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sfhand

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Posts posted by sfhand

    Looking for overall invasion map

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Dunno, kinda depends on what steve & Co says, we who did recieve that map did it because we put up a extra expensive order, and that kinda goes away if its spread for free on the repository?

    I just went to the BF store and they are indeed still selling CMSF with the map. I'm sure there is no question that posting it would be inappropriate.

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    Brits followed by Nato question

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    sfhand, very important consideration. Would we, the customer, be willing to wait longer for each family to allow BFC the time to complete a 'bridging patch/ module".

    My vote would be "No" unless the work could be done in parallel with new game development.....but that's just because I would much rather be done with the whole desert thing and get into CM:Temperate (or whatever it's being called). That being said, if I could then import all the work/ units from the CM:SF family into a CM:Temperate......hhhhhhmmmm, that would be pretty sweet!

    I agree (not that that will do you any good...), even though I'd rather be able to join ww2 families than CMSF 1+2 since my guess is that most if not all blue units in CMSF will also be in CMSF2. But the potential ww2 era battle for Berlin between US and Russian forces has always appealed to me.

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    Brits followed by Nato question

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    A similiar response was also uttered very soon after the CM:SF release in terms of the QB force selection....but that stance has since been re-visited. Perhaps the team will see the wisdom in such an idea, assign a dollar value to said work, assign an appropriate product type (module vs. game equil.) and then assess the likely number of sales of such a product to determine if such a viable option in terms of return on investment.

    Not speaking for Steve, of course, but my interpretation of his comments on this is that their considerations are broader than making money. I would hazard to guess that "bridging patches/modules" are viewed as slowing the evolution of the game. That said, I would certainly love to see "bridging patches/modules" for simliar families, but I'm not holding my breath.

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    Thank you & Question about user made scenarios

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Hello

    ... Despite the game taking place in some "fantasy" setting, with forces that I don't feel any connection to, it is still nice to play it and a good game...

    I've found that PBEM games are a great way to feel connected, no... make that attached, to my forces.

    The biggest challenge for me has been learning about the devastating power of modern warfare. Maneuvers that resulted in minor casualties in CMx1 titles often result in disaster in CMx2. It seems like everyone is packing an automatic weapon and every other person is packing some sort of rocket propelled explosive device that, while not necessarily effective against tanks, is more than capable of dealing death and destruction to unmounted or IFV mounted infantry as well as to guys in buildings.

    Don't forget to micromange your movement orders in MOUT.

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    CMx2 WW2 Western Front question ... and a proposal

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    I can answer your question from information Steve has posted in the past. No, the two game titles will not link in any way unless ..... drumroll ...... BFC decides to make a 'module' that links the titles together (all titles?). However, as of the last report, Steve indicated that they weren't sure it would be 'worth it' to make such a module.

    My uninformed opinion... such a module would be their best selling module.

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    I just can't bring myself to play campaigns!

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    The issue I have with playing the AI is that I start over when things start going badly. This is definitely the wrong thing to do, as when I play a human opponent things have to be a real disaster before I will surrender. I've made it quite a way into TF Thunder and restarted a few of the scenarios which means the AI has handed me my ... more than once.

    What I'm trying to say is that I think I would really enjoy the campaigns if I didn't allow myself to restart them when things start going wrong. PBEM games force me to suck it up and deal with the adversity, which is part of the reason I find them superior.

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    More Pie in the sky questions about CM2:Normandy

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Sure there is: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you... and to hear the lamentation

    of their women! ... "Conan the Barbarian" :)

    I'll have my wife drop you an email... after living with me I'm sure the lamentations you get won't quite be what you had in mind :)

    but for me, having my misunderstandings about the game cleared up leads to greater happiness, in part because it will help me with the bit you mention, but mostly because I don't like laboring under the influence of ignorance.

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    More Pie in the sky questions about CM2:Normandy

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Sergei is correct. Flavor Objects provide cover specific to the type of object. Oil drums provide practically nothing, boulders provide pretty good, etc.

    For concealment to work the object needs to be large enough that someone can get behind it without being noticed and keep all of his body and gear completely away from the prying eyes of the enemy. Flavor Objects are too small for that. Therefore, normal spotting conditions determine if you're spotted or not.

    Steve

    There is nothing better than being happily mistaken...

    Thanks!

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    More Pie in the sky questions about CM2:Normandy

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    I think we're going to go with them as Flavor Objects. It gives the designer more flexibility as to placement/orientation.

    Steve

    Steve,

    I'm under the impression that flavor objects offer no cover, so, for me, a battle in a cemetary where the gravemarkers/crypts offer no cover seems rather pointless.

    I would imagine that in reality a battle in a cemetary would probably highlight the only time one would be happy that the person in the ground had enough money to splurge on an extravagent grave marker.

    I know it would take more time and effort to make cemetary tiles and you guys are the final word on those priorities, but since every cemetary I've seen has had it's graves layed out symetrically (including very old ones) I see little need to lay place each and every headstone from a scenario creating standpoint, in fact, as one who has dabbled with the map editor, I'd much rather have the tiles. That's not to say that I wouldn't also like tombstone flavor objects to fill in triangles created by diagonal fences/walls (although I don't know about the average size of a western European cemetary - maybe it's just some tombstones behind a church?).

    The other option, not sure if it's been discussed already, is giving flavor objects the ability to provide cover. If I had to choose between cemetary tiles and flavor objects providing cover I'd take the latter everyday and twice on Sundays.

    I'm pretty sure you've considered all of this already. I'm not sure where you stand in the decision making process on this so I figured I'd throw in my $.02.

    And thanks for taking the time to read and consider this point of view.

