List of Improvements over CMSF?

[skelley]

Love this game so far!

Would it be possible to get a list (kind of like a patch list) of improvemnets and new features that are in since CMSF? Was global morale in CMSF? I noticed that squads that hadn't seen much combat were reluctant to get into action after another platoon took a beating. Awesome improvement that I didn't notice in CMSF.

[Zatoichi]

It's WW2 - that seems to be an improvement for a lot of people here!

Other than that, the new soldier animations (including multiple different death animations) noticeably improved compared to CMSF.

Surrendering is new - seems to have completely replaced the old orange '!' from CMSF.

Terrain rendering is far better than CMSF - Normandy seems less of a strain than on my PC than Syria or Afghanistan were, plus the trees etc don't vanish at a distance, so the LODs have been vastly improved too.

Loads of other stuff that I'll remember as soon as I post this.

[MikeyD]

I literally wouldn't know where to start. Not that CMSF was 'broken' and needed to be fixed. Its simply an entirly different way of warfighting. I remembr one of the earliest changes was to greatly increase soldiers firing from a prone position. No more up on one knee relying on body armor to absorb a blow for you.

[C'Rogers]

There's a number of obvious ones (QBs, water), and the graphics seem a lot better, but I don't know if there were that many actual improvements over CM:SF that don't relate to WWII (ie mortars). What I mean is, I don't think there are that many changes in the game (play wise, not appearance or game set up) that are now "missing" from CM:SF. Surrendering seems like the only clear one that could be applied to CM:SF (and global morale if it isn't in, can't remember), but that is more of an adjustment over the routing system that had been in.

I think the game feels so very different because BFC did a very good job. Modern warfare and WWII should feel very different. BFC has created two very different wargames that are very good with the same engine (God, I hope I didn't jinx my experience with the actual release).

Edit to add: Not an improvement, really, but I do love how machine guns now displayed 'Not Deployed'. I've got an ongoing PBEM in CM:A and find myself always double checking the units.

[Vinnart]

@ skelley, There is global morale, but it is more layered. When you select Hq's it shows the morale average for that platoon, as well as experience, condition ect.... If you select the company HQ it shows the morale average for that company. Selecting battalion HQ will show global average morale of entire battalion. I like the new system better than CMx1.

[LJFHutch]

That one about laying down as opposed to kneeling due to body armour is interesting, never thought of that before. Biggest improvement is the vegetation rendering though, it looks brilliant from a distance now whereas in CMSF the landscape looked [even more] barren at a distance because the foyliage kept on vanishing ...

[Dadekster88]

Yeah, curious to hear about the whole prone verus kneeling thing myself. I was trained as a leg (11M) and I don't remember any special instruction on being told to shoot from the kneeling over prone due to body armour? If anything prone provides a better firing platform and reduced target for someone else to aim for, course you give up reduced LOS etc as well but hey life is full of compromises. So, was this just meant for a gameplay reason and if so why? I mean you do the 3 second rush a certain way and there was no kneeling involved in that either I have no clue how they trained the boots for WW2 so was this decision related to your knowledge on that maybe?

So there's no confusion where I am coming from, I have absolutely no beef with what you guys did btw, I am strictly just curious. Great game and a blast to play through the demo.

[Sergei]

I counted more than 100 new or greatly improved features, ranging from QB overhaul to mine detection, from variable infantry kit to new animations or from bridges to evil Nazis firing with their Schmeisser-guns from inside their Kübelwagen. Not to mention the countless little tweaks and fixes.

[Peregrine]

It isn't CMSF

[Battlefront.com]

One of the great things about us is we don't keep track of the improvements we put in the game. Why is this great? Because if we did we might think we're giving you guys waaaaay too much for what you're paying for

Seriously though, we just focus on making the game as good as possible and don't really fret about how we get it there. For big features, however, I think those are pretty obvious:

1. Brand new way to purchase units, for both QBs and battles

2. Water

3. Bridges

4. Lots and lots of new terrain

5. Individual buildings

6. On map indirect fire capability

7. Overhauled animations

8. Individualized soldier equipment loadouts and uniform variations

9. Rain and other relevant weather effects

Well, that's what I came up with off the top of my head. Some of the above have multiple co-dependent features that have their own interesting aspects.

And then there were the hundreds of things we did to get the WW2 equipment and temperate environment to feel to it. These aren't "improvements" in and of themselves because they're all required for a WW2 game. For example, saying "we now support tanks with bow MG gunners" is rather silly because OF COURSE we have that now.

The easiest way to think of this is there are about 2 years worth of new features in CM:BN that aren't in CM:SF.

