ASL Veteran

It's a bit of an ongoing theme and you are probably only disappointed because you haven't seen the one hundred or more similar threads to this one over the last decade.  First it was people who liked CMx1 and who always came onto the forums with an axe to grind about one thing or another - including a great deal of commentary about the business model which quite honestly isn't any of their business.  Now the old CMx1 types seem to have faded into the ether to be replaced by more forward looking types.  Even so, there is a way to request features and a way to not request features and when someone explains that there are limitations about what can be done and feature X can't be implemented the best response is to say 'thank you for considering my feature request.  I hope it will make it into the game at some point in the future'.  The least appropriate response is to say 'Because feature X isn't currently in the game and because I know it only takes two days to code it, I can't understand why BFC hasn't already added this feature to the game.  I can only assume the reason such a feature hasn't already been included is X' with X being whatever derogatory term the poster feels like tossing out at the given time. 

It may also be worthwhile to point out that BFC does have access to actual Russian armor experts living in Russia who speak Russian.

Well now you are starting to confuse me because I'm not really certain what your expectations are or how reasonable they are with respect to what is possible and what isn't possible in a computer game of any kind.  As a scenario designer I can recreate, down to the individual soldier, any battle that has been fought where sufficient information is available to recreate it.  I'm beginning to think that perhaps there is a difference between what you term a 'battle' and what I might term a 'battle'.  If you want to fight 'The Battle of the Bulge' as a single battle that lasts for a month and covers several hundred square kilometers well then Combat Mission isn't your game.  A 'battle' as defined by Combat Mission is when the 1st battalion of the 376th Infantry Regiment attacks some German bunkers behind the Dragon's Teeth at the West Wall.  A battle has a start point and an end point and typically an engagement like that (in other words, an individual unit attacking another unit at a given location) might last a few hours at most before the attack has either succeeded or failed.  An individual scenario can simulate a battle just fine.  As far as what you want in a campaign goes - well by definition a campaign will be a series of linked battles.  Sometimes the battles might be in the same location (old way) and sometimes the battles might be in different locations (new way), but a battle is a battle is a battle and has nothing to do with some of the things you seem to be including in your battle calculus.  The odds of actual combat troops running out of ammunition during the course of an actual campaign is pretty low unless your force is facing some sort of strategic difficulties as the Germans faced in the closing months of WW2 where the entire logistics system was failing.  An American unit running out of ammunition?  That's not likely to happen and really that's something that most players would rather not concern themselves with.  Most players would rather just fight the battle without worrying about ammunition availability.
 
Why don't you just download one of the demos and try playing the game yourself then you can decide to get it or not get it. 

I don't know if this is the case or not, but your posts come across as having an agenda of some kind.  It's all nice to talk about Steam and everything, but seriously ..... perhaps you could step away from the computer for a while and take a few deep breaths before continuing.  Making assumptions that Steve doesn't know what he is doing in terms of contracts and agreements between parties is a pretty big stretch considering the ample evidence of what BFC has done in the past.  You may have an opinion as to whether such an agreement would be to the benefit of BFC or not, but I think it would probably be a safe assumption to make that Steve, at a minimum, actually understands the details of any agreement that may be struck with Steam.  To assume that he hasn't even looked into it at all is probably a misguided and erroneous starting point for this sort of discussion.
 
As far as wargaming being a niche market goes, perhaps there is some evidence out there that might be publicly available.  How well do non fiction books about military history sell as opposed to any other books of any kind?  I'm sure Amazon has some sales data available.  It isn't a perfect match, but I think it would be indicative of how popular wargames might be as compared to other activities.

