CMSF Release date announced!

[CaptainBly]

Now that the boring news is out of the way when is the WWII module going to be available? I could hardly give squat about modern day wargames nor real time clickfest such as TOW. Bout time you got down to your bread n butter games like WWII and CMC's.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by CaptainBly:

Now that the boring news is out of the way when is the WWII module going to be available? I could hardly give squat about modern day wargames nor real time clickfest such as TOW. Bout time you got down to your bread n butter games like WWII and CMC's.

My guess is that they first have to model

Water.

Bridges.

Bocage.

Houses with sloping roofs. Church steeples and bell towers. Village wells. All the screenshots I've seen of CMSF show flat roofs. Gonna have to model it different for Europe. Can infantry go up there? Do they want to? Gotta model animations for that, if so.

On a related note, cellars. Not an inconsiderable challenge for the coders, I think.

Culin hedgerow device. This was abstracted in CMBO.

Underbelly hits. Gotta program the AI to take those shots.

Ability to split squads on historical lines rather than two man fireteams as is 2007 practice.

Panzerfaust availability.

Anti-tank magnetic mines. And a morale model to let the Germans use them.

Teller mines as improvised anti-tank device.

Anti-tank mines.

Schu-mines.

Rifle grenades vs personnel.

Rifle grenades as anti-tank device.

Open-topped AFVs and all that goes with them - mortar fire vs., close assaults against, etc.

Halftracks, including coding the vehicle to actually drive like one - mobility would be different than a full track or a wheeled vehicle. Again, these are not in CM:SF. Pretty much standard for a US armored infantry battalion, not essential for a German order of battle but certainly expected by the game playing public.

Trailers - including reverse movement. Even if just for jeeps, but some flame vehicles and SPs used trailers for ammunition. Probably not essential until you get to the Crocodile - bear in mind US forces used them, notably at Brest, though the vehicles and crews were British.

Come to that - reverse movement for German armoured cars, especially those with two drivers. An armoured car with a second driver would be at a big tactical advantage compared to a regular vehicle. This should be coded specially.

Completely different offboard artillery procedures (current US Army artillery is oncall to a lot more people than in 1944, and the Germans handled it differently also at least in terms of time of response).

Tactical air support pretty much non-existent in 1944 at the company level. But they existed over the front - so did the fact that IFF was much more crude. So you need to change your parameters to make friendly fire even more likely if you are including friendly aircraft. And make them far less lethal to the enemy as well. Would need to be treated in the engine much differently, I think, from what every goes on under the hood in a fictional Syria 2007 scenario.

Rocket artillery - Nebelwerfer and Calliope; the latter probably needn't be modelled but the former should probably be - and would you just use the MRLS model from CM:SF (is it even modelledin CM:SF?) or would you need to do something different? Should it have a distinct morale effect? Off the top of my head, I would think it would be more inaccurate than modern rocket artillery, but again, perhaps not a "must have", but that depends on the exact formation you choose to simulate.

Rain - lots of it, and not just drops on the screen - in an hour long battle, water should pool up in low lying areas, create mud, puddles, adversely effect driving. This needs to be modelled.

Fog - the ability to lift, roll, come back in again.

Night - no night vision equipment. Moon phases. Cloud cover. Starshells. Trip flares.

Ability for map designer to pack villages very densely (closer than 5 metres)

AI able to drive vehicles through same villages, including single lane roads

MGs that can go from LMG to HMG mode (MG34 on lafette mount, switchable to light mode) during the game.

Light mortars as indicated onboard and offboard.

Poor communication between friendly tanks and infantry should be modelled - again, this is much different than a 2007 model would be. Radio comms between a tank platoon and an infantry company would be much different in 1944, if such even existed in some units.

