Been gone over a decade, what did I miss???

[kohlenklau]

My new analogy for CM demos not being the latest engine...

Go and enjoy a blind date with this nice girl. It is a version of her before she learned exactly how to pour the perfect beer and before she perfected a "few other skills"...but it is her and she is a nice girl and you will know if you 2 "click" and desire to go on a second date.

[Freyberg]

On 4/17/2022 at 5:43 AM, Jussi Köhler said:

Hi guys,

I've been gone a while and wonder how the field looks in regards to new games? With new I mean anything after 2011, sometimes time really flies ... Not many familiar names left on the forum, the list of available games is looong and I've switched to a M1 MacBook.

I loved CMBO and CMBB and hope there is something like them out there? Are there any re-makes or similar? 

I sadly noticed Mr Emrys is no longer with us, any other of us old timers who have left this earth?

Hi Jussi,

Welcome back - I'm pretty sure I remember you

My favourites are CMFR (the extended Eastern Thunder game) and CFRV (the extended Italy game, that covers nearly half the war and multiple nationalities).

CMFI/CMRV comes closest to the completeness of the old CMBB, but the game itself is vastly better than it was in those days.

 

[Artkin]

On 4/17/2022 at 4:02 PM, Kevin2k said:

No, that was initial E4 release. And then in CMBN similar problems remained in 4.01 and 4.02. It was with CMBN 4.03 that it was properly rectified, in july 2020. That is still the last version as of now.

I am pretty sure I just experienced this bug in CMBN. Just had half a British squad run right into MG fire. I wish I could check to make sure it wasn't user error.

[Warts 'n' all]

57 minutes ago, Artkin said:

I am pretty sure I just experienced this bug in CMBN. Just had half a British squad run right into MG fire. I wish I could check to make sure it wasn't user error.

Shame you couldn't have taken a screen shot of that.

In the meantime, Paddy has just tapped me on the shoulder, "Tell that there fella that me and me mets didna fight in squads, we fought in sections".

[Artkin]

39 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said:

Shame you couldn't have taken a screen shot of that.

In the meantime, Paddy has just tapped me on the shoulder, "Tell that there fella that me and me mets didna fight in squads, we fought in sections".

I actually can take a screen of it. It's hard to tell if the move was deliberate or not, I definitely don't remember making that move, quite the opposite. 

Maybe I was just looking at the map backward

Edited May 8, 2022 by Artkin

[Cpt_Winters]

On 4/17/2022 at 1:26 PM, Jussi Köhler said:

I tried to download the Mac demo but got a 101 error, the Strike Force 2 demo did work however.

Hope you got it sorted.

I was running every SF2, BN, FB, & FI on a Macbook until it gave up the ghost a month or so back.  I've just got my new Macbook M1 and reinstalled all four titles and "DLC" and everything is running perfectly from what I can tell.  now I just need to get all the mods sorted again.

Good luck getting your titles reinstalled.

[markshot]

I think I am returning today.  I joined around 2000 with CMBO, but I thought CMBB/CMAK were much better.  Given that AI tends to be better on defense in scenarios than offense, the strengthening of the pinning affect of HMG fire vastly changed the CMx1v2 series for the better.

Ave!  I've been gone for over a year or two off doing lots of Rome overhaul versions:  RTW1/RS3, RTW1R/RIS, MTW2/EBII, RTW2/DEI, and ATL/AE ... but quite simply overhaul campaigns on the TW engine are good to superb (EBII is an interactive history book), but TW battle engine/field has really only 2-4 tactics.  Given that you spend 50% of your time there, the "ennui" is crushing.  If ever a strategic/operational game needed a quality auto-resolve, it is the TW series.

Then, I went off and built great cities in the City Skyline series (instead of coming back as planned; mainly I got too reflective on what it means that I am making my hobby war).  But this has always been some of the best problem solving games on the market, and I shouldn't confuse games with reality and personal character.  BTW, if you are into city building, CS is the SC (SimCity) of this generation (but unlike SC4 you are building utopias with vehicle traffic/transit being the most challenging aspect; far more than money).  The traffic/transit aspects are great problem solving exercises for engineering types like me, as I must admit, I have zero creativity (where the game also shines).

So, it is time to return to modern conflicts of combined arms and the problem solving it presents.  I don't like 4X games, because as soon as you introduce economy/variable resources ... the challenge of efficiency of force goes out the window.  I was think about MIUS as well, but due to its real time nature, CMx2v4 is more welcoming.

Greetings, all!  I hope you are in good health and thriving/surviving financially.  (and no one is really taking shots at you)

[MOS:96B2P]

On 5/9/2022 at 10:55 PM, markshot said:

I was think about MIUS as well, but due to its real time nature, CMx2v4 is more welcoming.

Greetings, all!  I hope you are in good health and thriving/surviving financially.  (and no one is really taking shots at you)

Welcome back. 

I also gave MIUS a look through videos and reading forums.  IMO it is an interesting game but would take some time and effort to properly learn.  It has some very cool graphics.  However it does not have a playback feature like CM and, as you mentioned, is only real time.  I think this often compels players to play zoomed out in an attempt to keep track of everything going on (so much for seeing close-ups of all the cool graphics).  Then if the player is lucky enough to notice something cool (like a tank turret blowing off a tank) there is no way to replay, zoom in, watch from different angles, in order to take screenshots etc.  Maybe more importantly replay is useful for learning what/why/how a tactic worked or failed and unfortunately MIUS doesn't have it.  So ultimately I decided it wasn't worth the investment of time and effort to purchase and properly learn MIUS.  I do, however, enjoy the occasional MIUS gameplay video.      

[markshot]

I found you do get to enjoy the graphics after you reach a certain familiarity.  This is because of the broad stroke nature of the game; you are not issuing orders to every unit, every minute.  So, once you are competent, you can loiter at ground level and enjoy the intensity while keeping an eye on the side bar for new arty or contacts.

Although you can record play via an NVidia card with no performance hit, this pales compared to CM's any point of view replay.

Finally, any campaign battle may be saved as a custom battle (I think CTRL-S) ... so you can have multiple wacks at it.  Also, any realtime battle can be saved and checkpointed, if you understand file structure.  So, you can pick up the battle at a particular point.  But I am not sure if the OPFOR AI is a static or variable.  (and you can go into games options to turn off FOW to better understand the engine, but for me, I don't want to have such exact knowledge.)

* Do the CTRL-S before entering the next campaign battle; once you enter it (deployment), it is too late to save.

[Artkin]

On 5/8/2022 at 1:06 PM, Warts 'n' all said:

Shame you couldn't have taken a screen shot of that.

In the meantime, Paddy has just tapped me on the shoulder, "Tell that there fella that me and me mets didna fight in squads, we fought in sections".

 

Here it is again, happening to my opponent this time. The closest troops I have to them are directly forward, and to the left of the screenshot. The fleeing germans ran left - into my firing line.

Two HMG squads under small arms and mortar fire

 

No more Germans. All gone.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Artkin