Attention Soldiers! Intel reports a new SITREP has
been released for the upcoming America's Army:
Special Forces (Overmatch) (SMU GH Map Pack) v2.8.1.

Double-time over to the Rally Point to find out all the information
for the next version of America's Army: Special Forces.

Community @ AmericasArmy.com

America's Army: Special Forces (Overmatch) (SMU GH Map Pack)
Release Notes (Version 2.8.1)

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What's new
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New Missions from The Guildhall at SMU:

For the first time in our history America's Army has partnered with a University to bring you new content.
We are proud to bring you four new Multiplayer Missions built by graduate students from The Guildhall at SMU.
(http://guildhall.smu.edu)

These new missions were made in conjunction with the America's Army Development Team in Emeryville, California.
The students used the Mission Editor that was released with AA v2.8 (Coalition) and utilized existing game assets
for their maps.

These new maps include:

SF Old Town

U.S. Infantry conducts a raid within a small, rural village in a tropical location to secure sensitive data.
Intelligence reports suggest a terrorist organization is attempting to seize this information currently
located in a safe house controlled by allied forces. The U.S. Special Forces team must secure this information
and thereby thwart future enemy attacks.

SF Refinery

A terrorist cell has announced its intent to capture a high profile petroleum engineer and thereby disrupt
petroleum production and the U.S. Economy. U.S. Special Forces must safeguard the engineer from terrorist action.

SF Flood Gate

Intelligence indicates a gathering terrorist threat to critical hydroelectric facilities. Should terrorist
forces capture or destroy these facilities the local indigenous population residing in the low-lying valleys
could be threatened or flooded. The U.S. Special Forces team must secure the hydroelectric facilities and
prevent the terrorist forces from planting and detonating explosive devices.

River Village

Enemy forces have seized a small rural village adjacent to a seasonal river and are now using it as a base of
operation. Intelligence reports suggest the local residents are under duress and have been dispersed
throughout the village. U.S. Special Forces Soldiers must enter the village, secure the three objectives and
reclaim control of the village, while minimizing damage to the local infrastructure.


Limited TrackIR Support

We have included preliminary support for TrackIR in this release. You will need to have the latest TrackIR software
installed for this to work. (http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/)

In future versions we plan to have more complete support for this system, and it is included now to allow you to
play around with the system with some basic functionality. More information on features and support is available
from the in-game console by typing: "TrackIRHelp"

Note: This feature is not yet supported or completed and is included for evaluation purposes only.

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


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

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


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Technical Notes
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********************************************
** IMPORTANT NOTE FOR SERVER HOSTS/ADMINS **
********************************************

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



GAME PORTS:


The internet ports currently required to be open for America's Army v2.8.1 are listed below:

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

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

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


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What's Fixed
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NOTE: This list only includes bugs present in v2.8 that have been fixed.
Bugs fixed related to new v2.8.1 features and certain security/exploit fixes have been removed from this list.




[Level Editor]

- Fixed a bug that was causing some user created maps to experience problems with players spawning into levels
without weapons
- Fixed a bug that was preventing users from resizing editor dialogs when windows display effects are set to
?show contents when dragging and resizing?
- Enabled 2D shape editor

[NML]

- Fixed a bug that was preventing the tours.ini to cache properly upon starting the client.

[Gameplay]

- Fixed a bug where players could position themselves in such a way that they were invisible to other players.
The most notable examples of this were in Hospital on the West Wing Roof and on the tables of the 3rd Floor
Escort Building.
- Fixed a bug where the carriable objective would fall through terrain if the player carrying it was shot
while prone.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed user to get full CEM meter.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed a player to make the snow weather effect disappear in game.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed keybinds to be used to reduce weapon switching time.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to get constant binocular vision.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented players from loading and firing the Javelin without first dropping the
weapon and picking it back up.
- Fix for a bug with the idle auto-kick that was not counting rounds in which an idle player had been shot
while standing at spawn.
- Fixed a bug that was allowing players to be damaged by incendiary grenades through walls.
- Fixed a bug that prevented a player from taking damage when an incendiary grenade was thrown straight up
into the air where it detonated above the player.
- Fixed a bug where players that shoot an instructor in the MOUT Shoothouse training level were not being sent
to Leavenworth.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing admin permanent MAC address bans from working.
- Fixed a bug that caused player to lose the carriable objective if an admin force-classed a weapon.
- Fixed a bug with the Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) training level where prone/unsupported mode is skipped
if the player misses the final shot during the prone firing.
- Fixed a bug where players were not being sent to Leavenworth for shooting the instructor on the M24/M82 range.
- Fixed a bug with the death message when an AI soldier is killed by incoming mortar rounds.

[UI]

- Fixed a broken link in the support section
- Fixed several typographical errors
- Fixed a bug where DCDS content was not being displayed in the downloadable list box when the player is
not logged in.
- Fixed a bug where the server browser would sometimes display negative values for ping.
- Fixed a bug where the server hostname is displayed in color even when color codes are disabled in preferences.
- Fixed a bug where the right click menu was displaying server names in color even when color codes are disabled
in preferences.

[Map Specific]

- Interdiction: Fixed a bug with one of the random objective spawn locations where the player was unable to pick
up the briefcase.
- SF_SnakePlain: Fixed several AI path nodes and a BTR unloading point that was invalid
- SFRecon: Fixed a bug that was causing the OpFor pawns to glow brightly from a distance.

[Punkbuster]

- Add File checksum for D3D9Renderer dll to avoid kicking players for a ?GameHook" violation

[Enhancements]

- Changed server browser functionality to allow players the ability to join Authorized, player created maps
through the browser UI.
- Added a console command: SetConsoleWidth to allow for a larger console.
- Enabled auth messaging for Authorized and Explore the Army Server modes to report rounds played and total
playtime by user to the auth database. NOTE: Players on ETA servers are not uniquely identified, time played
will be used to create aggregate player usage statistics.
- Restored DCDS functionality for queuing, pausing or resuming paused downloads.
- Removed extraneous logging statements from the server log output.
- Added support for the DirectX9 RenderDevice Codepath
- Enhanced tours system to allow for larger amounts of maps within the existing tours framework.
- Changed default number of rounds for idle kick to 2 rounds
- Added a new feature for a server chat log. Note, Admin Say and Admin Message chat is not logged.
- Added support for opening all weapon slots to the Admin Command Post for tournament mode.
- Added support to Tournament mode to allow the ability to disable grenades by grenade type. NOTE: If a player
spawns in game with an M203 they will have a round in the chamber but will not be able to reload if M203 grenades are ?off?.

[AI]

- Patrolling AI will now react appropriately to dead bodies they discover.
- Fix for NPCs turning into a wall while pursuing enemies
- Fix for NPCs not being able to open doors while pursuing an enemy


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Known Editor Issues
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White/missing viewports

When the Editor is launched, the viewports will appear to be missing or all white.
To resolve this issue simply go to "View > Viewports > Configure ...", select one of the options and click OK.

Brightness/Gamma

When the Editor is launched the brightness/gamma will be increased.
Adjustments to the gamma can be made in "View > Gamma Options".

Unable to select any map objects (static meshes, brushes, etc) using right or left mouse click
** This issue is specific to systems with ATI graphics cards ** and occurs due to Anti-Aliasing
and/or Anisotropic Filtering being enabled.
Disabling these settings has been shown to resolve the problem.

Dual Monitor Setup: Unable to move the Editor from one monitor to the other.
** This issue is specific to systems with ATI graphics cards **
To resolve this issue, click the View menu and uncheck the "Automatically reposition windows".


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