kohlenklau

@Artkin also the Luftwaffe Airborne Infantry have one in both CMFI and CMRT

"FAKE LOBSTER" continued Continuing my lecture on the elephant in the room..."fake lobster" I call it. Fake lobster is when what you see on the screen is not 100% what the game engine thinks it is. Some folks are confused on what is possible as a non-BFC forumite trying to mod the game. We cannot change the game code physics. I have heard the CM Pro version that BFC sells to military ministries CAN do this. Now I will take the time to go into the more complex parts of the mod and explain what is modded. If you have negative comments or criticisms, you can PM me or attack me here. but I prefer the PM. ~~~~~~~~~ D. The Armor mods: 1. ALLIES a. Char R-35 Right out of the starting gates we have hit paydirt that I think and hope no purist can frown at. The forum urban myth is that BFC was funded to make CMFI. Right? Who was that awesome guy? And he hit the BFC business timing just perfect to catch them before they got all busy with commercial work and whatever. THANK YOU SIR, MR. MYSTERY MAN. The Italian R35 is our French R35. Who can argue that is fake lobster? It is delicious real REAL REAL lobster farmed from the ocean floor off the coast of Maine. We just modtag the tank to look French and the crew to speak French and wear French tankcrew helmets etc. So, for purists, a CMFI FRANCE 1940 scenario with infantry and R-35's and the German Pak 37mm is a damn great scenario. A slight dab of fake lobster due to the rifle grenades I guess. Get off your high horse and enjoy the scenario. b. Char B1 bis OK, here we have some fake lobster but I did my best to keep the % low. I had already said this way back in the beginning of this thread. I purchased the British Army Churchill Mk I and modded in the 3D "shell" of CMBN MG Flammpanzer. Then I modtag the British crew to be French. A big slow tank with thick armor and a turret gun and a hull gun. Obviously NOT the exact Char B1 bis armor thickness. Crew of 5 versus the actual 4. Oh well. It played pretty cool. The hull gun modelling is not complete and I might never do it. I have other things to focus on instead. Maybe some day I might go tweak it. Or somebody else could tackle it. c. Panhard Armored Car I used the German SdKfz to be the Panhard with a new shell 3D I built in Blender. A turret with an MG and a 20mm. Seems pretty close to me. 4 rubber tires. Good enough match. d. Well, I have no others to discuss at this point. I have not started anything with [bef1940] for armor. There is the Bren carrier obviously. I have some ideas for the MKVI. but am hoping some actual British forumites get involved. None so far. IF ANYBODY HAS ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THESE THINGS ARE DONE...JUST ASK.

I will meet you in the middle! When I release the teaser demo scenarios with a smaller reduced mod pack, I will ship them the splash screen and loading screens ABSOLUTELY FREE limited time offer not redeemable in Alaska or Hawaii CMFI FRANCE 1940 TEASER PACK 1: I am hoping that the teaser demo scenarios with a smaller reduced mod pack are released next weekend 8 April 2023 off CMMODSIV as one zip file with scenarios, mods for z and an illustrated readme pdf.

another easy one! C. "Nice to haves" These are things we could do without but add for some fun and atmosphere. They are nice to have things. I recorded some new intro music. "Victory is Ours" Napoleonic march. I made a splash screen. Mine was already shown but it was amateurish. You gotta see what Damian has made. A real top quality splash screen (actually 2 which are similar but slightly different) and some really really sweet "artistic" loading screens! @Damian45 Can I let folks grab them from my dropbox? OK with you? An important thing about these nice to haves is they load upon start-up of CMFI so they are not modtagged. If they are in your z folder, you get them ALL the time. So, I guess do that second install and you have no issue. Or pull them aside when not wanted.

nomnate? oops, just noticed. sor-ry

an easy one... B. The terrain mods This is fairly straight forward to grab CMBN terrain stuff and bring it over to CMFI. It CAN get huge. I am going slow and gentle at first. buildings, walls, fences, foliage, flavor objects. The horizons. Sounds. The French mosquito is a different sound than the Italian mosquito. The generic use modtag is [france1940]

