Probus

Well it would seem that updates to the Combat Mission Engine is going tobethe clear winner in this little informal Poll. Thanks to all for putting your "two cents" in. That would be your "two As'es" in in ancient Roman coinage. Maybe "Bias" in Latin? I don't know, but I digress. Now without any kind of poll format, may I ask one more question? If you could pick only 1 thing you would ask the developers to add to the Engine, what would it be? For me it would be Field of View/Line of Sight enhancements. Buttons to show exactly what a unit could see in it's configuration. Optics, buttoned, weather, etc... This could be shown in arcs like Graviteam does or what would be REALLY cool is you can see only the terrain that your units see. Anything else looks like a "paper" map or is blacked out. Using shaders to dim the view would be cool also in hazy situations. See attached without/with optics. Can Battlefront comment on anything in the works @BFCElvis?

Holy cow! That's just too long if CMBS was a successful title. I can't help think how much more successful these games would be with a good marketing campaign, but that doesn't come cheap. So I guess its the job of the community to get the word out there so they can focus their $$$ on the programmers.

Not enough time in the day!

@MikeyD, You make great points. Now imagine modders had just a tad more ability to add content (free labor ) and the risks you point out become much more mitigate-able. (I took the liberty of inserting comments above). Honestly, when I bought Black Sea a few weeks ago the Ukrainian conflict did not play into my decision. But I'm a child of the Cold War. I'm also the kind of guy who would want to see not only how well the latest Russian tanks stand up against M1A1s, but also how long a platoon of M1A1s would last against a battalion of Tigers and Panthers.

Thanks to those who have responded! I also own CMFI now so I can add that to the PBEM list.

@IanL, Thanks again. If I have Combat Mission on both my Desktop and Laptop, can "Who's Turn is it?" manage the same PBEM games from either one as long as Dropbox is configured properly?

I just wanted to give a shout out to the developer(s) of the "Who's Turn is It?" PBEM Manager. It really works great for handling your PBEM games automagically. It is free and works with the free version of Dropbox. Removes all the hassle from PBEM. I am pretty sure it will work on all the Combat Mission games. Thanks @IanL! or https://www.lesliesoftware.com/products/WhoseTurnIsIt/

This happened again, but this time I knew exactly what changed. It turned out to be me switching from speakers to headphones. I couldn't get my computer to switch to my Bluetooth headphones. So I disabled my speakers and Windows 10 switched to my headphones right away?!? Next time I started Combat Mission I did not have my headphones on AND my speakers were still disabled. Up comes the black screens for both of my CM titles. Re-enabled my speakers and presto, things went back to normal. Probably the windows update was just a coincidence, but turning the speakers back on definitely fixed it for me this time. Hope this helps.

I showed these pictures to a veteran friend of mine. He said "In combat, if it looks stupid but works... It isn't stupid..."

It's working now. Windows 10 wanted to do an update, so I let it and it started working again. Strange.

I started my first PBEM game with another forum user. We decided on using "Whose Turn is it?" PBEM Client. Got everything configured and we sent back and forth our first turns. This morning I go to play my next turn and when I start CMBS, the screen briefly turns black and then goes back to desktop. Tried a few things and then thought I would try loaded CMSF2 and it did the same thing. To me this may indicate a graphics driver problem, but I'm just guessing. (I also tried loading the DEMO version of CMFI with the same result). Has anyone seen this before? My other, non-combat mission games seem to work just fine... I'm baffled (but I baffle easily).

You take care! There is a poll function built into the KSP forum which uses the same engine. Elvis said it was not in Battlefront's version though.

If modding was limited to adding equipment ONLY, I think the boost to the community/popularity of the game would outweigh any risks. I just have to keep pointing back to KSP as my example of an overwhelmingly positive experience. (Granted KSP is not about killing virtual people and blowing things up... scratch that... KSP is not about killing virtual people.) EDIT: There are many mods to KSP that add weapons and aircraft, tanks and ship parts and that also turn it from a single player game into a multiplayer game. Chaos did not ensue.

