Erwin

"Anything less than a .50 cal will cause suppression only." R U sure about that? I hope so. It's a pain to keep changing my supporting inf from TARGET to TARGET LIGHT every time friendlies are near the target area. However, what makes me cautious is that with a TARGET order, inf will fire rockets, throw grenades etc. Am pretty sure it's easy to cause friendly casualties like this.

I have a T55_T66 skins CMSF_MkeyD folder in my CMA mods sections as well as a T55M-T62M Partial Patch_Afghan_MikeyD folder. Is the above one of those? The "CMSF" name confused me. I just want to make sure I have the correct versions in the correct folders. Great work btw.

Firstly I think of CM1 and CM2 as different games rather than an evolution. CM2 is more of a simulation, CM1 is a fun game. Another really big difference is that one can easily create and play a CM1 scenario with a regiment of inf and a Bn of vehicles on a "Huge" map, while in CM2 it seems MUCH more complex and takes a lot of work to create a scenario (hence the far fewer CM2 scenarios and mods than has CM1) and the practical max is maybe one battalion of inf and a platoon of vehicles on what would be a Medium" map in CM1. CMBN's OMAHA BEACH and FIRE BRIGADE scenarios would be easy in CM1. In CM2 you need a Cray, or a lot of patience to wait 10+ minutes while it loads, saves etc. Also, once you get to level 4 and above, a well-modded CM1 looks as good, perhaps better than the often toy-like CMBN graphics. I think that CMBN appeals to those who enjoy very small scale engagements with a platoon or two and a few vehicles. However, many of us like the huge scenarios that can only (currently) be enjoyed in CM1. I don't see why the two systems and their respective fans cannot simply "get along." Both games are amazing and "classic." Not sure why CM2 fans are so upset that others still consider CM1 to be the better "classic."

It is logical that if you can't see the spotting rounds it doesn't matter that you can see the steeple.

It could be that CMSF is such an accurate simulation that it depicts the poorer education and talents of young people these days including crews of FIST who don't know how to operate their equipment efficiently.

Would the crew be trained to be FO's, or just driving the vehicle and one needs the FO for spotting?

Make it a complex warren of heavily wooded terrrain honeycombed with uncrossable terrain so that it takes the player hours of creeping around doing recon and fearful of ambushes before he realizes he can't actually get to any victory locations.

AFAIK it's a Win 7 issue. The easiest cure is to install the game to a new folder elsewhere than under the Programs folder. eg: C:/SIMS/BATTLEFRONT etc. Then the PBEM and SAVED GAME files go where they are supposed to and not to the obscure VirtualStore folder.

"...color coding their floating icons to depict their C2 state." +1 to that. An elegant solution to speed up the C2 calculations one has to make.

As a mod s l u t of many years standing, I find instead of wasting time trying to view em just d/l everything you can and shove them into the Z folder and then see what you want to change/take out. 80%-90% of the mods are great as is, but some do conflict and some you may want to select from different versions that are provided.

+1 good idea...

Am honestly not trying to bait you re CM1, MikeyD. But CM1 had very easy to see and non-garish/distracting set-up zones. Was that no longer possible in CM2?

Stoppel: Don't forget we shall be enjoying your mods in all sorts of battles at many stages of the Normandy or Italian campaign and the vehicles will have been worn down from their factory prettiness.

I think the problem is that the dead do not appear in any of the control/info windows. It's been mentioned before that it would be helpful if the KIA and WIA actually stayed in the squad window but in different shades so knew who bit the bullet and which weapons you may have lost.

