sttp

I see what you mean, but: The thing about intelligence is that we humans can't even properly define how our own intelligence works. So it is a bit ... preposterous to claim that something doesn't have intelligence. Anyway, if we don't believe in magic, the human brain doesn't work all that different. You have learned a big bunch of parameters from a dataset ("experience") and produce output based on the input (external stimuli) and the parameters (your neurons). So it is really, really hard to define where intelligence starts. Biologically the brain of a mouse is not very different from a human. Is it intelligent? What about a fish? What's more, we are not that far from where chatbots pass the Turing Test consistently (ChatGPT did it at least partly, i.e. with some testers). At that point, meaning when you can't decide whether there is a human or a machine sitting on the other side, you have no way of telling if it is artificial "intelligence", artificial intelligence or real, human intelligence - and what it all means because you have no way of knowing what is going on inside the skull of another human being. Sorry for the philosophical monologue. 😉
About the more practical stuff: Suppose you are looking for an algorithm to solve a problem. In order to get a good answer from google you usually need to know how the algorithm is called or at least the class of algorithms it belongs to. Which, very often means you start blind and maybe you get lucky by randomly given it the right search phrases. Yes, technically ChatGPT is a chat bot but a chat bot which you can give a problem statement in natural language, just as you would a colleague. And it will then tell you which algorithm you can use to solve it, explain the algorithm, give you python code and discuss how to modify it if you have special wishes. Try that with google. True, it doesn't always give you the right answer or working code, but more often than not you at least know where to look further or which questions to ask. Try that with your average colleague. 😄

Well, it is the old glass half full or half empty question. As someone working in this field, let me assure you this is ground breaking. Of course ChatGPT is far from perfect. But compared with what chat bots could do 10 or just 5 years ago it is amazing. And this is only the beginning of what seems to be possible with these new Foundation models.

Not just halftracks, but all AFV CE in general. They are far too easily picked off by just one or two rounds of infantry fire. I suspect the modifier for that situation is not as restrictive as ASL's +2 was, and it needs to be!

These arguments sound more like pretext than real arguments… 🤔

I thought with CMBN out on Steam, it would be a good idea to make a video geared towards new players in order to help out with the basic gameplay.

do you think there's any chance that we might get some battles in cassino /town/? we've hade batles and campeigns on the hills around cassino and the mountain itself, but what about the fight for the hotel continental area, or the battles for the train station and the hummocks?   i know, prolly not, but it would be nice>
 
cheers,
rob
 

I decided to create a new topic for this because "tool to set elevation in the editor" is no longer really a good description. Finally (from my perspective 😉) I managed to release version 2.0.0 of CMAutoEditor.

https://github.com/DerButschi/CMAutoEditor
Woah, Butschi, wait a minute CMAutoWhat? What the hell are you talking about? CMAutoEditor is a tool that takes "external" data, like elevation, and automates clicking in the CM scenario editor. This way it kind of works around "missing features" in the editor. Wouldn't it be nice to import something like a heat map instead of clicking elevations in the editor? Of course I can't change the editor but by letting CMAutoEditor do the clicking it does something similar.

 
Version 2 is really a major update as it now includes importing data from OpenStreetMap. This way you can basically use CMAutoEditor to create a whole map for you.
Still, feature creep and being overly ambitious is certain to kill such a small project so I had to triage what makes it into this release and what (maybe, provided there is enough interest on your side and enough time on my side) gets postponed to a later update.

The cut affecting most of you is that for this release only CMCW is really supported. The reason is that there are differences in what is in the scenario editor for each CM title. That means not only are there buttons at different positions but there are also different buildings, roads, flavour objects etc. which need to be programmed as a "profile". I intend to modify CMAutoEditor in a way that the community can help with that but I am not yet sure how best to do it. So, for now CMCW only. CMBS should work for everything but flavour objects.

Another thing I had to cut is support for Windows version older than Windows 10. I know, there are quite a few of you around who still field Windows 7. However, python is only supported up to version 3.7 on Windows 7 and a few of the libraries CMAutoEditor depends on require python 3.10. In addition, I don't have a farm of PCs idling at home where I can test different Windows version so I can really only develop for Windows 10. Sorry for that but maybe this doubles as a friendly reminder that nowadays Windows 7 is a security liability and you should upgrade to Windows 10 or 11. 😉
There is of course a long list of things I'd like to improve eventually and given that this is a rather complex piece of code the chances that it is free of bugs is close to zero. So, feel free to contact me here or on github if you find something!

