I was cleaning up my LinkedIn account and contacts and I noticed that one of the contacts recommended to me was Phil Culliton. I thought the name sounded familiar so checked the profile. Its a public profile. Nothing very interesting except he listed a termination data at BFC in 2015. I went back and looked and noted its been a while since he has posted anything on the BFC forums. So I am assuming that some of the delays and quality issues BFC has had recently might be related to Phil departing.
Does anyone know if Phil leaving was announced?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/philculliton/
Was he 'Moon' over there?
no i think his actual forum name was phillip culliton or phillip
Yeah, I can't even find any of his old posts. They seem to have disappeared, although I could be searching wrong.
I don't follow BFC closely anymore, but is Mad Matt still there or did he move on?
he left in 2009
Quote from: RyanE on March 24, 2017, 08:40:43 AM
I was cleaning up my LinkedIn account and contacts and I noticed that one of the contacts recommended to me was Phil Culliton. I thought the name sounded familiar so checked the profile. Its a public profile. Nothing very interesting except he listed a termination data at BFC in 2015. I went back and looked and noted its been a while since he has posted anything on the BFC forums. So I am assuming that some of the delays and quality issues BFC has had recently might be related to Phil departing.
Does anyone know if Phil leaving was announced?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/philculliton/
That would explain a lot I guess - my hope is he left and its not a sign of financial problems. My world would likely end if there were no more CM. Seems odd they kept it quiet
Quote from: Yskonyn on March 24, 2017, 11:48:24 AM
Was he 'Moon' over there?
No. IIRC that was Martin van Balkom who ran the PR side of the company. He left about a year ago. He seemed a nice guy and was always very helpful.
Moon always seemed to be one of the more customer friendly guys there.
Quote from: Zulu1966 on March 24, 2017, 01:34:16 PM
Quote from: RyanE on March 24, 2017, 08:40:43 AM
I was cleaning up my LinkedIn account and contacts and I noticed that one of the contacts recommended to me was Phil Culliton. I thought the name sounded familiar so checked the profile. Its a public profile. Nothing very interesting except he listed a termination data at BFC in 2015. I went back and looked and noted its been a while since he has posted anything on the BFC forums. So I am assuming that some of the delays and quality issues BFC has had recently might be related to Phil departing.
Does anyone know if Phil leaving was announced?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/philculliton/
That would explain a lot I guess - my hope is he left and its not a sign of financial problems. My world would likely end if there were no more CM. Seems odd they kept it quiet
If you look at his Linked in account, you'll see had left BFC in Dec 2015, some 15 months ago. I don't think it odd that they kept it quiet, as they did the same with Martin van Balkom.
Like you, I'd be terribly disappointed if there was no more CM, probably one of my favourite go to games.
I just checked and he is still listed on the BFC site. But that was last updated in 2010.
I will also point out that the improvement in graphics with better shadows, faster frame rates, and shader support coincided with Phil's arrival at BFC. He seemed to become the graphics guy pretty quickly.
It's been pretty quiet as to what's going on at Battlefront, which is why this thread prompts the speculation. I asked Steve Grammont what is happening over at Battlefront. We've nothing to worry about...
Steve told me:
"2017 is Battlefront's official 20th year of existence and our calendar for this year contains plenty of good stuff.
For the last 5 years or so our plan is to release one major and several smaller releases within a calendar year.
For 2017 the big effort is a full revitalization of the entire CM Shock Force Family to current game engine standards.
For the smaller releases you'll soon see a Battle Pack for CMBS and not long after that a second Module for CMFI. The first module for CMRT might make it into 2017, but might be just over the line in 2018.
Those of you who have followed us over the years know that there's always more going on than meets the eye, therefore it is safe to assume there's more for 2018 that we're not talking about yet."
So it looks like RyanE, Zulu1966 and myself will have plenty more Combat Mission to keep us happy. :bd:
My main concern is Steve comes around about once a year and declares all of the things that are going to be released in the year. Maybe about 20% gets delivered. I just wish they would be more realistic in what they can do.
Quote from: Boggit on March 25, 2017, 07:34:10 PM
For 2017 the big effort is a full revitalization of the entire CM Shock Force Family to current game engine standards.
