Combat Mission status

[Michael Dorosh]

I've seen some posts around from Steve about his stance on Steam and I just find suspicious that someone that stubborn would up and change their minds about something like Steam ESPECIALLY during a time when Steam's dominance is being actively challenged.

From zero marketing to a major platform that will market for them - seems like a no-brainer.

You mentioned Steel Beasts Michael, my understanding is that the military isn't going to want to play every game they're going to want only one of two products to do their testing. If Steel Beasts is popular, great, but a great way of beating them and taking over that business is to perhaps offer a potentially 'better' game (like CMSF2) but also make it more accessible to use and deploy. No-one can argue that Steam isn't a great way to distribute and maintain code at the very least.

You're the only one talking about military contracts for some reason. What does that have to do with Steam? I genuinely don't know.

Last fall we had a computer sim team come to our armouries and filled the parade square with PCs, etc., to run something like 30 or 50 soldiers through a Steel Beasts sim simultaneously. I have no idea how it was delivered but I expect they bought the license for the game and installed it on the PCs. The PCs were dedicated, af far as I know, to sim training. Meaning it resided locally, not via Steam.

So again - why the red herring vis a vis military applications, or am I missing something?

[sandman2575]

@Elvis

Can you say anything about how moving CMx2 to Steam is going to change how the game gets patched?

One of the best things about when Graviteam Tactics moved to Steam is that it forced Graviteam to improve its updating / patching process, which previously had been confusing.

I don't mean to slag on BFC at all, but I have to say, updating/patching/installing new modules on the CMx2 games is probably the most frustrating and confusing updating process I've ever encountered for a game. I have to assume that moving to Steam means this is going to get streamlined and simplified -- ??

(And am I jumping the gun by assuming the other CMx2 titles are coming to Steam, not just Shock Force 2?)

[Elvis]

I mean to be fair, JD McNeil himself had always said he didn't want to take Matrix to Steam to avoid the "race to the bottom" of steam sales so perhaps Matrix's involvement (and their similar journey) has convinced Battlefront that maybe Steam is worth it after all. I'll take Elvis' response at face value on that.

I've seen some posts around from Steve about his stance on Steam and I just find suspicious that someone that stubborn would up and change their minds about something like Steam ESPECIALLY during a time when Steam's dominance is being actively challenged.

One of the first big things I was tasked to do when I started full time was to check out  other delivery systems. Steve was already well versed in the pros and cons of Steam. If i remember correctly, Steam used to do things like offer a producers games on sale if they decided that they wanted to. There were a couple of others that I've forgotten (it ain't easy getting old). I looked into Epic. That seemed like a much friendlier arrangement but they weren't taking on new developers at the time or about 6 months later when I contacted them again. Now, I think everyone has soured on them. So, in hindsight, it turned out for the best. GOG were good people to work with when I set that up but because there is no protection on the games it was a non-starter for anything other than the original CMx1 games (which we weren't even offering anymore on our site at the time).

You mentioned Steel Beasts Michael, my understanding is that the military isn't going to want to play every game they're going to want only one of two products to do their testing. If Steel Beasts is popular, great, but a great way of beating them and taking over that business is to perhaps offer a potentially 'better' game (like CMSF2) but also make it more accessible to use and deploy. No-one can argue that Steam isn't a great way to distribute and maintain code at the very least.

But like you said, this is all speculation. I would be surprised if it wasn't a contributing factor but it may not be as important as I think it is.

If I am understanding you guys correctly......are you wondering if Steam has something to do with our distribution for our "special" project? If so, that's a huge gigantic no.

[Elvis]

@Elvis

Can you say anything about how moving CMx2 to Steam is going to change how the game gets patched?

One of the best things about when Graviteam Tactics moved to Steam is that it forced Graviteam to improve its updating / patching process, which previously had been confusing.

