Hello all, the engine 4 upgrade for CM: Battle for Normandy, CM: Red Thunder, CM: Black Sea and CM: Final Blitzkrieg was just released. The upgrade for CMFI is suffering a minor delay. You can upgrade each title individually, or there is an upgrade "big bundle" that gets you all five at a much reduced price (CMFI Upgrade 4 download will go active when it is released). Here are the features:

GAMEPLAY

HULLDOWN COMMAND: Vehicles have access to a new movement command called Hulldown. This command allows a vehicle to move forward until only the turret is exposed to a specified target, and then the vehicle stops moving.

IMPROVED INFANTRY SPACING: Infantry on the move will now respect each other's personal space! While moving, squad and team members will maintain a few meters of distance between each other. Soldiers will also spread out laterally on the move when possible (some terrain may necessitate column movement, such as paths through rough terrain).

PEEKING AROUND BUILDING CORNERS: Infantry units positioned adjacent to building corners will now automatically post some soldiers at the corners to observe and fire around the obstacle.

AI PROACTIVELY AVOIDS HIGH-EXPLOSIVE FIRE: The TacAI that runs soldiers and vehicles will more proactively, and reactively, attempt to avoid incoming HE fire. Two classic examples are that the AI will attempt to avoid being wiped out by incoming artillery barrages and direct tank fire.

COMBINE SQUAD COMMAND: Combine Squad is a new Admin Command for squads. This command is useful for squads that have suffered major losses and need to consolidate their remaining personnel into larger teams!

USER INTERFACE

EXPANDED WAYPOINT DESCRIPTIVE TEXT: More special unit commands (such as Hide and Deploy Weapon) will now be marked with white floating text above the waypoint they are assigned to.

CAMPAIGN BRIEFING: The overall campaign briefing is now viewable during any campaign mission by going to the Menu Options Panel and selecting "Campaign".

FORWARD OBSERVER KILL CREDITS: Finally, time to see how effective your artillery really is! Forward Observers now get credit on the AAR for any casualties caused by off-map fire missions called in by them.

SCREEN EDGE PAN TOGGLE: Tired of trying to fine tune a camera position and then messing it up by touching the edge of the screen with the cursor? Using the hotkey ALT-E you can disable camera panning by touching the screen edge with the mouse cursor.

EDITOR

AI AREA FIRE ORDERS: The AI can now be scripted to use Area Fire! Each AI Order can have a target zone designated.

AI FACING ORDERS: Each AI Order can be given a location for it to Face towards.

AI WITHDRAW ORDERS: AI Groups can be ordered to Withdraw towards their movement destination. Vehicles will move in Reverse to the destination, while infantry will leapfrog back while turning around to face behind them.

CAMPAIGN RESUPPLY: Personnel replacements and ammunition levels are now more uniformly resupplied across all core units between campaign missions, as opposed to the all-or-nothing check on each unit done previously.

3D FLAVOR OBJECT CLONE TOOL: Flavor object can be cloned within the 3D view without having to go back to the 2D view.

32 ORDER AI PLANS: Each AI Group can now have up to 32 Orders, increased from 16.

STREAM TERRAIN: Small streams can now be placed on battle maps.

GRAPHICS

New tracer and muzzle flash effects.


Some of the announcements and a central store location for Upgrade 4 are rolling out a bit slow because of the holidays, but the individual upgrade for each title can be found on its store page, and the bundle is also linked from each store page, e.g.:

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?opt...0&Itemid=26

Hmmmm, glad to hear, but apparently many have been awaiting this update. Cannot log onto their site to even try and purchase or download. Thanks for the news. Will keep trying.

Pleaaaaaase update CM Shock Force. Or at least bring the units and terrain over to CMBS as an add on (no that's not as outlandish as it may have been two years ago).

Not been over the site for a while now.... is this a free update or one that needs purchasing?

These are upgrades available for purchase.

strykerpsg, I am trying to get an answer for you.

Thanks AKD! I saw and replied to your PM. Much appreciated for the assist.

Matt

$10 for the upgrade? Not bad!

I am seeing $25.00, not $10.00.....was that a Christmas offer only?

AKD, finally got logged on.

Nevermind, I see they are all different priced, but bundle is $25.00

This is something I've been hoping for. Thanks for the heads-up.

Personally,the hull down command is a huge improvement on a gameplay level.

Seems more like a patch than something worth buying for each individual game.

No it's actually an engine upgrade. They could have added a bit of fluff and called it "CM Black Sea 2" to charge $60, but I much prefer this. Ten bucks is well deserved.

Their engine is dated, and this is hardly an upgrade. CM is always 3-5 years behind current PC graphic capabilities.

Love em, had every CM game since their early betas, but I play a brain dead game like BF1, and say for #%&*$# sake why cant some of this eye candy make it into CM. The answer is their old, dated engine. And im not paying for a few tactical commands added into the menu.

Simulation games are typically way behind the curve compared to mainstream AAA titles. Even DCS is several years behind, graphically. CMANO looks like Windows 97. SBpro PE is probably six to ten years behind, on a pure eye-candy basis. A lot of command level games are literally from the last entury, graphically.

