Derfel 2nd

Well Gentlebeings, I have taken the plunge, some hours ago I upgraded to Win 10, and I'm relieved to say that the 4 horsemen seems to have gone back to the paddock. Everything CM works just fine (ok, I haven't tried the scenario editor yet, but apart from that). Thank you for info and support, I hope those who choose to go down this path have an equally smooth ride. Peace be to you all, Derfel

People, I am deeply grateful for the info above, have decided to push the migration forward a week or so (all that's possible due to the fact that my home computer is also occasionally used for work stuff) in order to see if there are more grains of wisdom to be had before the plunge. IanL; I had to install, remove and re-install at least *nine* times before I got he whole shebang working after changing computers back in early '14. I left my youth, sanity and a good deal of bodily fluids on that particular battlefield... The helpdesk wasn't very forthcoming either I think I'm still waiting for answers from them... luckily the forum was there for me so it all worked out. Just a few months later Bf released the installers... Gnorffy; listen to Hister! Really. Those installers are, comparatively at least, a thing of beauty, I was the one who took Hister's list (there's a movie in that sentence) and with a few additions published it on the main forum in order that others might keep their sanity when trying to re-install all the various games, modules and patches and I say to thee; 'Use the efffing installers!' Also disturbing to hear that your Win 10 took exception to CM, hope it works out, very grateful if you let us know anything useful about why and how to avoid it. Peace be unto you all and your ilk, if any, Derfel

Dear Fellow Beings, As I write this I feel the walls closing in and clopping hoves of the four horsemen... In a day or three I will migrate to the new Windows 10 OS and I have misgivings, so many misgivings, but it must be so, I just wanted to ask if any here can answer the following: 1. According to Microsoft I won't have to re-install any software (in this case the CM family of games and modules), I rather doubt this, anybody know if this is so? 2. If I DO decide to re-install is there any way to check how many (if any) reactivations I have left beforehand on my various games and modules? I own the lot so if I have to re-buy it will be rather costly. 3. The new installers that BF released a year ago, will they work with Win 10? Well I mind the insanely complicated procedures necessary for installing (and re-installing in particular) before them, I would rather not go thru that again... Any and all info is greatly appriciated! Regards, Derfel

Greetings Fellow Beings, I have just submitted a new scenario to the repositary "Byte Rat Race", and since I have attempted to do something just a little different I would very much appriciate any feedback. Description: Nazi war criminals have escaped from detention and are are fleeing for the German lines. You are in charge of an American Cavalry Troop tasked with returning the refugees, dead or alive. Beware of taking the chase too close to the enemy lines though, your unit is not an assault force. The scenario is intended to be fast and easily played (though not necessarily easily won). I have used a slightly modified Pete Wenman's magnificent 2x2 map and put in a deal of effort in making it replayable, but depending on the feedback I intend to do quite a bit more. Byte Rat Race should appear in the Commonwealth section of the repositary as soon as the auto preview is done, if any of you would like it emailed instead notify me here and I'll send you a copy. Regards, Derfel

Great Stuff! Agree with para; this really should have been in MG at the outset. //Derfel

Heheheheh! Howsabout "Mulligan I SAID THREE MINUTES!" Achivement Award for pounding your own troops with arty? //Derfel

Ah. Excellent! Thanks, Mate! Regards, Derfel

Yay! Exactly what I was looking for... BUT... ARRRGH! DISASTER! TREASON! TO ARMS! Your description doesn't match the content of the rar.archive. In fact even the preview is different. (see attached file). In brief, the machineguns are missing. HOW! I say HOW can I go on playing CMFI with this DISASTER.... --------------- OK, so if you get a chance I would appriciate the complete update. Your mods are the absolute first thing I hand over to new players and all agree they are completely awsome. Regards, Derfel

ASL Vet; Yeah, that's true. In this particular case I just put the arrival location for the reinforcements a bit further back from the front and had them flanking left or right or moving straight forward depending on the A.I plan. Regarding mixing reinforcing units with starting units, been there, done that, annoying as hell before you realise what's wrong. (Move you b*strds, MOVE! Why don't you... oh...) //Derfel

Gents, Thanks for the replies, it seems I wasn't completely off target. Now that I know the limits it's just a matter of working around them, one thing that can be done is to introduce your "reinforcements" at the start in a hidden location (a big hole in the ground for example) and set an order not to move until late in the mission, or better yet by a trigger. Then you can vary the location depending on the A.I plan by having several hidden locations. Regards, Derfel

Greetings All, I have been fiddling around with the editor for some days trying to solve a problem that I now think is actually a limitation in the A.I plans. In a nutshell I wanted to create a scenario with a good deal of replayability so I decided to put in a number of A.I plans with as much variation as possible. One of the things I wanted to do was to have reinforcments arriving at different location depending on which A.I plan was in use. This it seems is not possible; no matter how carefully planned and located, the reinforcing units *always* turn up at the place where they where first deployed when purchased. I find this mildly annoying (insert supressed oaths here) but there are of course a few work-arounds involving rapid movements after arriving depending on the A.I plan but before I start working on these I just wanted to check with you lot. Have I got this right, the reinforcements are constrained to one arrival location regardless of A.I plans? Or am I just being stupid? (personally I'd say it's a fifty - fifty chance either way) I would appriciate any input on this. Derfel

