panzermartin

The signs are good, after the disaster of V1.00. I think WW2 will re-establish the series in the pantheon of wargaming classics and achieve some really high scores like CMx1 did.

Great idea! Thanks for creating this in the first place. My only problem is, I need to host through hamachi since it seems I dont have a valid IP adress other than my Router's. Anyone knows what I have to do to let people connect through a static IP?

I think it is just a matter of 3d perspective and angle of view.

Heheheh..can we have it in CM:N manual too? You know, "Background story"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not showing these to compare them to CM, but mostly to highlight some proposals and hopefully help the BFC artists. Some of my suggestions have little to do with extra work but more with color balance issues and pure aesthetics for example. I know there is no comparison but CMSF is already not bad in terms of constructing an interesting town for instance. I'm not asking purely for quantity but for some smart and effective solutions, like extending the randomizer ,say on roofs. Random roofs+random facades+random details like tents/lamps/signs and you can have lots of possibilities with few sets from each category.

Yes I did. Previous page. I've been asking fro something like that since CMBB. No need to overdone it like in Company of Heroes, just a slight fade out of objects and colors (distant being cooler hues).

Back to buildings, there are some ideas I want to share: Details that can break up flat walls and offer some visual interest like tents and half opened windows: Shop facades with some lamps, signs etc: The painted posters/signs on walls can be a great aesthetic detail: Some more complex constructions: I dont want to cause migraine to the art team as some poster said and these are not requests only some ideas for reference and ispiration. CM normandy can retain the brilliant randomizer of buildings but instead of the many balconies sets we can have lamp posts, signs, different roofs with chimneys, so a combo of all these can provide a decent variety in map making.

I dont know if the engine can handle this but it would be nice to have some really big trees too :

A TOW screenie with some interesting objects: Hanged clothes, barns, piles of wood and yes, dead cows! A nice and easy to make doodad..Scarecrow!

Well it is a law of nature I suppose. But what a wargamer has to do with nature and normality?

I think modern MBTs are boring. They all almost have the same gun, speed, armour, reaction times bla bla. I so much miss PzIVs, Shermans and Tigers. Each with its own personality. What difference will a Black eagle or a Challenger bring to the game compared to the Abrams for instance?

One suggestion I forgot, is smoother fade out/in of distant graphics, eg trees not popping out from nowhere but better gradually shifting from transparent to solid bitmaps. Patches have brought a huge improvement in stabilizing the 3d world but still there is some room for improvement. Also making long range graphics slightly more blueish/faded will enhance the feeling of distance and depth of field.

I personally ask for more attention in world objects because vehicle models are already top notch and perhaps one of the best in the market now. On the other hand, environments are somewhat below the market average imo, with straight roads, boxed buildings and some problems in trees and effects. I would agree with the more sensible positioning of fire coming from wrecks. It would take some more work though to do this for every tank and vehicle but yeah it would be nice if flames didnt come from the fenders but from inside the hull/turret, poping up from hatches, and engine decks. And as I said, smoke should look more dynamic, transparent and random. When a CMSF map is filled with burning hulks, smoke columns look wierd having all the same volume, dynamics, height etc. This is a good point also: I expect to see a lot more overcast maps in Normandy. The bad thing is that elevation shading is almost gone when clouds gather over CMSF maps. Maybe a kind of secondary ambient lighting is needed to give maps solid shadows, perhaps combined with a hazy effect to distingiush overlapping rolling hills better.

Another effect it would be nice to have, is drifting leafs, or moving low mist clouds, in hazy conditions. Also, random uniforms/equipment among german squads, quite typical of the chaos in 1944's wehrmacht : (Art from Ron Volstad) CMSF has nice infantry models but they feel a bit like cloned plastic figures out of the box. I expect to see more variations in Normandy compared to the tidy and clean modern US troops.

heheh good one Btw that doggy reminded me that I'd love to see BFC "borrowing" the positional ambient sounds ideas from Theatre of War, with dogs barking, water flowing, birds whsitling, instead of a single backrgound wav.

Some doodads ideas.. Bike grogs beware pls

Also, a great atmosphere touch..signs, painted wall signs, ads and propaganda posters etc. not french, but you get the idea :

Some more ideas for buildings..old chapels and random ruins:

Speaking of new graphics, how is the new water going? Seemed like a pretty ambitious effort to model it with proper dynamic motion, transparency and reflections. Hope it finally makes it! Would be awesome if mud or marsh tiles will have some water on them: Also, we can dream about modelling canals running through villages and narrow irrgiation ditches:

Battlefront has no choice but to try to invest some serious time on the graphical department as well. Even the niche wargame market is full of excellent looking games and if you want to survive you have to at least try not to lose a customer from the first seconds of your demo. They did understand it with CMSF despite anachronistic cries from types like Dorosh. "Normandy" will be the flagship title of the new engine era. The core gameplay is patched up and working fine now and I expect that the biggest load of work will be the new animations and textures this time around. Maybe BFC could open up to the community for some extra help with textures like they did with CMBB scale model competition. Personally I'd be happy to try my hand on a Normandy cottage or two Another thing is the multiple skin slots per vehicle, which if included will boost the visuals of the game with most effort coming from modders.

I was under the impression that currently doodads dont offer concealment or cover. Could be wrong though. A tall haystack for instance can offer significant concealment for a small team. About the special effects. As I said, apart from the burning wrecks, they look quite satisfying. Just sharing here some ideas and inspiration for the graphs team. I dont want to see blast waves and effects, but I find more realistic the flying dirt with the short violent flash. Might be a thing that can be done with just the right timing and sequence of the right explosion bitmaps. Saunders, the pic its from Company of Heroes, a great looking, but still arcadey RTS.

Ah, splendid pics Wicky. Especially that Renoir. Too bad he never met our Alizee Time for some brutal shift of theme now.. Explosions!...and other SFX. CMSF explosions are not bad and I like the fact that they are on the realsitic side of things, not holywoodish, but given the different terrain of Normandy I expect to see more dirt and dust following a very quick flash. I particulary like the blasts and concussion waves in this video: I know it will take months to model something like this, just wanted to accompany my words with images. Also, imo one of the weakest points of CMSF visuals are the burning wrecks of vehicles with fire columns looking a bit like multiple candle lights. Would be great if fire effects looked a bit like those from this pic (again not comparing a multi-$ title with CM, just my idea of more effective use of colors and less uniformed smoke columns) : Lastly I expect a dumpening of muzzle flashes and maybe tracers, although the latter are a good gameplay aid.

What?? You dont like haystacks? Here is another one for you: Still looking for good railway art..

Would be great if we could have some railway objects too. Apart from tracks, some signs, and a wagon or two maybe. However I'm not sure BFC is willing to add extra code for LOS/LOF/damage for "doodads" that big.

Hey, no big deal really I think the game will include even September if I'm not mistaken. Reardless of time/size/type I'd like to see them in along with some other "mid sized" objects. Apart from eye candy they can mask the approaches and offer some cover in an otherwise flat area.