New Player

[athkatla]

Hi guys, I've just ordered Combat Mission, and I wondered if anyone could advise me on patches/upgrades etc. for graphics and sound that I would require to make the game look and sound better, I understand there are quite a few around, but which ones should I download? Thanks in anticipation

[Soddball]

Your version of CM will be 1.12 - that's the latest, and you don't need to patch it.

As for mods - there's lots of them, get as many as your download speed can handle - don't forget sound as well as graphics. I can't remember any sites offhand, but someone will be along shortly

[Michael Dorosh]

http://www.dragonlair.net/combatmission/

The Scenario Depot (URL above) has the most important thing - well designed, balanced scenarios. Don't forgot to review the ones you play so others can rate them.

[athkatla]

Thanks guys for your quick responses, I can see this is a busy forum

[Tarquelne]

Madmatt's mod guide is at

http://www.combatmission.com/mods/MMG.asp

Last updated in 2000, but it's still an excellent guide.

IIRC, most or all of the mods mentioned in the guide are on the Combat Mission HQ site (same site as the guide.)

I recently downloaded some mods from Tom's Combat Mission HQ

http://home.arcor.de/tcmhq/TCMHQ.html

Oh, in case you don't know already: A "mod" in CM isn't like a "mod" for most other games. AFAIK, all CM "mods" only change/upgrade graphics or sound. (Often just the "skin" for one vehicle, sometimes to the point of shifting the game's theater.) A "mod" is generally what a graphic/sound upgrade is called.

You'll be very pleased with what you find.

As far as which ones you should download...

Most have a screen shot, which helps a great deal, of course.

But here's what I did:

I've got a cable connection, a not-slow PC (I don't know if this would work on a MAC) and plenty of time on my hands, so this is what I did:

1) Download every mod that looked interesting.

2) Back up the CMBO's hard drive BMP and WAV directories.

3) Go to the editor and autogenerate a largish map, and place any units you're "modding" on the map. (This is very quick and simple.)

4) Hit "Escape" to leave CMBO. Install the mod.

5) Go back into CMBO and look at the "Preview" of your map/units in the editor. You'll see the modded units, terrain, whatever. (This doesn't work for sounds.)

6) Repeat 4 and 5 indefinetly. Every time you reload the "Preview" any new bitmaps will be loaded.

[ June 17, 2002, 09:54 AM: Message edited by: Tarqulene ]

[athkatla]

Once again, thanks, was just looking at th CMMOS v3.02. As I'm buying the patched version, do I need to d/l and install CMMOS v3,02?

[Tarquelne]

Originally posted by athkatla:

Once again, thanks, was just looking at th CMMOS v3.02. As I'm buying the patched version, do I need to d/l and install CMMOS v3,02?

I never have, you don't _need_ it. But it's certainly convenient for working with compliant mods.

[Olle Petersson]

When dealing with mods there are a few things to consider;

- Do you want any mods at all? (Stupid question; YES, you most certainly do! )

- What hardware do you have?

With a slow CPU and low end graphics your computer may not handle too many Hi-res mods (at a time).

With not a lot of HD space available you might not be able to install all the juicy stuff.

- Do you want to use one set of mods, or do you want to change frequently between different sets?

Personally I only use the one mod I feel is the best of each, so no need for the CMMOS. (Some of the IMO very best mods aren't CMMOS compatible, btw.)

- Be prepared to spend a lot of time to find the right mods for YOU.

Happy gaming!

Olle

[athkatla]

Hmmmmmmmmm, now your giving me a lot to think about, lol, oh well, starting with a new game is never easy, I guess I'll have a look round all the excellent sites I have already found for this game, and trust to trial and error (with not too many errors, I hope!) to find out what I like best. Again, thanks to everyone for your advice I have a AMD Athlon 900mhz processor, and pretty good graphics, and when I last checked, about 13Gb of HD memory still available, so I think I'll be ok on the hardware side!

[ June 17, 2002, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: athkatla ]

[lcm1947]

HI athkatla. Welcome to the best game ever. You are in for a treat. I look forward to seeing you around the forum. Hope you're not married? No, no it's not that it's just it'll make it that much harder to play the game 24 hours, 7 days a week like you're going to want to do if married. Oh, and hopefully you don't have a job?

[kump]

I would use CMMOS, and supplement it with other mods that are not CMMOS compliant. I think the most involved mods (in terms of number of bmp files) are the non-vehicle ones, like the scenery. All the best ones are supported by CMMOS. Magua's Normandy full set and Tom's Bulge Winter Mods are in CMMOS and are a must have. The joy of CMMOS is that you can change things quickly with the scenery. I use Magua's Normandy for France scenarios, DD's trees for Germany scenarios, brown grass for fall time, and switch German uniforms frequently with the nicely done CMMOS German Uniforms section. Plus for changing graphic options for vehicle markings, especially for Free French, Canadian, and Polish units, CMMOS makes life a whole lot easier. If you are adventurous, you can make other mods CMMOS compatible yourself. There is a howto in the documentation for it.

[Durbish]

As stated above the mods dont affect gameplay so are just eyecandy to be added at your leisure.

[athkatla]

Just to say thanks to all you guys for answering my post. I'm still waiting for my copy of the game, damn it, why does it take so long!!!!!