Red Orchestra: So intense it hurts

[JeffL]

After playing every BF version, being addicted to BF1942 plus mods and only a bit less so BF2 (the futuristic stuff is of no interest to me,) and wanting to go back to WWII, I finally installed Steam and DLed Red Orchestra.

Holy Crap.

First, the really good: So far, not a bunny hopper in sight, no obvious immature children calling names back and forth, etc. Everyone has been cooperative to the newb, lots of good teamwork, etc.

Second, the difficulty: No crosshairs. You have the iron sights that you'd have on the weapon. A scope for the sniper, but only typically one or two snipers allowed per side. No magic red names above the enemy - one of the hardest things to get used to. How do I know if that's a good guy or bad guy? Well, like in real life, you get a feel for where each side is, where the action is, observe who's shooting who, get used to the differences in the uniforms. I though this part would be unmanageable, but once you get used to it, there are surprisingly few friendly kills. What it will do is make you decide how sure you need to be before shooting, which can result in getting killed or risking a friendly kill. But the realism is actually a nice touch.

No flags: you capture areas, which sounds the same but isn't. ;)

In addition, most hits from the bolt action rifle are kills. No having to shoot someone 4 times to get their hit-counter down. A shot in the head is always a kill. You can get wounded, and see where you've been hit and the effect (for example, a shot to the leg will make you limp) but quite often you will be hit once and die. Armor has various strong and weak zones, penetration is calculated, etc. Using a Russian anti-tank weapon requires a very different approach than using a Panzerfaust.

Overall: incredible intense experience. The maps are often gloomy, the battlefields look bleak and war torn, no cartoon maps here. Gun fire sounds, screams, shouts for help and reinforcement, brutal battles, running desparately for cover and then hitting the ground and looking around to assess who's where, often trying to figure out if the shots you hear hitting around you are aimed at you or not, taking a deep breath and peeking for the enemy, then rushing to your next area of cover or assault.

Did I say it was intense? I went back and tried a couple of BF2 battles afterwards, and BF2 felt a bit cartoonish. Fun, but more "gamey."

Bottom line: if you want a game that does the Eastern Front as much justice as a game can, and want a brutal and intense experience, if the Forgotten Hope mod for BF 1942 was something you enjoyed, the $19 for Red Orchestra will be money well spent.

[sventest]

I've been enjoying RO for like a year (though I haven't played in a couple months).

One thing that did throw me a little were some of the vehicle controls.

Other than that, yeah great game.

[Lakedaimon]

it really is a cool FPS if you like your games with a lot of grit. The learning curve can be near vertical but I think its worth it. The first time you manage to rush inside a hail of grenades and cut the three attackers in half with your Sturmgewehr you will feel like an Infantry Ace. Or stalling an enemy advance with two well aimed and surprisingly satisfied shots from your bolt action.

I just like that you have to manually click fire again to cycle the bolt between shots.

The tank combat is also really good, but I wish they had finished the armor penetration physics how they intended. Unless a shot "explodes" the tank you cant for example hit the turret and kill the gunner with a penetrating shot or take out the driver - unless he is sticking his head out of a hatch. The tanks still have a sort of hit point system its just usually a tank suffers a fatal hit to the ammo or fuel before they have a chance to lose all their hp.

[KristianV]

I really like Red Orchestra, and as a rule I don't really care about the level of realism in my shooters at all. Overall, I thought they managed to abstract their ambitions of a realistic shooter into gameplay really, really well.

I don't really like the "pure" tank maps, though.

[ElGuapo]

Can you play with/against bots? If so, do they do a good job?

[Harkonis]

I'm up for some attempts at this again when I have time. Harkonis on Steam Community if you want to play.

[Lakedaimon]

the bots arent all that spectacular. on low difficulty they are just walking around waiting to get killed and at higher difficulty they get that magic sixth sense where they always know where you are even if you are well concealed or off to one side etc.

but if you are just trying to get a feel for how the weapons work and the iron sights and all that they do a serviceable enough job of that.


and yeah tank only maps are kinda terrible. but at the same time I think some of the infantry only ones are bad too (dont like Basovka or Lyeskrovy or really Danzig all that much). I think most of the combined arms ones are good, and although flawed I think the epic Berezina map (where one round can last an hour and often does!) can be really awesome if you have enough people.

