We want more Gustav Line screenshots and videos!

[Michael Emrys]

Nobody makes you spend endless amounts of time downloading and installing mods. That, and the game does look good out of the box.

Maximum affirmative there, good buddy.

Michael

[LukeFF]

There were butt plates on the Lee Enfields weren't there? Please let it be true.

It looks like it, but's hard to tell.

[LukeFF]

ND, the screenshots look really, really good. I just noticed something with the pistol belt on the guy in the front in this shot. It looks like the texture for the belt is reversed, as essentially right now it says "S.U."

[nik mond]

ND, the screenshots look really, really good. I just noticed something with the pistol belt on the guy in the front in this shot. It looks like the texture for the belt is reversed, as essentially right now it says "S.U."

Well that cats out of the bag now. Those are actually beta version troops from the "Soviet Union". The rifles are lend lease of course.

[General_solomon]

thank you very much for the winter screenshot. I cant wait to fight in the snow. its may favorite season to fight.

also, will there be deep snow tiles available.

very excited this release.

[MikeyD]

I'm off to investigate what went wrong there...

I kind'a suspect someone put snow on the ground in July.

[ChrisND]

I kind'a suspect someone put snow on the ground in July.

Yes, so it was.

[Michael Emrys]

ND, the screenshots look really, really good. I just noticed something with the pistol belt on the guy in the front in this shot. It looks like the texture for the belt is reversed, as essentially right now it says "S.U."

And what are riflemen doing wearing pistol belts anyway? They should be wearing ammo belts with pouches.

Michael

[jakla1027]

Can we get a screenshot of the deepest possible snow in the game? Please:)

P.S. wanna know how much time my pixel troopin will spend shoveling snow as compaired to waging war

[Fuser]

Can we get a pic of the Cassino Monastery (preferably before the B17s & B25s visited it? How can the game engine depict such a characteristic building?

[Broadsword56]

I hope I'm wrong, but I think we were warned in a previous post or thread not to expect a distinctive Monte Cassino monastery building, or anything really beyond the creative use of existing CMFI building models to make these structures in GL.

[ChrisND]

Can we get a screenshot of the deepest possible snow in the game? Please:)

P.S. wanna know how much time my pixel troopin will spend shoveling snow as compaired to waging war

Deep snow doesn't look any different in game, however certain terrain features like roads, crop ground, tall grass, etc disappear when the snow reaches a certain thickness. Patchy snow will leave most terrain features intact. Deep snow makes the landscape look a lot more uniform. And then there are snow depths in between.

There are not a lot of standalones scenarios featuring snow. Maybe three or four. I don't think any of them take place in deep snow, patchy snow is the norm. Even that much is probably exaggerating the relevance that combat in snow had on the fighting in this period.

I get the impression that some people are expecting this to be a Bulge-like winter combat module, but set in Italy. It's not. Most of the fighting in winter was done in rain and mud, not snow. Much less pleasant, and doesn't look nearly as good on a postcard.

[ChrisND]

I foresee this question being asked a lot in the future, so I'm going to get my long-winded reply out now:

Can we get a pic of the Cassino Monastery (preferably before the B17s & B25s visited it? How can the game engine depict such a characteristic building?

Why, with the modular building tiles already present in the game of course. That's what they were made for.

We did not make a special Cassino Monastery building. The amount of artist and programmer resources it would require are orders of magnitude above what usefulness we would get out of it. I would have been downright irresponsible to have it made.

Reasons:

1. The building is HUGE, and has complicated geometric shapes compared to the dimensions used currently in CM. This has major programming implications for soldier pathfinding, behavior in buildings, spotting and line of fire, etc.

2. The building would require unique and specially-made textures and 3D artist work.

3. THEN there'd have to multiple versions of the monastery, both intact and bombed out. Multiply the time needed for points 1 and 2.

4. Points 1-3 above come with an opportunity cost. What time our artists and programmers would spend on this one building which would appear in one situation and a few battles at most is time that they wouldn't be spending on something else, something that benefits you and us for a much larger percentage of the playing experience. Like say... snow, or AA guns, or ....

5. The building wasn't even that important. The fighting wasn't for the monastery really, it was for the heights AROUND the monastery. When you are that high up, adding a bit extra from the building does not make any real difference. The monastery just happens to look a lot sexier in photos than some rocky high ground. Hence when you read about the fighting around Monte Cassino, photos of the monastery are prominently displayed, and people are at risk of getting a warped idea of what was important.

6. The real fighting didn't occur at the monastery. It occurred around the monastery. For the large majority of potential scenarios this resource-sucking building would serve as a fancy backdrop, maybe a source of long-range MG fire at best.

7. The modular buildings actually do a pretty good job of simulating the building. It's not perfect, but it works well enough and looks pretty darn imposing.

Could we have made a special monastery building? Yes. But it would not be a wise investment of our resources given the scope of the Gustav Line project.

We did, however, make Primosole Bridge. Reason? The bridge is relatively simple and quick to make, hence the opportunity cost for it isn't very high. It's also generic-looking enough that it can be used elsewhere by players without looking completely out of place.

