sttp

I bought and external disk drive to connect to my laptop via USB.  Good to have one around.

Well add to the list that infantry by side of hedge didn't see a sherman pass by in the open 20 meters away...
Or a Shreck team set back from the bocage where a Sherman drove up the other side and saw the team 1st and blew it away...
Or a Squad of German infantry had a Sherman drive 10 meters away and decide that grenades would be pointless and then they got spotted and blown away by the same Sherman that then rocked up to the bocage. It stayed at bocage a few seconds blasting at my squad before it noticed the shreck team the other side of the bocage, all the while the shreck team was smoking dope...
Such is CM and I had forgotten all the $hit happens stuff after 10 years it is all flooding back...
The joys of CM

Operation Coup de Main campaign update.
Play testing has started on the campaign script.  I expect a few more months of work debugging. Recently had some time away to deal with creative burnout and work on some home renovations and furniture restoration. Back at the campaign now.

I think the issue that theres 0 attention focused on the rest of the forum. As said it does seem like Elvis is the only person reading the rest of the forum. 
Bugs get reported and are often completely forgotten about or just never read. It took years to fix the T-90 bug and it wasnt until the staff was really pressured. 

I believe, as we are all paying customers, and most of us I suspect have invested some hundreds of dollars here - can feel somewhat justified to provide some feedback of sorts.  Normally, well lead businesses will ask directly for feedback as part of their daily transactions.

Oh sweet Jesus I'm already planning on buying it, you don't have to keep selling it to me 

You'd be surprised. Creating content while a product is in beta does occur and can lead to some unforeseen problems and redos of aspects of scenarios as stuff under the hood changes. Known risk you take. Luckily, the general consumer doesn't have to worry about that.
Remember that BF only announces products once development is well into the pipeline. The Utah Beach Battlepack has been the exception as that was first announced basically around the same time as a green light for the project was given. There was nothing "in the editor itself" so to speak. Just design plans and research paperwork. I'd hazard a guess there would of only be some kind of announcement that the BP existed around now based on where we're up to.
There's also quite a few perfectionists behind the scenes trying to marry up the history with the tools and features available in the game engine. For example just for the Carentan campaign, I've tried to reflect all the units involved in the fighting and their relative strengths at specific points in the roughly two weeks of history I'm recreating. That's not a quick process to do right and try to validate sources. In the Carentan campaign you will command five different parachute/glider battalions plus add-ons at varying points. It's pretty big but you'll still probably be crying in parts if you know what you'll be throwing them  against.  I mean I could race forward and not care about historical accuracy at this point and have you pushing down Purple Heart Lane with a British Armoured Battalion because it would be 'cool', rather than a recreating the 3/502 of the 101st Airborne... but I think there maybe a few protests from the player base.

It was about 2 years total spent on active FR work. That was along with Covid interferences. The team for FR was far smaller, as well. The work done on FR speaks for itself.

I do wish that in the set-up phase there was an option to turn the set-up zone shading on and off (like objectives shading in-game).  I find it makes it much harder to assess terrain for setting forces up. 
I have not noticed a performance hit though I may check on that next time I set up a game.
And I do hope that with Engine 5 that BFC spends the majority of effort in optimizing game for newer hardware (e.g., make use of multiple CPU threads).  I hate the draw distance limitations on trees for example on the larger maps as an example.  Have an option to specify draw distances for users to accommodate all types of computer capabilities.

