America's Army: Special Forces (Overmatch) v2.8.5
rn Posted: 24 APR 2009 - by Phoenix
rn We are proud to present another America’s Army release. This release includes ES2 updates to four classic maps: SF Courtyard, SF Hospital, Urban Assault and Bridge Crossing. The maps have been updated with additional ES2 objects to discover and report. ES2 Bridge is an updated version of the popular Bridge Crossing map with new gameplay elements added such as ES2 objects with enhanced intelligence functionality. Players will be able to unlock access to a new path under the bridge and supply intelligence on enemy positions. We’ve also added improvements to the civilian AI within ES2 Border to have the AI react in a more realistic manner. Lock and load, it’s time to go to work!

America's Army: Special Forces (Overmatch)
rn Release Notes (Version 2.8.5)

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rn What's new
rn =======================================================

This release includes ES2 updates to three maps, SF Courtyard, SF Hospital, rn Urban Assault. The maps have been updated with additional ES2 objects to discoverrn and report. ES2 Bridge is a revised version of the classic Bridge Crossingrn map with new elements added such as ES2 objects with a new types of intelligencern functionality. The new functionality includes unlocking access to a new pathrn under the bridge, and supplying intelligence on enemy positions.

SF Courtyard
rn "Intelligence reports that an illegal arms dealer is planning to rn transfer stolen top secret material to an agent of a known terrorist rn organization. Location of sensitive material is only known to be rn located in vicinity C94M98A04. Reports confirm that there are willing rn informants who know the exact whereabouts of the sensitive material."

SF Hospital
rn "Following an ambush by enemy forces, a wounded Resistance leaderrn escaped to a neutral hospital for treatment of his wounds. Thern leader is a critical member of the Resistance government withinrn Unconventional Warfare Area of Operations (UWAO) JAZZ."

Urban Assault
rn "A coalition convoy was raided and the cargo was stolen. It hasrn been confirmed that the insurgents and the cargo are based in arn residential area of the city. Due to the dense urban nature of thern area it will be necessary to do a house by house assault on foot."

ES2 Bridge
rn "Enemy forces masquerading as refugees have ambushed the US forcesrn defending bridge at grid WS663429. Your force returning from patrolrn is now on the hostile side of bridge, and must link up with your companyrn headquarters to pass along time-sensitive information."

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rn System Requirements (have not changed):
rn =======================================================

The current Minimum System Requirements for AA:SF (Overmatch) are as follows:

- 3-D graphics card with 128 MB memory and support for hardware transformation and lighting
rn - 2.4 GHz processor or equivalent
rn - English version of Windows(r) 2000/XP Operating System with latest updates
rn - 512 MB RAM
rn - 3.5GB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files
rn - 4X DVD-ROM (not required for downloaded installations)
rn - Windows 2000/XP compatible system (including compatible 32-bit drivers for CD-ROM drive, video card, sound card,
rn mouse and keyboard)
rn - DirectX(r)9.0
rn - 100% Compatible DirectX 9.0 soundcard
rn - 56kbps Modem or other network connection
rn - *Nvidia® nForce™ or other motherboard/soundcards containing Dolby Digital® Content Encoder required for
rn Dolby Digital® audio.
rn

The current Recommended System Requirements for AA:SF (Overmatch) are as follows:
rn

- 3-D graphics card with 256 MB memory and support for hardware transformation and lighting
rn - 3.0 GHz processor or equivalent
rn - English version of Windows(r) 2000/XP Operating System with all updates
rn - 1 GB RAM
rn - 3.5GB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files
rn - 4X DVD-ROM (not required for downloaded installation)
rn - Windows 2000/XP compatible system (including compatible 32-bit drivers for CD-ROM drive, video card,
rn sound card, mouse and keyboard)
rn - DirectX(r) 9.0
rn - 100% Compatible DirectX 9.0 soundcard
rn - Broadband Network Connection
rn - NVIDIA(r) nForce(tm) or other motherboards/soundcards containing the Dolby(r) Digital Interactive
rn Content Encoder required for Dolby Digital audio
rn

=======================================================
rn Technical Notes
rn =======================================================

********************************************
rn ** IMPORTANT NOTE FOR SERVER HOSTS/ADMINS **
rn ********************************************

NOTE: The cooperative missions will take significantly more CPU resources to run during normal gameplay
rn due to the additional AI processing load (shared between the server & client). Server hosts planning to run
rn Co-Op servers should plan accordingly. In addition, players running a Co-Op server and client on the same
rn machine will experience heavy CPU demand.

It is recommended that server rotations switch only from Co-Op level to Co-Op level, or MP to MP level for
rn best performance.
rn

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rn GAME PORTS:
rn --------------------------------------------------------

The internet ports currently required to be open for America's Army v2.8.5 are listed below:

UDP - 1716, 1717, 1718, 8777, 27900
rn TCP - 14200, 20025-45, 20046, 20047, 20048, 28910

UDP ports explained:
rn 1716 for the Game,
rn 1717 for the GameQuery,
rn 1718 for the Master Server Query,
rn 8777 for the Standard UT Query, and 27900 for GameSpy.

TCP ports explained:
rn 28910 for GameSpy
rn 20025-45 for MBS Game Server,
rn 20046 for the Auth server,
rn 20047 for MBS, 20048 for DCDS, and 14200 for LAN.

=======================================================
rn What's Fixed
rn =======================================================

NOTE: This list only includes bugs present in v2.8.4 that have been fixed.
rn Bugs fixed related to new v2.8.5 features and certain security/exploit fixes have been removed from this list.

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Map Specific
rn - ES2Border: Rebuilt map to re-add lighting to interiors.
rn - ES2Border: Adjusted Civilian AI logic to reduce the chances of civialians running into the line of fire
rn - ES2Border: ES2 Points are now more evenly awarded to the reporting player as well as live team members
rn - ES2Border: Scoring for ES2 objects has been re-evaluated and is now the same for all maps. Points are
rn now reflected by the value of the reported object
rn - ES2Border: Fixed terrain and player sticking issues
rn - ES2Border: Fixed various building anomolies
rn - ES2Border: Changed all Triggers and Objectives to be hidden while viewing in single player.
rn - ES2Border: Fixed issue with IED exploding even when not visible
rn - ES2Border: Fixed ES2 objects that did not spawn flags when reported
rn - ES2McKenna: Fixed AAR Instructor's face and hands

Miscellaneous
rn - Fixed issues with Friendlies showing up as Op-For when spectating in a co-op mission.
rn - Fixed a problem with ES2 objects not showing up after the game round is restarted.
rn - Fixed issue with the camera sinking through the ground while ragdolling in first-person. It was caused
rn by a counter not being incremented unless the ragdoll was being rendered. Bumped the eye position up a
rn few units when the player is dead just to ensure the camera doesn't even partially look through the ground.
rn - ES2: Added capability to damage ES2 objects. Added several damageable ES2 objects to the ES2 maps.
rn - ES2: Added objectives to the list of grenade damagable objects
rn - ES2: Tweaked spawning probabilities of certain ES2 objects

Improvements
rn - AI: ES2Border civilians should now take appropriate cover when approached by US Forces or fired upon. Civilian
rn will be capable of wandering, hiding/running from grenades, bullets and players.

Well that concludes this SITREP, folks. Grab the latest release of the America's Army game and join in the action! Also, be sure to stay tuned for the next release of America's Army: Special Forces coming soon...