AslakH

So, now eye candy is important? BFC and BFC fans need to agree on what's important. Visual quality or gameplay. Physics, visual damage models, etc. are just eye candy. BFC should just give us green 3D boxes for the allies, and grey 3D boxes for the axis. People would still pay $60 for it. I was seriously disappointed with this module. I will not be buying another one. $35 is just a rip off! Reskinned german infantry, and reskinned with sucky textures. Waffen-SS is just the regular flippin' WH infantryman, but with low-res erbsenmuster texture. BFC said that smocks could/would be done, but hey, why increase the work load and quality? New german tanks look like crap. They belong back in the 1990's. Only reason the Jagdpanther looks any better is because it was completed with the base game. New allied vehicles don't look that much better. Where's the interiors? Where's the polish? We're heading back to CMx1 quality. I will not recommend this heinously overpriced piece of DLC to anyone (maybe if it was $5). No patch will come to fix this ****ty mess. I'm out. Been playing CM since CMBO, but this one just filled the glass 2-girls-1-cup style.

I would be happy if we could get the planned/scripted AI _but_ you could choose between the "plan" and just "attack objectives". It would help with the creation of simple engagements on custom maps. Right now it takes too damned long. Realtime is most fun, and realistic. When the crap hits the fan, you can always just pause it for a little while. Some people tend to forget that you can pause the game, plan moves, then unpause. I constantly pause the game, give some orders, unpause and just see what happens. I don't have to wait for the minute to go by. Having troops that act like robots for 60 seconds isn't realistic. I like babysitting my troops, keeps the casualties low.

I've noticed that Erwin has some issues/grief with RT. I haven't played WEGO since CMAK, and I can't understand the hatred for real time. It doesn't get confusing, and I can always order my troops to stop if they make contact/run through a hole in the bocage, before the entire squad is annihalated. Since I started skulking on these forums in the CMAK-days, I've heard these arguments against RT (just some examples): It's not realistic (this one is just... wrong). It's confusing. You don't get to see any of the pretty graphics. Because WEGO was the standard for my father and his father before him! It has been like this for generations! I also can't relate to your statements about APOS. It's not C&C or Starcraft. It's RT, and that would be reason enough to hate it? Shall I make my list about why slow WEGO-fanatics suck? Us young wrist-twitchers are the future! Out of our way, gramps! But, no. Most people play it tactically. It's a bad thing to lose units - they won't come back. You'll be reminded every time you fight there and see the burned out vehicles strewn across the battlefield (not to mention the dead bodies). Still, the truth is that it has a lot of features that people would like to see in CMBN. You can dislike it as much as you want, but CMBO was ten years ago. You should try APOS, but only if you've not made your mind up beforehand. APOS won't steal any customers from BFC, if anything, CMBN will steal them from GT. But we can have both. People can enjoy both. I like brunettes AND blondes (no redheads). If someone says they like RT best, there will ALWAYS be like ten dudes raging and thrusting their E-peens at the screen. Also, RT vs. WEGO wasn't really even in the topic. There have been lots of threads on that already. Remember: CMBN has both!

I've played every single Flashpoint game (it confuses the younger crowd, because they never played Operation Flashpoint), and I include ArmA on that list. Many friends played ArmA2, so I bought in on the hype. It had to be better than ArmA, you know, since this had a 2 at the end. Wrong. It still feels like the old Operation Flashpoint. I've logged 10x more time in CMSF than I have in ArmA1 or 2. A few years ago a buddy of mine was going through OCS (I think it's called that in the US), and borrowed Operation Flashpoint to get some "practice". I laughed so hard.

I have to say that the "tank combat" in RO2 sucked. It's just another FPS with vehicles. Kinda like BF3. Might be the maps, or perhaps it is the obvious hit points system? I bought Steel Armor last week. I've had fun with it, but the AI sucks harder than ever. It's like they wanted to make a tank sim, but didn't really care. Clunky controls, clunky gameplay, infantry is even worse than in Steel Fury/AP/APOS. You'll run out of ammo before you get knocked out, because the AI is so retarded. Weapons systems seem under researched as well (never ever use ATGMs, they are one-shot weapons and nothing hits on the first shot in SA, and it'll just get KO'd because it only has the one rocket, after that it'll draw fire and costs resources.). Tiger vs. T-34 is a linear arcade-ish game with painfully bad effects and graphics for such a recent game. Steel Beasts, now there's a tank sim! Too expensive for me, though. Do you know if it still has a good MP community?

'Sup with the flame war? Chillax, brosefs! Also, judging distance? In the game? For landscaping?

