Annual look at the year to come - 2023

[Battlefront.com]

A belated and very happy New Year wish to all of you!  Hard to imagine soon it will be 23 years since Combat Mission Beyond Overlord made it's commercial debut.  Time is a strange thing.  Anyway... it's time to give you a view of what's to come for the year.

We did pretty well with our 2022 calendar, but we definitely got hung up at the end with one thing that caused a ripple effect.  I'll start with that.

We are moving to get all of our existing CM games released on Steam and Matrix through our partners, Slitherine.  One of the key features for those releases is supporting their excellent PBEM++ system as well as Tournaments.  The coding for these two things has been, er, a little challenging to say the least.  Some of the unique features of Combat Mission created integration problems that were not well understood when we embarked on this journey.  PBEM++ was solved a while ago, but some of the same problems we encountered with that carried over to Tournaments. 

The long story short, we had to rework how Combat Mission handles scoring because Tournaments (correctly) requires tracking progress per turn for ranking, which is something Combat Mission deliberately wasn't coded to do.  We came up with a work around that doesn't interfere with the normal scoring you're all familiar with.  That delayed breakthrough, unfortunately, came too late to hit our previous marketing window and the field was too crowded for us to squeeze in for Christmas.  Therefore, CMBN got bumped until March as part of the ripple effect.  Now back to our regular scheduled program

 

What follows is a fairly high level view of everything we have planned for 2023.  I will provide more detailed information throughout the year as we get nearer to release times.  I'll also try and answer questions here, briefly, over the next few days.

 

2023 Combat Mission Events Of Note

1. Steam/Matrix Releases

Due to the delay of getting CMBN out all subsequent CM games are bumped accordingly as we are going on a 1 "family" per quarter schedule.  The schedule now is:

    CMBN - release set for March 2023

    CMRT - release set for June 2023

    CMFI - release set for September 2023

    CMFB - release set for December 2023 or January 2024

2. New Content for CM2 Games

Battlefront has retained the ability to release new content to you guys when it is ready, not necessarily when we have a Slitherine release scheduled.  This is why you got George's excellent Red Thunder Battle Pack 1 many months ago instead of having to wait many months more for it to be released.  It is also why you got your hands on CM Cold War months before it was out on Steam/Matrix.  Something like that may happen again, depending on when new content is ready to go.  What is that new content?

    CMBN- new Battle Pack

    CMFI - new Battle Pack

    CMFB - expanded to include late war forces, including Commonwealth

    CMCW - move the timeline forward and some other fun stuff

There is also the pretty much completed CMBS Module that is on hold due to the war.  We plan on reevaluating our embargo on the Module sometime soon, though that doesn't mean we'll come out of the discussion with a hard release date.

3.  Upgrade 5

There was talk last year of an Engine 5 Upgrade designed to improve game performance free of charge.  This is still planned, but it did get caught up in the PBEM/Tournament development headaches.  Ripple effect, again.

4.  CM2 Professional Update

Things are going very well on this front, however as of April 2023 we will pause major CM2 Professional work in order to concentrate on commercial efforts for the rest of the year.  We are currently working on one last project that is due in March, after that it's all commercial work.  Well, at least on the development side of things. 

5.  Patches!

Lastly, patches are in the works for CMBS, CMSF2, and CMCW to fix some bugs and add the latest PBEM/Tournament features.  Yes, that means Slitherine will soon be hosting Tournaments for all three games.  Honestly, I don't know what the exact schedule is, but we should know soon.

 

And there you have it

Steve

[liamb]

Thanks for the update Steve.

[SgtHatred]

19 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

We did pretty well with our 2022 calendar,

 

Uhhhh, ok. This looks a lot like last year's update with the year iterated by one.

 

 

[DesertFox]

46 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

    CMFB - expanded to include late war forces, including Commonwealth

    CMCW - move the timeline forward and some other fun stuff

Thanks for the update. Most interesting for me. I can live without all the rest. Especially CMFB would make ETO complete (Overloon 10/44, Paderborn 04/45, Comets and Pershings?) and CMCW might give us Leopard 1 and 2 and BAOR Chieftain and Challenger 1s (?) to play. Great news overall. Please focus on CMFB and CMCW.

[CarlXII]

Dissapointed ! 

[NamEndedAllen]

I, for one, welcome our new Slithering Steam Overlords!

