37mm

As a side project, I'm slowly but surely compiling 'All in One' Modpacks for games without them. I suspect it's easier for most people esp. the Steam Players (when it's CMFI's turn). I know @Ithikial_AU's 'All in One' for CMBN has been quite popular. As for the sounds, that's the ME soundscape from H&E/CMSF2 which I had assumed was finished... but it turns out still needs a few tweaks here & there for WW2. Oh, I'll politely point out that the footsteps are perfectly audible too !

Still tweaking the ME soundscape for WW2 battles (there's at least two different versions for the BAR in the following vid for instance), but I think I'm getting there...

Well campaign progression is a slightly different subject... as for the Steam players? I suspect they're not going to like it when they find out CMFB has only two user made campaigns... whilst CMSF2 has ~50.

I'll counter-signal @kohlenklau & @Combatintman a tiny little bit. If people were really that concerned about a scenario with poor VP's they could load up the scenario in the editor & adjust the points themselves. Then tell others about the improvements they made to the VP's... perhaps even put up their improved version. I've been playing CM for nearly two decades & I've never seen or heard of anyone doing this. Not one. Compare that with the time limit thing where people do seem to have genuine disagreements over these things, tastes change over time & different play modes or play styles exacerbate time limit differences... as a result many people regularly post that they adjust scenario time limits themselves. In my opinion, most people play a scenario for fun & barely take notice of the final result screen... if the points seemed a little off they would shrug their shoulders & just say "well it was a free scenario". I say that it's perfectly reasonable to create scenarios for this silent majority... rather than a vocal minority. In the early days of CMx1 & CMSF this was the norm & there was a vast quantity of user made scenarios, maps & even campaigns as a result.

I personally have never tried it, but not so long ago somebody (I can't recall who... but they were a long time player) mentioned that they only ever played on the lower difficulty settings for just this reason. It surprised me too... but does make a lot of sense when you think about it.

They wouldn't (or at least wouldn't have to be) beta testers... that's (as you highlight) a different skill set. The vast majority of forums on the web have volunteer forum moderators. Forum mods manage the forum (including the report threads), Beta testers test the games, the Super Six make the games. This is not an outlandish concept.

We'll agree to disagree over whether "slight delay" was an appropriate term... however I think this highlights the most likely avenue for improvement. Create some more forum moderators, I suspect there's not enough for a forum of this size anyway, and as part of their remit they can manage a stickied reporting thread (keeping it clear of useless discussion or fake bug reports) for each game family. That means you guys & the Beta testers will only ever have to visit that one thread to find issues that have been raised & we will at least know that an issue has been seen.

To be fair, although I agree the schizophrenia is a little annoying, we have a situation where a bug first reported four years ago appears to have been not important enough to have been fixed... but was important enough to (slightly) delay a major module release. No matter how you cut it, there are problems with how bug reporting (and acknowledgement of said reporting) is taking place... a problem which then exacerbates other communication issues between BFC & some of its customers.

Yes... the "short, sharp rocket barrages" will be the same in every mission that they are in. As per the campaign briefing... "Throughout the campaign Ammo supply will be very generous, Infantry reinforcement is generally plentiful but any lost vehicle's may be difficult to replace."

The "short, sharp rocket barrages" are the same in every mission you get them, similiar to the Hind-D's in the original campaign I wouldn't expect that much from them other than a lot of noise... I usually amass them all on one target. Just like the original, the campaign can be damn tricky... however there are multiple campaign paths* so a defeat may not be terminal (indeed it may open up missions you could never otherwise play). With multiple AI plans for each mission the campaign was designed to be replayed. * I know @Fredrock1957 made a campaign path map... but I could never find it.

One other thing... one could make the case that CM "difficulty levels" are the "wrong" way round. Playing on 'basic training' gives the AI access to faster artillery. Playing on 'Iron' however means you can easily figure out what each individual unit thinks is going on in the battle taking place around them... it's entirely possible for instance, with regards the ATGM, that the unit was both surprised by the enemy Leopard & struggled to get a fix through smoke, dust & foilage or whatever. However, the god like commander high in the sky, is screaming at that same ATGM team wondering why it isn't firing at the Leopard. There was a thread recently where a CMRT player didn't see that one of the enemy tanks was in a ditch and was therefore surprised that his own tank didn't have a perfect spot.

Here are the files for the campaign & the two unpacked scenarios found inside it. Here's what it looks like in (modded) CMBN... ... I imagine the CMBN Italy Mod (recently put up by @Bootie in its entirety) would be a good fit. I tried a quick hex edit to get the map into CMFI but it didn't work (presumably units will have to be deleted). Saving one out of four isn't a bad result... but it does make one hope the other three maps are still out there somewhere.

Infantry no longer retreat out of buildings as of the latest patches. The ATGM issue could have been caused by arming distance problems (some older ATGM warheads will not arm within 500 metres!) or just bad luck... without details it's difficult to tell if it was an issue at all. I doubt these fairly minor issues were really that significant a block for your mate... but if they were deal breakers (and considering its very rare for BFC to patch their demo's) it might be an idea to try the CMBS (or the WW2) demo's. I'm pretty sure all those demo's are still at engine v3 and, although that engine features less sophisticated infantry behaviour, it was also less finicky right off the bat.

