Combat Mission - Platoon Leader

[Guest Zulu1]

Apologies to all if this has been covered before. I did a search with inconclusive results.

Anyway my question to BTS is if(somewhere down the road) you might consider using the CM engine for a scaled down version of the game. By that I mean on a platoon level.

I understand that CM is limited by the number of 3d polygons that a cpu can handle. In CM1's case this is up to 90 to 100 based on 3 - 5 squads/platoon and 3 platoons/company and up to 3 companies/side plus a few extras.

In a platoon type game the vehicles would stay the same, but fewer of them, and instead of the 3 man graphic depicting 10 - 12 men, each soldier in the platoon could be individually depicted and tracked. I kinda liked CC2 or 101 Airborne where you got attached to an individual soldier and followed his exploits in a campaign.

Anyone else think this might be a good idea?

[This message has been edited by Zulu1 (edited 05-20-2000).]

[Guest Michael emrys]

Wouldn't be fair of me to try to say whether or not it's a good idea, as the whole notion of playing at this scale fails to appeal to me. CM is as nitty-gritty as I care to go. Given my druthers, I'd stick with operational level games, if there were any good ones for the Mac. CM is really neat though, so I would make an exception in its favor in any case.

Michael

[Guest Paul Roberts]

I think Zulu1's idea is a good one. In fact, it's probably only a matter of time before someone produces an X-COM style game using a true 3D engine. Seeing it done with BTS' attention to realism and detail would be especially nice.

[Guest Germanboy]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Paul Roberts:

I think Zulu1's idea is a good one. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

While it sounds appealing at first, I don't know how realistic you could get. The rate at which I get through a platoon, e.g. during an assault is fairly appaling. Now that could just be because I suck, but all the first-hand accounts I read and almost all the other works indicate that infantry's losses are so brutally high that in most cases the campaign would be over very quick. I am also not to enarmoured by the scope of it, apart from the above problem. YMMV, as they say.

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Andreas

It is amazing what you can learn from a good book...

[Guest Paul Roberts]

Part of the enjoyment of an X-COM or 101st AIRBORNE scale game is the challenge of keeping your soldiers alive while still getting the job done. With each soldier modelled individually for skills, morale, inventory, ammunition, and other traits, the role-playing identification with your troops is very high. I'll bet many of us remember the real attachment we felt to those X-COM soldiers we led through battle after battle.

I think the main point is that the CM engine, if re-scaled so that each terrain square equaled (say) two meters instead of twenty meters, would be perfect for this kind of gaming. A man-level tactics game with the orders phase/action phase format would be very suspensful.

[stodge]

I have to agree with Paul. Its an intriguing idea.

[Guest Babra]

I'd buy it. Although I'm one who prefers a good game over fancy graphics I'd have to say that the graphics on such a game would have to be absolutely first rate for it to maintain its playability. Attention to detail would have to at least equal CM and probably go beyond. But I'd buy it.

[Supertanker]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>In fact, it's probably only a matter of time before someone produces an X-COM style game using a true 3D engine.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Off the bat, I can think of two of these that are in production. XCOM: Alliance (using the Unreal engine, and I think being done by Microprose) and Dreamland Chronicles (being done by Mythos Games, the makers of the original XCOM). You can find more information about both in the various E3 reports on all the gaming sites. My brother went to E3, and he said that Alliance looked pretty poor. My hopes rest on Dreamland.

[anvil]

I think it would be a great idea. I thought 101st airborne was a great game and to do it with this engine and graphics would be superb. hehe did a lot of skirmish wargaming with 25mm miniatures and a sand table, this is as close to that as i've found.

[spider]

x-com alliance is more like space hulk, small squads, real time, 1st/3rd person views...

[Runyan99]

Ever since the old days when I played Victory Games' Ambush! I've been looking for a realistic WW2 game that let's me control individual soldiers.

The thing is though, now that I have CM, I don't want that individual-soldier game anymore. I'm more interested in combat on the company/battalion level because if you want to simulate WW2, CM's scale (squad level units) is where the action is at. Given the ranges involved, in addition to things like artillery and tank fire, a game which simulated individual men might have to be somewhat unrealistic in order to be any fun to play.

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"Artillery is a terrible thing. God, I hate it."

Pvt. David Webster

101st airborne 1942-45

[von Lucke]

I believe this is just the take Hasbro is going for with their new computer ASL title. It's based on Soldiers at War (which was based on X-Com). I don't have much faith in their ability to turn out anything playable tho...

[Guest Username:]

I'd much rather see a platoon level game. That is, the units are platoons. Especially on the eastern front. 2-5 tanks in a platoon or section, 2-4 gun batterys and AT guns, infantry units from platoon up to small companys like the soviet tank riders.

The command, control and communications that are so vital on this scale would make the game interesting. The ability of the commander to even know whats going on with a unit would be limited.

Lewis

[Guest Michael emrys]

I'd like to see a good WW II company-level game, but I wonder how likely such a thing could be. The two board games I saw that tried to do this were either unwieldy (GDW's /Avalanche/) or had odd mechanics (SPI's /Cassino/).

The problem seems to be modeling the different characteristics of the various weapons possessed by units of this size. Just lumping them all into an overall attack factor the way you can with battalion and larger sized units won't work here; it's too crude. Maybe a sufficiently powerful computer could handle it...

Michael