"Battle of the Bulge" - recruiting Betatesters -

[fragiator]

@frodo
yeah, i know. the 'shreck-team' is the last answer when having big problems. but i don't use 'em cause they are bugged. in early to mid game i work with pak's and panzerfausts. maybe you can try that.
but i guess you are playing the 6th army, which has to be played a little bit tricky until you get a tank.
hmm, if this map isn't yours you should try another one 'till you're more familiar with botb.

[Celution]

Hey BotB team, I got a little problem with playing, because when I play a 4p map or more it's pretty laggy .

I play on highest settings, and this is my PC:

- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz processor.
- ATI Radeon HD3650
- 3GB of RAM DDR2
- Vista Home Premium with DirectX 10 3D
- 1066 Mhz/ 3 mb Busspeed

Why is the BotB lagging me? I know all the snow textures are pretty heavy, but my PC can easily handle highest settings.

[palm]

It's simply not good enough. BotB mod is probably more then twice as demanding as vanilla.

[Celution]

But when I run regular CoH the "performace bar" shows it's only 75% from my total strengh of my PC. It pretty sucks that BotB needs twice vanilla.

[lin]

play on low settings, gameplay is far more important than graphics

[tskross]

@Celestial
I've heard somewhere that DX10 causes a major performance hit as well...supposedly there is a way to switch back to DX9 but I can't help you there since I'm running XP.

It seems to be a combination of the large number of skins on screen (remember that each soldier has his own individual skin, unlike vanilla where most units share 1 or 2), the rendering of large numbers of trees and the weather effects that causes the lag. You can try first turning the tree detail down to see if that improves things.

I think the number of skins have a surprisingly big effect, in the beginning of a game I have great frame rates when I only have a few different types of units out, but mid-late game especially if I'm playing a 2v2 with different doctrines it gets so bad that sometimes it crashes my comp! Unfortunately there isn't anything we can do about that except lowering detail settings

[sturmmacht]

I've heard somewhere that DX10 causes a major performance hit as well...supposedly there is a way to switch back to DX9 but I can't help you there since I'm running XP.

Vista has DX 9 & 10 installed...there is no "switching" back to DX9. It depends on the game and the settings.

For Company of Heroes, you can select "Direct3d 10" under Shader Quality, or High or Low. The "Direct3d 10" is a major performance hit. If you select High instead you will see a very large framerate improvement.

The other big performance hits are Terrain Detail and Texture Detail. Turn Texture Detail down a notch and you will also see a large framerate game. Last but not least are Shadows which also hit framerate in a big way.

The Biggest issue with BotB performance under Vista is running out of memory on some maps. This will cause a huge slow-down and also sometimes crash the game to desktop. Some maps will eat up RAM as you play (like a memory leak) until you run out and crash. I can't tell you why, but if you check your performance monitor, you'll see a properly made map will keep you at the 2GB limit (game design and 32bit limit), bad maps will push past that until the client crashes or bogs down. Lowering your detail settings will help with this a bit.

[lin]

High and Low means DX9 so there IS a switch between dx10 & 9

[Celution]

I keep DirectX 10 3D, whatever it costs, It makes so much improvement. And I think lowering the tree quality is a good idea. Thanks all!

[Muad'Dib]

I'm thinking of downloading this MOD if only to see the Panzerwerfer in action... is it actually in this mod (animated)? Last i heard there wasn't any animation for it...

[Celution]

There is no anymation for the Panzerwerfer, it's a modelmix and build on the Sd.Kfz. 251 Halftrack, so that's why the wheels and tracks can move. The rocket launcher isn't animated too, it's just a 10 shot nebelwerfer thats shooting "out" of the rocket launcher, straught up in the air.
But I still love it.
By the way BotB team, why haven't the new models winter camo (panzerwerfer, Jagdpanzer L70)??

[Muad'Dib]

There is no anymation for the Panzerwerfer, it's a modelmix and build on the Sd.Kfz. 251 Halftrack, so that's why the wheels and tracks can move. The rocket launcher isn't animated too, it's just a 10 shot nebelwerfer thats shooting "out" of the rocket launcher, straught up in the air.

