Battle stopping after a certian time

[Kalibri]

Hello to all,

 

I have downloaded the demo of the game and enjoyed it until my time ran out, the battle stopped. Evidently there is a time limit imposed on all scenarios.

The question is simple, how can I disactivate the time limit? If it is possible, I will gladly buy the game, if not, then it is no of course.

Personally I think of this option as a huge mistake on the developers side. Why should they dictate too me how I must complete the mission? It becomes very annoying after a while. There are plenty of people who would be interested in taking other approaches to the completion of the task in certain scenarios but the imposed time is showing you only one direction.

Its not like the units/pixels get tired after a while if I decide to crawl to the objective instead of trying to hurry and have only limited options to finish the mission!

And no need to explain that in a real war there are time limits, all well known and understood. But the game is for also discovering cases like " what if " etc... The developers should think about giving the freedom to the purchaser to explore other options and not be bounded by time.

Regards,

 

 

 

[Holman]

Time limits are a fact of scenario balance--designers have a wide range of choices, and if they choose to give you 45 minutes instead of three hours, there's probably a reason for that.

 

However, you can chuck all of that if you want.  You can take any scenario and tweak it in the editor to your liking, including changing the ending time.  (I believe the maximum is 4 hours and 15 minutes.)

Edited January 9, 2015 by Holman

[A Canadian Cat]

What @Holman said.  The scenario designer picks the length of the scenario.  One reason is to reflect some external schedule - which you already alluded to.  The other, practical reason is that the AI battle plans for a scenario are partially scripted and its moves are based on the clock.  If the game kept going the AI controlled troops would stop doing anything.

[kevinkin]

I think an un-ending tactical battle would also require un-ending supplies or ammo, food and troops. This can be achieved in a operational or strategic level game. But not really appropriate for CM. Some are working on a operational "layer" to but it has not gained a lot of traction over the years.

 

Kevin

[Jargotn]

Its not like the units/pixels get tired after a while if I decide to crawl to the objective instead of trying to hurry and have only limited options to finish the mission!

Actually, if you move your pixeltruppen "slow" they will quickly become exhausted.

 

While you can't just disable the time limit you can modify every scenario, including the time limit, in the ingame editor. You won't need more than three hours for a mission the scenario designer gave you 45 minutes for, no matter how slow you play

 

Don't let these time limits stop you from enjoying the game. It's worth every penny.

[niall78]

I'm not a fan of timers in games but I've found that 99% of the time in Combat Mission the battle is finished - one way or another - long before the timer ever becomes an issue.

[Kalibri]

Thank you for the answers.

I guess I am expecting too much from this game, when it comes to implementation of some "slow" tactics. It needs to be a bit more stable in that sense, as it was described above, scripted AI is based on the time limit, so players must be "scripted" to the time also. As an example, the demo mission of  "tankovij desant" ends for me before I reach the bridge of the 1st objective. Anyway, it was good to hear what others think of this matter.

Regards

[Holman]

Thank you for the answers.

I guess I am expecting too much from this game, when it comes to implementation of some "slow" tactics. It needs to be a bit more stable in that sense, as it was described above, scripted AI is based on the time limit, so players must be "scripted" to the time also. As an example, the demo mission of  "tankovij desant" ends for me before I reach the bridge of the 1st objective. Anyway, it was good to hear what others think of this matter.

Regards

 

That AI is not always scripted by time (although it can be); it's often scripted by triggers that react to player actions and the achievement of objectives.  Still, putting time pressure on players is a way of making situations urgent and exciting.

 

The CM scenario designers are the best I've seen.  I've seldom (in scores of games) encountered a scenario that seemed "broken" because it was too short.

[womble]

I guess I am expecting too much from this game, when it comes to implementation of some "slow" tactics.

You might be expecting a bit much for every scenario to allow you to have all the time in the world to achieve your goals. Military operations run on timetables. While the war might not be lost because you didn't hit your objectives, your career (if you were a real commander) might suffer if you were unable to achieve your goals because of a lack of activity, or being too timid.

CM certainly rewards patience, but you also have to know how and when to press harder if you want to be able to win all the scenarios. Remember that standalone scenarios are like little stories, telling the tale of a snippet of the war's action. The timescale of the scenario and the victory conditions assigned serve, at least in part, to provide the context for that story which you will be acting out and deciding the outcome of. Part of the context is the time alloted to achieve a goal. If you only have a little way to go, the goal might not be worth as many VPs. Perhaps the scenario designers have made the really juicy VLs worth more points, not because they're hard to get to, but because they're hard to get to given the time available. In the end, with the full game and its scenario editor, it's entirely up to you how long you give yourself. But adding an extra hour onto a playtested scenario makes the victory conditions of that scenario less meaningful. Which is all fine and dandy, so long as you're aware of what you're measuring, or not giving any hoots at all about that metric.

It needs to be a bit more stable in that sense...

I don't know what you mean by "stable". I think it might be a second-language problem.

...scripted AI is based on the time limit, so players must be "scripted" to the time also.

Indeed. Or at least "kinda". You're given a start point and some parameters, there's no script and you have to improvise the telling. You're telling a story, in the context of the scenario, so you have to accept the limits of the scenario (its terrain, the opposition, your forces, the scenario VCs, the weather, the time available) if you're going to tell the story of that scenario. Change any of those and you're changing the context.

[Kalibri]

Purchased it today.

Regards,

[StieliAlpha]

Congratulation and good choice! There is no better tactical game series around.

 

And re to your timer question: Well, in the real world you normally do not have all the time in the world, too. One usually one has to accomplish something in a given time frame. It starts with simple tasks like being at work in time. The idea is the same as in CM: Identify the objective, plan, act.

 

And usually: Adapt your plan to what happens out there...

Edited January 10, 2015 by StieliAlpha

[womble]

It's also worth recognising that you can achieve a lot more in a "CM-combat-hour" than you could in most "RL-combat-hours". The player's God's-eye view and omniscience means that activity can be coordinated on a much shorter timescale than would be necessary if you had to trot the various decision-makers around to conflab, or get them on the horn from a different radio net. You probably get a better sense of the effectiveness of your actions, more quickly, too, so you can progress to your next stage with more confidence, sooner than a RL commander would be able to. So an hour of CM might represent more like 3 hours of actual combat, but with most of the shilly-shallying taken out.