Aquila-SmartWargames

M48 Patton V2 with Searchlight M48 Patton V2 without Searchlight - removed the ugly mg and added 50. cal - fixed some alignment bugs For the time being a simple olive or camo bmp texture would look definitely better. The model doesn´t have UV maps which tells the model which part of the bmp texture should be used where which is required if you want highly detailed textures. I won´t dig into this as textures, uv maps, and skinning is not my speciality. However I recommend to further decorate the model with gear stuff like you did with the IED jeep similar to the real life M48 screens you provided. The British vehicles for example are a really good source for camo nets etc. and eyecandy gear can be found on basically every vanilla vehicle. Keep in mind to attach the gear to the right parent i. e. if you park gear on the turret, place it under the "turret" model or otherwise the gear won´t rotate with the turret. This will make the models definitely more "plastic" and would cover the somewhat simple texture. For the Searchlight I provided two versions which can be modtagged according to your scenario. However it can also be randomly displayed by naming it "gear"in blender. If you want to add a cover onto it you can do that. You can add several painted covers and name every model with either -optiona -optionb -optionc so one is exclusively used when the game loads. I´ve made a post which covers this in this thread. Also loading an original model like the German Panzer 4 which comes with alot of "option" skirt models is a good auto-educational source. If you plan to further work on the model START FROM THE BLENDER PROJECT FILE. For some reason loading the .mdr and exporting it again will cause an error and can result in loss of worktime. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0

M48 Patton Tank In Action: - textures again are vanilla CM textures but you can apply some Camo scheme and a more detailed track texture to make it look better. Textures also can be reassigned in Blender. - track/turret works - commander open up in decent looking place - use it for the T55 and the M60 can be renamed to a T62 replacement - removed cupola and commander MG and reworked the AA MG (can be removed too in blender) - project file included I nearly gave up on this one as turret, hull, and range finder were molded into one piece. I had to slice them into pieces. I recorded the process and will upload it for educational purposes. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0

About the M48 Patton, the model is from the same designer as the M60 shown here so it shouldn´t be that much work to get the M48 done. Removing the commander mg, keeping the aa mg. What about the range finder box, which is covered by the "Rolling Death" dust cover on the picture right? Keep or remove it. Making models out of initiative is sure fun but there are already enough for the time being and I wanted to focus on creating stuff that is definitely in need by active campaign & scenario designers. In other words if you guys plan to use it in one of your H&E scenarios or campaigns I will give the M48 a try.

I´ve made some H&E forces preview videos: You can find additional H&E forces under recent videos.

First thanks for the kind words. Second I fixed the turret on the M60 Tank The turret rotation issue and alot of other scaling/rotation issues that often happen when moving/scaling parts should be fixable with this function which "zeroes" the model part: I tested what happens when you name the new model track wheel "wheel wheel1 wheel2 etc" ... they dissappear" M60 Tank V2 - turret rotation fixed - other issues fixed - commander open up position moved + added a little hatch which opens up https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0

That was because atm one can´t export metadata on custom models with CM2Tools and Blender which caused issues particulary with wheels. I took an invisible t55 hull as primer (other models/flavor objects like the usual crate would likely work too), moved the t55 crew positions to new hull and turret, and renamed and organized specific parts of the new custom model to "track", "turret", "mount", and "weapon" as the internal game engine recognizes this names thus producing working vehicles without metadata. The best is to check the blender project file to gain an overview about this method. It is included in the download. You or 37mm talked with me about bringing a Patton to H&E but I couldn´t remember which one was requested. This was likely discussed on Discord and I don´t have a chat log anymore because I needed to reinstall everything. So I assumed the M60 Patton was the right one. Just to be clear you talking about this one: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/m48a3-patton-medium-tank-toshueyi-3f00c27f2b284776a46a0663f1250806

Alright I´ve just tested the H&E mod and thought about creating something new. M60 Patton Tank (Experimental/Alpha) In Action: - was created in half of an hour so its rough - Has a working track - Texture are vanilla CM supplements but can be modified/changed to something better - has a working turret and muzzle. However the turret is currently rotating in the wrong axis which looks obviously awkward. This should be fixable in blender by modifying/switching the turret axes (the three colored arrows) but I yet don´t know how this can be done. Perhaps someone else can figure it out. - Can be used as vehicle, flavor object, mission objective etc etc. - replaces the T55 1974 but can replace any other tank/vehicle/object by simply renaming the .mdr files - Download and blender project file in the dropbox, feel free to fix/mod it. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0 - Can be used for modern scenarios aswell due to the fact that the M60 is still in service of several armies to this day (although most are modernized of course)

This sounds like a story plot of my liking. Looking forward to it and yes I have MOS´ scenario already on my screen too.