[krokodile]

I just System Requirements labbed this, and it says my Vertex shader isn't good enough, and lighting and shading version isn't right.

Would I still be okay to play this? I don't want to go and install steam if It isn't going to work.

Note: Everything else was above and beyond the recommended, and I play R:TW which had the same problems.

[Lakedaimon]

I dont know if they still have the guest program but they used to give people who owned the full game a pair of one week passes they could send out. You just access it in the steam window before you fire up the game. I burned up mine back when they released the 64 player patch but its possible someone here might have one left - if it still works that is.

[Enidigm]

The bots are bots, they do an acceptable job - the only problem is that they fire wildly and unrealistically (ppsh infantry firing a constant stream of bullets), but their hit chance seems related to level, so unlike playing humans a bot can randomly snipe you from 200m away as it runs around shooting from the hip. Set yourself up in a good killing spot and of course you will massacre the bots, although they will grenade you if you fail to move occasionally.

The real key to Red Orchestra is the smoothness of the underlying gameplay. Movement, aiming, crouching, ect, is all very precise. Rifles do show through walls if pressed up against it, so there is that.

RO is a very map-flow dominated game, however, and knowing where to go and what to do there is half the battle, and in that respect it's more like Counterstrike than something of a larger scale like OF. Certain maps like Danzig lend themselves to this - that Russian Machine shop map is especially bad about that, a good German team can win in 3 minutes if they know what they're doing.

[Enidigm]

Also, btw, i just don't like tank maps at all. The only map that captures the right balance between infantry and armor is Koenigsplatz and that's a rather dull map overall.

Battlefield 2 has a much better combined arms feeling than RO, but then again it was designed that way from the start, with AAA emplacements ect all over.

[Ryan Markel]

I love this game, but it has a learning cliff.

One of my favorite things for new people to run into is the need to reload your weapon on purpose. It captures the atmosphere very well, and includes part of the war that's not touched on very often in other WW2 shooters.

[Enidigm]

Probably the most intense RO experience is manning the front line infantry trenches as a Russian in Basovka (i think that's what it's called). Grenades, smoke, infantry pouring over the hills coming at you in endless waves, artillery shaking the ground - so many explosions that you're basically fighting through shaking vision a majority of the time. Good times.

Also btw the Stg 44 has two fire settings, hit X to change them. Fortunately the average German is no better than the average Russian team, but you do see occasional German teams dominating over and above a normal win; in the right hands the Stg 44 is by far the best weapon in the game overall, and German grenades are better tactically than the Allied style because you can time it's explosion.

[Igor Muravyev]

Did they ever fix this so the FOV gets bigger for wider resolutions? I'm never playing this on a puny 4:3 again.

[unbongwah]

Did they ever fix this so the FOV gets bigger for wider resolutions? I'm never playing this on a puny 4:3 again.
Well, according to WSGF (http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/screenshots/redorch.php), RO uses a Vert- widescreen display and the max resolution is 1920x1200. So no TripleHead for you.

[Igor Muravyev]

Oh, I can get it to work in 3840x1280 by editing my config, or any resolution for that matter, it just zooms in and crops the top/bottom sides. I mean, I understand not being able to change FOV on the fly (then people would just write a zoom script that toggles FOV and always snipe across the map), but it's pretty easy to calculate it from the resolution even if you don't want to allow custom FOVs.

[Naeblis]

Welcome to the world of realistic shooters! :)

Red Orchestra is a nice game but it could be much better. I particularly dislike the game mode, i would prefer something else with less re-spawns and dynamic objetives, instead of capturing the same zone walking the same paths in every map.

[SlyFrog]

Controls feel very muddy. No, I'm not just talking about the "realism" (though I've never been clear how having to click a mouse again to reload is "realism").

