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Posted

Hi there,

 

I am thinking about using CMx2 as a "combat resolution engine" inside a much larger persistent campaign environment (air, sea, ground). Sort of like a France 1944 environment with autogenerated CMx2 scenarios for individual battles as they occur organically in the larger campaign.

 

Well, anyway, in order to achieve this concept I would like to write some code that generates valid .btt files (CMx2 scenario files) by injecting new unit data, locations etc. Now, as I understand it, the .btt files are in binary format so I have some questions:

 

1. Is there a programmatic tool available for decoding the .btt files into readable ascii, and re-encoding them again?

2. If not, can anyone tell me what the general structure is, or who to talk to in Battlefront about it?

3. Is there a way to parse the .bts files as well (I would need to gather the results of the scenario and inject them into the larger campaign environment).

 

For info, the larger campaign environment I am referring to is SEOW.

 

Cheers,

4Shades

I'm bringing 4Shades' post from 2012 back into focus on this forum, as he has now achieved an operational link between the "Scorched Earth Online War" Operational game and the "Arma 2: Iron Front" first person shooter game. See here for a Youtube video showing the idea and how it works in practice: http://seowhq.net/seowforum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1128

Now, four years on from the original post above, is Battlefront ready to support the development of the tools needed to link SEOW and Combat Mission? All that is needed are the abilities to programmatically create and populate a Combat Mission scenario map, briefing and OOB, and then produce a results output file at the end of a battle. If Battlefront is serious about supporting an operation layer in their Combat Mission engine, this is it. The SEOW Operational Layer is ready to go, today.

Posted

This looks like it could have amazing potential. If someone were able to get just the map generator working with CMs editor it would be fantastic. If its really as easy as you say it is to integrate the SEOW system with CM, then it sounds like a good idea to me. Not sure if Battlefront has seen this or contacted you yet, but I would recommend emailing them about this. I've heard that they are very good about responding to emails from customers, and it may be best to discuss this with them via private messages first. Just my two cents. Looking forward to seeing what happens!

Posted (edited)

This looks like it could have amazing potential....

No need for potential, SEOW is real, fully functional and in use in multiple "On-line Wars" already. The question is, is BFC serious about opening up CM by providing a method of generating battle files? They have stated that they are open to it in previous threads. Having said that, BFC is currently very busy with Final Blitzkrieg, the Battle Pack, new web front, etc. Any movement on this front is likely a couple of months away at a minimum. It'd be nice if someone "official" popped into this thread or contacted 4Shades in the mean time though. <hint hint> :)

Edited by BigDog944
Posted

As I mentioned before it might be best to try contacting BFC via private means about this first. After all at the very least it can't hurt. They probably are quite busy with the various things they're trying to get out the door right now, but I'm sure they would be willing to look into this once they get a chance, and if not have a good reason as to why.

In the meantime are there any additional details you can tell us? For instance is SEOW only for the Eastern Front? Could it be used for the modern CM games or just the WWII ones? 

I watched the demonstration video of the integration with Iron Front and thought that it looked great. Hopefully something good will come of this for CM!

Posted (edited)

Obviously, some of the maps that work for IL-2 would not be suitable for Combat Mission, but there almost certainly are maps that would work with each of the currently available CM titles. Undoubtedly auto-generated maps will not be nearly the quality of hand-crafted maps, but that is something that would evolve with time and community involvement.

Edited by BigDog944

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