ChrisND
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Posts posted by ChrisND
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www.twitch.tv/chrisnd
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Hey guys,
To resume my Sunday streams I'm going to play some Final Blitzkrieg today. Hopefully I that make up a bit for the end of the AAR. ;-) I hope to start at the usual time in two hours (1200 PST). However, I'm dealing with a minor plumbing emergency at home so I may start later in the day, or have to stop and restart the stream... we'll see how things go.
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My sixth sense is telling me the scenario pack is coming out today (that was always planned before CMFB)
It will definitely not be coming out today, or in the next few days. We need the new website and store in action first! This is our main effort at the moment.
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No mercy to gremlins!
What will the price of the pack be?
$10 I believe.
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Thats great news, sounds close (barring any gremlins being found at the last minute)!!
The last minute gremlins are currently being stomped flat. ;-)
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Any news JonS, are we close?
We are in Release Candidate testing for the Battle Pack and Patch v3.12 now (they will arrive together). That is the final stage before release. The hour/day that we deem it ready, it goes out. The next question will be "when?!"... I can't say just yet. We have a couple of issues we are working through before I can give a better estimate.
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Straying into politics (which never ends well on a BB), going to have to lock this. Sorry.
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So I guess we're all showing our back when we were cool photos?
Anyway. Those are the sweet clear versions of the ballistic lenses and the eyeglass insert on my face circa 2010. They are a nearly inescapable part of being a soldier so long as there's a Sergeant Major somewhere in the AO.
Although there is a criminal lack of PT belts around these parts.
What readers will not see in this photo, is how you got run over 5 seconds later because you weren't wearing a PT belt.
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Here is the document, attached to this post for downloading. For now I am not including the graphics or the order of battle. Please read Page 2 carefully as it will explain the intent of the doc.
Caveats:
- This is an internal design doc that was used as a reference for Black Sea's development, so it isn't all prettied up for the public. Lots of text (probably with typos or mistranslations) and very rough graphics.
- Nothing in this document is a promise of future content. There are references to forces in the text that are not yet available in the game, but they are here simply as a resource for brainstorming material.
- Remember that the document was started well before the current situation in Ukraine/Crimea happened. Some things were updated (like Russia moving into Crimea), but for the most part this was written a long time ago. So many of the events will not match with the reality today.
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Would it be possible for there to be a CM game with the scope of the CM1 games? CMBB had hundreds of units from 41-45 and CMAK had all that plus more nationalities and theatres. Is it just not possible to make that much content in any appreciable amount of time?
I wasn't working for Battlefront at the time, but Steve has said several times that they almost killed themselves (figuratively I hope) putting out that much stuff in one release. And their reward was that now some people expect that much content every time, like it's no big deal (thank the heavens, this has mostly died out). I know that by the end of Black Sea's development, a title that we crammed a LOT of stuff into, I was so stressed out that my health started to deteriorate. I think I had heart palpitations just thinking of trying to do the entire Eastern Front in one go, with the level of detail needed for CMx2. If such a thing were to exist it would have to be a compilation of multiple products.
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Speed has been banned as a sockpuppet of a previous member.
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How far can you go beyond history in the German campaign, I'm guessing you will never see Antwerp?
If you manage to make it to the successful end of the campaign, you go into hypothetical territory and attack hasty American defenses at Werbomont. This is something the Germans could very much have done if some things had gone differently.
Taking Werbomont is the end of the campaign. At that point, the way to a Meuse river bridge is clear, which was KG Peiper's objective. Follow-on units were to continue the advance to Antwerp.
Failing the campaign (either taking too long to advance by getting held up at Stoumont or beyond Stoumont, or by running out of fuel), results in a fail end mission where you have to exfil the dismounted KG through American positions.
Of course, this whole plan is really doomed from the start in the bigger scheme of things. You can win the campaign and achieve your objective, but in reality the wider operation is still doomed to failure as we all know.
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Are there changes to the campaign system? Or is it the same as before where you choose which route to take by choosing an exit or objective?
Correct. You have a standard mission, but there are a couple routes to take. One route ends in a Major Victory for the scenario, and results in a branch that goes one way. The other results in a Total Victory for the scenario, and goes to a different branch.
There are two major decisions that affect the rest of the campaign. The first is whether to stop for the night and reorganize before attacking Stavelot, or attacking immediately in darkness. Attacking in darkness is tricky and could go very badly, and because of the narrow roads you will have to do it with just the leading force, but if you pull it off you get to capture Stavelot many hours earlier, which puts your whole operation on a faster track. In addition since you didn't get the night to rest, you have to deal with decreased fitness/experience due to fatigue for days afterwards. The second branch is, just after capturing Stavelot, whether you want to spend time looking for fuel depots or instead continue west as quickly as possible. If you continue west as quickly as possible, you gain the benefits of a speedy advance but will now HAVE to keep your supply lines open or the campaign is over as your panzers run out of fuel.