I guess it all comes down to what it's worth for you. As I have said elsewhere, I'm not into WW2 stuff so I own none of the newer WW2 CM stuff (but I have CM2 and CMAK on CD), and if I did, I don't think I'd upgrade at this point.

Their modern warfare stuff however is pretty unique in the sim market, so I'll gladly pay the occasional $10 to keep it current. Heck, I'd pay more than that for an update to Shock Force.

It's probably more clever to do it like Graviteam, i.e. bring out a full-fledged new engine and UX with a new scenario and then port the old scenarios over for a price. In the end they make more than $10 bucks off it per participating user and the others don't feel pressured into upgrading a product they 'already own'. But in the end it's all just mind games.

I feel $10 is fair for the development time they presumably put in, but whether or not it's worth it to the individual user is another question.

Oh I'm not saying it should be a new game, it should be a standard patch to the current games. Since that's all it is. Even when compared to other simulations their engine is very dated and behind their direct competitors so I don't think it's fair to the consumers to have to pay extra for something that still doesn't bring it up to par. Their AI doesn't think on their, it's all scripted. UI is very poor and hasn't been touched in ages. Their PBEM implementation is also extremely dated compared to what they have at Slitherine for example. They don't even have an automatic updater, you still have to download patches like back in the 90's. They really need to bring their engine up to par before charging money for this type of stuff. This far into the series it's time they give us some substantial updates. I hate to be rude as I truly appreciate all of the companies in this under appreciated niche of ours, but it honestly seems to me that they do the least for the most.

That said, their games aren't bad. I still have several of them, I just don't think they're in a position to charge for minor engines updates.

I have to agree with the sentiment expressed by Richard and JayTac. I don't own all of their titles. I was really in to it during the CM:BO and BB days, then missed every title until Normandy, and then bought the Normandy full bundle and RT.

I love the tactical combat the games offer. But it's all wrapped in a time machine. Aside from some of the issues mentioned already, the series is in serious need of a campaign overhaul. Ever since the first release I've wished for a better campaign system. The scripted, episodic nature of it makes for good storytelling perhaps, but lacks a sense of continuity and investment. I have a lot of ideas, but that's for a different thread.

Last spring I played a number of CMBN campaigns. I had a good time (Kampfgruppe Engel and Devil's Descent are two that stand out as excellent), but it could be so much more. They've stood mostly still for two decades, Sure, there is new content and new games like the Bulge. But when I compare the latest titles to CMBO from 17 years ago or however long it's been there really isn't much difference. Graphics improvements, new commands, etc.

I won't get in to their pricing model. That's also another thread. I want them to do well. I enjoy the concept. Hell, I paid more than a C-note for Normandy alone. But I feel the devs need a re-think and a new approach. It's nothing personal. I'm a poster at the site, and they've always been helpful when I've needed it. But I passed on the Bulge because I just felt it was more of the same, just with a different title, white maps and Jadgtigers. How much different would my experience be playing the Bulge than playing Normandy? I reckoned not enough to justify the cost.

I also agree the engine is holding them back. Incremental upgrades to this old engine aren't enough for me. Especially for a fee. That's a personal choice and I don't expect others to agree necessarily. But it could be so much better. I'll give one example. I'll see if I can paint a picture...

Your infantry platoon with 60mm mortars and a Sherman for support are in one hedgerow overlooking a field you need to cross. Your pixeltruppen have spotted a 50mm AT gun behind a hedge on the opposite end of the field. You endeavor to take this gun under fire with your mortar. But you can't target the gun. You can only target the hedge, because it's all that your pixeltruppen can 'see'. Makes sense, can't see behind the hedge. But you know the gun is there. You can see the muzzle protruding through. Maybe it's already taken a few shots. So you start dropping mortars. But they all hit the hedge or just in front. After watching a dozen rounds fail to actually land behind the hedge you check fire and wonder why you don't have ability to pick a target and add +10? The engine doesn't allow it. The same limitation affects anything in a patch of woods for example. You can only target the front, visible edge. You want to drop some rounds deeper. You know there are troops there. You saw them enter. But there is no way to target 'unseen' terrain. Can't my pixelcaptain read a map? It's unrealistic and frustrating, and an engine limitation. It's just one little example. There are more.

Graphics, sound, UI, campaign all desperately need an overhaul in my opinion. It's easy to just accept it as what it is. There's is little direct competition anyway. But you think about what this series could be if the vision, resources and capabilities were all aimed higher.

I guess I'm more inclined to take a friendly view because I'm bored to death with WW2 and Shock Force and Black Sea are about the only modern-era strategy games out there with aside from Steel Beasts. If they want $10 from me every other year that's fine with me.

That said, the engine does seem to be a limiting factor. For one, apparently it is a huge task to port older games over to the new engine, apparently the reason Shock Force has not been updated. But if it's that hard to port your own stuff, that defeats the point of making your own engine.

I also bought a lot of their stuff, SF/BN/FI/RT. But the phrase i'm thinking for the current situation is "DLC ripoff".

Disclaimer is I asked my account to be deleted from their forum of my own volition. won't get into the nuisance details but from what I see CM has a lot of issues - about the current product line i think the key one is.. a lack of innovation. The campaign system has always been lacking, and generally speaking it's just been more of the same. So DLC ripoff looks fitting as a simple description.