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sttp

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Posts posted by sttp

  1. I think it's extremely likely that Steve is referring to CMx3. There is nothing else BFC could be doing -- no new module, no engine upgrade, not even a whole new title in the CMx2 series -- that would warrant that type of language.

    Steve had talked about Charle's insane programming workload over the last xx months. Nothing in CMx2 would likely be taking that much programming time. Plus there is now defense contract money coming into BFC. The engine is showing its age, despite still providing most of use with many hours of fun, so it's reasonable to surmise that the wargamers on this forum are not the only ones pushing for advancements. Plus... a few things said only a week or two ago in the "Is CMBS Dead?" thread might've revealed more than some people desired or noticed?

    It's fun to speculate about what the potential first CMx3 title would be.

    To me, yes, Normandy (or at least France '44), makes the most sense. CMBN is the company's most popular and highest selling CMx2 title for a reason.

    I am so, so ready to give BFC even more of my money!

  2. There's a lot of wishful thinking taking place in this thread from the small minority who want to see early WW2 content. How many times and ways do we need to hear BFC say that early war just isn't a wise use of their time and resources?

    Would it be profitable? Probably. Would it be less profitable than other things they could be doing? Definitely.

    The CMx2 engine is FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. At this point all new CM2 content feels like watching the same old play but with slightly different costumes and some upgraded props. It's a good and classic play, and I'll watch it as long as I must, but... it is the same old play.

    Every minute that core BFC staff spend on CMx2 is a minute they could have been using to develop CMx3.

  3. 6 hours ago, The_Capt said:

    As to “dead or alive”.  Well I think it will depend on CMx3 timelines.  If the new engine release before the war in Ukraine is over then it makes less and less sense to retcon back to CMx2.

    I am extremely curious about this language in particular!

    Honestly when I first saw that everything CMx2 related was going to 50% off on Steam, a small part of me wondered if CMx3 was maybe on the horizon.... I dismissed that thought, but this has just made it resurface!

    My wallet's right here, BFC, ready and waiting to throw more cash your way!

  4. Do we even know which current titles actually sell the best? Review numbers, the order the titles were released on Steam, tournament signups, etc., offer only a limited glimpse of the current situation, but apparently foregoing the release of the CMBS module is not going to be as financially damaging to BF as some seem to think.

    I've been on these forums for years (though I only play the WW2 titles, so not the Black Sea or Shock Force forums), and from what I've gathered it seems the WW2 titles -- Normandy, especially -- are still the best sellers, no? But I've always had the impression that Black Sea is not that far behind it.

    Which means that if Black Sea is "dead" (and I don't think it actually is, really) then it couldn't bode well for the rest of CM2.

    Well past time for CM3!!

  5. Thanks for all your work, Paper Tiger. I'm looking forward to giving a couple of these missions a play!

    Is anyone else having trouble getting to the individual missions / btt files? I can extract the campaign files just fine (using either the most updated version of Rokko's Uncam that I can find, or Mad Mike's tool), but the individual missions are not showing up in my scenario list even though the btt files are in the scenario folder... i.e., same procedure that's worked for so many other extracted campaigns.

  6. 6 hours ago, Paper Tiger said:

    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.

    Given the stellar quality of the original campaign, I am really looking forward to your new revisions! Like so many others, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Happy holidays!

  7. My first six months with the Combat Mission WW2 titles were almost definitely the highlight of my PC gaming life... and I started gaming a long time ago, like the Doom and Falcon 3.0 days in the early 90s, with DOS bootdisks, etc., and there've been several addictions along the way. CM was the most almost out of control addicted it ever got. 

    In fact, I remember taking a secret trip / vacation when I first got CM (2014/15 for me) and locking myself in a hotel room for eight days just so that I could play it constantly and scratch that overwhelming itch. It was bliss! Hope it's that for you as well.

  8. 1) Download Audacity.

    2) Set Audacity up so that it's recording your own PC's output. (Plenty of tutorials on this online.)

    3) Either play Squad or watch high quality Squad videos (or whatever original sound source you may choose).

    4) Hit record in Audacity.

    5) Stop the recording and save that large, raw file as a .wav file.

    6) Cut the larger .wav file up into smaller individual gunshot sound segments.

    7) Edit these new .wav files to remove clipping and to conform to CM requirements. (I'm not at my main PC at the moment, so don't remember these particular file characteristics off-hand. You can open one of the defaults to be sure. They are definitely mono though, not stereo, so there'll be a noticeable loss in sound quality at this step.)

    😎 Name these .wav file to match the CM sound files you want to replace.

    9) Put your new wav files into your Z folder. No need to mess with or move the originals.

    Tada!

    This is all actually way less cumbersome than it may sound. Once you do it a few times it becomes almost routine. You can even combine sounds / tracks in Audacity and start messing with the program's default effects to get some really unique and high quality gun sounds. The one thing I will urge is that you should avoid clipping at all costs. There's a volume war going on with many downloadable sound packs, and to be honest, as much as I respect the time that people have put into them, many of those downloadable sounds just don't sound so great if you're playing with high quality headphones, for example.

