Annual look at the year to come - 2023

[Artkin]

27 minutes ago, IanL said:

I sure hope not I think he means that the modules for CMBN (Commonwealth, Market Garden, Vehicle Pack, Battle Pack1) will be available on Matrix/Steam at the same time as the base game.

The DLC that @Ithikial_AU is working on is something he is still working on It's not ready yet.

Ah I was super tired posting that. Now I get what he meant. Why wouldnt the DLC get brought to steam anyway 

[ftukfgufyrdy]

On 3/2/2023 at 12:37 PM, kohlenklau said:

I think we need this damn war to end so BFC can publish CMSU "Combat Mission Slava Ukraini"

and sell 100,000+ copies.

THENNNNNNNN Steve comes back to bust out some early war. No, not early war as early last year 2022 for Ukraine War!

I mean early in the last century 1939/1940/1941. 

Take my gosh darn money!!!!!!!

[A Canadian Cat]

2 hours ago, Artkin said:

Now I get what he meant. Why wouldnt the DLC get brought to steam anyway 

Good good. Yeah it would be odd to not have the exiting DLC released at the same time. I suppose there could be a reason but I cannot think of a good one.

[Ithikial_AU]

12 hours ago, IanL said:

The DLC that @Ithikial_AU is working on is something he is still working on It's not ready yet.

To echo what IanL has stated here, please note that it is slowly being chipped away at but I have a "real life" job to attend to that has it's own ups and downs. (Still trying to win Lotto and retire to a life of wargaming). I don't work for Battlefront but keep them in the loop with the status of the project. BP2 - Utah Beach was always going to be a release beyond CMBN coming to Steam. The big milestone was getting all the maps pretty much locked away before Christmas (70 sq km+ worth) except for the odd touch ups here and there while scenarios are being built.

I'd imagine it would be similar to CMSF2's release on Steam where the whole game family came out at once, but @BFCElvis should be able to confirm what exactly comes out on Steam on the 28th of March.

[BFCElvis]

16 hours ago, Artkin said:

Hmmmm I guess the community is misunderstood then. This is what Marco posted on the discord: 

@everyone Hi everyone, 

we are proud to announce that the DLCs for Battle for Normandy are going to be released alongside the base game on March 28th. 

Maybe we are using DLC differently

At Battlefront we've never used, although we understand,  the expression DLC. For CMBN's release on Steam this Monday it refers to everything that is currently available.  

To eliminate any gray area.....The Steam release will have the Commonwealth and Markets Garden modules and the Vehicle Pack and Battle Pack 1 available for purchase on the 28th. 

If you currently own any of them, instructions for getting Steam keys, at no additional charge, for what you own will be posted on the 28th (spoiler alert....the instructions will look a lot like the CMSF2 redemption instructions)

[sfhand]

Lots of license keys to sift through... it is a good problem to have

[kohlenklau]

In a week shy of 2 months, I and about 3 other guys have created a France 1940 mod of damn decent results. 

Call me an a-hole, but I think a few heads should hang in shame!

Get it here

 

[PEB14]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:30 AM, Battlefront.com said:

2023 Combat Mission Events Of Note

2. New Content for CM2 Games

    CMBN- new Battle Pack

    CMFI - new Battle Pack

    CMFB - expanded to include late war forces, including Commonwealth

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.

Hi Stev, Hi BFC!

It's already early May... The sun is back, summer is clos...

But what are the news from the frontline?? Any tentative schedules for the planned 2023 releases quoted above (which is all the stuff related to WW2)?

[Bulletpoint]

There will surely be an announcement to-morrow.

 

[Simicro]

Just now, Bulletpoint said:

There will surely be an announcement to-morrow.

Because announcements are generally made on friday?

[laurent 22]

We'll hang tomorrow... Unless an announcement comes;

Edited May 4, 2023 by laurent 22

[Bulletpoint]

3 hours ago, laurent 22 said:

We'll hang tomorrow... Unless an announcement comes;

If we hang ourselves, we will at least get an... eh... early war mod.

[CarlXII]

 

[PEB14]

Slightly off topic...

I'm wondering if a small add-on to CMBN has ever been considered... I would gladly see the introduction of the French Résistance in this game... Now that the partisans are available in CMRT that wouldn't require much effort, and there are plenty of interesting potential scenarios to make use of them!