I had a hard time getting into it, and eventually figured that it was simply not worth it. Also, the number of populated servers very quickly fell to damn near zero, though when I checked back in a few weeks ago, they seem to be doing a little better.

[TheRock]

I've played RO for a long time. The servers are usually always fairly populated, even during a weekday. The game has some issues but it is a very good war simulation. I can't stand the tank maps, only play infantry maps.

[Volksy]

I've been playing RO since Ostfront came out pretty religiously. Prior to that I was a BF2 addict, but when that died off somewhat at Tactical Gamer I was looking for something else, plus I'm also a WW2 history buff.

Oddly enough this game didn't take off at TG at all, but I've found that the random pub servers for RO have been mostly mature and smacktard free over the year and half it's been out. The exception is some of those Steam free weekends and when the guest passes first came out.

I agree about it having some issues, and being very map-driven. You really have to know the map, and how it's played, to know what to do at a particular time. It's a bit off-putting if you're used to the BF2 model and fixed squads - when you spawn, you need to have a feel for where you go based on the role you have and the situation at hand.

My only real issue isn't really the game's fault, but some of the fans are quite annoying. There always seems to be at least one guy in game - who sounds like a 12-year-old - who is either bitching about something not being accurate, or worse, writing off every legitimate problem people have with the game as being because of "TEH REALISM!!!! " Uh, Mr. Junior High geek, you weren't at Stalingrad, and you know most of what you do know about it from "Enemy at the Gates" and Wikipedia. STFU and get in the capzone.

Sure, it's more realistic than most shooters in most respects, but there are obvious things that were done for gameplay balance or whatever reason that just ain't realistic. Hell, the game mode itself is somewhat unrealistic on most maps - did the Germans get to declare victory because they held an area for 15 minutes? Uh, no. Neither did they mass suicide rush a building because it was the cap zone, and the timer was running out.

That said, it's been my favorite online shooter since it came out, and ranks up there with BF2, Quake 2 and Tribes as an all-time fave in that area.

[JMR]

For 20 bucks it's worth it, warts and all. RO is one of those games that strives for a semblance of realism and succeeds in some areas but falls short in others.

I like the iron sights, the no bunny hopping, the limited stamina for running, and the one-shot-one-kill system for lethal organ splattering shots. The addition of smoke grenades are a huge plus for the attacking team. Having the ability to rest your weapon against a window sill, table, or other surface for added aiming stability is a very cool feature.

I strongly dislike how long it takes to raise my weapon from resting state to iron sight in the heat of combat. That along with bayoneting feels like you're in control of an encumbered 80 year old avatar on ice skates. The modeling feels too rigid and unnatural for my tastes. I think Armed Assault does a much better job of simulating a sprinting, dodging, crawling, weapon aiming, encumbered grunt.

Reality breakers for me:
*Tanks being stopped dead in their tracks by picket fences and tree stumps.
*Tank crewman instantaneously bailing from their tanks as they realize they're about to take a panzerfaust up the ass.
* Rock solid iron sights while crawling in the prone position
* Clipping of feet through wall when prone
* Musical doors - prevent an enemy from entering a room by repeatedly pressing the "use" key every time he opens the door. It can be quite amusing, really.
* Suicide sappers
* Fall damage

[caesarbear]

RO should have won Game of the Year. It's the best pick up multiplayer FPS, hands down. It's what BF dreams it could have been.

Arguments about realism seem to miss the mark for me. While this is a game not a military simulator, the adherence to the "realistic" WW2 pace and non-hand-holding interface create a spectacular game in my mind. In other online shooters, I don't plant my head down in the mud waiting for a brief instant of opportunity, panicky and desperate that my aim is true. I love the Rainbow Six games, but I generally feel like a ninja with guns in those. Having actually used WW2 firearms before, and struggling with them, RO is the closest I've imagined in terms of the difficulty and effort required of such a firefight.

