AlexUK

Still hoping for patches for shock force2 and black sea . Just fix few well know bugs please  . Good luck Battlefront God bless you 🙂

As I said elsewhere, I have been a bit stumped as to how to proceed with this. My initial plan was not to change too much so that it was still Hasrabit but the problem is that it is such an old campaign that that is no longer possible. This campaign was made way back with the earliest versions of the first CMSF engine and I was still learning the craft of scenario design. Some of the AI work was abysmal and many of the maps were basically ASL-inspired, especially the compounds. And so many trees!
As you can see from the screenshots I've already posted, I've spent quite a bit of time updating the maps so that they are much more 'modern' with realistic compounds and villages, much more like you'll find in USMC Gung Ho! But I have been struggling to find a  way to make The Guards Counterattack mission workable. I tried toning down the AI attack and that worked - a bit. The problem is that the map is too small and in the time the AI has, it can wipe out everything and occupy all the best positions so that any counterattack is going to be a tough and bloody affair for the player, regardless of the superiority of his equipment and training.
The AI also attacks with two mech companies (previously three) with tanks in support and they absolutely murder the defensive forces even without the somewhat generous artillery support. The notion of removing one mech company didn't appeal to me at all as I want to keep as much of the old as possible. So, what to do?
Well, the solution is quite simple - I need to extend the RED map edge considerably further so that the AI has much further to go. This also allows me to add a second, frontal defensive line to the  map and have the first mech company dismount to attack that line while the second waits and then goes after the back line. This appears to work very well indeed and means that the AI will still be fighting in front of the ridge when your Guards arrive. Perfect. Not only that but it's fun to play again as it's not OTT difficult.
Obviously, that means this is going to take a bit longer to get finished but it's back on track. It is also re-inspiring me and giving me some fresh ideas about how to develop future missions in the campaign.

It is pretty frustrating. Looking back at the 2023 plan and seeing how little of new things were actually introduced, with no real updates in the interim. I’m crying out for the Engine 5 update as I can’t really play CMCW at the moment. 
Also the promised patches didn’t fix some big issues with the games (my particular bugbear is the TOW Stryker). Underpromise and overdeliver would be preferred. But also more regular updates.  

It is pretty frustrating. Looking back at the 2023 plan and seeing how little of new things were actually introduced, with no real updates in the interim. I’m crying out for the Engine 5 update as I can’t really play CMCW at the moment. 
Also the promised patches didn’t fix some big issues with the games (my particular bugbear is the TOW Stryker). Underpromise and overdeliver would be preferred. But also more regular updates.  

I suspect the Dinas mission in question is 'The Tumah Crossing', a late campaign mission. I'll bear that in mind when/if I ever get around to reviewing this. I have to admit to finding the idea increasingly appealing. I have improved quite a few of the maps already, some of which appear in Gung Ho! Of course, if I use them again, I'd have to improve them even further so that they're fresh. I already have some ideas for further improving the map for 'Petani' which is the map the 'Flintstones' map is based on.
 
As for Hasrabit, well, I have to admit that I'm kind of stumped here. I've been looking at it again today and have toned the difficulty down of the Ambush mission and now I have to make it fun. I've also made a few adjustments to the Guards Counterattack mission mentioned above but there's still a lot of work to do to get this mission finished, never mind the whole campaign. It'll get done but I'm concerned that we're already very far from the original Hasrabit experience now. The structure and the names may be the same but the game engine has changed so much since Hasrabit was made that it's an all-new game (I suppose it really is as it's now CMSF2)  Doh!
The missions that are left to do are HUGE though and need to be redone more or less from scratch, a prospect which doesn't exactly fill me with joy at the moment. It's possible I may have to ditch a mission, The Barrier, to get this one finished. I've reviewed the map and the OBs but it's just not clicking for me. It's certainly an interesting map, with several large hills in the desert but what can I do with it that is fresh and not just "another Guards mission"? But who knows what will happen as I continue testing -  we'll see. I get ideas as I work so I'm just thinking out loud at this point.

