CM 4.0 released

[Michael Dorosh]

At least there is some logic to it all :

The Game Engine 4 Upgrade for CM Final Blitzkrieg is not a standalone game. You need the CMFB v1.02 (Game Engine 3) in order to play. Once upgraded the version number changes to v2.x.

So engine 3 is version 1 and engine 4 is version 2 !

This may actually answer my question... thanks. :-0

[Michael Dorosh]

The school of hard knocks says if you want to minimize the hassle, wait a few days before buying a BFC product.  It takes them a few days to get their act together.  That has been the pattern the last couple of years.

I'm playing a PBEM of CMBN so leery of updating that one, but I did manage to update CMRT and it seems to have taken. The procedure is a bit excrutiating, including separate activations and an error message pointing me to "battlefront.com" to learn more about the activation tool. User friendly it ain't, but at least it seems to work.

[Michael Dorosh]

Hmm, loaded an old, old PBEM in CMRT and seems to work fine with the new upgrade - Hull Down command works in my old PBEM file too.

Hull Down was one of the biggest losses from the original CMX1 engine. I know there is is disappointment over "follow me" but that was never in the original. What other big ticket features are we missing from the original? List is getting shorter all the time. Terrain fires, maybe. And roadblocks?

[jomni]

Hmm, loaded an old, old PBEM in CMRT and seems to work fine with the new upgrade - Hull Down command works in my old PBEM file too.

Hull Down was one of the biggest losses from the original CMX1 engine. I know there is is disappointment over "follow me" but that was never in the original. What other big ticket features are we missing from the original? List is getting shorter all the time. Terrain fires, maybe. And roadblocks?

Random maps. I know that will never happen.

[Michael Dorosh]

Hmm, loaded an old, old PBEM in CMRT and seems to work fine with the new upgrade - Hull Down command works in my old PBEM file too.

Hull Down was one of the biggest losses from the original CMX1 engine. I know there is is disappointment over "follow me" but that was never in the original. What other big ticket features are we missing from the original? List is getting shorter all the time. Terrain fires, maybe. And roadblocks?

Random maps. I know that will never happen.

Ah, good point. Operations will also never happen, and it finally occurred to me why. The AI is scripted. So if you generate a front line in a battle on an operational size map, there is no random AI generator that would be able to get the enemy to do anything sensible on it.

[Michael Dorosh]

CMFB and CMBN now upgraded as well. For some reason I had two CMBN executables, one in the Battlefront folder of PROGRAM FILES and the other in the second Battlefront folder that gets created in MY DOCUMENTS. Never did understand why they split that up, and in my case, I had to hunt for the "activate" file. Looks to have worked smoothly, though.

[Zulu1966]

May have had something to do with wanting to give their customers something new over the xmas period when a lot of people have time off.

May have had something to do with squeezing a little bit of extra income in at Christmas without being prepared to support the product, too. Their comments about not having the manual ready yet, or for some weeks, supports *that* interpretation.

Used to be BFC released stuff "when it's ready." RyanE seems to be on the money.

What Manual ? I got an engine 4.0 manual with my download with all the new stuff in it so what are you talking about ?

[Con]

Just got a message back from the help desk those poor bastards are having to work troubleshooting CM 4.0 launch on Christmas so lets give them a break.  Said the problem was resolved and I just ran a quick several min turns on CM Normandy and it is at 4.0

Con

Why give them a break? They chose Christmas to release it - if they didn't want to support it, they could have waited until the new year.

I bought the last upgrade and their DRM issues messed up my add-on modules. I imagine I'll buy this too, but am hoping it goes easier than the last upgrade.

And the above quote reinforces why I would never want to deal with some Grogs as a customer base....no good deed goes unpunished and you can never satisfy and do right with this crowd.  Little wonder that people who actually spend their time, energy, vacation and untold stress doing this for a living because they love games can learn to despise their customers when given this attitude.

[Michael Dorosh]

no good deed goes unpunished and you can never satisfy and do right with this crowd.  Little wonder that people who actually spend their time, energy, vacation and untold stress doing this for a living because they love games can learn to despise their customers when given this attitude.

