Honestly Comparing Battlefront's Combat Mission 2.0 with Graviteam's Tactics

[Con]

I downloaded APOS and the hires texture pack from Gamersgate today.  There were some strange slowdowns (including trouble loading gamersgate screens) but I got everything including patches and additional content in about 1 hour

Con

[RyanE]

I am sitting here looking at the 1969 PLC and it says 18 hours...has said that for an hour.  I downloaded the latest patch in about 5 minutes.  It has been like this since I bought that DLC.

Also, why is there no sticky on the Graviteam forums on patch order.  I know its in the Wiki somewhere, but its still not easy to find.  I would think that with all the know confusion, they would make that front and center on their forums.

[Dolan50]

correct order of updates.
http://gravitac.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Installing_updates_and_modifications

[RyanE]

But why is that not the first thing a new player sees?  Why do I have to go digging around the web for it?  I think that speaks a lot for where the products are going.

Graviteam continues to make excuses about why the patching process is so non-standard.  Yet they fail to do the most simple things to make it easier.

[Dolan50]

But why is that not the first thing a new player sees?  Why do I have to go digging around the web for it?  I think that speaks a lot for where the products are going.

Graviteam continues to make excuses about why the patching process is so non-standard.  Yet they fail to do the most simple things to make it easier.

Don't know,
They seem to be more interested in developing then marketing.

[jomni]

I have had to download the 1969 DLC a few times.  Each time I have done it, it has taken forever.  GG told me its because Graviteam refuses to rebuild the DLC with a GG installer and so it has to run off the Graviteam website.

You can all you want about never having these issues, but there are people scattered all over the web...Matrix, here, Graviteam, SimHQ, etc who have had install issues.  It is just a royal pain and frankly, I am tired of it.  I go through this every time I get a new laptop.  I have given up.  I don't want to waste any more of my gaming time doing this.  I like AP better as a tactical game over CM, but not enough to make me go through this again.

That is why their move into Steam is appealing if they can get their act right by making it up to date as their own non-steam version.

[Bletchley_Geek]

Opening post updated.

[RyanE]

Actually thinking about it...Graviteam is not much different when it comes to providing info to their customers.  There is a specific patch order for CM2 games as well.  It is actually hard to find.  CMSF and CMBN are now up on their knowledge base, but wouldn't it be so much simpler to just have a stick in the tech forum?  CMFI doesn't even have the order documented anywhere.  I think its CMFI, 1.10/1.11, and then Gustav.  I know there is a patch in the middle there somewhere, but BFC seems to keep it a secret.

BFC has been asked to put up a FAQ many times.  But they seem to like answering the sales questions over and over.

[RyanE]

I also started thinking of the whole OpenGL and graphics question.  I am beginning to have doubts that BFC is at top of their game on graphics.  They have always used the OpenGL support from AMD and Nvidia as an excuse.  But my IL2 setup is OpenGL on the same PC and I have no issues with it.  So what are they doing that's different.

[Bletchley_Geek]

I also started thinking of the whole OpenGL and graphics question.  I am beginning to have doubts that BFC is at top of their game on graphics.  They have always used the OpenGL support from AMD and Nvidia as an excuse.  But my IL2 setup is OpenGL on the same PC and I have no issues with it.  So what are they doing that's different.

Does IL-2 run on a Mac natively? As I wrote, that conveys some limitations on what you can expect to be provided by the user hardware. It does indeed  set a lower common denominator. Managing Open GL extensions can be a bit frustrating, especially across different platforms.

[Bletchley_Geek]

Actually thinking about it...Graviteam is not much different when it comes to providing info to their customers.  There is a specific patch order for CM2 games as well.  It is actually hard to find.  CMSF and CMBN are now up on their knowledge base, but wouldn't it be so much simpler to just have a stick in the tech forum?  CMFI doesn't even have the order documented anywhere.  I think its CMFI, 1.10/1.11, and then Gustav.  I know there is a patch in the middle there somewhere, but BFC seems to keep it a secret.

BFC has been asked to put up a FAQ many times.  But they seem to like answering the sales questions over and over.

They are hosting this on their servers, using their procedures. It's not info you have to go and get from a third party. So panning out customer support by BFC at the same level as that of Graviteam is doing violence to the facts, sticky post in the tech forums or not.

[RyanE]

Its not about where the patches are hosted.  And BFC only started hosting their own patches a little while ago.  IIRC some of the CMSF patches are still hosted in off places. 

But its about putting up the info on the patch procedure.  I just had to reinstall CMFI after a false DRM kick out.  I could find no where on BFC's site that there was a middle step between CMFI and CM Gustav.  So my install was all screwed up.  Its only because I had a hazy memory of seeing the issue talked about on the forum a year ago.  What is the harm in making that a stick somewhere.

I'll piss and moan about both companies equally, but nothing cheeses me off more than companies making it difficult for their customers for little reason.  Both have been and are guilty of that.  Its not like I am insisting BFC only develop in Directx...just put a friggin sticky up about what patches you need.  Its not even in the readme.

[Bletchley_Geek]

Hmmm, something doesn't register, Ryan. The 1.12 patch for CMFI description is quite clear:

Combat Mission: Fortress Italy v1.12 patch (PC/Mac)    PDF    Print    E-mail
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
The v1.12 patch provides a large number of improvements and fixes, including generally improved graphics, FPS and quality improvements, and better support for faster video cards, as well as bridge navigation corrections. The patch is all-inclusive and also includes the improvements from previous patches, such as dozens and dozens of revised QuickBattle maps, new improved shaders, textures and more!

That's direct from the CMFI product page:

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=302&Itemid=515

do you mean that you actually needed the 1.01 patch before installing GL on top of CMFI? No matter how you read the above, it's quite clear to me that you don't need any previous patches.

[RyanE]

1.12 came out after Gustav.  Its when installing Gustav you have to have a middling patch...1.10 or 1.11.  It was not listed anywhere.    Its not in the Gustav readme but the help desk pointed me to it.

[RyanE]

So even if its in the readme, why not have a short FAQ on it?  Who does it hurt.  That question is obviously a good one.  Look how many people end up patching in the wrong order.  Again, there is probably a post a month with that issue.  What possible harm can it do to have  something like that in the forum.  Instead, they'll leave the release of CM Touch 1.50 up for three months.

And graviteam is no better.  They keep pointing to the wiki, that someone else developed.  And even then you have to scratch around for it.  And for a good amount of time it was outdated.

Both of these are simple customer service things.  Its not coding, its not some big maintenance nightmare, its not setting up a commercial website.  Its a simple post.