Momentum! [Big Bone included!]

[MikeyD]

At the risk of being ridiculed for asking a ridiculous question, how's the game coming along? Though we've seen signs of movement I can't say it feels like CMSF is displaying much visible momentum.

No, I'm not pressing for game engine 'bones'. I'd be happy just to be able to discern some official enthusiasm. It would help the wait if that blog of theirs was used more often to provide a little transparency. Every posting doesn't necessarily need to be ground-breaking, I'd appreciate three lines saying "We had a rough time tracking down a glitch this morning".

Do I sound like I'm bitching? Sorry for all this post-Thanksgiving angst. I just started my day yearning to see a glimmer of light at the end of this particular tunnel.

[ November 29, 2006, 09:17 AM: Message edited by: MikeyD ]

[Battlefront.com]

Well... things are going really nicely. The core of the engine is done and we are now able to make semi-meaningful scenarios. What I mean by that is the TO&E isn't completely in yet and some features are still too unpolished to consider the game really playable. For example, there is a bug that prevents Strykers from engaging targets reliably, small arms fire is too lethal, Squads don't utilize the space they should (i.e. too bunched up), etc. All fo these things will be fixed soon as part of the normal development process. Afterall, if everything worked 100% correctly then we'd not be calling it an early Beta now would we?

Oh, and Dan just finished the first T-72 model. That means the Syrians will soon have a BMP-1 and T-72 to play around with.

Steve

[Battlefront.com]

Meant to add that we're starting to hit the exponential curve part of development. That's the time in the development cyle when each week makes the game visually and playability wise significantly better than the week prior. For most of the development cycle this is not the case. In fact, early on you might go months, if not a year, without seeing any major advance.

It's an exciting time for us, but it's still a bit difficult to talk up the game much because the improvements are mostly a bunch of small things, like getting that hotkey combo that drastically reduces some point of frustration or finding a better way to get a unit to do something.

One bone I'll throw out is the new and improved elevation tools in the Editor. Basically, what you do is lay out elevation lines on the map and CM slopes the terrain to transition from one elevation to another. This makes map making MUCH easier than CMx1 because you don't have to specify each and every height transition. I think I might have mentioned this feature before, but very recently Charles implemented certain UI features that make this process even more easy and faster to do. And by doing that we'll get even better maps from you guys!

Steve

[aka_tom_w]

OK

Great

Thanks to Mike for the question and thanks to Steve for the update!

upward and onward!

-tom w

P.S. Hey Mike you might consider editing the thread title with something about a new game progress update or "bone".

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

Meant to add that we're starting to hit the exponential curve part of development. That's the time in the development cyle when each week makes the game visually and playability wise significantly better than the week prior. For most of the development cycle this is not the case. In fact, early on you might go months, if not a year, without seeing any major advance.

It's an exciting time for us, but it's still a bit difficult to talk up the game much because the improvements are mostly a bunch of small things, like getting that hotkey combo that drastically reduces some point of frustration or finding a better way to get a unit to do something.

One bone I'll throw out is the new and improved elevation tools in the Editor. Basically, what you do is lay out elevation lines on the map and CM slopes the terrain to transition from one elevation to another. This makes map making MUCH easier than CMx1 because you don't have to specify each and every height transition. I think I might have mentioned this feature before, but very recently Charles implemented certain UI features that make this process even more easy and faster to do. And by doing that we'll get even better maps from you guys!

Steve

"contour" lines, Steve?

[Nicdain]

Steve, those are good news!

A question: if with "elevation" lines, as Mr Dorosh correctly says, you mean contour lines ( ), this means that we will be able to draw sort of topographic maps in the editor and CM will convert to digital terrain models?

Will it be possible to import contour lines from existing topo maps, too?

thanks

[Thomm]

Originally posted by Nicdain:

Will it be possible to import contour lines from existing topo maps, too?

I guess that would be way too difficult to program. Greyscale elevation bitmaps, maybe, but contour lines, no!

Good news is that there is a extremely simple workaround: let the user import actual (scanned or electronic) maps in bitmap format and use it as a background image for the mapmaking process. The contour lines will still have to be drawn manually, but by means of 'carbon-copying' instead of guessing, or fitting to a grid.