Well, that was a full day's work. Fortunately, the wife has been busy and hasn't minded me spending 6+ hours doing the artwork and the briefings for all the missions while listening to some early-70s Prog Rock albums and Thin Lizzy (Johnny the Fox is a seriously underappreciated album). All of the new work has just been imported into all the missions and their variants and all that's left to do is rewrite the campaign script and compile it.
Now I COULD upload this later this evening and be able to say that I revised it in 2023 (just) but I'd like to spend a bit more time making sure that everything is as it says on the tin (I did a lot of that today but a second pass is always a good idea.) I like to make sure that all the AI plans are active (I switch them off while testing a new plan) and make sure that the variants have the proper changes implemented.
I expect to have this done tomorrow morning which means it will still be up before the New Year if you live in Hawaii. Or failing that, early on Tuesday (for me)
Edit to add:
I just tested compiling the new version and it all works fine. Yay! There were a few errors but I found them all and corrected them. Now I just have to set those parameters in the script correctly and it's a day!

When I was at uni, I was a D&D dungeon master and devised a brutal world with several large, complex dungeons as well as some small, brutal ones. I was a total bastidge but people seemed to love the adventures I created. Tough but (not very) fair was how I rolled. I blame D&D for my sadistic impulses.
Getting difficulty right is pretty tough - make it too easy and people will ignore your work. Make it too hard and some folks will think it's the best mission ever while most will just give up and avoid your stuff in the future.

Out of curiosity, when was the last time any there was any meaningful change/update to the game rules or fundamental features?
Not a battle pack or a module with some new units, but the kind of changes people have now been requesting for 37 pages in this thread. Which is far from the first feature request thread.
The last time I can remember new features were added were in CMFB (2016), when flamethrowers and mortar halftracks were added.
Both awkwardly and buggily implemented, but at least they were new capabilities.
There was also a patch around the same time that added some new features to the editor, such as a retreat mechanic and an area fire order for the AI. But that was still eight years ago.

Off-Map Smoke Being Available After HE/Cluster Expended
There are times when planning fire support I would want the off-map tubes (artillery/mortars) to expend all their HE/cluster munitions to soften up a target then place smoke in an area to provide cover for my attacking units.  As it stands now if your off-map assets expend all HE/cluster munitions smoke is not available as a final fire mission.  Could use on-map tubes to provide smoke but some scenarios have little to no on-map tubes.  Would be great to have smoke available after HE/cluster is expended.

Im kind of dreading the new Hell in the Hedgerows but as long as a defeat is the historical path I guess I’m ok with that. I fear there won’t be much left of the attackers at the end though - I remember many a slaughter on my previous playthroughs. 

Probably my favourite campaign. I've played through it several times and really looking forward to playing it again!

And last.
Please improve the FOW by remove the detected enemy units' UI panel.
 
right now with as soon as you detect a riflemen, you will know if the contact is a HQ, a part of HMG team , an AT Gun position or a Javelin ATGM team. That is so unrealistic.  I miss the way how CMx1 handle the unidentified infantry contacts
 
Or, I also miss the CMx1's tank misidentification . 
 
Sound contact is also far better in CMx1.  In CM2 a sound contact gives you a precious position. 
 

I've got an attack plan that works reasonably well now. I managed to get a DRAW by cease firing at about T+40 and I hadn't exited any of my forces so that was a comfortable win. I made a few adjustments to the AI victory conditions as a result and so I think that's enough for now. It's quite a short mission with a very low unit count for the player so I'm going to continue to test it and tweak it while work is ongoing on the next missions in this chapter. Victory point adjustments made are basically now instead of having three TOUCH compound locations, I now have three phase lines which extend about 150m on both sides of the road on the south side of the stream which award the Germans points for touching. The further they advance, the more points they earn each line hot so you'll have to work hard to keep their heads down until you think it's time to run.
I started work on Licornets this afternoon. This is one mission that REALLY needs 16 AI groups and I'm using almost all of them already. Combined with a variety of triggers, I can really make some effective AI counter moves if the player activates them. With each StuG being in its own unique group, I can use them more aggressively in my defensive plans rather than just positioning them at the start of the game. Giving a movement order to an AI group with two vehicles on opposite sides of the road isn't going to end well.
I'm not going to agonise over this and will just get two working plans and create variants and that's that for this one. I'd really like to have the chapter 2 missions finished before Christmas.
I have very few plans to change much with the Glider Infantry missions in chapter 3 but I'm probably going to put the nebelwerfers into Hell in the Hedgerows as that also happened to these poor buggers in real life. They really took a pounding and lost that mission but I shied away from it when I made the original. But war is hell so why not? I need the casualties to make their following missions more challenging. So I expect a quick turn over on chapter 3 with perhaps only the Holding Action needing any real attention.
And that leaves the short chapter 4 missions which I'd really like to have finished before New year. Yes, that'll happen.  That's my plan though. Much as I'd like to do a compete overhaul of each mission, that would take me another 4-6 weeks after the New year and I'm almost certainly going to want to move onto something else in a couple of weeks.

