Kong

I'm going to put humor aside for a second. I agree that the name is not that great. The 'Combat Mission' name is so-so, we're all so use to it we don't think about it. I also want to call it 'Strike Force' - maybe this is a sign BFC?!?! Remember BTS was just 2 guys when CM:BO came out, obviously name creation (Big Time Software), and web site creation was not their forte, here is what the site looked like in June of 2000: The Ugly Old Days (Note: I'm still convinced BFC lost more than a few sales when folks came to the site when it looked like the above link) Anyway, regardless of the name I hope it sells 10x as many as BFC is forecasting!!

BFC needs to require that every forum member, that wishes to give their 'input' on what CMX2 needs, take a Programming 101 course. There are countless Tutorials for HTML, Java, and VBA online and free development tools. By making this requirement it would eliminate the... "just add this feature/element it shouldn't be hard to do!!" This is what aggravates me the most, when persons who have literally NO clue about coding/programming start speaking as if they understand. It is unbelievable that CM is written by ONE (1) person. It blows my mind. That in and of itself is a fantastic accomplishment. I wish BFC would at least hire one more coder..., maybe ya'll could just get a bigger jar and drop one more in?!?! BTW, I have read the entire thread. My suggestion to differentiate the WIA from the KIA is have the WIA smokin' a cigg!!

Steve loves these threads, it's his way of torturing ya'll!! I'd be surprised if it was not WWII, Europe, 44-45 but on the flip side I have a strange desire for a game with crustaceans... call me crazy. I'm a bit disappointed that the scale will be cut back some but I understand why. Some of my favorite battles have been the monsters, I'm talking Regiment size monsters. You get to a certain size and simply can't micro manage, you have to let the TacAI handle it. It's more of a big picture type fight, which fits my personality.

I must admit it took me a bit longer. I found CMBO on a game download site. It was WWII and strategy so I was interested. I installed and fired it up with ZERO expectations of anything. I tried "Chance Encounter" first as the Americans (of course!) and got my arse handed to me. This was in June/July of 2000, in September I fired it up again and I got it... I was hooked. The "wow" factor happened repeatedly for me. First time I used large artillery, first time I used a HQ spotter to take out a HT with onboard arty. First time I took out a tank with a AT unit, or with a ATG. Very, very, very rarely does a game with high expectations deliver... I expect CMx2 to do so. I credit this to the brilliance of Mr. Moylan. Since this is a full rewrite of the engine how would you guys compare CMx1 to CMx2 versus other well known titles. By this I mean on the order of magnitude of difference. The example that comes off the top of my head is like Quake 2 vs Quake III or Simcity 3000 vs Simcity 4 or Empire Earth vs Empire Earth 2.

So then will we see this? Meaning can you code it where 2 tanks of the platoon get KO'ed and the rest of the platoon runs home to momma? I love that idea. I think one of the greatest aspects of CMx1 is the randomness. The Crack Panzerschreck misses 5 shots from 50m and not under duress, and the Green one get's a first hit kill from 175m while under fire. Any work done to further simulate the randomness of combat I am in favor of!!

Well that's the last straw for me, no supersquads?!?! And you have the audacity to call yourselves wargamers!! I'm off to torture myself playing GIC!! (Note: The above paragraph is sarcastic in nature, no animals were harmed during it's creation.) This fanboy is already preparing a spot on the floor in front of my computer so that when my jaw hits it the first time I play CMx2 I won't hurt myself!!

Well since we're talking about resupply I would like to see some representation of wounded and in particular healthy persons having to take time to assist the wounded, bandage, drag to safer location, etc. This would temporarily reduce firepower until heathly units are back 'on-line".

Thanks for the info, many of us here have great faith in what you guys can and will do. In particular I am very excited about Co-op play and improved tools/options for scenario designers. I am looking forward to CMx2 and expect it to be as ground breaking as CMBO was when it was released. I fully anticipate many 5 Star reviews!! Take your time and do it right. Personally I am stealing myself for a Summer '06 release but I would be very happy to be wrong!

I think every game that has tried to implement real time with turn based has met with disaster. (I am not including games that are real time until combat occurs, like many RPG games). If you want to simulate real-time maybe the solution is to have a time limit option for turns for all game types like there is in TCP play. You set the time limit low enough based on the number of troops you have and I guarantee it will 'feel' like real time! Some of you need to have a lot more faith in BFC and keep a more open mind about what a 'simulation' should be.