[Broadsword56]

.

We did, however, make Primosole Bridge. Reason? The bridge is relatively simple and quick to make, hence the opportunity cost for it isn't very high. It's also generic-looking enough that it can be used elsewhere by players without looking completely out of place.

Screen Shot! Screen shot!

[iMolestCats]

Screen Shot! Screen shot!

Must.... have....more...screenshots!!!

[Fuser]

I foresee this question being asked a lot in the future, so I'm going to get my long-winded reply out now:

Why, with the modular building tiles already present in the game of course. That's what they were made for.

We did not make a special Cassino Monastery building. The amount of artist and programmer resources it would require are orders of magnitude above what usefulness we would get out of it. I would have been downright irresponsible to have it made.

Reasons:

1. The building is HUGE, and has complicated geometric shapes compared to the dimensions used currently in CM. This has major programming implications for soldier pathfinding, behavior in buildings, spotting and line of fire, etc.

2. The building would require unique and specially-made textures and 3D artist work.

3. THEN there'd have to multiple versions of the monastery, both intact and bombed out. Multiply the time needed for points 1 and 2.

4. Points 1-3 above come with an opportunity cost. What time our artists and programmers would spend on this one building which would appear in one situation and a few battles at most is time that they wouldn't be spending on something else, something that benefits you and us for a much larger percentage of the playing experience. Like say... snow, or AA guns, or ....

5. The building wasn't even that important. The fighting wasn't for the monastery really, it was for the heights AROUND the monastery. When you are that high up, adding a bit extra from the building does not make any real difference. The monastery just happens to look a lot sexier in photos than some rocky high ground. Hence when you read about the fighting around Monte Cassino, photos of the monastery are prominently displayed, and people are at risk of getting a warped idea of what was important.

6. The real fighting didn't occur at the monastery. It occurred around the monastery. For the large majority of potential scenarios this resource-sucking building would serve as a fancy backdrop, maybe a source of long-range MG fire at best.

7. The modular buildings actually do a pretty good job of simulating the building. It's not perfect, but it works well enough and looks pretty darn imposing.

Could we have made a special monastery building? Yes. But it would not be a wise investment of our resources given the scope of the Gustav Line project.

We did, however, make Primosole Bridge. Reason? The bridge is relatively simple and quick to make, hence the opportunity cost for it isn't very high. It's also generic-looking enough that it can be used elsewhere by players without looking completely out of place.

That's what I consider a very balanced answer. Thank you.

P.S: still would like to fight under the vigilance of the Monastery though,...

[LukeFF]

Normal Dude, can you confirm as to whether or not the Lee-Enfield texture has been corrected so that it depicts the weapon with a buttplate now? It bugs me everytime I see that in CMBN.

[verulam]

Normal Dude, can you confirm as to whether or not the Lee-Enfield texture has been corrected so that it depicts the weapon with a buttplate now? It bugs me everytime I see that in CMBN.

Rambler is about to release his new weapons skins that include Lee-Enfield butt plates for CMBN, he tells us that it WILL BE May. I presume that these should be OK for Gustav.

However LukeFF is absolutely correct, it totally winds me up to see such an unfinished piece of work. I just don't understand why this was never finished.

Everything else looks pretty good, why spoil it with such an omission.

PS I do not have the skill myself to do this of course

[MeatEtr]

I kind'a suspect someone put snow on the ground in July.

Yes, so it was.

Yeah I was gonna say I just finished playtesting this scenario a few days ago and it does have the snowy mtn background. Not to mention the change to the snow conditions. Which I assume was changed for... ahem, advertising purposes.

[JonS]

... whether or not the Lee-Enfield texture has been corrected so that it depicts the weapon with a buttplate now?

Huh - I'd never even noticed that. It's funny, the different things people obsess over

[permanent666]

i am not concerned about buildings but what about destroyed buildings are there any plans to change the representation of rubble in game?

[womble]

i am not concerned about buildings but what about destroyed buildings are there any plans to change the representation of rubble in game?

If there are, we won't see them in GL. GL is a module and modules don't add new game features. That's for versions. We won't see any significant engine changes, therefore, until v3 at the absolute earliest, and not even then, I'd reckon, though converting to Bump Mapping was a big job; perhaps a thorough revision of the way terrain and buildings are handled is comparable, I couldn't say.

Oh wait. The module Gustav Line is adding new weather effects and the features to handle their inclusion in the editor... Maybe that line's not quite so cut and dried, after all.

[Fuser]

Weather and tank weathering and some other 3D objects are being modified in the GL module. Rubble is just that, so I think it could beeasily done if the devs wanted (I think that is very very low in their preference scale anyway). What I would love to see is fire in the terrain, I know,I know,... impossible at this point, but after watching a CMBB video where grass caught fire after a bombardment I thought it would be great to have in CMx2 too,...

[LukeFF]

Huh - I'd never even noticed that. It's funny, the different things people obsess over

Yeah, I tend to notice small details like this.

[verulam]

Yeah, I tend to notice small details like this.

The silence could indicate that they have not been done.