Messages

1

Bugs & Tech Support / Re: Bugs in 2.200

« on: September 20, 2013, 07:01:56 PM »

Greetings,

While it was already posted on page 1 I would like to also state that I am experiencing the lag and add some detail. It started with this patch and is constant. My mouse clicks are being recorded late too, for example:

 Playing Lyons vs CPU in annihilate. I am PE with CPU ally fighting expert Sovs. I have a house as forward barracks with healing and I am fighting all around it, using it to keep my troops going against the Red Tide invicibility. The invicibles are taking my barracks so I highlight a squad and click on the house, mouse clearly changes to the box icon to show I am telling squad to go into barracks to prevent loss of it,  then move mouse to front yard to highlight an AT gun I had there. The result is that the squad ran into the front yard by the AT gun and stood there while the invincibles took the barracks. The mosue click wasnt recorded when I did it, but 2-3 seconds later when my pointer was on the AT gun. This is chronic and is making the game unplayable in real time, forcing frequent pausing to make sure my directions are being properly recieved by the troops.

My system is Win 7 x64, all SP and patches applied; 4GB DRAM; SSD HDD; 1GB vid card, quad-core CPU.

Hope that helps!

Chumley

2

Strategy and Tactics / Re: AI

« on: November 15, 2012, 09:37:03 PM »

Greetings,

I play 'comp stomping' solely because I have no time to dedicate to a game against humans as I to often have to pause my game and walk away..not good in PVP. Also, I completely suck at mouse/keyboard management due to arthritis of the elbow and hand/fingers (and brain but that's a different story!). But to give you my 'street creds' I will say that I have so many hours stomping the comp in COH/EF that I could have worked a second job last year. Dunno if that's good or bad (but I WILL slay you if you tell my wife!!!)....but if I play against more than 1 comp AI opponent, one is always Expert level and the other is Hard level. As I speak I have a game of COH open on my comp against an Expert Brit and a Hard American. I am Wehr and my comp AI partner is PE. I am currently losing......but that may change! Read on!

So here are my tips on beating the AI:

1. Forward base: You will almost always lose if you cannot reinforce your units without sending them all the way back to home base. Create a forward base ASAP, even if it is just a halftrack. This is hardest on the Brits as you typically have to wait until you create a second truck. When doing this forward base, make sure you grab it with enough units to hold it as the AI will often decide your forward reinforcement point is the main threat and throw the kitchen sink at it. I call this the 'first fight' and it is imperative that you win it. Grab your spot, create the reinforcement point, and hold it! See # 2 for best placement of your reinforcement point....

2. Find the AI's 'key point': The AI will always decide that one or more points are 'key' and if it loses that point it will throw everything at it to get it back. I use this to overcome my AI partner's crappy play (esp Brit on AI...the AI completely sucks for Brits and I feel having them as a partner is especially bad..so I use them all the time as partner) by grabbing a key point, establishing a forward base near it, and hammering the opposing units as they try to retake the point. This often negates the resource bonus of hard or expert level as the AI throws units into the teeth of your defenses. I routinely inflict casualties at 4:1 or better ratio around the key point. This may cause you to not be able to advance, but it frees up your AI partner to stomp the opponents and suddenly the game is yours...

3. Stay Aggressive: Don't allow the AI to hold onto res points too long. Take them even if they aren't contiguous to your areas and you gain no resources from it. Make the AI react to YOU, don't react to it or you are toast. The AI will always send all its units to the front lines, so find their 'stream' and go around it to cut off the bulk of the resources. This also gets the AI into a 'too many units' scenario which will work well for you.

4. Stay in the Game: Never give up. Eventually, the AI will 'run out of steam' and either stop producing units at all or only produce the unit is thinks is its best unit. This can result in a ton of Hetzers...but not enough forces that can cap the ground they force you off of. Stay in the game, it is never 'unwinnable'! Remember your opponent is AI, not a human. It may well pound you into dust...it may well do something silly that lets you back in the game.

5. Watch for bad randoms: There are games where it seems the comp can't miss and you can't hit. I've seen a Marder put 6 (six!!) rounds into an M18, all hits and 3 'bounced off', 3 scored minimal damage, I lost the Marder to the M18, and the M18 drove away....I've put 3 grenades into a building with a grenadier squad in it and killed no-one, and the AI cleared 2 of my squads from buildings in 2 'atomic' grenades..sometimes the 'random number generator' is completely in your opponents favor. When this happens I find the best defense is to defend hard and update your troops to get the bonuses. It seems the only way to offset the AI's better 'random numbers'.

I hope these tips help you out. I do lose games, but that's what keeps me playing COH. If I won every game it would be boring and I would move on

S! (Salute!)