Playing a vs. cartel campaign in the "ruthless war/black ops" mood of movies like Sicario 1/2 would be a dream come true. The cartel faction could be represented well for example by using some of the vanilla combatants/spy combined with the African UNCON mod. Latter may just need minor face texture modification.

Impressive to see how the project is coming along well. Already excited to get my hands on the campaigns. The proposed surface ships & aircraft models look great too.

Welcome to CM modding Geezer. Your knowledge and experience will come in handy for sure. Glad to see several people here getting into custom models modding. About the Glider .obj I´ll send my email contact via pm. If you run into questions or troubles you can also contact me on Discord Aquila#8952 as I am not often around here lately. No worries. You and everyone else feel free to discuss and present your projects or ideas here.

It doesn´t show up with the new stuff because you´re likely didn´t replaced the lod mdr files. Without replacing the lods, the vehicle will show up as the old one from anything than very close camera distance. Simplest way is like 37mm explained to make copies of your new model .mdr and name them lod-2 lod-4 etc. You can invest some work and create dumbed down lod models of your custom model but I do not see a real demand for this. I estimate that there is an performance impact but I myself didn´t notice any noticeable performance degradation from using the original mdr for the mdr files and people watching my playthroughs now that I use alot of custom models. I am even at the point, to replace all my CMSF2 vehicle lod files with the original mdr in order to improve graphic fidelity as the models sometimes become blocky too fast. You don´t see all backpacks because they´re likely have the name "gear". Everything named "gear" will be randomized. Rename the backpack model entities to backpack1, backpack2, or another name of your choice and they will show up permanent. These questions and many more have already been tackled in the 3D models thread, make sure to read the thread at least once.

A possible cause of it not working would be that you´re using another mod that is overwriting the invisible textures in hierarchy such as "Kieme´s CMSF HD Walls". To prevent this I always test/use new stuff in a "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzExperiments" folder inside the Z modfolder. The plenty "zzz" ensure that everything in this folder is loaded last. I did check the "walls" folder and couldn´t locate mdr files of any walls at least in the CMSF2 files. However there are plenty of mdr files of bocage, hedge, and fences probably not in use by CMSF2 but other CM2 games. So your idea to replace a wall/obstacle model with something else is still very interesting but may have no utility for CMSF2.

Use either walls, fortifications, or wrecks placed into the hesco barriers. Walls may naturally be the best choice. You can turn anything inivisible by using a blank.bmp file (attached). Rename it to the texture you want to make invisible. Example: in order to make the brick wall invisible make two copies of the blank.bmp and rename them to "brick wall model top.bmp" and "brick wall model.bmp" . Put them into your z folder. Obviously its hard to work with invisible walls in the editor. So either mark the ground tiles beneath the walls temporarily with a special tile so you can identify placement in the 3D Editor or simply work with visible walls and turn them invisible when you´re done with your wall+flavor object combinations. Before release modtag the custom .mdr and .bmp files to make its use exclusive to your scenario. blank.bmp

The APCs look fantastic!

They work pretty well and I don´t see much performance issues caused by them. The only issue that causes minor disturbance is the fact that the original flavor objects have a limited FOV attached to them. When you turn the camera away far enough they are programmed "to disappear". Due to this mechanic bigger custom flavor objects may prematurely disappear when the camera is close to them and turned away from their center because they inherit this limited FOV programming from them. Too complicate to explain in detail, simply test the cargo ship and go close with the camera and you will see it. But in most cases it isn´t that disturbing. And from another thread I´ve seen: When replacing CM2 objects ALWAYS keep the attributes (such as size) of the original flavor object in mind. When using custom flavor objects like the HESCO barrier: Do not replace big original flavor objects like the shelter with hescos as it will become harder to stack them closely together due to collision. For the hesco or similar custom objects that have to be stacked close together, replace slim flavor object slots such as telephone poles, street lamps, and traffic lights. From my current knowledge Poles, Lamps, and Traffic Light flavor object slots are the best replacement slots for many custom models as a) they cause not much collision issues due their slim size (thus custom objects do not cause issues when placed together tight (Hesco particulary)) b) have great draw distances (thus the custom objects do not disappear when camera is far away) c) there are many of them and you almost never need all of them in one scenario But again scenario designers are free to replace any flavor object, wreck, vehicle, emplacement with custom models they see fit. Just because you encounter a model made by me that is named crate1, shelter1 or streetlight1.mdr does not mean you should use it with its original name. Rename them as you see fit and in accordance to the information of this whole thread.

