Stormbringer

At this time, I am not going to purchase this game, even though it looks pretty good. If Windows comes up with another version in the next few years, will BFC provide patches to upgrade or simply say "to bad, but you can buy one"? They even have a DRM for the patch that you have to purchase instead of giving it to you for free. Oh, well, there are probably some other, better, companies out there to do business with.

Send me a setup, either side, QB or scenario is fine with me.

Hehe, a good album, but not the source of the name. Stormbringer was a magical sword in a fantasy series by Michael Moorecock (I swear that is his name) "The Elric Saga".

It has now occurred to me that the Japanese player goes first so he would be able to act according to weather but the allies would not because it would change the next turn. The Japanese would know they had rain cover if it rained on the American turn after raining on their turn. The Americans would not know the weather of the Japanese player because it would be random at the beginning of each turn, which the Japanese start. Is there no solution to this problem? Turn off the weather?

A little help. I have been playing pbem and I can't seem to figure out the weather settings. Simultaneous turns do not produce simultaneous weather! This makes no sense. It is clear on my opponents turn and then rains on my turn. Then on the next turn, clear weather. On the next turn, rain again. The next turn was again clear weather. Considering that this is a largely carrier based game, at least for me, I am simply astounded that I can not make the weather the same for both players each turn. Which makes me think I am missing a setting, or something. I like the randomness of the weather, but it just makes no sense for my opponent to be able to launch and attack my carriers from his carriers when on the "same day" (simultaneous turns) I can not launch from the same carriers he attacked. If your opponent has clear weather and then you have rain it should rain for your opponent. What am I missing?

It is the de-entrenchment value that I like most about the Special Forces but the ability to amphib from any coastal space is interesting also. Those special abilities give a much wider range of possibilities. I would appreciate it if you left them in, calling them Marines sounds like a good idea. Sarge Saunders opinion could not possibly be worth the $0.02 price tag he placed on it, even if he was correct.

I understand you opposition to Special Forces but it seems to me that you should be able to create some kind of more powerful infantry unit. Could you make it possible to research experienced infantry? Each chit gained equals a level of experience and the corresponding increase in strength? Perhaps called "infantry training" or something? I would have no idea if this was possible, just a thought.

Hey, take your time, I just wanted to post in anticipation of your first map. :cool: I have really enjoyed playing your maps, thanks for all the hard work!

Really, Hubert, I can't believe you would create a world wide scenario without the great Honch! When I read about WaW I thought, "sounds like a Honch map". Hubert, you should hire honch, or send him a percentage. I wouldn't have bought WaW except that I knew HE would do it justice. I can't wait for the first one. Honch, if you have not purchased WaW yet, let me know and we will take up a collection. Starts to chant "We want a Honch map!", "We want a Honch map!", "We want a Honch map!"

Honch, I love the scenarios but I am an impatient person. Even with the 1.04 patch the first AI turn lasted 5 minutes! That is just too long. I will play the scenario PBEM but I would love to play against the AI. How about paring down the map a bit, perhaps leaving the far east out? It seems like the Japanese are a wash, they bring as much to the Axis as they cost. After some thinking, and just a few minutes with the editor, don't worry about it. I simply opened the editor, loaded version 7, and then reduced the map size to 150 X 64. It reduced from the East, leaving the Americas the same as before. I had to edit out a few scripts and I haven't had a chance to play yet but it sped up the first AI turn to under 1 minute. Honch, your s**t is cool, and by cool I mean totally sweet! Keep up the good work. Anything I don't like about it, Hubert has given me the power to change. [ September 10, 2006, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: Stormbringer ]

I suspected a second "Night of the refreshing monkeys" and it has occured!

Lt. Bull is a class act, and the problem is his integrity. Calling him a cheater when he is winning(I have many times)has not turned him into one. He sent me BOTH files and the file he played first was the one he lost 3 tanks. I thought that the outcome of pbem movie turns was always supposed to be the same? BTS fix or do sumfink!

Being the one that Sarge is playing, I must agree with him. The advantage of the imported map is that you have to conserve ammo and consider original ammo loads. I can assure you that neither I nor Sarge purchased SMG squads in the first of a four battle "operation". Coming up on the last battle in the series one of us might, but not before the last battle in the series. What is the purpose of the recon squads with 63 ammo except for this kind of thing. The same is true with some of the Russian tanks having 80 HE rounds. This is of little value in a 20 turn QB but worth quite a bit in a 80 turn series. It really is an exciting twist to the QB which I will use for as long as Sarge (or other pbemers) are willing.

I have been training this monkey for weeks! A special diet of gunpowder and Jolt cola for the last two weeks and he (well I had to fix that) is ready!! For some reason the non-neutered ones only survive about 4 to 6 hours and that wouldn't be long enough if there were a server crash. He can refresh up to 400 times per hour for as long as 16 hours! While chaining the little beast to the chair proved problematic, nailing his feet to the desk worked just fine. The only real problem is getting him to go into Berserker Refresh mode. So far what works best is Celine Dion for two hours straight. It has to be loud, and he must be in his monkey straight jacket or he will gouge his eyes out. Number 4372, tonight is your night!

