BFCElvis

Bil or Warren can tell you for sure but here's a funny-ish story. It's also why I pushed so hard for it to be kept quite which is another story. So, I'll take a minute and tell both. Maybe a year and half ago. I was looking at the Beta forum and I saw the Cold War forum. For whatever reason, in the back of my mind I had thought that I had seen it many times (and I probably had) but I never gave it much thought. In the back of my mind it was a long dormant legacy forum of a game that was never made. On this particular day I also noticed that a recent post had been made. HHmmmm...I wonder why anyone is posting in there. That is where I saw all of the hard work that Bil and Warren had been doing. Their plans, their research, campaign ideas, you name it. My mind was blown. At that time I think only 5 or 6 people had access to the forum. Beta testers didn't know it existed until they were invited in. When they were brought in their minds were blown too. Which led to this............... I don't know how many people here remember the release of CMFI. When it was dropped on us testers we had no idea that anything like that game was being developed. The first time the public heard about was when pre-orders were opened. It wasn't a hard sell to HQ, Bil and Warren to recreate that. Especially with this title. We knew this was going to blow minds. I'm an old timer in these parts. I think when we had numbers attached to our forum profiles I was number 64 or somefink. I have seen people ask for this since back then and we wanted to make it's announcement something special. I think we accomplished that.

The new forum is open for business.

We are proud to announce that pre-orders for Combat Mission Cold war are open. Click here for full details about this standalone game. This has been a labor of love begun by @Bil Hardenbergerand Warren @The_Capt. This is our first release along with Slitherine/Matrix Games. You purchase will also give you access to the Steam version of the game. The expected release date is April 2021

This is for all you old timers who maybe can’t squint at pixels as well as you once did

......for something completely different. Link to the webpages following soon.

What happens when you choose Target Smoke instead of Target?

Correct. But I requested (begged) Charles to also include a desktop shortcut for Shock Force 2 and Fortress Italy when the Rome to Victory "patch" was released. On the Help Desk it's easier to say "the desktop shortcut".

Just to clear up any confusion.....The patch is also Fire and Rubble. They are not 2 separate things. When F&R is finished it will be released as a patch which everyone can download, regardless of whether or not you purchased F&R. The only difference is that you need a F&R key to "unlock" the module's content contained in the patch. There will not be downloads for the patch and another for the module. They will be the same download.

Nope. Sorry. If there are it's because I dropped the ball and missed something.

Correct there will be no specific download for the module. When it is released there will be a new patch released. That patch will contain the module's content. Your FR license key will "unlock" the content. As Ian mentioned, the best way to install the game ow is to use the all-in-one full game installer. Depending on when you purchased the base game that will either be your base game purchase or your 4.0 Upgrade purchase. As soon as the module is completed those downloads will also contain the new module. Actually, those will probably be uploaded before the patch by a few minutes.

No need to apologize.

Correct. You have to have Game Engine 4 for Fire and Rubble but it is not included in Fire and Rubble. Just like Rome to Victory. Game Engine 2 was required for the Market Garden module back in the day, when Game Engine 2 was the newest. And Game Engine 3 was required for the CMBN Battle Pack and Vehicle Packs. And Game Engine 4 was required for the CMBS Battle Pack. The new modules and Packs are built using the most recent game engines.

This happened with Black Sea because there was no way around it in the short timeframe that we had. Assume that what happened with Black Sea will be the exception and not the norm. Will it work out that way or not? Hard to tell at the moment. The next title slated for Steam is CMBN. I don't think there is a firm date for CMRT on Steam yet but if someone wants to see if they can save 10 bucks by waiting until it is on Steam that's their call. I spent $9.61 on 2 cookies and 2 bownies at Chick-fil-a last night. And yes, as rathdeath said, having a Game Engine 4 version of Red Thunder is required for Fire and Rubble.

I'm seeing 124.

0.......

Historically, the gap between pre-orders and release date is 4 to 8 weeks. Rome to Victory was the BIG exception to that.

Fixed. The current version of Red Thunder is missing the last Game Engine 4 patch. That will be the patch that will be out fairly soon. I think that the thing a lot of people liked most about that one is that it is harder to dislodge infantry in good cover.

Emails are sent to all pre-order buyers when it is available for download. After some time (usually between 6 and 24 hours) forum and website home page announcements are made. This gives time for the upload to propagate the servers and find out if something "catastrophic" is wrong with the installers. I don't think that has ever happened but as Spock said to Saavik in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan " For everything there is a first time, Lieutenant."

Yup. It has been like that since the 4.0 Upgrade came out. Yes, it is unfortunate that all that get's displayed is the order number. If it is at all helpful, it should be the only purchase that you have for $25. When I'm working with someone on the Help Desk and I'm trying to figure out if they have that Bundle the first thing that I do is scan their account for any $25 purchases and start my search there.

For you there is. The 4.0 Upgrade Big Bundle link will link you to the full game installers for everything except for CMSF2. (Your order number 310297) Using that link you will notice 4 downloads links for each game. 2 Mac and 2 Windows. And for each operating system 1 for the Upgrade only and 1 for the full game installer. So, when you go to re-install the games the only link that you need is your order number 310297 link. Then download only the full installer for each game. All of those will install the games up to the most recent patch available. If you have all 5 games, 1 download and 1 thing to install for each game. Not quite as simple as Steam but close.

Correct. There will be a patch....That is actually the release. It will contain the Fire and Rubble content. Your key will "unlock" the content. Rome to Victory worked this way. Your memory is spot on regarding the minor Game Engine 4 patch. CMRT is the only title that didn't get it because it is going to be in this release.

Yeah. Someone thought the logo I had put up was less than perfect and put up the Red Hammer logo......I have switched it back.

Also, to pull the curtain back a little bit......I stopped counting at 20. Some are not marked as "Final" yet and some have been added very recently. That's why I didn't give a hard number. This module is a heck of a muse for scenario designers.

Fixed it. Thanks for the heads up.