Glubokii Boy

No.

Guerilla/special forces ambush kind of scenarios is a cool idea but due to editor/gane engine limitations they are very tricky to get to work well... One of the main problems...atleast with a MOVING AI is the current limitation with... ONE way forward or none at all... An AI group set to patroll/move in a certain direction can not be made to abandon that move in reaction to a player ambush...and all of a sudden start down a different path as a result of that ambush...the tac AI might halt the group in place and return fire but other then that they will not take any new actions...instead it will try to resume its original movement order as soon as they are able to...and that may not be a very good reaction to an enemy ambush... Also...The AI as a whole will not react to TAKING FIRE...and change their current task...ther is no such option avaliable to the AI...Sort of limiting if you would want the AI to defend themself in a good way after being ambushed... A player 'ambush' on a stationary AI possition (like a forward base) might be somewhat easier to do as the ONE WAY FORWARD could be in reaction to the player ambush/attack...prior to this the AI group is stationary... But ones again...the various AI groups will only be able to react into ONE DIRECTION or none at all... Can be a bit tricky if the player has the option to attack from multiple directions... From wich direction will the player come ? I'm sure that scenarios like this can be made...but they are tricky unfortunatelly

Like you i would prefer 41-43 but if you're intrested in the eastern front...it's a very good investment anyway Atleast you get to play around in 'the right' theatre...and there are a decent amount of comunity campaigns and scenarios to download...i doubt you will be dissapointed ...

Hopefully the stready stream of Youtube videos will continue for a while yet... Those videos ought to bring some possitive attention to the game atleast.

Yeah...they did it with the AI-orders iirc...let's do the same with AI groups...and preferably also terrainobjectives...

And with more AI groups avaliable you could evev waist a few of them on flavour Having the AI do things that might not be all that important...but bring a bit more 'life' into the scernarios... Things like... - Moving supplytrucks out of harms way - having officers or messangers move about between various possitions - small reinforcements comming up to a possition

The thing with the current number of AI groups is that it is making it difficult to afford to put the SPECIALIST TEAMS into seperate AI groups... Things like machineguns, flamethrowers, snipers, scouts, AT-teams... If these teams gets bunched together with a group of regular riflemen the AI does not use them very well imo. In many situarions having the supporting vehichles in their own AI groups would also be preferable...especially on 'cramped' maps to help with pathfinding if nothing else.

I agree that a copy, rotate, paste option with the ability to save (and share) the selected mapsections as templates would be a great improvement... One that would significantelly speed up mapdesign... Just imagine if you had something like 6 - 8 large farms and a simular number of small and medium farms as templates...ready to simply click into place on the map... Designing a map with 10+ detailed farms on it could be done within minutes... Simularelly having templates for detailed Woods, streams and roads with surrounding detail, parts of cities and villages etc, etc... That would indeed be good and such a feature is high on my wishlist... But imho the without any comparison number one area that needs the most attention...as a singel player game...is improvements to the AI... Having the option to face of agaist a decent/improved opponent (AI) would bring far more enjoyment, challange than any cosmetic or userfriendlyness changes made to the game...

Another small example Situation...a german rifle platoon supported by an HMG, a medium mortar and a Stummel halftrack. Put all these units in one AI group and have them adance....the result will not be pretty ! On the other hand if the rifle platoon could be its own AI group (or even two) and the HMG, mortar and halftrack where placed in seperate AI groups... - The mortarteam could provide indirect HE fire at the desired time and locations as the platoon advances... - the HMG could be made to occupy good base of fire possitions and provide both suppretionfire (areafire) as well as engaging spotted enemies. And then move forward at desired times. - simularely the Stummel could be held back and provide direct fire HE using both areafire as well as targeting spotted enemies...advancing carefully behind the infantry using shoot and scoot tactics... The difference in AI performance between using one or multiple AI groups in the example above would be...night and day I realize that very few designes will ever put these units into one single AI group even now...but it kind of shows the difference between one and multiple groups

This is probaly true... The battlefield is simply to complex i fear and the situational awareness of the AI is to limited to be able to handle it... This is in no way something that is limited to combat mission though...many games struggle with the AI. As a counter argument for more AI groups i have many times heard that it would be better to improve the AI... If it only was that easy... To examples of very, very SIMPLE ! misstakes made by the AI and two problems that BFC have been struggeling big time with trying to fix... - units using the right door when entering and exiting buildings. - the hedgerow bug ( actually fixad i belive) This two examples are rediculesly simple to 'get right' with a human brain...but for the AI....apparently not. I hear as an argument for smarter AI that the AI does not neccesarely have to be massively improved...only slightely improved will be good enough... Imo...the current AI is lackning two very fundamental things to even become slightly better... - the ability to read and understand the terrain both in the short and long distance combined with the threatsituation... - the AI is not aware how to use the various teams and different weapons in a good enough way...not even seperated on their own and most certainly not as a combined arms force. Lackning these two very fundamental things it makes it very hard to improve the AI even slightelly i would belive. And making the AI capable to perform these two tasks requires...NO small effort. The AI...NEEDS ! a human touch for some guidance ... More AI groups might not be a perfekt solution but a truely belive it is the easiest way forward...and like Macisle mentioned above... Ut actually makes scenariodesign... Easier and faster

Should be....a SMARTER AI

Well... I've had very simular experience to what combatintman describes above... Trying to get an AI group to advance on both sides of a road...result... The various squads zig-zagging over the OPEN road again and again as they advanced... Not pretty !! A very simple solution to this problem would be...to have 2 AI groups ...one advancing on each side of the road... If the AI could be made to understant notto do that...great ! But i don't think that such a fix is all that easy...and this is just ONE of MANY pretty simple....'stupid' things the AI does if left all alone... A starter AI would be great...but more AI groups is an easier, Quick fix imo..