  9. 16 hours ago, WimO said:

    I have spent many hours combing through each scenario to try to remove the jumping flavor objects. There is no easy solution.

    Maybe this will help re: jumping flavor objects? Taken from a post I made a long time ago:

     

    So, after lots of testing (by creating grids of 64 water spigots per 8x8 meter action square, lol), I've now made more sense of how to accurately place flavor objects and keep them where I want them. Or at least predict where they'll end up after a reload of the 3D environment. The logic is apparently pretty straightforward:

    It seems that flavor objects just snap to the southwest corner of whichever 1 x 1 meter grid spot you place them on. So it's just that both grid coordinates are truncated, i.e. the decimal portion is just stripped away. A crate placed at, say, x=7.88 y=23.88, will just eventually migrate itself over to (7,23)... not to (8,24), even though (8,24) was much, much closer.

    If there's already another flavor object at (7,23), the new object will replace it.

  10. 5 minutes ago, Anonymous_Jonze said:

    As a copywriter, I feel you. But to be honest, a lot of what ChatGPT writes is ****.

    I can't refute that, and have definitely heard the same from several people. On the other hand, I was asking it questions about a narrow topic I happen to have a lot of expertise and experience in, and the bot's "knowledge" about it and ability to "explain" some esoteric concepts was really, really surprising... again, almost creepy.

  11. Can't edit my post, so I'll add:

    I just asked it how to place buildings and hedgerows within the mission editor, and it answered perfectly and with surprising detail and speed.

    I also asked it to recite the mission briefing for the US side in "Breaking the Line", and it listed it immediately.

    Finally, I asked it to list each objective and the number of points associated with each for a certain mission, and again, it did it perfectly.

    WHAT in the hell?!

    Now I'm not saying the things I asked are particularly useful, but it's interesting to imagine what else it could do if pushed to its limits.

    It's like I'm talking to Enterprise's computer in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

    Siri times 100!

  12. Have you guys tried to ask ChatGPT questions about Combat Mission? It's pretty amazing, and I have no idea how it could possibly access some of the specific information I asked about, like describe the map and units and objectives in the mission entitled XXXX. Not sure where or how it would find such information... almost like it's delving into game manuals, mission briefings, mission map layouts from the editor (unlikely!), or supplementary pdfs or something. It's super interesting and impressive, but a little bit creepy in some ways too.

    I was sorta skeptical and thinking of this thing as just a talking search engine or something, but it is so much more.

    I'll paste in just a short snippet of my "conversation" with it. (Not sure why the text of my questions isn't showing up, but it's pretty obvious from the context what I asked it.)

     

    Quote
    what are hte most popular combat mission battle for normandy missions?
     
     
     
     

    The popularity of Combat Mission Battle for Normandy missions can vary depending on personal preferences and playstyles. However, here are some of the most well-known and highly regarded missions in the game:

    1. "Red Thunder" - This mission is a German counter-attack against Soviet forces in the summer of 1944. It features a variety of tank and infantry battles and is known for its challenging gameplay.

    2. "Omaha Beach" - This mission puts players in the shoes of American forces landing on the infamous Omaha Beach on D-Day. It's a difficult mission that requires careful planning and execution to successfully capture the beach.

    3. "Crossing the Dykes" - This mission takes place in the Netherlands in 1944, as British forces attempt to cross a series of canals and dykes in order to advance on German positions. It's a challenging mission that requires a mix of infantry and armored tactics.

    4. "The Cauldron" - This mission is set during the Battle of Mortain in August 1944, as American forces attempt to hold off a German counter-attack. It's a difficult mission that requires a combination of defensive and offensive tactics.

    5. "Operation Martlet" - This mission is a fictional engagement between British and German forces in the Normandy countryside. It's known for its large-scale battles and variety of terrain.

    These are just a few examples of popular missions in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy. There are many more scenarios and campaigns available, each with its own unique challenges and objectives.

     
    saprintz@gmail.com
     
    can you mkae the list 25 missions long, and include missions only from Battle for Normandy and Final Blitzkrieg (including the addon packs Market Garden, Commonwealth forces, Vehicle Pack, and Battlepack 1)
     
     
     
     

    Certainly! Here is a list of 25 popular missions from Combat Mission Battle for Normandy and Final Blitzkrieg, including the add-on packs:

    1. "Red Thunder" (Battle for Normandy)
    2. "Omaha Beach" (Battle for Normandy)
    3. "Crossing the Dykes" (Battle for Normandy)
    4. "The Cauldron" (Battle for Normandy)
    5. "Operation Martlet" (Battle for Normandy)
    6. "Goodwood" (Vehicle Pack)
    7. "Missions for the Lazy" (Battlepack 1)
    8. "Blockbuster" (Commonwealth Forces)
    9. "Monte Cassino" (Market Garden)
    10. "Race to the Rhine" (Battle for Normandy)
    11. "The Last Victory" (Final Blitzkrieg)
    12. "The Sleeping Giant" (Battle for Normandy)
    13. "Panzer Ace" (Final Blitzkrieg)
    14. "Operation Charnwood" (Battle for Normandy)
    15. "Fire Brigade" (Commonwealth Forces)
    16. "Dead Man's Corner" (Vehicle Pack)
    17. "Sudden Fury" (Battle for Normandy)
    18. "Bloody Gulch" (Battle for Normandy)
    19. "Hell's Highway" (Market Garden)
    20. "Ghosts of Hatten" (Final Blitzkrieg)
    21. "A Quiet Outpost" (Battle for Normandy)
    22. "The Hedgerow Hell" (Vehicle Pack)
    23. "Devil's Hill" (Commonwealth Forces)
    24. "Hill 112" (Battle for Normandy)
    25. "Breaking the Line" (Final Blitzkrieg)

