Pictures from the Front

[Yang]

Will do, i'll take some screenshots and then make a thread. Its not really that much about piracy than the age of sail on a larger scale. It not only caters to the Drakes, Surcoufs or de Ruyters, but also to the Cooks, Humboldts, Darwins as well as the Machiavellis and Fuggers.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

I just discovered Company of Heroes 2 is good for screenshots! You know what that means.....

My first attempt came out pretty good me thinks:

View attachment 45882

Project 2:

 

[Scott Tortorice]

One more. This was a skirmish between two squads that took place during a blizzard. The blizzard idea is an interesting one, if a bit game-y. When a blizzard blows in, you need to get your troops under shelter or near a fire before they freeze to death.

View attachment 45883

 

[kawaiku]

Project 2:

This looks like one of the levels from Red Orchestra where the Russians have to breach Axis lines and at some point assault a dug-in position in the open that looks almost exactly like that screenshot!

 

[Scott Tortorice]

The original RO? Hmm...been awhile since I played that. Don't recall that map. This screenshot reminds me of one of the last map packs for Battlefield 3 where a fight took place around a lumber yard.

Speaking of RO, I have never seen sooooo many full RO2 servers before! It is great! As of two hours ago, there were over 8000 people playing! I really hope this isn't just a blip on the radar but that people have finally found the last, true PC shooter.

Go Tripwire! Now please announce that Western Front expansion we all know you MUST be working on.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Wow, I can't believe it, but I am still on a WWII kick! I think I discovered a trick: avoid the History Channel at all costs. It was those cheesy documentaries that were really killing my interest. Okay...okay...the troubles with Putin are also feeding my renewed interest. WWII seems relevant again.

While I enjoyed my time with CoH 2, the clickfest did start getting on my nerves. So I went back to Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy. I am really looking forward to the 3.0 patch that will include the hit decals (I guess it would be wishful thinking to expect it before June 6? ). Until I get it CMBN will always feel like a v.9 to me. Anyhoo....

I took some advice and ditched my passion for random quick battles in that game. I've heard other people say they are basically broken, and I agree. Every time I play one, the AI basically just plops its units down in one spot and either waits for you to attack, or they march in one big blob and attack you with no rhyme or reason (with mortar crews leading the charge ). So I decided to boot up a scenario (the tutorial "Road Block" mission) and...yeah, the difference was amazing. The AI put up a coherent defense since its units were smartly deployed by the scenario maker. The battle really came down to a single PAK, along with two MG42s, that made my life miserable. They really were the key to the battle.

I took out one MG with a mortar barrage, but that darn PAK crew would not budge (they killed two Shermans). It eventually took a full on assault to get the guns.

Here, I finally got an infantry platoon, with one Sherman, within visual range (smoke cloud in the distance). We had to carefully skirt a hedgerow so as to stay out of sight of the PAK and MG for most of the way. I also launched a diversionary attack across a small river to the left of this screenshot to keep the PAK and MG looking in the wrong direction. It worked, and we brought the Germans under fire.

Meanwhile, further to the right, another Sherman + infantry team moved up a back road and also brought the PAK and MG under fire. This Sherman really did a number on the enemy, hosing down the two positions with MG fire and HE rounds.

It finally came down to an old fashioned rifle and grenade assault before the gun was given up:

View attachment 45987

But we took it, and with it, the crossroad objective.

Really enjoyed this scenario. Sooo much better than QB.

I think I am ready to jump into Red Thunder....

 

[Nexus6]

Great shots Scott. Is this CoH one or two?

You are right about the history channel shows these days. There are some gems to be found every now and then (the Benedict Arnold movie comes to mind), but more than a few tend to be superficial, cliched, and overly politically correct. I've lost a lot of respect for them the past few years. Speaking of PC, their docu-drama on the French and Indian War had to be the worst. I mean, every atrocity committed by the Indians was rationalized and explained away, whereas the Brits were made to look like Nazis with their Nova Scotia relocation program. As always in war there are things done that no side is particularly proud of, but this travesty of a docudrama was far from a balanced view. But I digress.

Speaking of WW2, recently revisited the great movie A Bridge too Far, and among many other strong points in that film, I found it interesting how at the very beginning narrator Liv Ullman mentioned the legendary feud between Patton and Monty. As a good friend once said, that famous feud cannot be overstated.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Great shots Scott. Is this CoH one or two?