So does that mean the carriage carrying the rockets don't move up and down like the calliope's? Can someone post a screenshot of the PW firing?

[tskross]

@celestial the jagdpanzer iv has a new skin, you can download it at ModDB (as well as a new jagdpanther skin, the old one was lower resolution)
the reason that they didn't have complete skins was simply that halftrack didn't have time to get them done before the release, and technically (as far as i understand it, and I'm just a layman) the panzerwerfer and jagdpanzer were made by a combination of model mixing (to get the tracks and chassis in) and importing new model components which are not able to be animated at the present time.

@Muad'Dib that is correct, the launcher is in a fixed position, for the reason stated above

[lin]

applying the new skins could result in a sync error?

[tskross]

it shouldn't no,
changes in the data folder should not affect online play as only the attributes folder is checked for compatability

[lin]

thx, you were right, i encountered no errors

[tskross]

Tskross here,
I just wanted to let everyone know about a couple of things going on with BotB:

The patch, We all know the patch has been a long time in the works...why? I hear you ask...
A couple of reasons, for one thing we wanted to wait to make sure we could fix as many bugs as possible, instead of trickling out small quick fixes here and there, also some of the bugs that seem like simple problems turned out to be a bit more complex. Also in order to preserve gameplay we wanted to make sure that we found the root cause of the problem and fix it there, which in some cases has been harder than anticipated. Also this will not just be a simple bug fixing patch, there will be new maps and some new skins included also which we have been working on as well. We understand the frustration of some of the bugs (i.e. the panzershreck bug) but we want to make sure that they are dealt with correctly. I know we've been saying that this patch is coming soon, and Halftrack as told me that it is 90% ready, but he has had an extremely busy past few weeks in RL and is now on an extended vacation and will not be back for a couple months but he hopes to have it out asap after he is back. He has expressed to me his extreme disappointment in not being able to get it out before the new year and wants you to know he is working on it as fast as he can.

On a lighter note, I have posted a skinpack with 4 skins, the 2 previously released for the Jagdpanther and JagdpanzerIV along with the Hetzer at full resolution (the original hetzer and jagdpanther skins were based on the skin from the beta test of OF ad were at half resolution) and the Maultier Panzerwerfer, the last two are WIP, the Hetzer will be completely re-done for the next patch and the Panzerwerfer is as good as I could do with the current limitations of the model, hopefully I can work with halftrack to get it up to the 'BotB standard' for the patch as well. You can download them at ModDB:
Axis Armor Update Skinpack
Note that these will not affect your ability to play online as it is the attribute folder, not the data folder that is checked for compatability

Please take a moment to head over to ModDB vote for BotB as one of your favorite mods of the year!, we need to get into the top 100 to make it to the next round of voting, and as of this writing there are 10 hours left to get your vote in!! It would really mean a lot to the team to make it into the top 100 and would bring many more players into the game, which would be good for our community and for online matches! If you register with ModDB your vote counts as double so if you have a couple of extra minutes it would be much appreciated, and while you're at it you could sign up to be made an honorary member of the BotB mod team BotB mod team on modDB

If you feel like you would like to go that extra step we are looking for someone to write a review, a strategy guide, or any kind of feature (could be a historical discussion or a focus on a particular unit etc etc) to post as content on the BotB and the ModDB pages, it would really help with the visibility of the mod (and our chances of making the top 100!!) but also to generate interest in BotB to people who might be curious about what it is and how it differs from VCoH, go here to find out how you can help: Writers Wanted

Also BotB will be featured in a (small) write up in issue 17 of Total PC Gaming in their mod review section!! Cheers to Halftrack for the much deserved attention

Last but not least it is time for us to ask for your financial help. Fiffa has been kind enough to provide us with free hosting up till now, but since we don't want to be freeloaders we are asking for donations to help offset his cost. If you can spare any change please click here Donate Now to help.

There are lots of exciting changes coming to BotB over the next year, and while it may seem like things have been quiet Halftrack has already been working on ideas for the next version, V3, like the much anticipated move of removing base building, making the gameplay even more tactical and bringing a new level of realism to BotB!

