Falaise

Everyone feel free to post your recent photojournalism from the front, as it happens!
 
Just a little playtesting of things to come.  Here, as evening falls and the sun sinks fast, embedded with the troops in Russia...









 

The Road to Montebourg...

well, new the holidays are just about over and things are at least a little more back to 'normal',  here's a few 'caps for your  enjoyment.....or not.





 
cheers,
rob
 
 

First off thanks to all those who have supported the Battlepack by purchasing it, and a shout out to those who have provided their support in the creation of this project – and a huge shout out to those who have freely given their feedback and additional support publicly via various means – online streaming vids, DARs, AARs and various forum posts etc, Its truly heartening to read and see these. 

It’s just as well, being Scottish, that we are renowned for being slow to anger and not prone to unprovoked outbursts. On a personal note a mahhoosive amount of work went into the battle pack, at my end. Work of which I am truly proud off. The lion’s share of research, mapmaking and AI plan stuff was devoted to the two campaigns and the Rakow and the Dying Sun scenario. These all involved painstakingly creating huge new maps from primary sources. Research turned up several ‘loose’ ends regarding accepted historical narrative and I’m as chuffed with these as the scenarios!

I digress… In short this sucked up a huge amount of time and I was also involved in several other projects (which I was keen to be involved in including CMFR and CMCW). Creating new content, AI plans etc for the Battlepack was a significant endeavour. So yup I used bits of various previous maps (which were my own creations and made available publicly) which I then significantly tweaked – mainly because I could not positively ID RL locations, or the fact is I thought the map – like Der Ring (which by the way took nearly a year to produce) to have a new life after some major tweaking. I’ve done this on previous game families with other maps. A few astute observers might have spotted them. 

But, and I should stress this, in the case of Der Ring it was heavily reworked and I created brand new AI plans (I had to as I’d chopped and reused bits) etc. So yes whilst some stuff is based on sections of der Ring they are more the offspring – rather than the map wearing a false wig and a pair of dodgy specs…

Re the rather offensive swipes about scamming, well,  re the master maps it’s pretty clear that as stated on the BFC website that they are “New maps based on maps from the Battle Pack missions”. 

Years back I used to be with a punk band – another life another story…. One of the bands (way more successful than we were) we did some gigs with, had their singer on one of their records state this quote, it was along the lines of – “Whatever you do they’ll slate you off and criticise you to the ground…” It’s stood me in good stead through life.
So aye happy to take the constructive knocks, but I’m less inclined to give credence tae whingers.
 

I chose to keep it , the general look of the shooter is good this is only a problem with the place of the hands
I played the Desert scenario where the sdkfz are engaged from the start
I always had a lot of mg shooter losses
I found that it was better cashed with the mod, although it could be a coincidence

bucolic gas station !!!🙄

but also the hideout of a moron

bucolic gas station !!!🙄

but also the hideout of a moron

bucolic gas station !!!🙄

but also the hideout of a moron

@RockinHarry little problem comrade (light!!)
it seems that the file is common in cm normandy between allie and german
Suddenly, the gunners bow on their cal 50

@RockinHarry little problem comrade (light!!)
it seems that the file is common in cm normandy between allie and german
Suddenly, the gunners bow on their cal 50

bucolic gas station !!!🙄

but also the hideout of a moron

I will test this mod.
  I already use the lowered reload mod for cmNormandie which seems useful in hurdles.
Whatever happens I find it aesthetically better than vanilla
it always seems strange to me to see the heads protruding under fire and the shooter standing behind his shield while there are incoming shots is disturbing
in the unbuttoned position it seems more realistic to me too, it seems to me that the bren carrier is already using this original position
you should ask @Drifter Man to rate your mod this guy did a great job!!!
For the aesthetics I also use the mod de @Frenchy56 shooter mg 42 34 with the hand on the butt there is a small defect sometimes with the flame which appears higher but honestly in games you do not notice it

