Annual look at the year to come - 2023

[Ithikial_AU]

9 hours ago, Grey_Fox said:

Right. But the content for a game cannot be created until the game is completed, right? Which means that if you have a battle pack and a game that contains a similar amount of content, the new games content was completed on a shorter length of time than the battle pack content.

You'd be surprised. Creating content while a product is in beta does occur and can lead to some unforeseen problems and redos of aspects of scenarios as stuff under the hood changes. Known risk you take. Luckily, the general consumer doesn't have to worry about that.

Remember that BF only announces products once development is well into the pipeline. The Utah Beach Battlepack has been the exception as that was first announced basically around the same time as a green light for the project was given. There was nothing "in the editor itself" so to speak. Just design plans and research paperwork. I'd hazard a guess there would of only be some kind of announcement that the BP existed around now based on where we're up to.

There's also quite a few perfectionists behind the scenes trying to marry up the history with the tools and features available in the game engine. For example just for the Carentan campaign, I've tried to reflect all the units involved in the fighting and their relative strengths at specific points in the roughly two weeks of history I'm recreating. That's not a quick process to do right and try to validate sources. In the Carentan campaign you will command five different parachute/glider battalions plus add-ons at varying points. It's pretty big but you'll still probably be crying in parts if you know what you'll be throwing them  against.  I mean I could race forward and not care about historical accuracy at this point and have you pushing down Purple Heart Lane with a British Armoured Battalion because it would be 'cool', rather than a recreating the 3/502 of the 101st Airborne... but I think there maybe a few protests from the player base.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Ithikial_AU

[kohlenklau]

10 hours ago, Ithikial_AU said:

There's also quite a few perfectionists behind the scenes trying to marry up the history with the tools and features available in the game engine.

Quit talking like that. You're turning me on.

I have played a few of the scenarios in the new ASL historical module, Drop Zone St Mere Eglise.

Will you have any Georgians in the battle pack?

EDIT: hold on, wrong division, different sector. Never mind. 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by kohlenklau

[Centurian52]

11 hours ago, Ithikial_AU said:

There's also quite a few perfectionists behind the scenes trying to marry up the history with the tools and features available in the game engine. For example just for the Carentan campaign, I've tried to reflect all the units involved in the fighting and their relative strengths at specific points in the roughly two weeks of history I'm recreating. That's not a quick process to do right and try to validate sources. In the Carentan campaign you will command five different parachute/glider battalions plus add-ons at varying points. It's pretty big but you'll still probably be crying in parts if you know what you'll be throwing them  against.  I mean I could race forward and not care about historical accuracy at this point and have you pushing down Purple Heart Lane with a British Armoured Battalion because it would be 'cool', rather than a recreating the 3/502 of the 101st Airborne... but I think there maybe a few protests from the player base.

Oh sweet Jesus I'm already planning on buying it, you don't have to keep selling it to me 

[A Canadian Cat]

16 hours ago, PIATpunk said:

perhaps steve should prove it.

Sigh. I don't speak for Steve but I suspect he doesn't care much if some rando on the internet thinks he's not working and is bitching an moaning about it. I could be wrong. It's possible he'll pop in here right quick and show proof to you that he's still working. LOL Not

[PIATpunk]

11 hours ago, IanL said:

Sigh. I don't speak for Steve but I suspect he doesn't care much if some rando on the internet thinks he's not working and is bitching an moaning about it. I could be wrong. It's possible he'll pop in here right quick and show proof to you that he's still working. LOL Not

Apologies, I should have explained what I meant by 'prove'.

As the honcho I would have thought he would have the final word on game releases and updates.

You know the kind of thing - send it up to the boss for final approval before retail release.

And so Steve would be practising due diligence by looking at the releases and ensuring they are of merchantable quality, amongst other things.

And yet, we see in the latest  round of game updates eg CMBN, CMRT and CMFI:

1. No mention of the requirements to have Microsoft Visual C++ 2015- 2022 Redistributable (x86) installed in Windows for the latest patches that include PBEM++ to even run.  Not even on the website (to my knowledge).  

2. No inclusion of the updated game manual that tells you how to actually play said PBEM++.  It's out there, somewhere,  but the one you receive with your updated game is dated 2015 and hence has no mention of the feature.

3. Continued releasing of patches in the past that fail to address say, inf breaking cover and heading towards enemy, although patch notes state that its fixed.

It's small details like this (yes, they are small, but to my eye, important) that lead me to believe that people who represent the company are not paying close enough attention to the game itself.

So when I see said people spending their time on unrelated topics and rarely discussing the games themselves - and the above items (and more) are still not addressed - raises my eyebrow.

I'd like management to roll up their sleeves and prove that they are 100% behind their product, by ensuring their product is as good as it can be.  But that probably won't be read either.

From one rando to another

[A Canadian Cat]

On 10/26/2023 at 9:53 PM, PIATpunk said:

3. Continued releasing of patches in the past that fail to address say, inf breaking cover and heading towards enemy, although patch notes state that its fixed.