Imho it is not even remotely realistic to hope for a vastly improved AI in CM2... One that is able to read the terrain, asses dangers and advantages, fullt understand the pros and cons as well as the purpose of individual teams of various kinds. To get this it would require massive changes to the AI... It's not going to happen ! If we ever see CM3...sure...maybe But not in CM2...NO ! On the other hand...more AI groups... That sounds like something that might actually be possible within CM2 As the only thing needed would be a small UI change in the editor...

Co-operative multiplayer would be a nice option for large/huge scenarios...

Agree... Impressive indeed...thanks

For CM3: A new triggersystem that would allow AI groups to have MULTIPLE options for their next action. For CM2: More AI-groups. And by the way... thanks for the poll

to name a few - consistant map damage - map templates (cut, paste, rotate, save, load, share) - auto rubbeling of buildins and auto cratering ( paint an area of the map in the editor simular to setupzones and be able to set the level of destruction from ligth to very heavy and the computer would auto rubble those buildings within that zone. simularely paint an area and set the cratering level as desired.) - more rubbleoptions for wall and roofs (maybe have something like 3 types of rubbled roofs and rubbled walls to chose from with the toggle button. To get some variety.) - more fortrification options - more options with regards to the briefing screen...differnt file types pics, text etc - factory type buildings and flavoured objects - more AI groups - friendly AI groups - mount option for the AI - more trigger options - multioption, branching triggers - more options with regards to reinforcements and objectives like timed objectives and unit specific objectives. - A unitvalue system for objectives and triggers. - remake of the AI artilery programing interface. - additional timing options for AI programing - more options for the campaign scriptfiles with regards to scenario branching and unit rest, reinforcements, resupply - being able to use different OOBs for different AI plans in the editor. - load and save units selections for QBs (and editor) - improved gameperformance - improved graphics - scalable UI - A feature to be able to call in reserves with set delay times - co-operative multiplayer - reasign units during the gameplay - the ability to block units from being able to be shown to the enemy in pre-battle intel - in-game messages...updated briefing - improved QB AI gameplay and unit selection

Sound good... A word of caution though ! If you sometime during the development change the actuall size of the map (increase or decreae the lenth or width of the map)...be aware of the fact that any flavoured objects that you have placed on the map will change with it ! And I believe the same goes for troops deployed on the map in their starting possitions...(but i'm not 100 % sure on this one). It can be very frustrating if you have spent many hours on carefully placing flavoured objects and then ones you increase the size of the map they gets moved out of place ... This only hapens if you change the map in two direktion though...i belive it is if you increase the map to the east or south IIRC... The othet two direktions have no affect on flavoured objects (or troop placements) Looking forward to the finishen map...new content for Normandy is always welcome... Thanks !

True But even a flat city is very rarely completally flat like a pool table... Even if there are no 20 - 30 meter hight differences within the city some small undulations (1-3 meters) are very likely to be present at some points throughout the city i belive...

Looking good so far ... I realize that these pictures are very early stage...but do you have a plan for adding some undulations to the map ? If you do plan to add some elevationchanges to the map (some city blocks on higher ground and some on lower) it might be a good idea to get the elevations about right pretty early on in the mapdesign... Also besides the bigger picture high- and low grounds even the slightest change in elevation for some of the tiles...for various reasons...might be a slight hill in a park or perhaps slightly lower terrain next to a river for example...or a pile of rubble... changes as small as 1 meter for whatever reason brings a bit of life into the map....anything that avoids a completally flat map is very welcome imo... I guess that you might very well have these things under controll... But if this is one of your first maps it might be easy to forgett about the elevation part of things....

I wouldn't mind if BFC made a 'suprice" annonsment...stating... "Hey, guys...to make playing on larger maps a more fun experience we have developed the following features: - persistant map damage - an updated/improved frontline calculator ala CM1 operations. - more branching options for the campaignscript. That would make me...kind of happy !

Hopefully we will soon ...get a MOUNT option for the AI planing

agree...

I tend to agree ... But... with a decent combined arms force you will probably be able to defeat/supress the enemy long range shooters... Especially vs the AI...as the AI may not be the best at repossitioning or getting back into the fight if they have been forced back (clever scenariodesign may go some way in helping the AI handle these situations...but it is a bit tricky to get that right).. Leaving you with a lot of infantry to advance somewhat lenthy distances against perhaps limited resistans... But yeah...nontheless i to am actually all for longer distances also ...atleast in more scenarios then we currently have... Like you said...its a different challage