PhilM

The BF website on CMBN says: 3- we implemented this system retroactively for all 3.0 Engine Upgrade purchases! Your store download for that purchase now points to a full master installer, including all of the content for Normandy, updated to v3.11. If you ever need to reinstall, that's the only thing you need. And, as per 1- above, this download will always remain up to date in the future. This is what I was remembering (sort of!) ... you say you have 3.11, so presumably at some point bought v3.0?? What happens if you re-download that purchase, rather than the base game?

I *think* it is the case that if you log in to your account at BF and find your original order and use the link in that to re-download the file, you will now get the master installer ... as well as all new purchases, all existing / old orders have been changed retrospectively to give you a master installer download, even though that didn't exist when your original order / download was made. So, short answer is yes I think you can get the master installer ...

Darn it! There I was quite happy, having "ignored" Wiggum15's posts, and then I go and read one by accident when you quote it! I know, I know, the quote box says whose post it is ... I just wasn't paying enough attention. I blame too many mince pies (a Brit thing, sorry ...) I must be more careful in future, to avoid rudely dispelling my holiday spirit ...

Thanks for the update: a surprise present! Happy holidays to all at BF: hope you all get to take a good break from CM stuff ... or at least the "work" bit of it anyway ...

I would echo what the others have said about trying the all-in-one installer, then activating from that the parts you have using their keys. But ... in case you have problems downloading it (or, in some cases AFAIU, old - really old - license keys then *may* not work with the all-in-one to activate those parts you have), here is my "install list", from my folder structure where I've saved the various install files. Pick what you have from this list and install / patch them in this order *should* work ... 1 CMBN game v1.00 2 CMBN patch v1.10 3 CMBN plus CW module game bundle v1.10 4 CMBN plus CW module patch v1.11 5 CMBN plus CW module game update v2.00 6 CMBN plus CW module patch v2.01 7 CMBN MG module game v2.10 8 CMBN patch v 2.11 9 CMBN patch v2.12 10 CMBN upgrade v2.2 engine 3 11 CMBN vehicle pack and patch v3.10 12 CMBN patch v3.11 Hope this may be helpful!

CMH dropbox is here ... https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvh9sx2zla2k0eq/S6LZaVAw_7

Bf website for CMBN says: 1- every full version download will always be up to date from now on and always include the latest updates. No need to patch after purchase. And if you need to re-install at some later point, simply re-download your purchase and you will always have the latest version without the need to apply individual patches. 2- every full version download including a base game purchase, or the 3.0 Upgrade, now contains the full master installer for the entire family including all modules and packs. This means if you purchase just the base game, and later decide to purchase a module, you will not have to download anything at all! All you'll need is the license key from your purchase to unlock the module content which you'll already have! 3- we implemented this system retroactively for all 3.0 Engine Upgrade purchases! Your store download for that purchase now points to a full master installer, including all of the content for Normandy, updated to v3.11. If you ever need to reinstall, that's the only thing you need. And, as per 1- above, this download will always remain up to date in the future. So just to clarify on the v3.11 patch - point 3 above ... you get that automatically with either / both of the v3 upgrade or new v3 purchase ... I think the principle is that you always get the latest patched version with any purchase, so that you don't buy something and then immediately have to patch it to be current.

Thanks for this - yes, that does work. What I was missing was the "preview this thread" icon which appeared if you moused over the thread title, and let you preview the first, first unread and last posts ... helped me to see if the new content was "worth" looking at, and if not you could mark the thread read from there. I used that facility pretty well exclusively to read or mark threads, and it seems very odd now it's not there ... if indeed is is "not there" now rather than available in another way, which made me ask my question.

So ... is it just me missing something obvious (wouldn't be the first time ), but what's happened to the way to go straight to the first new post (i.e. unread by me) - as opposed to the first or last post - in a thread with new-to-me posts??

Thanks for this AAR: just found it, and eagerly read from beginning to latest post. IMHO it's a great mix of narrative (your thoughts / plans, and descriptions of the action) and really good screenshots, including the zoomed in insets. Just the right level of detail: enough to follow what's going on, without covering every step and second. Really good!