[laurent 22]

completely agree. And the iconic FFI car is already modeled in the falvor objects!

[kohlenklau]

CMBN French Résistance [maquis]

Hmmm, if only we had some energetic guys from France and some nut who would advise them...

Maybe you guys do in 2024 for the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Paris...?

Edited May 5, 2023 by kohlenklau

[markus544]

Blast from the past, my M-26 from days of old. Looking forward to the updated version

Edited May 20, 2023 by markus544
delete

[markus544]

[Simicro]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:30 AM, Battlefront.com said:

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:

    CMRT - release set for June 2023 // Planned Release Date: 15 Jun, 2023 : https://store.steampowered.com/app/2418000/Combat_Mission_Red_Thunder/

    CMFI - release set for September 2023

    CMFB - release set for December 2023 or January 2024

Edited May 23, 2023 by Simicro

[Thomm]

The M26 also appeared in the Korean war, as I found out.

A brief research showed that this war has a relatively short, but unusual list of vehicles.

https://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/korean-war-tanks.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_equipment_used_in_the_Korean_War

I think that this conflct would be very suited for a CM game, with little investment being necessary in the model department.
 

[PEB14]

50 minutes ago, Thomm said:

I think that this conflct would be very suited for a CM game, with little investment being necessary in the model department.

 

I completely agree. And with potentially very different possibilities for scenarios: mountains, snow, hot summer, mobile warfare, trench warfare…

And a completely new opposition: WW2 era russian stuff vs. WW2 era allied stuff.

Edited July 20, 2023 by PEB14

[Centurian52]

I would absolutely be on board with a Korean War CM game. Very hilly, very infantry heavy. I'm imagining infantry with mostly WW2 US equipment vs infantry with mostly WW2 Soviet equipment fighting over maps that look a lot like CMA or CMCW maps, but browner (about as hilly as Afghanistan or the Fulda Gap, but not as many trees back then as in modern day Korea). The Chinese have some of their own equipment, which we would be seeing for the first time in a CM game (I believe they have their own rifle at this point in time, which is not Soviet in origin, though I believe they mostly have Soviet machine guns). Relatively sparse force to space ratios in the early days of the war give way to very high force to space ratios in the later part of the war (even exceeding WW1 force to space ratios), which means lots of troops on even relatively small maps. I think most of the US tanks at this time are 76mm Shermans, but you've also got M26 Pershings and M46 Pattons in the mix in not insignificant numbers. If UN forces get included then you've also got British Centurions, although I don't think that non-US/SK UN forces ever made up a significant proportion the forces involved (UN forces were about 95% US and SK). Of course there isn't much opportunity for the heavier M26 and M46 to shine above the Sherman, since there just isn't very much tank vs tank combat in Korea. Though the NK and Chinese troops should have a harder time knocking out M26s and M46s, and I would expect those bigger 90mm guns to be able to lob a more powerful HE round a bit further and a bit more accurately. So perhaps they would shine a bit above the Sherman. And seeing 1st gen MBTs in action would nicely link the WW2 titles with CMCW, giving us an almost continuous equipment timeline.

Of course I wouldn't expect to see a CM:Korea anytime soon. Battlefront still has plenty on its plate with engine 5 and modules for existing games. No doubt they'll find time to make new base games eventually, but I believe there are multiple competing suggestions for where to go next, and there may have been a reason why they didn't do Korea already. I know the stated reason they haven't done the Pacific front of WW2 is that they aren't confident that the engine could handle that much vegetation.

[Sunbather]

11 hours ago, Centurian52 said:

I know the stated reason they haven't done the Pacific front of WW2 is that they aren't confident that the engine could handle that much vegetation.

The Heaven and Earth mod would like to have a word:

 

[Combatintman]

On 8/15/2023 at 10:56 AM, Sunbather said:

The Heaven and Earth mod would like to have a word:

 

That would be the same mod that I tried to make a scenario based on an actual battle set on real terrain that had so many trees and elevation changes on it that it would not load once I got to the point of starting to lay buildings down.  So yes it is an issue.  My actual scenario for that title (Ap Bac - again a real battle) worked because I halved the map size, it didn't have that many trees and was an almost entirely flat map.

[markus544]

Engine 5 does anyone know what that is?