Until Next time this is Tskross signing out

and please don't forget to vote!!
only 10 Hours Left!!

[xxaxx]

So if i understand Halftrack will not be working on the mod for some months?

[Akranadas]

Wow, Nice update!

Also, I voted for you guys

[Cherni_95]

I hope this wouldn't be too much of a hassle, but would it be possible to have a separate version of the mod released without the ATC script? I am a really big fan of this mod, but I just can't seem to enjoy it with the ATC script, thats just my opinion, not trying to rant.

Thanks,

[torenico]

Hmm, i noticed this Bug.

Spoiler

U can see the Sturmtiger rocket, a depot and a bunker, all whit German Flags and its on the middle of the US Base :S

[Lethal Dosage]

Found a few more bugs for you (sorry ).

1. The Axis repair bunker (might also affect the US one) won't repair the Flak '88 or the lefh18 howiziter (it might also not repair other weapons, but i haven't tested them), even though the Repair crews (that come in the truck) can be ordered to repair them.

2. When using Counter Battery Fire on any of the howiziters, as soon as you turn it off you can immediately fire a Barrage, you should look into a shared timer for both of them so you can use Barrage immediately after turning the Counter Battery Fire off.

3. Medic Stations can heal Nebelwerfers, AT guns (tested with Paks), Howiziters (lefh18), and even mortars (81mm Gr34). I don't mean just heal the crew, but they heal the actual weapon as well (upper white bar). I don't know if that's intentional or not with the smaller weapons, but i think the larger ones like the AT guns and Howiziters and Nebels should require to be repaired by a repair crew or repair bunker.

4. The US 76mm AT Gun (airborne?) has some strange screen-names that show up when you mouse over them. For instance when you mouse over the individual "parts" is says something different. The gun itself says it's a 3in AT Gun, the Gunner is a 25pdr, the loader is Weapon Crew and the third gun is usually called Airborne. Now this isn't critical or even affecting gameplay, i just thought you might like to fix these ui issues while your at it to give the mod that final polish.

[Kirouk]

I've also seen #3.

[ab2531]

Can I ask you: How did you create the .exe file that allow you to start the mod without -dev and without the CoH launcher?

[Panzer Jager]

How did you create the .exe file that allow you to start the mod without -dev and without the CoH launcher?

It came in the CoH Engine Dev kit written by Corsix, I believe.

3. Medic Stations can heal Nebelwerfers, AT guns (tested with Paks), Howiziters (lefh18), and even mortars (81mm Gr34). I don't mean just heal the crew, but they heal the actual weapon as well (upper white bar). I don't know if that's intentional or not with the smaller weapons, but i think the larger ones like the AT guns and Howiziters and Nebels should require to be repaired by a repair crew or repair bunker.

I can't confirm, but I think this is an actual bug in CoH, not just BotB (judging by the way it's coded.)

1. The Axis repair bunker (might also affect the US one) won't repair the Flak '88 or the lefh18 howiziter (it might also not repair other weapons, but i haven't tested them), even though the Repair crews (that come in the truck) can be ordered to repair them.

This is a CoH bug; it's been solved in the Balance Playtest and I can solve it for BotB. I've added your bug report to my bug list.

[tskross]

@cherni_95
We don't have any plans on going back to the old territory system, a couple of reasons
#1 consistency, we don't want to have 2 official versions of the mod
#2 popularity, most people (according to the poll we posted on the BotB forums) prefer the new system, even if they say it took some getting used to
#3 maps, because it is much easier to create balanced maps. With the flagpoles you have to make sure they are placed just right, and there are the appropriate obstacles or lack of obstacles in order for them to be equally accessible from either side of the map.
#4 realism...this one is obvious I think

of course you can always mod the mod for personal use, but I wouldn't know where to begin to tell you how to remove the atc

this is addressed to everyone
I think that one of the problems that some people have getting used to playing BotB is that people think of it as being 'CoH in winter', essentially a skin mod, where in reality because of the many (literally hundreds) of changes that have been made to gameplay (some are not obvious until you've played a long time, others are immediately so) it is in fact an almost totally separate game, sure a lot of the things are still present, base buildings and the resource system for ex, but the actual combat abilities, survivability, types of units, behavior of units, and the AI, etc etc mean that the tactics that one uses in VCoH will not necessarily work in BotB, in fact they hardly ever do.
It is best to approach it as a different game that uses the essence engine.

