CMBN Whiners thread!

[Daroc]

Yes rant over I'm all caught up with the present state of CMx2.

I do look forward to playing in PBEM with you all.

I haven't played that much single player yet - what I have has been in Iron WEGO/Real and the AI gives a good game the trick is cracking the nut. The game gives the best for a single player and it isn't gamey. I watched all of poor 'ol spike videos and saw what you did in PBEM with CMx1 I was turned off.

If I see gamey stuff in PBEM I will probably not play that person anymore.

Biggest thing that irks me is the ATV AI. I'm not going into point by point everyone knows the big elephant in the forum.

Game On

[sburke]

Yes there are six. Unless Combat Mission: Shock Force doesn't exist in your universe. I suspect it does. When I mention the number of modules I am talking about the amount of harddrive space required to support multiple installs so we can play with people the "easy" way.

CW and MG or any othe Eastern Front expansions which will include Germans and Russians until the end of time.

Gawd, I give up, you just can't get past that straw man. You can only count the modules in the GAME you are playing, not the ones you are not playing. CMBN has two modules. According to BF they will likely most have two modules. I don't care if CM East Front 1941 has 2 modules if I am playing a PBEM in CM East Front 1944 - it is not relevant. Are you playing anyone HTH right now? I hope to hell you say yes otherwise I am seriously going to wonder about your purpose in this discussion. Please for my sanity, say yes even if you aren't.

[sburke]

Biggest thing that irks me is the ATV AI. I'm not going into point by point everyone knows the big elephant in the forum.

Game On

Umm not to sound ignorant- cause I really am - what is ATV AI?

and pick your opponents well. The game takes on a whole other character if you and your gaming partner are in synch.

[bobo]

Umm not to sound ignorant- cause I really am - what is ATV AI?

and pick your opponents well. The game takes on a whole other character if you and your gaming partner are in synch.

That's where you can't get you ATV in your truck. Check YouTube....

Bobo

[Daroc]

That's where you can't get you ATV in your truck. Check YouTube....

Bobo

MT AFV's my bad sry

[sburke]

MT AFV's my bad sry

No sweat, but I am still kind of in the dark.

[Michael Emrys]

Motorized Transport (?) Armored Fighting Vehicles. Otherwise, your guess is probably as good as mine.

Michael

[John Kettler]

mech.gato,

Love your satellite jape, but there's more to it than you may know. Consider this news item.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/balloon-camera-duct-tape-shoot-earth-pictures-space/story?id=10210658

PelicanPal,

Since squirrels are known plague carriers, perhaps he doesn't value his particular indehiscent fruit highly enough?

bobo,

FB =Facebook. I invoked it because you said (your No. 10) "I keep posting until you like me." I figured you were having a capitalization issue!

JonS,

Not only was your No. 60 a tour de force reply, which was also amusing, but it reminded me I really do need to get myself a 1 TB external drive. Not only are they now affordable, but that would double my HD storage.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Michael Emrys]

I also don't care to follow BFCs personal dictionary of what words mean.

Ah, so you vote for babbling. Duly noted. From now on I will view your posts as meaningless drivel. Thanks for the clarification.

Michael

[IronCat60]

Thanks everyone for understanding my humorous jabs at Daroc.

I was trying to deescalate a rising tension between the involved parties by the oldest trick in the book, "lookest thou over there".

If anyone here watches the "Last Ship" the character of Tex is me to a "t". Used to make my seniors wonder about my abilities as a Platoon Sergeant but the men loved it.

Especially in tense situations humor is a tool to break the cycle of worry and doubt going through a troopers mind. "Hey if Sarge is giving orders and cracking a few jokes about the enemy I think he has a good handle on this situation, so why am I worrying!

Mech.Gato

Quick, grab anything that kills!

Sheriff Porky's 2 The Revenge

[IronCat60]

Daroc might mean Motorized Transport (trucks) and Armored Fighting Vehicles.

In the scenario "Facade Troops" for MG, one objective was right up a road that the "Hermans" trucked in on. After dropping off troops, the truck drivers would race up the road to occupy the objective only to loose in a game of chicken with a hail of lead directed their way.

Really dumb thing for the A.I to do. So I tried changing the trucks to "Hanomags" (Sd.Kfz251) to give them a fighting chance. Well some of them dropped off troops and hung back as support while others just ran down the road fully loaded and got everyone in the vehicle B.B.Q'ed by PIAT.

Yep sometimes the A.I. isn't the sharpest Cylon in the shed.

Mech.Gato

HAL 9000 "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that"

2001 a Space Odyssey

[sburke]

Daroc might mean Motorized Transport (trucks) and Armored Fighting Vehicles.