It's only one more person's view, and thus no more nor less important than that (and I entirely agree that there is no one right answer), but FWIW I tend to agree with Kinophile's general points ... and in particular the grouping of "Actions" buttons together, including the air/arty etc call buttons. True they are not movement calls, but then neither are some of the functions called up by the actions panel at the moment. It does seem better to me to group together in one place all the things that you may want a unit to do .... (I'm even tempted to propose that the arty etc call buttons should be made another selectable set within the actions panel, rather than permanently displayed separately ... they ARE important of course, but by how many units, and on how many occasions, are they used in a battle? Much much less frequently than normal move and fire orders, which you have to select to get at.) But I posted mainly because the discussion and options available made me want to ask / suggest if - when the UI gets some attention, which I think is on the cards? - the various UI blocks could be made user-placeable? Thinking of eg Excel - sorry! - where the copy and paste cell format button always does the same thing, but you can move it where you like on the menu bar ... Could we have blocks of UI buttons moveable within a set UI screen space? So that eg the playback "box" could be moved to the left hand side? Or even made to minimise out of the way until you need it? And Kinophile's placing of the arty/Spec Eqpt panel could be user selectable to where he has it? I reckon if Excel users can cope with the concept of user configuration, CM players can too ... As a further step ... eg for the (often empty) special equipment area ... have just one (small?) button in the unit info area that will bring a pop out box to show the items, to save screen space? As Steve (almost) said, there will be as many views of what is "right" as there are players (or maybe even more than!), but taking the opportunity to make the UI user configurable (within limits) seems like a "good thing" to me ...

I can recall quite a few instances of facing down a lone panther with my two Shermans, one of them a Firefly ... guess which of mine the Panther targets first? Yep, always plinks the Firefly first - even when, from a front on aspect, it shouldn't be *that* obvious which is which - leaving the 75mm armed Sherman to be finished off next at leisure. Definite threat priortisation taking place in my experience ....

FYI, I've opened a ticket and BF have already got back to me, but no solution so far ... I've done another turn whilst trying BF's first thought solution, but that left me with the same problem.

Thanks for the thoughts ... Yes, it is only this scenario which causes the problem with CMRT ... Will try disabling CMH; but I don't think it can be that tbh. CMH works by recognising that there is a new file in the outgoing email folder, and then follows the instructions as to what to do with it ... I don't see how it can (e.g.) "grab" that file before it is completely saved and so cause CMRT to think something is unfinished, etc etc ... CMH works fine with all CMx2 titles, and with all other battles in CMRT. And if this aspect was the issue, I don't see how the files would NOT become corrupted in some way, yet we both get playable turns from me letting it operate as normal. I'll do a ticket ...

Hi Ian, Thanks very much for researching this as a non-Mac user, and for the link. But I may have mislead you (and anyone else reading my post!) ... I was / am aware of the methods in the link: by "stuck" I meant not literally (as in a frozen machine), but figuratively as in a way to stop this happening each time I play this battle. The non-responsive copy of CMRT doesn't hang the machine (though it does stop it powering down normally), nor stop me from running any and all other apps - even another iteration of CMRT(!) - in that session. (Or not so far, anyway.) I just don't want to get to the point of needing to run Terminal and a Kill command each time I play this battle. And although it is based on little more than intuition, it doesn't seem like uninstalling and reinstalling CMRT will work either, given that, as I've said above, I can still run CMRT normally with any and all other scenarios, and the non-responsive state doesn't result ... it's only with this one battle loaded that the problem occurs. I'm thinking of opening up a ticket to see if Phil C can help with any ideas: but if my problem is literally unique then it may be hard to replicate and cure? Not to mention that he may not have the time!

Well, having played a few turns, sadly this has not gone away ... re my bold bits of your post: I have been and am waiting while the file saves etc; as I said above, the game is exiting nicely, and the saves are happening as normal, as CMH finds the files in outgoing email and puts them in dropbox, and you can evidently play them OK, so the file save is happening fully and properly. And re the "choppy and unplayable" bit: the turns play fine, and I have no problem in game, my machine handles them well in (I think) max settings. But I still get, after an apparently normal exit, an app that hasn't quit, won't force quit and won't allow the machine to be powered down normally. So ... I'm stuck!!!