A. The infantry mods (continued): 2. AXIS To me this part of the mod is almost empty of fake lobster. @Falaise and @JM Stuff and @Damian45 and I have worked to create a new arena of infantry combat. But without a doubt we have been blessed from almighty himself with Damian agreeing to help us with his time and talent. Of all our CM titles, only CMFI goes back to July 1943. Thank the lord that BFC did this or we would be well and truly screwed. You gotta play with dates in the editor to get what we want. We are making a document with tips and guidance. Thanks Kevin. @kevinkin It takes a little zig zagging but we CAN achieve a 1940 TOE similarity of adequacy. Set unit quality to poor prior to purchase of regular German Infantry 43A and then set the scenario date BACK to July 43. The goal for axis is NO PANZERFAUSTS, only one MG-34 per squad. Yes, we DO get the G-41, oh well. YES, we do get the grenade launcher, Oh well. MINOR INCONVENIENCES!! The game engine makes them wear a 1942 tropical uniform which we rename the skeleton file to put them into M43 with jackboots but made to LOOK like 1940 uniform with jackboots and <thanks to Damian> NO Y-STRAPS. Germans are going strapless for the summer look. All this under the hood file renaming malarky can be ignored if you are just a regular forumite wanting to just play the damn game. If you recall from the post above, we used transparency files to make the normal gear worn on the backs of our landsers, vanish... I am on the job, slightly behind schedule, to bring in the new gear item, the gas sheet pouch, to all versions of the foot soldiers, MP-40 dude, K98K bubba and MG34 guy. Oh, and pistol boy. Damian is trying to make sure we have no anachronistic gasmask cans and such. We will always be looking for these things to get OUT of the game. The yellow ones from 43 onward. IF YOU HAVE EXTRA STUFF in your z, we cannot help that. I do again recommend an entire separate install of CMFI for this mod. It has nothing to do with a license key. It is VERY EASY TO DO. You simply copy the entire game folder and repaste. You set up a new shortcut that goes to the new CMFI. The new CMFI still looks to the same game file folder where you have scenarios and PBEM turns. BUT IT CAN HAVE ITS OWN Z FOLDER. You get rid of all that hassle. If you have a big enough...uhhh...hard drive...this aint an issue. I will show a screenshot of my folder arrangement. TRY TO!!! I have shortcuts to my CMFI CMAK2 mod and a separate shortcut to fire up CMFI France 1940. Also a shortcut to the 2 different z folders. If anybody wants to know more about this set-up, just ask. I will move onward. German 50mm Mortar I can't find this mortar in CMFI. It is in the data files but maybe that is a goof. Oh well. So, I rolled with the punches and modded in the Italian Brixia mortar. Good enough for me. I have it appear in 2 options. Italians who wear SS uniforms and Italians who wear Heer uniforms. This is done with multiple modtags. [germanbrexia] and [germanbrexia heer]. Again, I will press onward. Damian has been cranking out the mods. I really appreciate it. My challenge is to get it all to appear when desired and have no oddity occur. We just test and make fixes. regular heer. Waffen-SS in smocks. Waffen SS in feldbluse. SS Polizei in feldbluse. German nurses in spike heels and lingerie. <just seeing who is paying attention!> BULK RENAMER UTILITY FREEWARE I wanted to take a second to tout the great benefit of getting a bulk renamer. It hauls butt and has a ton of ways it can help speed up modding. I have spent time to dump all the voices of a nation into one folder from their subfolders. Once done, this main folder of files can all be renamed and modtagged in a few seconds.

A MISUNDERSTANDING IS HAPPENING I THINK. To me the initial point is that BFC ships the game with the 3D model having a Tank commander too low. Agreed or disagreed? Why does it get out the door like that? Anyway, so, we are the customers and see a problem. We report it or try to. BFC or a representative such as Ian @IanL who we do appreciate, says it is now on a list and will be fixed some time as they select due to their limited time. Forum folks are trying on their own to fix it and make an effort. Somebody notices the customer fix has ramifications. We report the curious ramifications up the chain to BFC. Maybe the words "BFC must do something" is not exactly intended. Maybe it is more like.."Wow, this is interesting. A mod that slightly fixes a 3D issue SEEMS to have combat results impact on getting sniped. Any comment from the developer?" Maybe we could expect. a. it is an illusion. your data cannot be correct. TC is hard coded as "X exposed no matter where he is during "Unbuttoned" b. uh oh, don't mess with it. wait for our 3D fix. I am not sure if I am correct but I think I am. @laurent 22 N'cest pas? EDIT: in some high stakes tournament it is possible somebody could or definitely could(?) take advantage of this and win a PBEM unfairly. I guess it depends on who loads first? Ian feels this issue is outside BFC's role. Cheaters are out there. BFC cannot have counter-measures in place to stop every form of cheating. But they should be aware of every issue. so, a new one. c. ok, issue acknowledged, we have no official reply except, be careful of cheaters!