Hi, Here's the link: http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=3472

Greetings, As the repository stubbornly refuses to publish the usual "New File at the repository..." info, I decided to make a little announcement instead. So here goes: Raid on Falkennest! This is an adventure scenario in the tradition of "The Guns of Navarone" and "Where Eagles Dare"; i.e. not historical at all. You're given command of a small elite force of airborne troops and tasked with attacking a Top Secret Nazi Research Facility. The stakes are high, the clock is ticking, the enemy severly evil and... well, you know; the usual... Playable as Allied single player only. This scenario requires the Module "Commonwealth Forces". I have used this scenario as a training tool to get to grips with the new A.I functions in the Editor, my intention is to uppdate it with further A.I plans and triggers once I get a little feedback. Now available for download from the repository in the Combat Mission: Commonwealth Forces section. Any and all feedback welcome. Thank you for your attention, you may now return to your regular activities. -Derfel

So final word on my adventures with the vehicle pack. After un-installing everything CMBN I followed my own procedure (see separate thread) and strangeness ensued... The Game consistently refused to recognize my activations keys from 3.00 and onward... BUT... after trying them all, suddenly I could access the game with all modules and upgrades... So; I don't know what to tell you, except a message for the guys at BF; There has GOT to be a better way! I also found that the turn-based H2H mode, great as it is to have it back, is a little unstable, frequently one computer will stop and the other continue. Really hope this can be fixed as turn-based H2H over LAN is my/our absolute favorite way of playing this game. Now I'm off to build a Byte Battle between Crab Tanks and AVREs.

Blimey, forgot to comment on that. Sympathies mate.

So final word (and a bit of a bump if there's still people who might need a little help with the activations) on my adventures with the vehicle pack. After un-installing everything CMBN I followed my own procedure and strangeness ensued... The Game consistently refused to recognize my activations keys from 3.00 and onward... BUT... after trying them all, suddenly I could access the game with all modules and upgrades... So; I don't know what to tell you, except a message for the guys at BF; There has GOT to be a better way! I also found that the turn-based H2H mode, great as it is to have it back, is a little unstable, frequently one computer will stop and the other continue. Really hope this can be fixed as turn-based H2H over LAN is my/our absolute favorite way of playing this game. Now I'm off to build a Byte Battle between Crab Tanks and AVREs.

Greetings all, As I understand that others besides myself have found the re-activation procedure somewhat bothersome I thought I'd share a procedure that actually worked. Possibly it will for others. It's based on a tip from forum member Hister, I've just added a few things. The pack needs a working 3.00 install to start with. 1. Install Vehicle Pack via Setup.exe (includes v3.10 update) 2. Launch CMBN 3. Press Activate & use 3.00 key (DOES NOT USE UP ACTIVATIONS per BF) 4. Quit. IMPORTANT! As you value your game and your sanity; do NOT launch the game from the activation screen! 5. Find Activate Modules Shortcut it's either on your desktop or in the CMBN Start Menu folder 6. Click on the shortcut; you will now be requested to give the Activation Key for CMBN. Ignore this. What is needed is the activation key for the module (Market Garden, Commonwealth, Vehicle pack) you want to activate. Input this. 7. You will now be told that you have successfully activated CMBN. In fact you will get six little icons that say the same thing. Ignore that too and close the screen. Do NOT launch the game from this screen either! 8. Repeat step 7 for each module you want to activate, I think the best thing is to activate the vehicle pack last, but that's just a guess. Or use Big Bundle Key to activate CW & MG modules if you bought the Big Bundle. 9. Close down the activation screen. As stated above do NOT try to launch the game from the activation screen! 9.b A restart of your computer might be a good idea at this point, possibly unnecessary... 10. Start the game normally. I used this procedure on my second computer, (Kudos to BF for allowing two installs by the way) and it worked. On the other computer I tried to lauch the game after installing the Vehicle pack and the whole thing went pearshaped. Now when I start the game I get a a locked black screen with the logo for the Vehicle pack at the bottom. Next I will un- and re-install CMBN including upgrades and modules, the try to reactivate the whole kit and kaboodle using the above. So, as they say; here goes nothing...

Thanks Mikey but; Oh yes,, I Always try that old stand by. Being an old PC user and all..

...I'd like to see a DRM system that actually works and not just mucks up things for the paying customer... So I happily pay my 20 bucks for the vehicle pack. I activate the game as ordered after som confusion as it says to use the code I recieved when I bought CMBN... turns out that's not actually the case, it's the code I recieved when I bought CMBN version 3... oh well... So input the key and activate... seems to be working... but it's not.. when I start the game I get a black screen with av very small symbol at the lower end (looks like a AT vehicle). And that's it. Thats what I got for my 20 dollars. An unusable game. Well, maybe it's the module activation thats lacking. So I click on the shortcut. It wants my code for CMBN. Aha, fool me twice etc. I enter the CMBN 3.00 code... inacurate... hmmm... try the original key; nope. Try any and all keys I have ever recieved; modules upgrades etc... nope... So; nicely played DRM. You won again.