Jump to content
Special Upgrade 4 Tech Tips

Jumpete

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    149

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Jumpete

    Happy New Year's Day! 2018 look ahead

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    16 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

    It's always been my desire to have a "Fantasy" Vehicle Pack for CMFB and CMRT.  It would include both production vehicles that didn't make it into combat (IS-3, Centurion) ones that were nearly ready for production (Panther II) and vehicles which likely never ever would have gone into production (US T-28, E-100, Maus).  The examples I cited are not complete, just put out there to get an idea of what I'm talking about ;)

    Whether we'll ever get to this or not... I don't know.  And if we do get to it, I don't know when we will. We have lots of things competing for our time.

    Steve

    I believe that it could be interesting, unfortunately I don't wait any of these experimental vehicles in the upcoming italian front. However I'm wondering  what new toys are warming up engines in the hangar. Can't wait to see the game manual before the release ^_^

    0

    Happy New Year's Day! 2018 look ahead

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Battlefront.com said:

    Within the next 2-3 months?  Yes, preorders for at least one should be open for preorders by then.  My money is not on the Red Thunder Module as that's got a bit more on the campaign/scenario side to go than the others.

    Glad to hear that! I don't know which one will be the first but for sure that I'll buy it, and the second,.... and... (better take my wallet Steve) :D
    Assuming that Red Thunder module will be the last, will it be available along 2018 for sure?

    0

    Happy New Year's Day! 2018 look ahead

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    14 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

    It's time for our more-or-less traditional end/beginning of the year's "state of the state" update for Battlefront and Combat Mision.  At this point no new images to show, but I promise they won't be too long coming now that the Holidays are pretty much passed.  I didn't want to bug anybody for screenshots this past week, but I will start bugging testers quite soon :)

    2017 was an interesting year for us (though every year is in its own way!).  As anybody who's followed us over the years knows, one of the things that's kept us going for two decades is our caution about the size and composition of full time staff.  There's nothing that will put a games company, in particular, out of business faster than the wrong headcount for circumstances.  Game development is a never ending cycle of "hurry up and wait" as one person has to wait for the work of another, then has to work double hard once they get what they need.  This is a really difficult process to manage for both the company and the employees, but since nobody has ever figured an alternative it is what it is.

    Why mention this?  Well, because it's a way of explaining why 2017 was a bit slower in producing products for sale than we had expected.  Based on the success of both the CMBN and CMBS Battle Packs we've shifted development to rely more upon part-time paid help on a projet by project basis.  This gives us more flexibility at the expense of development speed.  In our view this shift is working pretty well, however it's taking a bit of time for us to work out the kinks.

    The good news is that 2018 is set to reap the benefits of 2017's development efforts.  Right now we have three products in advanced stage of development:

    • CMFI Rome to Victory Module to bring the timeline to the end of the war
    • CMSF being thoroughly updated for its move to Engine 4 and all of its massive improvements over the original 2007/2009 code
    • CMRT Module 1 (no name announced yet) bringing the war's end timeframe for the Eastern Front

    The order of release isn't nailed down as we're working on all three at once with our usual "when it's done, it's done" mindset.  And because the three don't have a lot of interest overlap, we're not going to artificially hold any of these back for marketing/sales reasons.  Knowing where each of these are in development, I predict they will come out pretty much right on top of each other.  Relatively speaking ;)

    As stated up top, there's no screenshots to show you today.  However, the mountains of artwork ready, or nearly ready, to show you definitely means screenshots are not far away.  Yes, that means seeing winterized IS-2s in the bleak plains of Germany, Free French Forces moving up through Italy, and shots of the fully updated Shock Force soldier models battling it out with similarly improved NATO soldiers.

    We'll keep you updated on how things are going as time progress, but as usual the first indication you'll have that something is nearing release is when preorders for it are opened up.  That usually means 4-8 weeks until release.  We're also not going to talk about anything else we're working on until at least 2 of the 3 are in your hands.  And yes, we're always working on more than we talk about publicly :D

    Looking forward to 2018 with you all!

    Steve

    P.S.  I did not mention the New Zealand contract.  We are nearing completion on that as well, but it's not available for sale to the public and so no point teasing you with shots of Kiwis running around with Pinzgauers.

