kohlenklau

@Damian45 and I teamed up to do the gas sheet pouch. I hacked it together in Blender and did an initial (lame) image. I combined it to 3 different existing gear models.  Then Damian showed up and sprinkled his usual magic on it.

hahaha ok
But I wasn't joking! 
~~~~~~~
To me, it sounds like a great first scenario to try to accomplish! Good luck. Holler if you need any help or advice. Thanks Pierre!

Hi kohlenklau,
I'm in to deliver one scenario. As I'm new to the business I aim to deliver it for the Gold Pack at the earliest.
Here is what I plan:
 
DROLE DE GUERRE
The front is sitting still. Apparently nothing happens on both side. But the war is not funny ("drôle") for everyone; on the frontline, the Corps Francs are active in infiltrating the German front line to probe German positions and discover German plans. Fictional scenario but plausible and based on historical accounts. Allied probe. Small or Tiny. Date: TBD (January 1940 if you plan a France 40 Winter mod! 😁) Attacker: French (platoon-sized infantry force TBD) Defender: German (outposts of an infantry unit TBD)    

So many great scenarios that could be written for this mod. Just by myself or with @kevinkin, we just can't pay justice to what COULD be done.
Right or wrong, one good way to find the basis of a good CM scenario is to look at other games. ASL is one. Lots of scenarios of a certain type. Smaller OOB's. Not giant battalion level encounters. 
Here is an awesome one I would love to try and do.
IN FRONT OF THE STORM
The blitzkrieg in the West had begun. German forces were pouring into France at breakneck speeds. Bridges on the Moselle had been captured undamaged and the advance elements of the 34th infantry Division started to cross as soon as the obstacles installed on the bridges had been removed. One such bridge lay on the outskirts of the French town of Aessan. The job of holding this key objective was given to specially trained and equipped glider troops. As they arrived, they were joined by Vorausabteilung A which had brought up a 37mm anti-tank gun. At midday the 4th Spahis Regiment, supported by Hotchkiss H-35 tanks, counterattacked the bridge at Aessan. Attacker: French (4ème Régiment de Spahis with Armor support) Defender: German (Luftlande Kommando Hedderich and Voraus Abteilung A, Infanterie Division 34)   https://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/scenario.php?id=56361
EDIT: LUFTLANDE KOMMANDO HEDDERICH was a German Army unit and they did not land in gliders. They took 25 Fieseler Storchs! 5 men per plane and it was a SPECOPS mission. 
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=127886

Here is a list of the folders of what is in FR40A BRONZE Level Mod Pack.
I will walk through each of what is offered for any comments and so folks can lick their lips!

[heerfj] is a folder of the mods to allow the fallschirmjagers (fj) to display like the German Army (heer). This is specifically so I can display the Pak36 37mm ATG. Only way to get it on the CMFI battlefield is by buying fj.
buildings: well, an assortment I grabbed way back. It can best be increased. I will swing through it and decide to add stuff from CMBN. I usually open both folders on the screen and split-screen them and grab copy from left and paste to the right and then bulk rename to add [france1940]
DMs 1940 Heer is the stuff from the land down under. @Damian45
DMs 1940 Waffen SS Camo. More modding love from the Southern Hemisphere.
FR40 French is a bunch of stuff that @Falaise and I cranked out.
German Gas Sheet the new gear item made in Blender and textured by forumites!
"Nice to Haves" are music, loading screens and splash screens.
mountains are your CMBN horizons.
Opel Blitz: somebody's early war Opel Blitz. Not mine. I forget who did it. I apologize.
Opel Kadet Jeep: an mdr rename to bring that Opel from CMRT to look 1940-ish.
paK36 37mm in early war colors I did with help from I think Ben Park. I think. 
R35. modding Italian R35 over to the French.
Stuka attack sounds: a scrounged mod with Hollywood siren and jericho's horn sounds and Stuka image for your air support
weapons swaps: renames of various mdr files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just a part of the overall mod. Maybe build up some buzz in the forums. Get some attention. Maybe collect a few more scenario writers?
A mod in your hard-drive sitting unused --
--is a sad and lonely mod.

I've already fixed it.  Just need to make sure something is workable for the other titles in case those one switch over to a new animation system.

@Damian45 and I teamed up to do the gas sheet pouch. I hacked it together in Blender and did an initial (lame) image. I combined it to 3 different existing gear models.  Then Damian showed up and sprinkled his usual magic on it.

The official templates are at CMMODS at FGM. I THINK
Do a forum search and you can often find where the "dead horse has been beaten to death" already.
translation: previous in depth lengthy discussions you can gain knowledge from versus a repeat discussion
 

1940 Panzerwaffe beret...

1940 Panzerwaffe beret...

I will consider I have lectured enough on "Fake Lobster" as nobody had any questions so far. It is what it is!
The current schedule for releasing the Mod is as follows:
Sunday 9 April: release the BRONZE Mod Pack and whatever BRONZE scenarios we have ready.
Sunday 23 April: release the SILVER Mod Pack and whatever SILVER scenarios we have ready.
Sunday 14 May: release the GOLD Mod Pack and whatever GOLD scenarios we have ready.
Sunday 25 June: release the DIAMOND Mod Pack and whatever DIAMOND scenarios we have ready.
Friday 14 July: Bastille Day. kohlenklau retires from CM. I will release a few last minute presents to the CM community.
 
 
 

@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!!! 

CMFI FRANCE 1940 MOD PACKS
***I don't have them ready yet****
But here is my system I am going to use! It will be a "tiered" system or whatever might best describe it. I will package the mods to release with scenarios in a consecutive manner over the next couple weeks or months. If you are wanting to play the mod. You gather up all the mod packs as we go on into the summer. Start with bronze, have fun with a few scenarios that have been matched to what bronze mod pack offers. Get it? The scenarios will say somewhere what mod packs they need. If it says silver. then that means both silver and the base bronze. Gold scenario needs gold but also silver and bronze. Finally the diamond scenarios will need diamond and the 3 others. I could have skipped the words bronze, silver, etc and just used A, B, etc. but it seemed a nice way to think of it.
FR40A BRONZE LEVEL MOD PACK (should be next weekend 4/8/23 along with several teaser scenarios!)
FR40B SILVER LEVEL MOD PACK 
FR40C GOLD LEVEL MOD PACK
FR40D DIAMOND LEVEL MOD PACK
I have mods I am still working on and they have been conveniently assigned to the last mod pack, the DIAMOND level.
The above system SHOULD allow scenarios to be staggered in development as well. @kevinkin
 

I remember that one Phil.  And I remember our North Afrika battles, great fun.
Anyway, keep up the great work my friend 👍❤️👍.

"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.
~~~~~~~~~
D. The Armor mods:
2. AXIS
a.PzIV D
One of my first Blender vehicle creations...this is an old mod I first did for CMFI CMAK2 AFRIKA. 