    These missions offer a mix of infantry and armored combat, along with a variety of objectives and terrain. They are among the most well-regarded scenarios in the game, and offer a challenging and immersive experience for players.

     
    saprintz@gmail.com
     
    what is the breaking the line mission aout, and what forces are involved?
     
     
     
     

    "Breaking the Line" is a mission in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg. The mission takes place in December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge. The mission involves the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division attempting to break through the German lines and advance towards the town of Krinkelt. The German forces are a mix of infantry and armor, including elements of the 12th SS Panzer Division.

    The mission takes place in a rural area with dense forests, hills, and open fields. The US player has a mix of infantry, armor, and artillery at their disposal, and must use them effectively to overcome the German defenses. The German player has dug in their forces and set up a series of strongpoints to defend against the US attack.

    The objective of the mission is for the US player to advance through the German lines, secure key objectives, and ultimately reach the town of Krinkelt. The German player must prevent the US advance and inflict as many casualties as possible.

    "Breaking the Line" is a challenging and immersive mission that offers a mix of infantry and armor combat, as well as a variety of tactical challenges.

     
    saprintz@gmail.com
     
    how about The Last victory?
     
     
     
     

    "The Last Victory" is a mission in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg. The mission takes place in March 1945, towards the end of World War II in Europe. The mission involves the German Army's 11th Panzer Division attempting to break through the US Army's 9th Armored Division and capture the town of Menden.

    The mission takes place in a rural area with open fields, wooded areas, and scattered buildings. The German player has a mix of infantry and armor at their disposal, and must use them effectively to break through the US defenses. The US player has dug in their forces and set up a series of strongpoints to defend against the German attack.

    The objective of the mission is for the German player to advance through the US lines, secure key objectives, and ultimately reach the town of Menden. The US player must prevent the German advance and inflict as many casualties as possible.

    "The Last Victory" is a challenging mission that offers a mix of infantry and armor combat, as well as a variety of tactical challenges. The mission offers a unique opportunity for players to experience the final days of the war in Europe, and the desperation and intensity of the German offensive.

     
    saprintz@gmail.com
     
    what is the map and terrain like in that mission. Are there towns and villages, or is it mostly open? Is the terrain mostly flat, or is it hilly?
     
     
     
     

    The map and terrain in "The Last Victory" mission is a rural area with a mix of open fields and scattered buildings, as well as some wooded areas. The terrain is mostly flat, with some gentle rolling hills in places. There are several small towns and villages located throughout the map, including the town of Menden, which is the ultimate objective of the German player.

    The terrain is fairly open in some areas, but there are plenty of opportunities for cover and concealment, especially in the wooded areas and around buildings. The open fields offer little cover, but they can be used for maneuvering and flanking the enemy.

    The map is relatively large, with a lot of room for maneuvering and flanking. There are several key objectives located throughout the map, including crossroads, bridges, and buildings that offer tactical advantages.

    Overall, the map and terrain in "The Last Victory" mission offer a mix of challenges and opportunities for players. The flat terrain and scattered buildings offer good opportunities for maneuvering and flanking, while the small towns and villages offer opportunities for close-quarters combat.

     

  13. On 2/13/2022 at 9:53 AM, Warts 'n' all said:

    Let's hope that it is better than the last battle pack.

    Wow... sorry, and I don't want to be perceived as trying to invalidate anyone's opinion, but this surprises me because I thought the first battle pack was amazing! It's so interesting how opinions can vary so widely. Expectations, maybe? It's definitely hard to be totally satisfied, though, when we have to wait so long between releases, no doubt about that.

  14. Divinci Resolve is a free and pretty good for movie making. Takes some getting used too, though.

    If you could somehow <cough> find an old non-subscription-based version of Adobe Premier Elements and then prevent it from trying to update, that would work well too, since those programs were (in my opinion) the perfect balance of power vs. ease of use.

    Excellent topic, btw! I look forward to the better advice that those here more experienced in movie making will surely soon be giving.

  15. 1 hour ago, Erwin said:

    have faithfully been buying products for the last 8+ years with the expectation that we would eventually be able to play the whole war as with CM1.

    I've seen them say a number of times that early war products just would not be profitable enough to justify the investment of time and labor, so I'm not sure how anyone who's been around the forums could say they have an "expectation" that early war modules would eventually be added. I feel like BFC has been pretty clear about it and some of you are just setting yourselves up for heartbreak.

    Oh well. Time to move on to CMx3 anyway, in my opinion. CMx2, as good as it is, is really starting to show its age.

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