To all those that notice a speed improvement with CV

[Little Powell]

The water improvements were actually a global change that was included in the 1.5 patch. You can see the improvements by viewing the Rappahannock River at the north of the Chancellorsville area maps, as well as the Rappahannock that runs through Fredericksburg on the Salem Church map.

As far as the streams on the maps, it is not practical for framerate purposes and other reasons to fill them with water, so we went with the dark murky texture that the streams would have had.

[voltigeur]

Yes I have definitely noticed better frame rates, not to mention the textures, and particularly the ground textures, look so much nicer in the new release, great work guys. I for one would pay for a graphics upgrade pack for Gettysburg.

Cheers Chris

[Mazikainen]

Chops: Only the rivers are upgraded to have water, the streams are the same.

The problem with the dark murky texture is that it is representative of a dry streambed (and looks accurate for that purpose), but it doesn't communicate the information that you'd get your boots wet. A blue texture would of course be inaccurate realism-wise, but it would communicate the necessary mental point of reference. Compare it to a tabletop wargame. When I have the opportunity to model water features, I'd use a murky brown like I've done here or a muddy river like I did here.

Now, since the Engine cannot handle glossy or translucent streams, you'll be forced to use a flat 2D texture. There, brown doesn't work at all. It's like using brown felt to represent streams on a tabletop wargame, you'll get confused. The solution is to use blue, like I've done here.

I don't mean to sound preachy and I definitely don't want to give you the image that I'm bashing you hard work. I thoroughly enjoy SOW and have been week 1 purchaser since TC2M, but I don't think I'm the only one who thinks the streams are better off blue.

[Little Powell]

Thanks for your feedback everyone. I'm sure the color of the streams is not a show stopper for you, however we will make a serious note of it for future releases.

[Mazikainen]

Thanks, I'll stop bitching about it now

[kaschykb]

FWIW, I'd prefer new maps and OOB's of western battles (Chickamauga, Perryville etc.) over seeing time spent on re-hashing Gburg and Antietam maps.

[NY Cavalry]

There are a number of western oobs available. Zeke has a mod with the oobs. I have them they are well done oobs.

RebBugler is going to release a Pea Ridge at some point and I am still looking forward to it.

I am not sure of the direction of the team at present, but I think that there is definitely enthusiasm for a western battle such as Ckickamaunga or Shilo. Maybe we could get one of the map makers to make a Chickamauga and I'll do the scenarios myself.

[Saddletank]

Anything not fought in a huge forest would be great. The CV maps are a nightmare to play in HITS...!

[Mazikainen]

I think there was a very nice Shiloh map made for TC2M..

[NY Cavalry]

Anything not fought in a huge forest would be great. The CV maps are a nightmare to play in HITS...!

This is good to hear. That's the way it was a mess. It wasn't called the wilderness for nothing. Officers not able to see more then 20 or 30 yards. Everyone was trying to follow the battle by following the noise and the smoke. Attacks were only able to hold cohesion for a short time. When attacks were launched the defenders had no warning until they were being crashed into. Artillery was ineffective except in the few clearings. There seemed to be more confusion at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864, but Chancellorsville had its confusion too and both battles were fought very close to each other. Union objective was to get out of the wilderness. Lee wanted to keep them bottled up in there.