sburke

Somehow I think we can guess what you have been searching on the web in the interlude....

Polder Grog..

Funny, folks worrying about CM dying and my worry is I can continue to keep up with their product releases. Lets say at a minimum they release two games next year. Forget modules for now. As of this time next year I will have 4 families of games to choose from when I decide to play. A year later 6? Hoping they get to Bulge in 2015. They have stated (and their hiring seems to indicate) they are financially doing well. I for one am certainly going to keep acquiring their product and I think I can safely say most of us here will be doing so as well though some folks may start being more targeted on their purchases. I expect we will splinter a bit into EF fans/modern games etc just as I know some folks have not purchased CMFI (damn are you ever missing out). Dying, ha. I am just hoping that BF runs out of European WW2 theatres enough to explore others and do so profitably enough with a solid engine behind them. Pacific/Korean/Vietnam/Middle Eastern/Cold War Europe - the list goes on. I have 10 years till retirement. That should give them plenty of time to maybe take a spin with one or two of those. In the meantime I'll probably need to roll bizarre looking die from a roleplaying game to select which game to take for a spin when I want. I am also not worried about the PC dying. Yeah maybe BF will eventually need to port to some other platform, but I have a trust in their smarts on that. They just need to chain Phil to the chair and keep him working at it. Steve you have gotten the shackles already right? Gotta keep your eye on the ball and plan for the future.

LOL how old do you think we all are?

You don't want to know what that snake puppet was when he was telling the story of Adam and Eve. Let's just say he should probably have to be registering his residence with the state.

LOL TV show called Happy Days. We are all dating ourselves really badly.

rotflmao Hold on there, I said it was short, but they did do it.

Don't sweat it, I have a fairly thick skin. Doesn't mean I can't be an a**hole. I'd have never guessed a Spanish upbringing from that handle though. Your post was far more into technical aspects of how to generate high capacity results testing. I am in telecom and I get that. We do tests to verify some stuff, but to verify conditions under load we need a traffic/call generator to see a system response. Only BF could answer your questions, I am not qualified as I don't see what they do at that level. My response was to completely different posts. Sorry for the confusion.

Actually Bletchley I was not responding to your post. I also was not saying we don't miss anything, hell we missed the MG model issue. Honestly it is a bit embarrassing and I have actually previously apologized personally on this forum not too long ago on another issue. Yes we miss stuff, sometimes really blatant stuff. My response was to the argument for a change based on another model that supposedly would not have that issue. The specific example of that model was matrix's beta programs for WitE and Command Ops. WitE had a patch within 4 days- 4 days is an incredibly short window to develop, test and release a patch. I would frankly be surprised to hear that patch wasn't actually in development prior to the release of a product that had known issues. A judgement call had to be made at some point though as to when is good enough. Again that isn't a critique of those guys but a recognition that software is not like building furniture. It's never really complete and in BF's case may never be till they decide they just aren't doing it anymore. Looking at the high dollar big game company releases I have seen bugs that make BF look absolutely stellar about their QA. Within the constraints of their resources and economic model I'd have to say BF does a pretty darn good job. Perfect- no, but better dollar for dollar than most of the stuff I have seen out there. And I don't think everyone but myself is an ***hole. We are all **holes at one point or another. It's part of being human.

As a beta tester I just want to say thanks for the implied suggestion that we are all incompetent and missed blatantly obvious stuff that some other group would have found no problem with actually no idea of the volume of stuff we have already caught or were testing. yep thanks. Command Ops and War in the East as I recall were released with no obvious bugs whatsoever. Thank god I wasn't working on it, who knows what it might have looked like. Oh wait a minute, I just looked at their 2012 update, 2 years after release that has... wait for it.... bug fixes!!!! Okay which one of us was working on that project? MikeyD? AKD? C'mon guys own up!!! Note their first bug fix patch for WitE was released within 4 days. Don't get me wrong, I am not criticizing those guys, I bought both those games and like them. However to imply somehow their process eliminated blatant bugs getting through is a disservice to them and BF. Software is what it is.

y'all are making me drool on my keyboard.

And BF will fix those, however the 1.11 patch for CMFI includes so much I for one would certainly rather have it than not. We are after all the ones who keep bugging BF to release stuff NOW!

holy crap. I think I succeeded playing that scenario with only one casualty...one AI casualty. My side on the other hand.... Still one of my favorites LLF.

hey Ian, that would be me. I'll PM you, but just a few notes. This is my first attempt at a large scenario, frankly I was doubtful I could pull it off. It is using Pete's outstanding map, I take no credit for that, and a healthy dose of feedback from testers to help me along. Not sure where they beamed in to as I tried to avoid that. I assume it is the German side as the Paras all start on map. I was trying to make it so it had some replay value and have alternate axis and timing for attacks, but likely missed something. Glad to hear folks are enjoying it and once again to point out, scenario design is not impossible- if I can do it.....