[docvego]

*bump*

Just saw on Bluesnews that the summer update for RO is out and they're doing another FREE trial period for the game. It runs from today (Wed) until Monday. Having not played this since it was just a mod for UT2004, I'm curious to see where they've taken the game.

[Alan Au]

I never did get the hang of the Russian AT weapon, but AT and artillery were perhaps the only thing that made tanks map tolerable for me. Of course, the infantry-only maps have the advantage that you don't have to worry about scout-car blitzes either.

- Alan

[Lurb]

The Red AT weapon is in fact a great unscoped sniper rifle... turns people into red mist when you manage to whack them.
I love dropping satchels on tanks, hard to pull off and survive, but extremely satisfying.
Playing on the red side in some big russian server is a nice experience too, many of them use the ingame voice comms and it adds a lot to the immersion. Sometimes they even play Red Army Choir stuff trough it, which combiend with a big arty drop can be awesome. Vstavai, strana ogromnaia, vstavai na smertnyi boi!

[Lakedaimon]

new large scale 1943 tank map that will apparently emphasize the long range optics and muzzle velocity of the german tanks against the speed and agility of the Russian ones.

new Panzer G variant, probably not much to get excited about here

machine gunners get binoculars now (cool)

the german halftrack MG gunner can now peek over his shield

little things like headshotting a guy will make almost no "death noise" but a shot to the abdomen will produce some agonizing screaming. new explosion for tanks when their ammo gets hit. AT rifle now works more like a bolt action (you click fire again rather than have to hit reload)

[Enidigm]

You can't really kill tanks with the Russian AT gun, which is basically just a large caliber rifle. What you can do is peck it until it moves away - and you can do this from a VERY long distance away from the front. It also weakens German tanks so that they're easier to kill for your tanks.

[Lakedaimon]

if the map has a lot of cover (especially cornfields you can crawl through) the PTRD rifle can be pretty effective. I forget which map it is with only two objectives (farm and village - Bondarevo?) but ive had rounds where ive bagged 3 or 4 aggressive Panzers that advanced past their infantry support. I dont think ive ever knocked out a Tiger with one, but I have destroyed Panthers before.

You just have to get within about grenade range and hit the side and rear armor of the tank, especially if you can hit the armor at a 90 degree angle. Sure the fausts are superior but then again I like the DP-28 better than the 34 and 42.

[ProStyle]

Intense is the right word.

I stopped playing right after they added the half tracks/tanks, so I never did see the official retail version.

Did they fix that weird "tracer" type "lazer" effect on the MG? Oddly enough that was a big annoyance for me, they go to these extremes with the art direction and play mechanics yet every third round off MG emplacements looked like something out of Star Wars streaking off the mountainside.

[Lakedaimon]

the tracers are still there. its difficult to imagine but apparently thats how the things actually looked in combat. I think ive seen some Vietnam era color footage of the NVA firing green tracers at aircraft/choppers.

[unbongwah]

But don't they know tracers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_ammunition) point both ways?

[caesarbear]

[youtube]MINI GUN 7.62mm TRACER FIRE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RReAI3M1_K0)

[Volksy]

Just a heads up - they've released the "Summer update" for RO on Steam today, with a new map, addition of the Panzer IV G, and several fixes / enhancements. It has quite a long list, check the Steam update log. The new map is a long-range tank map, and they mention a change to the bloom / HDR that eliminates the blurriness even at low resolutions - it was pretty nasty before so that's welcome.

Also for those wanting to check out what the fuss is about, they're also having a free trial from now til Sunday - which of course requires Steam. I sorta wish they'd do the free weekends a week or two after the updates instead of at the same time, as you get new maps AND a ton of noobs at once, not always a good combination.

[Lurb]

they mention a change to the bloom / HDR that eliminates the blurriness even at low resolutions - it was pretty nasty before so that's welcome.


I noticed it without having read about it before, a good sign. The first thought after firing the new version was "uhm, this somehow looks a lot better". Previously firing at a far guy meant pointing at a clump of washed out pixels behind the muzzle flash, now there's a tiny but well defined little soldier there.