You don´t need to rethink your scenario planning. Do not replace the Hesco barrier for the shelter (or other wide flavor objects) as this will cause collision issues due to the shelter´s big size. Again custom models inherit the attributes of the replaced object. For the Hesco and other touching objects its best to replace streetlamp traffic lights and telefonpoles. These objects are slim and won´t cause collision issues. Name the Hescos for example trafficlight1.mdr and you will see that they can be placed tight and "touched". I know there are shelter files in the download. They are just for testing and shouldn´t be used. I removed them and uploaded a Hesco V2 to my Dropbox.

No causality implied but also good to keep in mind that the affected object is the most numerous flavor object on the map. Was your map "just" large or did it also feature a ton of flavor objects either of a specific given type or in overall quantity?

It is extremely unlikely that this has anything to do with flavor object editing. I have the impression that your city project is probably the map project with the most flavor objects yet seen in CM. Is this correct? It doesn´t imply that the presented issue has something to do with this but if true we should simply keep that in mind while you navigate new uncharted map creation territory. Interesting is that this is limited to one specific map and one "older" part of this map edited months ago and the fact that only some but not all flavor objects of a given type changed. Also did the affected flavor objects change to exactly two different flavor objects (a bench and a pallet), or did more options appear? Is it in fact the map part you´ve placed your first flavor objects in? If not already in place I would recommend that you keep some backups of your scenario files while working on them and for the time being observe if this phenomenom appears again.

WINSPMBT/WINSPWW2: Active development, 2D, turn-based. On first glance graphics, menues, and controls have an (too) ancient feeling but you quickly realize that its mechanics are pretty good. Probably the biggest nation and vehicle database I´ve seen ever in a ground wargame. In these two games you´ll find almost any vehicle from late WW1/early WW2 up to Future/Planned 2025. Tons of campaigns and scenarios you´ll find something about any (post-)WW2 conflict there. Dynamic campaign generator. Mechanic-wise not as deep as CM but still some sort of Combat Mission 2D as you need to apply authentic tactics and considerations in order to survive the engagements. Comes with the same core force+linear/tree campaign idea which you have to lead through missions. My favourite campaign mode. However the campaigns and briefings often lack background, soul, and immersion which is very important for me. I also had the feel that it can get heavy on micromanagement but I don´t have much experience yet with the controls & capabilities so can´t tell. Graviteam Games: Active, probably the most popular choice in the countless "CM vs X" fanboy debates. Somebody nailed my opinion pretty well. I like the fact that it models some exotic conflicts almost never touched by games. But it indeed feels clunky and the UI is not my case. Often mentioned strongpoint is its dynamic campaign. Lot of players love dynamic campaigns so if you´re one of them take a look but for me it is also resulting in one of the biggest flaws. It generates these generic battles which often end up in simple line-defend line-attack situations and the TACAI almost never looks very good. For me no competition to the handmade scenarios/campaigns of CM. If they would offer handmade campaigns with the core-forces principle similar to CM more being focused on these big open terrain battles I certainly would dig into them. Armored Brigade: Active, 2D, real time, also turn-based modes, cold war, good visualization. Powerful dynamic campaign generator which can be generated from real maps from Italy, Germany, US Desert. When you win you advance on this map and vice versa. For me again this problem that the campaigns and briefings have not the depth of CM. While CM campaigns surprise me even after countless hours and years the missions of ABs dynamic campaign tend to become very similar in short time. There are some premade campaigns but well they don´t offer much more from what it seems. Nonexistant briefings and background. Hope that this department improves. Still a great game. Distant Guns 1.5/Jutland Pro: inactive for several years, devs presumably gone, They´re in full flight mode but servers are running. Shop, purchase, and DRM app is a mess but from my channel I know that brave ones recently managed to overcome the "Dark Souls" of online shops in order to buy the game. It is basically Combat Mission on Seas and the best modern real time 3D naval simulation available. Scourge of War Gettysburg/Waterloo: active, US Civil War and Napoleonic Wars, very complex, some fantastic ideas like runners and AI/manual control. Not easy to get into it but there are plently of tutorials on yt. Best pre-World Wars battlefield simulation. Close Combat Games: 2D, real time a new engine 3D WW2 title is planned for release. CM and CC not just share a similar name but both also have a long history. However while CM did improve alot, CC did less, graphically as gameplay-wise. But its okay if you love the formula which is small unit engagements consisting of up to a dozen squads and vehicles + fire support. The often recommended Ostfrot Release (Iron Cross?) comes with similar campaigns as CM where you can purchase and I think upgrade units and the newer ones come with a sort of small map/operational layer where you can move your assets around etc.. Lots of mods. I am not focused on graphics but this lagging unit sprites are really borderline painful for me. There were modern releases including "Marines", "Modern War", and "The Road to Baghdad". I am looking for the Close Combat The Road to Baghdad Iraq War release, it is NOWHERE to be found as from what i´ve heard there were licensing issues and they removed it from the market pretty quick, furthermore it wasn´t well received. Doesn´t matter I need to see it with my own eyes. Contact me if you own a copy of Close Combat: Road to Baghdad I end up often buying (war)games and spending just a couple of hours on them even when they´re decent. Not one of the mentioned here kept my attention for years and dozen of hours like CM did. Only 3 wargames did this to me: CM for tactical ground warfare, CMANO for strategic modern air/naval warfare, and Dangerous Waters for (anti-)submarine warfare with clocked hours in favor of the first. For me I see CM´s success not just in its mechanics but especially in its deep detail of immersion. Extensive Information about situation, forces, map, war effort, historical outcome vs "MISSION 1: MEETING ENGAGEMENT DESERT. HAVE FUN! may not be important for others, for me this makes a major difference. Some mission designers even go further with campaigns like KG von Schroif, Task Force Panther, or Dragonwynn´s work by providing you with individuals with their names and own stories for you to take care of. In the CMSF Battle of Ramadi, Iraq scenario there was well-researched the historical situation explained and even links provided for an documentary which I then watched. I hope official BF designers will draw some inspiration from these custom creations. Nevertheless for me this is all next level stuff you almost can´t finde somewhere else.