The first batch of WWII screenshots came from Company of Heroes 2. The second set were from Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy. Inevitably, the frenzy of a RTS clickfest always forces me towards something more thoughtful. I just wish Battlefront would get the 3.0 patch released for CMBN because I really want those hit decals! I can't express how much CMBN has always annoyed me by not modeling vehicle damage with as much visual detail as the rest of the game has. Never made sense to me.

You are right about the history channel shows these days. There are some gems to be found every now and then (the Benedict Arnold movie comes to mind), but more than a few tend to be superficial, cliched, and overly politically correct. I've lost a lot of respect for them the past few years.

I think you nailed it. I knew the History Channel, and its assorted other networks, was on the way down when they threw in with the reality TV crowd. I will say that I think the last year or so there has been a slight effort on their part to try and reclaim their lost luster with real history docs, but they are still lagging behind what they once were.

Speaking of PC, their docu-drama on the French and Indian War had to be the worst. I mean, every atrocity committed by the Indians was rationalized and explained away, whereas the Brits were made to look like Nazis with their Nova Scotia relocation program. As always in war there are things done that no side is particularly proud of, but this travesty of a docudrama was far from a balanced view. But I digress.

I didn't see that, but it sounds like the usual "white man = evil, native american = good" false narrative that has be spewed for two decades or so now. I don't even find it offensive anymore, just really, really banal.

Speaking of WW2, recently revisited the great movie A Bridge too Far, and among many other strong points in that film, I found it interesting how at the very beginning narrator Liv Ullman mentioned the legendary feud between Patton and Monty. As a good friend once said, that famous feud cannot be overstated.

I hear you on that! My three favorite WWII war movies are The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far, and Tora, Tora, Tora. I love all three because they are true war -or maybe 'battle' would be more appropriate - movies. That is, they aren't claustrophobically focused on one hero or squad single-handedly winning the war (like Saving Private Ryan and countless other war flicks), but show the immense span and complexity of these mega military operations, and the countless individuals who took part to make events play out as they did. And from both sides no less! I truly don't think we will ever see their like again because Hollywood has since become so invested in using movies as mere vehicles for the hottest stars, that they really aren't interested in casting multiple stars for bit parts in a broad historical narrative. And even if they were, with the huge salaries Hollywood superstars demand, I don't think they could ever assemble such a huge cast. Shame, too, because with today's CGI a modern day Longest Day or BTF would look awesome.

BTW: I hope we one day get a remake of Battle of the Bulge. Of all the classic WWII flicks, that one is the cheesiest, and would benefit the most from CGI.

 

[Nexus6]

Hey Scotty, I could spend a half hour commenting on the things you just wrote, but at the risk of getting seriously off-topic, I had to say that I couldn't agree with you more about Tora! Tora! Tora! It was nothing less than stunning! I mean, everything about it was quality; the cast, the special effects, the historical accuracy, to say nothing of the tremendous action scenes. Also, it was one of the fairest, most balanced war movies I have ever seen, telling as it does the story from both the American and Japanese perspectives. Finally, it was really cool how the tension builds really well in the film, even though we all know what happens. Anyway, this was a war movie done right.

Also, I agree about the Henry Fonda 'Battle of the Bulge' film. I loved it as a kid, but in revisiting it a few years ago thought it didn't hold up all that well. Not a bad movie per se, but not a great one either. Yeah, it would be a prime candidate for a remake.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Hey, I got another Huntsman Case in CSGO and won a Heaven Guard shotgun (love the name!):

It works, too: :rifle:

The hostage is mine! :laugh:
It actually won me that match! Took down the last three members of the opposing team, winning us the match, and getting me that MVP award. :vsign:

Ya know, I am not one of those guys who want a lot of gore in my games, but I find the blood spray in this game to be pretty impressive at times. :laugh: After a battle, the carnage can be really...ugly.

 

[kawaiku]

Survived a wild urban battle I threw together in Operation Flashpoint. Two pictures taken near the same car after 2 different tries...

View attachment 46511 View attachment 46512

 

[Scott Tortorice]

That looked like a cool battle. How did you set it up? In Arma 2, I never felt like I ever created a really fun battle. Everything always felt too plodding and scripted. This is why I have yet to bother investing in A3. I had fun with A2, but it wasn't anything that, in the final analysis, ever really grabbed me.

 

[kawaiku]

I actually didn't do a whole lot lol. The AI did most of the fighting since I had about... 80+ bots taking part so there was fighting everywhere. Most of it centered around this huge enclosed square with only 2 entrances.