Best regards,

Thomm

[Nicdain]

let the user import actual (scanned or electronic) maps in bitmap format and use it as a background image for the mapmaking process. The contour lines will still have to be drawn manually, but by means of 'carbon-copying' instead of guessing, or fitting to a grid.

That could be a good compromise!

[aka_tom_w]

OK then

that was a pretty substantial bone

like this:

[aka_tom_w]

one more example:

better pic here:

pic and topo on the same page

SCROLL UP to see the example

[MikeyD]

Thanks! My post-Thanksgiving angst has been assuaged

[vetacon]

Please, Mr Steve, can we see a T-72?

Pretty please...

[flamingknives]

[Speedy]

Whose hat mod is that?

[vetacon]

Originally posted by flamingknives:

That's cheating ...

(Finally made it to 'Member' status after four and a half years - surely that deserves a REAL T-72 screenshot)

[Mace]

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

One bone I'll throw out is the new and improved elevation tools in the Editor. Basically, what you do is lay out elevation lines on the map and CM slopes the terrain to transition from one elevation to another. This makes map making MUCH easier than CMx1 because you don't have to specify each and every height transition.

That is excellent news! :cool:

So...what's the maximum angle of slope can you get with the engine?

[Battlefront.com]

Yeah, yeah, yeah... contour lines. Sheesh, what a bunch of sticklers I purposefully didn't use that term because I figured the next thing out of you would be a request to feed in data or allow CM to scan an image to make the lines automatically. Oddly enough, that is what happened anyway

We do hope to be able to allow a background BMP to be loaded into the Editor's 2D view. Currently that is not possible and unfortunately it might not get into the initial version. However, it has been on the design ToDo List for about 3 years now so fear not that it has been overlooked!

Mace, you can get 90 degree slopes, or dang'd close to it.

Steve

[hellfish]

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

Yeah, yeah, yeah... contour lines. Sheesh, what a bunch of sticklers I purposefully didn't use that term because I figured the next thing out of you would be a request to feed in data or allow CM to scan an image to make the lines automatically. Oddly enough, that is what happened anyway

We do hope to be able to allow a background BMP to be loaded into the Editor's 2D view. Currently that is not possible and unfortunately it might not get into the initial version. However, it has been on the design ToDo List for about 3 years now so fear not that it has been overlooked!

Mace, you can get 90 degree slopes, or dang'd close to it.

Steve

The 2D view would be a HUGE help - especially with all the satellite photos we have access to. Some of the more high res stuff had just enough detail for CM style maps.

[birdstrike]

Originally posted by vetacon:

(Finally made it to 'Member' status after four and a half years - surely that deserves a REAL T-72 screenshot)

Well, it looks darn real to me...

[c3k]

Crap.

It's obvious from what's just been posted that all our CM:SF battles will be restricted to one of two possible battlegrounds: EDBAC Hill or Squaretop Mountain.

BF.C, please fix or somefink!!!

Thanks for the info.

Regards,

Ken

[Thomm]

Originally posted by birdstrike:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by vetacon:

(Finally made it to 'Member' status after four and a half years - surely that deserves a REAL T-72 screenshot)

Well, it looks darn real to me... </font>

[Thomm]

Originally posted by c3k:

... EDBAC Hill ...

LOL! Nice one! Thanks!

Best regards,

Thomm

[Scipio]

Originally posted by fytinghellfish:

The 2D view would be a HUGE help - especially with all the satellite photos we have access to. Some of the more high res stuff had just enough detail for CM style maps.

...or CM1x maps. Or each damned map from any other source... *muahahahahaha*

[flammenwerfer]

Due to the lack of a screenie or mention of release info, the Men of the Square Table have ruled this not a 'big bone', however a 'juicy bone' is acceptable.

[Tuomas]

In reference to the thread title, I began to ponder about momentum per se. To what extent is it included?

Obviously acceleration is as it was in CMx1 and I seem to recall that slope affected the acceleration also, but what about stopping? And collisions? And perhaps sliding sideways as your tracks lose grip? To what extent are you guys modelling these?

Small detail, I know! But atleast for me, the apparent lack of momentum and abrubt stops have always seemed strange in CMx1.

-Tuomas