From my point of view you have these "official" BFC endorsed battle packs that are integrated into the DRM with a license key and such and make a small bit of money for BFC to do whatever. The guys who make them do a top quality job and have the BFC template briefings and I guess the proper playability in all 3 modes (H2H, vs axis AI and vs allied AI). These guys do it out of pride and loyalty to BFC and I guess do not get a sliver of the profits. I have no idea. None of my business.
In my 2 cent opinion, I think BFCElvis is the only real productive member of the BFC team. He is on top of so much and can be on the Golf course and handle an issue with somebody. I THINK he is the guy who mails/mailed the old hardcopy CD-ROMS and booklets. I think. Steve is 24/7 manning the Ukraine Thread working on his PhD thesis for post-war exploitation and sales of BFC training products such as "CM Pro" or whatever it is called. Charles works 60 hours a week according to Steve. Maybe we'll see the fruits of Charles's efforts at some point. Picture in picture drone video? Flares? Jack in the box turret explosions? You got me. I do sincerely wish BFC the best of success. 
I am obviously disgruntled to some degree because BFC doesn't do what I personally want. That is life. I moved on and try to extract the maximum joy out of the game.

 

I'm not paid by the hour but I'm comfortable. Job is also quite a bit more secure than those type of casual/contract arrangements. Sadly, when you get to my level it's really no longer a 9 - 5 type of job. I also don't get overtime but time off in lieu at a ratio of 1:1 in hours so it's paid back eventually once there's a bit of slack in the work coming through. You aren't working more hours for less pay is what I'm getting at. There have been times where I've been owed effectively two additional weeks off at a point in time on top of annual leave due to overtime.
It's good to get payback after years of career progression but I'd drop it all in a heartbeat if I won lotto and could become a 'full time' wargamer and hobbyist with less cares in the world.  There's quite a few GMT made hex wargames I'd love to set up an play through over the course of many weeks. Would also drive my partner nuts.  

We appreciate you and all the content creators for this game.
We're very blessed to have such talented, dedicated people.

There's an entire (rather ridiculous) thread on the Ukraine situation in the CMBS sub-forum. For the love of god can we please keep that stuff over there?

Yes.  
Please be aware that the Battle Packs are led and being made by volunteers who have day jobs/mortgages/bills/significant others etc. I can't speak for the others, so maybe they have less demanding jobs, are retired or have secretly won the lottery and are living an Armchair General's paradise I'm just not sure.  Just please be aware we aren't employed by Battlefront working full time on content creation.
The first half of this year virtually nothing progressed because of my real life work skyrocketed, dominating my waking hours. If you can pull a 10-12 hr work day five days a week and then back that up with an additional few hours a night in the editor let me know.   Progress jumped ahead as I took much needed extra time off work in August. Two of three planned campaigns are now in the testing phase. My own testing for my vision of the Carentan campaign also didn't play out as expected. It just wasn't fun. I had to rejig that. It all just takes time.
Maybe I'll be able to post a bone or two soon.
I keep @BFCElvis in the loop on developments as they occur.
My personal secretary trying to keep my life balanced and on schedule, seen here looking up at my monitor trying to work out the differences between a StuG III (mid) and StuG III (late).

I dream of what Combat Mission could be like when it will have a new engine worthy of the name.

Some news: work is going on very well 👍
Part 1 of the "Five Bridges Campaign" is running its test as betaversion and the whole campaign will start its final testrun within the next 3 weeks.
Special thanks to all testers 🙏
 
Regards 
Mr.X

„Tiger Trail“ Campaign (17 missions) and „Into Hell“ Campaign (8 missions) are now running through their final Beta testing 👍🏻
Big thank to the Testers 💪🏻
 
But I need more volunteers 😎
Within the next 2 weeks, the first part of the „Five Bridges“ Campaign, including 4 missions (middle sized to large) will be ready for the final test run. So, pm me, if you like to play these 👍🏻
 
Regards 
Mr.X
 

Two new videos are available:
And this one, the detailed destruction of buildings is impressive:
 

