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I'm talking about the issue discussed in this thread: Squads are not as "intertwined" as they used to seem in versions 3.0 and prior.

The issue where parts of a squad just randomly stay put, hundreds of meters behind the rest, has also not been fixed. Pretty ridiculous, and sounds like it could be related?

(All 3 links appear to be working now.) Really strange situation. Although I'd swear I've seen friendly bullet damage a few other times before.

It's a completely subjective conclusion, but one I can't shake. I'm talking about loading times into the main menu, and into the replay select screen, each of which used to seem significantly slower, based on (I assume) the number of mods or replays you had in those directories... but I'm also referring to scenario load times. Plus the scenario editor seems snappier, too. Is this just my mind tricking me, based on the fact that I'm so happy to be back into the game I used to love? Maybe. But the perceived difference in load times has really taken me by surprise a few times. I have so many replays in my CMBN folders, for example, that I used to be able to click on Replays, run to the bathroom for 2 minutes, and come back and have the file select menu still not loaded in. Seems better now.

Confirmed, and not mod-related (as I don't have any texture mods installed.) StuG IIIF and StuG IIIG (earliest) appear to be fine.

Thanks for these QB maps! Looks like I''m about to have a very good time with Moselle Village. Nicely done.

I think x.01, yes. I've only patched & played CMFI so far, and it says 2.01. (With "Game Engine ver 4" written underneath that). So I think every WW2 title should be beyond x.00 once it's properly patched.

Engine 4 patches are coming at some point for all titles. Engine 4 broke some really important things, and, truthfully, BFC apparently feels no great urgency in fixing them. (It's been 2 years and 4 months....) Only CMSF has the Engine 4 patch applied so far, so every other title is still waiting to see those Engine 4 fixes.

Yes!!! I'd like to second this. It would be so helpful.

Another view is to flip this around and ask why wouldn't they have been working on the patch this whole time? It's been 2 years and 3 months now since they broke some pretty fundamental parts of their own game -- broken to the point that many people can barely enjoy the typical stock scenario. And not just one title broken, but all of them. When the issues with v4 were first brought to light, I would have never believed that it'd still be almost literally years before we saw them fixed. Perhaps Battlefront needs to start actually paying more testers and content creators, in order to get things moving along, instead of relying on the generosity of so many volunteers? I've defended Battlefront and heaped praise on the game many times over the past 4 to 5 years, but at some point a customer's patience and good will just gets used up. "Niche market" is no excuse for a fix to the underlying game engine to have taken this long.

These issues, even though they're game-ruining for some players, have only existed for 2 years and 2 months now, so let's give Battlefront a fair chance to fix them. Testing is hard -- really ultra mega super hard, apparently -- and keep in mind that they're just a small company, and that this a is just a niche product. Why, we're lucky that the product even exists, or so I'm told. It would be unfair to expect any sort of urgency on their part.

I'm really glad it worked so easily for some of you guys. Me... not quite as lucky! I did a second install of CMFI, to a directory parallel to the original, hoping to run version 3 side-by-side with my current version 4. But when I try to run the CMFI executable from this new install directory, or if try to run the activation module, I get this message: "License Error. There was an error with your license. Please contact your vendor for assistance." I've had activation issues before, but that's one error message I've never seen. If anyone else has, and knows a quick fix, it'd be great to hear about it. I suppose I'll be opening a help desk ticket in the meantime.

Sorry to bother, but is there a master list somewhere of what people mean when they say "House Rules?" I sometimes read a bunch of forums (Battlefront's, A Few Good Men, The Blitz, Grogheads, etc.), and have seen several different lists. Two people could agree to whatever rules they wanted, obviously, but I'm not sure which rule set is most commonly accepted/expected. (After 4 years and $400 worth of CM titles, I may be about to take on my first human opponent. Very exciting... and scary.)

Does anyone know if it's possible to have two installations of CMBN running on the same PC, one at version 3.0 and the other at 4.0? I have a battle or two that were started on 4.0 that I can't lose access to, yet the thought of returning to 3.0's AI behavior is also very appealing. I assume I'd just need to start another install, point it to a different directory, then enter a bunch of serial numbers under the "Activate New Products" link? Is that all? Does the order you enter the addons' serial numbers matter? Would having two versions installed use up another activation and make the BF servers flag me as some kind of freeloading scuzzbucket, lol?! Digging up all my old purchase orders and then fighting the installer (again) sounds absolutely dreadful, but I do have the whole week off and I sure miss my WW2-era Combat Mission games. (I don't play the modern titles at all.)