I had the same thought Best I could do guys. I'm sure there aren't too many visiting trolls to battlefront... Does a wargaming Grognard count as a Troll?

Maybe. My goal started as just wanting to give some visibility to Battlefront as to what their players want most if they had a choice in the matter. It kinda morphed a bit as I saw how many different things folks wanted (I shouldn't have been surprised). That kinda led to the fact that modding was the only way battlefront could possibly hope to include all the differing content folks wanted. I get the impression from the fans that Battlefront is too conservative to allow modding for fears that 1. it would degrade the quality of their product and 2. cut into future profits.

I placed them in semi-chronological order with the coding changes at the end of the list.

Started a new Updated Poll topic: Please cast your votes there. Here is a summary of what you'll find: 1. Blitzkrieg: 1939-40 WWII Early war Poland France (also Finland) 2. Barbarossa: 1941-43 WWII Eastern Front Can Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin data be used as sort of an upgrade? Invasion of Yugoslavia Operation Typhoon Case Blue Blau to Stalingrad Warsaw to Moscow (also Finland) 3. Afrika Korps: 1940-43 WWII North Africa Operation Torch, American North Africa Invasion Libya, Egypt, and Tunis 1942-43 4. Expansion of Combat Mission Games to VE-Day on Both Fronts: 1944-1945 End-of-war module that includes Brits, crossing the Rhine and the Ruhr pocket A siege of Budapest for Hungarians Battle for Berlin (East vs West, 1945, 46) 5. Arab-Israeli Wars: 1948–49, 56, 67, 73, 82, and 2006 Israeli War of Independence, 1948-49 Suez Crisis, 1956 Six Day War, 1967 Yom Kippur War, 1973 Lebanon Wars, 1982 & 2006 6. Vietnam War: 1955-75 US Involvement (French Involvement, 1945-54) 7. "Fulda Gap": 1970-90 Europe WWIII 8. "Battlefield Asia": Modern Day USA/NATO vs China USA/NATO vs North Korea China vs India India vs Pakistan (Afghanistan Update) 9. One Engine - CMx3 game performance improvments, graphics improvements, ray tracing, intermediate distance bitmaps additional editor features, dynamic operational campaigns additional gameplay features, coop, LoS tool, visible aircraft 10. Enhanced Modding Support add units equipment functionality ingame OOB editor 11. New Modules more battlepacks for existing titles New Countries for Barbarossa (Bulgaria Hungary Romania Yugoslavia Partisans). Additional modules for Red Thunder Additional modules for CMSF2: Modern Day Syria, Turkey, Iraq CMBS Marines (from both sides) Commonwealth forces and expansion into VE Day for Final Blitzkrieg 12. Surprise me - I'm certain to love it Korea 1950 WW2 Pacific WW1 Horses

12. Surprise me - I'm certain to love it Korea 1950 WW2 Pacific WW1 Horses

11. New Modules more battlepacks for existing titles New Countries for Barbarossa (Bulgaria Hungary Romania Yugoslavia Partisans). Additional modules for Red Thunder Additional modules for CMSF2: Modern Day Syria, Turkey, Iraq CMBS Marines (from both sides) Commonwealth forces and expansion into VE Day for Final Blitzkrieg

10. Enhanced Modding Support add units equipment functionality ingame OOB editor

9. One Engine - CMx3 game performance improvments, graphics improvements, ray tracing, intermediate distance bitmaps additional editor features, dynamic operational campaigns additional gameplay features, coop, LoS tool, visible aircraft

8. "Battlefield Asia": Modern Day USA/NATO vs China USA/NATO vs North Korea China vs India India vs Pakistan (Afghanistan Update)

7. "Fulda Gap": 1970-90 Europe WWIII

6. Vietnam War: 1955-75 US Involvement (French Involvement, 1945-54)