The year to come - 2024 (Part 1)

[Centurian52]

3 hours ago, Simcoe said:

Thanks for the update! 

I may be in the minority here but I'm not too sad about the scrapped Black Sea module. I just don't think the current engine does modern warfare very well. If this helps the team focus on WW2 and Cold War then I'm happy.

The new Final Blitzkrieg module is an auto buy for me.

Seems to do modern warfare just fine to me.

But, while I'd like to see a new modern warfare game (China vs the US/Taiwan seems the obvious pick for peer vs peer warfare, while NK vs the US/SK would be much more assymetric, though I would be very interested in seeing SK forces in action), I wouldn't want that to come at the cost of Cold War content right now. There are so many armies that need to get added to CMCW, so I hope it doesn't take too long to greenlight the next module after BAOR is released. And there are other conflicts in the Cold War era that could use some attention, particularly the Korean war now that all the late WW2 equipment is in.

[laurent 22]

Last year Steve spoke on a radio show about the possibility of producing titles on the 2nd World War in the Pacific, or Korea and Vietnam: the main problem with these theaters of operation in Asia is the modeling of the terrain, with dense vegetation that would be a challenge to the game engine. They would need an application like speedtree to properly handle this aspect, an expensive application out of reach. It looks like CMx2 won't be able to do this.

Edited January 6 by laurent 22

[Thewood1]

The comments about terrain are way over generalized as is the concept of battles in the Pacific and Korea.  Korea is mostly hilly open terrain, with a few areas of dense forests.  Korea was all about hills, rivers, and urban fighting.  The Pacific as a combat theater had a lot of non-jungle combat.  In fact, some of the largest US Army urban battles of WW2 were fought in more urban environments around Manila.  A large number of the island battles for the USMC were not in densely forested jungles.  The British fought large battles in Burma in urban and built up areas.  The Hurtgen forest and the Ardennes can be handled in CM so I would imagine it could handle jungles in a similar more abstracted fashion.

If we could just combine units from Downfall with Red Thunder, you could do the majority of Korean battles today.

[chuckdyke]

2 minutes ago, Thewood1 said:

The comments about terrain are way over generalized

I agree for 100% SE Asia is more humid so your forces may tire sooner. 

[JoMac]

17 hours ago, Bearstronaut said:

How about far future? I wanna play Combat Mission: BattleTech.

Don't worry...You might still get some sort of 'Space Lobsters' game in far future.

[Battlefront.com]

4 hours ago, laurent 22 said:

Last year Steve spoke on a radio show about the possibility of producing titles on the 2nd World War in the Pacific, or Korea and Vietnam: the main problem with these theaters of operation in Asia is the modeling of the terrain, with dense vegetation that would be a challenge to the game engine. They would need an application like speedtree to properly handle this aspect, an expensive application out of reach. It looks like CMx2 won't be able to do this.

It's not just the terrain's visuals, though that is a challenge (and yes, I do understand it wasn't all jungle.  Neither was Vietnam).  The bigger problem for us is having to do all the models for the terrain.  It's a lot of work on top of having to do all new models for the Japanese forces.  It's also a topic we know very little about at the tactical level, which means it's all new to us.  Not only is the European side of the war familiar, we have a huge database of stuff to use/modify when we add something new.  None of that is useful for PTO.

As for Korea, for sure this is much easier because everybody uses mostly WW2 equipment and the UN forces look/feel the same as WW2 Western Allied forces.  Which means that's not the challenge.  The challenge is where is our time best spent?  I know there's a lot of appeal within the wargaming community for Korean War, and the potential for people to discover something new, but I don't know that it would be worth doing from our perspective.  1943/44 Eastern Front would be easier to do and more popular (which also means more sales), for example.

Steve

[Aragorn2002]

21 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

 1943/44 Eastern Front would be easier to do and more popular (which also means more sales), for example.

Steve

+1 for that, Steve. 

[OldSarge]

CMFB Downfall module is an instant buy.
CMBN Utah Beach BP is an instant buy.
CMFI BP1 is an instant buy.
CMCW BAOR module is an instant buy.

Already registered for @Mr.X's CMRT BP.

And almost forgot, @Paper Tiger CMSF2 Gung Ho! Campaign and his updated Road To Montebourg Campaign.

Looks like I'm going to have to clear my busy social calendar for the rest of the year!

Edited January 6 by OldSarge
Get Mr.X's user name right and add Paper Tiger.