This is the best part for me. I never delved into their new WW2 titles.
Funny but I just re-bought CMSF. I got it on release and played the hell out of it. Lost my activations on my last laptop buy and was tired of asking for activations. If BFC does anything that makes me happy it would be updating CMSF.
To clarify the situation regarding Phil and his departure from BFC, Steve told me...
"Phil was with us for 5 years and did more than a little bit of kick arse work. Sadly for us he landed a total dream job doing major geeky AI stuff for big wigs in the field. Since AI design and programming is his passion and programming background, he'd have been a total idiot not to take the offer. Phil's no idiot, so after a 6 month transitional period he moved on. Fortunately for us, he helped put us in a really good place code wise and therefore we decided for the time being a second programmer wasn't the best use of our resources.
Oh, and Phil's posts are all still on our Forum, though his account was accidentally deleted by me when we moved over to a hosted solution vs. our self served one. I was getting familiar with the new UI for admin responsibilities and I thought I was deleting a Forum "role" when in fact I deleted his account. Doh! The posts have ever since then been under some generic non-editable name like "Forum User" or something because there is no way to undo it. Not one of my better moments as Forum Admin, to say the least."
I hope that explains some previously unanswered concerns.
Quote from: RyanE on March 25, 2017, 08:40:24 PM
Funny but I just re-bought CMSF. I got it on release and played the hell out of it. Lost my activations on my last laptop buy and was tired of asking for activations. If BFC does anything that makes me happy it would be updating CMSF.
I love CMSF too, and am happy it's being updated.
BTW, you should speak to Elvis about activations, he rarely ever keeps me waiting long if I have any issues.
BFC always responds with activations, but just got tired of doing the dance with the helpdesk. The DRM finally wore me down. Did the same thing with the CMFI 3.0 update.
I really wished BFC would have stuck with the promise to add an activation every year of ownership. Would have me and BFC some headache.
Quote from: RyanE on March 26, 2017, 08:56:58 AM
I really wished BFC would have stuck with the promise to add an activation every year of ownership. Would have me and BFC some headache.
I thought that was still the deal. Are you saying it hasn't happened? If that is the case no wonder you're fed up. I hate the DRM too, but understand why they want it. I thought they had committed to this to save everyone from problems such as machine upgrades, disk failure etc.
I was told by the help desk quite a few years ago they wouldn't be able to honor that. I think it was mentioned on the forum around the same time. As far as I remember, it was never put in place.
Quote from: RyanE on March 26, 2017, 04:42:51 PM
I was told by the help desk quite a few years ago they wouldn't be able to honor that. I think it was mentioned on the forum around the same time. As far as I remember, it was never put in place.
I've just had a conversation with Steve about it. He says,
"The promise about activations he (RyanE) remembers is that we would do that only once a year if requested (there is no proactive system for doing it). We abandoned that promise and simply add activations whenever requested. Bought this year or 10 years ago, no difference. Our current DRM is far more forgiving so people tend not to need activations added. CMSF and CMA use the old system. CMSF2 will use the current DRM."
So the bottom line is ask and ye shall be given... I know the promise was broken, but that alternative seems to me as just as good, if not better.
Ummmmm...CMSF2?????
Quote from: Boggit on March 26, 2017, 06:41:40 PM
Quote from: RyanE on March 26, 2017, 04:42:51 PM
I was told by the help desk quite a few years ago they wouldn't be able to honor that. I think it was mentioned on the forum around the same time. As far as I remember, it was never put in place.
I've just had a conversation with Steve about it. He says,
"The promise about activations he (RyanE) remembers is that we would do that only once a year if requested (there is no proactive system for doing it). We abandoned that promise and simply add activations whenever requested. Bought this year or 10 years ago, no difference. Our current DRM is far more forgiving so people tend not to need activations added. CMSF and CMA use the old system. CMSF2 will use the current DRM."
So the bottom line is ask and ye shall be given... I know the promise was broken, but that alternative seems to me as just as good, if not better.
That is done in some Flight Sumulator add ons. Once activations (or also store downloads) are used up, just contact support to add a new one.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on March 26, 2017, 07:36:45 PM
Ummmmm...CMSF2?????
