I'm an old CC player who was tempted to re-purchase some of the games on GOG to play with an old friend.
We tried a few operations on CCV playing against each other in the same room through internet connection. We didn't have to fiddle with any ports or anything like that to get connection - was quite easy.
It was amazing to play again - unbelievable the CC series is still the best game ever made in its class!
But we suffered from the same old bugbear that we always used to back in the day - basically, somewhere around 50% of our battles would crash mid battle. I can't remember the frequency of these crashes back in the day, but we've always experienced this to a greater or lesser extent, no matter the PCs we've been using. But on GOG the crashes were just too much to continue playing any operation, as you'd have to restart around 50% of battles and replay them. We tried changing the connection options (fast v reliable) but didn't seem to make any difference.
Is this something that everyone experiences? Or is there something that can be done to ensure reliability? I would be hugely grateful if anyone was able to help out!!
Don't know if I would consider CC5 the last stable version, as it never received a fully tested patch before Atomic closed the doors. Out of the Atomic releases probably CC4 would be the latest stale release (but many preferred CC5 because CC4 had locked unit selection and small maps with poor protection by some entry VL's).
The Matrix releases are all based on the CC5 code thus the bugs in CC5 were carried forward. Many were fixed but some critical ones like crashes due to air strikes, morale break and hitting 0:00 at the end battle were not eliminated as supposedly they couldn't repeat them. After LSA Matrix switched to using their forum and servers for H2H play as Microsoft dropped direct play from Direct-X (Win10 doesn't install it but you can manually for backwards compatibility).
TLD/WAR - are the closest to CC5 but with enhancements; BG can't move without fuel, BG's can be forced to retreat, random entry VL for paratroopers, night battles, etc. with many CC5 mods converted to it (or them as the last WAR patch added TLD features making them compatible for mods with the following limitations; you can not play the same mod on TLD against someone with WAR and the commander pics in WAR are different size than TLD).
LSA - has the most features; blowing bridges, stacked BG, etc. but because of clean up to data/graphic files along with changes in some calculations old mods need data and file changes to convert them which is a lot of work.
PitF - added some features; 32-bit graphics, fog (white layer over maps), forum/lobby for H2H and mount troops or guns on vehicles but removed using units from both BG's when stacked
GtC - added some features; increased the map scale (larger graphics with more detail), increased # of units in battle to 21, rolling barrages and dug-in/camouflaged tanks and anti-tank guns but skimped on the # of maps with only 30
I have all the games but I'm not a fan of PitF and GtC because of the dependency on Matrix forum/servers. If Atomic did that with CC5 and earlier versions CC would have died when the company went out of business years ago.
Thanks for the reply - really appreciate it. Plus, played your Meuse mod several times a few years ago H2H and we both thought it was superb. Would love to play that again.
So I got TLD running on my PC last night - in order to play it H2H on Windows 8/9 I'll have to manually install direct play?
Plus, is there any way to improve the size/resolution of the screen? No matter what I did to the resolution settings last night, the CC screen stayed the same size (even when I went windowed and increased the window size, the game area stayed the same).
I'm a CC veteran - played all versions through CC1 to LSA. But I haven't played for about six years. The main reason being was that I only play H2h with a buddy, and the last few versions of the game released by Matrix were incredibly unstable in multiplayer. Because we play campaigns, the multiple CTDs were a nightmare and just ruined the whole thing.
But the time for me to return to the series is now!
So my question is, which version of CC should I get hold of for stable multiplayer campaigns? The last properly stable version in my memory was really CC5, but SURELY Matrix aren't continuing to release unstable iterations of the same game at premium prices?!
Also, the ability to use mods would be great - I don't know if this affects the Steam versions at all?
Any advice would be hugely appreciated. I'll post this on the Matrix forums also.
In August of 2004, Zappi, Homba, Bambam887, RedScorpion and MOOXE all pitched
in to create this Close Combat site. I would to thank all the people who have visited
and found this site to thier liking. I hope you had time to check out some
of the great Close Combat mods and our forums. I'd also like to thank
all the members of our volunteer staff that have helped over
the years, and all our users that contributed to this site!
Topic: 