@letahl dosage
Thank you for the consistent and accurate bug listing (even if some of them are relic bugs!! ) This will help us improve the next version immensely

[tskross]

Great News!!

Battle of the Bulge mod for Company of Heroes and Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts has made the ModDB top 100 mods of 2008!!
We are proud to be featured alongside Europe in Ruins and Operation Market Garden, 2 other great mods for CoH.

The next step will be to get into the top 5 new mods of the year
Please vote for us to get into ModDBs top 5 new mods of the year here on our ModDB page!! As before your vote counts for double if you register with ModDB, so if you have a moment we would much appreciate it!

Thanks to all who voted so far! We are really grateful to our superb community!!

[torenico]

Voted!!

[fragiator]

congrats and...voted!

[GunsEmpty]

OMG. This mod is absolutely awesome. I just downloaded it and was playing it.....I can have 3 King Tigers.......THREE.

I'm going to try to get my brother to DL this mod so we can play together.


But I noticed a few texture glitches:

1. The tank commander for the buildable King Tiger has head phones sticking out of his hat

2. The white shirt the Recon unit is wearing for the Allies is mixing with the olive drab default shirt underneath and it looks messed up.

3. I can see the outline of the invisble/original Tiger turret for the Assault Tiger.


BUT DAMN, this mod is great!

Before I downloaded it, I thought I would NOT have been able to play my slightly modded Vanilla CoH, but I can play this mod and my slightly skin-modded original!!

[tskross]

@Gunsempty
Yeah unfortunately all three of those bugs are caused by the model mixing process and currently there is no way around them, but we think the skins still look better this way than as in Vanilla!

[Schmeisser07]

Hey, I was just playing BotB when I noticed that my bazooka team begun shooting automaticly (That is, like shooting 4 rokets/per second!)
I played as the german 7th Army with a bazooka team.
Is that a bug?

[Herr Kodax]

The panzerschrek's rate of fire is a very well known bug.

[Khannis]

Today I played this mod for the first time (got OF recently) and I have to say, great mod, great doctrine system, and beautiful skins

My only complain was a game that I played with Axis, all was running fine apart from a small lag on the first 30s or so... In the end-game I got my hands on a Sturmtiger, very nice model, but when it used it's mortar shell ability that huge explosion game up and... game frozen

I run on Atlhon X2 4600+, 1.5GB RAM, and GeForce 8600GT, and never lagged on COH or OF apart from some 3v3 matches.

[Panzer Jager]

Sturmtiger uses same explosion as V1 bomb O_o

[GunsEmpty]

Well, I'm pretty sure the maps are bigger, there are more infantry in the squads, etc etc.

I had to turn a few things down. But it still looks great and now it runs a lot smoother.

[Khannis]

Backi in the KMOD days (that I believe also had bigger maps and certainly had bigger squads) I didn't have to turn anything down, but now I did and the explosion works fine, and everything runs smooth

[tskross]

@Khannis
It does cause a performance hit compared with regular CoH, some of it has to do with the weather and trees (if it is unacceptably slow try turning the tree detail down) and also there are more than twice as many skins (notice how every soldier in a unit has a different skin) and more units in BotB than CoH (even KMOD) and that takes more RAM. We tried to balance increasing the number of units with the performance hit it would cause...You probably already know this but I always tell people to make sure all background apps are turned off (including fraps, windows updates, and AV software)
By the way its this kind of boost in minimum requirements that relic claims is one of the reasons that they won't add anymore armies to CoH...so no russians anytime soon

[Khannis]

I saw that exact post in your forums, but thanks tskross

[GunsEmpty]

I think the SturmTiger should be replaced with a pair of Tiger tanks.

At least until Relic releases the tools to make the proper model. I just can't get over seeing that invisible Tiger turret.


