Campaigns

[zmoney]

Hello battle buddies. I was wondering which campaigns are good to go and which ones are still being updated? Ie Brit campaign, Marines etc....

[Boche]

All but the brit and dutch campaigns have been updated, so far.

[lsailer]

As a CMBN noob, I get confused by all the CMXX variants.

Can someone point me at a summary of maybe what are the first scenario/battle/mods that I should add?

Note that at this point I am still preferring engagements of company size or smaller, otherwise my brain gets full.

Thanks in advance.

lee

 

[Erwin]

There is no easy answer to that question.  You'll have to look at what mods are available and select the ones that you like the most for the game you want to play.  After that comes madness as you have to select from literally thousands of mods that are available.

Maybe select a scenario you want to play, then make a list of the units in that scenario, then go look for mods for those units.  Of course there are many UI, FX, SOUNDS, and TERRAIN mods that will work with all scenarios.  

[froggyluv]

 

 Im with the OP - its a bit daunting here as theres so many anacronyms CMBN/CBBN/CBRT2... I also was impressed with the demo's gameplay but like the smaller scale missions as well. Also do Squads in the Campaigns gain experience from one mission to the next finally turning into Crack troops?

[Ithikial_AU]

3 hours ago, froggyluv said:

Also do Squads in the Campaigns gain experience from one mission to the next finally turning into Crack troops?

US Army, US Marines, German Army and Canadian Army campaigns have been revamped to take advantage of CMSF2 capabilities. The British Army and Dutch Army campaigns are still being worked on by part of the volunteer beta testers behind the scenes. Preview of the Dutch Campaign I posted last night:

As for you query, the answer is no. CM campaigns are still relatively small scale affairs and usually over a small time frame (a few days). A few days of combat doesn't turn a green horn into a crack commando. Those types of RPG elements are well outside the scope of CM.

[froggyluv]

Quote

A few days of combat doesn't turn a green horn into a crack commando. Those types of RPG elements are well outside the scope of CM.

I get that but its really not that far fetched to represent some actual bullet time troops to fresh guys showing up to be shot at for their very first time. I see squads have things like Morale/Nervousness/Courage type factoring so it doesnt seem that far fetched to simply reinforce some of those values from mission to mission. Doesnt have to be Crack but makes it more fun and interesting when you have squads that have survived certain things get a bonus or personality trait going into the next encounter. Makes me more attached to the little AI squaddies. Ive only ever modded in Arma and this would be a simple feat - is this not possible to mod into this system?

[Sgt.Squarehead]

17 hours ago, Ithikial_AU said:

As for you query, the answer is no. CM campaigns are still relatively small scale affairs and usually over a small time frame (a few days). A few days of combat doesn't turn a green horn into a crack commando. Those types of RPG elements are well outside the scope of CM.

I thought there was an 'experience' setting in campaign scripts?

PS - I've checked and there isn't, apparently there never was either, but I could have sworn I'd seen that option somewhere.....Must have been another game, but I can't imagine which one (one of the CM originals maybe)? 

Edited September 17, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[froggyluv]

yeah that would be it "Experience"

Still havent bought the game but would that be difficult to just script in?

[A Canadian Cat]

16 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Must have been another game, but I can't imagine which one (one of the CM originals maybe)? 

Nope.

 

14 hours ago, froggyluv said:

yeah that would be it "Experience"

Still havent bought the game but would that be difficult to just script in?

Script it? I am guessing this is an Arma term. The thing about CM is that it really cannot be modded it can be skinned. We call it modding around here but you cannot modify vehicle armour protection, define new vehicles, change the small arms makeup of a squad, modify the TO&E of a formation or change the armour penetration value of a weapons system.

Having said all that the campaign system in CM is a series of scenarios connected by a script that defines the path and a core units file that allows the tracking of casualties from a main force. The way this is done is you create a scenario file that really just contains the core force and import that into each scenario you want them to appear. Once the core force is imported you can remove elements (say you want the core force to be a battalion but you want battles that are company sized). Once that import is done you can adjust things - such as add attached teams or equipment. I wonder if you could also tweak the experience value for a scenario. It would depend on how the core units are handled from scenario to scenario.

I have never created a campaign but it could be worth a try.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Theoretically you could give the impression of 'experience' and new issues of equipment by placing multiple identically named units within the core, then importing from them as appropriate.....The drawback of this approach is that if a named 'character' gets killed in an early variant of the unit, there is no way to edit the later iterations to reflect that, he will be resurrected! 

Edited September 18, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[grungar]

On 9/14/2019 at 1:46 PM, lsailer said:

As a CMBN noob, I get confused by all the CMXX variants.

Can someone point me at a summary of maybe what are the first scenario/battle/mods that I should add?

Note that at this point I am still preferring engagements of company size or smaller, otherwise my brain gets full.