Yes. Bombshell or what ?. It was rumoured but that's the first official thing I have heard. Awesome if true. Though I still play the shit out of CMSF it's that good still.
Must say the Phil issue just goes to show how the BF rumour mill goes into overdrive at the slightest provocation.
CMSF2 is just a way of designating the CMSF upgrade to engine 4.0 standards. Its not a bombshell at all. They said CMSF would get the upgrade treatment some day, but the quote slightly more above is indeed interesting: I thought CMBS was first on the list to get a module, but it seems like CMSF has priority.
Quote from: Yskonyn on March 27, 2017, 03:08:11 AM
CMSF2 is just a way of designating the CMSF upgrade to engine 4.0 standards. Its not a bombshell at all. They said CMSF would get the upgrade treatment some day, but the quote slightly more above is indeed interesting: I thought CMBS was first on the list to get a module, but it seems like CMSF has priority.
Well - as far as I know - it was only ever
suggested that they would move CMSF to the current engine - that seems like an official confirmation they will be, and it is first in line, and I think you will find its a little more than an "upgrade" in the same way battle for Normandy to 4.0 was. So you can call it what you like - I will stick with bombshell. That's if you don't mind of course. :notworthy:
Heh, I didnt mean to come across snarling, sir. :)
Steve did say at some point that it isn't a simple move or upgrade. So much has changed it basically a complete rebuild.
Quote from: Zulu1966 on March 27, 2017, 02:54:19 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on March 26, 2017, 07:36:45 PM
Ummmmm...CMSF2?????
Yes. Bombshell or what ?. It was rumoured but that's the first official thing I have heard. Awesome if true. Though I still play the shit out of CMSF it's that good still.
Must say the Phil issue just goes to show how the BF rumour mill goes into overdrive at the slightest provocation.
Well, to clarify - this is what Steve actually told me on WIP...
"For 2017 the big effort is a full revitalization of the entire CM Shock Force Family to current game engine standards.
For the smaller releases you’ll soon see a Battle Pack for CMBS and not long after that a second Module for CMFI.
The first module for CMRT might make it into 2017, but might be just over the line in 2018.
Those of you who have followed us over the years know that there’s always more going on than meets the eye, therefore it is safe to assume there’s more for 2018 that we’re not talking about yet.”
Looks like we CM aficionado's will have some good times ahead. :bd:
Quote from: Boggit on March 27, 2017, 06:35:18 PM
"For 2017 the big effort is a full revitalization of the entire CM Shock Force Family to current game engine standards.
:D
I wonder if us Shock Force owners will only have to pay for the upgrade. I doubt it though, it sounds like they've basically started from scratch.
Well it depends on whether they just do paid patches like they have done consistently (and I like) for the ww2 games.
Quote from: Pinetree on March 28, 2017, 12:57:50 AM
I wonder if us Shock Force owners will only have to pay for the upgrade. I doubt it though, it sounds like they've basically started from scratch.
I really don't mind. SF is a fantastic range of content. I suspect the price will largely depend on whether they do indeed call it CMSF 2 or just an engine upgrade.
I am just glad everything appears ok and they will be continuing to deliver new content
Will the "new" Shock Force be a revitalization of the 2007 fantasy Syria, or will it be a 2018 near future Syria with the combatants upgraded, either to current equipment of the fantasy invasion, or perhaps 'historic' civil war forces, including ISIL?
I also realize as I type this that I have been using my SHOCK FORCE mousepad continuously for 10 years now. Too cheap to buy another one, I guess.
Nothing definite said apart from upgrading CMSF. I would think it won't include units changes and just an upgrade of the engine to v4.
I wonder if current events will spook the design team, or alter plans in any way. Kind of bad luck to predict open warfare in a part of the world to focus your next fun game on and then have it come true, only with the added 'bonuses' of war crimes, civil war, beheadings, etc.
Re: Phil
I believe what Phil said to me at the time was (and although from memory, I think it's an exact quote) "Battlefront was my dream job , this new one is my fantasy job". So, like Steve said, he'd be an idiot to pass it up.
(P.S. damn, do I miss interacting with him frequently. Having never met him in person, he really seems like a human.)