thewood

Funny you mention the white mitten thing. I was just talking to my dad about that incident this weekend.

It is one of those things I'm sure would have been done if time allowed. It seems pretty obvious the negative impact that time only triggers have on SP scenarios.

I think the switch happened right after CMBO came out.

I don't think TOW was a gangbusters hit. Little activity, few scenarios. Maybe the addon and patch will move it a little more.

I think BFC was in close to a no win situation. Building a kick ass wargame would not have expanded their customer base much at all. Pushing the game more towards a real-time crowd alienated, for whatever reasons, their existing wargamer base, but it is still a wargame. I have a hard time believing that CMSF will appeal to a lot of mainstream gamers. It is just too difficult to comprehend and master. To me, if they were going to take a risk, go all the way one way or the other. Instead CMSF is kind of stuck between to genres and only appeals to that narrow space where they overlap. Few truly new BFC customers plus a somewhat alienated traditional base sure seems like a recipe for an extremely "niche" game. I think CMSF has a enomous amount of potential. But, it needs to decide what it wants to be. Right now it masters very little. Still somewhat buggy, hard to understand mechanics, very narrow scenario opportunites, limited random battles, an environment that is somewhat being overtaken by events, etc. If they can knock a couple of these things off my list, my final verdict will be its a winner. If CMSF can decide whether it wants to be WEGO or RT, it might alienate some, but would probably draw in others who still look at it as a turn-based game. Jettisoning any pretense of WEGO may allow more resources to applied to RT issues. Vica versa also applies to RT and WEGO. Also, I look at CMSF the same way I look at comparing X-Plane and MS Flight Simulator. X-Plane is a very detailed and realistic simulation of how a specific plane flies(CMSF). MSFS is a rich representation of flight with a huge community for support (CM1). I fly X-Plane when I want to know the specifics of how one plane flies in a specific set of parameters. I fly MSFS to get a much complete experience of flying from planning to coming into a gate.

Way back in the beginning, I think Steve said SOP-like orders were a goal for CM2. Haven't seen or heard much about lately.

I don't think they will go out of business over CMSF alone, but if its follow on modules don't catch on, it could be likely. As far as CMSF outselling CMBO, I think Steve was saying that in the same time span CMSF outsold CMBO, that is, in the first few weeks of release. I would be surprised if CMSF outsold CMBO overall in just a few weeks. I feel like the reporters who used to parse every word Greenspan uttered.

I don't think Steve said CMBB didn't sell well, it just didn't sell as many as CMBO. I may be wrong on that.

I didn't even get into bugs in the editor. I was hoping for posts listing what people thought were bugs so it would somewhat consolidated in one place.

As far as getting tank on tank, its kind of a crap shoot. You can play around a little with quality and type, buts all random.

For a while seemed like progress was being made. 1.04 initially seemed like it fixed a lot of things, but after a lot of playing and testing, it seems to have reduced certain tendencies of things we saw in 1.03, but most of the issues still seem to show up. With that said, what still needs work: LOS/LOF issues through objects and terrain WEGO replays still showing the wrong stats, etc. during replay MP still seems somewhat screwed up in both RT and PBEM ATGM bugs still floating around including disappearing ammo Spinning AFVs Reaction of AFVs to infantry fire or spotting of infantry (Strykers especially) Some support weapons still have issues with spreading out crews Firing from roofs has some issues when firing into other roofs Squads getting confused and stuck in certain positions like AFV egress and building movement A bunch of minor graphical glitches AFVs still love firing HE ar other AFVs Units stuck in Aiming/Spotting loops No artillery smoke (not a bug, just a needed) tanks should not fire 50cal at other tanks or afv - even for ranging purposes - that's what laser rangefinder is for. When infantry are in a trench cowering, they should have very good cover Infantry units are splitting up without command to do so, and become unmovable "Occupy" objectives don't work. You secure the objective merely by ensuring the enemy isn't on it, not by actually getting to the objective yourself. At the moment, "Occupy" should be called "Expel Enemy These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I have personally experienced most of these, but a couple are just from reading threads. The majority had thier frequency reduced in 1.04, but still exist. 1.04 is more playable than 1.03, but I find 1.04 playable only under specific circumstances, mainly away from built up areas. I am hoping that someone in the know can attest to what is being worked on for 1.05, and a rough timeframe for release. PS. One measure may be the lack of overall posting here and around the web. There are still some pretty active forums about CM1 scattered around the web, but almost all the CMSF threads have died out, with exception of a fairly negative thread at the Blitz. In this forum, it looks like Peng has a higher posting total than all other threads combined in the last month. That in particular is a sign of the end times. edit: added M1A1TC, Cpl Steiner comments [ November 07, 2007, 11:35 AM: Message edited by: thewood ]