I play CM almost exclusively PBEM. So no PBEM would be a blow for me personally, but would not stop me from buying CMx2. A file over 10 megs is gonna be a problem with most current email systems. I have an idea. Why not create a hybrid TCP/PBEM system? In a nutshell CMx2 would act like a server. TCP is realtime this new option I'll call it Convenience Time. I have an opponent that wants to play Convenience Time, I start QB game set the options and select Convenience Time and input my opponents IP address. I make my first turn selections and hit 'Go'. CMx2 then automatically trys to connect to my opponents PC. If it is online it connects and begins tranferring the file. If he is not online it will try every X minutes to connect. When a connection is made the file is transferred the opponent is notified and can plot the next turn and start the transfer process heading the other direction. There should be a screen that helps the user track his Convenience Time games showing if a new turn has been received and who's turn it is next. Yes it does require the PC to be online but so does email and for slow connections this system would work much better and with a lot less hassle than PBEM. This system could be set-up to continue the download if there is a disconnection without starting over. I suppose it could also be set-up to try to connect at certain times as well. This is a simplified presentation of this idea, but seems like it would solve several problems and 'hopefully' would not require an exorbinant amount of work for BFC to implement. Note: For the record I would be disappointed if BFC did anything that would lessen what CMx2 could be to make it more PBEM friendly.

I can't find any of the three mentioned (August Bank Holiday, Tank Warning, Rush of Jousts) at Scenario Depot and would like all three. Been a fan of your scenarios since CMBO. kking199@yahoo.com

Now before you get all excited hear me out. I am not a fan of QB MEs because of the way they normally play out, which usually is more of a race than a real battle. Then the thought occured to me why not design the game more like a FPS Capture the Flag game. For simplicity we'll assume that there is only one VL in a normal QB ME. Instead of having one VL in the center of the map why not two VLs, one on each players side. So then the object of the game is to defend your VL while capturing your opponents. Would this work or would we end up with too many Draws as people end up just defending instead of attacking? I think I'll test this out, have someone generate a QB map and place the 2 VLs and then play it with a 3rd party.

Juju, that is a big change and my knee jerk reaction was Ram based, assuming you had say 512 or less and had ALOT of software/accesories loading at startup. But I see you have a Gig so lack of Ram is most likely not it. My other theory is since you wiped and reloaded with Hyperthreading off this might be the key factor. Did you disable hyperthreading in the BIOS or in software? Regardless it's usually a good decision to wipe your hard drive and reinstall your OS anytime you make a significant hardware change.

Junk, I'm running a BFC 5900XT OC (GeForce 5900XT), I got it a few months back replaced a GeForce ti4400. This current rig I built in April of 2002. Only other change to it was increasing Ram from 512 to 1024. I'm also running Win200. Just a comment, but I would suspect many of you out there could see a nice boost in performance by simply increasing your Ram. IMO Win2000, WinXP need at least 512 to run well and to get the most from your PC. Computer makers consistently put in low Ram to keep base prices low and to make more money when people add more. I know from the late 80's to mid 90's I saw the same situation with Mac's. You can NEVER have too much Ram!

62 Second Average AMD XP 1900+ (1.6 Ghz) Asus A7N266 MB (nForce 1 chipset) 1 Gig PC2100 Ram CM should become a standard performance test for the CPU and Memory at Review sites!

Thanks for jogging the memory, that was a really fun day. The Hetzer is small, the pictures really don't capture how small it is, especially compared to the other tanks of the era. The inside of every tank I saw that day seemd very small and cramped, even the M4 felt cramped to me and it is comparitively roomy. How the Hetzer crew fought in such a space is simply amazing. K_Tiger most of the pictures are vehicles and equipment in storage that we were allowed to see due to one of our party being active duty at Fort Knox. (Pardon me as his name and handle escapes me). I would say that about 70% of all the equipment that is owned by the museum at Fort Knox is in storage of some sort, with the majority of this needing extensive repair.