Sitting here it seems fairly obvious. If it is the jammers that are killing the drones, then go after the jammers. Presumably wait until they light up and then get them with whatever can reach them. Rinse and repeat. 
if AD is being used, do the same thing. 
once no more jamming/AD, use mass drones to swamp the area where you plan to attack, using thermals wherever possible. 
Once ready to attack, have loads of drones in the air and as soon as anything is spotted trying to defend, take it out. 
 
im also assuming the US satellites can spot where the helicopters are operating from? HIMARS them. 
I would be recruiting 1000s of drone operators, instead of forming new battalions of troops (or as well as).
I am sure I’m missing something though. 

Sitting here it seems fairly obvious. If it is the jammers that are killing the drones, then go after the jammers. Presumably wait until they light up and then get them with whatever can reach them. Rinse and repeat. 
if AD is being used, do the same thing. 
once no more jamming/AD, use mass drones to swamp the area where you plan to attack, using thermals wherever possible. 
Once ready to attack, have loads of drones in the air and as soon as anything is spotted trying to defend, take it out. 
 
im also assuming the US satellites can spot where the helicopters are operating from? HIMARS them. 
I would be recruiting 1000s of drone operators, instead of forming new battalions of troops (or as well as).
I am sure I’m missing something though. 

Here's an update on how this is going. I have changed the structure of the original campaign to give it a new opening mission which, together with the original starting mission, Beau Guillot, will form a new campaign prelude, the outcome of which will determine certain parameters for the three Chapter 1 - Georgian Ridge missions. 
Having revised and tested the new AI plans for both the prelude and all the chapter one missions including the variants, I'll be picking up where I left off with Turnbull's Stand tomorrow. This is one of the very few AI attack missions so it will require a bit more time to get right but I learned a LOT from making USMC Gung Ho! so I'm guessing this will be better than the previous revision I made earlier this year. I'll just have to make sure that it's winnable. It's almost certainly going to play very differently from the old version, that's for sure.
I seem to be taking about a day to revise a defensive mission at the moment so if I am able to stick with a decent schedule, I should have most of this done before Xmas. However, the two blocks to swift progress will be Le Ham and the finale, Eroudeville. Le Ham didn't have any AI plan associated with it - it was a pure set-up with no variants and I can't let that stand. Eroudeville has a pretty sizeable AI attack so that will take a few days to revise as well.
 
A few observations about the new core forces - having the US 2/8 INF mostly Green makes for a rather different experience and I nearly undid the change as it was definitely harder to manage these forces in combat. But instead I've added some extra firepower to some of their missions to compensate them for the loss. In Guillot, you get a Destroyer on call to help soften up the defenders and there is air power in a couple of the Georgian Ridge missions. In Hameau, I've added an AA Quad Half Track to provide the attacker with some extra punch as well. The defenders get a little boost too to keep things interesting - nothing massively OP of course, but after all, most of you will have already played the original campaign so these changes should make it feel fresh.
The new AI plans are a considerable improvement over the old as well and the AI is much better on the defence now than it previously was so you'll need to be a little more cautious. Except for the new opener, there are always two or more AI plans in each mission, usually five. The opener is a recreation of a certain famous, historical action which I released as a stand-alone scenario to the old repository so it's intended to be fixed.
I have also found an old mission, Maxwell's House, which I kept a back up of on the Beta boards. It was offered as a possible scenario for the Arnhem module but it didn't cut the mustard. Fortunately, it was still in my folder there so I have been able to revisit it as well. it's a German attack on a tiny but highly detailed rubbled map defended by a very small but elite force of Red Devils in Arnhem. NOT Historical at all, just 100% for fun. It's definitely NOT going to be added to the Nijmegen campaign - that one is finished and I have no plans to touch it again (play perhaps  but definitely not redesign) The Breakout from the Neerpelt Bridgehead and the Aalst missions pretty much broke me, the work that went into them was tremendous. The other two Irish Guards missions that formed that series were no picnic to make and test either.

Not yet but it's on the to-do list. The real hold-up is reworking the Le Ham mission which is a monster. It turns out that there were no AI plans for this mission and I have to remedy that.
Otherwise, most of the details are complete. I've learned how to use some of those special moves like Withdraw for example so I'd like to revisit most of the AI plans and see if they can be improved further but I'm not going to let it turn into another monster revision that will never get finished. 