I should also point out I have run many tests on this and had a map with ONE Syrian MG in woods 400 meters from a column of 8 Strykers. I had the MG fire on the lead Stryker. All Strykers sat there and took the fire with almost no reaction. The exception being the 2nd Stryker in line doing the rotate dance for 5 or 6 minutes (WEGO). It was three or four weeks ago I ran this. Don't remember if it was 1.03 or 1.04 (I'm pretty sure it was 1.04, but I am going to check.)

IIRC, the very first release of CMBO had a little of this too. Don't remember it being as bad as this, but I also don't remember to pick up bread on the way home.

They seem to do it without any movement orders.

Its actually easier for him. Just look at his tank's unit status. It will already show the crew, dead, wounded, or bailed, even though the tank graphic looks normal. I think it even shows the crew icon instead of the tank icon at the beginning of replay.

I have had this issue pretty consistently with Strykers in particular. As soon as they receive fire, maybe 20% of the time, they start rotating around and turning away from the fire. They then seem to settle down, only to start up again, repeat until dead. This is in WEGO.

But is your squad spotted without its center of mass being spotted. I am curious more about the reciprocity of the LOS/LOF issues than LOF relative to LOS. That is what has bnot been explained clearly enough for me. If one of soldiers is spotted, can it be fired on immediately. Does it have to wait for its center of mass to be spotted.

Is this the thread with the ever changing title now?

I have a headache again, thanks guys

There are threads all over the place if you go back a month or so where Steve explains the differences in LOF and LOS abstractions. The way Rollstoy put it is the simplest explaination I have heard yet. So to make sure I understand, simply put, LOS is the center of the squad, LOF is from individual soldiers? Wouldn't it make more sense to have the abstractions equal, i.e., if LOS is squad-based, LOF should be also? Is the center of the squad equivalent to the 8x8 meter grid?

Whats funny is the first time I tried using the crew to spot, I parked a T55 behind a ridge and bailed the crew. 5m from the tank, a US mg shoots through the ridge and wipes out the crew. They were at least 15m from the top of the ridge. Other than that LOS/LOF bug, the scouting technique is pretty cool and almost mandatory for red tanks.

WEGO replays are pretty screwed up right now. Unit status, ammo level, rubble, craters, wrecks, etc. all start the replay as they were at the end of the end of the RT execution phase. I know Steve acknowledged that, but never said if it was going to be fixed, or we just have to live with it as concession to having the RT option. IMO, it kind of reinforces the perception that CMSF is RT with WEGO bolted on. I know BFC did not intentionally build it that way, but that is how it ends up looking.

I'm sure BFC's cash flow would tend to disagree.

In CM1 I lost many games by accidently unhiding an ambush too soon through this exact item.

ditto Adam. That is what I have been saying from almost day 1. Most of the bugs aren't bugs, but players not understanding how things are supposed to work. A FAQ, designers notes, whatever. I have to believe that taking the time to do that would save a lot of headaches on all sides. Unless many of the questions we are asking really are tied to major bugs or design issues. Then all bets are off. My typical scenario experience is: Start the scenario Give orders watch action repeat a few times something weird happens play some more same weird thing happens stop scenario set up a test scenario ask a question on forum wait for a while read a bunch of guesses from other players give up wait for patch stop playing for a week or so do it all again That has been pretty consistent. [ November 03, 2007, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: thewood ]