A Canadian Cat

Sure I can do that. I am actually a ways behind in my write up and have a couple more minutes on deck. I'll get to a new summary screen in a bit...

I have to admin I am slightly mystified. The example @rooibos gave of friends who will not buy the game or play the game because there is not one click install one click get an opponent feature are, in my opinion, just not going to ever be regular players. My point is a simple one: it is not hard right now to purchase and install and find opponents. True it takes more effort than click, click done. But it is frankly not that hard at all. I can go to the Blitz or TFGM and get a dozen opponents by the end of the day. I just do not accept that that is the root problem holding the game back. Having said that yes visibility is a really big issue. I only discovered this series 10 years after CM 1x started. I would have played these games for a decade longer if I had known they existed. But the question then is would I have found them faster if they were on Steam - nope. If we are serious about wanting the game to get more exposure and more players etc then the right way to go would be to get the game reviewed, mentioned in more media sources. If BFC don't want to promote the game more than they already do some of us could. But coming here and doing things backwards (trying the tired old argument that release on steam = panacea of success) is not really going to work. And since this is rapidly turning into a steam argument instead of a promotion argument here is Steve's summary of his thoughts on steam the last time he closed a thread because people could not behave themselves:

OK cool thanks for the info.

Wow that is way off topic and frankly ridiculous.

Excellent write up - thanks!

Given what @panzersaurkrautwerfer is saying - that we don't have a clear picture of the capabilities or what is actually going to be fielded I am sure he is right The in game T90 variants already have capabilities that were predicted / imagined, so, the two sides already have hypothetical near future capabilities. I'll pass on a pack of fantasy vehicles thanks. Unless something actually gets fielded for real (not trials) and we can get some kind of idea of what their actual capabilities are I see no point in turning the game into a total fantasy land.

Just for fun I was watching CBC news this morning on the attack on Mosal and that footage was used while discussing the ISIS defence. I could not find anyone claiming the video was fake but I personally still have a problem with the fact that on release of the grenade the drone does not shift up at all. I know they are stabilized but stabilized means smooth and reduced reaction not no reaction. But I can offer nothing else to refute it.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. On map would be cool. Can you imagine the fun of direct targeting a building form 200m out with the full rack of rockets. Probably totally a historical but cool right!

Minute 3:27-3:26: 1st Platoon, the former lead platoon, from E Co is now pulling back from the road block. Members of the recon units will keep the fire up on the enemy contact guarding the road block while the platoon withdraws. Very carefully around the mines. 3rd platoon engage with more contacts near the farm. F Co works their way across the field. Minute 3:26: Orders More members of 3rd platoon move into positions to fire on the two new enemy contacts. 1st Platoon withdrawing back form the road block while 2nd Platoon heads left behind the new leaders. Behind F Co’s lead platoon members of 2nd Platoon tend to the wounded and regroup. These guys are out of this fight except for flank protection duties. The advance across the field continues. It will not be long before they encounter resistance – if there is any at the end of this field. While the advance on the left side of the field is nearly at its goal, 1st Platoon forms up to advance on the right side of the field.

Minute 3:28-3:27: The lead elements of the move to the left of the road block finds some enemy repositioning near the farm. They take deadly aim. F Co continues their advance long the edge of the field while being supported by a whole lot of MG fire. Minute 3:27: Orders E Co’s new point platoon (3rd Platoon) is taking up positions near the farm with tanks and engineers moving up in support. F Co keeps up its forward movement and brings up even more tank support.

LOL, nope. Those are cool though, we should ask for them.

SIMHQ?

Well there is a lot of talk about this - it certainly seems like a popular subject. Drones that size can carry up to 2.3 Kg so it is at least theoretically possible. I don't see any high quality sources talking about it. That could mean its real but no one has written a story about it yet. Interesting.