And thanks Steve. Sounds as if you have had your hands full. Too bad because you could have been a real help on the obscure but important little CMBS thread on some war over there.

Oh, wait…

[AtlasActual]

Thanks for the update!

[Artkin]

Was hoping for some bones, but thanks for the news, good or bad the clarity is appreciated.. Speaking of clarity... when Slitherine said they put a stop to CM:Pro in October (?) I didn't expect them to mean April of 2023. They should have said "Putting a stop". This audience is not your typical gaming audience by any measure.

I hope to see new items for the CMBS module. It's obvious that Ukraine and Russia deserve a thorough expansion and fleshing out before even getting to the airborne. Thankfully the air units dont seem to have nearly as much kit as the regular Russian army. Considering how long this has been withheld it would be nice to incorporate lessons from the current conflict. I'm not talking about drones, that doesn't really make the game interesting or fun. I hope to see armor fleshed out along with missing ends like the NSV. Surprisingly now I find merit using T-90M in my games considering that it's been deployed. It would be cool to see other goodies that belong.

Engine 5 is anticipated, I have made a bunch of scenarios on the regiment level that could use a FPS boost. I hope it will be somewhat substantial, and I hope we will have access to larger maps. I don't understand why the Rad-full 2 map at 5.7 x 5.7km can exist but we can't push past 4 x 4 km in the editor. Stuff like that would be appreciated especially seeing how well CMCW takes these maps at great fps.

I am also looking forward to patches tackling the various bugs that have come up. I understand you don't play these games anymore but we do, and there are issues that need attention. The Panzer III 50mm shorty in CMRT is absolutely horrible.

I guess we won't expect anything before April.

[Chibot Mk IX]

CMCW - move the timeline forward and some other fun stuff

 

patton vs zhukov ?? 

[Simcoe]

2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

A belated and very happy New Year wish to all of you!  Hard to imagine soon it will be 23 years since Combat Mission Beyond Overlord made it's commercial debut.  Time is a strange thing.  Anyway... it's time to give you a view of what's to come for the year.

We did pretty well with our 2022 calendar, but we definitely got hung up at the end with one thing that caused a ripple effect.  I'll start with that.

We are moving to get all of our existing CM games released on Steam and Matrix through our partners, Slitherine.  One of the key features for those releases is supporting their excellent PBEM++ system as well as Tournaments.  The coding for these two things has been, er, a little challenging to say the least.  Some of the unique features of Combat Mission created integration problems that were not well understood when we embarked on this journey.  PBEM++ was solved a while ago, but some of the same problems we encountered with that carried over to Tournaments. 

The long story short, we had to rework how Combat Mission handles scoring because Tournaments (correctly) requires tracking progress per turn for ranking, which is something Combat Mission deliberately wasn't coded to do.  We came up with a work around that doesn't interfere with the normal scoring you're all familiar with.  That delayed breakthrough, unfortunately, came too late to hit our previous marketing window and the field was too crowded for us to squeeze in for Christmas.  Therefore, CMBN got bumped until March as part of the ripple effect.  Now back to our regular scheduled program

 

What follows is a fairly high level view of everything we have planned for 2023.  I will provide more detailed information throughout the year as we get nearer to release times.  I'll also try and answer questions here, briefly, over the next few days.

 

2023 Combat Mission Events Of Note

1. Steam/Matrix Releases

Due to the delay of getting CMBN out all subsequent CM games are bumped accordingly as we are going on a 1 "family" per quarter schedule.  The schedule now is:

    CMBN - release set for March 2023

    CMRT - release set for June 2023

    CMFI - release set for September 2023

    CMFB - release set for December 2023 or January 2024

2. New Content for CM2 Games

Battlefront has retained the ability to release new content to you guys when it is ready, not necessarily when we have a Slitherine release scheduled.  This is why you got George's excellent Red Thunder Battle Pack 1 many months ago instead of having to wait many months more for it to be released.  It is also why you got your hands on CM Cold War months before it was out on Steam/Matrix.  Something like that may happen again, depending on when new content is ready to go.  What is that new content?

    CMFI - new Battle Pack

    CMFB - expanded to include late war forces, including Commonwealth

    CMCW - move the timeline forward and some other fun stuff

There is also the pretty much completed CMBS Module that is on hold due to the war.  We plan on reevaluating our embargo on the Module sometime soon, though that doesn't mean we'll come out of the discussion with a hard release date.

