CMSF- Marines Video AAR Posted!!!

[Madmatt]

Our first expansion module for Combat Mission Shock Force, titled CMSF Marines, is nearing its release date and to help showcase some of the new units, vehicles and features of the game, one of the projects beta-testers has prepared the very first in-game video sneak preview and submitted it as part of our ongoing CMSF Video AAR Contest, sponsored by Matrox TripleHead2Go. Composed of three video chapters, these new vids were captured from a beta copy of Combat Mission Shock Force- Marines and depict a USMC armed recon into some heavily defended enemy infested terrain. Since the videos come from a beta version of the game, please note that they may not be indicative of final game performance, graphics or sounds.

Among other units featured in the videos are various models of the Marine Corps Light Attack Vehicle, or "LAV" including the 25mm cannon armed LAV-25 A2, the missile equipped LAV AT and the command vehicle variant, the LAV C2 A2.

Read all the details and find links to download the videos here:

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=178&Itemid=234

Madmatt

[John Kettler]

Madmatt,

With a few issues here and there, it looks great. Particularly like the nonorthogonal and non 45 degree orientation of the buildings, their appearance, and the vastly improved rubble, which could use some shattered timbers representing rafters and such. Thrilled to see telephone poles and am praying for wire! Playback on my rig was doubtless hampered by lack of horsepower (800 MHz PPC iMac with 1GB RAM and 32MB VRAM), resulting in a rather spasmed presentation.

LAVs looked terrific and seemed to work well--if you ignore the agrav issue clearly seen in the first vid! What I saw of the BMP-3 looked good, too. The cinder block walls looked nice, but the presumed field stone wall needs, er, deburring. No knife edges, as shown.

Scenery seemed quite credible, and you could practically taste the dust. The Recon troops look realistic and tough. Was that a guy in a CVC in the last sequence? Think so!

The Syrians had nice camouflage, but would be well advised to find better hides. Flimsy buildings suck in the face of 25mm Bushmaster fire! Both sides took some lumps, and it was great to see troops belly crawling for field position. LAV Hammerhead (or whatever the Marines call it) in overwatch was a terrific touch, as was the undergrowth in which it sat. Desert sky looked real to me, and I spent seven years in Arizona!

MarkEzra,

Nice job putting this together, especially since I now have some small understanding of what goes into making a movie!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Darkmage]

nice vid that's wet my appetite!

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Our first expansion module for Combat Mission Shock Force, titled CMSF Marines, is nearing its release date . . .

Obligatory question: can you be more specific?

The movies were fantastic, BTW. The one other thing I noticed was that a guy firing his M16 had the muzzle flash about where an M4's would be. But I presume you've caught that.

-FMB

[Gryphon]

Madmatt,

...

With a few issues here and there, it looks great. Particularly like the nonorthogonal and non 45 degree orientation of the buildings, their appearance, and the vastly improved rubble, which could use some shattered timbers representing rafters and such. Thrilled to see telephone poles and am praying for wire!

...

Are we looking at the same vids? Cause i am under the impression that it's still the same old building placement, rubble, etc. And telephone poles were already present in SF.

[Nicdain]

Very nice videos. Can't wait!

I have noticed that in some cases vehicle crew seems to have a more natural posture when unbuttoned. No more stiff figures emerging from hatches. Is it one of the new features of the module? Will it affect all the crews?

[Yskonyn]

Great vids!

MarkEzra, I especially liked the shots in the second video where the marine squad clears part of the village and stumble upon hostiles behind the wall.

The escape maneuver with throwing grenades and then get the hell out; is that 'self-preservation' AI at work or did you command that in real-time?

If its the case of the latter it must take tremendous babysitting of troops I reckon! How do you manage to do this on larger battles?

[Fat Dave]

Yes, I noticed this 'escape manouvre' also, and I believe this was all done 'we-go'. If you look closely you can see the 'preview - watch action' tag.

This sort of evasive action would be a great improvement to the current 60 seconds of agonising and screaming 'Do something!!!!' as the boys are getting creamed

[Sivodsi]

When the XO's LAV gets fired on, is that a cloud of particles I see blasting out the other side? What is that effect, the AP shells penetrating both sides of the LAV?

Not sure exactly, was watching on LQ.

[MarkEzra]

Great vids!

MarkEzra, I especially liked the shots in the second video where the marine squad clears part of the village and stumble upon hostiles behind the wall.

The escape maneuver with throwing grenades and then get the hell out; is that 'self-preservation' AI at work or did you command that in real-time?

If its the case of the latter it must take tremendous babysitting of troops I reckon! How do you manage to do this on larger battles?

The scen was played in WEGO. The response of troops at the wall was entirely under AI control. You will also see (in another scene) units under hunt command after hopping over a wall, walk past a building, come under fire, move back to the cover of the building, use cover fire for the rest of the unit to get clear AND then re-engaged by attacking through the interior of the building itself (the enemy inf was already dead so that particular clip is cut as they enter the building). If I recall properly the actual movement command I gave was a straight line hunt to a building on the far end of the map! As with the other scene and in fact all scenes, basic WEGO movement commands were used and the AI carried them out.