I don't mean to slag on BFC at all, but I have to say, updating/patching/installing new modules on the CMx2 games is probably the most frustrating and confusing updating process I've ever encountered for a game. I have to assume that moving to Steam means this is going to get streamlined and simplified -- ??

(And am I jumping the gun by assuming the other CMx2 titles are coming to Steam, not just Shock Force 2?)

The official word is:

Combat Mission Shock Force 2 is the first CM family to make the move to Slitherine with more to follow over time......

I assume the patching through Steam will be like other Steam games. It won't be something I handle. That'll be done directly between Charles and the folks at Slitherine. So, I haven't been briefed on the details. But I have no reason to believe it will be different than other Steam games.

[Blucher]

Will there be DRM on the Matrix/slitherine version?

I would prefer a drm free matrix version with a back up steam key.

[Elvis]

Will there be DRM on the Matrix/slitherine version?

I would prefer a drm free matrix version with a back up steam key.

I'm sure there will be one. I don't know what kind they use though.

[ArizonaTank]

@Elvis

Can you say anything about how moving CMx2 to Steam is going to change how the game gets patched?

One of the best things about when Graviteam Tactics moved to Steam is that it forced Graviteam to improve its updating / patching process, which previously had been confusing.

I don't mean to slag on BFC at all, but I have to say, updating/patching/installing new modules on the CMx2 games is probably the most frustrating and confusing updating process I've ever encountered for a game. I have to assume that moving to Steam means this is going to get streamlined and simplified -- ??

(And am I jumping the gun by assuming the other CMx2 titles are coming to Steam, not just Shock Force 2?)

The official word is:

Combat Mission Shock Force 2 is the first CM family to make the move to Slitherine with more to follow over time......

I assume the patching through Steam will be like other Steam games. It won't be something I handle. That'll be done directly between Charles and the folks at Slitherine. So, I haven't been briefed on the details. But I have no reason to believe it will be different than other Steam games.

This is great news. I love the series, love the concept and pretty much everything about CM series. IMHO it is the only tactical level ground combat game system (OK, Close Combat comes close as well) that can be called a simulation.

But honestly, the patching pain / hell that I was put through really turned me off. The last straw was a real goat rope over one of the CMFI upgrades. The CMFI DRM somehow didn't play nice with Gothic Line. I could do the upgrade, but would lose Gothic Line in the process. Took hours of my time and the Battlefront support guy (who was very responsive...but just had a hard time figuring out what the problem was). I remember sitting at my computer one Saturday morning, doing the 10th reinstall thinking..."this is just not fun." I'm an IT guy, and was a developer (a long time ago), so to see an ancillary function (the DRM) be the reason why the software was not functioning was just too much for me. In the end, I gave up trying to do the upgrade; despite having paid for it.

I have been sitting on the sidelines ever since...just because I hate the patching / DRM scheme. Fortunately GOG put out the CMx1 series for a song...and I have been happy playing those for the last several years.

[Sir Slash]

This can only be good news for the game and all of us who love to get kicked in the balls by it, I hope. You may have just saved 2020.  O0

[Father Ted]

...unless Steam Workshop support is going to be a thing and most modders upload their stuff to it.

Now THAT is a cool thought - mods and user-made maps/battles/campaigns available at the click of a button...

[-budd-]

Can we assume people that already purchased will get steam keys when it lands on steam?

I get that a goat rope is bad from the context used , but can I get a little more explanation just for curiosity's sake, never heard that before.

[smittyohio]

The DRM and the patching nightmares are the only reason I don't own every single one of these games.   Once they comes to Matrix and Steam, that will change... and reduce my bank balance.   O0

[Yskonyn]

More PBEM opponents!  :dreamer:

[Ubercat]

The DRM and the patching nightmares are the only reason I don't own every single one of these games.   Once they comes to Matrix and Steam, that will change... and reduce my bank balance.   O0

Yeah, having to open a help desk ticket to get CMx2 to run every time I dared to take a month or two off from playing got really damn old.  >:(  If they're finally doing the right thing after all these years I may jump back in.