37mm

1/ In the base game, no. 2/ YES, very much yes! For H&E the [mountains] tag activates different ambience, horizon, gun shot sound trails, new crops (including your poppy fields) & alternative tree models. H&E is chock full of tags which content creators can use to activate different environments, model swaps, uniforms & even different era's.

This will probably be my last proper AAR for the next few months...

Indeed, the 'open beta' has already provided sufficient proof of concept... @Aquila-SmartWargames has even gone so far as to say that H&E is the best "Vietnam" wargame available (although, admittedly, that's a short list). @Combatintman's "Ap Bac" scenario is the largest scenario produced for H&E (the only other possible contender for that title being a conversion of another of his scenarios). Perhaps the primary playtester, @MOS:96B2P is best positioned to give you a teaser for how "A miserable damn performance" plays?

It's cropped up before, there is a CMSF mod... https://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?p=6087 https://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?p=6091 ... I'd imagine the distant minimaps could do with updating but it'll probably suffice. Although, I can't recall @Kwazydog's "Optional Terrain" mod it was based upon.

It looks very, very impressive! I strongly suspect it'll be one of the most enticing offerings for the eventual "People's Beta"!

People might be able to remember that in the original release of CMSF basically everyone fired at everything whether they could penetrate or not (it was kinda cool, AKM fire couldn't penetrate a Stryker but it could, over time, degrade all the subsystems & tires... I still recall the limping Strykers & massive wall of Syrian fire at that Airfield battle). I suspect this "firing grenades at an MBT" behaviour might be something still left over from the original tac AI.

Get what you're interested in... there's so much CMSF/CMSF2 content that the base game will be more than enough to keep you entertained. You can purchase the modules later if you so desire (you likely will) & there's various module bundles & the like (plus, now, the occasional sale) which will still grant you a saving.

There was actually a lot of umming & arring with bombs 2 & 3 which fell on (what was initially only a suspected) sniper positions at "Doctor"... however editing can make indecision look like confidence.

Thoroughly enjoyable fight... ... if you forced me to be overly nit-picky I'd say the reinforcements came pretty late... but, as those troops were likely smoking hashish or something, that's not exactly unexpected.

During the making of Heaven & Earth, I made a few changes to the effects & these have now been fed back to the original dropbox link (beta 4). Changes Night explosions have been improved (large explosions at night looked odd previously) Slightly tweaked vehicle muzzle fire.

This is going to be fun...

A constant source of irritation for the Heaven & Earth team... having a few uaz's around (each jeep comes with 500 PKM rounds) is the most popular solution.

Basically an updated version of the Heaven & Earth soundscape... it's still WIP but the version from a few weeks back did come with the Syrian modpack I released. It was a small map & I've recently replaced my big screen TV/monitor so I thought I'd try out the 4k resolution... that, combined with Barabaricos movie shaders (and with just a touch of reshade), is probably what you're seeing.

I have (very) vague memories of the CMSF original but the CMSF2 update was certainly different. I gave it a quick spin... ... the Syrians have a lot of advantages & one bad move can lead to horrific losses. It's tricky but a hell of a blast.

Possibly not... but once we decided to go the full conversion route I decided to (by default) revert to the modern era as best as possible. Anything 60-70's esque requires the [bhcw] tag. Besides, thanks to @RockinHarry, we still have way more potential flavour object slots than currently needed. Again, I'd advise trying to complete the 3-mission modern drug war campaign first. At the current pace, I'd imagine the People's Beta 0.97 should be released around Halloween... factoring in the usual delays that likely means Christmas... enough time?

I did a quick scoot around some earlier maps... I saw no major changes. As for the flavour objects they've been switched up a few times... presumably I reintroduced the ATM's when we decided to cover the modern era too.

I had similiar issues for awhile until one of the H&E team told me that the regulars have access to Technicals too... and they do. There's less flexibility with the Regular Technical formations/Single vehicles (and IIRC the Special Forces have access to none) but you can work around it.

Thanks... but you still get no prize

I've been having numerous hardware issues these past few weeks but I did manage to scrape together the first draft of another H&E conversion... ... no prizes for guessing who made the original. The patch seems to be working well with the less than crack troops & various types of strange terrain features*... I will have to update the scripts text file again though (anybody using 0.96 will have to delete the scripts file if they've patched up). *We speculated that the flooded ditches effect might have been a bug however you only seem to get that effect if the underlying terrain is particuarly damp (muddy or marshy)... so it does seem to be a terrain design feature.

I am so enjoying this patch...

CM does have the tools to help simulate lower intensity warfare... there are CMSF1/2 scenarios where the penalty for casualties are quite harsh (@Combatintman has made a few) and even a few low intensity campaigns by @puje. Although, as @Howler points out, this is a game & people usually want to get to the 'splodey tank' bits fairly quickly.

I'm not too sure that is correct... during large battles/offensives (where most CM scenarios take place) you have very high casualty rates where units are trying to stick to some timetable of objectives (if your unit fails to meet its objectives, both the flanking units are left in horrendous danger). Operation Goodwood was a two day battle which saw the Allies lose 500 tanks... Normandy, day by day, was considered to be as bloody as WW1's Battle of the Somme (although, obviously, ending up more decisive... and with more movement). Compared with most wars* the World Wars really were staggering in terms of bloodiness... and CM scenarios are usually representing the very bloody tip of that truly outrageous carnage. CMSF1/2 is probably the outlier here... as it is difficult to imagine, considering the BFC hypothetical timeline, why "objectives" (any objective) would be worth as many casualties as one usually suffers during a scenario... however, clearly, CMSF1/2 is a fantasy sandbox. * Just as a random comparison, the British suffered 256 dead from the four year (1936-39) revolt in Palestine... a butchers bill perfectly comparable with todays "small wars".

None of those wooded areas are very thick. I think CM underestimates the concealment potential of thin woods (especially when there is any rise in the underlying terrain)... in fact, I think I recall that it is confirmed that ALL units in CM are FAR more visible than they should be for gameplay reasons (there's a reason small unit skirmishes can last many hours in real life). We're not talking "health bars" here... but it is an ahistorical engine quirk that one needs to get used to & plan for. I agree with @Bulletpoint that the (thin) wooded terrain suggests, to me, "assault route" rather than "base of fire position". However, there are usually advantages for doing something unexpected (especially considering all the murderous scenario creators out there, all of whom seem insanely desperate to brutally murder my poor, innocent pixeltruppen... what did my pixels ever do to you @George MC? We can't take a nice "walk in the sun" without you flinging various kinds of explosive sh*t at us?).

Hmmm odd. Either way, my version of the @Kieme(ITA) HD mods has been altered to better fit in with the CMSF2 engine (mostly in terms of distant bitmaps). Rather than go through my current set-up, bit by bit, here it is in its entirety (for battles in Syria)... http://www.mediafire.com/file/hk8tt6jfxv2ro8l/zzzzSyria.7z/file

I've been gettin enquiries about old CMSF vehicle mods, so here are the ones in my possession (they seem to be mostly by @MikeyD & @M1A1TC)... http://www.mediafire.com/file/f500hkxs4xlzlxu/Old_CMSF_Vehicle_mods.7z/file