Microsoft decided the alphabet is just too confusing, too many choices. 8.1 is the first step. Each of those groups will be replaced with a single new character and those individual letters will be replaced in all words going forward. Good luck knowing whether they meant air or dot.

Not so sure about another module, but BF has stated they at a minimum should have some packs coming - doubtful those would include fire. That would seem to be more an engine update item. The good news is when they do get to doing fire, we will get it in CMBN so all those Arnhem battles can be revisited with flamethrowers. Ooohh yeah

No what is stupidity is pointing out AFTER someone suggests something that you can't based on info you never supplied and acting like somehow your unspoken situation should be self evident. Only the feeble minded could think that. I was suggesting you edit the battle BEFORE playing but you are so into your rage at the machine attitude you never stopped to think you asked for input but didn't give enough detail to guide that input. When did you mention it was pbem much less double blind? Oh yeah YOU DIDN"T. How friggin stupid is that? So back to my suggestion, edit the scenario and restart your friggin game, anyone who would be foolish enough to play a pbem with such as you would likely start over anyway. You can edit the weather conditions w/o looking at anything else. And actually I have played that scenario- more than once as I was playtesting. I know it rather well as a matter of fact hence my answer. Next time dude you are on your own, you don't deserve the courtesy you are not willing to give.

It is a helluva scenario, and the snow, well it is part of the immersion. Been reading Parker's Monte Cassino. Just finished the experience of the Americans and the 4th Indian up on the ridge. I have a new appreciation for the scenario and the battle..... and the snow. Oh and you CAN open the scenario and turn off the snow if you want. You'll need to adjust fog and time of day to get the visibility factors right, but it is possible.

killjoy

I never tried my hand at designing for CMx1. I've done 4 for CMx2, my first in CMFI/GL for BF. Yeah that was the first I'd ever done. It really is not as hard as folks are projecting and that depressing litany of it being so hard is only going to deter people from trying. If I can do it, anyone out there can. Just give it a shot and stop letting folks tell you how hard it is. Start small, learn the AI and go from there. JonS has done en excellent job of creating a how to guide that wasn't available when I gave it a shot.

nudge - how's this coming?

Depends on what you mean for QB maps. If you are using for HTH games, you can do that no problem. If however you are playing against the AI that is a whole other kettle of fish. Those have AI plans and the AI plans have to be built to accommodate a range of possible choices. I have done a couple scenarios, but I would still not want to try to create anything for a QB.

That is a tough call. Personally I am old enough and well compensated at work enough to simply decide when I want to upgrade. I do not know that the average gamer necessarily is in that position. We have had enough people suggest they either have to put off a purchase or choose between CM families to make me acutely aware that there are folks out there who play the game and struggle to be able to afford it. They are as much a part of BF's consumer base as I. As to what I would like to see, I'm with Broadsword. I want more flavor items that reflect the destruction of battle- we have umpteen types of barrels, but none are busted. We have two kinds of Telephone poles and a variety of street lamps, but none of them downed to be crushed under my tank treads!! How about some building facings that are gutted. Hell some two or three story walls could probably be made to work if they look properly chewed up. Only problem is that all requires work on the UI so my wish list is likely to have less progress than others.

+1 on that Nidan. I studied Japanese for two years and was so excited the first time I left Tokyo to travel on my own. Went to Okayama, Himeji, Kyoto and a few other locations. Frustrating as I wanted to speak Japanese and all the locals wanted to practivce English on me. Well it went well had a great time, but without having regular interaction in the language I lost quite a bit. I would absolutely never consider trying to write on a forum. Hats off to you ippsx for having brass balls bigger than most here. Keep posting away. The pic does work, but there is a better way to post. Sergei gave great detailed instructions a while back. It is unfortunately all in English, but I think you'll be able to work through it. Reading is usually quite a bit easier than writing. http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=97288

Funny thing is, those of us doing Op layer controlled campaigns are across the board creating ahistorical battles. We may be using a game that was historically based, but the moment we roll the die on the Op layer, every following battle is a fictional event. And it is fun as hell. Broadsword just posted a map that is the basis of our fight for Son bridge and it is nothing at all like the historical situation. After that we are looking forward to a fight for Eindhoven that we expect to be every bit as brutal as Arnhem. If we took the end product and turned it into a campaign I wonder how well it would be received considering none of it is historcal? If CM is dying it certainly is going out in a blaze of glory as I am having more fun with this game every month that passes. And to think of all that is still to come. Imagine what the engine will look like in 2 years with all the progress we have seen since CMBN was released. The only concern I have is to make sure the computers that are around in 10 years will still run it - that is my retirement goal. Work really gets in the way of my gaming time.