OMG... thank you HT!

[BaldEagl]

I actually got to play for a couple of hours today and the new terrain is stunning.  Thank you HT.  What a great job you guys did. 

The water is awsome.  The extra coloring in the trees is great.  The shore batteries are a big improvement.  Well, everything is.  WTG!  I spent almost as much time driving/flying around looking at the terrain as I did actually trying to kill people.

I had to set my gamma down from 1.0 to about .7 to eliminate the washed out look but with that change the terrain is vivid.

I do have a couple of minor things though:  The smooth shadow option hits my video card fairly hard at times (59 to 45 fps) and without it the shadows are too jaggy.  In fact at one point today my windsceen frame had triangles of different shades moving over it like a kalaidoscope show.  I guess I'll have to play without self-shading.

Other than that with shadowing turned off I was occasionally experiencing very minor frame reductions (from 59 to 54 fps) but they were rare.  Still I can see that if I had a weaker machine it could be an issue.  Everything else is maxed.

I think that the dust trail from GV's needs to be whiter... more like the beach color.  That light greenish shade is really noticable when your on the white sand beaches.

Anyway, very minor stuff.  So far I have to give a big 

[Condor]

I agree.  Looks great.  I also had to dial back the gamma a little.   My frame rates don't seem to have dropped a bit.  It's probably good I built the new machine last year.

[CAP1]

love it!!!!!


duidn't dl the hi res yet, but in mw, i was running 75 and on landing it dropped momentarily to 48..........

[Lusche]

the nagging nabob of negativism again:


I'm quite torn over new terrain and graphics.

From altitude, landscape is great. The new water is fantastic, I really like the reflections. But I dislike the "cardboard cutout" appearance of the new beaches, I do miss the Czech hedgehogs. Self shadowing is great, I won't be able to use it in game, but I didn't expect being able to do so anyway, so I'm just happy for those who can.

But I do really dislike the terrain in regard to ground combat. Wide open vehicle bases in a barren land. Almost no cover for GVs vs air or other GVs. I think this will have a big impact on gameplay in a way I dislike. Missing cover on / near Vbases very much favors defenders, almost no way to use cover to get any close. We will see much more 3000yd+ shootouts (Tiger & M4 will be happy. M8 & T34 not so much). Much less maneuvering, much less battles with shoot & scoot, dashing from cover to cover. A big reduction in tactics and a resurrection of utter brute force methods I'm afraid. And spawncamping will get much easier again

[CAP1]

the nagging nabob of negativism again:


I'm quite torn over new terrain and graphics.

From altitude, landscape is great. The new water is fantastic, I really like the reflections. But I dislike the "cardboard cutout" appearance of the new beaches, I do miss the Czech hedgehogs. Self shadowing is great, I won't be able to use it in game, but I didn't expect being able to do so anyway, so I'm just happy for those who can.

But I do really dislike the terrain in regard to ground combat. Wide open vehicle bases in a barren land. Almost no cover for GVs vs air or other GVs. I think this will have a big impact on gameplay in a way I dislike. Missing cover on / near Vbases very much favors defenders, almost no way to use cover to get any close. We will see much more 3000yd+ shootouts (Tiger & M4 will be happy. M8 & T34 not so much). Much less maneuvering, much less battles with shoot & scoot, dashing from cover to cover. A big reduction in tactics and a resurrection of utter brute force methods I'm afraid. And spawncamping will get much easier again

the thing that amazed me?

in mw it was the map thayt has a big island in the middle with tanktown on it. there was a thin layer of haze at about 5 or 6k. as i flew through it, i looked around. it looked just like it does when i fly in south jersey in the summer. there's a perputual layer of haze in the summer...at around 2 to 3k alt.

 i liked that the sun was reflecting off of the water....and noticed my shadow as i got near the ground. i only hope that my system handles it in a furball when i add the hi res pack.

 it's a system built by tildeath....so i'm fairly confident at this point that it will handle it easily.

[Lusche]

 it's a system built by tildeath....so i'm fairly confident at this point that it will handle it easily.

I think you can be optimistic then

[BaldEagl]

But I dislike the "cardboard cutout" appearance of the new beaches, I do miss the Czech hedgehogs. Self shadowing is great, I won't be able to use it in game, but I didn't expect being able to do so anyway, so I'm just happy for those who can.

