sburke

From Steve on the Christmas Bone thread

I would! It may in fact happen that as the additional releases come, there are new capabilities that drive renewed interest. Look at all the requests for fire - if and when we get it, that will alter what is capable of being portrayed. I expect Arnhem might be revisited then. As RepsolCBR noted people have their own preferences over time period and units. That is actually the cool thing about BF's strategy of keeping them current. If I want to go back and create a scenario for CMFI or CMBN, I am not doing so with an outdated engine. Sort of like sitting on CMBB and wanting to do a CMBO scenario and not liking that certain features aren't available. Yes the output of material might be slowed, but take a look at the CMSF forum. Folks re still generating material despite CMSF not having all the 2.0 capabilities (yet). Also the game versions may enhance the ability to create scenarios making it more approachable. To be honest, I think the difficulty is overblown. You don't have to do a big map, it doesn't have to be historical, it just needs to be interesting. Hell I have done 4 now. If I can do it, I think just about anyone can. You don't even have to create new maps. I don't think anyone would object to seeing maps reused especially if the orientation is shifted, time of year etc.

Stare harder!!! Maybe I'll find the Belgian Army.

yeah this is the one thing that has me screaming and running for cover on the new map sizes coming with 3.0. Getting a map to look good is in the details and 30 sq km of detail is ... well a lot.

Considering the resources required would have to come directly away from the current games planned, I wouldn't hold out much hope. However I'd love to see a full game family on the "blitzkrieg years". British, French, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish and German units. I'm in!!

I don't think I am following you here and perhaps I am just missing your message. AFAIK no other game out there promises to continue to provide material after the point of purchase. To use two examples War in the East and Command Ops, they do not provide additional material unless it is part of a larger release similar to a module (in the case of WiTE) or nothing at all (in the case of Command Ops). edit - correction Command Ops appears to have an add on module for their Bulge game. So I think any expectation that BF would be expected to do scenario releases is actually judging them different. Scenario packs was an aspect of SL and ASL that I think is long gone. This isn't to say BF would never release a scenario pack - who am I to say. It just doesn't seem to be the best use from their view of the resources they have to typically draw on. As to BF supporting CMBN in point of fact BF has already gone a step further in stating they WILL continue to update the game engine as it develops keeping CMBN current. That is far and beyond what I think we have come to expect from most developers.

Because you bought the game as is, not with the promise that BF would continue to develop material. It isn't about volunteering to develop CMBN's engine, the comparison doesn't quite make sense. Once the last pack is out I don't see BF spending any further energy on CMBN, they are too small an outfit for that. If you don't feel like you want to contribute, fine that is your choice. For my part I was just trying to point out that the resources BF has will have their hands full with the planned releases. Additional material if it is going to happen is going to have to be created by the community. It isn't about a guilt trip, it's just a fact of life.

Only Battlefront can answer that for sure, but I don't think these were done as a Holiday offering.

Yeah, though Broadsword and I enjoy the hell out of our Op layered campaigns, it would absolutely suck to have BF lose focus on the tactical which is the whole point of our op layer.- to create scenarios at the tactical level that have consequences and meaning to the next battle. What I would like to see is someone else come along with the same attention to detail for an op layer game. There are some good ones but they usually have an issue somewhere along the line to make them less than satisfactory. Hopefully choppinIt's endeavor will bear fruit and resolve the problem. .

and then of course there is the "re-gifter".

My PC (which pretty much runs anything I throw at it in CM) is going to explode if I try to put in a 30 sq km map with even one division of troops. I think folks are going a little overboard on what you can expect to do with the increase in map size. Time to come back to reality for a moment (I know what a downer I am today. ) Broadsword and I have been running HTH campaigns for 2 years now and what we have overall found is even a 4x4 map is an enormous amount of effort to create and typically we would simply slice it down from a master map to something more reasonable. What I personally would like to see that would make larger maps more useful is the ability to take the end game save of a battle and reopen that in the editor to initiate a second battle (to hopefully include the damage existent on that map). That would go a long way to reducing the overhead of a hth campaign. Given the 4 hour time limit still existing it would seem to enhance the use of the map scale.