Thanks in advance.

lee

 

                    for cmbn aris has a mass amount of work done. you can get mods for every vehicle from him even many in one dl...he has a good terrain mod too. inzipping all of them in an originized way is key to getting them to work so look at the manuel about mods

[Erwin]

When you create your MOD folder I recommend that you also create several subfolders eg:  ZTERRAIN; ZUNIFORMS; ZFX; ZSOUNDS; ZUI ETC. as that will greatly help reduce confusion.  I also have a ZZDESIRED MODS folder for new mods I want to test.

(The Z prefix ensures that the contents of the folder will be loaded last, and ZZ will make it load after Z.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

I've gone down the road of separate installs for the bigger mods ('Heaven & Earth').

[Erwin]

That also makes sense.  I just switch Mod folders.

[Danny03]

Hi,

Do you guys (the beta testers) work on the renewal of the campaigns in parallel?

If so, could the team that is responsible for the British campaign update us on the status too?

As somebody who plays single player only, I would greatly appreciate some news on the British front  

[Combatintman]

On ‎9‎/‎29‎/‎2019 at 11:59 PM, Danny03 said:

Hi,

Do you guys (the beta testers) work on the renewal of the campaigns in parallel?

If so, could the team that is responsible for the British campaign update us on the status too?

As somebody who plays single player only, I would greatly appreciate some news on the British front  

They've probably stopped for a brew 

[landser]

Just picked up SF2 (big bundle) and was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a good first campaign?  Ideally not too big (company sized?) and one that features a nice variety of assets (air, artillery, electronic, etc) Which campaign would you recommend to start with?

Edited October 23, 2019 by landser

[Pandur]

If you want to play campaign right away, just play the original campaign, Task Force Thunder.

Edited October 23, 2019 by Pandur

[landser]

Thanks for the recommendation, any particular reason why you suggest that one? It looks like a big one, and a long one. I might wait before tackling it.

So I'm new to Shock Force, never played the first iteration. I assumed too much in regards to campaign availability for this one I think, or I don't know where to look. The Scenario Depot has none. And just seven come with the game, one being the training campaign. So I had a look at what's listed at the SD III for SF1 and there are some there. I had no idea if these would work in SF2 but I reasoned they would. Had a look about and selected George MCs Forging Steel campaign, loaded it up and all seems fine with it. Matter of fact it seemed just my cuppa, platoon-sized (at least the opening probe), backed by a platoon of M1s, which is a perfect sort of setup for me to get in the groove really.

And I liked it. Played about the first 40 minutes and made good progress, but kept thinking man these enemy troops seem fanatical. Dislodging them from the extensive trenches/ditches on the map seemed exceedingly difficult. They didn't break, didn't run.  I wanted to see what was going on so I opened it up and saw that every enemy soldier and vehicle is Crack. Yep that explains it. Is the rest of the campaign the same?  Is the Syrian army so finely honed?

Any other recommendations? It doesn't matter much to me at this point if it's gotten the SF2 treatment now that I see those work fine. Is there anywhere to find campaigns aside from the Scenario Depot? My IT guy seems to have blocked IanLs site, so can't check from work. Does he have any that aren't at SD III?

[domfluff]

Task Force Thunder is long, but the missions are generally quite small - platoons and companies, for the most part.

[danfrodo]

Hi Landser, I picked up SF2 a few months ago and played quite a bit.  I started TF Thunder and got about 10 missions in.  LOTS OF FUN.  Much smaller than Blunting the Spear battles.  I will finish Thunder when I get done w Spear.  Unless distracted by new FI release.  This is a high class problem, too many good battles to fight.

[landser]

Thanks man, that sounds quite manageable. I am just coming off completing the Blunting the Spear campaign in Red Thunder and and after that I was looking for something a bit lighter

Which brings up something that I was thinking last night... in-game we get very little info on the campaigns we have installed from the selection screen. It might say small, or huge or large. What does this mean? Is it campaign length, force size, map size, all of it, some or none? Why so little info here aside from the author's brief description? It would be nice to know more. Task Force Thunder is listed as large I think, but more of an indication that it's long?

And also, is there a way to back out in CMx2 after reading the general briefing? In CMx1 you could choose cancel. Maybe I don't see how, but to check out a campaign I need to actually load the first scenario in CMx2, and that's after reading the general briefing!

[danfrodo]

Thunder is lots of mission, not large battles.  Really fun.  But if new to SF2 might want to do some scenarios/QBs to get used to the weapons & tactics before going into the campaign.  What until you see what a javelin missile can do, it's insane.

[landser]

Thanks Danfrodo, good to know. Maybe I'll kick it off this evening. I want to see more of Forging Steel but I might shelve it for a while.  And besides, one of the things that attracted me to SF2 was the fact it's so different from what I've played before and things like drones are one of the toys I want to play with, and SF1 did not have these correct? Were they added to Task Force Thunder when it got the makeover for SF2? What other types of changes were made to bring it up to SF2 level? New AI plans, briefings and the like?

 

I played a few QBs to see what's what (with Javelin) and campaigns are where it is for me.

Edited October 24, 2019 by landser