I just got home from the Texas preview and the excellence of the game was only matched by the very gracious hospitality of the Seim's. If providing their home and time were not enough they also fed us both lunch and dinner and snacks in between! After all this they allowed me to spend the night in their guest room!! They offered one too many times and I couldn't say no. The result of this generosity was that I got to play two games against the AI two months before I would have otherwise! Will CMBB be as good when not played at the Seim's?

I'd love to, but I don't know enough people who might be interested. Only 2 brothers, ya know. Only one would be into this sort of thing... That leaves 9 copies left courtesy of GWDWD... Guy</font>

If you guys like Strategic Command you should download the demo for this other game called Combat Mission. You will like it also, trust me. Edited to say: Oh, yea, thanks from me too. [ June 16, 2002, 10:47 PM: Message edited by: Stormbringer ]

My praise was not hollow but direct and specific. I would also have you note that I could not wait for even a different post from the first to add my wish for diplomacy.

I just wanted to take a minute to thank Hubert for the inclusion of the PBEM playback feature. I posted several times in favor of this option and it seems only fair to spend a minute thanking Mr Cater. I understand that there will always be requests for game features and that they can not always be answered. The willingness of Hubert to listen and implement a much sought change is a great indicator of concern for the consumers interest. Thanks Hubert! You are the MAN!! Now, if you would only rethink that diplomacy aspect!

Hubert, PBEM replay is my ONLY reservation about buying this game. If PBEM replay is included you can definately count me in for a purchase or two!

Must get demoralizing after a while. -Sarge</font>

I just thought of a very important reason that playback is a must. Learning. Lately, I have been getting my butt kicked in pbem and TCP/IP. Game after game the same half-dozen people were beating me, and I had, at one time, won games against many of these people. After a dozen losses in a row I started trying to figure out how they were winning. I had to pay close attention to what they did so I could learn what I needed to do. How can this happen when I can't see their turns? (within the boundries of FoW) I am never certain if they combined all of thier infantry and tanks together or used air assets. How do I counter their actions? I have to guess who attacked me and with what? I often watch the replay in CM more than once, to make sure I know what happened. I am sure you wouldn't need to do this in SC but you would just have to see the replay. Once pbem gets good and opponents create tough strategies lack of playback will be a game killer. I question whether I will buy this game without this feature.

Nope, doesn't even make sense in a naval situation. Each of these units represents a fleet of ships. When that carrier icon goes down, it doesn't mean every single ship in the fleet was sunk, and without any of them having any chance to say what happened. Presuambly it just means that the capital ships were destroyed, and the unit is no longer combat effective. Can anyone cite one single example in WW2 of an entire fleet getting sunk without a single ship escaping to tell the tai, much less just sending out a simple radio message saying "Hey, we are getting attacked by some land-based air backed up by the freaking Bismarck!" These turns are a week long! These fights represent some series of engagements, right? This is like the Japanese fleet sailing off to take Midway, and then the Japanese high command just gets a message "All four carriers sunk." By what? Where? How? Or better yet, come Dec. 7, 1941, in SC the US player will jsut get a message: "Pearl Harbor fleet destroyed". By who? The Mexicans? The game has a mechanism for Fog of War. Calling a rather glaring oversight a "feature" is the almost a charicature of bad software production. Overall this is a decent game, especially considering it is jsut one guy doing all the work. But this really is a big deal. You cannot make a game advertised as being designed around PBEM without the ability for each player to see what happened within his FoW envelope during the opposing players turn. I predict that if this was added and made optional, 100% of PBEM players would use it. Jeff</font>

I will post again in favor of this feature. I thought that the game was designed with pbem in mind and no playback?! I have played a couple of pbems already but not being able to see what my opponent has done really turns me off. Because of the way that reinforcements are paid for at the end of a turn you can not tell who attacked and what losses they might have incured! Not to mention the fact that it is BORING! I want to see a little action! At the very least what my opponent has done! I don't play CM against the AI anymore. You can only do so much with AI and once you figure it out there is litte challlenge. PBEM and TCP/IP make the game a continual learning process. People will try the darndest things. But you won't know what they were because you can't see the replay! This is the ONLY feature that I care to post about. I can live with everything else, although I am sure some tweaks might be made. I respectfully ask Mr. Cater, again, and those involved in Fury, to reconsider this and try to include it at some point in the future. [ May 30, 2002, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: Stormbringer ]

You are not alone. I think that without playback it will be much more difficult to learn your mistakes and find out what works. Also the interest factor drops greatly when you don't even know where you were attacked from or by who. I see this as the single issue which might prevent me from purchasing the game. The AI is fun but pbem is what must pass the test of time.