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    Battlefront... is it lonely at the TOP?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Most of the arguments here seem about definitions more than anything. Success. Popularity. Market niche. Van Gough is now considered the most popular painter in the world but never sold a painting while alive. BFC is as close to company-scale tactical combat as you can get commercially. What does it matter that five million pimply teenagers prefer the zombie game 'Left 4 Dead'? Good is still good.

    Ahhh... to be a pimply teenager again.

    The fact is CM (of all flavors) appeals to many gamers who are not wargamers. How do I know this? Because I am not a grog/wargamer and the folks I've introduced to CM, who enjoy and play it, are not grog/wargamers. That said, I enjoy reading the opinions of grog/wargamers and have learned much of what I "know" about wargaming from these forums. But I don't think a grog/wargamer's knowledge of their hobby gives them more credibility than a generic gamer on what contitutes a good game. I definitely don't think their knowledge and love of their hobby gives them any particular insight into the development and marketing of software - wargames included.

    What I'm trying to say is that I look forward to playing Left for Dead some day... :)

    FWIW, I'd pay (module price?) for an update for CMx1 titles CMBB and CMAK (which I mod to CM:ETO - in my mind that makes CMBO unnecessary).

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    Battlefront... is it lonely at the TOP?

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    For now it's something which makes development a lot easier, faster, and more accurate. This in turn gets the TO&E to scenarios makers faster, which allows them to make real scenarios sooner, and that means play balancing is also sooner.

    One tiny problem with this... it won't do any good for NATO because in order to use this new system now I'd have to go back over the thousands of existing entries (yes, thousands, which is 10s of thousands of individual lines :() and conform them to the new system. Since we only have the NATO Module left to do this enormous amount of effort would take longer than it would to just stick with the current system. Normandy will be the first game built with the new system. Which should be OK since NATO is just about finished except for the TO&E anyway, so that's really the only big thing that we have to concentrate on.

    Now, in the future the new TO&E data format will allow us to do some interesting new things with graphics because they'll be easier to define. But we don't know how much of that stuff we'll get into Normandy, so no specifics can be given at this point.

    As for the end user UI of arranging/purchasing units and what not... completely different thing. That's higher level UI which really doesn't care how the TO&E data is organized. So old or new TO&E system is just as good from that perspective.

    Steve

    This is probably a pie-in-the-sky question, but is there any way people here could help you with this? If the situation isn't too complex I'd imagine that 50 NDAs later your task could be completed rather quickly. Like I said, probably pie-in-the-sky...

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    Normandy: Immobilisations

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    So far I haven't seen Steve take an unreasonable stance in this. Sure, the time I played a pbem game with one of my more challenging opponents where my defenses were centered on the roads while he moved his 20-30 AFV's through snowy mountains without a single bog ticked me off (did someone say that CMx1 over-modeled bogging?).

    But what I hear Steve saying is that they could write a more in depth bogging simulation but since that would take already scarce resources they choose not to. While I think it would be cool to have to expose vehicle crews after a minute or two of being bogged I don't think the time required for animations and such would be worth it so I certainly am not inclined to think coding an entirely new mechanism to model something that in my opinion isn't broken isn't needed. That said, if time were to be spent I'd rather see it spent on dismounted crew animations...

    Sometimes, when bogged in snowy mud, it helps if your vehicle has a hydrolically powered articulating arm... like a skid steer that went out to move snow in the spring without snow chains.

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    Losing the will to wait

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    I'll never understand why some people, CinC, CEO, or gamer, would ever think it's okay to drop bombs on innocent people. Sure, they call it collateral damage, and by doing so they think they excuse it, but the fact is they know innocents are going to die by the thousands and they proceed none the less which means it's premeditated. As a human being, I just don't see how that can possibly serve anyone's interests or enhance anyone's security.

    I recall the outrage post 9/11 about innocent lives lost and while I think the events of that day were tragic I can't see how killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people in a country that had nothing to do with it can be excused in any way from a moral point of view. Just for fun try scrutinizing the invasion of Iraq through the lense of the Nuremberg Principles which the USA was instrumental in implementing...

    And then there is the quaint notion that the UN Security Council is able to mandate military action to enforce it's own resolutions; the system isn't set up for vigilante justice from rogue Security Council members.

    And try reading Hans Blix's report to the UN, the one submitted just prior to the invasion of Iraq, that said Saddam complying with every demand of the inspectors and that they had found no evidence of WMD. Then consider that our prize intelligence asset, Saddam's brother-in-law, had told us most of the details about Saddam's WMD program - including the fact that it had been stopped (nuclear) or destroyed (chem weapons buried in the desert where they would soon be rendered impotent).

    And please don't say that everyone else thought Saddam had WMD... Mr. Blix and his predecessor didn't think so, and they were the ones tasked with determining the status of the claim. German intelligence said Curveball was unreliable, but Colin Powell renderings of his claims to the UN none the less. Tenet said the Niger story was unreliable but Bush scared the nation with the story none the less.

    There's a whole lot more I could mention, but it's really not cool to derail this thread with this stuff. Sorry for that...

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    Losing the will to wait

    in Combat Mission Shock Force 1

    Posted

    Greenjacket,

    ...

    2. This is the first time that Charles and I have tried to do more than one project at a time. We've got to get used to some new things too. So it's definitely not fair to say that our outside contracting is the only thing causing the delay, because that's not accurate at all.

    ...

    Steve

    Ummm... I've got some bad news for you and, by extension, us. According to an article I read recently, as one gets past a certain age multi-tasking becomes more difficult. Which means that as your teeth get longer so will your development time. Personally I've got my fingers crossed that you guys are all in your mid-thirtys.

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