A quick video of another scenario I threw together earlier today. If you pause it at the map in the beginning you can see how I throw my scenarios together. I just pick a map. Find a good location and then add in the forces I want. Next I use waypoints and have at it. (P.S. Sorry about the crappy quality.)

[video=youtube;nwixOM2JulM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwixOM2JulM&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Scott Tortorice]

I actually didn't do a whole lot lol. The AI did most of the fighting since I had about... 80+ bots taking part so there was fighting everywhere. Most of it centered around this huge enclosed square with only 2 entrances.

A quick video of another scenario I threw together earlier today. If you pause it at the map in the beginning you can see how I throw my scenarios together. I just pick a map. Find a good location and then add in the forces I want. Next I use waypoints and have at it. (P.S. Sorry about the crappy quality.)

Good vid! 80+ for the whole battle, so roughly 40 per side? I never tried that many with A2. I always kept things small because the AI would get so freaky when there was too much going on. Might be interesting to try that one day on A2.

For some reason I have reinstalled Rome 2 today. Even though the game has come a long way, every time I would play it I would find some rough edge or glitch that would ruin the experience for me. Last time it was a siege battle where my framerate would drop to 4 or 5 for no apparent reason (I have since researched this and discovered it is a CPU bottleneck bug related to pathfinding). But that was patch or so ago, so I don't know if it has been fixed yet.

Regardless, today I started a new campaign as a Germanic tribe and had a really good time! The tactical battles finally feel polished and functioning as designed. And the AI, even on normal, is really good!

Some pics:

These are from a really nasty battle that came down to just a handful of men. Appropriately, it took place during a storm.

Our forces clashing:

In the thick of it (my guys have the red capes, btw):

One of my men getting killed right before the last barbarian horseman meets his similar fate:

My men still standing after all the carnage - the enemy flees in the distance:

This is the first time since I got the game that I can say "hey, that felt really good!" However, I remain cautious. I have yet to try a siege - if that bug is still there, time to shelve the game again. But, yeah, R2 is finally getting its legs under it.

 

[kawaiku]

Good vid! 80+ for the whole battle, so roughly 40 per side? I never tried that many with A2. I always kept things small because the AI would get so freaky when there was too much going on. Might be interesting to try that one day on A2.

Thanks! That or a little more than 40. How big are your scenarios usually? And it's fun. Just find a spot, and just put in everything you want. My only issue is I have trouble figuring out how to use helicopters by the AI to provide air support to make longer/larger scenarios.

For some reason I have reinstalled Rome 2 today. Even though the game has come a long way, every time I would play it I would find some rough edge or glitch that would ruin the experience for me. Last time it was a siege battle where my framerate would drop to 4 or 5 for no apparent reason (I have since researched this and discovered it is a CPU bottleneck bug related to pathfinding). But that was patch or so ago, so I don't know if it has been fixed yet.

Regardless, today I started a new campaign as a Germanic tribe and had a really good time! The tactical battles finally feel polished and functioning as designed. And the AI, even on normal, is really good!

But, yeah, R2 is finally getting its legs under it.

Haha I admit, I was surprised to see you playing it on Steam the other day. I thought, "doesn't he hate that game?" lol. Anyway, in what way is the AI really good? And that's good to hear that it's doing better now.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Thanks! That or a little more than 40. How big are your scenarios usually? And it's fun. Just find a spot, and just put in everything you want. My only issue is I have trouble figuring out how to use helicopters by the AI to provide air support to make longer/larger scenarios.

Most of mine were small, covert raid type of events. I needed to keep it small because I always was trying to focus on one key aspect - like blowing up a depot, or ambushing a convoy, etc (you can see some of the A2 scenarios I cooked up on my GS blog). Whenever I would try to expand things the process would get wildly out of control as the AI would go nuts with large numbers of troops. Plus, A2 was such a resource hog that it didn't take very many troops/vehicles to kill your performance.

Like I said above, I did have fun with the editor, but I also found it frustrating as it took a heck of a lot of work to accomplish simple things. As you can see in some of my notes in the A2 blog entries, just getting a plane to drop a bomb, or getting a helo to target a specific tank took an awful lot of trial and error, and usually some sort of scripting. There is a lot to be desired with the A2 editor as far as I am concerned.

Haha I admit, I was surprised to see you playing it on Steam the other day. I thought, "doesn't he hate that game?" lol. Anyway, in what way is the AI really good? And that's good to hear that it's doing better now.