Now, with all the caveats out of the way let's move on to the more pleasant stuff. 🙂 What's new in version 2? Well, of course OpenStreetMap data. You can import forests, rivers, roads, streams, railways, farmland, grassland, bushes, buildings and even bus stops, wayside crosses and much more. I improved the tools to import DGM data so that now arbitrary rectangles can be extracted. The information from this can be loaded into the OSM data converter so that you don't have to manually enter bounding boxes. (The geotiff tool is unfortunately among the things that didn't make it for this release so you are left with the previous capabilites). CMAutoEditor itself is now also much faster. Please note, that it may be too fast for what your PC can handle. If you experience "holes", e.g. when setting the elevation, that means the CM Editor is not responsive enough. I will make the parameters that determines the rate of clicking selectable from the GUI in a later update. Last but certainly not least there is a GUI for all the tools, so no more going to that evil shell, typing commands - kudos to @Dawntaker for supporting me with GUI making!

One more thing. I won't repeat the mistake and not have a manual or tutorial video ready at release: Since my previous tutorial video is now totally deprecated I am doing a new one. This time, instead of just telling you what the different features do, I'll do a step-by-step tutorial in four parts where I will create an actual map. This way I will certainly miss a few features but you should get a better feeling of how to actually use the tools in reality. Part 1 is finished already and it covers "installing" (i.e. downloading the .exe files) CMAutoEditor, installing other necessary tools, selecting a location for the map in map.army, finding and downloading elevation data, downloading OpenStreetMap data and getting historical aerial imagery and working with it. So, basically the boring stuff, some of you might say, but possibly the most important part. 😉
In the future I'd like to adapt CMAutoEditor to one of the WW2 titles, I think CMFB or CMRT would be best. Obviously present-day OpenStreetMap won't do for that. So, instead I'd like to make another tutorial showing how to use and old map or aerial image to make "OpenStreetMap data" from scratch and feed it into the CM scenario editor. Drawing polygons and tagging them is still - in my view - much more comfortable than clicking in the editor with some semi transparent overlay. So, if you have good material, go ahead and make a suggestion here. 😉
I hope you enjoy this new version of CMAutoEditor and the tutorial video(s)!

So, the meagre improvements since Red Thunder was released 9 years ago are the result of 60+ hour weeks? Yikes.

I wish Battlefront no harm, quite the opposite frankly. But we all saw what a driving force competition can be when AMD finally released competitive CPUs. I am no liberalist when it comes to economics but Jesus did we all prosper from that competition. Just the kick in the *** Intel needed so badly. This only translates roughly to the video game sector, especially the wargaming niche, but a recent example would be the release of Regiments and it seems to have exerted at least some pressure on the developers of Warno. At the end of the day, I can't say if Combat Mission can be rivaled in the foreseeable future. Despite its apparent dated-ness, CM still has a 25 year long headstart.
All that being said, I remembered a post from Reddit from last year. Apparently the guy is still working on it. And apparently the it's also a guy working from his garage, hahaha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZZi3x8VdKE

I will echo others in wanting a reiteration of this explanation. No one else in the CM-focused circles I hang out in seems to have any bloody clue why a replay feature would not be "commercially viable," not even the ones who hang around in the forums a *lot.*
There is, in fact, reason to believe that a replay feature would be a massive shot in the arm for the CM community. It would definitely reduce the work on content creators like Usually Hapless and Grey Fox. Heck, I might even consider some CM videos if I had one big replay file/vid I could use instead of loading dozens of PBEM files and sitting through the loading screen each time.
I mean...what could the explation possibly be? The replay function plainly exists, it works, and commercial customers want it. So...???????????????????????

