Doug Williams

Same here, only I started with the C=64 since 8088 platforms only had computer speaker sound and 3(?) colors. I moved to DOS somewhere around 80286/80386 and EGA. Same here. I bought a lot of games on Steam during their last big sales event. I haven't even loaded half of them yet. I don't know anything about that series. I don't know anything about the Crysis series either, except I read "somewhere" that it had a good storyline. Mostly the same here, except I don't tend to buy the modern CM games. Perhaps that may change in the future. Same here. If it's CM and WW2, I preorder it. I agree. Time to stop selling v1 CMBN. All that does is create confusion, regardless of the price point. Good idea. Agreed, though I probably preordered CMBO.....can't remember back that far, that was too many beers ago. Good post, sfhand. Yes, it's time to let go of CMBN v1. And I'm still for the release of the Big Bundle (CMBN+CW+2.0+MG+all current patches) for $80(ish).

That might be correct, but really, how hard would it be for you to offer the Big Bundle via your store? Anyway, it doesn't matter to me, from a financial standpoint, because I tend to preorder all CM WW2 titles, and thus I pay full price. What does matter to me is the continued existence of the CM franchise, because, hey, I like to play CM, especially via PBEM. If this means finding ways to shepherd new players into the franchise as easily (both monetarily, and otherwise) as possible, then I will get behind it. My current fear is potential new players seeing the confusing abundance of games+modules+upgrades+patches+cost and just walking away. The Big Bundle might help to solve some of that. Just sayin.

Now I'm going to step in again and suggest to Steppenwulf (cool name, BTW) that you are doing yourself a disservice if you fail to purchase the CMBN modules. They are well worth the $$, IMO. Steve has stated the the Upgrade path of older CM2 titles is a pain for them, but I very much appreciate the fact that they take the time to offer this in order to keep the features of older titles current with their newest releases. $10 is a pittance. Anyway, like I stated earlier in this thread, BFC would be well served, IMO, to go ahead and put together a CMBN+CW+2.0+MG bundle patched to the latest version at a discount for new players who want to go "all in" right from the start. I would think $80 would be a good price point. Sure, that's about twice what your average Joe Bob gamer will pay for a current game from Steam, but CM players aren't your average gamers, IMO.

I doubt making the Bulge a separate game from CMBN would require all new coding, as most (all?) the code from CMBN would be used (i.e. it will use the same game engine). You do have a point that it makes some sense to give us the Bulge as a module for CMBN, rather than a separate game, but then again, I think CMBN has become big and confusing enough, when it comes to what version works with what, etc. So, my final opinion is BFC should give us the promised "pack" for CMBN, and then declare CMBN "finished" until the 3.0 upgrade is available.

Thanks for finding out that it actually does happen, though very rarely. It's this kind of attention to detail that warms a grog's heart. :-) A 0.4% of this happening isn't going to stop me from buying Panthers or change how I use them in the game, however.

In my opinion, continuing to offer the old 1.x versions for sale is a mistake. Instead of keeping it simple for your customers, it seems to me that it will create confusion. If those new customers buy the old 1.x versions and find out that they can't play PBEMs with those of us who have upgraded to the 2.x versions (which is probably just about everyone who is reading this), and then learn they have to pay an additional $10 to play those PBEMs, that might sour their view of the series. Now that CMBN is essentially finished, with the possible exception of a "pack", perhaps it would be a good decision to offer a CMBN/CW/MG bundle patched to the latest version (2.12 as I type this), and price it at something like $80? You could continue to offer the "a la carte" options for those who want to buy it a piece at a time, but eliminate the 1.x versions. None of this would benefit me financially, as I buy your CM products as pre-orders, and will likely continue to, at least for the WW2 versions. It would benefit all of us to have an easy single purchase option that would bring new players up to the latest version of CMBN + all modules, IMO.

Hey guys, have any of you noticed that this thread is now eight pages long, and the OP (skellhell) has not responded one single time? I think he should receive some sort of award for the longest thread with the least effort.

OP, I know nothing about Macs, but here is what I would try: Uninstall both CMBN and CMFI, including deleting the game folders (or whatever they are called on a Mac). Temporarily disable any antivirus software you have running. I know you said you didn't have any, but double check anyway. I would redownload (in case something got corrupted) all the CMBN files and install them in the following order: Install order: (1) CMBN (2) Commonwealth Module (3) V 1.11 Patch (4) CMBN 2.0 Upgrade (5) Market Garden Module (6) V 2.12 Patch Don't try to run the game until you finish installing all of the above, and I *thnk* the only license key you will have to enter will be the MG key. Try to run the game. Now do the same with CMFI, in this order: (1) CMFI (2) CMFI V 1.01 Patch (3) Gustav Line Module (4) CMFI V 1.12 Patch Edit: I didn't read the entire thread before responding. I would try SpitfireXI's solution ^^^^^^ first.

Really? I hadn't noticed. Do you mean that most of the scenario maps that come bundled with the game are also included as QB maps in the game?

Got it working. May need to experiment more. Many of the scenario maps are far more interesting, IMO, than the QB maps.