OK. There ya go. I'm still having trouble with this. I had heard that booby trapped drones were being used to fly explosives to targets but I had not heard of them dropping stuff. So for me this the first time hearing about this. I get that they are stabilized - very true. Stabilized does not mean that a sudden change in weight would have no effect it means the effect would be mitigated and smooth instead of sudden. I saw no camera movement. Then there is the question of explosion size. Is that an expected size of explosion from a 40mm grenade? I'm no expert but that seems pretty big. The issue of dropping something with that level of accuracy is something I wonder about as well but it can also be explained by saying that they just publicize the ones where they score a hit so OK I can deal with that . I'm off to do some internet searching and see if I can find any evidence this is a fake.

Dang it, beat to the submit button

Welcome aboard. Lots of people will likely chime in to help you out. Its what we live for Not such that they coordinate with each other. You can select multiple units and issue move orders to them all simultaneously. This is very useful and you can also go back and tweak way points if you want afterwards. When moving multiple units together you have to be aware of which vehicles are faster and add pauses as needed. Also traffic control is important and making sure that there is sufficient space when vehicles that need to cross paths or go through a choke point is a bit of an art. Yes, you can. What you describe is the right way so I am not sure what is up. There are two ways to do this, depending on if you want the passengers to dismount before the vehicle moves or after it stops: To get the troops to dismount and move off after the vehicle stops: Give the vehicle move orders to where you want to drop the soldiers off. Give the soldiers a move order to where you want them to go. What should happen is the vehicle moves off, stops at the end of its orders and the soldiers jump out and complete their move. To get the troops to dismount right away and move off separate from the vehicle: Make sure the vehicle has no move orders. Select the soldiers and give them a dismount command and then the move order you want. Give the vehicle the move orders you want. What should happen is the vehicle waits for the soldiers to disembark and then both units move off on their own orders. No there isn't. The manual contains information about the various vehicles. The formations are based on historical information so you could find information on the internet that matches up to the game. However the easiest way to go is probably some experimentation. Once you have put a few formations into a QB (select the battalion and delete everything but one company so you can see things better) and had a look at them you can eventually transition to just selecting a formation and expand it in the QB force selection screen and get an idea of what the force looks like. It is not easy but I have found that I learned it by experimenting.

LOL well you don't *have* to adjust everyone, every time But I get it it is tempting. You can skip over minutes where not much happens by fast forwarding through minutes that don't have a lot going on. So you can actually save time - if you like. Nope. It come up every now and then but I really don't see any appetite to change that. This also comes up and is very much something that is thought about. Hopefully some day it will rise to the top of the to do list.

Are we sure this is real? Does it not bother anyone that when the ordnance is released the drone does not even flinch. If these are supposed to be small drones then releasing a bomb of that size should cause the drone to rise up. Something does not feel right with that video.

It is actually. Good one @sttp I personally would second @niall78's point though that does not negate how good the older scenarios are just because new content has the opportunity to be even better. Well it is step one. There will be no scenarios with the new AI plan features for CMBN without releasing a version of CMBN with those features Which would be cool - I think the battle pack idea is a good one. We haven't heard an update on BFC's plans for any new ones as of yet.

Correct there are multiple cases that arise and, once reported, get fixed. I have not seen the code and am not qualified nor even permitted to make any official comments. The way it has been explained is that there are corner cases that players run into and they need to be looked at individually - hence the need for saved games. In my opinion bridges are interesting because they create path opportunities for units that are not part of the basic terrain. Path finding is a challenging area for AI and bridges interact with that. In fact team splitting and pathing issues is another area where corner cases popup and have to be looked at on a case by case basis. So in summary there is no singular bridge bug there are many bridge bugs. When the get found and reported fully they get fixed. At this point there is no way to fix "bridges are broken" reports. If people want bugs fixed they need to provide saves.

Good - glad to year it. This can be a bit confusing. Image editing apps have a fair amount of code to handle various file format variations - and even some of them have trouble with certain combinations. Games though, frequently assume that their collateral will be of a certain format so they can just load the image instead of spending CPU cycles and IO examining the file to see which version it is. Which makes total sense. Those of that mod have to pay attention to that and get used to it. This feature is the most customer facing image feature in the game and is bound to trip up a few people.

Begging??? All you have to do is request an account. Hardly begging.

Indeed +1

I'm not sure it has. Seems like a good idea actually.

I suspect that the file format is the problem. There are various variations on the BMP file format and the game is picky about what format it wants.