Combat Mission Cold War - British Army On the Rhine

[The_Capt]

Hey guys, 

  All I can say right now is that we are at the top of the CMx2 queue...in fact we are the top of the CMx2 work pile. We will see if we can make it for this year, but we are talking weeks/months, not years.

Edited August 28 by The_Capt

[JM Stuff]

54 minutes ago, Halmbarte said:

We already have PT76... Although I don't recall any formations that include them instead of adding them as individual vehicles. 

This one got taken out by DPICM and the crew bailed. 

H

A Big oops for the PT 76  don't remember the name of the tank that I was searching, this will come later...and agree in what you said.

[Lieutenant Ash]

Thanks for the update, here's hoping you make it by the end of the year.

[snarre]

is there any plans to continue this title after Baor ? 

[Centurian52]

48 minutes ago, snarre said:

is there any plans to continue this title after Baor ? 

My guess is probably not, with CM3 on the horizon. Obviously the Cold War needs more expansion (we still don't have West German forces). But I think our best bet on that front is to hope for a CM3 Cold War game. Apparently CMCW did pretty well from a sales standpoint, so (especially with the additional resources of Slitherine) I think our prospects for seeing a CM3 Cold War game are likely pretty good.

But this is all speculation. Whatever the plans are (if there are even any solid plans yet), I'm not in on them. If I were, I wouldn't be at liberty to share them ahead of any official announcement.

[Lieutenant Ash]

 Hope the west (and east) Germans make it into this title before it is put to bed, otherwise it would be like 'fortress Italy' without the Italians.

[snarre]

yah CM3 cold war would be ideal , how ewer then example for me big question is " do i need this one any more " . ok we dont know what is firts title to CM 3 sou mmm... 

[Lieutenant Ash]

While they are still developing content for CMCW likely means that a CM3 cold war game is well down the list (I would guess).

[JM Stuff]

Or perhaps we will see the first module CM3 with Afghanistan?

[Sequoia]

On 8/29/2024 at 9:51 AM, Centurian52 said:

My guess is probably not, with CM3 on the horizon. Obviously the Cold War needs more expansion (we still don't have West German forces). But I think our best bet on that front is to hope for a CM3 Cold War game. Apparently CMCW did pretty well from a sales standpoint, so (especially with the additional resources of Slitherine) I think our prospects for seeing a CM3 Cold War game are likely pretty good.

But this is all speculation. Whatever the plans are (if there are even any solid plans yet), I'm not in on them. If I were, I wouldn't be at liberty to share them ahead of any official announcement.

Hmm, my take on reading the acquisition thread posts from Steve was that existing CMX 2 games (with the certain exceptions of CM:Afghanistan and Black Sea) would be converted/upgraded to the CMX 3 engine-whatever that means- rather than being redone as new games.

Am I misunderstanding?

I have no doubts there is a desire by the Cold War team to do the Bundeswehr and probably the Ost Deutch, but you're right, no one in the know can tell us right now what is going to happen, and that might be because no decisions have been finalized after the acquisition. 

Edited August 31 by Sequoia

[Centurian52]

1 hour ago, Sequoia said:

Hmm, my take on reading the acquisition thread posts from Steve was that existing CMX 2 games (with the certain exceptions of CM:Afghanistan and Black Sea) would be converted/upgraded to the CMX 3 engine-whatever that means- rather than being redone as new games.

Am I misunderstanding?

I have no doubts there is a desire by the Cold War team to do the Bundeswehr and probably the Ost Deutch, but you're right, no one in the know can tell us right now what is going to happen, and that might be because no decisions have been finalized after the acquisition. 

I don't think there's any possibility of upgrading CM2 games to CM3. At least not in the way that CMSF was upgraded to a newer version of CM2 with CMSF2. CM3 will be recognizably CM, the way CM2 was recognizably CM to anyone who had played CM1. But it's still a completely different game engine.

I expect the data gathered to create the CM2 games will probably be reused for the CM3 games (apparently getting all that data was a lot of work, so why waste it?). So I'd guess that we'll probably see the forces and settings of existing CM2 games making it into new CM3 games. But the CM3 games will still be new games, not upgrades of CM2 games.

[Centurian52]

I expect the community will probably recreate some CM2 scenarios in CM3, just as they recreated some CM1 scenarios in CM2. I remember the designer notes in some of the CM2 scenarios I have specifically state that the scenario is an attempt to recreate a CM1 scenario.

[Sequoia]

Reviewing what I read from Steve, I see now it appears that you're right. No "mere" upgrade of CMX2 families to CMX3. That said, and obviously this is just an opinion, I'm not convinced all CMX2 families will no longer see any additional content after BAOR. 

It will probably depend on BAOR sales, but it seems that halting a new family, and Cold War is the newest, for an indefinite amount of years until it's the NATO vs Warsaw Pact turn again for a new family is a missed sales opportunity. Perhaps that's just my wishful thinking in hoping it won't be years before more content for the setting.    

If I had to guess, I would say the first CMX3 game will be East Front 1943 Kursk. 