I can't believe I've never tried to do this before, but, as the title of the thread states, how can I extract a map from a scenario for use in a Quick Battle? Note that this will be for H2H play only, so I don't want to bother with giving the map any AI "plans" (or whatever they are called). I tried taking a scenario .btt file and placing it in the Quick Battle Maps folder, but it doesn't show up on the selection screen when I'm asked to choose the map for the Quick Battle.

Just checking to see if it's dead yet.

I downloaded CMFI 1.12 from BF and had no problems with the install.

2.12 corrected some bugs that were introduced in 2.11, and may have added a couple more things (same with CMFI 1.11 and 1.12).

Today, between PBEM turns, I set up a Small attack QB....me (USA) defender vs AI (German Army), rough terrain, loose rarity, September, Holland, computer pick map. I didn't even look at the map before picking my forces: Two platoons of infantry, two 76mm AT guns, one 40 mm Bofors, one quad 50 cal, one light machine gun, 5 foxholes, and a couple of snipers. Setup, and away we go.....Computer picked three Jagdpanthers and a bit of infantry. By turn seven I had achieved a total victory via the AI surrendering. The 76mm AT guns took out two of the Jagds, and I close assaulted the final one, since the closest squad didn't have a zook. My quad 50 was out of ammo. The Bofors was knocked out in the next to last turn, but he kept the final Jagd occupied while I moved the squad up to close assault. I put both the AT guns in foxholes on the edge of the woods. Of course, this is just an anecdote, against the AI. Any mildly experienced human opponent would have done much better. I don't think AT guns are useless when you are the defender.

I agree, Phil.

But CMFI also gets another module, correct?

That's odd, OP, I usually have the opposite experience, with the AI, IMO, waiting too long to surrender. I've played some "small" QBs against the AI where it didn't surrender until it had less than half a squad left, and nothing in the victory location.

Now that MG is out, I'm curious if CMBN is "done", or if there are any plans for further releases? I seem to remember reading that MG would be the last module for CMBN, but I also remember reading something about a "pack", whatever that is.

My experience with AT/infantry guns is that they are not quite as useless as some of the posters in this thread have stated. I have both used them effectively and had them used effectively against me in PBEM games. Note that I am only talking about the defender using them in an attack scenario/QB. I would probably never bother buying them as the attacker or in a meeting engagement, unless the map allowed me to place them in a useful position on initial setup. Could they use some tweaking? Sure, I think so. I like the idea of a camouflage option to make them harder to detect. Should they be easier to move? I'll let you guys hash that out. I tend to never move them except for facing changes.

You are missing the best aspect of CM if you don't play H2H, IMO. And I mean PBEM, not real time. I usually have four or five PBEMs going. When I get home from work, it helps me to unwind to sit down and do my turns. Takes maybe an hour. I like opponents who can do a turn a day, more on weekends. After playing PBEM for a while, the AI seems boring and predictable, and I only play the AI when I don't have any PBEM turns waiting.

Believe it or not, your SSD probably makes very little difference in the speed CM loads. When I went from a regular 7200 rpm drive to an SSD a year or so ago, I saw very little difference in load speeds of CM battles, though I did see a large difference in other games and in boot times. Too bad my SSD (Intel brand) died a few months after installing it. It's the only time I've ever had a hard drive go bad since the 1980s. Went straight to Best Buy and picked up a 2TB 7200 rpm drive for $100ish. It may be a while before I buy another SSD. The reason you are having good results with CM is because of the I7 processor and the Nvidia 650, which is still a decent mid range video card. I recently upgraded my desktop to an I7 3.5 GHz and an Nvidia 680 and saw a substantial improvement in CM load times and less sluggishness in larger battles VS my old Core2Quad 2.8 GHz CPU and Radeon (forget which one, not top of the line) video card.

Well, I don't know about that. Personally, I use Microsoft Security Essentials, which is free, and I haven't had a virus in years, and I spend a lot of time on the internet. But then, I am very careful about what e-mail attachments I click on. My wife, OTOH, needs more stringent antivirus protection, and she has Norton Antivirus on her laptop. She is much more liberal than I am about clicking on things she probably should not. Unfortunately for those of you who have "high security" software such as Avast and Norton, and want to play CM, your antivirus software will often flag CMs aggressive DRM scheme as a potential virus. By "DRM scheme" I mean the CM software looks at your hardware and plants flags in your operating that signal to the CM software whenever you make a "significant" hardware change, prompting you to enter your license code. I can't blame BFC for having some sort of copy protection in place. After all, they are in the business of selling software.....in their case computer games. The old "is the CD in the drive" copy protection is passé now. Many of us have been dealing with the hassle of copy protection since the old "code wheels" of the prehistoric DOS games. Long story short, if your antivirus software flags something from BFC as a potential threat, you are probably ok to make an exception.

Yes, bug fixes introduced with the 2.11 CMBN patch and the 1.11 CMFI patch. I'm happy to report that I just installed the 2.12 CMBN patch and the 1.12 CMFI patch with no difficulties.

I would imagine the 2.12 patch does everything the 2.11 patch did, minus the bugs. It's probably a comprehensive patch, back to 2.0, which would mean we should all be able to delete the 2.11 patch from our jump drives/hard drives/cloud drives. Correct me if I'm wrong.