8.0 quirks

[Igor]

Since the tech support forum suggested questions be posted here...

I've got 8.01 running, and I've noticed a few oddities. The opening credits won't run; and when I leave the deployment menu during campaign play it goes to the bombardment phase whether I click on the end deploy button or the exit game button. Since I generally play with fast artillery off, this can get time consuming. Any suggestions on how I might fix these?

[Voriax]

Igor, the regular tricks [;)]

Start the game from 'mech.exe'
Delete the 'steel.prf' file
Did you do a 'fresh' install of 8.01? If you installed it over your old 7.1 then you might want to delete it and install it again.

Hope these help

Voriax

[Igor]

Yup; it was a nice, fresh install. I'll give it a try, thanks.

Btw; one of the Norwegian campaign battles takes place in December, 1949. Boy was it tempting to upgrade one or two units to more advanced gear...

[Igor]

Here's another quirk; make of it what you will...

Fast artillery is less lethal than slow. I finally broke down and tested this; 1,200 Soviet conscripts were put in a 10 by 10 hex grid of mixed terrain, assorted German weapons (75mm howitzer, 81mm mortar, 105mm howitzer, 120mm mortar, 122mm captured howitzer, 150mm howitzer, and 150mm rocket onboard; and 75mm battery, 105mm battery, 150mm battery, 150mm rocket battery, and 210mm rocket battery offboard) were set up for a pre-game bombardment. All the preference settings were at 100%. Each one was fired, alone, ten times each with fast artillery both on and off. I then surrendered, and noted how many Soviet casualties had been sustained. The highest and lowest score out of ten was then tossed, and the rest averaged.

The result was interesting; the off board batteries all did somewhat better (10%-20%) when fired on slow. The onboard guns ranged from 25% better to infinitely better (the 75mm howitzer just isn't that lethal; it only scored one kill out of ten barrages on fast). Though I did not count these; I also noted that the wider distribution of slow artillery caused more of the infantry stands to run at the end of the barrages than was the case on fast.

If someone cares to try this in less gunner friendly circumstances (better cover, better trained troops, wider dispersion); be my guest. For my purposes, this is enough to leave fast artillery off (unless I want an advantage, and am defending).

[chief]

Igor, Thanks for confirming something I've always suspected.