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Looks like a fine list there Chris. Obviously a lot of projects on the go and much to do.
1 Quick question about Final Blitzkrieg. Will it continue until the end of January 1945?
Yes. There are some Nordwind scenarios and other Jan 45 scenarios included.
2 For Black Sea I would definitely like to see Eastern European NATO forces such as Poland and the Baltic States (maybe the latter are small enough to make it into the forthcoming module allowing for the possibilities of an expanded war scenario as Russia attempts to divert NATO forces with a "Second Front" invasion of Latvia. Lithuania and Estonia - thwe Marines could then see action in the Northern theater as well as in the Crimea/South Ukraine
Personally I'd love to see Poland included as soon as possible, but the plan currently is to expand the equipment, forces, and capabilities of the nations already present before moving to other nations. However all of this is very preliminary.
3 The Italy module would need the Brazilian Corps and the Volksgrenadiers (there were a couple of VG divisions involved during the final battles
Volksgrenadiers won't be a problem, after all they have been made for Final Blitzkrieg. Brazil is a solid "maybe".
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Yes, in that regard, campaigns are protected from editing, but what is there to prevent one from simply emailing the Battlepack scenario and whole campaign file to other non-purchasers?
The Battle Pack contents (campaign and standalone scenarios) are indeed protected, in the same way that other CMx2 products are. No different than not allowing people to not share playable module scenarios with people who don't own the module.
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Thanks for your reply Chris.
It does say in the original post: 'A Battle Pack is a community member-made set of campaigns'
You are being pedantic. You can be a member of the community and still do paid work for a project. Not mutually exclusive. Refer to Macisle's Star Wars costume maker example above. Just because the guy makes a line of costumes officially for Star Wars, doesn't mean he no longer does things as a part of the community afterwards, or during. The phrasing could be better, though, and that will be corrected in the future.
Maybe I have misunderstood but in the modding community that I belong to a community member made set of anything is regarded as a mod (modification of the original game made by a member of the games fanbase).
And as I've already stated, the people involved in CMx2's development are something more than fanbase members.
There seems to be a misconception that I am wanting something for nothing?
I am more than happy to pay for a MOD as long as it's voluntary and I often do.
The VALVE corporation recently tried this stunt and failed, not because the community didn't want to pay, they revolted because the concept of paid mods is contrary to what the modding community stand for.
Once again, this isn't a mod, so the above is moot. Ignoring what people say isn't a great way to have a discussion (and I use that term loosely, since it is obvious that you aren't actually interested in a discussion).
I am not interested in a flame war with businessmen as that's just a waste of my time and yours.
I think that is the first time (and probably the last time) that anyone has ever referred to me as a "businessman". This only proves that you've no idea what place you have stumbled into.
Just let's have some honesty about the situation, contracts or not.
Ah yes, the insinuation that we are deceiving you somehow (and how, exactly?), despite the fact that we were upfront about everything, even with multiple heads-up over the months on what is happening before an official website announcement. This is the last resort of someone who has nothing constructive left to contribute.
I am sure all your fanboys (brainwashed sheep) will come to your defence anyway.
If they are stupid enough to pay for a community mod then they you all deserve each other.
I'm fed up with you strolling in here with your mind already made up with ill-conceived assumptions and insulting everyone here. Considering that you haven't given even a hint of actually reading and understanding what other people have presented to you, I don't see much hope in this going anywhere but a pointless flamewar. Banned.
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Dress it up how you want...it's a mod...end of.
No, it isn't. The people privy to CMx2's development are not the general public, especially when they have entered into a contract with us to do work. We have a number of "beta testers" (not really the most accurate term in our case, but it stuck) doing part time and contract work for us right now. Would you consider anything they do a mod? I really hope that that answer is no. Then why would you consider someone entering into an agreement with us to make content for sale (using the engine that Battlefront built) to be making mods, as opposed to making a product?
You can redefine terms all you want, but no one will take you seriously when you do. Considering that your core argument is incorrect, I'm not even going to bother with the rest since it is built on a flawed foundation.
These scenarios and maps you speak of, how much do you pay for them?
Like many arrangements, the terms between us and the battle pack designer are private and will remain that way.
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How much will the battle pack cost?
$10 download. The designer of the Battle Pack also gets a significant cut of each sale.
And how much will the patch 3.12 cost?
Free. Patches are always free.
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Spelling corrections made!
