Been 10yrs, need a quick recap

[BDW]

Hey everyone, it's been 10yrs since I've played (life, kids, y'know how it goes). But I want to get back into some CM PBEM action. I used to be really into it, doing tourneys and having a half dozen games going at once.  

I attempted to get CM back up and running in 2020 and my last purchase was "CMBN Upgrade 3 + 4 Bundle" but the licenses and installing was too confusing and I gave up.  

Assuming I get CMBN back up and running, with latest upgrades and patches, my question is:  what's the latest I need to know?  Like what's all this slitherine stuff all about?  Is PBEM easier now? What about tourneys?  How about game engine 4?    What are the big highlights from last 10 years that I should be excited about?   How's the community doing?  I recall back in 2020 I opened my old bookmarks to the leaderboard sites and it was all gone pretty dead. 

I really appreciate any responses; I know I can spend a lot of time figuring out answers to my questions, but I'm hoping some of y'all don't mind sharing so I can get back up to speed quickly and into some games!!

Thanks!!

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by BDW
Typos

[CarlXII]

6 hours ago, BDW said:

Is PBEM easier now? What about tourneys? 

A new PBEM system has been implemeted (on STEAM, i belive) and some tournament features are being worked on...

Both the PBEM and tournament seems to be struggeling with some bugs though...

6 hours ago, BDW said:

How about game engine 4?    What are the big highlights from last 10 years that I should be excited about?   

NONE ! 

Appart from some very minor improvements to the AI opponent.

6 hours ago, BDW said:

 How's the community doing?  I recall back in 2020 I opened my old bookmarks to the leaderboard sites and it was all gone pretty dead. 

It's even more dead now.

Welcome back to the game ! 

[BFCElvis]

6 hours ago, BDW said:

Hey everyone, it's been 10yrs since I've played (life, kids, y'know how it goes). But I want to get back into some CM PBEM action. I used to be really into it, doing tourneys and having a half dozen games going at once.  

I attempted to get CM back up and running in 2020 and my last purchase was "CMBN Upgrade 3 + 4 Bundle" but the licenses and installing was too confusing and I gave up.  

Assuming I get CMBN back up and running, with latest upgrades and patches, my question is:  what's the latest I need to know?  Like what's all this slitherine stuff all about?  Is PBEM easier now? What about tourneys?  How about game engine 4?    What are the big highlights from last 10 years that I should be excited about?   How's the community doing?  I recall back in 2020 I opened my old bookmarks to the leaderboard sites and it was all gone pretty dead. 

I really appreciate any responses; I know I can spend a lot of time figuring out answers to my questions, but I'm hoping some of y'all don't mind sharing so I can get back up to speed quickly and into some games!!

Thanks!!

 

Wow!! Your "Joined" date is even older than mine!! I am October '99. 

If you have the games through the 4.0 Upgrade then not much has changed with the game engine. More content has become available.

You can now pick up PBEM games through the game itself, in addition to talking to people here and looking for a game. 

[JoMac]

Welcome Back @BDW...I'm just a Newbie since joining back at around 01-02'  We can PBEM when you get things sorted out. Just PM and let me know.

Joe

Edited November 11, 2023 by JoMac

[Erwin]

Best approach is to download the latest "all in one bundle" of each game you own from BF site and make a new install with that. That gives one the latest version of everything plus any new scenarios and campaigns.  

[Vacillator]

11 hours ago, BDW said:

having a half dozen games going at once

Respect . 

4 hours ago, BFCElvis said:

Your "Joined" date is even older than mine!! I am October '99.

Respect again, I am a true newbie, 2020 vintage.

When you get sorted and perhaps have played JoMac, I'll be happy to learn lessons from an 'old master'.

And yes the forum is a little quiet in places (not in others) but it ain't dead yet .

[BDW]

Hey thanks everyone, I appreciate the responses.   I'm going to download that bundle and get up and running again.   That's actually pretty cool about the PBEM via the game itself.   Funny about not much different in 10yrs except content!   LOL "battlefront" you have to love them

Should I get excited about game engine 5?  

I'm actually really happy to hear that not much has changed because they are definitely doing something right, and still chugging along, and not turning the game into something lame to appeal to a wider audience to make $$. 

I was telling a marksman/data scientist friend of mine about the game, during a conversation about how FPS games are ridiculous (COD) and I was describing CM to him and he was VERY interested.  I followe dup by senidng him a random CM youtube clip from ten years ago of a Stuart getting side penetrations on a Tiger and he was blown away by the physics modeling of the suspension on the tiger.  Like, that was what he found compelling about the clip.  I was like, yep, you are gonna fit right in, my man

Hopefully we'll both be in a PBEM by the holidays

[landser]

12 hours ago, BDW said:

I'm actually really happy to hear that not much has changed

That's like a super power.

Wish I had it.

Instead, the inertia of Combat Mission has made it mostly irrelevant for me over the past five years. It's disappointing that so little innovation has come to the series, for me personally anyway. Others see it differently and that's a view I would like to share, but don't. Improvements like engine 4 are too inconsequential to move the needle.

I want a new Combat Mission that feels as fresh as Overlord did in 2000. But here we are 23 years later.

Maybe one day, but those of us who played the CMBO demo aren't getting any younger.

But I can still be happy for those who still find it compelling in its enduring form.

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by landser

[BDW]

On 11/13/2023 at 8:29 AM, landser said:

Instead, the inertia of Combat Mission has made it mostly irrelevant for me over the past five years. It's disappointing that so little innovation has come to the series, for me personally anyway. Others see it differently and that's a view I would like to share, but don't. Improvements like engine 4 are too inconsequential to move the needle.

