Newbie player (sort of) feeling lost

[Rikki]

Well, I'm not a REAL newbie since I got the game when it first came out, but the game has been dormant on my hard drive for years due to other demands on my time. Now I've "re-discovered" the game and this fabulous forum and trying to catch up on all that's been going on. After a fair bit of reading of old posts, I have a few questions:

I'm interested in trying my hand at either TCP/IP or PBEM (see post in Opponent Finder). Is there still a decent pool of players for CMBO or have most people moved on to the other versions of the game?

Do people ever post their AARs of games, either against computer or human?

What is a "mod?" I assume this refers to modified graphics (and sounds?) of certain units in the game but possibly terrain elements, too? Is this something that gets used in the factory scenarios or just player-created scenarios?

I downloaded the 1.12 patch (for the Mac). Any other patches, info or must-have support materials I should know about?

Where is the best place to find player-created scenarios? I've heard of the Scenerio Depot -- is this part of the Battlefront system or is it a hobby site? What are the preferred hobby sites for downloads and updates these days?

Have there been a lot of tremendous improvements in game design or modelling in the newer CM versions versus the original, or are they generally just different WW2 campaigns with a few tweaks?

I still haven't tried my hand at scenario editing but I'm sure someday soon I'll be all over it. Is there a FAQ or guidelines of some sort floating around that offers some wisdom gleaned from the years of scenario-making?

Any other "news" I should know about to help me get up to speed?

Thanks, all!

[junk2drive]

go here, at the bottom got to mod school (mods) and mod levels (scenarios design for beginners)

Mark Gallear's Mod Corner

to try out your battles with playtesters

The Proving Grounds

to find other peoples tested battles

The Scenario Depot

[Pzman]

Rikki as a Mac user Mods (for CMBO anyway) are a little different than for a PC user. In CMBO (only btw) you must use a program to edit the graphics files. You can find two Mac Mod Mangers at CMHQ under 3rd Party Mods or you can use a program called Res-Edit by Apple (if you can still get it that is). www.combatmission.com

The programs at CMHQ are easy to use so I would suggest starting with one of them. To use them just read the readme's that come with the mod manger.

The new games do have some major improvements in graphics and new infantry and armor models are included as well. Moving from CMBO to CMBB or CMAK is a big change, but not so much as moving from another WWII game to CM in general. The Scenairo Depot is not BFC run, but its worth a vist as it is the best place to get new battles.

[Rikki]

Thanks, Panzerman, you answered a lot of questions in one fell swoop. Hmm. Looks like I'm going to have to churn through a lot of games quickly so that I can hasten my "burn-out" on CMBO and move up to CMBB and CMAK where all you cool dudes hang out. As for mod editing, I actually have ResEdit and have a tiny bit of experience using it in making TacOps maps but it sounds like the 3rd party editing programs might be better and easier to work with.

[Pzman]

Untill your graphics files starting getting too big using the other programs are. Your Graphics files max out at 10 or 12mbs IIRC, so after that you can use Res Edit to swap files into the winter graphics sets to creat more space, but that shouldn't be a problem for a while. With CMBB and CMAK there are just plain BMPs as for PC users so you would just install the new files into the BMP folder for them.

[poppy]

Hello Rikki Im trying to progress to CMAK also but the graphics in CMBO are better in my opinion. Less eyestrain for one thing. Poppy