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Special Upgrade 4 Tech Tips

Moon

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Posts posted by Moon

    Installation question.

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    I can answer the first two:

    1) No, CMFI does not update CMBN. You will need the Upgrade for that. CMFI itself is using the v2.0 engine.

    2) No, CMFI is not installed in the same place as CMBN. It defaults to its own folder inside Program Files (inside the Battlefront folder you may already have). You can of course change the install location. However, installing inside the CMBN folder will break BOTH CMBN and CMFI, so you can't do that in any case.

    Note also that CMFI has changed the file/folder structure. It now better complies with Microsoft Windows requirements, and it puts the main game files inside Program Files, but most user files (including scenarios, save games etc.) in side My Documents. The latter is not editable in the installer (but you can change the location of your My Documents folder in Windows). That's the way Microsoft wants it.

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    Norton Internet Security

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    As with Commonwealth, there is zero reason for Norton to do this. The game is properly signed by us and doesn't even do anything special other than using a little encryption. But then, Norton had blocked its own website for me back when I got it preinstalled on a new PC and tried to contact their support about how to get rid of it. Happy on an iMac now. :)

    Martin

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    buying game

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    Hi huhr, this is how upgrades work, for every product that is upgradeable. We didn't invent this :)

    Someone buying a computer for the first time today pays only for that new computer, while if you bought a computer 5 years ago and are now buying a new one or buying a new component, you have "to pay more money" to have the same thing.

    But the person buying a computer for the first time didn't use it for those 5 years that you used yours. So the limited comparison you draw is flawed.

    Having said that... the Upgrades won't be expensive. And for the most part they will be optional, too.

    Martin

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    Where will game ship from?

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    The EU with 500 million is a bigger market than the US so to lump us in with Australia, Canada and New Zealand who scale out at 24, 35, and 4 million seems a trifle lacking in appreciation of potential market size.

    Perhaps sales in the EU would be a lot higher but for the very high cost we pay for the game. And of course for many EU citizens WW2 has a more than passing historical significance.

    The EU is bigger than the four examples I gave, but the Rest of the World including other countries is considerably bigger than the EU, of course. Purely in terms of population, that is, but that's the figure you used :)

    Sales in the EU are great, and have been continuously increasing in the past years. People who don't like the VAT they have to pay (which apply to anything you buy in that country, btw) can always opt for the download only option.

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    Where will game ship from?

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    I'll crosspost my reply below. CW didn't have printed goods.

    Oh, that's a bit of a long story. The main problem are the printed manuals and the tin cases, which would have to be shipped from the US to the EU warehouse because it's too expensive to have them produced in the EU AND the US separately. We had a lot of issues with EU customs in the more recent past, with huge inexplicable delays that make any kind of release schedule totally unreliable. Worst case, EU customers may end up having to wait 6 months on their hardgoods, because that's how long the last shipment we attempted got stuck!

    So the only viable option is to ship from the US. While this certainly is not as convenient for EU customers as when we ship from Germany, it isn't any different than it's always been for all other international non-EU customer (Canada, Australia/NZ, China... just to name a few of the biggest ones).

    Martin

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    The Road Ahead

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    Only one bug bear..UK customs are going to get us again. BFC why are you not shipping from the Euro warehouse like the CW module?

    Oh, that's a bit of a long story. The main problem are the printed manuals and the tin cases, which would have to be shipped from the US to the EU warehouse because it's too expensive to have them produced in the EU AND the US separately. We had a lot of issues with EU customs in the more recent past, with huge inexplicable delays that make any kind of release schedule totally unreliable. Worst case, EU customers may end up having to wait 6 months on their hardgoods, because that's how long the last shipment we attempted got stuck!

    So the only viable option is to ship from the US. While this certainly is not as convenient for EU customers as when we ship from Germany, it isn't any different than it's always been for all other international non-EU customer (Canada, Australia/NZ, China... just to name a few of the biggest ones).

    Martin

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    Where will game ship from?

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    Quote from the preorder page:

    A note to our European customers: the Tin Case Edition is shipping exclusively from our main US fulfillment location. This means that our European customers, just like all other international customers, may be subject to their local customs and import regulations. In most cases this merely means that there is a chance that you have to pay your country's VAT on top of the purchase price. The only known exception currently is the UK, where apparently the Royal Mail service is charging a flat handling fee on top.

    You can of course wait until the game is released and then go for the download only option if you don't want to pay the UK Royal Mail fee or VAT.

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    Upgrades Q&A

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    Since the beginning of the Combat Mission, more than a dozen years ago, customers have asked for the ability to keep their favorite games up-to-date with improvements made for newer games. After years of careful planning we are happy to announce that Upgrades are soon to be a standard option for Combat Mission customers.

