CM Black Sea is now available on Steam! Here is how to get your Steam key if you already own the game!

[BFCElvis]

Like Shock Force 2 before it, Combat Mission Black Sea is now available on Steam! 

If you already own Black Sea you can get a Steam key for no charge. This is the same note that was posted when Shock Force 2 became available. The process for Black Sea is the same.

 

Hi guys,

 

We’re very pleased to be working with Battlefront and know many of you are eagerly anticipating the release of Combat Mission. We wanted to give you some details on how things will work and both teams will do their best to make this process as painless as possible for you all to get your games working on Steam. 

 

·        Steam keys will be available to anybody who purchased the game, no matter where they purchased. All users will get steam keys by creating an account with Matrix/Slitherine to redeem a steam key. The reason for this is Matrix already have a process to distribute the keys and Battlefront didn’t and it would have been a lot of work for them to create such as system so it felt simpler to use a system that already works. Sorry for the inconvenience of anyone who needs to create an account because of this. 

·        Once you have an account you can redeem Steam keys in the normal way by following these instructions - https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=93585

·        Note that if you bought a bundle from Battlefront you will only have one serial for all the games in the bundle. To redeem all the pieces of your bundle as Steam keys you will need to register that serial for each part of the bundle. E.g. if you purchased the base game and British Forces bundle you would register that serial twice, once to the base game and once to the DLC. Each will generate a unique Steam key for that piece of content on Steam and must be redeemed on Steam separately. 

·        When purchasing a bundle on Matrix/Slitherine you will receive a serial for each part separately. 

·        The versions on Matrix, Battlefront and Steam are identical apart from some minor changes to make the game compatible with Steam. Steam requires all the game content to be in the install folder so the placement of some files will be different to the Battlefront version but this is all behind the scenes and the features are identical. Multiplayer is possible between versions. 

·        Customers who buy from Matrix/Slitherine will have access to the Matrix installer and a Steam key. Customers who buy from Battlefront will have access to the Battlefront version and Steam key. Matrix/Slitherine customers will not have access to the Battlefront version and vice versa. 

·        Any Steam key redemption issues should be reported to the Matrix forum, as Battlefront are not able to help with that. 

·        Other tech support should be requested at your point of purchase but both companies will try and help out anyone who has an issue if they can. Obviously any order issues can only be investigated by the site you purchased from as neither company has access to that kind of info for the other. 

·        If you have any questions or problems please let us know and we will do our best to help. 

[MikeyD]

!!!!!!! 

[Lille Fiskerby]

Congratulations on the release 

[Lille Fiskerby]

Now, is hells highway cleared for XXX. Corps to move forward towards ... Fire and Rubble ? 

[Reverend Crass]

Nice one, thank you!

[badipaddress]

Thanks for the news, I've just bought the Matrix bundle.

[fireship4]

Since all Black Sea owners can, if I understand correctly, get the latest version now via Steam, will you be allowing those who bought Black Sea on release to download the latest patches through battlefront.com?

[HUSKER2142]

Sorry for the offtopic, but what is the audience growth after the release of CMSF2 in STEAM. It's too early to talk about CMBS.

[Bufo]

Finally the best CM game is on steam 

[BFCElvis]

1 hour ago, fireship4 said:

Since all Black Sea owners can, if I understand correctly, get the latest version now via Steam, will you be allowing those who bought Black Sea on release to download the latest patches through battlefront.com?

Yes, if you only own the Game Engine 3 version you now have Game Engine 4 on Steam. The logistics of getting everyone with only Game Engine 3 a 4.0 Upgrade for free isn't worth the time and effort it would take for something that we are still selling.  Makes sense, right?

[Stardekk]

How do I get a serial number for the steam key ? I asked Slitherine and they told me to go to you guys for that. 

Edited January 21, 2021 by Stardekk

[BFCElvis]

47 minutes ago, HUSKER2142 said:

Sorry for the offtopic, but what is the audience growth after the release of CMSF2 in STEAM. It's too early to talk about CMBS.