I wonder, in the 4.0 version kind of like a fully developed version of the concept, that pretty much does everything that the designers wanted to do?   Sort of like table top type games?  Where the game rules are pretty much fully baked, then it's all about new content?   Or are there aspects of CM that the community find very lacking, where the product is desperate for new features?  

Is game engine 5.0 going to bring any significant innovations?   AI opponent would cool 

[JoMac]

Well, the biggest change in 4.0 was supposed to better pathfinding where the AI would retreat out of cover (depending on moral, and how heavy the suppression) and properly fall back to next cover. However, there was issues with the pathfinding, etc, and by 4.02-03 (a year or so later) BF decided to simply have troops die in cover...Basically, it's now up to the player to fall back a turn or two ahead of time and not rely on Tac AI to do. 

Edited November 15, 2023 by JoMac

[BDW]

It seems like all of the good work they've done, all the finely tuned armor and unit modeling from WW2 to modern times, all the physics - like all the good stuff - could form the basis of a quantum leap forward in the game, using modern technology/AI/graphics engines/etc  It seems like after all this time, there is enough there to do something pretty spectacular with.  But I'm not a software engineer, so what do I know!   

 

[slysniper]

Sometimes I wonder why players forget about things that have been shared about what the company is doing.

Yes, BF has been working on placing their present games on steam and providing a pbem system there. Also a tournament system there also.

In truth, none of this is anything all that special. but it was a needed effort with their bussiness partners.

 

There is still efforts for new modules and battle packs on the present series of games. That work is going slow ( hard to control when much of the labor is donated for free).

 

Not sure why a update to the present engine is still discussed much. it is not the future of where BF is going.

They presently have some military contracts and are working on different projects. these are leading to new developements

 

For us, there is coming a new game engine (CM3 at some point) and yes it will be as much of a leap forward  if not more than it was from CM 1 to CM 2

Whenever that makes it to the public, it will breath life back into the activity and amount of players on the forums. Plus with a steam presence being developed. CM 3 should see possible growth that was not possiible  in their past efforts.

 

[AlexUK]

Is that a fact that CM3 is being worked on?

It would be good to have another update from Steve. Only getting news every year or so is too long for me. 

On an M1 Mac and most scenarios in CMCW are effectively unplayable for me due to performance issues. I was really hiding out hope for an engine upgrade that would solve this so I could enjoy the game I purchased. 

[Bulletpoint]

50 minutes ago, slysniper said:

For us, there is coming a new game engine (CM3 at some point) and yes it will be as much of a leap forward  if not more than it was from CM 1 to CM 2

I don't think they ever promised anything like that.

What they did say was that they would like to do an updated engine that is better optimised. So, better performance and less weird graphical glitches. Which would be great. But it's still going to be the same game.

[StieliAlpha]

7 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

I don't think they ever promised anything like that.

What they did say was that they would like to do an updated engine that is better optimised. So, better performance and less weird graphical glitches. Which would be great. But it's still going to be the same game.

Brings me back to @BDW original question

A lot changed, but if you were away for ten years, you won’t notice the difference. The game runs better and a lot of glitches have been eliminated.

The „going to Steam with a new PBEM and tournament system“ is certainly a big change, but probably not your main concern for the time being.

Otherwise: I am playing CM since 1999 (or earlier?), too, but joined the Forum only in the early 2000‘s.

That said: Welcome back mate!

Forgot to say: Installation is nowadays indeed a lot easier, @BFCElvis will help you through that anyway. 
And there are „all in one“ mod packages available, which should give you a head start to make the game look nicer.

Edited November 15, 2023 by StieliAlpha

[BDW]

Thank you!  I'm going to delve in over the holidays.  The tourneys via steam sounds actually pretty cool, because steam isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so could be a great community builder.  

[MikeyD]

I'm not a Steam guy. Steam, is that Windows only, not Apple? Or am I entirely wrong? I won't mind being wrong. 

[BDW]

Steam is on Mac and PC and maybe other platforms too

[BFCElvis]

1 hour ago, BDW said:

Steam is on Mac and PC and maybe other platforms too

But CM on Steam is Windows only

[Ales Dvorak]

19 hours ago, AlexUK said:

On an M1 Mac and most scenarios in CMCW are effectively unplayable for me due to performance issues. I was really hiding out hope for an engine upgrade that would solve this so I could enjoy the game I purchased. 

On M1 mini Mac shaders look really bad. ( Unusable )

[MikeyD]

Hardware problems.

[Ales Dvorak]

9 hours ago, MikeyD said:

Hardware problems.

?

[Ales Dvorak]

Hardware problems .... maybe software update can solve them. 7 years or more back there were shaders problem with Nvidia, and BF solved the problem very quick.

Edited November 18, 2023 by Ales Dvorak

[A Canadian Cat]

On 11/17/2023 at 5:32 AM, Ales Dvorak said:

On 11/16/2023 at 7:39 PM, MikeyD said:

Hardware problems.

?

Mini rant. Not really picking on @Ales Dvorak because I see this on multiple platforms and multiple products. Apple users seems to be subjected to this most but it's not even an apple only thing:

I hate hearing people complain to companies that are not the cause of problems created by other companies. Direct your angst towards the people that caused the problem.

Say you support open gl but break a working API. It's the graphics card company's problem not the game company's. At least to investigate and find out if there was a mistake made in the usage of the API.

Change chip sets or chip bit depth and don't make the advertised backwards compatibility cover everything? It's OS manufacturer that's at fault.

Change the chip set and cause everyone to demand a new native compiled version or popular apps. Well crap. What about those of us who aren't using that OS why don't we get any new features for nearly a year just because some group of customers bitches and moans about the totally manufactured demands.

I'll shut up now

[Vacillator]

13 minutes ago, IanL said:

some group of customers bitches and moans

Having a bad day Ian ?