PhilM

An addendum ... Just noticed that my address details are not correct: it says I live in Aberdeenshire! (In state / province field.) Lovely though that bit of Scotland is, it isn't correct ... I'm assuming that it is the first (Ab ...) in an alphabetical list of the options (counties ...) for a UK address for that field, and it has used that first list entry rather than the actual one??

A little feedback from me, hope it is helpful .... Firstly, thanks for the new site: very welcome! My re-setting of my password and subsequent site access worked first time: but ... From My Account I can click through to My Orders, which are present and listed, and can be opened to show dates, my name and address details, etc: however, the actual product content of the orders is not present, hence there are no links to e.g. re-download etc. (I don't need to at the moment, so no problem for me: just noting the glitch.)

You can, as already pointed out ... but if you did that to ME you'd miss a lot of good stuff. He was only joking ... unless perhaps I've missed that you were too, in which case embarrassed apologies ...

Yes please!!

Try this link: https://h2hh.fogbugz.com/default.asp?pg=pgPublicEdit to report a problem in CMH to GaJ, the author?

John, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your post: including many good points about the "real world" differences in the forces / vehicles being portrayed, rather than in the "games" per se. As someone fortunate enough to have all of the titles, my favourite is CMFI because of some of the factors you bring out. Where else do you get vineyards! And where having a 75mm armed Sherman gets a "yippee!" rather than a "oh no!" It is distinctively different to all of the others, to my mind.

LOL A misbehaving baby having a tantrum is described as "spitting its dummy out of its pram": try "comforter" (?) for dummy, and "buggy" for pram ...???

Michael, Have you checked in the "Documents" sub folder with the main title folder? I chose the "add on" files for my v4 Mac upgrade bundle (rather than download the big Master Installer files) ... running these installs has put a "CM Engine Manual v4.00.pdf" file in the Documents folder for each of the titles. These manuals contain a few intro pages of notes on the new v4.00 orders, etc ... as well as the more detailed content in the appropriate places in the manual.

Do you always speak to people as though you think they are six years old ??

Glad you got it working. I don't have your issue of wanting to exclude things from backups: but would it not be the work of a merely few more seconds to set up the backup exclusions by specifying the game / app folder names individually rather than by using your "Games folder" route? (Said humbly: it is of course your Mac and your choice!) And FWIW, though I'm by no means a Mac expert, given that literally every application I have on my machine, both Apple and third-party made, is by default stored in Applications, and where applicable they are auto-updated there by their various helper routines, I'd always assumed that BF were following the dictates of the Mac OS to locate CM products there, and so target the updates there also, rather than it being BF's peculiarity to work to that default location?

Trust you! I couldn't NOT go and look up confirmation of what copacetic meant. Learned my new word for the day, though ...

Not much help to you (sorry!) as it doesn't provide a definite answer your question, but as a Mac user I've never felt the need to do other than let the games install in Applications ... I start / run all of my (most common type of my play) PBEM games via Combat Mission Helper (CMH), and at other times via Launchpad ... so once set up I never need to "know" where the files are, nor keep them in a non-default location. Also means that (apart from the *ahem* minor problem identified above with this specific patch ...) all of the install of patches, upgrades, modules etc all work fine automatically using the default location. I don't know of any way to specify a different directory; you could try moving the existing version folders etc to Applications, apply the patch and then - if you must! - move it back to Games again?

???? The problem was already fixed before you made your first post ... see posts 2 and 3 above your first ...

Well, it's not fair if every delivery we bowl at you is a googly ...

Michael, that's what I did having had the same problem as you (see posts above). Like your original post, I was a bit surprised to find a patch needing the serial number, but whereas before Steve's correction it wasn't accepted, after Steve's action it is still needed but my original key does now work ...

Yay! Works now ... thanks Steve.

Me too! I've just had the very same experience as described by Michael. I thought it was just me doing something stupid; glad (if you see what I mean!) to see that someone else has the same problem ...

I think what was in my mind when I made that reference concerning the benefits of leaving the pixel guys to pick there own targets was "threat appreciation" ... as in that is what they seem to do better than me ... Sure, that HMG needs taking out ... so I target it. But actually, a bigger threat is a - lesser-armed - squad in a different location ... perhaps subject to better LoS / LoF from your guys, and can thus be taken out / forced to move ... Leave them to their own devices, and most of the time they *seem* to make a better job of dealing first with what will "make the most difference" to their and your other guys' prospects ... My job is to get them in the right place(s) to be able to do that ...

Me too (my bold bit above) ... On a very unscientific, top of my head, estimate, of the time I spend playing CM: 75% is watching the replays; 20% is deciding what orders I want to give; 5% (max, possibly less) is actually inputting the orders. So, even adding to that 5% - or saving from that 5% - is a marginal effect. For example I now hardly ever give fire orders to my guys. Helps with any "guilt" over my knowledge that an area-firing unit shouldn't have. Plus, not wanting to give Steve and the guys at BF a big head, but the targeting AI the units possess is almost 100% guaranteed to give a better result as the minute unfolds compared with my usually less than optimal choices ...

Tried again ... worked this time! Must be me ... sorry!

If I follow that link and download the Mac update, the download file is named as: CMFB MacOS v101 MacOS Patch Installer.pkg.zip That zip file extracts as: CMFB MacOS v101 MacOS Patch Installer.pkg The actual content may be v1.02 - not run it yet to find out - but the file names are still shown as v1.01 .... ? Confusing .... Is it actually the new patch, or is the link still delivering the previous version?

Hurrah! Put me down for a bundle ... Though I would happily pay the $10 for each of them if that was how they were made available. Ooops: perhaps I shouldn't have said that

Not sure if it would already be captured by what Vanir recommends above ... but deleting the file "appstate.txt" often helps to free up CMH if it has got "stuck" and won't start / run correctly ... (I think that file stores the current state / settings of CMH, and if those settings etc somehow get themselves in a twist then deleting the files allows CMH to start afresh and create a new version of the file. It does (should ...) NOT lose all of your battles in progress if you try this.)

On the latest version thing: it was / is certainly BF's intention - and I think they have achieved it - that if you now buy any title, you get the latest version as at the point of purchase: no need for further upgrades or patches until more are released. So for example, if you buy CMFI (good choice!!), you get v1.2 / game engine 3 by default, even though purchasers of the first version of the game have had to buy upgrades to get to that point ... make sense? Also, if you can get (I think so: haven't checked the store) a bundle of CMFI plus the Gustav Line add-on module, you'll have all the CMFI content currently available, and at the latest version. The titles all have stand alone battles and linked-battle campaigns built in, as well as a quick battle generator. You also should try looking at some mods for vehicle skins, uniforms, sounds, graphic effects ... and most of all for the in-battle UI, which does not show the game at its best. Look here: http://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/ Look for Juju's UI mods to improve the look of the interface no end ... Also check out user-made scenarios: http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/ And if you like to play PBEM battles, via Dropbox rather than email, I'd suggest using Combat Mission Helper (CMH) to manage the "in and out" of the game files to drop box, available here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvh9sx2zla2k0eq/S6LZaVAw_7 Hope this is of some use to get started!

Just to elaborate a little on the other answers, including John's comprehensive overview: the answer to your specific question (above, my bold) is "No!" We are all never satisfied with what CM is giving us at any one moment, and are as you say awaiting "CMx3". But the backwards porting of developments in the current CMx2 engine mean that all the titles are, essentially, up to date but for some *relatively* minor changes not yet ported backwards. Details on naming / numbering of versions that may help you out; all of the current CMx2 titles are at "Game Engine 3" status (confused yet? ), but with different version numbers: CMBN (retrospectively considered game engine 1, now at 3): latest version badged v3.12 (but NB John's comment about the Demo status); CMFI (retrospectively considered game engine 2, now at 3): latest version badged v1.2; CMRT (game engine 3): latest version badged v1.03; CMFB (game engine 3): latest version badged v1.01. Dive in! FWIW, my favourite - because it's so different - is CMFI, but I'm sure that you'll find something you like in the Demos.