They're not doing good deeds, so not sure what you're referring to. BFC is a business, and part of business is taking money from customers in exchange for goods and services. Those customers have a reasonable expectation that their products get adequate support. When companies like Matrix, BFC etc. starts distributing shareware, your comments might be more appropriate.

[GJK]

Thanks for being the beta tester on the 4.0 upgrade patches Mike.  I hadn't played CM 2x+ in a while but did finally get it upgraded to 3.x a couple of months ago.  What's your hunch- will several incremental 4.x patches be rolling out at some point?  I'll eventually go 4.x but I'm not in any rush to do so.  Hell, I still enjoy CMx1 more, I think it game plays better personally.

[Michael Dorosh]

Thanks for being the beta tester on the 4.0 upgrade patches Mike.  I hadn't played CM 2x+ in a while but did finally get it upgraded to 3.x a couple of months ago.  What's your hunch- will several incremental 4.x patches be rolling out at some point?  I'll eventually go 4.x but I'm not in any rush to do so.  Hell, I still enjoy CMx1 more, I think it game plays better personally.

I don't follow what goes on at BFC so I'm not even sure what they're working on. It is nice to see old features continue to be added - the hull down command was something I sorely missed. And I am glad that new stuff like the streams terrain they introduced in CM:FB is being retroactively fitted to the earlier games.

So whether there will be new patches, its a good question. I'm playing a lot more ASL these days - in the midst of the Decision at Elst CG. The streams feature retrofitted to CMBN have me thinking I can finally try and put Elst (and polder) into a scenario. But hard to capture the feel of a CG in CM now.

[Ubercat]

... I'm playing a lot more ASL these days - in the midst of the Decision at Elst CG. The streams feature retrofitted to CMBN have me thinking I can finally try and put Elst (and polder) into a scenario. But hard to capture the feel of a CG in CM now.

The DaE campaign is on my bucket list. If I could just stop getting distracted by other games and learn ASLSK past basic infantry rules (SK1).

[Michael Dorosh]

... I'm playing a lot more ASL these days - in the midst of the Decision at Elst CG. The streams feature retrofitted to CMBN have me thinking I can finally try and put Elst (and polder) into a scenario. But hard to capture the feel of a CG in CM now.

The DaE campaign is on my bucket list. If I could just stop getting distracted by other games and learn ASLSK past basic infantry rules (SK1).

It's a real slog to be honest. Not saying I'm not enjoying it, but the terrain is incredibly frustrating - lots of hindrances and very little open ground. Just like the real campaign, if you are the Allies and want to move fast, you have to go straight down the single good road where you're a sitting duck for high velocity German guns. Definitely challenging.

As for learning the rules, though, I'm finding the DaE rulebook actually more helpful than the full ASL binder. We're playing with full ASL rules, but referring what questions we can to the ASLSK rulebook. It's well written, comparatively speaking, and when you decide to go further into vehicles and ordnance, should be a real help for you.

[GJK]

... I'm playing a lot more ASL these days - in the midst of the Decision at Elst CG. The streams feature retrofitted to CMBN have me thinking I can finally try and put Elst (and polder) into a scenario. But hard to capture the feel of a CG in CM now.

The DaE campaign is on my bucket list. If I could just stop getting distracted by other games and learn ASLSK past basic infantry rules (SK1).

Yes you do!  We need to wrap up our game of S2 and then move on to Guns (and then Tanks) and then full ASL!  Once you get AFV's in the game, it really takes on a whole new dimension and once you're comfortable with those, then full ASL comes pretty easily.

[Yskonyn]

As for learning the rules, though, I'm finding the DaE rulebook actually more helpful than the full ASL binder. We're playing with full ASL rules, but referring what questions we can to the ASLSK rulebook. It's well written, comparatively speaking, and when you decide to go further into vehicles and ordnance, should be a real help for you.

I concur. In my quest of learning ASL I find the DaE rulebook a handy 'primer' to most things you will encounter commonly in ASL. The step to full ASL comes a lot easier this way.