Has CMSF Already Hit the Bargain Bin?

[KG_Jag]

Check out this thread from the Battlefront forum that suggests that maybe it has, especially in Europe:

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=52;t=003060

[Nemesis Lead]

I think that the business guys over at BFC really dropped the ball--yet again.

As a business man myself (marketing and product development professional), I am stunned at how poorly BFC has managed this whole rollout. Virtually every aspect of the rollout was riddled with mistakes. Mind you--I am not talking about the programming!

BFC finally did admit that they released the game too soon due to "contractual obligations."

Sounds like poor deal making, poor project management, or (most likely) both.

[KG_Jag]

It's difficult to disagree with any of your points. I have a business degree, but that is not really necessary to read these tea leaves.

I would add that, unless BF was certain of landing a related and significant contract from the military [which apparently has not occurred], its choice of subject matter is also a significant factor in its difficulty. They were made aware of the lack of enthusiasm for it by their customer base long in advance of the game's release. BF ignored it at their own peril.

[Geordie]

Its a shame really, a combination of duff marketing and high expectations that the RTS gamers would buy it, together with the bad reviews and bad initial gameplay has maybe killed off BF for a while. Although maybe they made enough from it to strive ahead, who knows.

What gets me is that Charles seems to be the only guy actually working on the game codes etc. Surely they could have bought in someone else by now?

[KG_Jag]

Here's an insightful post [but one in need of proof reading] at the Battlefront forum:

"Posted by Steiner14 (Member # 7324) on September 26, 2007 08:21 AM:

....

And your point comes back to our discussion regarding BFC's choosing not to devote enough development resources to the game to finish it within their release timeframe. I agree, BFC's decision is extremely relevant to the current state of the game.

I absolutely agree. If you have only one manhour, you can't begin to develop a new rocket.

If i look at certain aspects of the game and compare them, i clearly see, that some things are overmodelled (development time wasted in early stages), while others were obviously treated in a rush (time running out).

This is a clear indicator, that the development process did not estimate the needed manhours properly. As an extreme example: the vehicles show suspension effects, which may be cool for kids, but wargamers don't care about, but the pathfinding is poorer than in CMx1! Can this be true after 4 years of development?!

Since CMBO every player was hoping for the possibility to move vehicles on streets in columns to reduce micromanaging. But therefore we have suspension effects and cages around vehicles with a high polygon count!
Or take the sky: stars are moving on the sky correctly, but units don't find the holes in the walls!

IMO a complete wrong weighting of priorities. And what makes that so severe: the priorities of BFC's customers never lied in such graphical-FX. They invested time in things, no one was asking about.
And on the other hand, the graphics itself is not even up to date.

I suspect, some in the team lost the roots where they were coming from and started to believe, they know everything much better. And because of knowing everything much better - CMx1 was the proove for them - they aimed at complete other targets. But this assumption was already wrong: every wargamer always dreamt about a tactical 3D-environment. The critics were not about the idea, but if it could be done well enough! Because of the major rule for realism: before displaying graphical details unrealistically, no matter how beautiful it may be, it is WAY better not to display it and to symbolize it. Therefore wargamers were sceptical about CMBO initially!

And with CMSF they thought they can do even better and opened the can of worms with a half baken 1:1 representation - a barrel without a floor - and the rest that follows is only a conclusion of doing that.
What the developers expected and what they could achieve simply is not good enough for most wargamers.

And here comes the next aspect into play: the wargaming community was not big enugh anymore. Realtime was the magic word! And the realtime games outthere are not good enough, too. They thought they can do even that much better, too. The result is a strange hermaphrodite, but not CM anymore.

And CMSF makes me very sceptical about the WWII-release, if BFC strictly denies to go back to it's roots: Steve mentioned it too often, that they do not care about the hardcore wargamers anymore. They were a too small market for them. Great, but they sell CMSF for 10$ now and no one is interested in it anymore. If that is the future? I doubt that.

BFC, go back to your roots (means: before showing useless but nice looking graphical things, but tactical garbage, do not show it all), or this can not have a good end."

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=52;t=003060

[John Osborne]

wrong statement

[KG_Jag]

So whats your point KG_Jag or what ever you want to call yourself. Seems that you go out of your way to post anything negative about either Battlefronts decisions or on CM:SF itself. Don't you have a life or our you unemployed and spend all your time scanning for negative things to post about Battlefront.

I you want to start a flamewar, please go elsewhere.

In the event you wish to state a point or position about CMSF and/or Battlefront's design or business decisions, make it.

[John Osborne]

No, I'm not going elsewhere, I'm not going to take my toys and go home. Disregard the last post going to delete it. To much stuff at work. This is not the place. Sorry KG_Jag

[Poor Old Spike]

I'm sure we all applaud Battlefront for bringing out the excellent CMBO/BB/AK series, but the plain fact is they then fumbled the ball by not bringing out add-ons at regular intervals such as Pacific War, France 1940, D-Day to Berlin, Korea, NATO v Warsaw Pact,Vietnam,Arab-Israeli War, Gulf Wars etc using the same old tried and trusted engine.
As for Shock Force, it has potential but it uses an engine so different to the old one that it shouldn't really be called a CM game at all..

[Geordie]

I'm sure we all applaud Battlefront for bringing out the excellent CMBO/BB/AK series, but the plain fact is they then fumbled the ball by not bringing out add-ons at regular intervals such as Pacific War, France 1940, D-Day to Berlin, Korea, NATO v Warsaw Pact,Vietnam,Arab-Israeli War, Gulf Wars etc using the same old tried and trusted engine.
As for Shock Force, it has potential but it uses an engine so different to the old one that it shouldn't really be called a CM game at all..

Totally agree, its CM in nothing but name. However, it can be enjoyable. And for bargain bin prices offered right now, well worth investing £5 in.

[KG_Jag]

This is truly a magic moment--both Geordie and I agree with Spike! Let's build on it.

[Geordie]

Yes it is rather surreal. CMSF is building bridges already.