Canada Guy

1 - CM:FI - GL (I like to finish this one up as I have already finished all the current scenarios) 2 - CM:EF (No need to say more) 3 - CM-BN - MG (finish the series) And I guess 4 - CM:SF 2 if nothing has come out of or on the horizon by BF for 3-4 months. If SMSF 2 was Asia (Korea) then I would place it a lot higher but I just do not have much interest in USA vs Russia. USA vs China (via Korea) seems like a much likelier step and would give us access to much more than we have ever been exposed to before.

Ranger, Yes I would agree. I remember expanding the map and adding more and more units though until it was huge but still liked to go back to the original. I think it was the 1941 time frame that interested me the most. By 1945 the JSIII and KTiger made the infantry man much less useful it seemed. Just get in their with an ATR and go to town. That was fun (and probably why I liked the Finnish scenarios)

I remember one scenario with Pz-(38)t and StuG IIIb vs BT-7 and a conscript T-34 fighting in Winter over a resort lodge or some such. Was one of my favourite 3rd party scenarios in CMBB. Cold, snow, crappy tanks and desperate men. What is not to love.

I kind of understand this thinking. If Steve did mention anything concrete, he would experience the equivalent of a hen at a fox party. I am most interested in seeing what a pack looks like. Since we have seen both Base games and modules, I would like to see what is to be the norm for a pack. I for one loved CMAK and fighting in dust in the desert. I am looking forward to the expansion of CMFI and a good pack would hold me over until bigger things (EF and MG) come along.

44 I bought the original ASL when I was 16 and I have no idea how I even ended up buying CMBB all those years ago. (It could be last month but my Alzheimers is kicking in)

Were there not going to be "Packs" as well. - small add ons that only add some new equipment or some such. I would think that as they had mentioned them earlier this year, we would at least see one in 2013. Or was the 2.0 upgrade also considered a "pack"? As far as these packs go, does anyone even know what could possibly be in one? Maybe they could tie it in with the ability to pick a specific unit/uniform in QBs and add one for specific formations providing they also added some new equipment.

Will this one be available through this website or will I only be able to download it from the GAJ site? I do not want to have to create yet another account to get one mod if I do not have to. Looks great though and I am always surprised that BF has not offered you a free copy of the game if you will do this for their official release. Many of you work modders for free and would be happy to do this for us all (though I may be presuming to much) anyway.

I love your American tactical icons and will await them so that I can replace the ingame icons.For some reason, the ingame icons really detract from the game for me. Hopefully your set will be broken into a separate allied and axis set. I like to replace the axis icons with the actual period German icons for the axis and yours for the allies. I do not think I have seen a set of CW icons though. Are they any different from the American icons?

Lokik, Great to see a new face around here. I have learnt a lot by lurking and occasionally asking stupid questions. But the guys here are great and most will answer in a way that even a bad player like me can understand. You'll have to give us your impressions, joys and frustrations as you see them as a fresh face can highlight things that we jaded players may miss.

I am curious about the terrain and how the various seasons will be handled. Now we have BN which is in summer, we will have MG which will be one season and finally bulge which I think will cover one season. How will CM deal with a family that covers all 4seasons? Will each module cover one season of that year so we get summer in the main family game, then a fall module (along with equipment and TOE changes) and so forth? It seems logical but I am not sure of TOE changes and new equipment necessarily followed this cycle exactly. Re: Packs - are these to be equipment and TOE only or would they also include terrain? (e.g. A winter tree or a frozen river)? I seem to recall that only equipment will be included and the necessary TOE.

Steve et al., Did the weather hit you guys at all? I think you are in the northeast of the states and I thought that it was hit by some storms and then a heatwave. You guys do live in the bush with gasoline generators so probably not too much different from what you are used to.

One thing nice to have would be to see how many men at a glace you have remaining in unit. Instead of having to look through and count the green text, little green dots like that for vehicles would be nice (or at least do not remove the KIA weapons but rather change them To a different colour. The ability to see which units are in C2 immediately rather than having to always read the bottom screen. Something like in CMx1 where clicking on a HQ would then show you black/red lines for in/out of C2. I know some people loved it and some hated it but I found it very useful. Mouse-overs for each UI item as you are correct in that there is a lot of stuff to look at and sometimes I do of know what it is exactly I am seeing. A small mouse over to assist my memory would be good. I like the visual ques for ammo availability I also like the roster to see a more comprehensive C2 Ammo for each weapon. Sometimes I do not know which Mao goes with each weapon and I do not want to have to read the manual each time just to pick up some ammo. Again, maybe a mouse-over to show distance and ammo type. Passenger/Floor/unbuttoned would also be useful as a visual que Using a border around the icons rather than fading them as sometimes I know there is a unit somewhere but I cannot find it when faded. A coloured outline would work better for me. Not really a UI but a visual clue again.

You could shorten the suppression meter to a single wide horizontal line and the saved space could then be used to include the passenger/4th Floor//Unbuttoned information line. The green dots for amount of ammo (Green/Yellow/Red) are very useful and this would be nice to have as would mouse-overs for the modifiers (I still do not know what they are for as they are not like the CMx1 days when a star meant one thing and a squared star meant another). I would also like to see mouse-overs for the weapons to show what type of ammo each uses. I sometimes grab the wrong ammo and then cannot give it back and it is useless and have to grab some more. Hopefully a soldier knows that he should grab x ammo and not y (unlike me ;-)) I think we realize that you will not get to this as soon as we like but the good news is that you are at least thinking about it. V3 will be here sooner than we expected and you seem to indicate that some items may even make it into v2.5 (if such a beast exists). Great. No better way to keep this hobby alive but through continuous improvements.