Another test package incoming. It´s modified versions of latest 250/251 as available in CMRT V2.11 or V2.12
They´re geared toward (test) playing @George MC´s CMRT Five Days One Summer campaign from Battle Pack 1. https://www.battlefront.com/red-thunder/cmrt-battle-pack-1/
At least it´s those german vehicles I found in this campaign´s battle 1 thus far. But off course can be test played in any other CMRT battle containing these. They´re:
SdKfz 251/1 D - standard IFV
SdKfz 251/3 D - command version
SdKfz 251/2 D - mortar carrier
SdKfz 251/7 D - engineer version
SdKfz 250/1 neu - standard small IFV
(others will follow. C versions 251 and more)
When applicable I changed MG gunner as well as seating position for passengers. These give sitting passengers and gunners a lower profile vs incoming enemy small arms fire. Included is just the (same) gunner animation, giving him both, a somewhat lower profile and different pose (Black Sea M320 rifleman). Modded vehicles and gunner pose are interconnected, so they only work well if using both the same time!
Note: Gunner pose is only well aligned initially (after "open up"). When targeting an enemy or area, alignment goes FUBAR since the machine gun object and gunner don´t synchronize nor move together well. That´s the same for unchanged BFC original too. However... main idea is reducing the gunners footprint and trade off bits of a misalignment when he starts engaging targets. Any feedback on that welcomed!
Remaining infantry animation files are still under test but otherwise finished. I´ll upload these when ready. These animation (pose) files prevent related infantry types to go full stand up for when engaging enemies outside the carrier vehicle (across sidewall shooting). These include "aiming", "shooting" and "reloading" with related variations (up, down, left, right, transition).
Pose/Animation files will be:
P38 pistol
K98k rifle
MP40 smg
Stg44 AR
and others which have unique pose files and can be loaded on and shooting from modded 250/251 infantry carriers.
So here´s updated file with mentioned centent. (unzip to data/z as usual)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ubzxdunlasuer0/RHZ CMRT 250-251 Test ModPack 211122.zip?dl=0
 

Hey long time no see! 🙂 Yeah lots of going on in the forum. CMRT battle pack, Berlin, The Pacific and Barbarossa for the big stuff and a couple general purpose things that can be used in any the games basically. 😎

Stephane @Falaise , where have you been ? welcome back, appreciated your comment, yes with the other trio they were and are aready making lot of news, benefic to a better future from CM, I hope that BFC will take some conclusions and make their found more easy to added officialy some of what they found.
JM

What excitement on this forum
I was a little busy ...
I'm coming back and what fireworks
I was already admiring @NPye's work on Stalingrad, but the Berlin modis insane.
@Lucky_Strike is at full speed, I think his eyes are better
@RockinHarry is back full of idea
@JM Stuffon all fronts (your Japanese helmet is great)
good job guys

What excitement on this forum
I was a little busy ...
I'm coming back and what fireworks
I was already admiring @NPye's work on Stalingrad, but the Berlin modis insane.
@Lucky_Strike is at full speed, I think his eyes are better
@RockinHarry is back full of idea
@JM Stuffon all fronts (your Japanese helmet is great)
good job guys

Midnight Blues...lol I love messin with PS LUT files. It's great to get cinema type look...

News today of the Pacific !
When @37mm give me the green light with the helmet name to rename it, I can convert the dds in bmp and resized it
officers "hats" have also to come but first my wrecks  !
 
 

 

 
JM

It's been a long time since I posted pictures and officially came to this forum!! even though i watch daily mega thread about ukraine on my digital tablet
Very busy at the moment I prefer to play !!
The English infantry crosses a hedge under the protection of a Churchill

In the pouring rain she passes by an abandoned sherman

Further a sherman exceeds his adversaries defeated one by one

Despite the current euphoria, some do not turn away from their goals !!
Bravo 👏

There are 2 things I hate in mission combat
It
and that "shark teeth"

As for the distortion in the ploughed fields, Kieme's mod brilliantly solved the problem.
But for shark teeth alas, it is a constraint related to the engine of the game.
Some scenario maker and map maker make a lot of effort to avoid them.
I am thinking of the Bulletpoint "front contact" scenario where no shark teeth are visible, which gives you some of the most beautiful and realistic map. some other map makers , shift the bend two or three turns to avoid the effect of shark teeth.
However for historical scenarios that rely on a precise map of places there is sometimes no choice.
I recently tried the scenario The Carillon 1 It's Quiet-Too Quiet and I noticed this curious road with an unknown angle of 22.5 °
Revelation !!
The author, (I do not know who) is a genius who managed with the highway tiles to do this feat, opening a new field of possibility in the design of the maps.
The only flaw is the visual
So I created this little mod to give a coherent visual.
Now I like everything !!
Road of Carillon

Change on the map of "Liking up and breaking out"
then and now

this one to compare with the one above that I hate

the different angles of the road

Played the excellent Hobart's Funnies scenario and whipped up an AAR. Some choice shots:




Phenomenal infantry set-piece. I wish I had the time this weekend to play Swansong, the variant without the Funnies, to see just how much more bloody it is without these innovations. 
Read it here: https://rinaldiaars.blogspot.com/2022/09/armatos-fundit-cm-battle-of-normandy-aar.html
 

My ISU-122 puts a round through the front of a PzIV and out the back.  You can see the round impact the ground about 100m behind the now swiss cheesed Panzer.


I don't think the driver made it...