    In regular intervals, we will release a totally new standalone game which includes a host of major and minor improvements that go way beyond bug fixes and tweaks to existing features. What sorts of features are we talking about? Read up on the new features of Combat Mission: Fortress Italy to see what we're talking about, because all those features are now part of the CMx2 Game Engine Version 2.0 standard.

    A few months after the new game releases, owners of previous Combat Mission games can purchase Upgrades to add those features to CM products they already own. The delayed availability is necessary to ensure that our small team has enough time to ensure quality control (especially backwards compatibility) before releasing them.

    Each distinct "family" of Combat Mission games only needs one upgrade regardless of how many Modules are already owned. New Modules (not released yet when an upgrade is available) will use features only found in the latest version, so existing customers must Upgrade if they want to use new Modules.

    Upgrades are backwards compatible with all battles and campaigns, no matter who authored them or which units/terrain are used within them. Some Mods will work without modification, others may need to be updated to take advantage of game engine changes.

    Once an Upgrade is released those features become standard for all new customers. Existing customers can purchase the features as a stand alone Upgrade for the game of their choice. The previous version of each game will continue being sold for some time, at a discounted price (and can of course be upgraded later on if desired).

    The new Upgrade concept offers customers, new and old, a variety of new purchase options. Existing customers can buy an Upgrade for a previous CM family they own on its own, or bundled with a new Module at a discounted price. New customers can either purchase the current version game at full price or the previous version at a discount.

    As always, we will continue to release free patches to fix technical problems and improve the performance of existing features as needed. Upgrades are not paid patches, but come with major new features that offer new functionality and game play elements.

    Unfortunately, we can not offer Upgrades for CMx1 games, CM Shock Force and Afghanistan. Too much has changed with the basic code, artwork, and file formats to make this practical since their releases to make backwards compatibility viable.

    So, what does this mean in concrete terms for you right now, playing Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy and enviously gawking at the Combat Mission: Fortress Italy feature list? It means that once CMFI is out sometime in August, we'll work on an Upgrade 2.0 for CMBN. You will be able to buy this upgrade (the price is not yet determined), install it and voila, you will have Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy v2.0!!! The upgrade will automatically work for the base game and the Commonwealth module.

    The next module in the CM:BN family (more about this in the coming days) will already be featuring CMx2 v2.0, and will *require* that upgrade.

    Questions?

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    The Road Ahead

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    Combat Mission fans have a lot to look forward to in the next year as the CMx2 game engine continues to produce games at an every faster pace. At the moment we have three games in active development and more planned. While we aren't in a position to make detailed announcements right now, we can tell you what the three are about (in no particular order):

    1. CM: Battle for Normandy Module 2. This Module picks up where CM:BN and Commonwealth left off... with the September push out of France to the German border. The content centers around Operation Market Garden, though it covers more ground than just that. The game includes a number of new vehicles, formations, and new terrain models/textures. Adding new terrain, a first for any Module so far, ensures that you feel like you're fighting near Germany and not still back at the beacheads.

    2. CM: Eastern Front 1. The first of four Eastern Front "families" starts with Operation Bagration (June 1944) and eventually covers through to the end of the war (May 1945). For many tactical warfare enthusiasts, this period is considered the most tactically interesting since both sides were at their peak of their military technology, organization, and experience. The scope and scale of the combat offers plenty of subject matter to explore.

    3. CM: Shock Force 2. Our return to modern warfare is long overdue! Given how close Shock Force 1 was at predicting a conventional conflict in Syria, we're a little nervous about choosing a topic this time around. Especially because we've chosen to simulate a full spectrum conventional conflict between NATO and Russia in the Ukraine. This gives players a rich tactical environment to explore with the most advanced militaries the world has ever seen. Having said that, we hope the politicians aren't insane enough to try it for real. Even thought this is great stuff for a game, it's the last thing this world needs in real life.

    We have more games planned for 2013, however we are making no formal announcements at this time. These three mini-announcements should be enough to keep you busy for a while.

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    NOTE: iPod Touch 4th Gen users

    in Combat Mission: Touch (iOS / Android)

    Posted

    As you have noticed, there is a persistent crash bug in the 1.2 version of Combat Mission Touch which somehow managed to slip through the cracks, err, I mean Apple QA and beta testing. We have a fix that is being tested right now and hopefully can be submitted to Apple this week for a 1.3 update. Sorry about this.

    If you gave us a 1-star review because of this bug, fair enough. Please download 1.3 once it's out and don't forget to give us a fair chance to make up by updating your rating! Watch this space for when the update is submitted and approved (and you'll be notified via the AppStore as usual, as well, of course).

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