Yeah, I have been down on the game. And now after I put in a few more hours with the latest patch, I am again down on it. Every time I boot up this game it is only a matter of time before I am reminded that Rome 2 is still an over-ambitious TW title that was hastily thrown together and kicked out the door. For example, yesterday I was playing the game and I noticed that the game still suffers from texture issues on the terrain. What happens is that there are certain boulders on the maps that when you zoom out you can see that they are missing textures - instead of a rock surface, you get this weird white square with black patches, sort of like an unfinished drawing. This was noticed immediately upon release and it still hasn't been fixed. Then I was playing a siege battle and was informed that my video memory was running low. I was thinking "huh?" I am only playing the game on medium-high - and I assure you that medium-high in Rome 2 looks no better than high-ultra did in Medieval 2 so there was absolutely no reason why my 1gb of GPU memory should be used up for one map! You can get around this issue by enabling the use of system memory - but what always strikes me it how that is a separate option that needs to be toggled - don't most other games do this automatically? Regardless, for me this just represents sloppy, resource hog programming on the part of CA. Then, at last, I came to the strategic game. Now, to be fair, I did notice that CA has been addressing some of the issues with strategic gameplay (such as more explanatory tool tips) but the game still seems to suffer from out of whack economic balancing, random events that seem to have no immediate or discernible impact on gameplay (unlike CK2's excellent random events), and agent spam were we now can recruit scouts, champions, and some other class, leading to a boring game of whack the agent as they spread across the map like a plaque. It just all feels really, really poorly put together as a game. I hate to say it, but if R2 still feels this unpolished now, I doubt it will ever be fixed right. I am frankly surprised that so many people are still playing this game according to Steam stats. Maybe my standards are just too high, or maybe people are ignoring the strategic game and just having fun with the tactical battles (which are the most improved portion of the game). I don't know, but I do know that I will be uninstalling R2 yet again.....:nada:

 

[Scott Tortorice]

All the talk about the Elite: Dangerous beta reminded me that I haven't played Evochron Mercenary in awhile. It is striking out this one-man project has managed to implement many of the features E is promising - such as planetary landings and planet walking - but did it long before that game will deliver the goods. Anyhoo...some screenies:

This is looking out the right side of my little ship as I pass by an arm of a space station. I like how the planet New Hope is behind it, and how you can see the limb of the planet with the glow from the local star on the left:

And this is a shot of my retrofitted craft blasting from the surface of New Hope:

Been a long while since I played this game, so I am still working my way through the tutorial missions.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Really having fun with Evochron Mercenary. I think the dev is witnessing a sales spike because of Elite. Checked the Steam forum and was amused to see a bunch of discussions along the lines of "So, while I am waiting for Elite: Dangerous, I decided to buy/play this game...."

Took this cool screenie yesterday:

View attachment 46842
My little (modified) basic ship flying past the local star.

Preparing to make an atmospheric insertion

Took a look out the right side of the canopy. Some interesting mountain ranges worth exploring some day.

Coming in for a landing....

Think I'll watch some Cowboy Bebop tonight.

 

[kawaiku]

That's really cool!! How is the game??

 

[Scott Tortorice]

That's really cool!! How is the game??

The game is great! Once you work through the somewhat tedious but nicely comprehensive tutorial, it is really a lot of fun. And unlike more spreadsheet oriented games like X3, the learning curve is much simpler since it is less about manufacturing and economics and more about exploration, combat, and "go-fer" quests/trading. The introductory missions also do a good job of getting the player familiar with the basic gameplay elements.

People keep saying it, but I'll say it again: this is really one of gaming's marvels: a full featured space trader game created by one man with some help from his fans. As you can see above, he even managed to incorporate planetary landings and planet walking (haven't done the latter yet, that was part of the last expansion when I stopped playing for some reason).

Last night I was experimenting with some mods. The game already can be quite nice considering its one-man origins, but some cockpit mods can really add some chrome. Here is an example of the Viper cockpit mod I hope to install today:

[video=youtube_share;_rPlmD7Nk4c]http://youtu.be/_rPlmD7Nk4c[/video]

I think the only real failing of the dev is lack of a more robust marketing campaign. Too many people just are oblivious about this game. It is funny: I was reading the steam forums and you are now finding a bunch of posts along the lines of "I am looking for a space game until Elite comes out and I discovered this game and love it!" This game has been out since 2012! The dev really should try more outreach. He doesn't even seem to be hooked up with Facebook (but he is on Twitter).

BTW: demo here: http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmercenary/downloads.htm