Johnny Canuck

Not sure how you misunderstood what I said. CM is about the best computer adaptation of ASL I've seen. That being said, a major development house could do a LOT better. So, as I said . . . "Until a major developer decides to create a computer based version of Advanced Squad Leader, then this is probably around best we'll get for now."

Having recently purchased CMBN, CMBB and CMAK, I've found there's pro's and con's to the different interfaces. CMx1 and CMx2 both have significant issues as far as I'm concerned. Until a major developer decides to create a computer based version of Advanced Squad Leader, then this is probably around best we'll get for now. It sounds as though Battlefront is going to add more functionality to CMBN, and I for one will be looking forward to continued improvements.

Me too. If the next CM game is about WWII, I'll pre-order it. With any luck, we'll see lots of improvements.

I would say that that fine tuning is a huge understatement. As much as I love what this came could become, it needs a LOT of work in order to reach anywhere near 'perfection', and I don't think that Battlefront has the resources to do that. Certainly, improvements will be made over time and their support is much better than most other companies. Perfection though? Not likely unless they win the lottery. Hint: They need a useability expert with multi-player experience.

I covered the trenches on the 'left' side of the map and nearby guns with a LOT of smoke and then assaulted with infantry to take them out. Didn't work that way at all. My platoons got across the open field without much difficulty, but as they entered the trenches, they were wiped out. Think I'll try to find an easier scenario for now and come back to this some other time. . .

I tried a realtime game today with a buddy and we just gave up. Might as well have been playing Starcraft. Without WEGO or a pause button, it just wasn't playable for us. We'll use PBEM instead. It's unfortunate that Battlefront spent so little effort on making the multiplayer easy to use. As cool as the game is in so many different areas, the multiplayer is years behind what we would expect. What were they thinking . . .

Great video! Music, old video effects, explanations and all.

Joined up and thanks for Raz for *very quickly* working out a technical issue I had.

I rezexploded the two large .brz files in the Data directory and saw lots of cool .bmp files in the 'a' and 'b' directories. I'm wondering about the other file extensions, such as .mdr, .ani, . Are these editable in any way? Is it possible to add new items?

In single player, I only use RT, but miss the replays. In single player, I'd love to see some AI vs AI action, with a little bit of help from 'God'. In multiplayer, I'm happy with the PBEM, except that all the file transfers should be handled transparently to us 'the user' by Battlefront. In multiplayer, the RT should be pauseable. In multiplayer, Battlefront should have an in-game matchup system in place. It's 2011 and not 1991.

Not I, but sure would love to see some.

As one of my boardgame friends says 'the dice giveth and the dice taketh away'. In his case, he's a statistician and one of the top Advanced Squad Leader players in the Vancouver/Seattle area. The dice usually giveth in his case, and I have no doubt that the above saying translates quite nicely to Combat Mission.

AI vs AI would be an absolute gas. I was playing around with the Scenario editor today, trying to figure it out and was wishing that was an option.

I agree with Juju's points. To me, there's nothing worse than scenarios/mods without adequate documentation, that contain spelling mistakes, or ones in which I have to perform the equivalent of 'recompiling the kernel'. Mods may need to be updated, and should have version numbers. Either way, there should be some reasonable testing performed by other members before being published as a finished scenario/mod. And yes, a decent repository with multiple sorts/filters and a rating system would be excellent.

Some good ideas in here on opponent finding. They're right in that BF should be setting the stage for MP gameplay. I just can't believe it's 2011 and we have to enter an IP address and TCP ports. Boggles . . the . . mind. At least the SP realtime is sweet (I love starting/stopping the action), and that there is still PBEM.

Yes, sort by ratings, sort by date, sort by downloads and so on. . .

Well, you can always check out the demo to see if it's to your liking.

I've seen Murphy's Laws of Combat, but how about of Combat Mission? In my case: The woods/concealment are closer to the enemy. The best and tallest building is closer to the enemy. The flag is closer to the enemy. I get to run across the open field. His gun is better than my armour. His armour is better than my gun. I'm sure the old timers have a LOT more.

Thanks for the additional pointers folks. I'll definitely be working on refining the orders.

Took me a bit to understand how to shoot from my tank on the move. What I ended up learning was: 1) Select the tank and issue a move order and then de-select. 2) Select the waypoint and issue a 'target' or other shoot command from that waypoint. 3) Select the tank again and issue another move order. 4) Select the new waypoint and shoot again. Initially, I selected the tank, issued a move order and then directly issued a shoot order. Problem is, I didn't select the waypoint that I issued the order to move to and it tried to shoot from where I started. Just an FYI that I learned.

The multi-player aspects have kept many many games going long after the single player has worn thin. I find it very hard to believe a small but vocal group that wants better MP. Any figures provided to back that up would probably be based on faulty, if not misleading data. You couldn't use the MP in their current products as a comparison, as only the most dedicated players would put up with their archaic MP capabilities. Most people would just give up on it. The fact is, their MP out and out blows.

Well, we still don't know what make/model of laptop it is. . . So many of these tech support threads remind me of a TV cop show, where you slowly get tidbits of information.

That's quite the stretch from what I said. .

Err, which laptop? I find it hard to believe you can't use the default resolution on your laptop.

I agree that won't happen. In the case of X-Plane and Flight Sim, the developers have provided a full API and data structure to so that 3rd parties can develop functionality and objects. I don't see this happening with Combat Mission.