This mirrors my thoughts almost exactly. Problems in the game last for years without being addressed, both gameplay and technical, and nothing ever seems to move forward. Even the new content seems lesser these days (CMRT, CMBS, and CMCW seem to have the same list of quickbattle maps, more or less.). Hell, I posted about the T-90 issue in CMBS 9 months ago, and finally heard a month ago that it was fixed and we would see it "very soon". Well, very soon has been a month so far, and now it seems like maybe there are months left to go. Not that it matters, without some sign of life from Battlefront, I doubt I can convince any of my friends to turn up for another CM2x game. This copy paste of last year's status update has not helped. Seeing features for the Professional version that have been wanted for years veto'd from ever seeing the light of day on the commercial version is especially demoralizing. 
 
Battlefront seems to be a company with the output capacity of a single guy in his garage, but the agility of a company with 50000 employees. It's frustrating.
I will disagree here. There is nothing wrong with OpenGL for an older game. I wouldn't recommend it for new projects, but it is still strongly supported in Windows environments, and some top quality games run great with it. You just had to have implemented it correctly, or if not, kept up with maintenance when your spaghetti code breaks down with new driver updates. As for Apple support, nothing can really be done about that. Apple has always been willing to pull the rug out from under customers and developers with little notice.

That's profoundly disappointing. The reason I know about CM and bought the games is due to AAR videos on youtube created by the likes of @Hapless
I've created my own videos in a similar style, and it is an incredibly time-intensive task to load and reload saves in order to create recordings. The replay feature present in CMPE would make life an awful lot easier for people like me to create videos. I recently made a video which contained 11 minutes of footage, and it took approximately 3 hours to record and edit it, without any attempt at music or voiceover.
Making it easier to review game footage  would allow more videos to be made, which would then reach a wider audience and create additional revenues for you at zero cost beyond the implementation of the existing CMPE replay feature into the commercial games.
For PBEMs, the save files already exist in the incoming and outgoing email folders. Why not make use of them?
@Hapless

I hope that this is taken in the spirit in which it is meant - CM may just need a reasonable competitor in order to push the series forward.
We all enjoy and appreciate the effort that is put in by BF. We would not be here otherwise. It is unfortunate however that CM is resigned to years of semi-releases and updates rather than the great leaps forward that I think we would all appreciate.
The gulf in the trajectory between OpenGL and DirectX have been there for all to see for decades now. Unfortunately it doesn't really hold water to say that it's a surprise that development is limited by not taking a decision to re-engineer the engine in DirectX years ago.
The new modules, battle packs etc are all well and good, as are the steam releases, but I can't think that I am in a minority who would sacrifice significant releases for a period for the knowledge that a new engine was being created, with current technology, which would allow an even more realistic experience. Much less talented game designers are out there creating games which, given the 'CM Treatment' would solve a lot of the on-going issues which cause issues with the current experience.  I realise BF aren't a tripe A developer, but it's not as though we see a new release every year anyway. And they have moved to a different engine before.
At the moment the competition is either too 'gamey' such a Regiments for example; or like Mius Front, has a UI which is totally unintuitive. Both things which CM excels at. Then we have Squad Battles by John Tiller for example which are great games but very abstracted given they are trying to emulate Squad Leader. Even Second Front which I had high hopes for looks like a cartoon and I can't take it seriously. 
Anyway - I'm going to keep playing the games because there's nothing better, and therefore little incentive to update the system. Perhaps I'm part of the problem.

He sent me this when my little border collie died....
Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten year old Irish wolfhound, named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa and their little boy Shane were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer.
I told the family there were no miracles left for Belker and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog. Ron and Lisa told me that they thought it would be good for the four year old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.
I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few moments, Belker slipped away peacefully. The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion.
We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.” Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I had never heard a more comforting explanation.
He said, “People are born so that they learn how to live a good life – like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The four year old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

I have always marvelled about people being so opposed against something they don't need to have anything to do with in the first place. If you don't want Steam and think it is full of bugs or runs worse on Steam (superstition anybody?), then don't use it. After all, you got the Steam key for free. But this slightly condescending look on the new kid on the block (Steam was established in 2003...), gets a tad ridiculous.
Now for the reason why the Steam releases are actually a good thing and to answer OP's follow-up question quoted here in the beginning:
 
