Humbug

Some screens from a battle I had while playtesting my map. Ended in a total victory for me vs US AI but it had tons of action up to that point and was a bit hairy at times. Had the AI bought more armor (only had 1 priest) it would've been a lot tougher. This field wasn't a good place to be for the US. They ended up in a crossfire, being flanked from the bocage line in the foreground while at the same time being cut up by MG42:s to the east outside the picture. As if that wasn't enough I had artillery falling behind them cutting off their retreat. Really proud of these guys, about 3 times the kills of any other squad and very few losses if any. They even had 4 more kills (30, jpeg compression made it a bit hard to read) than the StuH 42 in the background. I really love this game sometimes.

Yes sorry about that, the updated version has AI plans for US and updated plans for axis as well. I've also uploaded a third version (1.2) since further playtesting has revealed some balance and LOS issues that had to be dealt with. This also gave me the opportunity to further fine tune the AI plans. If you want to play the map again (hopefully with more opposition that time) you might want to wait for that version to appear on the repository. As a matter of fact I just came back from a playtest of my map before writing this post. Me as axis vs AI as US. Was a really fun battle and I'll be posting some screenshots from that soon in the screenshot thread.

Link for updated version here.

I have seen this as well.

It appears that the US AI plans I made were not saved for some reason (probably a mistake on my part). I'm updating the map to 1.1 to fix this. In the meantime play vs Axis or H2H.

Well, as it turns out my first try at scenario editing turned out a little better than expected. What at first was simply meant as a test map for learning the editor turned into a full blown map (albeit small in size) with AI plans and all. So I thought I'd let others try it and not just sit on it myself. You can never have too many QB maps after all. The map is a small meeting engagement taking place in a rural setting with plenty of bocage and a railroad crossing in the middle. I'd appreciate feedback from H2H play on it. There are AI plans but don't expect too much since I'm very new at this and probably not good at making the AI use its full potential. Here are some screenshots, and a download link while I'm waiting for the repository to put it up. Edit: Seems it was uploaded as little as 2 minutes after I posted this, so theres no need for the download link. Here's a link to the thread instead: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=99220

That's a shame. I suppose it can't be added with a mod either? Using gravel terrain looks good at a distance as you said, but it's quite weird to have that huge bump at the crossing.

I recently started to dabble in map making and I'm really liking the editor so far. Very easy to understand and use even for a beginner like me. There's one thing I've been getting stuck on while making my first map however. Am I blind and/or stupid or is there really no such thing as a simple rail intersection? If I want a road and a railroad to cross paths do I really have to use a bridge? In the case of my map with relatively flat ground and a small dirt road in rural France it doesn't really make much sense to create a big steel bridge.

Did you by any chance listen to Pink Floyd while making these? Very nice!

I joined up, you don't seem to be online anymore however.

While it's true that a small and tight knit community tends to be more enjoyable for everyone involved, it does take a special kind of gamer to be interested in a game like Combat Mission. The impatient kind that dilutes the community as you say would most likely not be interested in such a game in the first place, and there are still some armchair generals who aren't aware this game was even released since hardly any news sites reported about it. I've tipped a few of those off and I'm also a good example myself. I played CMBB and CMAK back in the day (skipped CMSF) and have been busy with other things so I didn't know about the release of CMBN or even that such a game was under development until I stumbled across a thread on a swedish gaming forum a few days after its release. I'm sure there are more like me out there. Unless they dumb it down and make it into a generic RTS title this will most likely always be a small community.

I was just reading through this thread and it dawned on me how amazing these forums can be sometimes. It's not often that you see a thread becoming so interesting and filled with useful feedback from both players and devs after such an inflammatory first post. Usually the thread would just turn into a flaming hell and get locked in short order. This is one of the reasons I usually prefer smaller developers, not in league with huge producers, not being on such a tight leash and actually able and willing to take time to communicate with the very people that buy and play their games. The game itself and the community as a whole usually benefits greatly from this. What's the point of this thread, you ask? Well, mostly to give the devs and the community some well deserved praise. I just wish that the gaming media would get it through their thick skulls that this game deserves much more attention than it has gotten so far, so more people would actually realize the game exists. CMBN isn't perfect, but I'm not worried since Battlefront have clearly shown that they're in this for the long haul and not about to dump a rushed patch (if that) on us and then abandon the game for the next one in line like seems to be the standard in the industry nowadays. Cheers!

Maybe, the real question is if it really deserves to be such a low priority as it seems to be. BF created Wego mode and seemed to be really proud of it to boot. Leaving it out in Tcp/ip mode seems...strange, to say the least. It's kind of like if Quake would've been released without a deathmatch mode. Sure, there could be other modes, but deathmatch is the bread and butter of the Quake-series just like Wego is the bread and butter of the Combat Mission-series and I really don't feel that it deserves to be put aside even if it would take some effort to code.

I don't understand why they couldn't get the game to do this behind the scenes though. I admit I'm no programmer but it doesn't seem to be that hard.

Great! Good way to show off the game to people that you think should buy it. Make more of them!

Very nice, they look less like soulless puppets and more like hardened soldiers now. I'd imagine a tank commander would be a little more clean than a footsoldier that has been lying face down in dirt all day though.

Any ETA on the release of this mod? I wants my preciousssssss!

This will definately be a must have mod once it's released.

I concur that buildings (and trenches) generally should offer more protection than they currently do. I recently played the Devil's Descent campaign and I was amazed how quickly I killed the guys holding up in the church. I was getting ready for one hell of a fight and having to use everything I got including mortars but they just died after less than a minutes worth of firing from maybe 2 or 3 squads.

A faust would actually have better effect if the tank is buttoned up due to the shock being contained inside instead of being vented outside through open hatches. Not sure if this is true for the game though.

Been having the same issue. In my last QB on a tiny map with a small battle size I bought for myself 3 platoons of infantry, 2 HMG's, 2 ATG's, a StuGIII and 2 medium mortars. I gave the probing AI 10% more and he bought 1 sherman, 1 halftrack and a LOT of HQ's and HMG squads. Then he proceeded to attack with the HMG's in open terrain instead of laying down suppressing fire with them. It was a slaughter with only a few casualties on my side.

Agreed. Why was it even left out anyway? Is it really that hard to code such a feature?

Yeah, not invulnerable but they do soak up way too much damage. I just played a QB where a tree took 2 direct hits from a 105mm HE round of a StuH 42 without anything happening to it. The third round blew the branches off but the trunk still stood up and soaked up a couple more rounds. The hit box didn't really seem to have become much smaller either. It's almost like the trees are made of magnets that attract shells. Now obviously I don't have any real life experience to back this up with but common sense tells me that it would have to be one hell of a tree to not be blown to smithereens by even one of those huge rounds. Am I wrong?

I second this! This game deserves a lot more exposure than it's currently getting.