Combatintman

Nice screenshots - is a scenario forthcoming?

Mr Centipede feel free to ask on the forums - I am by no means the font of all knowledge but will do my best to answer your questions. If you want to discuss the individual concepts of a mission without revealing all on the forums then feel free to PM me. Given that you are totally new, I'd start with the manual - it does cover most of the mechanics. If there is something in there that you don't understand, have a look at George's manual as this steps through the mechanics pretty well. Once you've got your head around all of that then have a look at JonS's thread mentioned in BlackMoria's post.

Gents this was done to death elsewhere and ultimately locked - Steve's post on this thread is pretty much the same as his final post on the thread below: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=116887&highlight=steam There is little value in rehashing it here.

There are definitely still people playing this and putting out scenarios for CMSF - however I don't know if there are many who play PBEM. If you have just purchased the game I'd at least play a few scenarios against the AI before you tackle a human opponent. If you can't find anybody on this forum try a Few Good Men: http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/forums/combat-mission-shock-force-afghanistan.169/

I don't think CM Herts is a flyer as the next Battlefront project though although by all accounts Hemel Hempstead could do with levelling based on its UK's Ugliest Town rating of 2013.

Glad you liked it mate ... took a hell of a lot of fiddling around with the points values to get right but I got there in the end. My 'M Wadi' mission is in testing phase right now ... struggling with it a bit but I'm sure it will work itself out fairly soon.

I think MikeyD has a point - I wouldn't encourage you to leap in and start with a 2 x 4 km rectangle as my post suggested. Also in terms of getting used to programming the AI, it is better to start small with your first scenarios. My advice is to play the scenarios that come with the game and when you've played them past replay value - crack them open in the Scenario Editor and see how they've been put together. This will give you further design guidance and some useful ideas for you to start designing.

I forgot to mention - while it deals with CMBN (which doesn't have triggers) - this excellent thread by JonS gives a pretty comprehensive run through of how to design a CM scenario: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=110294 As you will see - not only does it cover the mechanics of putting a scenario together in the editor, it covers off on the underlying thought processes and the fine tuning required to put a scenario together from start to finish.

If there is only one AI plan then yes that scenario will probably not be worth replaying more than a couple of times but you can create more plans (up to 6 off the top of my head). I can't say too much about the triggers because I mainly design in CMSF which doesn't have them so I have not played around with them too much. There are some designers out there who know more about them I do and so will probably be able to offer more info on them. Clearly the more triggers there are in any AI plan the higher the replay value.

Welcome, 1. The AI is mostly scripted although with the 3.0 version of the engine, limited triggering is possible. As a general rule, if you tell a unit not to move and don't give it a trigger to move then yes it will stay in place until either destroyed or its morale goes south. Because this title hasn't been released yet, I don't know how responsive the Tac AI will be but you may see the Tac AI move individual vehicles with self-defence/protection systems move a lot more than any units in previous titles. Likewise if you tell a unit to move from waypoint one to waypoint two after five minutes then it will start moving from waypoint one to waypoint two after five minutes. 2. Map making is a doddle and creating near-real ground with the special editor overlay feature is a lot easier than it used to be. To use this - take your map or a Google Earth screen grab and save it as a special editor overlay. You then open this as an underlying layer in the map editor and you can then use the terrain editor to paint your features over the top. That said - a good map is a labour of love and the best maps benefit from attention to detail so it does take time, particularly for large maps. 3. Creating an OPORD is also simple and you shouldn't have to worry too much about the AI. The OPORD is there (as in real life) to give direction to the human player so the AI is not a huge factor (ie the underlying AI code does not read the OPORD and think 'I've got to do that) - it really only comes into play when you decide how you are going to write the 'Situation Enemy Forces Paragraph'. As the designer you will know where the enemy is and what the AI plans are so it is just a case of giving the player enough info to give them a chance without totally dispelling the fog of war. As to map resources - I haven't seen anything free for the modern era at 1:25,000 of eastern Europe. This site (Polish) is great for maps up until the early 50s http://igrek.amzp.pl/ However given that even the largest map in CMBS is going to be only a few km by a few km, I find Google Earth the best resource for creating Combat Mission maps. Just select an area - draw a border around it, screenshot it and crop it to the border - then import it into the map editor as the special editor overlay. If your screen grab is say a 4km x 2km rectangle then once you are in the editor you just expand the map from the default to 4km x 2km and the special editor overlay expands automatically to that size. In effect all you do then is 'trace over' the features - it is as easy as that.

You should be able to allocate the same 'R' for reinforcement value and 'A' for unit value. So, say your 251 is R2 and A3, pick the Lynx before you delete the 251 and allocate it as R2 and A3. You should then be able to delete the 251 safely. However if you have physically placed the 251 on the map and want the Lynx to start in the same place you will have to manually place the Lynx. So some legwork required but not as much as you feared.

Easy - set the mission as either Blue v Blue or Red v Red - this will allow you to select units from the 'other side' in the force selection menu - once you've force picked the units (in this case spies) go back and change it to Blue v Red. As an example - I want a US Light Infantry Battalion to rescue some hostages against a Red insurgent force. I set the mission as Blue v Red and pick my US Light Infantry Battalion. I then go back from the force selection screen and set the mission as Red v Red and this will then allow me to go back to what was formerly 'Blue' and pick spies. I force pick the spies and then go back and reset the mission as Blue v Red. I can then pick my red force as normal.

In CMSF, as sburke said, spy units will cover off on most of the scenarios you describe - designate them as blue and assign them as high point value 'destroy' unit objectives for the red player. The only thing you have to balance is to make sure that it is not massively easy for red to get at them and keep them out of red LOS at mission start.

And in further ironic fashion - BF release a vehicle pack and people ask 'where's the missions?'

Unfortunately Engineers are a bit rubbish in game - awesome at blowing holes in stuff and they have a limited mine marking capability. Would be great to get more out of these guys.

Or 'gunboats' to spare ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_Royal_Navy_ships

To answer your question - I haven't seen any in the announcement so I'm guessing there won't be. In relation to the rest of your post - there are rules of war and you obey them so please calm down.

Not sure I agree with all of this. One point made by many about CMSF was 'I wasn't engaged with the fictional Syria setting' As to the tendency to create historical WW2 scenarios in the CM family - my observation from CMRT is that many of the Community released scenarios are not historical. This is not a pop at the designers at all - those that I have had the privilege to try out have been great fun to play. As a modern era scenario designer - all of my CMSF scenarios have been closely based on real actions. But ... British Forces would be a great addition.

BRM-1K and BRM-3K, which appear in the equipment lists for the title both have small retractable masts for their battlefield surveillance radars so it would be nice if this could be modelled.

While the numbers are small - the Brits are still out and about: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29586437

Yeah plenty of map there - ideally I would have liked it to be wider but the work I'd done on this was such that I only had this amount terrain mapped in enough a detail. This mission will probably be more of a slog up the map than some of my others (a bit like the Habibolllah Kalay mission).

Ok .... Map is about 2.8km x 0.6km. Blue setup will be bottom RH corner of the map.

Still working on this by the way - map is nearly done now.

CMPY - sign me up.

Seconded - I so want the Special Overlay Editor in CMSF, oh and some MTP uniforms.