LOL. One other thing I do like more in CMFI- urban maps are more interesting. The independent buildings in CMFI I like quite a bit more for a dense urban environment, combine that with the recent tweaks in infantry vs armor and you have some really nice material. PFs are now more effective as well being able to be fired from building cover. The only issue, to really get the most out of it requires a human opponent. The AI isn't so good at close assaulting your armor. MG buildings are an improvement over the Normandy based architecture, but still get beat out by CMFI. For example, to reuse a screenshot from the fog thread

The designers who work on the CM releases are likely going to be way too busy given the increase in BFs capacity on new material. Odds are new material for CMBN and CMFI is going to have to come from the community. This will only become a bigger issue over time as BF continues to churn out product. Based on current thinking from BF, we will have the following over the next couple years CMBN CMFI CM Eastern Front x 4 CM Modern at least one new game and a re release of CMSF CM Bulge CM Vietnam - okay BF has consistently said no, but I keep wishing That is 8 separate game families and the return of what many still consider the best. (10 if you count my wish) Maybe you won't want to play yours, but someone else will and then maybe they will be encouraged to create one in turn. BTW what is professionally made? Most of the campaign and scenario designers are not on salary. It is a worthwhile consideration to see if there is a market for selling campaigns/scenarios as the labor as you noted is fairly extensive. How that then conflicts with the current model for distribution and the expectation of what comes with the game is a whole other problem. I don't think that however is the hold up. The issue isn't people aren't getting paid, the problem is a lack of folks willing to try their hand at scenario/campaign creation. CMSF did eventually have a wealth of material, but it was the only CMx2 product for a very long time. Honestly I think the real answer is going to be tied up in what editor improvements come over time. If the actual creation of scenarios can somehow become a little less labor intensive, that would help a lot. In the meantime, the only real answer is the community needs to get more involved. BF is apparently quite healthy, that must mean there are plenty of us buying the game. Time to roll up your sleeves and contribute.

I'd vote for this! Am messing around with an urban fight in dense fog. The LOS is pretty much the width of a street, it is pre dawn and foggy. This infantryman was just shot from the 2 story building just beyond the tank and that is about the limit of visibility. The actual units are definitely handicapped with LOS issues, but the feel of the map just doesn't quite give any indication of just how foggy it is. Granted I wouldn't want to have the visual be as intense as the actual LOS, but a bit more soup to the fog would be nice.

Perhaps this is more a design issue for putting rail beds on a ditchlock level? I'd have to experiment to see what that does for AS positioning etc.

Okay so spare change in the jar is not the best strategy.... though it wouldn't hurt. Second Western Front meaning Bulge? You are usually hopelessly optimistic Steve, but hell if you weren't we likely wouldn't have CMx2 at all. I'd settle for Bulge in 2015 as it will take Mord that long to do all the unit icons for the Eastern Front and Modern game.

Yeah really. Taking a moment to reflect- if they were to release in May that would make it 3 years from the CMBN release. What have we gotten since then? Commonwealth CMFI Gustav Line Market Garden The 2.0 upgrade Lots of tweaks to everything from MG fire to Tank spotting and infantry AT capability. Map overlays in the editor Last night I played Last Defence for the second time to see if I could improve over my first run through. What I still think is the single best enhancement over the last 3 years is the infantry vs armor equation. Tanks are dead meat in close terrain if unescorted. The biggest issue that seems to be coming out now in the forum is folks can't keep up, we are seeing already that many are having to pick and choose what games/modules they get. It used to be we complained at the slow pace of release, now we complain that the release rate is outpacing financial resources. For those thinking ahead, you'll want to factor in purchasing the 3.0 upgrade for CMBN and CMFI whenever BF gets to it in addition to the game releases they are talking. (hint you should start saving now, put a couple bucks in a jar every week starting today and you won't have to be hoping for bundles - hell just empty your spare change every night into the jar.) I think you are right Mord, 2014 is a watershed moment. After all the crap BF has taken over the switch to CMx2, there is absolutely no question that they got it right. The vision they had back over 10 years ago is paying off big time. Congrats BF and Merry Christmas to yourselves.

This seems logical and more an issue of terminology. We aren't talking a significant ammo dump with POL as well for a large unit. This seems more a couple crates of ammo. Is there any thought of being able to acquire additional items that are not currently listed in vehicles or is this strictly limited to what types of equipment can be acquired in 2.0 (For example would grenades be an item to acquire?)

What uniform mod do Santa's elves wear? We may have to ask Aris to do a quick job on the sleigh as well.

With a map that size and ammo dumps, will you also consider allowing a longer time limit on games than 4 hours. Granted 4 hours is a helluva long time, but one does have to ask. Oh yeah, Thank You Santa. Friggin awesome news.

just subscribe to BF's youtube channel

heh heh maybe the brain in the jar is floating in heavily spiked egg nog.

Nice, something else to look forward to in the new year!

Honestly when I watch all the prancing and "moves" in professional football I feel not much different than watching pro wrestling... ill.

Ah I missed that on post #39. Okay then I revert to my first response.