3.  Upgrade 5

There was talk last year of an Engine 5 Upgrade designed to improve game performance free of charge.  This is still planned, but it did get caught up in the PBEM/Tournament development headaches.  Ripple effect, again.

4.  CM2 Professional Update

Things are going very well on this front, however as of April 2023 we will pause major CM2 Professional work in order to concentrate on commercial efforts for the rest of the year.  We are currently working on one last project that is due in March, after that it's all commercial work.  Well, at least on the development side of things. 

5.  Patches!

Lastly, patches are in the works for CMBS, CMSF2, and CMCW to fix some bugs and add the latest PBEM/Tournament features.  Yes, that means Slitherine will soon be hosting Tournaments for all three games.  Honestly, I don't know what the exact schedule is, but we should know soon.

 

And there you have it

Steve

Thank you for filling us in. Are you able to give more information on the Cold War Module? How much further in time will we go? 1982 is already heavily favored toward the US. I'm worried if we go to 1985 or even 1989 the balance will be even worse. 

[ManyMilesAway]

2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

A belated and very happy New Year wish to all of you!  Hard to imagine soon it will be 23 years since Combat Mission Beyond Overlord made it's commercial debut.  Time is a strange thing.  Anyway... it's time to give you a view of what's to come for the year.

We did pretty well with our 2022 calendar, but we definitely got hung up at the end with one thing that caused a ripple effect.  I'll start with that.

We are moving to get all of our existing CM games released on Steam and Matrix through our partners, Slitherine.  One of the key features for those releases is supporting their excellent PBEM++ system as well as Tournaments.  The coding for these two things has been, er, a little challenging to say the least.  Some of the unique features of Combat Mission created integration problems that were not well understood when we embarked on this journey.  PBEM++ was solved a while ago, but some of the same problems we encountered with that carried over to Tournaments. 

The long story short, we had to rework how Combat Mission handles scoring because Tournaments (correctly) requires tracking progress per turn for ranking, which is something Combat Mission deliberately wasn't coded to do.  We came up with a work around that doesn't interfere with the normal scoring you're all familiar with.  That delayed breakthrough, unfortunately, came too late to hit our previous marketing window and the field was too crowded for us to squeeze in for Christmas.  Therefore, CMBN got bumped until March as part of the ripple effect.  Now back to our regular scheduled program

 

What follows is a fairly high level view of everything we have planned for 2023.  I will provide more detailed information throughout the year as we get nearer to release times.  I'll also try and answer questions here, briefly, over the next few days.

 

2023 Combat Mission Events Of Note

1. Steam/Matrix Releases

Due to the delay of getting CMBN out all subsequent CM games are bumped accordingly as we are going on a 1 "family" per quarter schedule.  The schedule now is:

    CMBN - release set for March 2023

    CMRT - release set for June 2023

    CMFI - release set for September 2023

    CMFB - release set for December 2023 or January 2024

2. New Content for CM2 Games

Battlefront has retained the ability to release new content to you guys when it is ready, not necessarily when we have a Slitherine release scheduled.  This is why you got George's excellent Red Thunder Battle Pack 1 many months ago instead of having to wait many months more for it to be released.  It is also why you got your hands on CM Cold War months before it was out on Steam/Matrix.  Something like that may happen again, depending on when new content is ready to go.  What is that new content?

    CMFI - new Battle Pack

    CMFB - expanded to include late war forces, including Commonwealth

    CMCW - move the timeline forward and some other fun stuff

There is also the pretty much completed CMBS Module that is on hold due to the war.  We plan on reevaluating our embargo on the Module sometime soon, though that doesn't mean we'll come out of the discussion with a hard release date.

3.  Upgrade 5

There was talk last year of an Engine 5 Upgrade designed to improve game performance free of charge.  This is still planned, but it did get caught up in the PBEM/Tournament development headaches.  Ripple effect, again.

4.  CM2 Professional Update

Things are going very well on this front, however as of April 2023 we will pause major CM2 Professional work in order to concentrate on commercial efforts for the rest of the year.  We are currently working on one last project that is due in March, after that it's all commercial work.  Well, at least on the development side of things. 