[Centurian52]

48 minutes ago, Battlefront.com said:

It's not just the terrain's visuals, though that is a challenge (and yes, I do understand it wasn't all jungle.  Neither was Vietnam).  The bigger problem for us is having to do all the models for the terrain.  It's a lot of work on top of having to do all new models for the Japanese forces.  It's also a topic we know very little about at the tactical level, which means it's all new to us.  Not only is the European side of the war familiar, we have a huge database of stuff to use/modify when we add something new.  None of that is useful for PTO.

As for Korea, for sure this is much easier because everybody uses mostly WW2 equipment and the UN forces look/feel the same as WW2 Western Allied forces.  Which means that's not the challenge.  The challenge is where is our time best spent?  I know there's a lot of appeal within the wargaming community for Korean War, and the potential for people to discover something new, but I don't know that it would be worth doing from our perspective.  1943/44 Eastern Front would be easier to do and more popular (which also means more sales), for example.

Steve

While I'm dissapointed that we probably can't look forward to Korea anytime soon, I'll buy whatever you put out in any time period. It's all interesting to me.

[DesertFox]

1 hour ago, Battlefront.com said:

...  1943/44 Eastern Front would be easier to do and more popular (which also means more sales), for example.

Steve

So that's pretty much Kursk to the Dnieper 1943 - 1944 confirmed...

[FredLW]

On 1/5/2024 at 4:07 AM, Battlefront.com said:

Hi everybody!

It’s that time of year again where I do my best to lay out what the next year means for Combat Mission.  Well, half a description in this case as I need to make this a two part update.  There are a couple of things that need a wee bit more time to get ready for you.  You’ll see the second half of the update sometime this month.

Before talking about what’s coming up next, I’m going to continue with my tradition of summing up the previous year's outlook with where we wound up.  Last year there were 5 areas listed out in detail, so here's how each went:

1. Steam/Matrix Releases

This all went nearly exactly as planned.  At the end of this month all existing CM2 products will be available through Matrix (Slitherine) and Steam.  All releases have Slitherine’s PBEM++ player matching system as well as support for Tournaments.

2. New Content for CM2 Games

When it comes to the new content announced last year, we hit a bunch of snags.  Many of you might know that we outsource most of the Packs to the very same folks who have made lots of awesome stuff for you in the past.  You get the best of the best and the authors get some well deserved spending money for beer or haggis.  

In the end everything works out great, but these guys work on top of their normal jobs and whatever else is going on in their lives.  This means that if something important and unforeseen comes up, there can be delays.  Not only that, the way real life works means people don’t really know when things will get firmly back on track.  We had a couple of those delays last year.  Fortunately, everything is back on track and humming along nicely. See below for more details.

ADDITIONAL NOTE - the planned expansion for CMBS has been permanently shelved due to the ongoing war.  This decision was our own, however Slitherine was 100% in agreement with us.  It is nice to work with people who don't value money over all else.

3.  Upgrade 5

Engine Upgrade 5 is the free upgrade designed to bring some of the slowest legacy code up to current technical standards.  This has been a bit of a technical and scheduling struggle to deal with.  The code we most need to change is, unfortunately, some of the hardest to deal with.  There’s been some false starts which have cost us time.  Also costing us time is this has to be done on top of everything else that needs to get done.  I really don’t know when we’ll have something ready for you.

Releasing patches for all CM2 games at one time really sucks (think of all the testing that has to happen!), therefore we try to do it only when we have something huge to role out.  However, because Upgrade 5 is taking longer than expected I’m going to try hard to get you something significant as soon as it’s ready instead of waiting until everything is done.  Know that I’m aiming for this even though it might turn out not to be feasible.

4.  CM2 Professional Update

CM2 Pro development work was, as promised, paused last year so we could concentrate on commercial stuff for you all.  Other than me writing a few white papers for one customer and making sure everybody is happy with what they have, we’re still very much focused on the commercial side of things.  That will not change for the very near future and, thankfully, our professional customers are OK with that.

5.  Patches!

All the patches we had in mind at the beginning of 2023 were released, including adding the ability to use the PBEM++ and Tournament features for existing CM2 games (CMFB coming up in a couple of weeks!).  Of course there were a bunch of unplanned for patches and for sure there are known bugs that still need to be addressed.  That's the downside of having so much detailed content to maintain... seems there's always something to fix! 

 

Now for the fun stuff... where things are going from here!