Relax in the Sand Method Also known as IED Incident / Surprise Explosion Method Imagine you playing casually CMSF2 managing your units at the FOB and suddenly a big explosion happens somewhere on the map. What was that? Should we send a patrol to check out? How to setup: 1) Setup a pile of enemy IEDs and Spotters or setup a VBIED on a specific spot. 2) set a friendly vehicle/infantry as reinforcement (it can be also a BLUEFOR Taxi, Pickup, Ural Truck so when your units reach the scene it looks more authentic), set the time according to your preference. Place this vehicle into the IED/VBIED spot. 3) when the vehicle spawns it instantly triggers the explosion, visible to the player. Spotters+IEDs require 1/some seconds. VBIED trigger instantly so fast the player won´t even see the reinforcement vehicle. - Use it for surprise, alongside reinforcement message to make the player curious or give him the task to setup a patrol in order to investigate - Spawning infantry into the IED spot also trigger them (do not use BLUEFOR civillian spies etc. as they are hard to spot) - max out the triggermen´s or VBIED stats to speed up their spotting and detonation. - The VBIED or the Reinforcement Vehicle can be switched with custom 3D Models or even made invisible. An immobilized reinforcement vehicle also triggers the explosion. - Use this in combination with a mission objective: Example: "Intel reports insurgent leader Al Grognardib aquired an operational radioactive dirty bomb and plans to detonate it in this heavy populated are in the next 2 hours. Gather intelligence, find him, and stop the WMD attack". He then could be the Triggerman of the IED spot or there could be several of them there. If he gets successfully interrupted or killed in time, the "victim" reinforcement vehicle/individual will spawn without blowing up. The reinforcement´s destruction would result in alot of victory points for the enemy. In case of player success the sudden reinforcement spawn could be explained in the briefing. Example: EOD team "Briefing:When located kill/capture Grognardib and secure the bombsite. Wait for the special EOD team/vehicle to arrive, they will aquire the bomb and transport it. Ensure the safe passage to exfil/fob". - the explosion also works on a start of a scenario although the player will see the victim vehicle of course in the SETUP phase. Can be used for scenarios such as: "Quarterback 2-2s Humvee patrol in Town A was calm so far, the weather is fantastic. Just in this moment the lead Humvee is approached by a friendly looking fella who is carrying a big chocolate cake. Looks like the day is getting even better." My over the top solutions for alot of smoke. You obvisouly don´t need to go so extreme: -