In the scenario "Facade Troops" for MG, one objective was right up a road that the "Hermans" trucked in on. After dropping off troops, the truck drivers would race up the road to occupy the objective only to loose in a game of chicken with a hail of lead directed their way.

Really dumb thing for the A.I to do. So I tried changing the trucks to "Hanomags" (Sd.Kfz251) to give them a fighting chance. Well some of them dropped off troops and hung back as support while others just ran down the road fully loaded and got everyone in the vehicle B.B.Q'ed by PIAT.

Yep sometimes the A.I. isn't the sharpest Cylon in the shed.

Mech.Gato

HAL 9000 "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that"

2001 a Space Odyssey

Actually that sounds more like a design issue. The carriers and the troops they are transporting can be separate AI groups.

[sfhand]

.... When I mention the number of modules I am talking about the amount of harddrive space required to support multiple installs so we can play with people the "easy" way...

Ummm... I'm not really sure I want to step into this (yes, I am making that analogy ). Well, to Hell with better judgement, here goes.

All this time I thought I have been playing the game the easy way. I play against people who have the same version of the game I do; there is nothing hard about it. I have one install of the game.

I have gifted friends games over the years (my Steam collection is over 100 which is nowhere near yours). Some of those games have been CM titles (including modules). My grandson recently showed an interest in CM for the first time, guess who bought him his copy.

So, for me, the easy way is to play with people who have the same version of the game I do. If I "need" to play against someone who doesn't have the same version I do I make sure he/she has it so "my" need can be met.

[Heirloom_Tomato]

I am the father of 5 daughters all of whom love watching me play CM. We have even had a few games played against each other over the home network. The joy of having multiple activation keys is both the computers in our house can play the same game at the same time all from one purchase. This is impossible with the other popular game they love to play, CIV 5 from Steam. We would need to create a new account and purchase a second copy of the game to play CIV 5 over a home network the same as CM. Thanks for making this possible Battlefront!!

However this is the whiners thread so I had better start whining! Since my girls have begun playing with me they have started to ask questions. Why did the war start? Why did Canada join the fight if we lived so far away from the fighting? Did any women fight in the war? Why do all your tanks always seem to be on fire? So we have begun having WW2 history lessons at night. In one of my books they noticed a Russian woman holding a sniper rifle and asked "Where are the female soldiers in Red Thunder"? I had to tell them they were not in the game.

When I downloaded the 3.0 upgrade today my oldest noticed the announcement said "Gentlemen time to upgrade your war" and she said to me, "Well I guess us girls get stuck with old version as we don't get to upgrade." At age 12 her sarcasm already sucks. :mad:

However this got me thinking. I know my girls are not the only women who play the game as we all know c3k's wife played Bil in the MG AAR. So in honour of all the women who play this game I demand justice!! The way I see it there are only three options available to Battlefront to rectify this grievous insult to women everywhere:

1. Introduce a female face icon for the Russian army in Red Thunder. It should be a simple fix and could be included in the patch the same as the Germany Navy icons were fixed after the release of MG.

2. Introduce live horses to the game. Girls love horses. Need I say more?

3. Introduce CM Schlieffen Plan at the earliest possible moment. My girls need to know what happened in WW I and what better way to teach them than with a Combat Mission game?

In every argument there always has to be one person who reminds us all to think of the children. Please Battlefront, think of the children.

[Erwin]

"Introduce a female face icon for the Russian army in Red Thunder."

+1

Someone more versed in history can verify/critique, but other than lone snipers, I think the Russian women were in their own formations, not mixed with the men. (Authoritative research source: Peckinpah's CROSS OF IRON.)

I have often asked BF for Red light district Hookers as well. But, maybe not a good role model in this instance.

(I also agree that most tanks didn't catch fire or blow up spectacularly like they do in CM2. They just sat there with a hole in them. That's why other tankers would keep shooting at them even when passing by. IIRC some enterprising enemy tankers would just sit there all quiet and KO'd like, and suddenly decide to kill something.)

[Heirloom_Tomato]

Erwin I was referencing my poor play as to why my tanks are on fire. While CM Red Light District might be a popular module I think I would skip it.... again for the children.

[Pelican Pal]

Gawd, I give up, you just can't get past that straw man. You can only count the modules in the GAME you are playing, not the ones you are not playing. CMBN has two modules. According to BF they will likely most have two modules. I don't care if CM East Front 1941 has 2 modules if I am playing a PBEM in CM East Front 1944 - it is not relevant. Are you playing anyone HTH right now? I hope to hell you say yes otherwise I am seriously going to wonder about your purpose in this discussion. Please for my sanity, say yes even if you aren't.

There are two problems that I am talking about. Although you seem to ignore one of them.

1). To play CM PBEM the "easy way" with multiple opponents with different modules the recommendation is to keep multiple installs up with those different versions available. So in this case the total number of modules is important because it demands more harddrive space.