APOS has a squad-based system, not single soldiers. But I know what you mean, TOW got my piss to a boil more than once with the insane infantry AI/Pathfinding/Combat/Cover system. Also, if a crewmember dies on/in a vehicle in APOS, he will remain there. So you can see the dead driver/marder crewmember sitting there, all bloody. I like it, but it hardly makes any difference. CMBN has better textures, but I'd say they're pretty even when it comes to the models. The models in APOS might look better because of the dynamic lighting, and I suspect without this they'll look mediocre. I miss decals. I love looking over the battlefield to see who killed what, etc. But without decals or the "hit arrows", it's hard to tell how it got KO'd. It would make it a lot better, but it's already purdy good. Gah, now I want to play CMBN, but I can't. Won't be home until Dec. 25th. I just realised that CMx2 modules are closely modelled on the Pokémon concept: gotta catch 'em all. I have every module, and will continue to buy every single one that gets released. Damn you, BFC!

Ssshh! Now they'll lock it! But yeah. CMBN is a more polished and user-friendly product. I'll be playing CMBN for years after I've forgotten about APOS. I still play CMBN more than APOS, and I just got that a week ago. I am, and will always be, a BFC supporter. Had lotsa fun with CMBO, and since I was 14 when it came out, none of my friends got it. I was blown away, and they went "meh....".

Well, they can't really be compared. I think the thread might have been a bit misleading, but I wrote it as I was on my way out the door, so to speak. But, as I've said before, think about CMBN with awesome graphics/physics/effects AND the tight BFC style. That would make me have an erection for days.

I've never gotten tired from walking over a plowed field.... Just sayin'. It's not like they're harvesting taters and leeks while crossing it.

Ah, yes, forgot to mention the UI in my previous post. The UI has that distinctive "eastern bloc" feel. It's not intuitive at all, but you get used to it. The same goes for the infantry combat - you get used to the suck factor. They'll act like retarded zombie robots most of the time. Never really hitting anything, never really reacting to the situation. BUT, you can order them to take cover in the general area, and if that's, say, a row of houses besides the road, they'll spread out amongst the houses. That move has saved my ass in so many counter attacks. That I like. But it only takes 1-2 shells to destroy a house, or just the one to set it on fire. Also, they'll sometimes leave the house, and run up to a tank to place a HHL. I don't know if it's animated, but they do it. Dat be kool, bro-ham.

Well, the physics doesn't need to be extreme, just a tad more interaction with the enviroment and effects. That would add to the immersion a great deal. As far as power goes, my computer has enough of it. But large CMBN battles with the graphics turned all the way up, then massive artillery strikes, the FPS will drop a bit. But only for a few seconds. Real time for the win! I don't know a single GAMER with a Mac. Most gamers I know wouldn't even consider a Mac. Don't know why, because I don't know anything aboot that kind of stuff. - Well, it's not a contest. In content, realism, variety, etc. CMBN will win hands down. But can't we have the best of both worlds, in the future perhaps? I've always seen AP as a game where you tell your units "go there", and on the way there and once in position, they pretty much do what ever they feel like. It adds to the difficulty. Infantry in AP/APOS is just sad. Artillery and air support is even worse. Stukas miss by over 500m!!! I've seen that so many times that I stopped counting. Artillery will hit within a small area, call in time is too long for the gameplay style, etc. AI will get you killed more times than you making a bad move. Oh! And this one: Try ordering a Sd.Kfz 251/2 to give indirect support whilst in cover. They'll fire EVERYTHING, rifles, SMGs, etc. in the general direction of your marker, even though they're 300m away from the target and behind a wooded hill. That's poor AI. Try to imagine a hybrid. Now that would be sweet-a-rooney-roo!

That would be neat to have.

How about when the "eye candy" reflects what would happen in real life? That's way more realistic than just having a yellow base and a line of text saying "IMMOBILIZED". I like it when the suspension on vehicles collapses in APOS and the other games with the same engine. It looks good, really good. And that shows a great and detailed damage model. It started life as a tank sim (Steel Fury), and it shows. The newest tank sim from GT is also good. Eye candy, as long as it sticks to that pesky "cause and effect", is just awesome. It's not like I would want lightsabers on my Marders, or have a Michael Bay-esque experience. I'd be happy with some basic physics, fire and decals. And engine improvements to run on multiple cores, etc. After that, CMBN could have the same graphics for ten years and I wouldn't mind. As for Mac... I don't know a single person that owns one.

The physics are alright, especially for that kind of game. The engine is from a tank sim, so one would expect it to take all those things into account. Tanks slide off roads if they corner too fast on the ice, tanks have tremendous momentum and don't just stop when hit. Stuff flies around when explotions abound. It's overdone some places, and underdone on others. But it looks good when you see a T-34 take a hit, hatches open up, and the damn tank is still in gear and driving at high speed. I saw a abandoned T-34 drive off map once.