[MythicalMino]

I am downloading the free trial via steam now (why did I refuse steam so much before?).

heh...between this, Painkiller, and whatever else I talk myself into...my gaming time is going to be a busy 6 weeks or so until Team Fortress 2 comes out.

Chris

[Shadari]

How many CDs does the CD version of this game span?

[Shadari]

How many CDs does the CD version of this game span?
Boo hoo! No one knows the answer to this?

[Alan Au]

I didn't even know there was a CD version!

- Alan

[JMR]

I saw the box at Fry's awhile ago but that's it. Haven't seen it since at other stores like Best Buy and Circuit City.

I'm guessing it's just one CD in the package. My RO Steam folder is about 2.52 gigs it that helps any.

[Shadari]

Can someone forward my question to GAF so I can get an expedient answer please? ;)

[Enidigm]

The key to mushiness in the controls is whether you're running or walking, and it's why new players die like flies as they run up to an area or turn corners. It takes you a half a second to pull the gun up and shoot when you're running, while walking has the weapon drawn and ready to fire. It's also why a MGer can kill three guys in a melee with his pistol. You have to be thinking pretty deliberately as you move from cover to cover.

My reflexes suck though, so i'm pretty useless in close range battles. I've always had a hard time hitting things close to me because of the inverse relationship with mouse travel / target distance.

Can i say that the PPsh also sucks? Bleh i play Russian 90% of the time, but damn if i don't i hate their automatics.

[Alan Au]

Oh? I thought the whole point of the PPSh was to throw large amounts of lead on the move without bothering with the sights. Aiming is for the people with rifles.

- Alan

[Kalle]

Can someone forward my question to GAF so I can get an expedient answer please? ;)

I just bought the cd version today (at half the price it cost on Steam) so I can answer this.

2

However, even after installing from the discs Steam wanted to download the entire game again.

[Kalle]

I'm wondering if anyone has some advice on aiming with the iron sights. I've caught myself too many times now firing the first and sometimes even the second shot at an enemy only to miss and have them kill me in return. The only kills I've managed to get so far is center of mass hits at close range. Anything at 30+ meters I can't seem to hit at all.

This goes for both the german and russian rifles.

[Sneaky]

Try to duck or prone, try to support the rifle at a wall/window/whateverthereisnearby to stabilize it.

Keep trying (:

RO is realy hard for people that just started to play.

[Kalle]

Oh, I am ducking and proning. That's actually when I'm most frustrated. I can deal with missing a moving enemy when I'm walking down a street, but if I'm prone and have spotted an immobile enemy I line up what I think is a great shot only to miss...bolt action...miss again....dead.

What I'd need is a damn firing range.

[Enidigm]

I'm wondering if anyone has some advice on aiming with the iron sights. I've caught myself too many times now firing the first and sometimes even the second shot at an enemy only to miss and have them kill me in return. The only kills I've managed to get so far is center of mass hits at close range. Anything at 30+ meters I can't seem to hit at all.

This goes for both the german and russian rifles.

Remember there is a delay between firing and the bullet impact. You have to lead a target when it's moving; i've had lots of practice on Danzig looking over the Langerplatz square out of the apartments and picking off running germans as they pop out from behind their spawn building.

Bolt action rifles are easier to handle than the semi-automatics for some reason, and i've never been as accurate at range with those as with a good old bolt rifle.

A good rifle to practice with offline or online is the Stg44, in single shot mode (hit "X"). You can plink away at moving targets all day long without having to reload. The Stg44 is powerful enough to kill from one solid chest hit.

Don't try to learn with those crazy Russian Ppsh things. You can do some amazing things with them, but they're extremely hard to handle.

[caesarbear]

What I'd need is a damn firing range. (http://www.redorchestragame.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11624)

[Kalle]

What I'd need is a damn firing range. (http://www.redorchestragame.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11624)

Wonderful. Thanks!

