DzrtFox

I can totally appreciate and sympathise that  things do not go according to plan. Whilst we are all waiting for the patch to be released, i'm sure none of us want it released until it is thoroughly tested. My only gripe, time and again, is to do with communication, or lack of, between developer and user.
BFC Elvis has now posted above, which may have taken him about 5 minutes to do, if BFC had posted this two or three weeks ago then at least it shows some thought towards communication and transparency between the two parties, and goes a long way to keeping everyone onside i believe personally.
 
regards
 
slippy

😂😂 😂😂 Be funny if it was not all so disappointing and unnecessary though Michael, i can't think of another active game developer, that i follow,  that treats its loyal customers with such disdain, its really saddening and so easily solvable.

I am now, to be honest, getting tad dispirited and impatient for the patches or news about their progress.

Your argument is less convincing when you subvert it in the sentence that follows immediately after. Artillery and somewhat realistic reactions to its fire have to be considered pretty core components of a game centered around military tactics. So there are in fact bugs that, more or less, break the game for those who are inclined towards playing it in a certain way intended by the developer. 
But as said, I don't particularly care about the bugs themselves. In part because I don't even own the games that are affected by them*. Hell, if they'd been clearly labeled on the tin, I might've bought the CMFI bundle already. Sadly they aren't and my only saving grace from unexpected frustration was stumbling into this thread and asking what ailed the game. The general lack of transparency is, simply put, very offputting to me as a prospective customer. It seems to me like the kind of aloof attitude that not even AAA developers can very well afford these days.
I eagerly await the patches and for a few months to pass after their arrival. With this thread as a reference, it seems unwise to be sinking my claw-like toenails deeper into the product catalog much sooner than that. 
 
(*Though I guess I've noticed some fairly minor wriggles in AI response to fire in CMSF:2. Like Canadians running away from the impact of their own LAW:s)

One of the things that have been grating me is the fact that there's no indication on the website of these, more or less game breaking, bugs being present. By trying the demo of CMFI for instance I could easily be led to believe that things are functioning as they ought to be in the current version. When in reality, I could be waiting for a few months to have the game I paid $80 for to take the shape of what was advertised. That's the real kicker here, lack of information, not the very long delay to see the issues addressed. I wonder what happened to the notion expressed in the sales policy that an informed customer is a happy customer. 

Seriously guys...
 

If they manage to patch the UI into something useable I'll give them a look.  (all I'm saying on this topic)

I don't expect BF to have the resources to hire someone to answer questions here on the forum full time, but as I wrote before, surely they could spend a few minutes once in a while so we could get just a few lines of information to find out what is going on, instead of Months and Months of nothing.

Chastise me for comparing CM to Graviteam all the time, but even they have a dev answering questions on the Steam and Graviteam forums most of the time. He's not very good at being PR-friendly (he's kind of a dick sometimes, actually) but at least he gives answers.

They know its a very niche and very good game with no real competition so they can treat ligtly in PR field ;). Pity though

Definitely. That they don't even bother to take a few minutes to write a few lines about why the "before March" release did not happen is really bad.

i have said it before and i understand a lot of people do not agree, but their public relations absolutely sucks 

some new info about patch status could be cool 

I just completed a motherboard/CPU/memory upgrade in my machine and after reinstalling Windows, am attempting to re-download and install the BFC products I've purchased over the past few years.  I thought I'd share my experience doing this because it has been an exercise in frustration and it would be nice if this process was revamped at some point in the near future.
First, the good...  Red Thunder and Black Sea downloaded and installed without a hitch.  I was able to download and activate these without any issues via one Order Detail screen apiece.  It was slightly confusing as to which files I needed to download until I realized I could check the checkbox in the upper-left corner for the Windows files and download them all in one .zip file.  
 BARBAROSSA TO BERLIN -- I purchased this in 2016 and when I attempt to download it, I am told that I've exceeded the maximum number of download requests.  I only remember downloading this twice in the 3 years since I purchased it.  
BATTLE FOR NORMANDY -- I purchased this when it was still Engine 1 then later purchased the Engine 3 upgrade as well as the Commonwealth/Market Garden bundle.  I assumed I would need to download and install these in order to prevent issues.  I attempted to download Engine 1 using the link in the Order Detail, and got the message "The webpage at (url Removed) might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address."  I attempted to download the Commonwealth/Market Garden bundle and received the same message.  Using the link from the Upgrade 3 Order Detail, I was able to successfully download the installer.  For some reason it downloaded much slower than CMRT and CMBS, but at least it downloaded.  I ran the installer and noticed it defaulted to my My Documents folder for some reason (not a huge deal but just pointing it out). After installing, I attempted to activate my Engine 1 key and was told "Invalid serial number".  Used the Engine 3 upgrade key and it worked.  Entered my CW/MG key and it said that activation was successful, but when I run the game all of the CW battles are grayed out, saying I need to purchase the Commonwealth module to play those.
FORTRESS ITALY -- I purchased this at Engine 2 then later purchased the Engine 3 upgrade.  Attempting to download from the URL in either Order Detail gives the message "The webpage at (url Removed) might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address."
SHOCK FORCE -- I bought the original via GamersGate then bought the retail upgrade to 1.21 through BFC and later bought the Marines/British Force bundles (also through BFC).  Attempting to download any of the files I get my favorite message ""The webpage at (url Removed) might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address."
TL;dr -- After hours spent sifting through Order Details and trying to figure out which files to download and which keys to activate, I have 2-2/3 of the six games I bought ($341) working.  Compare this to the twelve games I bought through Matrix that I downloaded and installed via one convenient page with all of the download links and serial numbers in one place.  I love Combat Mission and think you guys make fantastic games, but this process is complete and utter garbage.
Also, I mentioned a few months ago about issues with the password reset in the forums not working.  I had to reset my password AGAIN to come make this post, then after typing it all up I hit "Submit Topic" and was told that I needed to be logged in to make a post.  Attempted to login using the password I JUST RESET, and it wouldn't work.  I had to reset it again just to come copy & paste this.