5.  Patches!

Lastly, patches are in the works for CMBS, CMSF2, and CMCW to fix some bugs and add the latest PBEM/Tournament features.  Yes, that means Slitherine will soon be hosting Tournaments for all three games.  Honestly, I don't know what the exact schedule is, but we should know soon.

I'll believe it when I see it...immensely frustrated at the utter baloney that occurred over the last year.  Next engine update better contain a replay feature or I'm going to scream.

Edited January 30, 2023 by ManyMilesAway

[Artkin]

6 minutes ago, ManyMilesAway said:

I'll believe it when I see it...immensely frustrated at the utter baloney that occurred over the last year.  Next engine update better contain a replay feature or I'm going to scream.

They stated we wouldnt recieve features that were added to CM:Pro. Baloney indeed because these are essential and obvious features that the game lacks. They've also been asked about for a long time. 

[Battlefront.com]

33 minutes ago, Artkin said:

Was hoping for some bones, but thanks for the news, good or bad the clarity is appreciated.

You will be getting some soon.  As stated above, this was a high level overview only.

33 minutes ago, Artkin said:

Speaking of clarity... when Slitherine said they put a stop to CM:Pro in October (?) I didn't expect them to mean April of 2023. They should have said "Putting a stop". This audience is not your typical gaming audience by any measure.

Late last year we put a pause on major coding features, but there are other things requested of us and we're wrapping those up in March.

33 minutes ago, Artkin said:

I hope to see new items for the CMBS module.

Yes, but still within the original CMBS timeframe.

33 minutes ago, Artkin said:

Engine 5 is anticipated, I have made a bunch of scenarios on the regiment level that could use a FPS boost. I hope it will be somewhat substantial, and I hope we will have access to larger maps.

I hope so too, but we are a bit limited because we are using OpenGL and that's been, well, not treated as kindly by the card makers the last few years.

33 minutes ago, Artkin said:

I am also looking forward to patches tackling the various bugs that have come up. I understand you don't play these games anymore but we do, and there are issues that need attention. The Panzer III 50mm shorty in CMRT is absolutely horrible.

I guess we won't expect anything before April.

Patches and CMBN before April.  What might be patched for CMRT I can't say specifically at this point, but there always will be things to tackle. The games are too complex for it to be anything otherwise.

Steve

[Battlefront.com]

10 minutes ago, Artkin said:

They stated we wouldnt recieve features that were added to CM:Pro. Baloney indeed because these are essential and obvious features that the game lacks. They've also been asked about for a long time. 

There will be no replay feature for CM2. I've explained why and I don't really care if you accept it or not.  It just isn't a viable commercial feature.  Period, end of story. 

You guys have also asked that we ship a pony with every game for a long time, and that's not going to happen either

Steve

[Redwolf]

Trading engine v5 for PBEM++ - not sure that worked out well.

[Redwolf]

1 minute ago, Battlefront.com said:

There will be no replay feature for CM2. I've explained why and I don't really care if you accept it or not.  It just isn't a viable commercial feature.  Period, end of story. 

Are you talking about whole-game replay, or VCR controls in TCP/IP play? I assume the former?

[Hister]

Wake me up when Engine 5 lands. And it better have FPS boost.  

 

[Artkin]

14 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

You will be getting some soon.  As stated above, this was a high level overview only.

By what was posted above I assumed there wouldn't really be room for bones besides the typical DAR's that we get pre-release. I think people were expecting to see screenies as was I, but not an issue.

16 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

Late last year we put a pause on major coding features, but there are other things requested of us and we're wrapping those up in March.

It's appreciated. We're starving over here (Though we have an insatiable appetite).

17 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

Yes, but still within the original CMBS timeframe.

Perfect. It doesn't seem like too much has changed since 2017 anyway. This is great news.

18 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

I hope so too, but we are a bit limited because we are using OpenGL and that's been, well, not treated as kindly by the card makers the last few years.

Understood, it's actually the reason why I went with my new space heater (3060ti) over something more practical and efficient by AMD. No doubt OpenGL is supported by shoestrings nowadays.

19 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

Patches and CMBN before April.  What might be patched for CMRT I can't say specifically at this point, but there always will be things to tackle. The games are too complex for it to be anything otherwise.

Ah, duh. I replied without reading the original post thoroughly enough.

18 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

There will be no replay feature for CM2. I've explained why and I don't really care if you accept it or not.  It just isn't a viable commercial feature.  Period, end of story. 