I hope this succeeds, as Combat Mission's in a rut, and competition drives innovation. The 'heroic, yet doomed' vibe is strong here, even though Combat Mission is also programmed by one man. Charles may be exceptional, but also an example of why small dev teams aren't automatically doomed to fail (see Seven Years War and Grand Tactician). There's not much game there yet, but in what little we are shown I reckon this new game already has better graphics and camera controls than Combat Mission, addressing two of the most glaring weaknesses in the series. That's not going to dethrone the aging Combat Mission from the top of the sparsely populated tactical wargame genre on it's own, but it's a fair start, isn't it?
Oftentimes in this forum I see comments along the lines of 'we don't want to forfeit gameplay in the name of graphics' as if the two things cannot exist together. It's a slippery position to take, and I reckon done so in defense of Combat Mission, which looks old. I think you can have both. And while I also am one that prefers gameplay over graphics -- I play Combat Mission as proof -- there's no escaping the fact that CM looks twenty years old.
But even if we ignore graphics, Combat Mission has changed little in all that time. The AI isn't really AI, the editor is curmudgeonly, the camera and controls are clunky, the campaign system is too basic, the update and transaction processes are archaic and the way content is generated too trying. I don't want Combat Mission surpassed necessarily, after all I've been playing since the CMBO demo, I want it to kick in to gear, address the weakness, innovate and modernize.
A successful competitor is not automatically going to affect the course of Combat Mission. Steve and Charles have their vision, which they've done well with. They may want to stay the course. CM is a great game. I'm a fan. An increasingly disillusioned fan, but one nonetheless. There are things CM handles better than other games (spotting, ballistics, command and control). What I hope is that those core strengths can be married to modern conventions and conveniences and if an upstart competitor is the catalyst for this change that's a win for all of us.

I wish him the best of luck in his ambitious pursuit, and look forward to checking his game out should he manage to make it. He's trying to do something with his life, and as a creative I think it's admirable. At least he is putting the best of the genre, CM, as his mark to strive for in his inspiration.

Yes, it is entirely reasonable to expect a WIP game with no release date should be fully functional today.

Oh yeah please!
Looks like the Ukraine thread is just overflowing ... 😡

There's an entire (rather ridiculous) thread on the Ukraine situation in the CMBS sub-forum. For the love of god can we please keep that stuff over there?

Here is a list of scenarios completed to date but not yet integrated into campaign. I have not yet determined if and how any branching results will be included . The current scenarios are different from the ones already uploaded due to new and more complete information. They will be released as free-standing scenarios at the same time as the campaign is released because the free standing scenarios will differ slightly from 'unpacked' campaign scenarios. The first scenario will have a choice between an 'easy' historical option in which the Germans were caught completely by surprise or a 'more challenging 'What If?' variant where the Germans have been alerted that the invasion was imminent and are standing to. Players will choose which path to follow.
Coup de Main v2 (historical): The coup de main assault on the bridges by the British Airlanding troops.
Coup de Main (What If? variant): As above but the Germans at the bridge are on Alert Level II.
Tracked Vehicles Approaching: The first German response to regain the bridges.
7th Para Moves Up: 7th Para moves through the Oxf and Bucks to expand the perimeter at the canal bridge.
First Contact in Benouville: As "A" Coy moves into position they encounter scattered Germans
A Brief Encounter (Le Port): A column of German vehicles wants to pass through Le Port.
9 Platoon Patrol: 9 Ptn B Coy is sent west to patrol the end of the wooded spur.
Panzers vs Paras (work in progress today, revising large scenario): Benouville heats up - seriously.
An Argument Over T (completed but will be revised): The enemy has penetrated through to the T junction above the bridge.
 
Not yet started ....
Crisis in Benouville: "A" Coy is surrounded, the Germans are in the school house and the Mairie and still control the northern half of Le Port. All the troopers of "A" company are either dead or wounded. "B' Coy has been bled badly and "C' is scattered. It's DO or DIE.
Pipers and Snipers: If you survived the crisis .... time for some mopping up in Le Port
Well Done Lads!: Finally relief in the form of elements of British 3rd Infantry up from Sword Beach.
 

NIne out of possible twelve scenarios almost completed. Two might be dropped due to lack of interesting subject matter. Had to modify a few scenarios based on newly acquired information. Spending last few days writing and rewriting a complex AI script for a large and long German attack on a complex map. The thought came to me today that scripting a large AI plan is like creating the coreography for a theatrical production. Every new impulse demands another play test to check the timing and effect.