    Thanks Steve, it was  great gift for begin 2018. I hope to see these screenshots really soon.
    Now my doubt: will we have any of these games,or pre-order at least, in next two/three months? Any if them, really I'm interesting in all of them.
    P.D. Happy new year for you, BF team and all this community.

    0

    Naughty or nice... here's some bones!

    in Combat Mission - General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

    We'll hopefully be wrapping things up in January.  More news at that time.

    It's all the original CMSF1 content (forces, art, scenarios, etc.) in the Engine 4 environment.  That means all Engine 4 game features, including QBs, are a part of CMSF2.  There's a lot of updating to the original CMSF1 stuff to make it work and look as it should, but we're not adding anything per se except the things which are fairly obvious (soldier models, QB maps, ground to air, on map mortars, bridges, water, etc.).

    Steve

    Thanks Steve. I was waiting for this module since its announcement (Xmas bone'15).

    The new SF2 looks like awesome, great work!

    Merry Christmas ;D

    0

    Lend-Lease stuff coming soon?

    in Combat Mission Red Thunder

    Posted

    35 minutes ago, MikeyD said:

    Last week I was watching a Korean TV drama (I do like Korean TV). The male lead was a wealthy CEO of a game design firm. I had to chuckle to see they gave him an entire high-rise office tower full of employees in prime downtown Seoul real estate. Sweet gig! By comparison, BFC's CEO (is he the CEO?) chops down trees in his back lot in rural Maine for winter firewood. No downtown Seoul office towers.

    BFC is what you might call a 'boutique' gaming company. No vast staff, no multiple production departments, no sprawling office park accommodations, no churning out millions worth of Playstation titles. Each succeeding title, module and pack comes in its own time at its own pace. Sometimes they come quickly without problems, sometimes they don't. Yes, CMRT to war's end module with lend-lease equipment is in the queue, as is CMFI to war's end, plus CMSF2 mega-upgrade and other stuff. But there's no rushing any of it.

    Sometimes.... that does not happen since long time ago. CMx2 serie was released in 2011, we had two base games and three modules when 2013 was ending. After this moment, we are lucky if a base game or module is release along the year. Currently we have only a update, nothing more for the moment and, being frankly, I doubt that we see any more along this year (I wish to be wrong). I do not doubt that BF is far from being a huge company, with unlimited human or economic resources, but the fall in the production rate doesn't suggest to me that we can play blitzkrieg period in a reasonable timeframe. In fact, I don't believe that my boys take Remagen before 2020.

    0

    Lend-Lease stuff coming soon?

    in Combat Mission Red Thunder

    Posted

    52 minutes ago, Shorker said:

    After all that is produced (CMFI, CMRT,CMSF2), which I am anxiously awaiting, of course :), would it be within the scope of the possibility that we shall get a title from the early war events, like a "CMRF" (Combat Mission: Raid on France) 1940?

     

    You are not alone. There are many of us who want to see a BF covering early stages of the war such as Poland , France, Barbarossa,... But unfortunately and given the pace of releases, at best, I wouldn't bet to see these tittles before 4-5 years.

    0

    Rome to Victory news?

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Cobetco said:

    Sorry to possibly create spam. but i have to ask about whats going on, Fortress Italy was my favorite title and I am concerned its stuck in Development hell now that Chris has taken his leave, if any help is needed I can try, even if all i can do is mediocre art. 

    That's a good question! If I remember well, Steve told in April that mostly of the work was done (TO&E, models, new armies,etc).  It was needed only to add maps and missions. I understand that this work can be hard, especially now that Chris left the company, but five month later should be enought time for be close to finish the module (IMHO).

    0

    Lend-Lease stuff coming soon?

    in Combat Mission Red Thunder

    Posted

    On 10/7/2017 at 2:11 AM, Battlefront.com said:

    As for announcing what is coming out and when... well, we're working on that.  With Chris gone it's put a bit of a wrinkle in our plans.  Nothing is getting cut, but things might not be coming out in the order we had intended.  In the works right now are:

    1.  CMFI Rome to Victory (2nd and final Module for CMFI)

    2.  CMRT Module One (yet to be named, but takes the game through to the end of the war)

    3.  CMSF2 which brings the original content into the current Engine 4 environment

    We have several other things being worked on this year, but the above are the three we're focusing on at the moment.