I prefer large - huge. I can understand why folks play and enjoy small fights but I find it much more interesting and entertaining to play big ones. I am in the midst of a monster right 120+ turns HUGE map and am loving it. I really think you have to change your thinking when you play really big battles. I look at big battles as equivalent to 2-3 regular ones. As there can easily be 2,3,4,5 individual battles occuring at one time in large ones. Set-up can be killer in the big ones and traffic management is usually a pain in the arse but I still love 'em!

I preface my comments by stating that I own all 3 CM products. I have played CM daily since Sept 2000, except for a 5 month break before CMAK came out... I liked Ivan's stuff but I got to have my American iron. I personally would not even respond to some of your questions/comments. Some of you obviously have nary a clue as to what it takes to write/create software, let alone run a company. Your ignorance is like a clanging bell. Your behavior is that of a spoiled 12yo boy who can't get what he wants. So he screams, yells, and throws a fit. The 1.02 patch in the big picture is very minor. IMO CMAK needs no more patching, I feel even stronger about that knowing that any time spent on a patch for CMAK is time away from CMX2. Speaking of CMX2, I eagerly await this product. But I also am preparing that it may be awhile before we see it, possibly even 2006. Sure I would love have it sooner, but I would rather wait for a stable, richer product than get a shoddy product earlier. Nonetheless the same people crying about the patch will next be bitching and moaning about CMX2 taking too long. Once again proving their ignorance and lack of maturity. CMxx and BFC are treasures, something I had never found before and doubt I will ever find again. Some of you need to remember this before your fingers hit the keys on your keyboard.

Very nice, thanks for sharing!

Well I did not check the second page until after I posted my message. I think every fan of CM is looking forward to CMX2... I dream about it often.

Once again Gamespot has given CM a good solid review, it gave it an '8.4'. It have CMBO and CMBB '9.1'. But I have always been surprised at how well received CM is at Gamespot since imo it caters to more of the younger twitch crowd. Here is a link to the review: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/afrikakorps/review.html

At Band of Brothers: http://www.hulldown.org/kilroy/ they have been running a Risk type CM Campaign for quite a while now. It is called World Domination International Campaign, here is the link: http://www.users.on.net/rcbodle/ The game started with 7 teams of 4 persons each, it is down to 2 teams now. It was/is alot of fun. Unfortunately I was the first one eliminated from the game. My team was betrayed by our alliance partner (the Canadians of all people!) and then I got caught in an "Artillery Fire Mission" (2000 pts of Arty, see the rules in the link above for more info) on a small map and was literally blown into oblivion. Oddly enough that defeat was one my most enjoyable CM games. It was payback as I had delivered some nasty business to my opponent the prior battle using lots of Minefields and Arty! This campaign was great fun with some unique rules and some wacky maps. Murpes I think this is very close to what you are looking for!

I just personally want to thank you for the great sound work in CMAK. The backgroud sounds are fantastic and are perfect while I am racking my brains on set-ups and movement turns! The voices are excellent and I am amazed at how many different phrases there are. I LOVE the sound of the M1 Garand being fired quickly and hearing the "spring" sound when the clip emptys! I had taken about a 5 month break from CM before CMAK came out but in my defense I had been playing daily since Sept of 2000 with an average of 7 PBEM games at anyone time. But I must admit Ivan just did not do it for me. I missed Joe. I love playing as the USA which is my preference, but I also love kickin the USA's butt! Kudos to the whole CM team. I have said it before and I will say it again. You guys are a jewel in the rough and I am glad you all took the chance to make BFC what it is! Note: Matt we met on that fantastic outing at Fort Knox, which, I would LOVE to do again!

Well I loved the demo, and eagerly anticipate receiving the full version. I really missed GI Joe, I like and greatly respect Ivan but just don't have any attachment to the Eastern front. I realise this is heresy but I would have liked to have the option to have the comments made by the Foreign armies have a English version with a heavy accent. I am all about the realism and it is a huge reason I love CM, but not understanding what anyone is saying gets old after awhile. Looking forward to countless hours of playing CMAK... whilst I dream of CMX2!!

I am in agreement as well that this was SOP for US troops in Europe during WWII. I certainly NEVER thought of this as a "gamey" tactic while playing CM. Besides blowing up buildings is FUN! A relative cheap alternative for building demolition is the Priest, my favorite though is the 105 Sherman!