I'm not 100% sure that I understand the question. We certainly know how many people purchased CMSF2 on Steam. And that let us know that it was definitely worth doing with the other CM titles. We also believe that a large majority of Steam purchasers are new to Combat Mission, rather than people who wanted CMSF2 for a while but holding off until it was on Steam.

Anecdotally, we've seen very nice posts like this:

  

On 1/5/2021 at 1:42 PM, surfimp said:

I'm a brand-new customer and only just heard of Combat Mission thanks to the Shock Force 2 listing on Steam. This despite looking for literal years for a realistic tactics simulation of infantry and combined arms combat, and being an avid player of tabletop miniatures wargames like Bolt Action. Suffice to say, Combat Mission is like a gift from the gods, and checks boxes I didn't even know I could wish for. I've become an instant fan.

This news about my Battlefront purchase being honored on Steam is wonderful, and I've shared it with my IRL gaming group friends. I'm hoping a couple of them may take the plunge with me, as Combat Mission is a perfect replacement for tabletop wargaming in the time of Covid.

Sorry if my reply is overly gushing, but I just want to reiterate how happy I am with my purchase, and what looks like the very positive and healthy relationship between Battlefront and its customers. Though it took me too long to find you all, I'm so very glad to be here.

And I've inquiries on Help Desk with people asking if they bought a game from us would they be able to also have it on Steam some day. Releasing the older titles on GOG also seemed to bring new people into the Combat Mission world. 

It is definitely not off topic either. It is the reason that Black Sea is on Steam now. And in a few months Battle for Normandy will be on it too. 

(Is that an answer?)

[fireship4]

19 minutes ago, BFCElvis said:

Yes, if you only own the Game Engine 3 version you now have Game Engine 4 on Steam. The logistics of getting everyone with only Game Engine 3 a 4.0 Upgrade for free isn't worth the time and effort it would take for something that we are still selling.  Makes sense, right?

Sorry Elvis, I said through battlefront.com, not Steam.  For example, it seems I can download the latest Black Sea patches through battlefront.com (though the base-game download is still 1.03 on my account, and my game is patched to 1.04).

Edited January 21, 2021 by fireship4

[BFCElvis]

2 minutes ago, Stardekk said:

How do I get a serial number for the steam key ? I asked Slitherine and they told me to go to you guys for that. 

Use your CMBS activation key and the instructions in my initial post. They say serial number, we say activation key or license key. 

[Lethaface]

12 minutes ago, fireship4 said:

Sorry Elvis, I said through battlefront.com, not Steam.  For example, it seems I can download the latest Black Sea patches through battlefront.com (though the base-game download is still 1.03 on my account, and my game is patched to 1.04).

Not to be smart but in the part you quoted he literally said 'no', as in they're not going to give everyone a game engine 4 upgrade key which they are still selling, for free.

[BFCElvis]

Just now, fireship4 said:

Sorry Elvis, I said through battlefront.com, not Steam.  For example, it seems I can download the latest Black Sea patches through battlefront.com (though the base-game download is still 1.03 on my account).

Do not apply the 2.0-2.14 patches to a 1.03 version of the game. The 2.0-2.14 patches are only applied to a Game Engine 4 version of the game. It will cause funky (technical term) things to happen to your game if you do. If you already did that you can revert back to the proper version by reapplying the 1.03 patch. 

Correct, your account will show version 1.03. To get version 2.0 (and then apply the patches through 2.14) you need to purchase the 4.0 Upgrade. That said, the only version on Steam is Game Engine 4. When we sent the keys to Slitherine, so that they can provide Steam keys for current owners of CMBS, we included all purchase of the base game, Game Engine 3 and 4, knowing that a current owner who did not have Game Engine 4 already would essentially get the Upgrade for free when playing the Steam version. The only way to get your Battlefront version to Game Engine 4 is to purchase the 4.0 Upgrade.

