Scipio

Wait, it will not be named CMAK, but CM: Operation Torch. I doubt that BFC will make an initial release without major US forces.

My bet: CMAK (Afrika Korps)

I noticed a little something when I wanted to move Scenario files from one CM title to another. As the initiated know, you have to substitute a certain hexcode, whereby the hexcode increases by 2 for each CM title, counted in the order of the releases, i.e. 00 CMSF (and CMSF2, maybe for compatibility reasons) 02 CMA 04 CMBN 06 CMFI 08 CMRT 0A CMBS 0C CMFB 0E ???? (could be CMSF2, see above) 10 ???? (secret project) 12 CMCW Are they working on a secret project? Have I missed something?

You will get a real weird troop composition

An interesting debate. I agree that in CM it is not possible to move your troops really carefully. A situation I just saw in a battle: a group is close to a hill edge, on the other side of the edge I have a sound contact. In real life, I imagine, you throw a few hand grenades over the edge first. In CM, you can't do that because you can't give a fire order without LOF. Just as an example.

We're already in May '45 with Red Thunder after the Fire & Rubble module, so what's to follow? The only criticism I have of the business model, if you want to call it that, is that the maps are not interchangeable between the different main titles. This would simplify the scenario design and increase the number of Quick Battle maps.

Ja, das war auch mein Ansatz und meine Feststellung. Many years ago I decoded the scenario files from the "Campaign Series". The data was finally in simple text files with a simple replacement code. How many places you had to move the characters simply depended on the length of the text line. I suspect that it is not quite so simple here... What I suspect: the data are not just packed, because then they would always look the same, because a pack algorithm always works the same (as far as I know). If the data is encrypted, then the key is still in the file, because it is needed to decrypt. It's probably nothing stored in or calculated from the known header data, because they don't change. So probably something randomly generated. Apart from that, has anyone ever tried what happens when you lower the engine version in the file?

I faintly remember Steve(?) writing at some point that there will be no more completely reprogrammed CM (=CMx3) beyond CMx2. It is probably more realistic to expect CMx2 v5,6,7.... Apart from that I bet on a CM Afrika Corps as next full game. 1) No need to make new graphics for the landscape. 2) American forces participated. My second bet is the Korean War set.

Yes, there is always a header, and the guy who programmed ScAn_CaDe obviously mapped it more or less completely. I have already tried to contact him, but unfortunately without success. What I would like to know is, has anyone ever tried to convert this however compressed and/or encrypted part of a scenario file into a readable form? My thought is that somehow the map data can be converted into raw data that can be read and processed. Something like hexcode 01 is an open, hexcode 02 is a beet field, etc. That would bring us - I think - quite a bit further.

Basically right BUT CMSF2 can load CMSF1 maps, so my idea ist to use CMBN v1.0 to load a CMA/CMSF1, then save this in CMBN v1.0, then try to load it to CMBN v4.0, then see what will happen when I try to port it to other v4 games. Unfortunatly, I can't get BN V1.0 running due to licensing problems, even if I have all the games & modules purchased. But it requests a license file, not the key!? Funny. Was there a trick for this, or do I have to contact the support? Of course it would be much better if the guys from BFC or the brain in the jar show mercy, so that all maps can at least be loaded in the editor, no matter from which game in which game....

Can you send them over to me? I'd like to test if files can be imported with them. My DropBox ist petzi-mg@gmx.net

Does somebody has the old excuteable files avaiable from game engine 1 and 2?

Since I did the conversion: I had no problem with this scenario back then. Maybe it's just a very compatible scenario, or it had something to do with the engine version back then. P.S.: Just found an Engine v3 executable for CMBN and tried to load a CMSF 2 quick battle map in the editor. The map wasn't loaded, but the game didn't crashed. When I try to load the same map with Enhine v4, the game crashed.

I managed to port the CMA maps to CMSF2, cause CMSF2 is able to load CMSF1 maps. Unfortunatly I can't port them to any other games then. Any ideas here?

Uncam does only unpack campaigns, doesn't it?

I am looking for a program that can create a scenario list from a HD-directory to list CM:SF1/CM:A scenarios. Since the current version of ScAn_CaDe does not work with CM:A and CM:SF1 scenarios, I wanted to know if there is an old version that can do this or an alternative program.

P.S.: I forgot to mention that I just want to list CMSF1/CMA scenarios, not extract CMSF1 campaigns!

Since the current version of ScAn_CaDe does not work with CM-A and CM:SF1 scenarios, I wanted to know if there is an old version that can do this or an alternative program.

Don't we have any highway bridges in the editor? The biggest bridge seems to be the concrete bridge, but that's still much to small

I tested a bit further and found that the problem in the editor is more likely to occur if you have loaded a scenario before. So - I load the CMx1 Scenario 'Test Attack' in the editor - I save the CMx1 scenario as 'Test Attack-A - I load CMx1 Scenario 'Test-Attack-A' in the Editor -> Crash But when I restart CM I can load the scenario 'Test-Attack-A' without any problems and continue working on it. Also playing the scneario is as far as I can tell without any problems. So this is a small bug, but it can be worked around.

Just to make it clear - I'm only talking about the editor, not a Saved Game. I load the scenario into the editor, save it without changing anything, reload this saved scenario into the editor - and CMSF2 crashes

I think I read somewhere that CMSF1 scenarios are compatible with CMSF2. Should this also apply to the editor? I have noticed that I can load CMSF1 scenarios in the editor, but if I save them and try to load the saved scenario again, the game crashes completely. Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?

I have made a few attempts in the past to swap scenarios between the different CMx2 versions, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes it is enough to adjust a special hex number to the respective CMx2 version with a hex editor to at least load the map into the editor of another CMx2. However, this still often goes wrong and you always have to redo the complete OOB. So I thought about transferring the somehow packed and/or encrypted scenario data into a raw form or extracting, analyzing and cleanly transferring the contained data, even if the OOB is not that easy to do. Mad Mike, for example, had some success reading out the scenario parameters. Has anyone ever achieved more than that, or could one achieve more with the same technique?

Well well. Country and timeline: any Size is not that important, but I guess it should be at least 256 x 256 pixel. More important for me special project would be to have seamless tiles and somewhat realistic colors.

Thanks for this, but before the topic mutates to something different ;-): I'm really looking for vehicel camouflage