Combat Mission: Black Sea Article - Out by End of Year

[Bletchley_Geek]

Was hoping for a newer engine. Maybe one that actually had a physics model.

It's certainly better than Arma III, with those fully laden soldiers jumping on a drone similar to this one



and zooming into the sky as if they were the Green Goblin.

[JudgeDredd]

spoiler alert!  :D

[Apocalypse 31]

its using the 3.0 engine

What is the 3.0 engine?

Red Thunder?

Not very impressive looking, and still no physics.

[jomni]

Yes, red thunder.

[Bletchley_Geek]

Not very impressive looking, and still no physics.

What relevant physical phenomena are not modeled?

[Con]

its using the 3.0 engine

What is the 3.0 engine?

Red Thunder?

Not very impressive looking, and still no physics.

I find that it looks very well especially when i have modded it up with vehicle packs. 

Not sure what you mean about physics?  It does model all the ammo and trajectories going so far as to to model hitting building and troops behind the ones you have targeted.  My favorite moment is when I took out a sherman (Kinetics) that was screaming towards my hidden troops at full speed.  The sherman was KIA but still trundled forward a good 50 yards (momentum) to land smack dab in the middle of my defensive position where after another turn or two it proceeded to catastrophically blow up (thermodynamics) as the ammo cooked off taking out my HMG (shock wave).  That was maybe too much physics for me :> 

My biggest quibble is that I dont like the square terrain placement since it leads to needing to do more micro managing to place/face your troops and I am never sure if they are really getting the full defensive terrain benefits.

Con

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Was hoping for a newer engine. Maybe one that actually had a physics model.

It's certainly better than Arma III, with those fully laden soldiers jumping on a drone similar to this one



and zooming into the sky as if they were the Green Goblin.

Fully laden soldiers are not jumping on drones in the game.  If you try it in-game, nothing will happen.  You have to actually go into the editor, use "attach to" commands and alter the flight characteristics of the drone in order to do what you're saying.   It's just an example of what can be done with the editor if you want to goof around.

[Bletchley_Geek]

Fully laden soldiers are not jumping on drones in the game.  If you try it in-game, nothing will happen.  You have to actually go into the editor, use "attach to" commands and alter the flight characteristics of the drone in order to do what you're saying.   It's just an example of what can be done with the editor if you want to goof around.

In this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x86mpYxfQQ0

I don't see the guy tweaking with the Editor modifying the soldier mass or the power-to-weight ratio of the drone. I just see him, as you say, to "attach" the soldier to the drone. It's fairly obvious that ARMA III engine isn't accounting for the mass or the aerodynamics of the "Green Goblin" contraption. And my understanding is that you could have that "unit" deployed in a mission, but I might be incorrect.

[TacticalWargames]

I have no issue with BF's pricing policy. My wargaming hobby would be alot poorer if they didn't exist and I'm grateful they are still around and developer tactical wargames. I also like the engine update process which means you can keep your game right upto date with the newer releases for a small cost, otherwise those theaters \wars released early in the engine development would get left behind with regards to new features etc.

I prob pick up the vehicle pack in a sale sometime in the future..no rush for it.

The next purchase from them will be Black Sea.

[JudgeDredd]

its using the 3.0 engine

What is the 3.0 engine?

Red Thunder?

Not very impressive looking, and still no physics.

I find that it looks very well especially when i have modded it up with vehicle packs. 

Not sure what you mean about physics?  It does model all the ammo and trajectories going so far as to to model hitting building and troops behind the ones you have targeted.  My favorite moment is when I took out a sherman (Kinetics) that was screaming towards my hidden troops at full speed.  The sherman was KIA but still trundled forward a good 50 yards (momentum) to land smack dab in the middle of my defensive position where after another turn or two it proceeded to catastrophically blow up (thermodynamics) as the ammo cooked off taking out my HMG (shock wave).  That was maybe too much physics for me :> 

My biggest quibble is that I dont like the square terrain placement since it leads to needing to do more micro managing to place/face your troops and I am never sure if they are really getting the full defensive terrain benefits.

Con

This and not being able to fire on a unit because you cannot see the base...meaning a unit at the top of a hill (or in a building on a hill) where you are advancing means you can't attack them. (I think that's true - if I'm talking bollox feel free to ignore and/or correct and move on)  ;D

But the squares...definitely. I wonder if they could make them smaller given the power of PC's nowadays?

[jomni]

Didn't CMSF start out without those squares and every infantry just died left and right because they don't want to hide behind a wall (dumb tactical AI). Those "action squares" that influenced LOS helped in increasing infantry survivability.

[JudgeDredd]

Needs to be a better way

It is fiddly getting units in a suitable position at times. Also, I'm pretty sure that LOS issue is prevalent

[RyanE]

The main issue with the action spots/squares is teams, especially larger one, get unrealistically bunched up.  BFC recognized this but only addressed it through nerfing HE effects.  This then manifests itself in buildings and other terrain, as well as against vehicles.  That was as of CMSF and CMBN.  I have seen nothing that says they changed it.

[Bletchley_Geek]

The main issue with the action spots/squares is teams, especially larger one, get unrealistically bunched up.  BFC recognized this but only addressed it through nerfing HE effects.  This then manifests itself in buildings and other terrain, as well as against vehicles.  That was as of CMSF and CMBN.  I have seen nothing that says they changed it.

Positioning infantry has been always quite a pain. Breaking down into teams is best thing one can do to get a chance at using terrain effectively sometimes.

Nations that cannot split into sub-squad units suffer tactically in ways I am not sure are very realistic or historical. That and some strange choices when it comes to model heavy weapons as either a huge team, or two teams (heavy weapon and ammo bearers). German HMG teams are of the "huge" variety and that sometimes is very problematic to use them effectively.

[Elvis]

I am almost positive they are going through the effort of replacing the DRM because it works perfectly.

;D


Gotta replace it with something that works equally poorly? 


BF could've also saved a lot of headaches if they would've stuck to the original modular plan.  Release expansions and just patch up the original base game to keep everything compatible.  Instead they wanted to sell core game patches and make full price on many of the expansions by creating them as standalones.  What a mess.  Again, I point to titles like Crusader Kings 2 on how to put out a series in modular/expansion format.

The annoying DRM just can't be helped if the developers have bought into the overblown piracy paranoia.  The flames of which have been fanned by the companies selling such DRM.  "The large amounts of hardcore wargame pirates are gonna take it all!  Oh my!  You need to buy our snake oil.  Who cares if it inconveniences your customers on occasion?  DOOM!!1".  It's obviously here to stay with BF, in one form or another.

I posted this on a different forum in response to a similar post. I'm not looking to debate how prevalent piracy is or isn't. This is for entertainment purposes.

I don't know if there are ways that software makers can find out what their exposure is and I know this is completely anecdotal but I get at least one Help Desk ticket a month for someone phising for a license key.The 2 most memorable ones are a guy in China bought CMBN in some store. Long story short is that the store owner or someone purchase 3 copies, which gives you 12 activations, made discs and cases and was selling them. The most recent was this guy. He kept asking me for a key and that he didn't have the download version. With a CD only purchase the key is only in the packaging. In extremely rare occasions the key isn't there. So I asked him for his order number. He told me that he bought it in a store in France and not through BFC. As proof of his purchase he sent me this picture of the DVD case.