"That is really just an unacceptable amount of time for a developer to fix a problem that was introduced in a paid upgrade to a product."
I completely agree with you, TGarner. I've hardly played any of the games that I own and paid for (ALL the WWII titles and all upgrades), for the past two years, because of the more infuriating problems with the previous upgrade. I used to love the games and played regularly, so it is even more of a shame that the prevalent culture here is that the customer is little more an an irritant and liable to be ignored for months on end - except when it comes to promoting new product and 'upgrades'. It is hardly surprising that these games are such a niche market when even the small current customer base is treated with such continued disdain. 

Yep. It's now been two years since they broke their own game. Two years. You'd think fixing it would have been a bigger priority.

I've gone from looking for the patch weekly to monthly... soon it will be annually. No info, no nothing... this is tedious in the extreme and no way to retain customers.
 

Soon is a relative concept.  SF2 was "coming soon" in August...

Also a bit put off to conclude that some 3.0 games were actually preferable over their 4.0 version. But I did not get to playing much Combat Mission in the past year anyways. 
On a positive note, maybe some small improvements that evolved during the prolonged CM:SF2 project will benefit the  WW2 games through this upcoming patch.  
 

Your optimism is encouraging...

That's a different mortar bug

No less critical, mind you. The one above (from 2015) is the Commonwealth Carrier platoons in CMBN acquiring 2 inch mortars from universal carriers. They Acquire the mortar, and it vanishes, but they don't have it. It really breaks that unit, since that's a large part of their tactical employment.

Plus another icon bug that don't particularly want to discuss too much in public (could maybe ruin some games). But upon your advice I private messaged sburke about it earlier in the year. Turned out that an ticket was existing for it already and that the bug was not introduced in Engine 4 but earlier.

Same here. I was gonna buy marl=ket garden / British modules but refuse to til patch comes out. Matter of principal.
 

Ya I picked  up SF2 because I do enjoy SF very much BUT the way the patch for all the other games that I have so much invested in has been handled really leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.  As much as I love these games they have been sitting on the shelf for 2 years more or less.  That is really just an unacceptable amount of time for a developer to fix a problem that was introduced in a paid upgrade to a product.  I don't think they feel this way but it really seems like they just don't really care about those who play primarily single player.
Well we pay the same amount for the games.  I am really sorry to come across so negative and I am sure I will get jumped on by the usual people but just remember there are probably very few people who have been more ardent supporters of these games to everyone I could preach to about how great they are than me.  So feeling the way I feel about this whole patch issue is NOT something I enjoy.  I really want to continue to support Battlefront with my hard earned money but I seriously have to question that going forward, which really breaks my heart.
To the devs who might read this I truly am sorry for the negativity, I sincerely mean that and I hope you can get where it's coming from.
 

If Ford sold me a car with a radio without a volume control I'd be pretty annoyed. You sold an upgrade to your game that added the ability to mute the music. It's hard to argue that basic audio controls shouldn't have been part of the base game.
 
You can't seriously be complaining that other people are unreasonable when your stated position is that you don't know if your game is ready to launch until 10 minutes prior and that acknowledging a missed release window when it becomes obvious it will be missed is too time consuming, yet spend 10x as many words complaining publicly that your customer base isn't entirely rational. 
$150 for a new game with all the trimmings is fine. Games are expensive to make. It's the 21st century, money practically grows on trees now. Games across the board should go up in price.