If I recall Steve's rank of theater settings correctly, they are:

1. West Front 1944 and on.

2. East Front.

3. Modern. Meaning 21st Century.

4. Mediterranean including North Africa. 

 

I know Cold War did better than expected. IIRC everything Battlefront has ever done did better than expected. 

Steves's rankings above were stated before Cold War was published, I recall.

I would think Slitherine would be interested in a new modern (21st Century) family, but still wish to refrain from Ukraine and anything involving Israel.  Combat Mission shines in combined arms operation, and I think that would remain true in engine 3. That led Battlefront to creating a fictional setting for Shock Force.  I would doubt Slitherine would want to duplicate Shock Force and compete against a good existing product. My 3 cents.    

 

 

 

 

 

[Redwolf]

I think the only hope for getting Germans in CMCW is if Bundeswehr and East Germany get included in the British release.

[Sequoia]

Well, there's no hope of that.

[Andrew Kulin]

3 hours ago, Centurian52 said:

I don't think there's any possibility of upgrading CM2 games to CM3. At least not in the way that CMSF was upgraded to a newer version of CM2 with CMSF2. CM3 will be recognizably CM, the way CM2 was recognizably CM to anyone who had played CM1. But it's still a completely different game engine.

I expect the data gathered to create the CM2 games will probably be reused for the CM3 games (apparently getting all that data was a lot of work, so why waste it?). So I'd guess that we'll probably see the forces and settings of existing CM2 games making it into new CM3 games. But the CM3 games will still be new games, not upgrades of CM2 games.

I would think that they would be able to set up a utility that takes the date from CM2 and ports it over into CM3 and drops it into the appropriate data fields for the new CM3 Engine.  Maybe needing to do a bit of math here and there if needed (such as if data in CM2 is in mm, but in CM3 is in inches sort of thing).  But CM3 may be more complexicated in terms of unit data that is tracked, so there could be empty data fields after porting the data that someone is going to need to fill in to complete the transfer.

But I imagine that things like maps, scenarios and AI plans would be much more difficult to port over into CM3 (maps in particular). 

So basically I agree fully with Centurian52

[Erwin]

What will be interesting is if any of the thousands of CM2 mods work in CM3.  We have lost so many great modders over the years, I hope new guys emerge.   

[Vergeltungswaffe]

0% chance of CM2 mods working in Unity.

But it will probably look pretty damn impressive and not need nearly as much.

Edited September 1 by Vergeltungswaffe

[Aragorn2002]

19 hours ago, Sequoia said:

Well, there's no hope of that.

You never know. It takes them long enough.

[OldSarge]

1 hour ago, Vergeltungswaffe said:

0% chance of CM2 mods working in Unity.

But it will probably look pretty damn impressive and not need nearly as much.

Are we certain that CM3 would be in Unity and not using Sliterine's own Archon engine? Archon Wiki  Or is it too early to start the guessing game? Space Lobsters and garlic butter.

Edited September 1 by OldSarge
Add link to Archon Wiki

[Sequoia]

See here:

On 8/27/2024 at 8:37 AM, Battlefront.com said:

That and having an ex-Unity employed programmer helps too   He's teaching Charles all kinds of things about Unity, Charles is teaching him about the importance of smoke discharger angles.  It's a win win for you guys, that's for sure!

Steve

[OldSarge]

18 minutes ago, Sequoia said:

See here:

Ah, from Steve's mouth. I apparently glossed over that, just glad there is sufficient developer support and other resources for a change.

Edited September 1 by OldSarge

[Sequoia]

17 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

I don't have a definitive answer on Upgrade (Engine) 5 at the moment because there isn't a definitive answer

Centurian52 got the gist of it correct.  We want CM2 to live on for a few more years, but the march of technology may preclude that unless we take action.  Engine 5 was intended to make longevity more sure.  Therefore, CM3 doesn't have any bearing on that concept.  Where CM3 has some bearing is the age old dilemma of finding the line between benefit and distraction.  Put more directly... how much CM3 energy do we want to divert into CM2?  That's something we can't answer quite yet.

As was said above, Engine 5 was never, ever, ever intended to add game features because doing that definitely crosses the line I just mentioned.  There's no point adding Feature A into an old code base and then having to recreate Feature A again in the new code base.  It's not necessarily twice as much work (it could be less or MORE than that), but whatever that number is it's greater than zero.

Steve

[Pete Wenman]

Can't recall seeing this one before

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060049924

A documentary on the "Atlantic Lion" military exercise, which took place in the Federal Republic of Germany, part of the 1983 Exercise "Autumn Reforge". Featuring troops from the USA, UK, Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands.

P

Edited September 4 by Pete Wenman

[DesertFox]

On 8/28/2024 at 4:42 PM, The_Capt said:

Hey guys, 

  All I can say right now is that we are at the top of the CMx2 queue...in fact we are the top of the CMx2 work pile. We will see if we can make it for this year, but we are talking weeks/months, not years.

Sounds good to me. Q4/2024 or Q1/2025 would be nice. Fingers crossed.

Would be able to get some Wolfenbuettel/Brunswick and Fallingbostel/Bergen nostalgica going with that.