3.0 Released!

[A Canadian Cat]

a few guys who think $10.00 is a material investment? C'mon. Get real. It's $10 bucks.

Hey, ten bucks is ten bucks eh.

http://meemsohnooo.blogspot.ca/2013/05/why-ten-bucks-is-ten-bucks-eh.html

[xornor]

I bought 2.0 but this small update does not seem to contain anything which would change game play remarkably. I am not interested to use 10 dollars for some graphical changes.

In my opinion it is just a bad joke to require purchasing for this kind of improvement.

[Fizou]

I bought 2.0 but this small update does not seem to contain anything which would change game play remarkably. I am not interested to use 10 dollars for some graphical changes.

In my opinion it is just a bad joke to require purchasing for this kind of improvement.

AI triggers, bigger maps, faster speed, command lines and AA shoting skywards.. You must be the one joking?!

[womble]

I'll say it again, for it bears repeating:

AI triggers.

Sure, wait til some scenarios come out that use them, but you'll want to play those and that will need the upgrade. And you'll get the benefit of the faster editor then, too, because the scenarios will come out sooner.

[Sequoia]

Personally I'd rather get the first Battlepack with flame vehicles (I'm assuming) and other stuff sooner rather than wait for tank riders.

[womble]

Would it be... odd if the new battlepack vehicles had the tankrider spots built on? You'd see them maybe picked in QBs because the gropos can ride 'em rather than because they added much in and of themselves...

[Childress]

I'll say it again, for it bears repeating:

AI triggers.

Yes, that's a big one. The downside being that this indisputable enhancement will take a while to filter down to existing CMBN/FI battles. If ever. We're assuming that Mark Ezra's recently released, AI trigger-equipped scenario was not fortuitous. How strong is an author's desire to revisit his old scenarios? Maybe quite a few, I don't know.

[Holman]

$10 buys me CMBN not becoming obsolete the way CMBO did. 'Nuf said.

[sburke]

Yes, that's a big one. The downside being that this indisputable enhancement will take a while to filter down to existing CMBN/FI battles. If ever. We're assuming that Mark Ezra's recently released, AI trigger-equipped scenario was not fortuitous. How strong is an author's desire to revisit his old scenarios? Maybe quite a few, I don't know.

I know I want to revisit Venafro. The original idea didn't really come through. With AI triggers I think I can do much much better.

[MikeyD]

Apparently giving players what they've been asking for is now considered a 'bad business model'.

If you really want to avoid the evils of this 'bad business model' there's always CM:Afghanistan. Its great fun to play and you will never be burdened by expansions, patches, modules or upgrades. The game engine very nearly matches CMBN v1.0 which makes is slightly more advanced than CMSF. Plus its discounted.

[Battlefront.com]

I bought 2.0 but this small update does not seem to contain anything which would change game play remarkably. I am not interested to use 10 dollars for some graphical changes.

In my opinion it is just a bad joke to require purchasing for this kind of improvement.

I was with you until you got to "bad joke". I have respect enough for our customers to admit, and sympathize, that each individual has the right to judge for themselves if a product is worth purchasing or purchasing at a particular price point. It doesn't really seem very mature of you to presume that your specific viewpoint is so important that no other perspective is worth considering as valid.

We make things for sale. If people don't agree with the value, we're going to be the first ones to know and we'll be the only ones to truly feel the pain. The marketplace is more than one person. Which is important since no credit card on Earth has a credit limit sufficient to pay for the costs of an entire game

In short, we can agree to disagree. But once you get up on a high horse, you're the one with the problem and not us.

Steve

[Frankster65]

I bought 2.0 but this small update does not seem to contain anything which would change game play remarkably. I am not interested to use 10 dollars for some graphical changes.

In my opinion it is just a bad joke to require purchasing for this kind of improvement.

IMHO your statement is really the joke. Hey, thanks for the laugh.

[Toblakai]

Would be really nice to have complete list of changings of the new engine v3

Target Briefly +15, air support like in CMRT, moving ATGs over short distances are also in.

The bug water splashes' lack of FOW is still there.

What more?

[Battlefront.com]

For us it's tough to decide what's worth of a "bullet point" on the website and in the ReadMe, and what is more-or-less a routine fix/tweak. The ATG thing over short distances is what I would call a tweak because inherently there's nothing new. Just a slightly different behavior, though it is definitely borderline new feature so I could go either way on that one. Target Briefly cycling was, actually, brought up for inclusion on the list. I think it probably should be on there, so I'll get it added.

The water splashes is something I'll see about getting fixed. For sure the intention isn't to have that be a break in FoW.

Steve

[Rosseau]

I have CMRT and holding off on 3.0 for the others at the moment. Here is the question for me - will we be seeing CMBN and/or CMFI modules in the next year maybe that will require 3.0 upgrade?

Reason is, I think it is a very good deal to just have to pay $5 for 3.0 upgrade when buying a new module. That's a very fair policy. So, any modules planned? Thanks!