Chumley

3

Suggestions / Re: AI Bugs Discussion

« on: April 24, 2012, 10:24:11 PM »

Greetings All,

Jojorabbit: Here is the requested section from my general 'bug' thread posting:


A. Since I play mostly against expert level in annihilation mode (often w no pop-cap) the games can go a bit long...hey there's lots to kill!....and the AI just 'runs out of steam'. It stops producing almost anything but the 'latest greatest' for the Command Tree it has chosen, and so becomes one-dimensional. So for example, the Sovs stop producing Strelky and other infantry and just make SU-152s...which are meat because they are unsupported etc. Also, when the game is reloaded and watched I see the AI having TONS of MP to make inf etc but it doesn't use it because it is waiting for the SU-152 (for example) timer to reset so it can make another one. It needs to keep some balance so it can be more effective nearing the end game. The effect is that the game is a good hard game up until the AI collapses into this silly 'make one thing only' mode.

I would add that when the above occurs, the comp doesn't have the units to cap areas and ends up (if pop-cap is in play) way heavy in pop with units it cant support and that can't cap areas so they can get more pop to use....the AI literally enters a 'catch22' it cannot survive. I have had games where I am hard pressed but if I can just last long enough......I win! Woot

You asked if this happens in other modes besides expert and all can say is that it def does in Hard also. I haven't played against a Normal or lower AI setting in years so I don't know but I suspect it would occur at any level should the game go long enough. It does happen for all factions...US will produce only the Calliope Sherman when using Armor Tree...Brits only Crocs.....whatever is the Big Daddy of the Command Tree it has chosen.

One more item: The Sovs always seem to produce a TON of Inf at the expense of armor. I can almost always just ignore AT until later than I would against any other faction due to this. When I play PE vs Sov AI, I can often go...forward re-enforcement point....STG44....squad size increase...healing....and then get a Marder. This is because the Sovs always go with an Inf strong early game....way after they have built the Tank Hall comes the first actual armor....sure they needs tons of fuel to get armor but I dunno...seems the same pattern no matter what Tree they choose. This makes the PE very (silly?) strong against the Sovs when comp stomping.

Thanks again for this GREAT mod. Your teams have done AWESOME work on this and I cannot thank you enough!!

Regards,

Chumley

4

Bugs & Tech Support / Re: [1.610] List of known issues

« on: April 24, 2012, 07:45:50 PM »

Greetings All,

I am a comp stomper due to time constraints. I very rarely have even 20 minutes to dedicate to a game so I walk away...come back in 45 minutes etc....walk away again....in my defense I largely play against expert level AI...which is just 80-100% more MP of course

1. A 'bug' I have seen both when I am playing as PE and against PE:

When the Marder III is locked down and assigned a target, if the target moves the Marder may (not always) 'slide' towards the target. When this happened to me I was playing a different map (Bedum) than when I saw it occur to the AI (can't remember...sorry). When it happened to me the Marder 'slid' halfway across the map to it's doom and nothing I did would release it from its death slide. It stays 'locked down', no motion animation occurs...it just 'slides' along.

2. Kursk Map:

I cannot play on Kursk since the 1.61 patch. The game has crashed every time. I do not know where any logs might be.

3. Buildings:

If a building takes 'X' damage, esp (specifically? I cannot say) if the damage was from fire, it cannot be re-entered. This occurs on all maps.

4. No-Reinforcements:

It seems that many times, but not always, crews for captured equipment cannot be re-enforced. Sometimes this bug will 'heal' itself if I leave the weapon next to the re-enforcement point long enough. Many times though, I just have to live with it. Strangely, if I get that crew wiped out, the new crew might be re-enforceable. I wonder if they feel doomed when I send them to die......nah

5. Icon Issues:

 Just recently I have experienced large blocky multi-colored icons over AI controlled troops. This may be my vid card BUT I have no issues with other games (I play a lot of Day of Defeat, Total War (all versions), and IL2-1946 for example). This blocky icon is just 2 colors typically, they being pink and blue in a rectangle laid lengthwise mostly, and if I scroll away and come back they often correct themselves. So for example on pioneers with the flamethrower, the little flamey icon that shows they are upgraded becomes the 2 color blocky thing instead. This seems to occur ONLY on AI controlled troops, not my troops. My troops are perfect

6. General AI issue I will also put in that thread:

A. Since I play mostly against expert level in annihilation mode (often w no pop-cap) the games can go a bit long...hey there's lots to kill!....and the AI just 'runs out of steam'. It stops producing almost anything but the 'latest greatest' for the Command Tree it has chosen, and so becomes one-dimensional. So for example, the Sovs stop producing Strelky and other infantry and just make SU-152s...which are meat because they are unsupported etc. Also, when the game is reloaded and watched I see the AI having TONS of MP to make inf etc but it doesn't use it because it is waiting for the SU-152 (for example) timer to reset so it can make another one. It needs to keep some balance so it can be more effective nearing the end game. The effect is that the game is a good hard game up until the AI collapses into this silly 'make one thing only' mode.


Regards,

Chumley