Subjective Reasons
1. For me, and as I explained in my first post, a big plus is that Steam offers regional pricing and sales. For me the bargain might be not that great but for people who live in countries with a weak currency or ridiculous inflation, Steam's regional pricing is a godsend (Turkey, Argentina).
2. I can track my playtime. I am by no means a quantified self-guy, in fact, I hate all quantifying. But still, as an avid gamer, I like to keep track of how much I play of this or that game. To see that every single CM title is slowly gaining momentum and soon will roll by my shameful 60 hours of PUBG, gives me an odd satisfaction.
3. Also, people like me like to have all their games in one place. Again, the satisfaction. Also, when you're used to it, Steam is easy to navigate and will bring your VERY quickly in your game install folder, so you can look up things.
4. Small thing but still noteworthy: your install of a CM game via Battlefront will divide your game into two sections: the fundamental gamefiles will be installed whereever you like, of course. Let's say you choose your D:\ drive because C:\ is full or not your chosen place for games. Well, the game will STILL make a folder on your C:\ drive and in fact you will have to install all mods there. So when you have 10GB of mods and your C:\ is small, you're a bit in a tight space (literally). The Steam install is all in one place and one place only.
 
Objective Reasons
5. Steam has refunds. This can also be a negative argument since I don't think that people can learn to enjoy a Combat Mission game within the 2 hours of refund time. The best solution to let people try out games are demos. Which Battlefront offers. But not on Steam. In fact, I think they should upload their demos on Steam as well. It might go a long way. Not everyone browsing on Steam and stumbles upon a CM game, knows that there are demos on the official site. Heck, they might not even know an official site exists.
6. As has been said by @MikeyD, CM gets a wider audience, hence maybe more money and more interest which ultimately benefits you. Also, more players means more multiplayer opponents. Look at me youngster: I've purchased my first CM game (SF2) via this website but ONLY because I was promised to get a Steam key later on.
7. As has been said by @Malaspina: automated updating!
 
This is only from the top of my head. I've tried hard to make my argumentation as convincing as @chuckdykes forceful argument against Steam: "Never a problem purchasing my games from BF. Steam a solution without a problem."

I wouldn't discount the fact that Steam automatically updates your games whenever there's an official patch or you purchase a new module. Over the years patching and upgrading a game like CMBN, for example, has been quite an effort. Five modules, countless patches and upgrades... oh dear. That sure tested my aging brain
As a matter of fact I'm waiting for it to be available on Steam before I install it on my new laptop.

About time we moved on to the new engine. Hopefully Steve will confirm that for us soon!

I'll add this very roughly-formed scenario (attached) for people that want something to entertain them on a cold winter's night.
This would have been a branch off of Broken Shields (off of the 6th scenario), but it just didn't work with the overall flow. I also have another one set in Seregelyes that I may get around to posting here that's in the same state.
There's no briefing nor briefing graphic, and can only be played from the German side (no German AI).
The gist- defend the occupied positions and town, and use any infantry and armor that may arrive to stage local counter-attacks to regain the town.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, ya cast of characters.


 
AT Positions!.btt

IBM PC...
I am now hearing SOME SA voices but I have a folder in CMFI Z with Frenchy's fixes and my freshly corrected filenames AND NUMBERS for the 9 artillery voice slots.
So, it seems NOT a game engine or some code bug. Das ist gut.
Some voices are totally muffled out during the game. I hear them activate but it is just a several seconds burst of noise.
The 2 voice actors that did this. One guy who does the English with an SA accent, apparently he recorded it in a soft whisper perhaps while his baby daughter and wife were sleeping in the next room. The other guy sounds right out of a Johannesburg pub, a little bit more oomph and all in Afrikaans. But you hardly hear his files used. 0 to 6 seem to be whisper-man and 7 and up are wild-man. Or basically 50-50 for file quantity in a category.
I see something odd with the file details of quite a few wav files. A title number that normally I do not see. I can try and resave a few and drop that title number. See if it makes it work better. Wild-man seemed to have more of these type oddities.
Also, there are sound file types I have NEVER FREAKING SEEN before.
For example
south african casualty 0.wav
yep that seems normal, seen that lots of times
but
south african casualty from flame 0.wav
and
south african hand to hand
 
 

Your drunken stupors are quite a lot more productive than mine.