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Well appearently it's on their todo list for 4.0 anyways, but there's a bunch of stuff that comes to mind pretty easily. Just off the top off my head:
- more branching options and conditions (not just binary win/loose conditions)
- reusing maps and keeping battle damage (craters, destroyed buildings, knocked out vehicles, KIA maybe)
- better refitting system (users can chose which units to refit/repair/resupply between scenarios maybe)
- more options for refitting in general, like differentiating between armor and infantry (e.g armor gets repaired but infantry does not recieve replacements for instance or only some specified units are resupplied while others are not)
None of those would be really major overhauls I think and could be extensions to the current system
Without confirming or denied anything specific, or even commenting on any of the specific items above, this is a good idea of the sorts of things to expect from the upgrade in regards to campaign systems. Provided, of course, that plans for the upgrade remain on track (could I add ANY more qualifiers?!). Basically, expect refinements to the current campaign system we have, not the inclusion of a brand new one. It's an upgrade, not a rebuild. ;)
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I didn't know there were two types of Jagdtigers. There weren't all that many built to begin with I understand.
A version was designed that mounted the 88mm gun, but it never went into production, and thus never saw combat.
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Brazilians? that might bulk out the pack a bit.
They are a possibility. Too early to say one way or the other yet. The only ones that I am fairly certain we won't do are the Greeks. Too much effort for a force that was only in a small area.
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Over in the 2015 Christmas Bones thread I've posted some info on upcoming developments for Fortress Italy. Here's the thread and the relevant posts:
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/121562-2015-christmas-bones/
6. The next Fortress Italy module is in the early stages of development, at this point primarily artwork by our 3D artist Cassio.
- This new module will push the timeline for the Italian front all the way from June 1944 to the end of the war in May 1945.
- The main operations covered will be the race north following the capture of Rome, the fighting on the Gothic Line, and the Po Valley offensives in 1945.
- The following services will be added: British Indian Army, South Africa, French Expeditionary Corps (including Moroccan Goumiers), and Waffen-SS. Of course, existing services will be filled out with all of the new formations that have been created for other Combat Mission titles since the last Fortress Italy module released: Gebirgsjäger units, Luftwaffe Field Divisions, flamethrower units, etc. All currently existing formations will be updated to 1945 TO&E. Also: US Mountain units.
- 3D work has already been done on the following equipment for the module: Sherman III Kangaroo, Churchill NA75, Sherman IC Firefly Hybrid, StuG IV, M1917 Enfield rifle, M1935 and M1982 French pistols, FN/29 French LMG, Gewehr 33/40(t) rifle, T32 37mm AT gun, and the GebG 36 75mm mountain gun. These are just the start of the work on new equipment.
- The module will also incorporate all of the work done on the Combat Mission engine to date since since Gustav Line launched... that's a LOT of stuff to add to Italy. Off the top of my head, that includes features, units, and equipment from: Engine v3.0, Red Thunder, CMBN Vehicle Pack, CMBN Market Garden, and Final Blitzkrieg.
Fun PRE-ALPHA image of a new soldier for the Fortress Italy module:
Our current plan for filling out Fortress Italy is the following. NOTE THAT THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Nothing here is laid in stone yet.
- Gothic Line Module (that won't be the actual name for it) that pushes the timeline to the end of the war. Details on it are already present in the first post. Basically this module pushes the timeline to the end, and rounds out missing Commonwealth and German forces.
- An Italian Forces Pack that adds a ton of Post-Armistice Italian forces to the Allies and Axis sides. Italian partisans, captured Italian equipment in use by Germans, actual Italian military forces operating under Allied and Axis sides, the works. This would be a pretty big Pack that will completely revolve around the Italians. I'm personally super excited for this pack, it will be a lot of fun to make and play.
- An Elite Forces Pack that includes such things as Commandos and 1st Special Service Force. This would be a pretty small Pack, and may just get rolled into something else. Details are murky at this point.
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Cool. Now that we have Paras, Commandos are next on my wish list.
Our current plan for filling out Fortress Italy is the following. NOTE THAT THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Nothing here is laid in stone yet.
- Gothic Line Module (that won't be the actual name for it) that pushes the timeline to the end of the war. Details on it are already present in the first post. Basically this module pushes the timeline to the end, and rounds out missing Commonwealth and German forces.
- An Italian Forces Pack that adds a ton of Post-Armistice Italian forces to the Allies and Axis sides. Italian partisans, captured Italian equipment in use by Germans, actual Italian military forces operating under Allied and Axis sides, the works. This would be a pretty big Pack that will completely revolve around the Italians. I'm personally super excited for this pack, it will be a lot of fun to make and play.
- An Elite Forces Pack that includes such things as Commandos and 1st Special Service Force. This would be a pretty small Pack, and may just get rolled into something else. Details are murky at this point.
Hey, more bones!
Twitch Stream of Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg today
in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg
Posted
Almost certainly going to start late. Just a heads-up.