[fireship4]

13 minutes ago, BFCElvis said:

The only way to get your Battlefront version to Game Engine 4 is to purchase the 4.0 Upgrade.

OK, any plans to change this and make the patch/"game engine upgrade" available to non-steam users, or update their available base-game downloads?

Edited January 21, 2021 by fireship4

[BFCElvis]

24 minutes ago, fireship4 said:

OK, any plans to change this and make the patch/"game engine upgrade" available to non-steam users, or update their available base-game downloads?

  

1 hour ago, BFCElvis said:

The logistics of getting everyone with only Game Engine 3 a 4.0 Upgrade for free isn't worth the time and effort it would take for something that we are still selling. 🙂data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw==

 

[Bluto]

I know this isn't a Steam support forum, but just as and FYI, if you install the game through Steam and it won't run because of Missing Download Files check Window Defender. It's blocking an exe file. I whitelisted it and it is running fine.

[fireship4]

1 hour ago, BFCElvis said:

The logistics of getting everyone with only Game Engine 3 a 4.0 Upgrade for free isn't worth the time and effort it would take for something that we are still selling.  Makes sense, right?

Ok sorry, I misunderstood this. 

By logistics I assume you mean server costs/admin time of allowing downloads of something they can now get for free via Steam?  Why then continue selling it at full price even though users would only now buy in their right mind if they couldn't use Steam?

[gregb41352]

My copy isn't listed on the Slitherine "My Page".

I purchased it directly from Battlefront if that makes a difference.

[BFCElvis]

The Steam version is the all-in-one full game installer. The 4.0 Upgrade is a separate download. A different build requiring a different license key.  So, it would entail creating a brand new download of compiled files. It would entail getting people that have Game Engine 3 license keys that would activate the 4.0 Upgrade. Finding out who those people are. And, I'm trying to be as candid as I can without sounding rude, we had no interest in giving away the 4.0 Upgrade to Steam players. But, logistically, it was the most simple solution between us and Slitherine. We are working on ways to avoid this with the future releases. At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, if it required 30 seconds of work (which it doesn't) we wouldn't be interested in doing it.

Why would someone purchase it when they can get it for free? Maybe they don't like Steam or want to use Steam. 

The glass half full: "cool, I got the 4.0 Upgrade for free with my Steam version."

[BFCElvis]

56 minutes ago, gregb41352 said:

My copy isn't listed on the Slitherine "My Page".

I purchased it directly from Battlefront if that makes a difference.

Do you mean that you have enter your Battlefront get and gotten your Steam key and it is not showing up on you My Page? If so, I'm not sure how that works. They can answer that for you.

[fireship4]

40 minutes ago, BFCElvis said:

we had no interest in giving away the 4.0 Upgrade to Steam players. But, logistically, it was the most simple solution between us and Slitherine. We are working on ways to avoid this with the future releases. At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, if it required 30 seconds of work (which it doesn't) we wouldn't be interested in doing it.

 

56 minutes ago, BFCElvis said:

The glass half full: "cool, I got the 4.0 Upgrade for free with my Steam version."

 

Glass half empty: developer would like to continue charging for a patch but it is too hard so far, wouldn't take 30 seconds to de-fragment the multiplayer base if it took that long, or reduce the price of a patch for those that cannot get it for free via Steam (or heaven forbid poorer people) for one reason or another :P

0% fat milk: developer loosing playerbase due to poor business and productivity decisions, despite having best-in-class engine at release, a lack of progress has led to competitors in a relatively small niche ending up ahead.

To be clear, I am saying this as a fan of the game, who hopes the best for the game and the team.

[BFCElvis]

16 minutes ago, fireship4 said:

 for those that cannot get it for free via Steam 

I don't know what to tell ya, mate. The 4.0 Upgrade has been available for what...5 years? You have more features available to you right now, on  a game that was purchased about 6 years ago, than when you woke up this morning. Without having to spend a penny. But you somehow you feel like we owe you more. I have no idea how to respond to that.  

And all that own the base game can get it for free.