CM Red Thunder page is up

[Michael Dorosh]

You have a review within 24hrs of release? 

Nope. Twenty hours with a product is not unheard of to get an initial impression, though.

[Grim.Reaper]

The only thing I do find dissapointing in Red Thunder is the menu art. Loading screens do not show pictures from the war like CMBN does, but rather some game art renders.
Luckily this is easy to mod, but still. The looks of Red Thunder out of the box are much less 'professional' than CMBN in my view.
No biggie by any stretch, but just a thing of 'first impressions...' and all that. ;)

The gameplay is solid, though! Performance is much better in the new CM 3.0 engine! Animations more fluid and the new 'FPS camera mode' is pretty convenient.

Happy customer here!

Can you tell me how to use the FPS camera mode?  How to start it and then use?  Some reason having a hard time figuring that out.

[RyanE]

Go into options and then hit Controls down on the bottom.  There is a pull down at the bottom that lets you choose.

Be careful.  There are a bunch of people who used it and it completely cocked up their keyboard commands and I am still not sure if its recoverable.  I had it happen and I had to reinstall.

[RyanE]

Also, I saw that there are a bunch of German units missing from the OOB list.  So you are looking for Grille or Wespe in QBs, you'll have to wait until a patch comes out.

I have to assume a patch is coming soon.  There are a bunch of issues that need to be addressed, key commands, shaders, and the OOB issue.

[undercovergeek]

hotfix soon

[Grim.Reaper]

Go into options and then hit Controls down on the bottom.  There is a pull down at the bottom that lets you choose.

Be careful.  There are a bunch of people who used it and it completely cocked up their keyboard commands and I am still not sure if its recoverable.  I had it happen and I had to reinstall.

Thanks, but I guess I will hold off until hotfix comes out....

[Michael Dorosh]

Also, I saw that there are a bunch of German units missing from the OOB list.  So you are looking for Grille or Wespe in QBs, you'll have to wait until a patch comes out.

I have to assume a patch is coming soon.  There are a bunch of issues that need to be addressed, key commands, shaders, and the OOB issue.

The mod tags also don't seem to work correctly, though I may be doing something wrong given I can't find any documentation on how to use them. I did find a forum post by Steve describing them and I used that as a template. For some reason, when uploading a .txt file with a list of the tags, the software adds a bunch of commas into the names, rendering them unrecognizable. I've submitted a ticket to tech support though it is certainly possible I am simply doing things wrong. Hopefully this is another issue that gets a resolution. I also reported a minor error in one of the OOB listings for the Germans - what amounts to a typo in the code, I suspect.

On a positive note, I did a run-through of the Beutezug! scenario, as German vs. AI as recommended. If anyone is looking for a challenge, this is a good one to try. Would be interested in hearing thoughts from anyone else who does. I won't post any spoilers...yet. I also played a couple of QB battles. By coincidence, one of them was on a map inspired by the Beutezug map. It's a very nice map and gave a fun battle. I picked computer-generated all-armour matchup, and got T-34s and Su-76s versus a German FlaK company. You wouldn't think that German anti-aircraft guns would give a very good account of themselves against tanks but they actually managed to do very well. I have to say I'm very impressed by the quality of the map makers - the ones in Fortress Italy were outstanding and the few I've seen so far in CM:RT are very good. I especially like the subtle differences in the terrain and colour palettes.

[Elvis]

What I've always done with hot keys (not just CMRT) is copy/paste your current hockey file and save it somewhere else. Then if you need to revert back you can just paste the original over the new one. Also, there are 2 Data files now. One in documents (called User Data) and one in the main game directory.  If I am not mistaken,  the hockey file in the User Data folder is the one that gets altered "in game". So if you paste back in the original,  that's where you want to do it.

[Redwolf]

when i tried to explore the different UI settings (RTS and FPS) it somehow ruined the key bindings... (i am not the only one, it seems to be a little bug, when i checked the technical forum my game time substracted from RL on a Saturday in full swing was already used up ... will explore more today!  or i hope so ;))   

There is a thread on the official boards about that. It is a screwup in where CMx2 versions store information in your homedir (as opposed to the game install dir).