Steve

[Sergei]

One of the great things about us is we don't keep track of the improvements we put in the game. Why is this great? Because if we did we might think we're giving you guys waaaaay too much for what you're paying for

Seriously though, we just focus on making the game as good as possible and don't really fret about how we get it there. For big features, however, I think those are pretty obvious:

1. Brand new way to purchase units, for both QBs and battles

2. Water

3. Bridges

4. Lots and lots of new terrain

5. Individual buildings

6. On map indirect fire capability

7. Overhauled animations

8. Individualized soldier equipment loadouts and uniform variations

9. Rain and other relevant weather effects

Allow me to help:

10. Placeable defences that have FOW, TRP's

11. ATG crews can 'bail' their guns when it gets too hot

12. Exit Zones

13. Reduced Headcount setting for battles

14. Surrendering

15. Scout Team command

16. T and X shape bocage/wall sections, 'small gaps'

17. Designer notes

18. Lots of QB AI fixes and improvements

19. Hit texts

20. Sound contacts

21. New, self-adjusting briefing format

22. Scenario designer notes (in addition to side-specific briefings)

23. Small arms ammo is shown as a figure rather than ammo bars

24. Mines can be detected without detonating them; success depends on several factors like experience, if they are pioneers, movement speed

25. Vehicles begin battles unbuttoned (makes the AI more observant)

26. Ground condition can change over time if it's raining very hard and it wasn't muddy to begin with

27. Victories are recorded both for each battle and also for the whole campaign

28. New tree toggle

29. Helpful improvements to Scenario Author Test mode (AI Paths shown, AI Group number display)

...and a lot more. But those are a few of the more notable (and maybe not immediately obvious) changes.

[MikeyD]

8. Individualized soldier equipment loadouts and uniform variations

Oh yeh! That's a big one, though subtle. The BAR man has BAR ammo pouches, the M1 Carbine guy has carbine ammo pouches, the MP40 guy... you get the picture.

[Battlefront.com]

Good list Sergei! Man, some of those changes were made so early in CM:BN development that it's hard to think of the game without them!

Holy crap... placeable FOW defenses... yeah, that's a big one for me to have not thought of Same with kill stats (I presume that is what #27 is).

Exit Zones were in CM:Afghanistan first, but I guess the original poster did technically ask what is new since CM:SF

Steve

[Zatoichi]

Loads of other stuff that I'll remember as soon as I post this.

For big features, however, I think those are pretty obvious:

1. Brand new way to purchase units, for both QBs and battles

2. Water

3. Bridges

4. Lots and lots of new terrain

5. Individual buildings

6. On map indirect fire capability

7. Overhauled animations

8. Individualized soldier equipment loadouts and uniform variations

9. Rain and other relevant weather effects

Well, that's what I came up with off the top of my head.

QBs! How could I have forgotten about QBs?

Oh, and:

Allow me to help:

10. Placeable defences that have FOW, TRP's

11. ATG crews can 'bail' their guns when it gets too hot

12. Exit Zones

13. Reduced Headcount setting for battles

14. Surrendering

15. Scout Team command

16. T and X shape bocage/wall sections, 'small gaps'

17. Designer notes

18. Lots of QB AI fixes and improvements

19. Hit texts

20. Sound contacts

21. New, self-adjusting briefing format

22. Scenario designer notes (in addition to side-specific briefings)

23. Small arms ammo is shown as a figure rather than ammo bars

24. Mines can be detected without detonating them; success depends on several factors like experience, if they are pioneers, movement speed

25. Vehicles begin battles unbuttoned (makes the AI more observant)

26. Ground condition can change over time if it's raining very hard and it wasn't muddy to begin with

27. Victories are recorded both for each battle and also for the whole campaign

28. New tree toggle

29. Helpful improvements to Scenario Author Test mode (AI Paths shown, AI Group number display)

...and a lot more. But those are a few of the more notable (and maybe not immediately obvious) changes.

You see, I was going to say all that stuff! Mind you, actually I didn't know about half of these - 1 week ago most of that list would have driven the forum 'bone crazy', but I guess with the release being a few days away and the demo in our hot sweaty hands, we're too busy playing to notice!

Anyway, I'll certainly miss these enhancements when I go back to CMSF for my modern warfare fix. As much as I love WW2, there's just something special about watching a Javelin streaking off towards its target that'll never get old for me! But I've got a feeling that won't be for a few months yet...

[LJFHutch]

Pistols that don't look like AKM's

[Macisle]

I am sooo lovin' the Scout Team command!

[Mord]

Pistols that don't look like AKM's

YEAH!!! FINALLY! LOL. That drove me nuts in CMSF.

Mord.

[Sergei]

Exit Zones were in CM:Afghanistan first, but I guess the original poster did technically ask what is new since CM:SF

Steve

Technically speaking, it was also added to the game the same time as it was to CMA (if my memory serves me well), so I don't know which one really had it 'first'.

[Pvt. Ryan]

I noticed that during replays everything such as ammo count was reset to what it was at the beginning of the turn. I seem to recall that in CMSF there were certain things that could not be rolled back to what they were before the turn started, unless that was fixed at some point.

[Lanzfeld]

I noticed that during replays everything such as ammo count was reset to what it was at the beginning of the turn. I seem to recall that in CMSF there were certain things that could not be rolled back to what they were before the turn started, unless that was fixed at some point.

I think grenades and demo packs are still like this. The counter does not reset when rewatching the turn.

[gunnersman]

CMBN feels so much more polished over CMSF. I am enjoying it very much. It's the little things. And there are ALOT of little things.

One thing that I am appreciating very much are the tree settings. Having the tree tops in the foreground of your view disappear while the background trees stay put is brilliant!

Good work guys!

[De Savage]

Lot of improvements, that's nice. I'm also enjoying demo very much. But of course it's human nature to want even more. Here's my wish list:

* Hovered text over GUI. It would be great to have short text when you hover your mouse over interface. Example showing rank: "lieutenant". Just little more info would be fine.

* Mixed forest in map editor - This is a must! It's extremely slow to make nice looking mixed forest in CMSF and also (it seems) in CMBN. Can you PLEASE add mixed forest to map editor in Foliage section.