back to CM.  Now its the opposite with CMBS.  I play CMBS, see what I can't do and watch the stupid infantry run a bunched up column in a line towards a machine gun, and go back to SB.

If you are looking for the equivalent of miniature gaming on a PC, its CM.  If you want to really suss out a tactical problem, its SB.  That opinion has been transforming for about three years now.