CMBN - Utah Beach Battle Pack

We are getting to the end of the process for the next addition to CMBN - Utah Beach Battle Pack.  This is a pretty big one for a Battle Pack.  It contains two large campaigns played from the perspective of the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions, plus a short campaign featuring the 101st Airborne and 17th SS PzGren divisions.  There are a number of stand alone battles as well as the infamous Master Maps to play with.  Here are some screenshots to ooh and ah over (I know I did!)

CMFI - Battle Pack 1

This is coming along nicely and we will make some more noise about it soon.  I wasn't able to confirm some of the details with the guy heading this project in time for this post so it's probably best to make a more detailed announcement a bit later.  What I can say is the focus is on giving the various oddball forces in CMFI some time to shine. 

CMCW - BAOR Module

We're well underway with this one.  Now that our artists are freed up from Downfall and other work you can expect some juicy Cold War bones very soon.  With that will come a more detailed laying out of what you can count on in the final product.  I'll also make sure the guys behind it are the ones to answer your questions as "that's not my department"

And finally...

CMFB - Downfall is Released!

If you didn't pick up on it in the above, as of right now we have just opened preorders for the much anticipated Module for CMFB - "Downfall".  This is a massive Module that brings CMFB right through to the end of the war, including adding Commonwealth forces and the plethora of the Third Reich's last gasp formations and equipment.  Some of which you've seen fighting on the Eastern Front, some unique to Downfall.

I'm not going to post any images or details of Downfall because all of that is available by heading over to the CMFB section of our website.

https://www.battlefront.com/final-blitzkrieg/cmfb-downfall-module/

The EXACT release date is up to Slitherine, but we're on track for an end of month release.  And yes, you cheeky little buggers, I do mean this month

 

And with that, I shall end Part 1 here.  Thanks for staying tuned and looking forward to 2024 with us!

Steve

Nice preview !  Thanks for getting CM games alive through the years ! My wishes :
1) don'n use to much acronysmes: what means "CMCW-BAOR" or "CMFB"  ?   I know it, but think to beginners... 
2) a REAL dream:  release "CMBK"  = Combat Mission BlitzKrieg. 1939-40 Poland, Belgium, France campaigns !  wow, what a dream, what a potential for battlepack, new tactics, upgrades, ...   Good stuff means good money, I'm pretty sure you'll get a lot of customers for that ! 

Edited January 6 by FredLW

[JMDECC]

22 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

I did bring this up in the CMBS forum at some point, but I haven't made a large formal announcement yet.  I'll edit my initial post in this thread to give the bad news... it's scrapped.  It's just not something we feel comfortable doing and Slitherine is 100% of the same 

Incredibly disappointing. 

 

Not even a chance of getting some bits and bobs as a vehicle or battle pack?

[Vacillator]

1 hour ago, Battlefront.com said:

1943/44 Eastern Front would be easier to do and more popular

Where can I pre-order Steve ?

[Bubba883XL]

here with you all through the good and the bad. interesting to hear about engine 5 troubles, but keep with her, she'll be worth it in the end

 

Bubba

[Battlefront.com]

1 hour ago, FredLW said:

Nice preview !  Thanks for getting CM games alive through the years ! My wishes :
1) don'n use to much acronysmes: what means "CMCW-BAOR" or "CMFB"  ?   I know it, but think to beginners...

Sorry about that!  We get very used to acrynms when we talk internally, so that is what I do here too.

CMFB = Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

CMCW = Combat Mission Cold War

BAOR = British Army of the Rhine (adds British forces to Combat Mission Cold War game)

1 hour ago, FredLW said:

2) a REAL dream:  release "CMBK"  = Combat Mission BlitzKrieg. 1939-40 Poland, Belgium, France campaigns !  wow, what a dream, what a potential for battlepack, new tactics, upgrades, ...   Good stuff means good money, I'm pretty sure you'll get a lot of customers for that ! 

Yes, we think that would be a good game to do!  Unfortunately, it means almost 100% new vehicle models for both sides, 100% new TO&E, and probably 50% new weapons.   That's a huge amount of work and that means we won't be able to do anything else for a couple of years.  We don't think that's the best use of our time.

1 hour ago, JMDECC said:

Incredibly disappointing. 

 

Not even a chance of getting some bits and bobs as a vehicle or battle pack?

I am looking into the possibility of releasing maps.  They are in various stages of completion, so there might not be anything really ready to release.

For the vehicles and forces, no plans to release them in their current form.  However, they will be useful for any future Modern era wargames we might make.  That will speed up development of whatever that might be, which is at least something!

