benpark
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Posts
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Posts posted by benpark
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8 hours ago, Col Rosenberger said:
Minor typo in mission briefing for "The Rites of Spring" battle.
"... were choked were choked with mud,"
They were obviously stuck.
I'll fix that. Thanks.
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40 minutes ago, Aquila-SmartWargames said:
I put the video on private.
I had a great time tuning in on that- you covered a lot of stuff (and there's still maps and QBs left). I'd hope it goes back up, as the game is now released.
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Great to see it in the wild. There will be a few "cutting room floor" things to come (scenarios, mods, and weird concepts).
Have fun.
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4 minutes ago, ratdeath said:
Added RT_ to all the quick battle maps in the base game
Not a problem. The new ones use "FR" to differentiate.
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The game within the game. The Editor. The engine. Congratulations fellow traveler, lots of things to uncover and adapt still within.
1. "R" refers to "Reinforcement". Those are assigned to Groups with the number keys, if I recall. You can then give them arrival times from the AI window, if I recall.
2. That likely means people did the Setup on-map, in 3D view. Those positions will be saved as the Setup positions, but for all plans (unless a yellow "painted" Setup is assigned). If you add an AI Plan for Setup for a second set of AI Plans, the areas you painted will instead be the Setup for that assigned AI Group.
A mix is generally what I do- 3 AI Plans, with one using a hand-done setup. Lots of reasons to change that from time-to-time, but that gives a mix of control and controlled randomness. That leads to replayabilty, one hopes.
If you are trying to make a Quick Battle map (they have their own quirks- this doesn't hold for scenarios), you will need to have the AI plan painted within the side-specific Setup Zone (done in Map view).
3. You can do both the yellow AI location, and the Withdraw or Area Fire. For example- set the location a squad is moving to, and then firing from. Area Fire needs some good timing- I generally let the AI fire off a few minutes, then move to the next task so their ammo doesn't burn up.
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1 hour ago, umlaut said:
Will the buildings available for Germany maps be the same as the ones in Germany maps in CMFB
Similar models, with new textures and a few new things to work with. Churches and Commercial have some new adds- Central European churches, a domed building, a factory. These are based upon the footprints of existing ones.
1 hour ago, umlaut said:will the F&R have the "other" category of independent buildings
Yes, adapted to Central European cities. The roofs have been changed on some to better simulate urban rows.
Berlin has it's own set of textures, which would do for most cities. A destroyed texture as well, with the windows punched out- remember talking about that one years ago?
The flavor objects round it out, as well. Some destroyed stuff, and some things to make towns and cities look a bit more previously inhabited.
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Lower left sleeve was common. Maybe 1-2 modified upper sleeves for those cases of further un-uniformity- there's field evidence of both, photographically.
https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2015/02/17/uniforms-and-equipment-of-the-volkssturm/
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9 hours ago, zmoney said:
I’ve loaded the core units and only changed the xp lvl on a couple units. I fire up the campaign and only one unit shows up on the map hmmmmmmmm
Double check that you are creating the campaign from the Core scenario file- that's the file you need to have open when creating the campaign. The units not showing up sounds like there isn't a source to be drawing the units from.
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A few were picture requests- There's an M44 in the top picture (center), and the other two are Soviet winter (with the random mix of Ushanka and helmet).
There's a good deal of visual variety for the infantry, always at the service of showing things that could be a characteristic of the unit ("military" versus "standard" appearance for Volkssturm), and for breaking up visual repetition over large formations (Soviet winter helmet/Ushanka- also for greatcoat models).
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32 minutes ago, Almac said:
Figure me this, the campaign maps in combat mission are some of the best. Would it be possible to release a campaign pack where all the campaign maps are released with quick battle AI plans etc?
It's already part of it! There are somewhere around 20 fully detailed historically derived maps of areas fought over in 1944/45 (most 3k+) included.
Portions of some are also used for the campaigns and quick battles (all are based upon these real-world maps this time around), and maybe a battle or two- so there's some content on them ready to play, out of "the box". And plenty that are for use for make-your-owns.
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28 minutes ago, umlaut said:
perhaps I used the wrong kind of flavor object for the test.
I do think the scale of the object matters, somewhat- maybe it was a smaller object. Bigger object=some more cover/ but no concealment.
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14 hours ago, MOS:96B2P said:
Kind of like a Hit Decal. But bigger and multiple Burn Decals.........
Good idea. The image does wrap the model. Maybe resizing the hit decal could expand that sizing to more of the underlying model.
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15 hours ago, umlaut said:
If they are flavor objects then they do not provide cover
Flavor objects provide cover, but not concealment.
I keep this link handy, for every time I forget myself:
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5 minutes ago, wadepm said:
if he had paid for the development of RT and all of it's modules we wouldn't be having these arguments.
Think about it- There are only so many of us to make any of these things.