Margaret MacMillan echos a lot of this in 1919.  The treaty was punitive but it is a bit of a myth that it somehow drove Germany into WW2.  It was a large part of Hitlers narrative - along with blaming the Jews for everything.  But in reality she notes that the real impact of the treaty was fairly limited in the grand scheme of things.
All war is certainty.  A collision of certainty.  So in this respect, sure Ukraine made this war happen.  They did so because their certainty- a free sovereign nation - was irreconcilable with the Russian position of Ukraine=client/vassal state.  The West did not somehow force Russia or Ukraine into all this.  In fact a major criticism (from the direction of the same crowd as whatever he is calling himself now) was how badly Obama botched the job by not showing Russia some teeth.  We really did not do much when Russia re-took Crimea or the Donbas regions.  We made quacking noises and slap a few sanctions on individuals but it was tepid as hell.  Now the same crowd are all “Elites pushed them into this”…the entire thing makes zero sense.
As to Russia itself.  We did a lot more than accept it back with open arms.  We bankrolled it coming out of the fall of the Soviet Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Russian_financial_crisis
Hell at one point we were doing military cooperation and funding de-nuclear-ization.  Pretty odd behaviour for western compression.  Would it have been better to get Russia into the western sphere…definitely.  All that energy going east won’t do anyone any favours with respect to competition with China.
But our strategic options spaces collapsed as of this war.  Were we to say “hey no problem, go ahead and illegally invade another nation?”  Drop the Baltics out of NATO so Putin could take them too?  Sweet Jebus, since when did appeasement become a viable strategy with Russia?  Russia pushed everyone into this position.  And to this day no one has been able to point to the Russian crisis point in all this.  At best Ukraine would have had a decade to get into NATO or the EU.  We hadn’t even started the process.  Was Ukraine about to accept western troops en masse?  Western  nukes?  Was Ukraine massing military forces on the Russian border?
No bizarro logic to justify a contrary position is going to change what this whole war really was - a bafflingly poorly thought out land grab that turned into a nightmare quagmire by Russia.  There was no external forcing function.  Why go in freakin Feb? Worst time of year to do it?  It was likely the largest strategic blunder of the 21st century (so far).  If it was forced by the West it was a brilliant strategy but I do not give us that sort of credit.
What is breaking my soul is just how incredibly soft we have become.  Ukraine has one disappointing summer offensive - hell they did not even lose ground.  And now it is the end of days.  Pull the funding and run away!  How can we be the grandchildren of the generation that fought and won WW2?  Worse, there is a clown show of people trying to score points on all this.

For heavens sake plz don;t overdo it and burn out...  That unfortunately tends to happen at some point to all of our most talented modders and designers.  But, you're on the right track making your designs a little easier.  At we discussed there was at least one Dinas mission that I had to restart over a dozen times.  
Agreed...

I have posted a new version of the USMC Gung Ho! campaign I updated earlier this year. Here is a link...
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-shock-force-2-2/cm-shock-force-2-campaigns/cmsf2-usmc-gung-ho-v2/
 
What's changed?
 
The campaign script - winning a mission will guarantee that any vehicles that are immobilised or damaged will be repaired for their next mission.

Mission 1 - a Grenade Launcher Team is temporarily attached to 1st Platoon.
Mission 2 - an extra 30 minutes added to both versions
                    all mud tiles removed
                    Syrian Grenade Launchers replaced with MMGs and a Recoiless Rifle team
Mission 4 - an extra 30 minutes added to the mission
                    helicopter and air support assets are doubled (the second Cobra arrives as a reinforcement with a full load)
                    added transport vehicles to 1st Platoon and the engineers.

Briefings clarified for artillery assets shared between missions (hopefully)
Missions 4 and 5 are now must-win scenarios to progress.
 
Many typos fixed as well but I'm sure you'll find some new ones.

Wow, this thread has really derailed lately into a generalised college dorm bull session on world affairs. A lot of opinionating and emoting by the same 15 regulars. Only @Harmon Rabb is trying to post anything remotely factual any more.
...Actually, the Twittersphere in general seems much the same. A lot of scolding and 'on message' broken record slogans, and What Now Must We Do emoting. Fragments of anecdata only,  and analysis (body counts, wreck counts) seem stale and repetitive. Just marching in place, yet things are changing.
 
