Madmatt
Administrator
Member # 332

posted October 01, 2007 05:47 PM
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This patch offers big performance and speed increases across the board, and people with both multi-core as well as single core processors as well as ATI and nVidia video cards should now be getting much better framerates. In addition to these highly anticipated technical improvements we have also included substantial AI improvements in key areas like pathfinding, spotting, line of sight/line of fire, soldier responsiveness and behavior. Other tweaks and fixes have been applied to various game elements and players will also notice some improved terrain textures and better visual representation of elevations and distant objects.

We are offering the patch in two distinct flavors as well. A 136 Megabyte ALL-INCLUSIVE patch that will work on ANY previous Battlefront.com version of the game (from v1.01 to v1.03) and a 45 Megabyte INCREMENTAL patch that is meant to upgrade an already patched v1.03 copy of the game to the new v1.04 level.

The v1.04 patches for the Paradox Interactive CD version and the Gamersgate download version were unfortunately delayed but will be released later this week. We also plan to have a Combat Mission: Shock Force v1.04 Updated Demo coming out in the next few days.

Combat Mission: Shock Force Patch Download Page

http://www.battlefront.com/products/cmsf/downloads.html


--- v1.04 PATCH NOTES ---

PREVIOUS SAVE GAME COMPATIBILITY NOTE:
Save games created with earlier versions of the game are NOT compatible with v1.04. Please finish your in-progress games before applying this patch.

--v1.04 Patch Features--

* CM:SF is multi-processor/multi-core friendly. Workarounds like
"setting affinity" to single-processor are no longer needed.

* Improved frame rate, especially on large maps.

* Improved vehicle pathfinding.

* Various "stuck units" problems fixed.

* Corrected a problem with shots coming through ridgelines.

* Soldiers are much quicker to take up fighting stances and/or open
fire when reaching a movement destination.

* When ordered to stop moving, soldiers halt immediately rather than
look for best positions. This helps them avoid unnecessary casualties.

* Vehicles correctly respond to non-Movement Commands assigned to
Waypoints.

* Area fire versus buildings properly spreads fire versus all
locations on the indicated level.

* Soldiers are more likely to move through breaches blasted in
building walls rather than close by doorways.

* The TacAI is generally more likely to open fire, especially with
heavy grenade launchers. Previously the TacAI tried too hard to
conserve ammunition.

* Troops do a better job facing in the direction implied by the end
of a movement path.

* Troops cannot disembark through walls.

* "Target Light" works properly for infantry.

* Corrected a problem where a vehicle would button up due to incoming
small arms fire, but then become overly reluctant to fire its own
weapons.

* Corrected a problem where troops would not exit a vehicle because
some other troops onboard were considered blocking exits even though
they were not.

* When units are pinned (i.e. they can shoot but will not respond to
movement orders) it is shown in the suppression meter display.

* Corrected some problems where teams within a squad were not
properly coordinated for movement.

* Smoke grenades don't damage vehicles.

* Grenades are used properly (fixed a bug that made the range used
too short).

* Antitank weapons like Javelins are less likely to be used during
area fire (except versus buildings).

* Improved ground textures.

* Distant terrain looks smoother and less "blocky".

* Trenches and roads show up better at longer distances.

* Map elevations are displayed more accurately when viewed from long
distances.

* Brush terrain is drawn out to greater distance.

* Computer player won't hold armored vehicles back so far in the rear.

* Antitank specialist is more likely to be the man who picks up an
antitank weapon (say, when unloading a Javelin from a Stryker).

* Moving vehicles have reduced spotting capability.

* Blown-out building walls don't cause lots of ricochets as if the
wall was still there.

* Fixed a bug that caused problems with splitting squads multiple
times in turn-based games.

* Fixed a bug that sometimes caused a crash during game-save.

* Corrected a problem where multi-unit selecting a shaken/panicked
unit would cause the multi-unit select to be canceled.

* Stryker smoke is now the correct color (white).

* "Game Paused" message is smaller and less obtrusive.