Like he said, you should switch to TARGET LIGHT whenever friendlies are within (say) 20m of the target. However, note that friendly casualties can even be caused if they are anywhere along the flight path of a TARGET line. The assaulting squad which is actually entering the building can TARGET the building as they enter, and I AFAIK they do not suffer from friendly fire from their own weapons(?) Certainly engineers can BLAST right next to friendlies with no ill-effects. (So much for those who ramble on about "realism". This is a game after all.) But, you probably should give the assaulting squad a 360 arc at the waypoint inside the building so they start searching for enemy all around them and above. So the sequence of assaulting a building is roughly like this (adapt as needed): 1) TARGET the building with as many units & vehicles as you can - ideally for 2+ minutes. (And ideally destroy the building unless it's a "protect building" situation.) 2) Switch to TARGET LIGHT with all units except the assaulting squad which can continue to TARGET. 3) Once inside the building, unless there are obvious targets to kill immediately, set the waypoint to give a 360 arc, so your assaulting squad can search for hiding enemies and engage at their own discretion. Note that generally I find that one should not assault with more than one squad as that creates a target rich environment for enemy grenades etc. Hope that helps...

MikeyD: I recall playing with Regimental sized forces plus a Battalion-equivalent of armor at least 6 or 7+ years ago... So, that was two or three generations of (my) computers ago. Probably a 486 processor and 1GB Ram running XP, or whatever was before that OS... I know that many fans enjoy the small scale of CMBN. I found CMSF seemed to run ok with larger forces. Maybe the barren terrain helped. But, I know that on BoB site at least we're still designing a lot of CM1 campaigns with large forces and large-huge maps. Once you get to level 4 and above the graphics of a well-modded CM1 starts to look pretty good. That's why I think CM1 is going to be played by quite a lot of CM fans (including CM2) until computer systems refuse to run it. I think it's marvelous that the game systems are so different so that one can enjoy a very different experience in each. So, it's not a criticism of CM2 - only that there is a base that enjoys larger battles and CM2 simply cannot realistically deliver that (currently).

Oh, right... I got confused with CMSF. I do have that number of CMA scenarios, but they must have all come from the CMA game or the Repository. Sorry to get you excited...

Lovely work. Thank you. If you have time, it would be great to get versions with even greater wear and tear like in the WW2 pictures. The vehicles still look like they have a fresh coat of paint with a bit of movie mud on them. But, I know it's probably a lot of work.

Am on the 2nd battle of this campaign and really enjoying it. However, I have noticed that my performance in nearly all scenarios (so this is not a criticism of just this campaign) benefits from cautious and slow recon to spot enemy strong points for arty bombardment for most of the scenario while one waits for half to three quarters of the scenario to pass until the almost inevitable heavy stuff arrives b4 doing the inevitable assault. It takes a much better than average designer to break this repetitive mold, and there are only a few (you know who you are, heh). Maybe it's because the average size of CMBN maps are much smaller than CM1 (and maybe even CMSF??) but I recall there used to be great scenarios that had little actions going on all over the place rather than just the "big assault" in the last 30 minutes with not much going on in the first 60-90 mins. It's ironic that we used to have discussions about how recon is unnecessary in the CM series as "recon has all been done and now one just goes in and beat each other up" or words to that effect. My experience in the maybe ten scenarios I have played so far is the exact opposite. Recon can of course be a lot of fun... IF the scenario is designed for it.

Thank you.

What worries me is that the size of scenarios are decreasing from CM1 thru CMSF and now CMBN since the new engine is such a resource hog. For those of us who love large scenarios with regimental sized units on huge maps as was easily possible in CM1, I fear that the new iterations of this otherwise xnt game are getting smaller and smaller in scale. For example, my powerful machine takes 10+ minutes to load Omaha Beach once the inf starts landing. I just gave up playing that scenario as life is too short. Hope you guys find a way to make the system run more efficiently so we can easily play with a lot more than a small to medium sized map and a company of inf and a few vehicles on each side.

"I park Strikers at the front, pepper the structure with their 0.5 and use assault order combined with "Target" order. But still, some of my soldiers are killed/wounded during entry." You know that using TARGET anywhere near friendly troops can cause significant friendly fire casualties? (Just in case that is what is happening.)

Thanks, I do feel really stoopid now...

Be really great if you could tell us if it is good vs AI or only H2H. Thanks...

Had the Platoon HQ leader KO'd. But, the guy in the Platoon HQ who takes over is not able to give C2 to those squads even when right next to them. Is that correct and why, or...?