But I do really dislike the terrain in regard to ground combat. Wide open vehicle bases in a barren land. Almost no cover for GVs vs air or other GVs. I think this will have a big impact on gameplay in a way I dislike. Missing cover on / near Vbases very much favors defenders, almost no way to use cover to get any close. We will see much more 3000yd+ shootouts (Tiger & M4 will be happy. M8 & T34 not so much). Much less maneuvering, much less battles with shoot & scoot, dashing from cover to cover. A big reduction in tactics and a resurrection of utter brute force methods I'm afraid. And spawncamping will get much easier again

First of all I thought the old beaches looked more like cardboard cut-outs than the new ones but I do miss the beach traps.

I was thinking the same thing as you this afternoon while GVing, and I do miss the denser forrests, but tonight I had a change of heart.  First of all the terrain itself provides a lot more color variations so I suspect the whines over the Panzer/Wirble/Osti skins will subside.  I played tonight finding areas that color matched my default Wirble skins and was rarely attacked.  In fact I got several kills by surprising people.

Later I was still defending a GV base, almost out of ammo with enemy GV's around and I found an ideal hiding spot among a thick grove of trees.  None of the incoming aircraft saw me, none of the incoming GV's saw me and I had a perfect shot at the maproom with my hull gun.  I would have also had a couple of tank kills from that location had I been in a tank.

I don't think cover for M3's getting to the maproom will make a big difference.  If you had a V base under attack and had the maproom covered it didn't matter what kind of cover an M3 had.  On the other hand distraction tactics can work just as well in open spaces as closed ones.

I also think the tank bunkers will come into play in a bigger way.  I just wish that at least one or two of them were faced so that you could back in with your hull gun trained on the maproom.

As to spawn camps the spawn locations were always pretty open so I don't see any change there.

Like all the updates before I think this one will take a little getting used to and a little revision of prior tactics and after that it will be just as good.

BTW, thank you HT for getting rid of those awful hedgerows.  I also wish there weren't barns and buildings on the hillsides.  That part still ruins some of the effect.

[Lusche]

First of all I thought the old beaches looked more like cardboard cut-outs than the new ones but I do miss the beach traps.

Same base, same texture size

Not the best example because the beach isn't really very big there, but by looking at the shoreline I think it's clear what I'm trying to say

I was thinking the same thing as you this afternoon while GVing, and I do miss the denser forrests, but tonight I had a change of heart.  First of all the terrain itself provides a lot more color variations so I suspect the whines over the Panzer/Wirble/Osti skins will subside. 

Color variations are no real cover, you still have to get there over vast strectches of open terrain. Tiger land

Later I was still defending a GV base, almost out of ammo with enemy GV's around and I found an ideal hiding spot among a thick grove of trees.  None of the incoming aircraft saw me, none of the incoming GV's saw me and I had a perfect shot at the maproom with my hull gun.  I would have also had a couple of tank kills from that location had I been in a tank.

And that's the point I'm trying to make. Once the defender has set up his position, he a much greater field of fire than before. Much more difficult to work your way to the base now,less possibilities to get around, to flank (no small hills, no woods - that defending tiger will nail you at 3k again)

I had two great Gv battles this tour where I tried to delay ahuge force of attackers rolling to our respective towns. Both times I was mostly alone, both times it was a very exciting maneivering battle between hill and in the woods. I tried to figure out their new approach and rushed into a new position after every kill. They tried to outsmart me and to predict my next firing postion. Lot's of hide & seek, mid/long range shots alterneting with short range melee. Much use for M8'S & T34s.
Oh, I can adapt - rolling Tiger to town and blow them up at very long rnages as they come in. no problem - I predict my K/D going up, but it will be more boring.

I don't think cover for M3's getting to the maproom will make a big difference.  If you had a V base under attack and had the maproom covered it didn't matter what kind of cover an M3 had. 

Often i saw a m3 succesfully making his way close enough by using woods to release troops, which the defenders didn't notice until too late - for many of them view was blocked. Not on the new bases anymore.

As to spawn camps the spawn locations were always pretty open so I don't see any change there.

You didn't notce that all the small hills are gone that made overlooking a complete spawn are often impossible unless you got some good altitude advantage?

Like all the updates before I think this one will take a little getting used to and a little revision of prior tactics and after that it will be just as good.

Yes. More static defensive positions, more brute force, bombs and sheer numbers,