Weapons:

M-1 Garand

M-1 Garand sniper

Springifle sniper

M-1 Carbine

M-2 Carbine

M-3 Carbine

Browning Automatic Rifle

M1919 MMG

M1919 HMG

M1919 LMG

.50 calibre HMG, ground mount

Thompson SMG

M3 SMG

.45 M1911A1 autopistol

MP40

Kar98k

K98 sniper

K43

K43 sniper

MP43

FG42

P08/P38 pistol

MG34

MG42

Vehicles

Jeep

Beep

Seep

M3 HT

M3A1 HT

M16 HT

M9 HT

M21 HT

M5 tank

M4 tank

10 other types of friggin M4 tanks

M10 TD

M36 TD

M18 TD

2-1/2 ton truck

armoured cars - M20, M8

PzKpfw IVF2

10 other types of friggin PzKpfw IV

PzKpfw V

PzKpfw VI

Most StuGs than I can count

Ditto Panzerjäger types

Kübelwagen

light truck

medium truck

SP AA trucks

SP mtr vehicles

Armoured cars! 2 wheels, 4 wheels, Puma, armed, unarmed funkwagens

Ordnance

57mm ATG

75mm ATG

Bazooka

FT

5.0cm ATG

7.5cm ATG

8.8cm AA/AT

PzSchreck

20mm AA

quad 20mm AA

37mm AA

FT

German grenade bundles

New 3d models for all this, plus skins for all of them. And deciduous trees. Evergreens. Grain. Probably a whole new UI.

Program the AI to change engagement ranges. American tanks won't want to engage enemy tanks at 1500 metres the way an Abrams crew might. Model the shot trap on the Panther. Deliberate immobilization attempts. Fire smoke and HE at a Panther or Tiger, try and fool the crew into bailing out by setting his stowage on fire or filling his ventilator with fumes. M1 Abrams don't need to resort to that, but Sherman crews do. Should be modelled. Probably wouldn't need to be in CM:SF.

Schürzen. Zimmerit. Nahveirteidigungswaffe. Soft (sandbag) armour. All that stuff needs to be coded and modelled and tweaked because it was all used and CMBO didn't model all of it. It isn't a case of just plugging it into the new engine, I don't think.

German infantry tactics - do these differ significantly from the Syrians? I'm betting they do. How did a German squad do business? The MG was the centre of attention. The use of outposts appears to have been big. Should the German squad be allowed to split into smaller groups than a US squad? Either way, I'd hope to see them coded significantly differently than Syrian or US troops circa 2007. Otherwise, what is the point? Just mod the uniforms and put a different label on the DVD in that case.

So expect a few months minimum. I have no inside knowledge.

The guys might want a week or two of vacation. Or hell, they might make enough off of CM:SF to be able to retire. Wouldn't that be nice for them.

[ May 24, 2007, 07:46 AM: Message edited by: Michael Dorosh ]

[Pvt. Ryan]

Plus they have to release a WWII based game before they can make WWII modules.

[Other Means]

You know, if BFC didn't make these games, I don't think anyone would. Then what would I have done for the past...4 YEARS?!

Cheers BFC, add me to the refreshing monkey column. Any word on the min specs?

[Stolly]

Good news, i'll be getting this game.

[Ron Meier]

Congrats

[gunnergoz]

I want it, but I'll be in Ukraine then...can't buy it until at least late August...sniff, sniff.

[unsobill]

Originally posted by gunnergoz:

I want it, but I'll be in Ukraine then...can't buy it until at least late August...sniff, sniff.

central Ukraine ? when are you going and how much is the ticket ? i want to visit Ukraine also - best women on the planet there :eek: ...

[donnieitaly]

Okay that's my birthday present sorted. (And the next ten years of my available free time.)

[Bigduke6]

Gunner, if you're in the neighborhood of Kiev give me a shout, I probably can recommend an establishment or two serving beer at a reasonable price.

Drop me a line by e-mail: stefankorshak@yahoo.com

Usobill,

About 550 to 900 bucks US for two way economy, most major US cities, depending.

Oh... and WELL DONE Battlefront!

I will get a licensed copy I will, which considering where I am demonstrates a considerable degree of customer loyalty to your fine company.

After all, I can obtain the latest version of Photoshop bootleg around here for about three smackers - but no, BF will get my full gaming dollar.

Now. Since you have modern war out of your system and all, please take a long vacation, lay down a nice tan, and then get back to World War Two.

[Lee]

Great to see the release date for CMII. Take a well deserved break, crank out a couple expansion packs (which hopefully will include all vehicles, etc. needed to allow Israel - arab wars (the 6 Day War, etc.) to be recreated in the scenario editor) and then onto the main event; WWII.

[V]

Great news!

[mitchell58]

pre-orders?????Dircet to drive?????credit card willing and waiting,,,

[Tactical Wargamer]

INdeed must be soon.