Well the beauty of the way BFC is developing the game now is that should they ever decide to go onto Steam at some point in the future all the games they make will be up to date and current.  So really there is no need to rush onto Steam.  Maybe if sales slow to a trickle at some point then going onto Steam will make some sense.  BFC can also take their time and polish the game up and prepare themselves for Steam if that's a route they want to try. So you never know.  BFC has dealt with different ways of publishing ... I think ShockForce was sold in actual stores .... they just have an aversion to dealing with publishers.  I don't get the impression that BFC is absolutely 100% against it no matter what.  I am under the impression that they are continuously evaluating what their options for distribution are and at this time they have decided not to go the Steam route.  That doesn't mean that we won't all wake up one morning and see BFC games on Steam some day.  I doubt that forum postings are going to sway them one way or another though.  I'm sure the decision will be made in a deliberate fashion when or if it makes sense for BFC to go onto Steam.
 
I think that if BFC ever decided to go onto Steam they would want to do so making sure all their T's were crossed and the game was as polished as they could make it.  What is it that they say?  You never have a second chance to make a first impression, so if your game will suddenly be exposed to a larger audience you want to ensure that you are putting your best foot forward.  

Well the beauty of the way BFC is developing the game now is that should they ever decide to go onto Steam at some point in the future all the games they make will be up to date and current.  So really there is no need to rush onto Steam.  Maybe if sales slow to a trickle at some point then going onto Steam will make some sense.  BFC can also take their time and polish the game up and prepare themselves for Steam if that's a route they want to try. So you never know.  BFC has dealt with different ways of publishing ... I think ShockForce was sold in actual stores .... they just have an aversion to dealing with publishers.  I don't get the impression that BFC is absolutely 100% against it no matter what.  I am under the impression that they are continuously evaluating what their options for distribution are and at this time they have decided not to go the Steam route.  That doesn't mean that we won't all wake up one morning and see BFC games on Steam some day.  I doubt that forum postings are going to sway them one way or another though.  I'm sure the decision will be made in a deliberate fashion when or if it makes sense for BFC to go onto Steam.
 
I think that if BFC ever decided to go onto Steam they would want to do so making sure all their T's were crossed and the game was as polished as they could make it.  What is it that they say?  You never have a second chance to make a first impression, so if your game will suddenly be exposed to a larger audience you want to ensure that you are putting your best foot forward.  

Well the beauty of the way BFC is developing the game now is that should they ever decide to go onto Steam at some point in the future all the games they make will be up to date and current.  So really there is no need to rush onto Steam.  Maybe if sales slow to a trickle at some point then going onto Steam will make some sense.  BFC can also take their time and polish the game up and prepare themselves for Steam if that's a route they want to try. So you never know.  BFC has dealt with different ways of publishing ... I think ShockForce was sold in actual stores .... they just have an aversion to dealing with publishers.  I don't get the impression that BFC is absolutely 100% against it no matter what.  I am under the impression that they are continuously evaluating what their options for distribution are and at this time they have decided not to go the Steam route.  That doesn't mean that we won't all wake up one morning and see BFC games on Steam some day.  I doubt that forum postings are going to sway them one way or another though.  I'm sure the decision will be made in a deliberate fashion when or if it makes sense for BFC to go onto Steam.
 
I think that if BFC ever decided to go onto Steam they would want to do so making sure all their T's were crossed and the game was as polished as they could make it.  What is it that they say?  You never have a second chance to make a first impression, so if your game will suddenly be exposed to a larger audience you want to ensure that you are putting your best foot forward.  

Small and Tiny scenarios can be difficult to make because a battalion was the smallest tactical unit that generally fought relatively independently.  If you want to make scenarios with company and platoon sized forces you are dealing with patrol and recon type actions.  Having to create a functional AI plan for both sides also increases the degree of difficulty for small and tiny scenarios.  Also since MGs can effectively engage enemy soldiers out to 1000 meters making a map small enough for a thirty minute time frame that can actually be traversed by walking infantry without having both sides in immediate contact can be a bit tricky.  Larger scenarios are simply more 'natural' to create because they fit what happened much better both historically and in terms of weapons capability.  A 500 x 500 meter map may even be too big for a thirty minute time frame depending on the situation and most players would probably feel time pressure under those circumstances.  
 
Edited to add that modern combat does lend itself better towards company sized engagements because the lethality is a little higher and smaller forces operating independently is probably more normal than during WW2