Yep. It's now been two years since they broke their own game. Two years. You'd think fixing it would have been a bigger priority.

Hey, who's this guy?!?! Awesome to see you back here.

If you want a totally different environment from what you already have, I'd say go with Fortress Italy. It offers probably the most unique look and feel of all the WW2 titles, IMO. Plus lots of varying landscapes -- flat, to huge hills and mountains. Plus it has snow, if you want, like Final Blitzkrieg. Plus... CMFI base game also has tons of content. (It seems like there's more than the other titles, but I'm not positive.) CMBN would come in 2nd on my list, but the big determinant in enjoyment of that title is going to be whether a person likes the hedgerow style of fighting. It's very different. Maybe check out a few CMBN AAR's to see if that style appeals to you? I've gotta say though... you really can't go wrong with any of the WW2 titles. They're all a blast in their own unique way.

Or wait a sec... hmmmm... would that be 16 times the (theoretical) processing power that'd be needed? (4 times the number of action squares, with each testing LoS to 4 times the number of other action squares...? Or would it be something else? Any mathematicians here?!? Or I bet Charles would know!) I guess it doesn't really matter. Just calibrating my own expectations and keeping them in check....

Action squares every 4 meters instead of every 8 would be incredible. 4 times the processing horsepower would be (theoretically) needed, sure, but I think modern systems could handle that. Cannot WAIT for the day we've got a new engine in our hands!

A few weeks ago, the CMx2 ww2 forums went almost an entire day without a single post -- something like 20 hours with no new posts anywhere in the CMBN, CMFB, CMFI, or CMRT forums. So I'm wondering if discouraging new threads from new members just because those topics have been discussed before is really what we want here??? Yes, there've been tons of wishlist threads. However, in almost every single one there's a new feature suggested that no one had ever mentioned before. So, at least my opinion, these are pretty useful every now and then. It's possible, though, that it should be moved to the general discussion forum.

To add something more specific and CM-related to IanL's informative post: yes, it does at first seem like one AI change to the "trunk" of the tree should propagate across all 5 main titles. And I stubbornly thought this until maybe a few days ago.... Now I think about it this way: the AI coding would have to be slightly different for, let's say, those 10-person, un-splittable, ****tily-equipped Italian squads. The code which says "this is when you stay with your crappy 10-man squad" vs. "this is when you get out of Dodge" would have to be different than is found in other CM titles... because other CM titles do not have that force structure. So it's easy to see, based upon 'only' the composition of a formation, how the little bits of code pushing and pulling the pixeltruppen behavior would have to be tweaked separately for each game.

Looking at the "fresh" CMBN install folder I just made on a laptop, it appears that the 745 you mention is precisely the number of QB maps available through all CMBN modules and addons. (And some people say there's not enough content or replay value... ha!) All that you're most likely lacking are a bunch of community-made QB maps. There are many. And I'm sure that's where most of my extra 100+ come from. (That'd have to be the case, because I sure as heck haven't made any QB maps of my own!)

Thanks Ian. Some naming conventions have carried through the various modules, so... no help there. Here's the real problem: since the new installer and activation system were adopted, apparently all CMBN-ready QB Maps -- whether from the original title, or from a later module / addon -- are placed into your Quick Battles folder, whether you'll be able to use them or not, as soon as you activate base CMBN. (No biggie, but it did surprise me.) So now if you try to open, say, a Market Garden QB map but haven't activated that module, you get an error that says you must purchase Market Garden. Before this, I don't think the map would've even shown up in the directory, IIRC. And I did have to use up an activation to discover all this, but I guess that's no big deal. Bottom line, there doesn't seem to be a way to get a fresh, "pure" install of CMBN like we could have a year or two ago. I'm just gonna have to do the CMBN pdf the long(er) way, so it might take a bit. Thank you for your suggestions though. You're always quick to try to help people out.

My Quick Battle Maps folder for CMBN has almost 900 maps. Is there a way to tell which QB maps came packed in the original game, and which came from which particular module / addon? File date helps a little, but not as much as you'd think..... I'd consider installing the game on another laptop and taking note that way, but I'd hate to use up one of my limited number of installs just for that. Since there seems to be demand, what I may do is just release the CMBN version in pieces -- first with only the original game's QB maps, then uploading newer pdf versions as I add Commonwealth Forces, Market Garden, etc.... Thanks.

Thanks for confirming boekie.