You guys have also asked that we ship a pony with every game for a long time, and that's not going to happen either

Steve

Meh, whatever I've asked for has generally been delivered. PBEM++ was a let down but an effort was made. I understand the code was not designed with this originally in mind but I still believe a flourishing multiplayer experience would have other features trickle in as sales would go up. This is the best wargame on the market or else I wouldn't be here to bicker and ask for more.

Thanks for the response.

[ManyMilesAway]

27 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

There will be no replay feature for CM2. I've explained why and I don't really care if you accept it or not.  It just isn't a viable commercial feature.  Period, end of story. 

You guys have also asked that we ship a pony with every game for a long time, and that's not going to happen either

Steve

Glad to see how little you care about your community.

Just because you can't make use of it doesn't mean we the community can't.

Edited January 30, 2023 by ManyMilesAway

[chuckdyke]

A decent screen recorder would go a long way. What works on my laptop doesn't work on my desktop. Something CM should offer its customers.

[chuckdyke]

Trouble is CM is not in the Window Store, so Game Bar is wonky. Nvidia GeForce also doesn't recognize Battlefront Games, so you need the settings of the Windows to play with. It was fine on my laptop but not on my desktop. A screen recorder just made for CM Games could be a solution. 

[SgtHatred]

41 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

I hope so too, but we are a bit limited because we are using OpenGL and that's been, well, not treated as kindly by the card makers the last few years.

AMD's rewritten OpenGL drivers have been considered wildly successful, which isn't really something you expect out of AMD, but they did it. The older drivers may have been more lenient with software that went out of spec, but that's why you are supposed to stick to the spec in the first place, otherwise you will be going back again and again to keep your software functional when updates break things that weren't in the spec.

 

TLDR; AMD isn't responsible for Combat Mission's problems on modern AMD drivers.

Edited January 30, 2023 by SgtHatred

[Artkin]

It's just annoying to load up games individually which can take a long *** time if you play the size of scenarios that I do. It would make filming multiplayer games (Who wants to film your games vs the AI in real time?) more smooth since your camera position won't be altered when changing turns. This isn't exactly essential, but the work for it has been completed (Supposedly) and all that's stopping it from coming here is a contract (I guess).

I'm not asking that it be developed before anything else because there are plenty of other items in these games that deserve love first. It's just different knowing that the feature already exists. Of course my desires aren't limited to just this.

If I could get greedy for a bit I would REALLY like the ability to edit or create custom TOE's. When I was making my 6th/4th Army + 62nd Army in 1942 I ran into all sorts of annoying roadblocks that made me want to exit the program for the night. Having to use core master "cheat codes" to dig through the TOE and fix an error that I made (Like accidentally forgetting to add a SMG company to a regiment) is a pain in the ***. I think I'm only able to cheat once also, and it screws up the organization of everything too. It's just a big pain in the ***. I would do multiple different divisions in individual core files but that wouldn't allow me to pair what formations I would like to.

It's a little hard for me to explain but my massive ~35 page TOE for my Stalingrad 1942 project ran into allllll sorts of ad-hoc workarounds in order to get things right. It was said that Battlefront was afraid of what we would do the TOE. But it's kind of hard to work with what we have in the first place. It can be done, but I don't feel like recreating my entire TOE just for a few small errors. It's not without fault and since I've taken time away from it, I should revise it. I already added historical tank + infantry strengths to both sides (Thanks to Anton Joly and David Glantz), and even came across specifics as far as rifles/machineguns/antitank guns ETC.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Artkin

[chuckdyke]

A nice up to date how to manual, instead of letting customers argue about it with name calling etc. Recommending target tools which clearly don't work. Unit A gets LOS when you think great Unit A could target from that square. Put identical Unit B there the No LOS pops up. It took me a few years to figure out how this is possible but nothing the manual says about it. 

[SergeantSqook]

47 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

There will be no replay feature for CM2. I've explained why and I don't really care if you accept it or not.  It just isn't a viable commercial feature.  Period, end of story. 

You guys have also asked that we ship a pony with every game for a long time, and that's not going to happen either

Steve

Sensitive topic apparently; but I'm curious why it's not viable for commercial. I missed whenever it was explained in the past and having used it in CMPE it seems to work pretty well.