Hi fellow CMFB-ers,
have you ever thought of making your own campaign but were intimidated by all the hard work that goes into it?
I’ve been recently tinkering with the scenario editor to create a historical campaign in CMFI and, in my recurrent drunken stupors, I came up with an idea to quickly create fully randomized campaigns: The Quick Campaign Generator!
The QCG creates a 10-battle campaign in just a few clicks (well, a few hundred…) putting you at the head of your core force, which you must lead throughout the campaign to achieve glory and win some medals, recording their progress in the meantime. It is in part reminiscent of Robo's quick campaign generator for CMx1 titles (as some of you may remember).
Essentially, it is an Excel spreadsheet that lets you create a ‘bare-bones’ linear campaign comprising ten battles without having to do any historical research, map-making, briefings or artwork, i.e. the exact opposite of @Ithikial_AU’s excellent tutorial (https://community.battlefront.com/topic/137921-fire-and-rubble-preview-the-anatomy-of-what-goes-into-a-stock-campaign-release/) that I’ve used for my historical campaign.
The purpose is to have fun with all the goodies (tanks and vehicles especially) that CMFB has to offer, without the headaches. Pure CM sex with no emotional involvement 😉.
All the Scenario Editor choices, for example Weather, Ground Conditions, Experience, Headcount, choice of troops etc. are completely randomized to let you try out all possible combinations. Although, these battle are heavily biased in favor of armor, I must admit.
When you open the spreadsheet, you will see:
a tab called ‘Battle generator’, which provides random battle conditions,
two tabs called ‘Human ATT’ and ‘Human DEF’, which generate a random force composition to be used in the various battles if you’re attacking or defending;
the ‘Allied AAR or Axis AAR’ tabs, where you will be recording your progress during the campaign. Beware, your performance will be accurately monitored and judged 😉.
Ignore the other tabs. They contain data used for the formulas. I’ve protected the sheets to avoid mistyping into a cell containing a formula.
 
This was the situation for my Elite Panther platoon in a German Wehrmacht campaign called “Panthers on the Prowl” that I created using QCG:
 

 
 
Notice the nice array of medals my core force troops earned! (Well, it was on Easy mode...)
 
As you progress in your campaign, your results will be recorded and medals awarded. Statistics include tank kills, tank losses, infantry casualties, etc.
 

 

 
 
Your overall performance will be duly monitored as shown here:
 

I did pretty well, apparently.
 
Basic knowledge of how the CM Scenario Editor works is of course recommended, but not a requirement. Full instructions are provided.
Inside the package you will find:
-          - three versions of the QCG spreadsheet (one for a US campaign, one for a German Wehrmacht campaign, and one for a Waffen SS campaign);
-          - a pdf file containing Instructions (and a Quick Start Guide);
-          - six campaign script files “(QCG) Campaign Script.txt” (easy, medium or hard for Allied and Axis forces);
-          - five text files for the type of battle you will be fighting;
I’ve also added a couple of campaigns that I have created using this system, with the related Excel files that only contain the AAR tabs.
Enjoy! If you have any questions, just let me know.
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bA3jnnT6tjh0xdKZHnAl5pyr5e2LBA6_/view?usp=sharing
 
 

Ok, that does look like we should indeed take a look at the ALOS data I mentioned before. Since I wanted to do that anyway, I'll write something to convert that kind of data - maybe over the weekend.
What you need to do: provide the coordinates of the bounding box for which you want elevation data. In your case that would be the corners of your overlay images, so the data extracted matches your image.

Recently I didn't have all that much time to spend on this... I'm still mainly working on getting buildings right. Single buildings are one thing but of course you want to have larger buildings that are composed of smaller buildings. There is an example of an industrial/commercial zone below.

You'll have to do the roof and textures yourself but the algorithm does its best to deconstruct larger polygons into smaller rectangles the size of different modular buildings in CM.
Also there are still those pesky linear features... Look at the conflict between road and railway above... 😉
Anyway, I'm thinking about releasing a beta version soon (tm) so that I can gather feedback. (There is no way I can test all the fringe cases myself...). My main concern is having a good tutorial or something...
EDIT: I also looked into the ALOS satellite data for @Artkin . Unfortunately that kind of data is really not very good - It is raw elevation, meaning tree tops, buildings etc. which is not what we want here.

I'll be starting part 3 of this mission in a few minutes:
 
 

going to be starting my livestream in a few minutes, continuation of the first mission of the Five Days campaign in the new battle pack: