kraze

Latest images look great, I hope you finish this

I had no problems with Oplot vs.T72B3/T90A penetration whenever the former used APFSDS, especially at sub 1km distances. So it's not bad at all. The problem is that it does that rarely and ATGMs are slow, have a higher chance to miss and, worst of all, will detonate when encountering a branch or a bush - making Oplots harmless. And on a modern battlefield where the one who hits first is the one who wins that's critical.

Now I have a yet another proof that Gangnam Style indeed sounds like a bunch of noises!

Turn save files are huge because they are separate - replays would get rid of most of the redundant data (no need to write every thing all over again each minute). Plus we have Total War as an example where it saves actions of every single soldier (out of thousands) on the battlefield in really small replay files and you see exactly the same battle when you watch the replay. Also DCS World with its glorious replays. But yeah yeah I know - it's of course more of a question of dev time and resources on Battlefront's part and whether they can spare them for something like this. But it's certainly doable with little performance hit (if any)

Just as an example I've had success in using CMBS mods (primarily explosion, fire effects and sounds) with a much older CMSF. I'm also using a few graphics mods made for CMRT (which I don't even have, yet) with CMBS and they work as advertised

Speaking of which that is one feature the lack of which always bothered me to some degree. A lack of real-time replay feature. Clearly facilities to make that happen are already in the game - to a point that a whole minute of it is saved in a WeGo savegame - so why no separate full battle replays? This would've been especially important for the real-time play, as a sort of AAR - since in real-time you miss a ton of important events as they happen and learning from where your focus lacked would've been very useful. Not to mention that a replay in itself is a very fun feature (chill out and watch the awesome battle you just had). So if anything - this should be fully realized in the game. Especially since it relates to situational awareness topic we have here

I think that difficulties are fine as it is. What some people suggest here is that whole force should act like it has a single commander - you. It would work (questionably) if squad/platoon/company commanders had any initiative (as in AI that decides actions for itself while it has no orders) but it would not work because even a single section requires an order from the player. TacAI that is there just helps soldiers survive but not ACT. In a way right now the player is not only a commander of a force, but also every single commander on the field.

Thanks to them Ukraine got a ton of trackable proof of all the magnitude of russian invasion. Not to mention the absolute need of russians to boast about said invasion helped with MH17 investigation. And then of course there are russian war crimes in Syria that they themselves can't help but film and upload to the internet. So no wonder the government wants to put a stop to it - there's only so many lines can be crossed before it will be too much

Even in the latest version (2.10) BM Oplot uses ATGM exclusively to attack enemy tanks even at sub 300m distances - which makes these tanks useless (or outright easy prey in tank duels) since missiles tend to hit trees or completely miss due to a slower movement than SABOT even though the latter would almost certainly penetrate any tank at such distance. And this issue is here since the initial release. What gives? Why can't the game have Oplot use ATGM only at distances of 2km or above where it would make sense? Weird that it does not affect russian tanks

If CMBS was "biased" and "pro-NATO" - wouldn't it have a Ukrainian tech overpowered too?

Steel beasts of US

Just in case someone doesn't know - you can also hold SHIFT while using any Arc command and the selection will switch to radius for the true ambush command. Extremely useful when you want to let enemy armor within 200m for an RPG/AT4 strike

I've spotted at least 5 vehicles with open hatches getting hit in the video resulting in commander's death (or injuring) - which seemed so off to me. I also have SB Pro PE - and in it binoculars certainly help much less than even CITV at 3km+ not to mention how hazardous it is staying unbuttoned while going against a modern tank or an ATGM equipped BMP. Plus commander can use gunner's optics as well and 50x FLIR zoom even if digital - that's something binos can't touch. And in CMBS we are dealing with SEPv2 which supposedly has a bigger screen and better FLIR imaging. And talking CMBS strictly - I've played both with commander unbuttoned and buttoned and there wasn't any notable (to me) difference in a long range spotting (close/mid range another story) except everybody surviving a hit or two. But you are saying there's a noticeable difference?

Nice video of CMBS MP to demonstrate to people - but I have a question - why are you exposing commanders leading to their deaths? At that distance commander's station should be way more useful, or rather commander's own eyes are completely useless even with binoculars - it's 3km after all. I understand doing this in a WW2 setting where optics were less than stellar but in a modern tank they are superb, especially M1A2 SEP - and exposing with binos is only needed for close combat situational awareness, no? Plus a procedure is to button up during combat. Asking just to make sure I'm not missing something about CMBS mechanics.

