My Wish list for the new CM engine.

[kipanderson]

Hi,

I know everyone is turning these lists out, so I thought I would just throw in my wish-list of features for the new engine. One reason why there is no harm in producing these things is that I know BFC are keen to hear what we are all after. At this stage it is not too late to lobby for new features, I hope ; so here goes. And, no, there is nothing very original in my list; also, I have purposely restricted it to my top five priority features.

In no particular order.

An end to Borg Spotting.

This is very much already in the works, Steve has said there will be individual spotting, plus a radio net modelled where appropriate, in the next engine. So Borg Spotting will be a thing of the past.

Live Team Play.

The ability to play live with 2-4 players on each side. Each player only being able to spot what the units he actually commands can spot. i.e. not what units belonging to another friendly company, but commanded by another human player, can spot. Would be fun, and add to Fog Of War, FOW.

Toggled Elevation Grid.

For me, others will differ; the one big human-to-computer interface problem is the lack of an ability to spot elevation/undulation changes realistically. Using the 1.25m elevation settings there is a greater change in colour for any given change in elevation, but even so, the real life ability to spot elevation change, undulations, is far greater then in CMBB. Computer screens just cannot handle it the way the human eye can in the real world. Thus the ability to toggle a grid on and off in the orders phase of the game so as to better spot undulations, would be a big plus.

The Ability to Save Forces from any game.

I am one of those who would like to see an operational layer to CM. However, I realise that BFC are only a small company and so I am more than grateful to have a continuing flow of new versions of CM coming through. To expect such a small company to also add a genuine operational layer is both unrealistic and unreasonable. In my view. However, if one could Save Forces from any CM game, at any time, then launch them into the Editor later; a huge leap towards the ability to build genuine operations will have been taken. The ability to Edit Saved games in general, would help greatly.

Edit Morale Independently of Unit Experience.

In CMBB we have the ability to set different Fanatics ratings for forces. This is clearly a form of morale setting. However, in my view, others will differ; it is a shame that one cannot Edit the actual Morale setting itself independently of the Unit Experience level settings. I agree with those who would say that care is needed in this field. I would suggest only being able to change/Edit the Morale setting by “one level”, no more. What I mean is that if one wished it would be useful to able to give forces one level higher Morale then there Experience Level setting. So one could give a force of 60/40 Green and Regular Soviets, the same Morale as a force of 60/40 Regular and Veteran Germans. To set this in context it is worth noting that it is well understood why some less well trained troops often have combat morale as high, or higher, then better trained opposition forces. There have been many studies of the subject over the last twenty years. It turns out that the harsher the upbringing, the harsher the training, the harsher the discipline, the higher the true combat morale of the troops. There are a huge number of qualifications to this, and, yes, there is still a close correlation between quality of training and combat morale. However, it is now recognised that harsh upbringing, harsh training, and harsh discipline do indeed lead to higher combat morale. All the factors a WW1 sergeant major would have listed as leading to high combat morale have turned out to be correct. (The context of these studies, as reported in various Jane’s journals over the years, is to try and explain why the troops of poorer countries sometimes have higher combat morale than the better trained troops of western countries. BTW, combat morale is defined as the ability to continue to generate combat power after suffering casualties. The willingness of survivors to fight on.) There are circumstances in which troops from different nations, and units within the same armies, have different combat morale even though they have the same combat skills. The ability to shift the Morale level, “one level” relative to the Unit Experience rating, would be a big plus. In my view.

All good fun ,

All the best,

Kip.

[aka_tom_w]

Great List!

I like this one the best:

"Toggled Elevation Grid.

For me, others will differ; the one big human-to-computer interface problem is the lack of an ability to spot elevation/undulation changes realistically. Using the 1.25m elevation settings there is a greater change in colour for any given change in elevation, but even so, the real life ability to spot elevation change, undulations, is far greater then in CMBB. Computer screens just cannot handle it the way the human eye can in the real world. Thus the ability to toggle a grid on and off in the orders phase of the game so as to better spot undulations, would be a big plus. "

-tom w

[flamingknives]

I'd quite like to see the tentative contacts represented differently. At the moment a low level contact can seem to be a different vehicle that bears little or no resemblence to what it actually is. This has been greatly improved from CMBO, but certain mis-identifications still grate.

For example:

Late war Tigers all appear to be Tiger 2s. The two Tiger marks look quite different.

I think that the same applies to late-war T34s - they all appear to sport the 85mm gun.

In certain situations, there are clear differences between otherwise similar vehicles where differing IDs should be made sooner than smaller differences in a vehicle group.

[kipanderson]

Tom W,

Yup, I think we have mutual admiration society in that I also think your list is a very fine one. I was just trying to list the top priority features, no more.

flamingknives,

I am sure problems such as the one you mention will be tweaked.

All good fun,

All the best,

Kip.

[mikeadams]

My single wish is that it be Mac OSX compatible. Iknow.. its Apple's fault etc., but plenty of other game companies seem to have found a workaround

[Industrializer]

I'd like to see more realistic landscapes (not the sqare spots of wood) and some interesting (historic ?) buildings incorporated into the game (german Reichstag, maybe some complex bunker systems (Sevastopel), game supported summer/winter cammo (no mods necessary).

New units: rail guns, naval guns, fixed guns maybe some prototypes for WhatIfs (Maus, T-28, ....)

New Scenarios/Landscapes (desert, beach invasions, ..)

Multi-turreted tanks (T-35, 5 turrets, yeah !)