[Shadari]

I already posted about this fine game in The Bargain Thread (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=32213), but holy shit, this game needs some serious attention. For this weekend only, it's 5 bucks on Steam, and folks, the game fucking ROCKS! It's worth 50 bucks in my opinion. It's hard and can be a bit frustrating sometimes but man can it be a blast. I totally suck at it, but am loving it nonetheless. The look and the gameplay reminds me a bit of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., except that it's WW2.

It's 5 fucking bucks. If you're a PC gamer and you like shooters, you're a fool to not get this!

[Marcus]

Yeah its easily worth 5 bucks.

[magnet]

Could anyone give me a rundown of how Ostfront improves on the original UT mod (Combined Arms), besides not needing UT to play? Google is letting me down.

[schurem]

wtfcheap on steam, i just bought it for a whopping 3 Euro's :D

[GyRo567]

The controls were all made just a little bit more convenient from the mod version to the retail version. You're not stuck without your bayonet for a second or two just because you shot your rifle. (Hence the double clicking on bolt actions - it was a feature we wanted, not a nuisance) The crouching and prone positions are now both fully animated and toggle instead of requiring you to hold the key. They eventually switched dropped ammunition to satchels instead of individual clips.

My favorite change involves the new crouching system and the level design for it. When you're moving in a crouched position or holding your rifle at your shoulder, you sit up several inches higher. When you stop moving & put down the sights, you drop down just a little bit lower. All of the sandbags and windowsills have been designed around this. You can now drop down and pop up just like you would want to, but it doesn't require wasting time going prone.

There were quite a few other minor changes, but I've forgotten a lot of them. There have been almost as many small changes within the retail version itself since the launch.

[Soldats]

So if some of us got this, do we want to try and setup a game tonight? Or find a common server to join and shoot each other on?

[shang]

I was just about to post about the Steam discount too. Just bought it a few hours ago and was playing with a couple of friends using Teamspeak. Easily worth the $4.99!

[Marcin]

So if some of us got this, do we want to try and setup a game tonight? Or find a common server to join and shoot each other on?

I haven't played it in ages, but wouldn't mind joining a qt3 game for a couple of hours. I do recall it being good times while it lasted. Wonder how many people still play it ...

I do recall that coming from BF2, there were some serious usability issues in making teamplay work. No squads, for one thing, and I'm not even sure if there was an in-vehicle voice group, which made any sort of tank work rather difficult.

[JMR]

The maps are rather large and don't suit themselves well to just a handful of players looking for some quick fragging. The Wild Bunch (TWB) has some 50 player servers up and at least one of them is always packed to the gills so that's a good place to start. I play as Haugh_Karl if you're looking for someone to dig latrines with.

Also, there's a new (beta) mod released just a couple of days ago called the Darkest Hour (http://www.darkesthourgame.com/) which focuses on D-Day western front stuff. As usual it's new and buggy and in need of some spit shine but overall it looks pretty cool.

I do recall that coming from BF2, there were some serious usability issues in making teamplay work. No squads, for one thing, and I'm not even sure if there was an in-vehicle voice group, which made any sort of tank work rather difficult.

Yeah it's pretty much non existent compared to BF2. Sometimes you'll get a good squad leader who will try to direct things but there's no fancy command map where you can issue specific orders for squads or individuals. It's pretty much all based on player familiarity of the maps on how to play them depending on which role and side you take.

[Shadari]

I have 2 guest passes for anyone that's interested. I go by the same name on Steam as I do here on Qt3, so gimme a yell.

[id4698]

I see Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 on Steam. Is that the main game or an expansion?

[Shadari]

That's the main game.

[Igor Muravyev]

I've been playing this since the UT2004 mod, and I have a copy of Red Orchestra ever since it came out, but damn, when will the developers realize that everyone is buying widescreen monitors now and not make it Vert-?

[Shadari]

I've been playing this since the UT2004 mod, and I have a copy of Red Orchestra ever since it came out, but damn, when will the developers realize that everyone is buying widescreen monitors now and not make it Vert-?
Seems like I read on the official forums that you can modify the .ini file to support widescreen resolutions.