As far as I know this *was* fixed long ago. I play daily and haven't see it in since.

 

On 10/26/2023 at 9:53 PM, PIATpunk said:

No mention of the requirements to have Microsoft Visual C++ 2015- 2022 Redistributable (x86) installed i

Interesting. That doesn't happen automatically during the install process? That would not be good.

 

On 10/26/2023 at 9:53 PM, PIATpunk said:

So when I see said people spending their time on unrelated topics and rarely discussing the games themselves

LOL I hope you are not a manager of people. I'd hate to have you looking over my shoulder telling me how to manage every minute of my time.

[CarlXII]

1 hour ago, IanL said:

LOL I hope you are not a manager of people. I'd hate to have you looking over my shoulder telling me how to manage every minute of my time.

"Manage every minute" ???

I don't think that's what Piat is talking about...Apart from PIATpunk i've seen several other members around here question Steves priorities somewhat...

Some slight tweaking of thoose priorities might be a good thing...

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by CarlXII

[A Canadian Cat]

7 hours ago, CarlXII said:

Some slight tweaking of thoose priorities might be a good thing...

 

People on the internet telling someone that he should tweak his priorities. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

[PIATpunk]

 

Quote

As far as I know this *was* fixed long ago. 

The bug was first reported in early 2020.  It took at least 2 attempts to fix later that year.

Although, in some titles at least, it's only just been fixed in the latest release.

eg CMFI 2.20 patch notes (patch released Sept 12 2023):

"FIXED: Infantry no longer flees toward enemy."

Rando

[PIATpunk]

Quote

People on the internet telling someone that he should tweak his priorities. 

I believe, as we are all paying customers, and most of us I suspect have invested some hundreds of dollars here - can feel somewhat justified to provide some feedback of sorts.  Normally, well lead businesses will ask directly for feedback as part of their daily transactions.

[CarlXII]

7 hours ago, IanL said:

People on the internet telling someone that he should tweak his priorities. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

I would be perfectly happy to tell him the same thing if he was sitting infront of me....But he's not.

Should i book an appointment, maybee ?

[Ultradave]

13 hours ago, PIATpunk said:

 

The bug was first reported in early 2020.  It took at least 2 attempts to fix later that year.

Although, in some titles at least, it's only just been fixed in the latest release.

eg CMFI 2.20 patch notes (patch released Sept 12 2023):

"FIXED: Infantry no longer flees toward enemy."

Rando

It was a tough bug to squash.

There was a LOT of testing to determine all the circumstances where it happened - what was happening in game, what was the cover. Then surprises when a game that we didn't think was affected, suddenly was (testing a campaign for Red Thunder and suddenly Russians in front of me bolted toward from a perfectly good building).

It's much better now. MUCH. But no one ignored it. It just took a lot of testing and fixing.

Dave

[Monty's Mighty Moustache]

7 hours ago, CarlXII said:

I would be perfectly happy to tell him the same thing if he was sitting infront of me....But he's not.

Should i book an appointment, maybee ?

I keep seeing people commenting on Steve’s priorities like they know exactly what he’s working on and how he spends his time. But none of you do, unless you work closely with or know him well.

Now you can comment on the “impression” you get of how what he is working on, that’s fair, but to say he needs to sort his priorities out based on that is ridiculous 

[CarlXII]

1 hour ago, Monty's Mighty Moustache said:

I keep seeing people commenting on Steve’s priorities like they know exactly what he’s working on and how he spends his time. But none of you do, unless you work closely with or know him well.

That he is far more intrested in posting in the Ukraine thread compared to sharing some progress information is pretty obvious to most people...

1 hour ago, Monty's Mighty Moustache said:

Now you can comment on the “impression” you get of how what he is working on, that’s fair, but to say he needs to sort his priorities out based on that is ridiculous 

I can agree with this...But thats not what i said. I said that it "might be a good thing"...

 

[chuckdyke]

Get the AI a little better in attacking.

[danfrodo]

2 hours ago, CarlXII said:

That he is far more intrested in posting in the Ukraine thread compared to sharing some progress information is pretty obvious to most people...

I can agree with this...But thats not what i said. I said that it "might be a good thing"...

 

So if Steve spends a two or three hours each day looking at what's happening in UKR war and writing a few posts of a few paragraphs each, then he is doing nothing else the rest of the day?  And also this war informs any CMBS games going forward, so it's not like it's off subject.  This is fascinating.  I watch ~10 hours of football each week, plus play some CM, plus play some guitar, cook, clean, do laundry, etc.  Therefore I can't possibly be doing my 40+ hour per week job.  

Edited October 29, 2023 by danfrodo

[MeatEtr]

Yeah this sort of “omg they’re not doing anything and they don’t care” nonsense always gets kicked around when there’s been few releases. Nothing new. Just because Steve talks about the Ukraine war doesn’t mean jack squat. You’re equating two things that are completely unrelated. It’s not logical. Does he need your permission to talk to his relatives on the phone too? How about running to the grocery store for food? 