[Topo]

Beside new units there are improvements on AI? good news!

Saluti.

[dan/california]

I was always going to pre-order this module, but now I am dying to actually get my hands on it.

Any word on trigger/condition based plans for the AI? As badly as I hate the thought of George Mc's scenarios making me look even more like an idiot, they really would help.

[Yskonyn]

The scen was played in WEGO. The response of troops at the wall was entirely under AI control. You will also see (in another scene) units under hunt command after hopping over a wall, walk past a building, come under fire, move back to the cover of the building, use cover fire for the rest of the unit to get clear AND then re-engaged by attacking through the interior of the building itself (the enemy inf was already dead so that particular clip is cut as they enter the building). If I recall properly the actual movement command I gave was a straight line hunt to a building on the far end of the map! As with the other scene and in fact all scenes, basic WEGO movement commands were used and the AI carried them out.

That is just superb news! As much as I like all the improvements being made so far in patches up until now it still feels sometimes that the game plays better in Realtime (though larger battles get so difficult to control I personally avoid them in this mode) than it does in WEGO, but from what I see in the vids that might very well change after the Marines Module gets released and the accompanying patch for the base game gets released simultaneously!

[handihoc]

I'm hugely impressed. SF is a game I was not originally intending to buy. Loved all the CMx1 titles, but the Syrian theatre held little appeal and I thought I would just hang out for the WW2 game when it eventually arrived.

How wrong I was. I've been playing this game consistently since release. Seen so many initial problems ironed out, and so many improvements, and now the first add-on is almost here - with what appears to be major AI improvements as well as everything else. Brits to follow, and a completely separate WW2 game after that (and presumably, add-on modules). . .

Extraordinary work, BFC!

[Mord]

Are we looking at the same vids? Cause i am under the impression that it's still the same old building placement, rubble, etc. And telephone poles were already present in SF.

Yep. I think John's seeing old terrain with new eyes thanks to all the cool new vehicles and such.

Nice vids Mark. Nice to hear that was all done WEGO...LOL I saw some of the squad reactions and I was like man, that must be RT, they are reacting too quickly...

Mord.

[MikeyD]

its interesting how the video doesn't feel like the base Stryker Brigade game. The fear on this board was that the Marine module wasn't going to be enough of a change to warrant the purchase. Even just showing just a couple new units it become apparent that its definitely going to be a different play experience.

Its hard to spot in the film but judging by the shape of the rear doors that's the brand-new uparmored LAV-25 A2. I've seen a grand total of four in-action photos of those things to date. BFC is right on the cutting edge!

[ChrisND]

Put this on pre-order. I want to give you my money NOW.

[vincere]

Nice AAR. I like the look of what I presume is the new Hunt command. Looks like squad movement around and into buildings is improved also.

[Sequoia]

nice vid that's wet my appetite!

That should be whet my appetite. (smile).

Oh, and nice video.

[John Kettler]

Gryphon and Mord,

Regarding building orientation and telephone poles, I guess that I've seen so many CMSF screenshots of long urban blocks that the nonrectilinearity of MarkEzra's village and the scattered poles made both stand out for me. The place needs more trash, and when are we going to have curs modeled? That would provide the proper atmosphere. Of course, then we'd need rats and flies! There's already a demand for camel spiders and scorpions.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Ricochet67]

Put this on pre-order. I want to give you my money NOW.

Agreed.

[fabiovir]

Again...for me a very important features: Close combat, i never see it?

Have i some possibility to see this important feature in the future?

Take prisioniers (terrorists) and send them in prision facility is another very important feature that i hope to see one day.

Hallo to everyone

[Mord]

Again...for me a very important features: Close combat, i never see it?

Have i some possibility to see this important feature in the future?

Take prisioniers (terrorists) and send them in prision facility is another very important feature that i hope to see one day.

Hallo to everyone

I hope we'll eventually see some kind of Hand to Hand exchange if not in CMSF somewhere down the line in CM WWII. However, I doubt you'll ever see the second topic you mentioned. It's out of the scope of the game.

Welcome aboard!

Mord.

[fabiovir]

I hope we'll eventually see some kind of Hand to Hand exchange if not in CMSF somewhere down the line in CM WWII. However, I doubt you'll ever see the second topic you mentioned. It's out of the scope of the game.

Welcome aboard!

Mord.

Thanks!

Yes you are right, It's out of the scope of the game, but i m speacking (sorry for my bad english) about of captured enemy troops that eventually will be with morale dropped down, no always a death match or fight to the death.

[stikkypixie]

They don't always fight to the death. When morale drops too low, you will see "!" signs on top of the guys who are about the rout and after a while they just disappear. Not exactly the same as prisoners I know, but it comes down to the same.