As I said, we're not giving up on Modern era warfare.  It's just that Russia and Ukraine in the same game is not viable until this war is long over.

Steve

[Raskol]

Hello Steve, any future posibility to include additional WW2 Eastern Front representation, such as Romanian and Hungarian forces? I heard some units were around that area back in 44.

 

Thank you!

 

[herr_oberst]

Pre-ordered (as usual)... looking forward to the new content.

 

Would love early war, but I get it. Small ROI, and BFC is running a business after all.

[thilio]

11 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:

Unfortunately, it means almost 100% new vehicle models for both sides, 100% new TO&E, and probably 50% new weapons.

I will buy a "CMBK".

Yes a lot of work but some vehicles and equipment are already available for German, Brits and French (PzII, PzIII and IV, B1bis, R35, 88, Pak, bren carrier, etc...).

[Duckman]

20 hours ago, Thewood1 said:

The comments about terrain are way over generalized as is the concept of battles in the Pacific and Korea.  Korea is mostly hilly open terrain, with a few areas of dense forests.  Korea was all about hills, rivers, and urban fighting.  The Pacific as a combat theater had a lot of non-jungle combat.  In fact, some of the largest US Army urban battles of WW2 were fought in more urban environments around Manila.  A large number of the island battles for the USMC were not in densely forested jungles.  The British fought large battles in Burma in urban and built up areas.  The Hurtgen forest and the Ardennes can be handled in CM so I would imagine it could handle jungles in a similar more abstracted fashion.

If we could just combine units from Downfall with Red Thunder, you could do the majority of Korean battles today.

All true, but we all know which the real crowd pleasers are when it comes to Pacific battles and it's not Burma, China, or even the Philippines.

As for Korea it's an excellent fit just like you say, as are the early Arab-Israeli Wars. 

[Centurian52]

3 hours ago, thilio said:

I will buy a "CMBK".

Yes a lot of work but some vehicles and equipment are already available for German, Brits and French (PzII, PzIII and IV, B1bis, R35, 88, Pak, bren carrier, etc...).

I think they'll do early war eventually. They just need to work backwards towards it from what they have right now to minimize the number new assets that need to be created with each release.

[Thewood1]

6 hours ago, Duckman said:

All true, but we all know which the real crowd pleasers are when it comes to Pacific battles and it's not Burma, China, or even the Philippines.

As for Korea it's an excellent fit just like you say, as are the early Arab-Israeli Wars. 

You are arguing a non-issue with me.  I don't necessarily think any of those theaters are money makers and I am no expert in those markets.  I have said nothing about the viability of any of those proposed games. 

My issue is  the huge misconceptions of combat from wargamers who like to think they are focused on highly historical games.  How many times I have heard wargamers deride the press on not researching history and perpetuating myths about a particular subject.  Yet on these very forums I continue to hear knowledgeable wargamers perpetuating myths like this without a second thought. 

[Erwin]

5 hours ago, Centurian52 said:

I think they'll do early war eventually. They just need to work backwards towards it from what they have right now to minimize the number new assets that need to be created with each release.

BF initially repeatedly promised that since CMBN was released.  But, has moved away from that promise, much to the dismay of many of us.  My recollection was that BF didn't see Early War as profitable - same for North Africa, despite the interest in DAK etc. 

[jtsjc1]

I have all the CM titles with modules, battle packs etc but I have to say I'm disappointed with PTO and Korea being unlikely. Covering all WW2 into Korea would make this the ultimate simulation.  I do like CW, BS and SF2 also of course!

Edited January 7 by jtsjc1

[dan/california]

1700 km, 1100 miles, no way in heck that took less than 16 hours. 

edit, meant to put this in the Ukraine thread, sorry

Edited January 7 by dan/california

[Centurian52]

2 hours ago, Erwin said:

BF initially repeatedly promised that since CMBN was released.  But, has moved away from that promise, much to the dismay of many of us.  My recollection was that BF didn't see Early War as profitable - same for North Africa, despite the interest in DAK etc. 

They spent their time bringing all the fronts up to the end of the war. And honestly I think that was a good use of their time. But now that all of the fronts have been brought up to the end of the war, there is really nowhere for them to go but back. We can be very confident that the next WW2 CM release will be an incremental step back in time, promises or no, because there is no direction left to go but back.

The only things that are in question are how far back will the next release go, and which front will they roll the clock back on first. Will it be earlier in 1944 on the eastern front next? Or will it be Tunisia 1943 next?

Edited January 7 by Centurian52