denalipop

Hi, I got into Combat Mission back when it first came out. I bought the first game, and then Afrika Korps. I played them both for a few months, progressing methodically through the scenarios, documenting my progress in a spreadsheet. When I heard about an upcoming campaign system, I stopped playing, because I was tired of having to use that spreadsheet! However, the campaign system never happened... and then the WW2 theme was dropped in favour of modern combat... and I never returned to Combat Mission. So here it is, 2018, and I stumble upon a mention of Combat Mission. I read up a little on it, and see that the CM series returned to WW2, and has higher version numbers (4.0 instead of 1.0). The screen grabs don't look that different from what I remember, and the Let's Play videos seem about the same as I remember. So I am curious: what are the most important changes since that initial version back in 2000 or so? Here are some specific questions to make this easier to answer: 1) Is there a campaign system now? If so, do units gain experience between missions? 2) Is there a system to keep track of progress through campaigns and standalone missions? Can I finally get rid of that [18 year old] spreadsheet? 3) Are mods still the primary way to make the game look good? I remember having to heavily rely on "mod packs" back in the day! 4) Does the game make it easy to save in the middle of a mission, and resume the next day? 5) Is there any else that has been added to increase the immersion factor? I will never forget those early days with CM 1.0.. watching tanks stalk each other in the woods, and then swivel toward each other and start shooting... I loved that tension, those cinematic moments. But as a "game" it it all felt so temporary, with no real sense of progress or "victory". It felt more like a sandbox, a sim. Sure, it was entertaining, and at times challenging, but that endless list of standalone missions (some official, some downloaded) ultimately started feeling repetitive, and soon after I set CM aside while waiting for the campaign to give that badly needed sense of progress, other, more "gamey" strategy games came out, and any sense of momentum in CM was lost. It would be nice to try it out again, but only if feels more like a "game" than it did back in 2000. I'm not really interested in adding yet another Sim to the already enormous backlog!

Thanks for the info, Mord! When you were playing the old CMs, do you remember if you used a mod manager? Or did you install all those mods manually? Also, I am curious, aren't all the new CMs about modern conflicts, like in the Middle East? Has anyone created good WW2 mods and scenarios for them, or are you stuck in the modern theme?

Thanks! I'm looking through the Green As Jade database as we speak... Any recommendations for grass and tree mods? Those are the ones that seem the most critical at the moment...

Hi, I have CMBO, CMBB, and CMAK from years ago, and just got them working on my Vista machine (with the 104 patch). Back when CMBO came out, I installed a bunch of scenery/terrain mods, which made it look much nicer than the defaults. However, that was ages ago, and on a different computer. I'm now trying to figure out which mods to download, and what order I'll need to install them in... But the old sites I used are no longer there. So, I am just wondering: does anyone have a list of recommended scenery-related mods for CMBO, the sites where they can be found, and the order in which they should be installed? Thanks so much!