37mm

I assure you it'll be worth every penny... which reminds me I have a thread to bump.

As per the manual, the modern Western units have not been changed other than by retexturing them for the SE Asia setting. The Open Beta has nine, simple, conversion scenarios to help showcase some of these changes. However, the focus of Heaven & Earth will always be the "Bong-Hai Civil War" era which is a red vs red setting... both campaigns & eleven, more complex, conversion scenarios are centered on this fictional 1960's-70's conflict.

Another day, another map conversion... ...... that is, originally, a CMA Quick battle map by Stagler. I'm also flicking my way through the unit history of the D445 VC Battalion, an interesting read.

Working on a VC People's Militia campaign... Which will also include an assassination scenario, our "Hit team" of spies & lightly armed men... ...... their targets, a hated LDF Commander & his chief bodyguard... "Oppress this!"

Yes, the general lack of red GPMG ammo is a CMSF2 issue that has been reported & a fix (eventually) promised... also at the time we believed only APC's & IFV's carried such ammo. Since then, we've realized uaz's do carry a little GPMG ammo (trucks don't carry any)... so until the issue is patched my advice would be to strip all GPMG ammo from any uaz's. GPMG ammo is plentiful in the Urban campaign at least.

I'm pretty happy with how the first scenario conversion for 0.97 is looking... ... i'll leave the in depth playtesting for the beta testers.

In the next mission, he ends up in a number of grenade chucking contests & several firefights take place at point blank range.

Reshade... @Aquila-SmartWargames is trying out some of my .ini's.

I was planning on having a week or two away from SE Asia once the open beta was released however that plan quickly went out of the window & I've already started working on more conversions...

Now that the "Open Beta" has been released, @Aquila-SmartWargames has started the campaign set upon the Delta map...

Thank you for the kind words. The delay is probably beneficial, I suspect the improved [hotlz] tag that comes with 0.96 (check out the Counter Ambush conversion) would allow you to better realize your vision for Ap Bac.

Heaven & Earth, the "Vietnam-esque" Super-mod, is still very much a work in progress but I think we're now at a stage where we can start an 'open beta'. Enjoy & don't hesitate to give the team some feedback. The download link (includes the manual)... https://www.mediafire.com/file/ij3gj4f3qmosjny/H%26E_0.96.7z/file The manual only (for those who just wish to peruse) link... http://download1979.mediafire.com/t2e7pgu84vqg/9vrw3i18q5qpydf/H%26E+0.96+Manual.pdf The kind of stuff that you can expect... Content includes... Two "Bong-Hai Civil War" Era Campaigns (one original 15 mission campaign by @puje and a 7 mission "conversion" campaign by myself). Eleven "Bong-Hai Civil War" Era scenarios (all "conversions"). Nine Modern Era scenarios (one original scenario by @Sgt.Squarehead and eight simple conversions by myself). Three Quick battle map conversions by @Combatintman. Installation & set-up The Heaven & Earth modpack is designed for CMSF2 version 2.02, it is advised that you use no other mods alongside Heaven & Earth as it is a complete package with a unique UI, sounds, scripts, special effects, vehicle's & weapons... many of which are swapped by the use of tags. Place the mod pack into your empty mod folder in C:\Users\user\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Shock Force 2\User Data Place the contents of the scenario folder into your scenario folder in C:\Users\user\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Shock Force 2\Game Files Place the contents of the campaign folder into your campaign folder in C:\Users\user\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Shock Force 2\Game Files Place the contents of the map folder into your map folder in C:\Users\user\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Shock Force 2\Game Files In terms of settings, because Heaven & Earth maps are often more complex than the desert maps of CMSF2, you may find it useful to slightly reduce your '3d Model Quality' settings... 'Balanced' or 'Improved' should be sufficient for smooth gameplay. Remember you can change your '3d Model Quality 'in-game using Shift+[ & Shift+]. You can also toggle shadows with Alt+W. Some of the newly created objects may look odd with shaders off. Alt+R will toggle your shaders in-game.

The berets are the same, just random variation... I should probably change that.

Campaign & voices done, manual update started. @mjkerner has also done some work on the Special Forces uniform from @puje ...

The other things to consider with the Marines module is that it's probably the best module for added Syrian content too (Airborne, BMP-3's, T-90A's).

That is a very interesting observation & might explain a few grumbles I've heard here & there... wasn't there a number of complaints about the Dutch lacking radios for instance? I have to admit I've stopped even looking for the 'radio icon' but I will definitely be looking out for this from now on.

Although I can rarely watch your CMSF2 stuff (I hate spoilers) I'm currently enjoying your TOC walkthrough. Oh, I don't know (yet) if you eventually figure it out or not but here are the mechanics of the base camps.

Modern conversions done, campaign script done, campaign briefing mostly done... just the manual & a single 3D model now... oh & a few voices. @mjkerner has also started bringing his stuff directly to the game, here are our "Bong-Hai Civil War" era "Imperial Army" troops fighting (and dying) during a recent conversion playtest...

The CMSF base game is still $60, the big bundle is $125. If $125 is too steep at the moment (and you don't have the original CMSF which can be upgraded for as little as $15) you can always buy the base game now & then the module bundle for $90 (you will likely end up buying all the modules)... it'll be a little bit more expensive overall but will allow you to start playing sooner. @Erwin isn't far wrong about the content available... I estimated there were around 800 scenarios & almost 50 CMSF campaigns (all playable in CMSF2) & that was before CMSF2 was released. And as @mjkerner & @MOS:96B2P mentioned the Heaven & Earth 'open beta' (due very soon) will come with yet more content (2 campaigns & around 20 individual scenarios... over 40 scenarios overall, with more to come). I doubt it's even possible to play all the content available (although @Aquila-SmartWargames seems to be trying to prove me wrong).

I've not done much with the helicopter landings actually... although that's probably a good thing as I only recently came up with some practical ideas on how they could actually be implemented. There is a concept [hotlz] tag as part of 0.96... but any full implementation will likely be a 1.0 thing. Either way, here's the usual "tidbit"...

Okay the final conversion is now complete (or at least complete enough for beta testing). A 'Thunder Run' to relieve the besieged Imperial Garrison at 'Comique House'... ... just have to write a basic campaign script, update the manual & fix a few minor mod issues, then we should be good to go.