[MikeyD]

Steve's been promising Churchill Crocodile in the CMBN final(?) pack for ages. That would definitely need the game configured to handle flamethrowers. Since flamethrowers are the 'new big thing' to come out of CMRT I'd imagine CMFI would probably get 'em too. Nobody knows anything about future combo packs or discounts. It may be a long wait just to (maybe) save five bucks.

[Childress]

...flamethrowers are the 'new big thing' to come out of CMRT ...

Some will take issue with that assertion, Mikey.

[Ranger33]

I still don't understand why all of the titles run on separate engines which must be patched/upgraded separately, despite being 99% the same as far as gameplay, sharing the same features, and all depicting the same era of warfare. Wouldn't it make more sense to just have one engine and add content for various theaters to it via modules? Like the way DCS World works? It just seems like the most logical way to organize this series. You could even allow third party modules just like DCS does for more exotic stuff.

[JoMac]

From what I've been gathering here on the Forum, I will probably wait unil there is a Hotfix/Patch for v3.0 before I buy it.

Joe

[sburke]

I have CMRT and holding off on 3.0 for the others at the moment. Here is the question for me - will we be seeing CMBN and/or CMFI modules in the next year maybe that will require 3.0 upgrade?

Reason is, I think it is a very good deal to just have to pay $5 for 3.0 upgrade when buying a new module. That's a very fair policy. So, any modules planned? Thanks!

Statements have been pretty firm no additional modules for CMBN. I think the expectation is there is still one to go for CMFI. Can't say if the packs would present an option as they have yet to do a battle pack. I think the question you will need to ask is how long you want to wait if all the new scenarios people create are inaccessible to you as you aren't up to date. The triggers are really a big thing for designers, I wouldn't expect to see a whole lot of pre3.0 scenarios being made. Just a thought.

[CanuckGamer]

I am currently in the middle of a PBEM game with a friend and just want to clarify how installing the 3.0 upgrade would impact our game. In this thread someone indicated that as long as you save the game in the command phase and then install the upgrade our current PBEM game would be fine. Is this correct?

Secondly, I assume that both of us would have to install the upgrade to continue, in other words each of us must have the same version. Correct?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can clarify the above for me.

[Battlefront.com]

I still don't understand why all of the titles run on separate engines which must be patched/upgraded separately, despite being 99% the same as far as gameplay, sharing the same features, and all depicting the same era of warfare. Wouldn't it make more sense to just have one engine and add content for various theaters to it via modules? Like the way DCS World works? It just seems like the most logical way to organize this series. You could even allow third party modules just like DCS does for more exotic stuff.

Some flaws in how the code was originally structured. When we started out we did not think we'd keep a Family of games alive indefinitely. That only came about after our experiences with Shock Force showed us that it was the right way to go. So there's a lot of customer backs and forths that have to be sussed out. For example, we accidentally used the CMRT air support logic for CMBN and CMFI. We didn't mean to do that, it is just that differences between the Families have to be managed.

Obviously if we could go back in time we'd do things differently. The game engine would be inherently designed to be its own thing with different content running off of it with the ability for each release to custom use/ignore various game features that are/aren't intended for it.

But time travel is outside of our budget, so we're just going to suck it up and keep supporting multiple Families as individual product lines.

Steve

[Toblakai]

Would be really nice to have complete list of changings of the new engine v3

Target Briefly +15, air support like in CMRT, moving ATGs over short distances are also in.

The bug water splashes' lack of FOW is still there.

What more?

For us it's tough to decide what's worth of a "bullet point" on the website and in the ReadMe, and what is more-or-less a routine fix/tweak. The ATG thing over short distances is what I would call a tweak because inherently there's nothing new. Just a slightly different behavior, though it is definitely borderline new feature so I could go either way on that one. Target Briefly cycling was, actually, brought up for inclusion on the list. I think it probably should be on there, so I'll get it added.

The water splashes is something I'll see about getting fixed. For sure the intention isn't to have that be a break in FoW.

Steve

Hi Steve, thanks for answering.

1. For a seriously Combat Mission player every change in the gameplay is important

2. So, the game engine of CMRT was adopted 1:1? Apart from Tank Riders? (Flamethrowers are in my opinion new units)

3. What about Crowdfunding? Could this be a way to realize Modules that have less market demand (e.g. Operation Sea Lion, Fall Gelb, Operation Barbarossa, DAK)?

[womble]

I am currently in the middle of a PBEM game with a friend and just want to clarify how installing the 3.0 upgrade would impact our game. In this thread someone indicated that as long as you save the game in the command phase and then install the upgrade our current PBEM game would be fine. Is this correct?

Secondly, I assume that both of us would have to install the upgrade to continue, in other words each of us must have the same version. Correct?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can clarify the above for me.

You are correct on both counts.

BFC always say that you shouldn't bank on new versions being backward compatible with old version games, but it seems that on this occasion they've managed to maintain that compatibility.

[JoMac]

Is there going to be a v3.0 Hotfix/Bug fix in coming weeks ( v2.20 becomes v2.21hotfix or somefink ), or will it come in a form of a standard patch months later.

I want to purchase the v3.0 Upgrade in Disk form, but will wait till most of the hotfix/bug fixes are incorporated.

Joe