2022, the Year In Preview!

[Vacillator]

Welcome @massi.  You mean release on Steam I assume.  I think the intention is/was to put CMBN on Steam next, to be followed by CMRT, but I may be wrong. 

If you're in a hurry you can get either direct from BFC now.  And you should get both obviously , and in time (finances permitting) you will. 

CMRT was my first purchase, but I spend more time playing other people in CMBN.  Love both, and CMFB and CMFI.

[BFCElvis]

19 hours ago, massi said:

so red thunder will be releasing first before battle for normandy ? im i correct ? 

Normandy will still be released on Steam first (at least that is still the plan on 8/13/22 10:47am EDT). 

[massi]

is the relase day far away ? 

Edited August 13, 2022 by massi

[Vkhani12345]

On 8/13/2022 at 10:38 PM, massi said:

is the relase day far away ? 

Well seeing it was supposed to be already released, I'd place my bets on somewhere this month or next

[massi]

6 hours ago, Vkhani12345 said:

Well seeing it was supposed to be already released, I'd place my bets on somewhere this month or next

let hope so 

[Glubokii Boy]

On 8/13/2022 at 10:38 PM, massi said:

is the relase day far away ? 

 

16 hours ago, Vkhani12345 said:

Well seeing it was supposed to be already released, I'd place my bets on somewhere this month or next

 

10 hours ago, massi said:

let hope so 

My advice would be...Just don't care about it...AT ALL ! 

If BFC manages to release anything at all someday in the future let that come as a nice supprice 

 

[Aussiegrit]

My advice having now owned the entire series of CM WW2 titles since May 2011 when I first stumbled across CM Normandy, is to not think about it and just enjoy all the current titles. Before you know it a new module, battlepack or much anticipated updated engine will be upon us like an ambush in a French hedgerow. 

[fireship4]

I don't want to derail the Black Sea thread, but IIRC there was mention of some kind of bone to celebrate 1000 posts... did I miss it or is it still in the pipeline?

[Vacillator]

You have not missed anything. It was 1000 'pages' on the uber-thread, not 1000 'posts'.  We're a long way past that even on pages.

Things are still on the way (soon, I hope).

[massi]

54 minutes ago, Vacillator said:

You have not missed anything. It was 1000 'pages' on the uber-thread, not 1000 'posts'.  We're a long way past that even on pages.

Things are still on the way (soon, I hope).

is the pbem+ systeme done ? or do we have to wait any longer for battle for normandy to come to steam ?

[Vacillator]

35 minutes ago, massi said:

is the pbem+ systeme done ? or do we have to wait any longer for battle for normandy to come to steam ?

As @BFCElvis said above, CMBN is due next for Steam.  And that will include PBEM+ as far as I know.

So that just leaves the question of when, which I don't know. 

As I have CMBN already and play PBEMs with it already, it's not a big issue for me, but I hope for a release sometime soon.

[BFCElvis]

3 hours ago, massi said:

is the pbem+ systeme done ? or do we have to wait any longer for battle for normandy to come to steam ?

Yes. PBEM++ has been finished a while ago (last fall). It's the tournament system that is being worked on.

  

4 hours ago, fireship4 said:

I don't want to derail the Black Sea thread, but IIRC there was mention of some kind of bone to celebrate 1000 posts... did I miss it or is it still in the pipeline?

There has been something discussed internally but nothing has been settled yet. 

  

On 8/13/2022 at 4:38 PM, massi said:

is the relase day far away ? 

We weren't happy with how the scoring worked with the public beta tournament. We've been working on it and don't have an updated timeline. My wish would be last month. But that ship has sailed.

[Artkin]

Thank you, please work on it. I wont even touch the new PBEM+ system, its so bad. 

The helper tools we have had in the community are SO much better and more advanced, and yet more simple too. 

Not to bash anyone, but theres no way you guys can release that as the final product CMx2 multiplayer solution. 

[Vkhani12345]

8 hours ago, BFCElvis said:

Yes. PBEM++ has been finished a while ago (last fall). It's the tournament system that is being worked on.

  

There has been something discussed internally but nothing has been settled yet. 

  

We weren't happy with how the scoring worked with the public beta tournament. We've been working on it and don't have an updated timeline. My wish would be last month. But that ship has sailed.

Still praying for this month or the next, Been waiting for a while so would be awesome to finally have it!

[BFCElvis]

12 hours ago, Artkin said:

Thank you, please work on it. I wont even touch the new PBEM+ system, its so bad. 

The helper tools we have had in the community are SO much better and more advanced, and yet more simple too. 

Not to bash anyone, but theres no way you guys can release that as the final product CMx2 multiplayer solution. 

The original PBEM system is not being replaced. It will still be there for you to use with whatever PBEM helper tools that you prefer. There is currently no work being done on PBEM++. The work is on the tournament system. PBEM++ appears to be working as intended and, at this time, there are no plans to change it at any point.

[Grey_Fox]

44 minutes ago, BFCElvis said:

The original PBEM system is not being replaced. It will still be there for you to use with whatever PBEM helper tools that you prefer. There is currently no work being done on PBEM++. The work is on the tournament system. PBEM++ appears to be working as intended and, at this time, there are no plans to change it at any point.

How many people are even using PBEM++ or the tournament feature, and do the numbers warrant holding off the steam release of CMBN?

Didn't only something like 6 out of the 12 people who signed up for it actually participate in the CW tournament?

Edited August 24, 2022 by Grey_Fox

[BFCElvis]

1 hour ago, Grey_Fox said:

How many people are even using PBEM++ or the tournament feature, and do the numbers warrant holding off the steam release of CMBN?