I have the files... it would appear, that at least one of the maps has been saved. I've also discovered there was a playtesters thread for the campaign. I don't suppose you happen to remember who your fellow playtesters might have been? If any of them are still active, they might have the other maps.

Well... change every .wav in the H&E modpack to the settings used in the test .wav's (48000 Hz IIRC). Or wait until I get round to it (now that I know the test settings work for macs)? If you mean the "Tags for scenario creators" folder then no... not unless you intend to create some scenarios. If you mean the various "zzz tagged options" in the H&E modpack... yes, they are very much needed. Keep them in the modpack.

Major Nguyens Command has relatively few building/terrain changes... maybe that's what you're seeing? M48's &/or Riverine vessels make a number of appearances in "The 2nd Battle of Ikke", "Major Nguyens Command" & "The Special War". A Riverine vessel also makes a surprise appearance in one of the scenarios.

You've reminded me, one person mentioned it during the Open Beta... they too had a mac. I arranged some test files to see if these could be heard... but recieved no feedback. https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ar0-nWIeMPIA3EmT56jdkljQwwWx?e=Y1gNNx Add to an empty mod folder. The only placeholder fix I can think of would be to search for every .wav in the modpack then cut them out & put them elsewhere for now (out of the mod folder).

Thanks Erwin! I intend to eventually fully port the ME soundscape into all games (CMFI is next... so many voices) , including those with snow. Play around with the sounds to your heart desire, I've made all non combat sounds are much quieter than normal (footsteps included... although I, personally, think they're still a bit too loud when you get close to your pixeltruppen). However, by expanding the "dynamic range" in this manner, you can actually play the game with louder volume settings & thereby experience really intense combat sounds. Still these things are inherently subjective. I was hoping to figure out a way to do a proper "triple canopy jungle" [tag] which would have a much more 'junglier' ambience... but all my experiments in this regard have failed.

Great news! I do like to dig up old, forgotten gems.

@snake_eye, do you happen to still have those old test file .cam's? This project has been dead for eight years... but you might still have those amazing maps!

A solution to this problem is to provide content creators individual tags which activate model swaps using some of the less popular vehicles in the game (or models from another game entirely)... after all, from a game perspective, you only need a large, metallic object which can burn. Heaven & Earth utilizes numerous tagged model swaps (and will add even more in the next version), off the top of my head... [amphib] swaps BRDM-2's, BMP-2's & both German Fuchs with boats of various types. [hotlz] swaps a uaz with a helicopter. [cache] swaps a uaz with a large pile of boxes. [bhcw] swaps a M1129 mortar Stryker with a Kubelwagon... then makes it entirely invisible. [bhcw] swaps the Technical pick-up trucks with various armed jeeps & trucks. Oh & the zil truck is swapped with a WW2 Soviet truck. [m48] & [m48a3] swaps different T-55 models into Pattons. [acav] swaps a BTR-60 with an M113 ACAV. By default, in the modern era, VBIED cars & Taxi's have been swapped around & the ural truck becomes an open-topped Western one. It's not unusual for a Heaven & Earth scenario to have a half dozen tags running (for era, equipment or uniform swaps, different environment settings & to activate different sounds or SFX). The WW2 games, which have so many versions of the same vehicle (often with unique bitmaps), would be very easy to tag in this manner... an OT-34, very early model Shermans borrowed from CMFI, the Sonderkraftfahrzeug Gleisketten-Lastkraft Flugzeugabwehrkanone 30... with a radio etc, etc

https://www.mediafire.com/file/hk8tt6jfxv2ro8l/zzzzSyria.7z/file

I've been working on & off on this for awhile but I'm finally ready to release an "Initial Beta" for the CMSF2-Afghanistan modpack... Mods used, include... CMA terrain (tweaked & resized for CMSF2), CMA trees by @Bil Hardenberger (reordered & tweaked for CMSF2), A mix of (tweaked) foliage from @SeinfeldRules & @Kieme(ITA), ANA, Taliban, poppies & walls by @Zveroboy1, US Uniforms by @IICptMillerII, Other uniforms by @JMDECC, A mix of buildings by @Zveroboy1 & @Kieme(ITA) (although reworked to standard resolutions), A bunch of vehicle mods... mostly by @MikeyD or from CMA, ME soundscape 1.5 alongside (subdued) voices from HQS & extra Afghan FO voices & ambient sounds, ME Effects (beta 4), "Heaven & Earth" skybox plus background by @Kieme(ITA), @BarbaricCo movie mode shaders, Flavour objects from CMA & (for the [mountains] tag) its background, Modified CMSF2 @Vinnart icons (as per "Heaven & Earth"), Modified @xacto Chaos theme UI, Afghanistan music extras. So far, there's only one tag in the modpack, [mountains] which can be activated by the usual CMSF2 method... however I've also added a number of zipped mods which can be unpacked when required... @Zveroboy1's ANP Technicals, A rudimentary 'Dutch to ANA' mod (for use with the 'Heart of Darkness' campaign), Updated CMSF2 'Marsh to Water' mod (again, for use with the 'Heart of Darkness' campaign). Here's the download link, as per usual with my stuff, it's advised to put all of this into an EMPTY mod folder only. Some screenshots...

The Steam version indeed uses a different mod folder (as well as different campaign, map & scenario folders)... the install locations for either version are described both in the manual & the People's Beta thread.

Here's the NK mod thread... I don't think it was ever released.