EDIT: here's (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=690529) something on the Steam forums that might resolve your issue.

[GyRo567]

I do recall that coming from BF2, there were some serious usability issues in making teamplay work. No squads, for one thing, and I'm not even sure if there was an in-vehicle voice group, which made any sort of tank work rather difficult.

I know in text chat there are All, Team, and Vehicle options. With voice chat, I think all three still exist. (I know All and Team can both be toggled) You have to hit the Home/End keys or something to switch between the channels, and then you use the voice key as usual.

There are no squads though. The Squad Leader class can bring in artillery, but that's pretty hit or miss (sorry, no pun intended) whenever there's an influx of new players, which happened this weekend.

I should probably play the game again to make sure the things I'm telling you are still true... These facts are six months old or more.

[Preachy Preach]

Man, this is rather fun. The feeling of slowly grinding down the enemy in a street fight before charging across the open square to take out that pesky MG nest, that's rather enjoyable...

Now, does anyone know how you can disable the bloody Windows key?

[Shadari]

Now, does anyone know how you can disable the bloody Windows key?
There's a registry setting to do that. I forget what it is offhand, but you should be able to Google it.

[Jon Rowe]

I think I need to get back into playing this game, I have been on an extended break.

[Kryten]

I took advantage of the super special pricing and gave this a go last night - really really enjoyable, playing with a 70ms ping on an Aussie server wasn't bad at all (despite the horrid accents in the voice comms).

It might have just been me, but I didn't find the learning curve too bad at all (maybe this is server settings? For reference, I was playing on the Gamespace AU server) - although it's hard work getting kills with the rifles on the bigger maps, in the urban maps (played quite a bit of Ro-Danzig) I was able to hold my own and when we got to RO-Ogledow, man the tank combat really shone through - very intense stuff.

I notice that the Darkest Hour mod is out (albeit with a few bugs), anyone given it a go? I wasn't really keen on interrupting what game time I did have last night to download the mod.

There's a major map repository worth noting down - http://www.red.orchestra.pl/plug.php?e=maps

[Funkula]

I bought it, and I've only played a bit but it hasn't really grabbed me yet. I've been trying to get used to the rifles before I try the tanks, and maybe that's the problem. Is the vehicle combat the high point? My experience was largely sitting around on D and never seeing anyone, or going O and getting popped either by tanks I couldn't hurt or outmaneuver or riflemen that I never even saw. I'd see tracers coming from a darkish patch in the distance and die.

[Shadari]

Guys, some of the maps are infantry-only. Those are the ones that I've been playing most and I haven't had much trouble with either not seeing action or getting killed before I had a chance to do anything.

And yeah, the learning curve isn't bad at all. I'd say the game is actually less complex than, say, Battlefield 2/2142. The difference, however, is that the game is quite a bit more intense.

[Alan Au]

I bought it, and I've only played a bit but it hasn't really grabbed me yet. I've been trying to get used to the rifles before I try the tanks, and maybe that's the problem. Is the vehicle combat the high point? My experience was largely sitting around on D and never seeing anyone, or going O and getting popped either by tanks I couldn't hurt or outmaneuver or riflemen that I never even saw. I'd see tracers coming from a darkish patch in the distance and die.I haven't played in a long time, but I remember the trick was to advance until contact, hope you didn't get immediately killed, find cover, and engage from there. Occasionally there were tense moments where you and your opponent would spot each other simultaneously, and then it was all about who could get off a good shot first. Usually it meant kneeling and bringing up sights, and making that first shot count. Of course, this was hopeless against practiced players who could take center mass shots on the fly.

I didn't like the vehicles, but I think that's due to a combination of factors. For one thing, they require a lot of practice to operate effectively. For another thing, they require a fair amount of teamwork.

