Kineas

It seems to me an eyecandy-driven RTS, where all the action is inside a 300m x 300m box. Same weapons, same era, realistic rules, realistic ranges, wego engine, pbem mode => me buying.

Absolutely.

But they have to come up with an approximation in the game engine, you have to supply numbers somewhere. Actually this is the interesting data for the players, not the real life values.

The CMx2 engine will not be truly moddable, and I guess BFC doesn't really want to sell the source code under a license even for CMx1. It would be nice, but my main concern is whether the market is strong enough for two similar games (CMx2:WW2 and a Cold War release).

Me definitely. I think many of us dream about a huge, hypothetical armor clash in that era. I'm afraid we have to wait for a very long time. But hopefully it will be released before the Space Lobsters of Doom version.

Tarkus, thanks a lot, definitely.

Still, I have some questions about it: 1. will every rule be listed in the manual at least, so I have a chance to infer what will happen on the battlefield if I fire this thing at that target? 2. In the program code you will have a clean representation of all these rules and conditions you mentioned. What I would like to see is a bit of indication of them in the UI. (Provided they aren't all kept in secret for gameplay purposes) If tables do not work any more, maybe you could just list them in a similar way than in CMBB already: Stryker - has slat armour - vulnerable to RPG-29 - has smoke discharger - armour resistance xxxx KE, yyyy HEAT that's all. You got the idea. But it seems to me that it wasn't planned that way...too bad, I like the little numbers and statistics

Yummy bone, thanks.

If they aren't familiar with computers I'd recommend comparing it to Chess. You make your decisions, make your move, only the rules and the pieces reflect a WWII era battlefield. Then you can highlight the differences, wego, fog of war, randomness, simulated military tactics etc.

I just recently began playing CM, I've finished about 5 pbem games. First I avoided buying Stugs in great number, mainly because I read here they are too gamey, ueber etc. I don't really know what does the point system reflect in CM, but it's clear that Stugs can't be disregarded. Their price and rarity makes it the workhorse of the German armor in this game. I don't have the experience to argue about the famous Stug balance issue. The slow turning speed in CM and the limited ammo loadout certainly makes them less overpowered. Since the Russian player always have a horde of T34s what I need to deal with, I find myself picking up Stugs again. It's not that I don't like to snipe with the PzIV, but it's more expensive. In an 1500pt combined arms meeting you have abt 350 battle points for armor which doesn't give you much choice. But a platoon of stugs fits nicely in that price.

MISS COMBAT ION

Those games use the 'deterministic' approach. Basically only issued commands get stored and sent accross the network. The battlefield status is always kept in sync, the same command sequences yield the same results on each player's machine. This method mainly used by RTS games, FPS games keep the game state in sync incrementally, by sending state update packets. The RTS way has incredibly small network/filesize demand in exchange for a small (1 ping), always-present lag. I don't know what mechanism the CM engine use, but it's not the deterministic one for sure, which makes the replay more difficult to develop.

Steve, how about a deterministic engine for CMx3? It would solve this (and the pbem file size) problem.

yes, but I hope for a mod(ule) in this era.

Sometimes I also have problems like that, but after I restart the game everything is normal. Can be a video driver issue. Try to change your desktop resolution to the game's resolution - maybe helps.

Several hundred megabytes is not an option unless you have very high upload capacity. Setting up a web server at home is easy, configuring the firewalls is more difficult, having your PC run 24hrs probably even more difficult. An external service is a more viable solution imo.

Bijlsma was right, the point is that you have an asynchronous way of communication. All the other methods are synchronous, you can only play with people near your time zone. Building an ftp server to the game is technically possible, there are even simpler protocols (tftp I recall), but it makes no sense. Do you want to let your game run for hours/days when your opponent is ready to answer? Maybe you meant an ftp client... You are better off with emailing if the file size is under 10M. If it's bigger I think ftp is the best solution, many ISP offers ftp service too. With file managers uploading a file is easy as if you were copying it to a local harddrive.

Lol, this was a hot topic here in Hungary. They figured out yesterday that though the batteries were removed, the tank itself can be started with compressed air stored in a tank. Because the T34 were designed to start in the winter tundra, with batteries working or not. The lost air was compressed again during normal operation. An old <s>fart</s> veteran knew this and drove the thing away until it ran out of fuel, which was enough only for 100m luckily.

One drawback of the coaxial mg that it can't be fired together with the main gun because of the different ballistic characteristics. I don't know if it's modeled in CM or not, but I remember this modeled in other games. I don't know how they used it for the main gun aiming, maybe it was used for range estimation.

Looking good

I play pbem. I discovered the game not long ago so I probably play it for a couple of years :cool:

Steve, Which is something I have argued is not a valid point. It wasn't a choice between RT and PBEM. Not then, not now. </font>

Care to elaborate? It seems you think it is all too easy for BTS to just make PBEM happen and all that is lacking is the will. I think they are trying to design the best game they can and that sacrificing design elements just so it can fit the mold for one of the modes of play in their previous games is the wrong tack. </font>

Interesting point. But what's the alternative? Designing a game around PBEM? </font>

The sentence 'we put it in unless it proves to be technically impossible' conveys one clear message: the PBEM mode is of second importance at best. (What is technically possible or not was clear at the time of the design, so pbem isn't designed in from the start, but might be a nice bonus) Which means the new product won't just be an overall better CMx1, but a fundamentally different one. This is not a bad thing, invention mustn't be stopped, maybe after the new game we can't even look at CMx1 again. But there are other signs. The RT-wego conversation and other messages indicates that BFC trying to position itself into a bigger market, out of the hardcore-wargamer niche. And the hardcore-wargamer fans (overly presented on this forum) are worried about that. That is why the conversation is a bit heated. They are not worried without a reason, see the first paragraph. Maybe BFC hasn't realized that their competition is not BF2, not Theatre of War or "Rush for Berlin". The greatest competitor is - surprise - CMx1 itself. e.g. I just recently discovered the game, and I will surely play it for 3 years at least, unless a lot better game comes.