"FAKE LOBSTER" The number of friends and fans of CMFI FRANCE 1940 mod are currently countable on your fingers and toes. It sure seems. So, why not just address the elephant in the room? I admit it. In this mod, you will be offered some "fake lobster" I call it. I guess "fake crab" is better known. It is fish that is processed and made to look like crab with coloring. I joke and use lobster because of the long use of Space Lobsters in CM forums, etc. What is my "fake lobster"? Fake lobster is when what you see on the screen is not 100% what the game engine thinks it is. Some folks are confused on what is possible as a non-BFC forumite trying to mod the game. Some folks are purists on the simulation and will not even look at fake lobster. I would say that this mod has fake lobster but it also has situations where the fake lobster is not present. The mod CAN be enjoyed by purists. It just has to be a certain scenario to avoid their food allergy! I will take this time to go through the mod carefully and explain what is modded. If you have negative comments or criticisms, you can PM me or attack me here. but I prefer the PM. ~~~~~~~~~ A. The infantry mods: 1. ALLIES To me this part of the mod is almost empty of fake lobster. @Falaise and @JM Stuff and @Damian45 and I have worked to create a new arena of infantry combat. CMFI has many nations and we took great advantage of that. The 1944 French equipped with US gear have been modded to look like 1940 French Army. Regular metropolitan French troops AND Colonial troops -perhaps from Morocco. JM made the awesome RF grenade emblem helmet after I struggled and failed. Falaise made the Moroccan crescent moon collar badge coats. JM AGAIN gets a gold medal and made "crescent moon" emblem helmets. His new name is "Mr. Helmet"...? The 1945 Brazilians equipped with US gear have been modded to look like 1940 French Army, the Senegalese Tirailleurs (S.T.). Names modded by me to be Senegalese! JM made a helmet with anchor emblem of the S.T. Falaise made coats with anchor badge on collar. I used black faces from my [buffalo] mod. I need to sprinkle in some Senegalese into the French voices which were renamed from stock Brazilian voices. The 1943 Polish equipped with British gear have been modded to look like 1940 French Army. Voice files renamed and modtagged to now be French. Names changed to French names. Ranks changed to French 1940 style. Bolt-action rifles. Sure, deep down, there are differences. Maybe we are generically treating them as the same. At the CM level, I think it is ok with this mod. We can do certain scenario editing tricks to keep the number of SMG low on the French side. Both sides have rifle grenades. Oh well. There are not too many. I only have 60 minutes for editing and can make additional posts for this description of the mod. Folders for infantry I am probably almost at my 60 minutes for editing. You might notice german ponchos up above. These are my existing transparency files to make stuff not be visible. I just re-use and rename. Falaise and I have made brand new gear items. We also decided to have some items just vanish. US webgear compass pouch for example. The same will be true for German Y-strap upper back gear that cannot be there as France 1940 the Germans are going strapless! The wife now returns soon from her 1 week away and I must go crazy to clean the sink dishes and all such things in a rapid last-minute manner. MORE DESCRIPTION LATER. Next is AXIS Infantry to showcase the beautiful mods of @Damian45 one more screenshot to show Senegalese folder

I sent the FR40 MOTHERLOAD to a bunch of folks on the mod team. 2.4GB of France 1940. It could/will even be bigger as I have not pulled over ALL the CMBN buildings. It is still in progress and is a mod that needs carefully orchestrated with NOT ALL CAN BE IN Z AT ONCE. I am working to develop certain different combo packs, maybe 3 or 4, A through D, that allow scenarios to be properly displayed. For example, in some scenarios the Italians appear as French to drive R35's. But the Italians also are the German mortar teams. So they cannot be on stage at the same time. Follow me? I asked BFC if the ACTUAL German 50mm mortar is in CMFI but got no reply. It IS in the data files along with R2V module but that could have just been a goof. I have hunted high and low to try and see where it is. No idea. It is not in the pdf manual that is part of R2V.

@Bil Hardenberger Steve was told the below but blew me off. I know you have your baby CMCW under TLC. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Take it as criticism if you want, whatever! But it sure seems Battlefront's BETA team has either: a) nobody on the team with the skillset that can screen and fix these "easy issues" with 3D models or b) the poor baztard does fix them, but the BFC bug tracking system is defective and they do get fixed but somehow the unfixed version gets released. I NOMNATE JACE11 FOR BETA TEAM!!!

You are an awesome guy

I can still try and watch it, avec vin et camembert

I FEEL LIKE A KID ON CHRISTMAS MORNING! We have a ton of cool stuff to play with. Constant improvements are being made as well. Just yesterday I finally solved an issue with a crewmember on one of my Blender mods. he had been visible below the hull and it kicked my butt how to fix it. I tried many times in Blender adjusting the x,y,z coordinates. I usually give it a good try and then back away to think it over. Well, I was doing something and had a hunch and was able to solve the issue. In my "shell" vehicle I was trying to name him gunner but in the "host" he was named loader and that was all it took to fix that. I felt great all the rest of the day. Last night @kevinkin sent me an awesome image of a France 1940 battle from wikipedia I think. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Battle_of_Gembloux_(15_May_1940).png The Gembloux Gap. I never had heard of it! It was a gorgeous and detailed battle map. You can see dozens of scenarios you coold grow from the battle map. I think I will make one! It will be semi-historic, just based on the units listed for each side. If their "arrow" hits a town, they were attacking. 3rd Panzer's, I Battalion, 3rd Schutzen-Regiment attacking from Walhain towards the main lines at Perbais. They seem to have hit a good spot between the 110th and 43rd French Regiments. It was successful and they proceeded down the N273 toward Cotril-Noirmont. Then they were hit by a French counter-attack by R35's. Then they seem to have retreated with that dashed red line. 3rd Panzer Divison had a symbol of the Brandenberg Gate as the unit was mostly from Berlin. The French seem to be the 1st Moroccan Division.

Good morning fans and followers of the CMFI France 1940 Mod! All 10 of you! We are nearly at 8000 views. Not that we get a damn bit of BFC support if we had a million views. I am in my "work week" so time is difficult but I have much to tell. I am really behind with screenshots to show @Damian45 's wonderful mods. He is cranking it out. Damian is a bubbling chocolate fountain of mod deliciousness. THANK YOU DAMIAN!!! His big surprise HAS arrived. He modded SS Polizei 1940 style uniforms. These guys had a real hybrid uniform, kind of a mix between heer and ss. They had their own decal badge for the helmets. I am gonna post screenshots here this morning of them. Standby. POLIZEI UNIFORMS

Our dear "Heidi" is here to again ask for any help you want to lend! Learn to mod starting today. Learn to make a tiny scenario starting today. Learn to make a tiny map starting today.

I have some love pouring in for uniforms. Thanks @Damian45 and @Falaise I have love flowing in for scenarios. Thanks @kevinkin I have love taking new forms for 3 new helmets. Thanks @JM Stuff I am trickling some love on the vehicles...

Excellent Wheels: Yes, I fixed

I know it aint perfect but I like it.

we still aint heard squat diddly!

Thanks Jacob. I do remember! We had to modtag [autumn] to make it look right. It has been a blast to delve deeply into this hobby and I have met a lot of great people. Some folks I am sure I rubbed the wrong way. I think I have rubbed BFC the wrong way too. Oh well. Looking back at CMAK and the other CMX1 stuff, I wonder if the hobby has dwindled or expanded up to this point? BFC is always tight-lipped on sales numbers. But maybe with STEAM, this will all get a new vitality, a new influx of modders...? In a few years I might have to poke my head into the forum under a new account to see what is happening.... best wishes to you. I am not gone yet but time zips by... ~Phil

Looking down the line at releasing this to CMMODSIV in maybe May for the anniversary of the invasion into France? I wanted to recommend to folks if they get into this...they might want to paste in a new install of CMFI as CMFI2. You put a new shortcut on your desktop that goes to that folder instead. It has its OWN z folder and you don't have to keep moving around mods. I even have a new icon I am using. The typical circle with French colors and "FRANCE 1940". Needs a little work. EDIT: I now have my dedicated France 1940 install only for this mod. I have another install fully dedicated to my other love, CMAK2 AFRIKA. Each install is about 18GB THEN you plop in the mods and it goes to maybe 20GB+/-

merci - gracias - domo arigato. I DO have a request for your skills and will send a PM right now!

Hola JM! I hope all is well in España con M, E & S.