- Alan

[Anti-Bunny]

So, this is 66% off (which makes it $5) on steam now. Downloading currently, and I see there's a new official mod for it, and even a few servers still running with people on it.

edit: oh here's the new changes, I guess.
# More than 20 new infantry weapons, such as the ever-distinctive Garand, M1 Carbine, .30-cal, Bren, FG42, Thomson and the Enfield rifles
# American Bazooka, British PIAT and German Panzerschreck to go tank-hunting with
# New infantry features, including Airborne drops onto the battlefield, bullet suppression and supersonic cracks, plus a new radioman class for calling in artillery strikes
# Over a dozen new crewable vehicles including the King Tiger and JagdPanther for the Germans, countered with multiple types of Sherman in 75mm, 76mm and 17-pounder versions, plus the Cromwell, M10 Wolverine and Achilles
# 11 new maps, including:

* Juno Beach — Canadians storming the beaches in classic D-Day action
* Carentan — the US 101st Airborne assaults the town shortly after D-Day
* Brecourt — 101st Airborne attempt to put a key German artillery battery out of commission behind the beaches
* Ginkel Heath — British paras drop into a hotly-contested LZ at the start of Operation Market-Garden
* Wacht-am-Rhein — sweeping tank combat during the Battle of the Bulge, including the fearsome King Tiger
* Stoumont — American infantry and armor try and hold back the SS PanzerGrenadiers in the streets of the Ardennes town

http://cdn.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/1280/0000008958.1024x768.jpg?t=1244579231
Tanks!

[Eduardo X]

How did you manage to post exactly 1 year after the last post? I'm impressed.

When I got this game last year, I didn't end up playing much because I felt like it hadn't aged well. In truth, I probably didn't give it enough time.

[caesarbear]

It's starting to show its age, but in terms of realistic online shooters, it's still unsurpassed. Nothing gets my heart pumping as much as Red Orchestra.

[Janster]

I got their killing floor too, but it was not as fun as I hoped :(

I do hope tho that they have assembled enough money to buy a new graphics engine, its sorely needed, in which they could make another red orchestra i hope.

[Lakedaimon]

I thought the rumor was they were making a new Red Orchestra type game

[Linoleum]

Red Orchestra: Guerrilla, smash nazis with dual wielded hammer and sickle!

....what?

[Shadari]

I thought the rumor was they were making a new Red Orchestra type game
They are (http://kotaku.com/5240146/red-orchestra-2-lets-you-play-as-the-nazis).

[Jafisob]

So, this is 66% off (which makes it $5) on steam now. Downloading currently, and I see there's a new official mod for it, and even a few servers still running with people on it.

edit: oh here's the new changes, I guess.


Tanks!

5 bucks? Sold!

Now all tripwire has to do is integrate Killing Floor with RO so we can kill zombie Nazis. Wait a sec, has that been done already?

[JMR]

I do hope tho that they have assembled enough money to buy a new graphics engine, its sorely needed, in which they could make another red orchestra i hope.

A few years back they won that big mod contest held by Epic whereby they got some cash and a free license for the Unreal Engine 3 (or whatever it is) to work with.

[Naeblis]

There were already some scans of Red Orchestra 2, with UE3.0. It wasn't half bad, graphically i didn't like what i saw, but it had some cool ideas like cover system in true first person.

[Janster]

A few years back they won that big mod contest held by Epic whereby they got some cash and a free license for the Unreal Engine 3 (or whatever it is) to work with.

Yeah, I know, it was really cool, but that engine is now beginning to date badly, a good example is killing floor.

Question is if they can afford a new engine.

[Naeblis]

Yeah, I know, it was really cool, but that engine is now beginning to date badly, a good example is killing floor.

Question is if they can afford a new engine.

The engine that they won was UE3.0. They don't have to "afford" it, they have it as it was part of the prize.

The engine it is beginning date badly, as in Killing Flor, is UE2.0 (ok ok 2.5), the engine used in Red Orchestra, not in Red Orchestra 2.

[Therlun]

It's starting to show its age, but in terms of realistic online shooters, it's still unsurpassed. Nothing gets my heart pumping as much as Red Orchestra.

Insurgency for Half Life 2 is pretty hardcore in this regard too.