You purchase the PZIII Ausf N Support Tank in the game and my mod then makes it look like the hull of a Panzer IV with 8 road wheels vs 6 per side. The short barrel 75 modded to the PzIV turret. In the above shot I added the jerry can rack. The 808 turret numbers are upside down but I fixed it later. 
Here it is for France 1940

OK! Let us score it. So, it DOES have the actual short 75 gun. You can dial ammo supply down and try to reduce the HEAT rounds. I have read various about how much HEAT ammo was available and when. Armor thickness in certain areas is more than actual PzIVD. oh well. Love it or leave it I guess. I give her a good B+. She is part of the SILVER LEVEL MOD PACK.
I thought to go and remove the turret bin. I had an issue where I still saw shadows that it casts down on the engine deck. I am not sure how to stop them. 
b. Bufla

I made this for my buddy. It is a US Army M3 GMC as the host mdr. Interestingly there is a connection to France 1940 with the M3 GMC. The gun on the M3 GMC is from the French 75. From WW1 but modified. It is a Blender creation plopping a Flak 88 on the half-track from the Flakvierling. It is not as powerful as it should be. Nothing matches that damn 88. But it was fun to play with. I give her a C+. The Bufla will be in the DIAMOND level mod pack.
c. Pz III Ausf F with 37mm gun

The host is currently the US Army M5 light tank. The shell is the PzIII Ausf G with short 50mm gun. I did not mod the barrel to be lesser diameter. Trying to have an actual 37mm gun on a German tank. I give it a C+. I did remove the turret bin. I gotta rework the paint scheme. She needs work so she is in the DIAMOND level mod pack. Stall for time!!!

Remember our friendly rule!

Adding small things in Blender like a pistol port to REALLY have the look of some early Ausf is BEYOND MY SKILL LEVEL.
I will say that one good strategy I COULD easily employ is to offer a scenario where the above models would only be shown as inactive KO'd hulks. Just for flavor to get a good France 1940 vibe. These might still not look perfect down at the rivet counter level but at least they will not function in a manner non-historically and cause somebody stress or emotional discomfort.

I appreciate the kindness in that attitude you say you will approach the mod with.
AND YOU ARE RIGHT!!! BFC is never going to do this so this is all we've got using CM.
I am not promising 100% satisfaction. I predict somewhere in the 83+/- % satisfaction OVERALL.
Today I will continue my lecture on "FAKE LOBSTER" and it gets more intense with the German Armor Mods.
 
 

The modular buildings allow you to cycle through various facade arrangements of door, long window, window(s), nothing at all just solid, damaged and totally gone.
They ship with I think 8 options for textures. 
The independent buildings just have a few (2?) choices of the texture you see but no cycling of door/window arrangement. 00, 01, etc.
Each unit can be renamed. select it and then click rename.
It goes to the senior guy of that unit. if he is KIA, then it defaults to the random name of the lucky replacement.
EDIT: oh, I read again. commander in second's name. IN THE SAME UNIT? No, not possible.
for example platoon HQ can be named as "Meyer" and you see in the game this man's name.
If he has other men in that platoon HQ and he is KIA, you can't pre-pick and have waiting "Warner"
 
 

I AM trying to see where the mod can be "rivet counter friendly" and that is where the bronze, silver, gold, diamond levels ALSO come in. The initial parts should be the most friendly to you. The deeper toward diamond, then it goes into territory you will probably not feel comfortable with...
THANKS ROB!

CMFI FRANCE 1940 MOD PACKS
***I don't have them ready yet****
But here is my system I am going to use! It will be a "tiered" system or whatever might best describe it. I will package the mods to release with scenarios in a consecutive manner over the next couple weeks or months. If you are wanting to play the mod. You gather up all the mod packs as we go on into the summer. Start with bronze, have fun with a few scenarios that have been matched to what bronze mod pack offers. Get it? The scenarios will say somewhere what mod packs they need. If it says silver. then that means both silver and the base bronze. Gold scenario needs gold but also silver and bronze. Finally the diamond scenarios will need diamond and the 3 others. I could have skipped the words bronze, silver, etc and just used A, B, etc. but it seemed a nice way to think of it.
FR40A BRONZE LEVEL MOD PACK (should be next weekend 4/8/23 along with several teaser scenarios!)
FR40B SILVER LEVEL MOD PACK 
FR40C GOLD LEVEL MOD PACK
FR40D DIAMOND LEVEL MOD PACK
I have mods I am still working on and they have been conveniently assigned to the last mod pack, the DIAMOND level.
The above system SHOULD allow scenarios to be staggered in development as well. @kevinkin
 

"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.
 

@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!!! 

"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

 
 

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]