    Steve

     

    Thanks for all the info, Steve. Really I'm very interesting in  the WW II modules. Which one of them will be released first? I suspect than italian module has most advanced work, but the Chris's health problems (best regards for him) will delay the work. So, can be another project released first? RT module has not name but looks like that the work is very advanced on it.

    0

    Lend-Lease stuff coming soon?

    in Combat Mission Red Thunder

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Xorg_Xalargsky said:

    In my experience, Battlefront is not too keen on revealing dates :) it's a peculiarity of the game development industry. On one hand, rushing out a product to make a certain date can lead to poor quality and cut content. Conversely, you can create a lot of negative sentiment in the community if you don't deliver by a promised date... On the day of the release of 4.0 for Fortress Italy, it was said that Rome to Victory was only a couple of months away and that most of the work left was scenario/campaign creation. Chris' ailment might have pushed that back somewhat, but probably not by much.

    I know and I don't search an exact date. The origin of my inquiry is this, BF spoke that last italian module would be launched short time after upgrade 4.0 and BS mission pack. all this was 3-4 months ago, so I've the doubt about if next module is coming soon or in some time more.
    I'm prefectly conscious that the computers games development world usually doesn't give release dates and it's perfectly understandable, but if the develpment is very advanced (and BF said that the works was already beginning in December'15), they know approximately when the game will be finished.

    0

    Lend-Lease stuff coming soon?

    in Combat Mission Red Thunder

    Posted

    Thanks for the update Steve.
    Obviously, all these is a great amount of work for next months. Now, I'm thinking in Rome to Victory module which is being developed since long time ago (first news about it in Xmas bone '15). Can you say us if its release is near or we still would need to wait a few months more?

    0

    Lend-Lease stuff coming soon?

    in Combat Mission Red Thunder

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Xavierisback said:

    We are not talking about chatting but just share some vision or roadmap... 

    Exactly. We only receive info once a year with the Xmas bone and some years, as the last, the info was really short and not concise. Sharing the main work lines on BF is moving wouln't be a problem for the company, they won't lose work time for write a post here every 2-3 months. It'd be appreciated for the player base, and it would increase the hype for the games, modules, etc in development. I love this games, probably I don't lie if say that all us we love Combat Mission, but reading this forum and with my own experience, I feel that the main community disagreement with BF is the lack of communication about the project. Specially in a game with so long development timeframes. For example, aand based on this thread, Red Thunder is not receiving new material since the base game release in 2014. Three years playing with a few maps (very few in my opinion), and we only know that we will receive a module ending this year or starting 2018 (my two cents that sadly it won't be till spring summer, at least) But we don't have any real idea about wich is coming. Winter?, Lend-lease? Timeframe from October'44 to May'45?... This is the point, mostly of the ideas are simply speculations here, in the forum, but not real info about the game.

    0

    CM games I'd like to see

    in Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

    Posted

    It was many times denied for Steve time ago but my dream would be a CM in the Pacific. Heavy  naval artillery fire, LVT landings, close combats in a few meters of sand beach, jungles, caves, traps, few tanks and many infantry, night counterattacks, suicide charges, ...  In the end, all the taste of the Pacific War. And don't forget the modules for CW forces in New Guinea and Burma.
    Sadly only a dream.

    0

    Any news about CMFI 4.0 release

    in Combat Mission Fortress Italy

    Posted

    On 1/5/2017 at 8:05 PM, Battlefront.com said:

    Now that all of the Upgrade 4 stuff is out of the way, especially the Italian stuff, we are now full attention on Rome to Victory until it is done.  A couple of months for sure, almost all of which are scenario creating, balancing, and rebalancing.  The rest of the stuff (models, textures, and even the TO&E) is pretty much good to go.

    Steve

    After these two months, what's the development status of Rome to Victory module? Not asking for a release date but will it be release soon? This Summer? Fall?...

    Thanks.

    0

    Lend-Lease stuff coming soon?

    in Combat Mission Red Thunder

    Posted

    34 minutes ago, DougPhresh said:

    I'm not asking for weekly (or monthly) Dev Diaries, but I would like to know what's going on.

    Even if it's not showing off new maps, equipment, vehicles etc. I would be happy to read about planned campaigns or maybe see a campaign flow chart with the briefing maps.

    +1, A simple Xmas bone once by year isn't enough info for this community.

    0
×
×
  • Create New...