Thanks for the thoughts / comments. I don't *think* it is a "time" thing: - if I save off a part turn, yes there is a wait (with an inactive screen) while the save takes place, but then the game nicely allows me to exit the battle back to the splash screen, and then hit "End" and exit CMRT. Surely I couldn't (shouldn't be able to) do this if the file was still being saved? - if I merely watch the previous turn replay and then quit, without saving anything, the same problem after quitting CMRT still arises. It's not as if I'm trying to "force quit" CMRT, nor close down the machine altogether, whilst CMRT is still working saving the file: CMRT alllows me - apparently! - to quit it as normal, which I'd have though would only happen after the system has done whatever saving of files needs to be done? Anyway, I'm going to try the "brute force" approach, and just save one or possibly a few more turns, and see if it "goes away" ...

Another voice to add to the chorus looking forward to this, sounds great: can't wait!

Hi guys, I'm playing this as the Russians with Frankster65 as the Axis: looks fantastic, but I'm having a technical problem: any advice? I'm playing on a Mac (iMac), which is operating normally in general and with all CM games including CMRT for other battles: just a problem with this battle. I can appear to quit the battle - with a part-saved turn - and CMRT normally ... but my Mac thinks CMRT is still running. (A "running app" icon in the dock.) I cannot force-quit CMRT (never known that before?), nor "soft" close down my machine: I can do other things, but it will not shut down normally from this state. I have to "crash" it by turning of the power "manually". Any ideas what is going on? I know it is a (very) large scenario, but the Mac has (should have) plenty of capacity, and will play the battle fine whilst it's open ... but the above happens each time this - and only this - scenario is loaded and closed??? For a three hour +/- battle, I don't really want to spend 180 turns over the next 6 months having to hard shut down my Mac after that day's installment of Der Ring. I think it's beyond my knowledge to work out how the scenario is making CMRT use my Mac such that CMRT doesn't close normally and it won't respond to the Force Quit command. Is there a way around this? Thanks in advance for any help, and apologies if the answer (or rather the question!) is really dumb ...

The link for the CMH downloads (Mac and PC versions: choose the right one!) is: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvh9sx2zla2k0eq/S6LZaVAw_7

How about .... You pick the unit you want to lead, and assign its movement method and waypoints as the "pattern"; You pick the second unit, either from its current position OR give it a waypoint at the distance behind the lead unit you want to maintain, then, with either the unit OR that waypoint active, click "follow" as an action for that waypoint, and you then are able to choose the (first) unit you want it to follow; Same set of waypoints and movement types as the lead unit are allocated to the following unit(s); Having been tagged as a lead unit, that waits (sort of a "passenger" command) until any / all "linked' units are at the waypoints from which their "follow" link was made; Once all followers are in place at their follow waypoints (or immediately, if you get them all in the right place first of all) the lead unit sets off, with all having the movement type you gave the first unit, and the gap distances are as you set them via the followers' waypoints that were set as the "follow" activate start point. You can then choose what gaps and movement type(s) you want for the column ... with the actions, gaps and movement types stored with units' waypoints? (All a bit hypothetical for me, as I find myself only rarely wanting to do this kind of thing, and am happy to set a string of "manual" waypoints, with pauses etc to (mostly!) avoid traffic jams.) More use to me would be the ability to call up the pathfinding routine for a route, from a specified waypoint for a unit to the end of its current path, and show the route that it will *actually* follow when you click go. This will hopefully end discovering that, to avoid chipping the zimmeritt on his nice new Panther, the driver refuses to squeeze between that tree and the house, where it *would* fit even if having a slightly detrimental effect on the tree, and instead pops out into the road in full view of the lurking Firefly ... The waypoints so calculated could either be accepted if OK, or abandoned and a new route chosen if that one would take you somewhere you don't intend to go.

No problem, glad you're up and running again. PBEM without CMH is now like going back to the stone age (well, sort of, you know what I mean!)

I read this as a - very good! - double entendre with regard to what is being hidden ...