2). Organizing a game so that it will be playable by people with different content. In this case only the modules in the game being played matter.

SFhand, I'm not really sure if I should take your suggestion seriously... I should buy my opponents the modules I own?

[sfhand]

PP, if you "must" play with a certain individual and they don't have what you have, and have no interest in acquiring it, (I admit I only play with people who have what I have so I am not sure of what happens if you let the "content limited" party start the game) then you "must" help them out if you are dead set on playing with that certain individual. The more sensible option is to play with people who have what you have, don't you think?

[sburke]

There are two problems that I am talking about. Although you seem to ignore one of them.

Nope not ignoring them but you didn't answer my question- do you even have one pbem going?

That might be relevant to deciding how much difficulty you face in figuring out what content issues you might have.

[Pelican Pal]

PP, if you "must" play with a certain individual and they don't have what you have, and have no interest in acquiring it, (I admit I only play with people who have what I have so I am not sure of what happens if you let the "content limited" party start the game) then you "must" help them out if you are dead set on playing with that certain individual. The more sensible option is to play with people who have what you have, don't you think?

Which is silly when you have a already small population of players. I don't have to play with anyone in specific, but I want to be able to play with a wider population of players and feel like I don't need to have the latest and greatest of everything to play.

Sburke, you are ignoring them. I might be playing multiple PBEMs, or maybe just one. I might be part of a club, or I might just find my opponents on the forums. It doesn't matter what I do.

The way BFC has designed the modular system should also include a method to easily play with a player regardless of what modules and battlepacks either player owns.

[sburke]

Sburke, you are ignoring them. I might be playing multiple PBEMs, or maybe just one. I might be part of a club, or I might just find my opponents on the forums. It doesn't matter what I do.

And yet still you don't answer which leads one to believe you are making a mountain of an issue that you aren't facing at all. I have had multiple pbem partners and not had this issue yet. I also don't see anyone raising as much fuss on this as you.

[Pelican Pal]

Yes, I do in fact have PBEMs going on. That is neither here nor there though.

I also don't see how I am making this a big issue. I've only said this is a useability problem that should be addressed. For the price we pay we shouldn't have to mess around with making sure multiplayer games are able to be setup when there are different modules involved.

[Michael Emrys]

Why do all your tanks always seem to be on fire?

I imagine that one must be particularly embarrassing to explain.

Michael

[Michael Emrys]

I might be playing multiple PBEMs, or maybe just one. I might be part of a club, or I might just find my opponents on the forums. It doesn't matter what I do.

Okay, so what I am hearing from that is that you are speaking theoretically, trying to anticipate a problem that has not arisen yet. While there is nothing specifically wrong with that, it would seem that the time is just not ripe for raising this issue.

The way BFC has designed the modular system should also include a method to easily play with a player regardless of what modules and battlepacks either player owns.

I'm not sure that there is any easy way to implement that idea, in fact I suspect that with only two programmers available to do everything the company needs to do, it might push back work on everything else back for weeks or even months. In short, while your suggestion might well be of the "nice to have" variety, I wouldn't look for it to have a top of the list priority.

Michael

[A Canadian Cat]

1). To play CM PBEM the "easy way" with multiple opponents with different modules the recommendation is to keep multiple installs up with those different versions available. So in this case the total number of modules is important because it demands more harddrive space.

You are making this harder than it has to be. Yes, when a new patch or upgrade comes out to keep playing existing games the right thing to do is keep a second install around with the older version. But that is all you have to do.

After those games end you delete the install. The most I have have ever had was two extra copies of games - something like 10-15Gb.

Trying to have installs hanging around for ever combination of versions and modules is silly. If you really found some one who had an old version I would spend more time convincing them to upgrade than install an older version. But I suppose you could.

Modules are totally not part of this picture - with a small exception see below.

The argument that only starting new games using the newest version is some how reducing the player population just does not hold water. Over at the bliz - where I play most of my games this is standard procedure and I still have too many people to play. I have to several times a week say no sorry I cannot play you I have too many games already on the go. So, if the player base is shrinking I'm not feeling it and I see not indication that is happening.

2). Organizing a game so that it will be playable by people with different content. In this case only the modules in the game being played matter.

With scenarios this is easy and totally not an issue. When you select a scenario in the battle list the required modules light up at the bottom of the screen. So if you have all the modules and you to play some one that has none then it is easy as pie to select a scenario that they can play.

The only place there is even an issue is Quick Battles. In that case you have to crack open the manual or the announcement page to remember what orders of battle you can and cannot pick from to support. So there is an inconvenience here.

I personally would like to see an addition of an module needed indicator in the QB force choice screen. Hopefully someday.

To me it looks like you are basing an entire dooms day argument on one small thing that is not convenient.