Normal Dude, What are those black lines below your yellow "HEAT Round Shot"text?

TC? Tank Commander?

I like the question marks over the vehicles. It is nice to not know what I am facing automatically or perhaps guess I am facing some type of vehicle from the sound. I also like that if I have seen it just seconds before and cannot now, I should still know it's a tank even though it is no longer in my direct LOS.

The terrain does look different but I cannot put my finger on it yet (both figuratively or literally). It does feel more like Italy and CMAK than I had expected. That is a good thing as I really enjoyed CMAK. BTW: Love those Italian pants. I had a similar pair made for me in Hong Kong once which my wife has now hidden on me. Everyone needs a pair of Jodhpurs once in his life.

NormalDude, For terrain, I was refering to either CMSF or CMBN? The terrain looks fairly similar to those games but there may be differences that I have not yet noticed. As for video cards, I currently run a GT 240 but have been looking to upgrade to a GTX 560 (equivalent to a 6870). I am assuming that this card should be good enough for what I want to do with CM. (shaders, good frame rate etc.)

Which of this terrain is new? It seems like we have seen most of it before but I may be missing some of the newer stuff. I could not tell too much difference with the shader on the truck but definitely on the wall. Looks good. What type of video card do you need to run this with decent frame rates?

I really suck at this game (though I do love it). The friends that I play against are all evenly matched. You can check out our CMBB/CMAK battles from years past here https://sites.google.com/site/cmbbcmak/home (click on our names to see some short AARs) I though would probably need to act as IT for one of them to play so I am a little worried about the upgrades/modules/packs etc but I still think it is worth it in the long run.

It is not only not insane but it is a great way for us to keep up with all changes. I never played CMBO as I only found out about CM after the release of CMBB and did not want to go back to an earlier less polished version. This way, in 3 years, those that just discover this system can still buy CMBN with all the new features that are available 3 years hence. I am less worried about fragmentation than when I first started reading this new model. Well worth the little bit of inconvenience for me to ensure my PBEM buddies are all set up. I do not begrudge you the money nor the DRM that you have. I still play for pennies an hour of play and once the DRM is working, it works fine. Try something like Diablo where you have to have a persistent internet connection. Their servers went down and no one could play for a while. Now that is taking it a step too far. In 2 years, no one but a few hard core gamers will be playing Diablo. in 2 years, I will probably play just as much CM if my wife lets me. Another revenue stream, tents with computers set up in your forest outback of your house for those if us that wish to play after our wives kick us out. Slit toilets, -40C in winter will all just give this ambiance.

Strange as we never hear "aboot" in my neck of the country. In fact, we are thought to have no perceptible accent and as such, are recruited by Asian schools more than any other regional due to that flatness. I do love a good British accent though. Something about it that just makes everything sound more sophisticated. My sister lives in Missouri and that I have trouble understanding, though Newfies (people from Newfoundland and Labrador) could give them a run for their money. I am hoping though that the next CW module for CMFI will have some real Canadianisms in it. Bunny Hug = Hoodie Vico = Chocolate milk

I am sure that BF has spent much time thinking about this problem as well as numerous others. Definitely more than the 5 minutes that I have pondered what it will mean. Project management is hard just with one boss and numerous clients. I can only imagine what it is like with the whole forum asking you questions when we really have either not thought it out or just ask questions out of curiosity.After reading this, I think Fragmentation will not be a major issue for a majority as they will either stick with the game as is and play locally or they visit these boards and solutions will be found. As Mord said, we are an OCD lot. I am still wondering what the 3rd base game for this year will be unless Steve was referring to Bulge. Though I thought that this was to come after all of CMBN was finished in about a year. Other than CM:EF'44 and CMFI what could it be?

I did not mean to stir the pot and I definitely do not begrudge BF any money as they have been both responsive to their customers and keep adding to the game base to give us loads of fun. FI was totally unexpected and having the EFront so soon is great news and something for which I am willing to pay. Hell, I probably owe them a few 100 quid just for all the fun and enjoyment I received from playing CMBB all those years. It probably worked out to pennies per hour. I am a little worried about fragmentation but I am sure that once we get into the swing of things, everything will become clear. I was worried more about the mods and the PBEM. I have friends that I have tried to get to play this game, and I even bought them copies. they love the game but just cannot seem to commit. It will be doubly difficult to me to keep them all on the same version. We may just have to pick a theatre once every few months and ensure that everything is upgraded as needed. The mods though, since I do not mod but just enjoy what is available, is something of a worry. Again, this may be out of proportion as I am sure that if I keep updated and the modding community tweaks their mods for upgrades all should be well.I hate those green weapons icons though. It drives me crazy but what do you expect out of a obsessive compulsive group such as we are. Though I am still not convinced that a diet of potatoes for a week will work. ;-) I would then have to explain to the wife why this is happening. It is easier to wander the back alleys collecting cans in winter at -40C. Gets me ready for the EF Family of games.

The one problem I have with this whole concept is that it may fragment the entire base. With upgrades, families, modules and now packs how is one to keep,up with all changes? Some of my favourite things have been the mods. How will a modder be able to keep up with all changes? They need to consider modules and versions and scenario builders need to take this into account as well as multiple packs. I should not have a problem as I do plan on buying most of the items but it could become a logistical nightmare. I wish you well though as this is an extremely ambitious plan and one that will make us very happy. The way it looks though, one could spend upward of $250/year on this. I am all guessing on the prices but (2 families x $70, an upgrade $10, 2 modules x $30 and 2 packs at $20). Worth it for the sheer enjoyment but boy, my wife may want more furniture just to compensate.