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=114417

[Michael Dorosh]

when i tried to explore the different UI settings (RTS and FPS) it somehow ruined the key bindings... (i am not the only one, it seems to be a little bug, when i checked the technical forum my game time substracted from RL on a Saturday in full swing was already used up ... will explore more today!  or i hope so ;))   

There is a thread on the official boards about that. It is a screwup in where CMx2 versions store information in your homedir (as opposed to the game install dir).

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=114417

You're always so quick to jump on the "screw-up" bandwagon. CM:FI and CM:RT both split the install between the home directory (My Documents) and the Program Files. I don't know why this is, and it is definitely different from the way CM:BN did it, but it seems deliberate and is consistent in both the new games. I can only presume this will be the standard going forward?

[RyanE]

Either way, they screwed something.  All they are doing now is sending out new hotkey files.  I can break the keys just by opening up the Controls menu.  As soon as I save it, my WASD and spacebar fail to work.  It has already been noted by BFC.

[Redwolf]

when i tried to explore the different UI settings (RTS and FPS) it somehow ruined the key bindings... (i am not the only one, it seems to be a little bug, when i checked the technical forum my game time substracted from RL on a Saturday in full swing was already used up ... will explore more today!  or i hope so ;))   

There is a thread on the official boards about that. It is a screwup in where CMx2 versions store information in your homedir (as opposed to the game install dir).

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=114417

You're always so quick to jump on the "screw-up" bandwagon. CM:FI and CM:RT both split the install between the home directory (My Documents) and the Program Files. I don't know why this is, and it is definitely different from the way CM:BN did it, but it seems deliberate and is consistent in both the new games. I can only presume this will be the standard going forward?

No, you misunderstand. There is no "this", as in a single "this".

What I am saying is that they screwed up the homedir location, with two homedir locations being in play. It isn't just a different location from CMBN. Looks like picking a new location but forgetting to tell all the relevant code pieces about it.

Qualifies as a screwup, certainly. The real thing making me uncomfortable about it is that it hasn't been caught in beta testing.  I see lots of people on the forums use custom hotkeys. Why not the beta testers?

[undercovergeek]

Because I'd rather play the game than fk about remapping keys  :P

[RyanE]

Its not just about remapping keys.  They put the FPS and RTS keys in for a reason...someone like me just trying them out will pretty much punt their key commands.

[Michael Dorosh]

when i tried to explore the different UI settings (RTS and FPS) it somehow ruined the key bindings... (i am not the only one, it seems to be a little bug, when i checked the technical forum my game time substracted from RL on a Saturday in full swing was already used up ... will explore more today!  or i hope so ;))   

There is a thread on the official boards about that. It is a screwup in where CMx2 versions store information in your homedir (as opposed to the game install dir).

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=114417

You're always so quick to jump on the "screw-up" bandwagon. CM:FI and CM:RT both split the install between the home directory (My Documents) and the Program Files. I don't know why this is, and it is definitely different from the way CM:BN did it, but it seems deliberate and is consistent in both the new games. I can only presume this will be the standard going forward?

No, you misunderstand. There is no "this", as in a single "this".

What I am saying is that they screwed up the homedir location, with two homedir locations being in play. It isn't just a different location from CMBN. Looks like picking a new location but forgetting to tell all the relevant code pieces about it.

I understand completely, but you're posting as if your interpretation is the only possible one. Occam's Razor suggests it is a deliberate splitting between My Documents and Program Files. Either way, it's not a huge deal. It's an inconvenience to be certain, as a user, having to work in two major directory locations when installing mods and desiging scenarios/campaigns. If the coders themselves are confused to the point that game features are being mis-directed, it is also an obvious issue - but one presumes easily rectified. But perhaps there are other planned engine upgrades that require the install to be split this way? I have no idea. Seems odd that a major error like this, if it is an error, could occur in CM:FI, go unnoticed, and then be identically perpetuated in CM:RT.