Thanks but a few more questions - which battles modules focus on? Base game is (after) landing in Normandy - I get that. But do other added nations presented in other timelines/areas? I know that there's at least one campaign dealing with Operation Market Garden (right?) but are there any campaigns that deal with Brits pre '44 for example? Also is a Vehicle Pack just purely an addition of vehicles or does it come with missions for those vehicles? Or at least any official content including those (battlepack)? And are there any seasons but summer?

Doubt it has a turret built out of a cardboard and needs some other vehicle to tug it across the square - other than that there can only be similarities with Soviet technology, much of which was designed at ukrainian KMDB anyway (like T64 it uses as a base)

Hide command would've been more logical if it made the tank take the closest hulldown position (e.g. the closest decline in the ground within, say, 100m radius if present), while retaining facing. Can add a condition 'if it spots the enemy tank' too. Can be a life savior in WEGO Works really well in Steel Beasts Pro where AI driver finds a good position like that himself

Wish there were some news about the future of CMBS though. There's that fact that there's clearly a trouble at Odessa (meaning all kinds of marines) as per "in-game lore"

Well I guess that is that common platform for all CM games I've been talking about

Yeah the lack of any news is the problem. Even if it's just deeply WIP. I remember all the excitement from those unfinished CMBS videos of ChrisND from a more peaceful time. And I do wish Battlefront has created some kind of a common platform for their games. I can even get why Final Blitzkrieg is a "separate" game from CMBN at that pricepoint. But seeing how engine is the same one why (well I get the "small team" answer - OK, but again - a wish!) not have a modular platform for WW2 titles and modern titles. DCS does that, some of its modules go full-price too but one thing I like about it and another example I've made (GTOS) is mix'n'match of a whatever content you like - like how you could wage war using cold war era tanks in GTOS on snowy maps from another module in the series. Or fly A-10C on a lush Normandy map. And sadly Graviteam decided to separate their next titles so no brits vs. germans on temperate maps f.e. In case of DCS you can even not own some module but can battle people that do leading to a rather whole community (well, OK, disregarding the 3 separate versions of the game thing but it's only temporary). Italians vs. Red Army in a CM battle?

Combat Mission Shock Force was my first game in the series too and wanting to take a break from (an admittedly superior) CM Black Sea I gave it a try in a while. Really surprised how well it holds up today, a decade later after its release - and how many of missions I've played are just as fun to replay today - especially thanks to its superior BLUFOR roster (US Army, Marines, Brits, Germans/Canadians/Dutch) Of course it lacks all the advancements the series has went through since but oh well.

Somehow isn't an issue for DCS or Graviteam Tactics (which at first was purely WW2 setting, but expanded into mid-Cold War era). Like adding aforementioned riders wouldn't affect other games at all - it isn't like you'd have to mandatory redo all existing content (although that would've been nice just from a 'doing good thing' perspective)

CMSF was my first Combat Mission, but in relation to that one I'm not expecting anything at all. Yes, even after hints about 4.0 update for it (enough waiting as it is) Well at least that one has a huge amount of content, since it was the only focus of Battlefront when it came out (a shining example) - and to me at least has some content left, I've completed all but two campaigns and a majority of single battles. But eh at least WW2 CM gets some kind of a major release (be it a "full" game or a module) almost every year (and even then it's quite "fractured" between various games), while a modern one takes forever.

I'm a purely real-time player (but play Wego from time to time) and if this mode wasn't there I wouldn't be enjoying the game so much (it makes it more "believable"). But I have the same concerns. Battlefront decided to split their focus into so many separate "games" (half of which could've easily be modules *cough*cmfb*cough) that if you own only few of them you have to wait for years for the new content. Like I have CMBS and it took more than two years for a battle pack to arrive and looking at Battlefront plans will take another three for a marine/vdv module to happen (as hinted in "lore") which is beyond ridiculous. Yeah I know - small team, not enough resources - but it should've been considered when making decisions. What I mean is that I, as a huge fan of how Battlefront represents modern combat, personally feel like a game got abandoned. And I like Battlepack1 a lot but, man, two years and no new factions/content?

Ok, thanks, I hope it is so. Before I spend a hundred bucks on a game (albeit a properly big one).