Nobody is using the tournament feature....yet. It isn't finished and there has only been the public beta tournament so far. I can check into whether or not Slitherine can tell me how many PBEM++ battles have been fought. The answer is moot though. It, along with the tournament feature, will  be in every Steam release. So, if there are 5 people using it or 1,000,000 that will not change. 

Quote

Didn't only something like 6 out of the 12 people who signed up for it actually participate in the CW tournament?

53 joined the tournament and 43 registered some type of score. My estimate from looking at the scores is that about half of the people who joined the tournament played the whole thing. And most people played at least a little.
https://www.matrixgames.com/tournaments/scores/774

[Artkin]

I don't think there will be enough people to use the PBEM+ system to warrant the time spent.

I have to log in every single time I want to send a turn. That's ridiculous.

The problem is:

It's SO hard to find opponents in this game. If there isn't a coherent multiplayer solution which is simple and easy to use then CMx2 will be a dead end series.

People play old games. There's no doubt in that. Age of Empires II came back really strong, really thanks to Microsoft, but the game never died despite actually being 23 years old. The multiplayer kept it alive.

Only a small percentage of the overall gaming world wants to play singleplayer.

Singleplayer games die. Every time.

Edited August 24, 2022 by Artkin

[BFCElvis]

1 hour ago, Artkin said:

I don't think there will be enough people to use the PBEM+ system to warrant the time spent.

I have to log in every single time I want to send a turn. That's ridiculous.

The problem is:

It's SO hard to find opponents in this game. If there isn't a coherent multiplayer solution which is simple and easy to use then CMx2 will be a dead end series.

People play old games. There's no doubt in that. Age of Empires II came back really strong, really thanks to Microsoft, but the game never died despite actually being 23 years old. The multiplayer kept it alive.

Only a small percentage of the overall gaming world wants to play singleplayer.

Singleplayer games die. Every time.

Again, the original system is still available. That will not be removed from the game. That system has been in place since CMSF1 was released 15 years ago and we're still here. 

You may not like the PBEM++ system but the Challenge lobby to pick up a PBEM game is something that we haven't had before and works very smoothly.

[Thewood1]

1 hour ago, Artkin said:

CMx2 will be a dead end series

While I hardly consider CM2 a AAA title in the overall gaming market and most likely past its prime, almost 10 years and still going is hardly a dead end game. 

[Artkin]

6 minutes ago, BFCElvis said:

Again, the original system is still available. That will not be removed from the game. That system has been in place since CMSF1 was released 15 years ago and we're still here. 

You may not like the PBEM++ system but the Challenge lobby to pick up a PBEM game is something that we haven't had before and works very smoothly.

But the old system is prehistoric. 

Real time multiplayer really does not exist to 99.9% of the CM playerbase. It is such a hassle. And even then, I've played a game where my opponent claimed we were desynched. 

The challenge lobby idea is good, but I remember the system offering me absolutely no information about the game I was going to play in. I don't even remember an option for map preview. 

Having to log in EVERY single time you enter the pbem+ screen. Even if you dont close the program. 

[BFCElvis]

1 hour ago, Artkin said:

I don't think there will be enough people to use the PBEM+ system to warrant the time spent.

I have to log in every single time I want to send a turn. That's ridiculous.

The problem is:

It's SO hard to find opponents in this game. If there isn't a coherent multiplayer solution which is simple and easy to use then CMx2 will be a dead end series.

People play old games. There's no doubt in that. Age of Empires II came back really strong, really thanks to Microsoft, but the game never died despite actually being 23 years old. The multiplayer kept it alive.

Only a small percentage of the overall gaming world wants to play singleplayer.

Singleplayer games die. Every time.

I should add.......I'm not saying that ways to improve the game shouldn't always be kept in mind. They should. But at this time we definitely don't see the point in diverting resources to something we feel works perfectly well right now. Could it be better? Maybe. But not enough better to stop working on other things.

[Artkin]

5 minutes ago, Thewood1 said:

While I hardly consider CM2 a AAA title in the overall gaming market and most likely past its prime, almost 10 years and still going is hardly a dead end game. 

Well there is no CMx3 for us to move onto yet. After that, poof. 

I argue you can get another decade out of the series if there was an easy to use MP system that hooked players up with each other. 

[BFCElvis]

12 minutes ago, Artkin said:

Well there is no CMx3 for us to move onto yet. After that, poof. 

I argue you can get another decade out of the series if there was an easy to use MP system that hooked players up with each other. 

  You may surprised. We're constantly surprised at how many copies of CMBO, CMBB and CMAK are being sold through GoG. And CMBO is 22 years old!  

7 minutes ago, Artkin said:

The challenge lobby idea is good, but I remember the system offering me absolutely no information about the game I was going to play in. I don't even remember an option for map preview. 

No map preview but it does give information about the battle.

Quote

Having to log in EVERY single time you enter the pbem+ screen. Even if you dont close the program. 

I'm going to guess that you've barely used the system. You do not have to log in every time. It is supposed to time you out eventually and if you close the program. But you definitely don't have to log in each PBEM turn. If you have 4 battles going you can just go from one to the next.

I may play around with it today because it may not even log you out anymore. I feel like in all the tournament testing that I've done lately I haven't had to log back in if I never closed the program. But I wouldn't swear to that. I'll test it and let you know.

[Codreanu]

CM needs a modern lobby system like you'd get in any RTS game made in the last 15 years. PBEM++ feels more like desperately wrapping duct tape around a leaky pipe instead of just replacing the pipe, but with how the engine is built maybe that really is just the best that can be done.