Yes both methods are possible: 1) This was done with "Destroy BF109" objectives but as you can guess you can do it with everything. 2) The destroyed objective was a Bedford Truck replaced by a BF109. Make copies of the custommodel.mdr of your choice and replace the main mdr and lod mdr files. For weapon caches you can simply take the vanila "crate1.mdr" and rename it to "vehicle-taxi.mdr", then make copies from it and add "-lod1" up to "-lod4" to it. You could also replace the VBIED vehicle as I believe these have a chance to explode when fired upon, so players would be extra cautious and call an armored vehicle to do the EOD job. 3) Very good for replacement are casual/transport vehicles (Jeeps, Civilian cars, Humvees, Wolfs, Trucks etc etc,) as you can remove their crew in the editor and they don´t give away so much "?" intel like bigger stuff. The crew can then be removed by extraction zone or simply placed somewhere else as enemy force. 4) It looks like the removed crews are accounted for victory points (in this example I had every BF109 set to 9999 but as you can see I received around 6000 or ca. 60% of the victory points. The Crew (Supply Platoon HQ) is sitting on the map edge in this demo. Keep that in mind when doing your mission´s victory point calculations. 3) When replacing vehicle, turn them to "IMMOBILIZED" so they won´t make engine noises when spotted. 4) You can either use them for hidden TOUCH, OCCUPY objectives (reach the downed bf109 and search it), for SPOTTING and like in this example for DESTROY objectives (destroy the bf109). These can obviously used for the player and for the AI aswell. Scenarios like "we lost an important asset in this region. Locate it before the enemy does" or "defend the asset from destruction/search" and many more become possible. 5) You can also replace sturdier objects as (Wooden) Bunkers or armored vehicles, this would require the player to use specific weapons (satchel charges, launchers, grenades) to get the destruction objective done. For example you could replace some armored vehicles with the train for an "Ambush the Train" scenario requiring to fire rockets or missiles into the trains. 6) And again these objects can receive AI plans and do movement like the replaced vehicle. You could simulate something being slowly towed away or trying to escape (like the example with the MIG-21s that try to get airborne (evac zone) in order to escape.) 7) Same goes for reinforcements, you could let them spawn when and where you want. Pretty good for these mentioned "patrol and locate weapon caches" big sandbox map scenarios. Combined with the methods used in the CMBS "TOC" sandbox scenario, there are ALOT of options just requiring creativity and out of the box thinking. 8 ) placing these custom model objectives into ground caves (deeper as in my showcase) and cave labyrinths which then are covered by the Underground Cover Mod, and with the edges made inaccessible either by mapping or the various methods we have (invisible walls, bushes etc.), would the player demand to go into these caves to locate/destroy objectives otherwise not able to be spotted.

Tent (All CM games)

Camo-Net Emplacement Release (All CM games) - camo texture can be quickly changed, retextured, and/or modtagged ([snow] etc) as required - hide vehicles, crates, emplacements, trenches, at guns, atgms etc. beneath - height/width can be quickly resized in Blender - combine sandbags, bunkers, buildings. As a flavor object it can be placed in/on buildings. - if you want it to be spotted and not being always visible on the map: Replace an unused emplacement with it (sandbag, trench, wooden bunker) or an vehicle (taxi, kübelwagen) which then is turned into a wreck. The replaced emplacement/vehicle will not be visible but the camo net (or other objects released here) will inherit the "needs to be spotted" ability. - again if you have an hard time hitting the shelter in the editor. Remove all blank.bmp files from your Z folder in order to see the shelter and make it easier for you while editing. - combine 2 or 3 nets that are displaced 1-2 tiles to make it denser. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1tviryry89g6py7/AAAJpSvGH6u1iEx4WzwVLSnJa?dl=0 https://1drv.ms/u/s!Agho21MGTssHaTHHgpIcaQWqWpU?e=5rKEzK Video:

I add everything to the same folder. Do not download the complete folder multiple times.