BFCElvis

No. All links should work. Open a Help Desk ticket and we'll sort it out. I'll need to get into your account and it's best not done on a public forum.

As flattering as that is, it's a long way from what is happening. I'm not at liberty (at this time) to comment further but Steve is neck deep in it right now. And most of that is for people who may see this post.

It's actually super easy now. It used to be a pain. Now each game only needs 1 file/installer downloaded. After installing it you use the Activate New Products utility and enter your keys to activate. It's hard to be more easy. Steam is, after you've installed the game once. But other than that I can't think of an easier way to install a game. It's 2 steps: 1. Download and run installer 2. Activate

Make sure that you're using Game Engine 4 versions to download and install. They are all-in-one full game installers and the only downloads you need for each game. For some people that means the 4.0 Upgrade for others they may have purchased the games already using Game Engine 4. Whichever applies to you is what you should use. Then you don't have to use the convoluted step by step installation method.

I see the adjustments that were made on the server end of the scoring were very helpful, in my opinion. I haven't forgotten you folks today. I've been working on getting easy to understand and explain descriptions of exactly what was done. The time zone difference didn't help with the back and forth conversations. As soon as get somefink worth passing on I will. It's a priority for me.

@Artkin got lucky and drew me for Round 2 of the Tournament. Sounds like an easy win.

If we think about what a surrender actually is then it makes it easier to grasp the 0 points. Surrender means that you have been beaten so badly that there is "no tomorrow". And, yes, surrender by players should be discouraged in the tournaments. Even in a ceasefire the winning player can get 100% of the possible points available to them but the losing player would at least get somefink. The only surrenders that there should be are game generated surrenders. And those are rare. I lost all of my troops in one of my 2 CMBN tournaments battles and the computer did not surrender. If someone surrenders and gets 0 points then shame on them. And thank you for getting the conversation going.

I play trivia at a local brew pub each week. One of the woman on my team always says "I don't care if we win or lose. As long as we have fun." And I always say "we need to stick a shiv in their kidneys!!!! Kill, kill kill!!!!" Once my oldest went with me and this conversation was going on. The woman said her thing about fun and my kid replied "then why do they keep score?" That apple didn't fall too far from the tree. That would involve coding. The Slitherine system has no way of knowing if the end of game scores sent are from a surrender or natural ending. So, even if we were inclined and had the manpower to manually change scores on the Slitherine server, there is no way of knowing, looking down the list of completed games, how those games ended. And as I said above, I wouldn't want them to change anyway. So, I wouldn't advocate for 1 second of coding time to change it. And believe me....as @Holien just said..........there hasn't been anything easy about the coding that has gone into the tournament feature and I wouldn't expect that to be either. This is one you might want to let go of because, like I said, even if it could be changed easily we won't change it. That part is functioning exactly the way we want it to.

Again, 100% all in game surrender points will be awarded to the winning player. For 2 reasons. First, any in game, Combat Mission points, pushed to the Slitherine server when a game is completed will override any score generated by the hosting server. It doesn't matter if they are generated by the battle ending naturally or a ceasefire or a surrender. It is coded into the game and system and not one moment of coding time will be spent changing how surrender scores are pushed out. Second, I believe that if one player has beaten another badly enough where the other feels compelled to surrender then the winning player deserves the points. So, even if it were easy to change I would not change it. No shows are different. No shows now award 1,000 points. If I process the initial file and my opponent doesn't then I get 1,000 points. Half the maximum. We can debate if that is too many points or not enough. That number can be easily changed. I've felt from the beginning that 1,000 "feels right". But I'm open to suggestions for different values and "why". @Holien It looks like somefink similar to what you pointed out regarding Field of Glory II will be implemented. And it may not be too late to be implemented for Round 1. I'll post somefink once I get confirmation. But there have been lots of discussions between me and Slitherine. Whatever we settle with is somefink that can be controlled easily by us and doesn't involve new coding. It's all about how the back end system is generated for a tournament. Which means if you guys don't like what I decide the parameters are then we are open to hearing your opinions and can change it..........If we're sold on the need to change it. I think that what I have in mind will seem fair.

I agree with most of this. Which is why I've no problem pulling the plug. Why here? The noncoms and Middle East setting. it's here or the General Forum.

Surrenders will always count. They are battles that have been played out and the system has no way of knowing if the end of game score pushed out by CM is a surrender, ceasefire or regularly ended game. It doesn’t know how the game was completed...only that it was. The other stuff is being looked at. Field of Glory II has some provisions for those kinds of things. We're looking at how they can be applied to CM. If somefink can be done it won't have anything to do with a CM score. It would only be affected by participation.

If a battle if completed then the in game Combat Mission score is what is awarded. Nothing about that scoring has been changed by the tournament feature. It is the exact same scoring system that has been around since CMSF1. So, it is as legit as solo play scoring and regular H2H scoring.

I've been working them all morning. They haven't said "no" yet.

Correct. They would have to have surrendered both battles.

I will ask but I think that it is unlikely. Slitherine is very sensitive about appearing to spam their customer base. When discussions were done with the nudge email they agreed to one nudge email per round.

When the Ukraine version of this started up we had a very short leash that we used to keep the thread on track. Handing out vacations at the slightest infraction to try to accomplish that. If you guys are willing, I am willing to do somefink similar with this. But instead of vacations I'll just lock it up as soon as I see the first Nazi comment, or any of that type of stuff.

No. There is nothing that we can do. There have been TONS of conversations about this with Slitherine and, for the most part, all of their tournaments experience it. So more than others. The Field of Glory 2 leaderboards look like our but the Panzer Corps 2 and Valor & Victory boards don't. I'll check with Slitherine but this does look like somefink that may be possible. The "timer" for how long a player has had a file is somefink that their server would know. Giving emails are a definite no-no. Having players opt in to have their emails given is unlikely too. On October 11th all players were sent a "nudge" email. It was sent to everyone. How many of you saw it? Mine ended up in my Gmail "Promotions" section, which might as well be the spam folder. I didn't see it until I dug deep for it. That is one path we're trying to jog some people loose. Adding both the scoring/ceasefire information and needing to make sure that you use the correct email address when logging into the server through CM will future instructions.

Ah. You're referring to somefink different than I thought you were. I thought you were referring to things like release dates. Battlefront, since way before I was an employee, has always been a "it will be released when it's finished" company. Bristling at giving release estimates. Even more so now that Slitherine's marketing department does so much with Steam. A good example is the CMFI release on Steam recently. Unlike other releases they wanted to announce it's Steam release live during their big annual wargaming stream. So, even though I knew the exact date for that, they wanted to make the announcement. Do we interact about the nuts and bolts more than most other game makers? I don't know. I'd defer to Steve's quote above on that because my experience is kinda limited to just Battlefront. So, I have no point of comparison. There has never been another game, for me, that I cared enough about to follow the developers and notice what kind of interaction they have. You, and probably everyone who sees this post, likely have far more experience with that kind of thing than me. My sample size is : 1.

Quotes or it never happened.

@Hapless has done it again. We still have a few days left in Round 1 but in preparation for Round 2 he has created a video for the the Round:

Sorry folks. I've been trying to think of a good reason to not shut this down and I haven't found one.

Yes.

Are you playing Round 1 but dropping out and not playing Round 2? If so, contacting Matrix and asking if they can drop you before opponents are selected would be a good idea.

Yes, they decided to send them to everyone. It's nice that they took the time and made nice pretty emails. Mine ended up in the Gmail "Promotions" section which is as good as going to a spam folder. I hope it gets some of these no shows involved in time.

For the Tournaments I would definitely do this too, rather than surrender. That way you at least get a CM score.