If they hired outsiders, how would they even know how to do any of what is necessary? And would anyone want something made by a person with no real investment in what they are doing?
This is games developed by people that like the game (and made it themselves, because no one else could).
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I can't even remember how far back that was. I don't think any of the Italy games overlapped, at all as I was helping to work on 'em at the time.
I started background work on this in 2016 with BFC (mainly Mike and Cassio, my real stars of this show).
That expanded a few short years ago to a full-tilt FR production team. That's not too far off from some of the larger base-games, to which this is comparable to in scope, but there's a lot more happening these days. Which is a good thing, ultimately.
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50 minutes ago, Ts4EVER said:
Sounds to me like a typical example of mission creep.
It was many things, combined. Making games is damned complex on an easy day, and we didn't get many of those.
BFC got busy in spurts as Steve laid out with projects that had timelines other than the traditional ways, that's been said many times. Otherwise- health issues, people vanish between modules, the pandemic. We all stuck with it, even though it took up vast tracts of our time when we needed it elsewhere. This has been intense, and it is something of a miracle it will exist, at all. That's the facts.
If I ever did anything remotely like this again (not likely), I'd have it spring out of thin air.
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It's akin to an existing one (one of the big ones), with double smoke stacks. Floors on every floor- 3, IIRC.
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Yes- those were bridges were added as a specific. They served a purpose beyond the ornamental, which is probably why they made the cut. It takes time and capital to make these things- they are sensible about what can and can't go in.
Every title gets a full pass on the art. In FR we did get 3D terrain asset stuff that was made specifically for the module- I'd say the rubble walls are the specific add- but there are lots of buildings (middle-European churches, a factory, and a few more details I'm probably missing off the top of my head).
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That's the gist, Dan- it looks good. It just didn't work with the scenario it was attempted in. A different situation, definitely (if people can use 5% imagination).
The western Berlin map ends just east of the Siegessäule, so the Zoo area isn't in. It would be a good candidate for a scenario.
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2 minutes ago, dbsapp said:
How Fire and Rubble is technically different from Red Thunder?
I'll try to answer that one, best I can (I'm BFC's content manager-type for FR, but I don't see the code guts of the beast)-
The code is updated to the latest version, as RT is behind the curve on updates. BFC don't really do code changes beyond weapon specific stuff for each game or module- but they update all the games to the current standard (eventually, for a really nominal fee) to the work that goes into that. I don't know of any company that keeps entire game systems going like this, otherwise people would mainly just be playing the latest one. So FR will be updated again with bug fixes (free), or any code changes that keep the entire game system current (generally 10 bucks?). That would be "Update 5.00", and who knows when or what that may hold- but FR will be the latest and greatest code (with all the joys and terrors that brings for developers).
Besides that, the differences are related to the period after RT, and are many- There are extra terrain elements, and new models (buildings, flavor objects, walls, etc) to add a more middle-European look. Lots of new maps and scenarios. Campaigns are generally more manageable unit counts. Vastly fewer swamps. More urban and town battles, but not confined to that. Additional branches of service (Volkssturm, Waffen SS, Partisans, and more). New gear, uniforms, vehicles.
It's quite big for a module, and more the size of a base game in its content.
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It was tried in testing. It works fairly well (with the mix of flak placed) offensively- if the guns survive. Didn't cut it in the looks department, and it doesn't hold up to the inevitable artillery in the defense like the chunk of rebar and concrete above. The remaining insides of the Humboldthain tower make the defensive qualities clear- there was a lot of reinforcement in those things.
BFC aren't generally prone to add things that are one-use adds to maps. If a model gets added, it should be useful for as many things as possible for the time sink to make and code it.
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3 minutes ago, Almac said:
Does that mean that by the time the game is released, the beta tester have played through it like 5 or 6 times?
More than 5 or 6 times, in many cases- by multiple people to get a read on as much as possible. Most of us that make stuff test things I make that many times before it gets to that stage, as well. That isn't to say the process isn't open to some human factors.
4 minutes ago, Almac said:What is the difference in regions in the quick battles section?
"Germany" has been added, with a Hungarian Mod Tag and included things like commercial building signage.
There is also a Mod Tag (city or urban, can't remember) that has an entirely new set of textures for the city stuff. As well as other Mod Tags like [berlin] for things like the invasion stripes, etc.
That's along with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union from the base RT, of course.
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1 hour ago, kohlenklau said:
My brain hurts!
The skull can no longer support the growth once you start with this stuff. It's all jars from here on out.
Here's mine, for reference:
Wait until you find "Extrude" (from Faces)!
Autographed 8x10 Glossy photos of Kohlenklau's Schwimmwagen now available!
in Combat Mission Red Thunder
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The platypus of vehicles. It's finally on your HD, what you choose to do with it now is your solemn responsibility.
It's also the first thing you see when you open the longer German campaign. You have multiple call-outs here.