[CarlXII]

1 hour ago, danfrodo said:

So if Steve spends a two or three hours each day looking at what's happening in UKR war and writing a few posts of a few paragraphs each, then he is doing nothing else the rest of the day?  And also this war informs any CMBS games going forward, so it's not like it's off subject.  This is fascinating.  I watch ~10 hours of football each week, plus play some CM, plus play some guitar, cook, clean, do laundry, etc.  Therefore I can't possibly be doing my 40+ hour per week job.  

 

1 hour ago, MeatEtr said:

Yeah this sort of “omg they’re not doing anything and they don’t care” nonsense always gets kicked around when there’s been few releases. Nothing new. Just because Steve talks about the Ukraine war doesn’t mean jack squat. You’re equating two things that are completely unrelated. It’s not logical. Does he need your permission to talk to his relatives on the phone too? How about running to the grocery store for food? 

You guys don't mind exagerating...do you ? No one...or atleast very few people asking for some updates etc are saying that Steve is doing NOTHING...Or that he has to drop everything he is doing and start to work on EVERYTHING that we personally want to see and nothing else...

Quite a few people are concerned about the slow progress with the CM game in recent years and would apprisiate some more regular information sharing on whats going on and what we can expect and when..

If you guys don't care and think that everything is just perfect...Good for you.

What could possibly be wrong with posting an update report somewhat more regularely...sharing some information on recent progress with the modules, battlepacks etc...
With regards to the V.5 upgrade why not share whats been done...We have finished implementing these features and improvement...we are currently working on adding these...We are currently struggeling with this and that will most likely cause some delays to our estemated release date.
With regards to CM3. For starters why not confirm if it is indeed a thing being worked on or not. If it is being worked on...why not release a few development updates every now and then to increase the exitement for product and get the community involved in the development process.

Personally i don't play all that many other games but i do play some...DCS world from Eagle Dynamics and some of the Paradox games for example...Those companies have a quite different wiew on comunications with their customers and i don't think that is a negative for those companies...

But if the community over here is happy with the "it's ready when it's ready"...Then fine...no worries 

[Holien]

6 minutes ago, CarlXII said:

the community over here is happy with the "it's ready when it's ready"...Then fine...no worries

Welcome to the community... 

 

[Artkin]

I think the issue that theres 0 attention focused on the rest of the forum. As said it does seem like Elvis is the only person reading the rest of the forum. 

Bugs get reported and are often completely forgotten about or just never read. It took years to fix the T-90 bug and it wasnt until the staff was really pressured. 

[kohlenklau]

 

[danfrodo]

13 hours ago, CarlXII said:

That he is far more intrested in posting in the Ukraine thread compared to sharing some progress information is pretty obvious to most people...

I saw your response to my little rant and wanted to recant..... except that you said the above?  Steve almost never shares any info, so saying he's taking too much interest is not really the problem.  The problem is that he never says anything with or without the UKR war forum.  He didn't before the war.  And he doesn't during the war. 

We agree, I think, that we sure wish we had some news.  And some new battles.  I'm currently back in CMFB for my annual pilgramage back to Belgium, but sure would love for some new stuff though.

 

[Centurian52]

I understand the impatience. I really do. We all want our new toys sooner rather than later.

But my day job is testing software, and I've dabbled in a bit of programming in the past. So please trust me when I say it's not a good idea to rush these things. Some bugs are harder to squash than others. Some features are harder to work in than expected, and will frequently cause new bugs. It's always better to wait for a good product than to get a rushed piece of garbage. There is plenty of Combat Mission already out to keep us busy in the mean time.

I believe everyone at Battlefront is probably working diligently. Battlefront releases have always been slow. In part I expect that's a result of the limited resources they've always had to work with, and in part that's just because properly developing and testing any product takes time. But the releases have always come. We will get our new toys when they're ready.

[kohlenklau]

2C in Texas today. Hell IS Freezing over. Maybe we will get another WW2 module or title.

 

[wadepm]

6 hours ago, Centurian52 said:

I understand the impatience. I really do. We all want our new toys sooner rather than later.

But my day job is testing software, and I've dabbled in a bit of programming in the past. So please trust me when I say it's not a good idea to rush these things. Some bugs are harder to squash than others. Some features are harder to work in than expected, and will frequently cause new bugs. It's always better to wait for a good product than to get a rushed piece of garbage. There is plenty of Combat Mission already out to keep us busy in the mean time.

I believe everyone at Battlefront is probably working diligently. Battlefront releases have always been slow. In part I expect that's a result of the limited resources they've always had to work with, and in part that's just because properly developing and testing any product takes time. But the releases have always come. We will get our new toys when they're ready.

I have been away from the forum for a while.  Could someone catch me up briefly on what we are waiting for exactly?  I would like to participate in the waiting game.  Thanks!