1. What the hell *is* happening in Poland? I'd love to hear from our Polish comrades who seem strangely silent of late: @Maciej Zwolinski, @Beleg85?
What's the beef with the truckers? Are they just looking for a payoff, or do they actually want to hobble Ukraine's war effort?  Why?
 
2.
@Haiduk, how are things in Kyiv?  Are Zeleban's views on fatigue and disillusionment on point? (I for one don't doubt his sincerity or his goodwill, nor do I believe he's parroting Russian troll farms)
@kraze what are people saying in your corner of the Austro-Hungarian empire?
Angry denunciations of betrayals and foot-dragging by the West aside -- real or imagined -- what are you guys seeing or hearing about going downhill there?
I'm going to suspend posting for a bit myself, since I have far more questions than answers on the macro situation, and no one here seems much interested in the battlefield itself these days.

The point was that a poster said its hard talking to people.  I'm just pointing out Steve obviously doesn't think so.  Everyone gets time off, but maybe instead of 10 posts a day in the Ukraine thread, 9 posts a day and one day a month post something on the games he produces.

Everything can be a problem...if you want it to be...even something as simple as getting out of bed in the morning. If you WANT that to be a problem. It certainly can be.
If you want something to work though...it very well might if you put some effort and intrest into it. Like designing the best tactical wargame out there for example !
 
Again...How difficult could it possibly be in todays world with instant communications etc to provide the community with some more regular updates on things going on.
- preferably designate a few dates (the first day of every second month, the first friday of every second month or something like that) to upload these progress reports.
- Ask the assosiated battlepack creators, module creators, scenario/campaign creators, game engine updaters etc to provide a simple file with some pictures and a short text describing recent progress prior to these dates.
- Start a few new threads in this forum (sticky or not). Each covering one or a few of the current projects that are currently being worked on.
- Ask those assosiated people to...in addition to providing the 6 (or whatever) update reports each year...to spend a few minutes each week/every other week to respond to questions in their particular tread. I'm guessing that most of those guys hang around this forum from time to time anyway. Surely not a huge effort on their part to do so.
 
Having a few threads like this will hopefully have the added bennefit of bringing some sort of life into this forum. That cant be a bad thing either...can it ?
The designers/content creators will be able to get feedback on their WIP from a broader bunch of people compared to a limited number of BFC playtesters etc...Questions could be asked by the community. Tips, suggestions and requests could be shared with content creators.
 
A more happy crowd all around.
 
George Mc have done something like this in the past with projects he has been working on and i think those threads got well recieved.
 
Critisism, negative comments and almost impossible request might offcourse be part of such discussions...but come on ! Surely that is something that most people can handle. If kiss-***, super possitive comments are the only ones allowed then something like this might obviously not be a good thing.
But hopefully that is not the case.

I know i'm negative...i'm sorry i just cant help it. I've grown seriously dissapointed in BFC in recent years.
The talk about resources...I don't buy that. Lack of resources when it comes to productivity...maybe...but lack of resources when it comes to
information sharing and development discussions with the community...NO ! That has nothing to do with lack of resources.
How many man hours could it possibly take to share some simple progress reports, future idea sharing/discussion etc ? maybe ones a month or something like that...or perhaps ones every second month.
Let's exagerate some...
Let's say it takes a full working day to produce such a report and to answer some follow on questions.
With one update every second month that would mean 6 days lost of development time each year...Considdering how long it takes BFC to release any new product...
nobody...NOBODY ! would notice any difference AT ALL ! if some of BFCs products took 6 more days or something like that before release.
To claim that is utterly riddiculous.
But then again...If you have nothing to share....You have nothing to share...But according to BFC they are indeed working on many things...

My thoughts on how to crack it. The killers are the guns, the good L52s and good ammo paired with the good ISR. What the UA is lacking is sufficient guns with sufficient ammo to kill all the targets to then let the light forces take the ground. The ammo stocks have been eaten up so the guns they have are running on rations so there isn't much point in giving more guns now. Once the ammo production gets up then the guns can work and more guns can be given so they can attrite the defenders non stop. Pair that with the deep strike on the logistics in a relentless manner and that is how they will take back ground faster.
So in my opinion, the biggest bottleneck holding back the UA is ammo for the big guns. Then not enough guns to cover the front with sufficient ammo. While that is being solved for the drone air superiority war needs solved for. Then I think some forms of mobile warfare (maybe light and highly mobile) can take place. Maybe even get the heavies back in the game. 
Until the ammo crisis is solved we will see more of the same.