EDIT: I found this glitch with the weapons for the deployable Fallschirmjagers


EDIT: Also, in the Intro Video, its says "noone" when it should say "no one"

[izaktj]

I love this mod! I know it's my first post lol
Textures are awesome, I love the detail. Just one question, why is the panzerfaust so "expensive", as far as I know it was cheaper and faster to produce than the panzerschreck. So I'd like to ask you for permission to edit those values (for my personal use), making the panzerfaust "cheaper". It's hard to equip my panzergrenadier squads with them.(I love how every soldier has it's own skin, it gives the "late war" feeling.)


6th SS army FTW!!!

[knife-=108=-]

Hey BotB team, I got a little problem with playing, because when I play a 4p map or more it's pretty laggy .

I play on highest settings, and this is my PC:

- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz processor.
- ATI Radeon HD3650
- 3GB of RAM DDR2
- Vista Home Premium with DirectX 10 3D
- 1066 Mhz/ 3 mb Busspeed

Why is the BotB lagging me? I know all the snow textures are pretty heavy, but my PC can easily handle highest settings.

buddy,

my pc:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz processor.
- GTX260
- 2GB of RAM DDR2 800
- XP sp3 with DirectX 9.0c
- ASUS P5Q-PRO
- 1920*1080

all highest setting and feel a little lag !

[Celution]

Do you got the newest GForce??

[tskross]

@gunsempty, thats a glitch that we know about but can't seem to recreate (I can't anyways) it seems to happen randomly. As far as the sturmtiger goes, we will not take it out of the mod. We worked way to hard to implement it at all! Plus we just aren't going to wait for an OE that may or may not be released by relic. One of the things we want to try to do is introduce completely new elements to the mod and right now this is the only way we can do it.
Don't forget that this is still technically a beta release, and without tools like the OE it always will be. Having said that we have tried our hardest (and still are making improvements) to get this mod as close to retail standard as is humanly possible

@izaktj, as long as it is just for personal use (ie not shared with anyone else) you can do whatever you want to the mod!!

[Panzer Jager]

Tskross; I've solved the Fallschirmjager bug. It happens when a unit has both the FG42 and Sten loaded into the .abp. So I've removed the FG42 and also removed the upgrade to the squad. The paradropable squad will still drop with an FG42 (because he uses an .abp that does not load the Sten.)

Also, on the topic of me fixing stuff, we plan on releasing a patch some time soon (within 1-3 weeks.)
Tskross and I will give you more information as progress goes along.

[izaktj]

Nice, I didn't get the corsix's tool anyway lol

On a side note, I'd like to suggest (If the game engine isn't a limit) the automatic use of abilities like grenades. For example, in the game Codename panzers, the soldiers could use their grenades automatically if ordered to. So when they were in range they'd throw their grenades.

[Lethal Dosage]

izaktj, i don't think that's such a good idea, munitions can be pretty highly sought after on some maps, and i don't think anyone playing on one of these maps would like it if they couldn't afford arty or tank upgardes because their infantry kept throwing their munitions away everytime they bumped into the enemy. On the other hand, if your suggesting the automatic grenade use as an ability you toggle on and off, then perhaps, but who would really use it? It would very quickly throw away hundreds of munitions in a few short munitions, not to mention the enemy player would be pretty sore when their infantry squads get annihilated every time they bump into you.

Personally with grenades costing munitions, and infantry capable of throwing grenades very often, i would rather be able to choose the precise time and target of grenades, rather than them being spammed whenever i have munitions.

Edit: I voted, good luck!

[tskross]

@izaktj, Lethal Dosage said it best....

Also I posted a short teaser video up at ModDB if anyone is interested....Teaser Video

Its not the best but it does show the panzerwerfer in action....

and while you're there don't forget to vote for us!!

[lin]

nice video there

[Teleon]

I have to agree to disagree with the automatic grenade option. My argument is not that it will cost munitions or ruin your opponents time whenever he engages your infantry. Rather, I think it takes away from micromanagement of infantry units which is a key element of this strategy game. I vote against implementing such an option.