Cancelled preorder

[BlitzCanuck]

Am i the first?

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I'll stick with it; I don't want to make too much of the deficiencies in the historical stuff I've found. It's shocking, frankly, given the high bar they set with CM:BO, because I honestly thought they would be capable of so much more. At the same time, I "get" what Steve was trying to say on release day that they are dialing down the hardcore aspects in favour of the game ones...I don't think there is really a reason for this, and once again, conceptually, it seems to be all over the map. But I think they have the ability to produce something I would like to play and the full game may be something close to it. I don't know yet. And even if not, what is there may end up being a lot of fun; even if it just turns out the tank-side of it is worthy of killing some time. Certainly it looks good.

I'm sorry to hear it didn't please you, though.

 

[thewood]

I am going to hold off getting it. My bar is does it play any better than CMAK and CMSF. So far, the demo hasn't done much for me.

 

[wengart]

The demo has more or less secured my buy. I'm here less for the historical recreation and more for the gameplay, they could probably throw any era at CM and I would buy it. Although there are some really annoying things that are going on right now. Especially the tendency for infantry to open up on TCs, but nothing that makes it a no go.

 

[BlitzCanuck]

Actually i canceled due to the reason they are allowing it in the first place; because it's possible that due to taxes and brokerage fees i might end paying considerably more than what is already a hefty price (in my opinion).
I don't know this for sure but i'm unwilling to take the chance. I was already wishing i hadn't been so impetuous and waited to buy the download only version.
But i have to admit that if the demo had blown me away, i might've been willing to accept whatever final price tag that Canada Customs deemed worthy.
As it is though, it just seems like too much work.
Maybe i've gotten lazier over the past years, but i want my gaming to be easy. I suppose it's just a matter of getting used to the interface, it's so very different.
I'm not going to give up on it just yet. I'll give it a rest for a few days and see if i find myself wanting to go back for more. If so, i might just end up buying the download version when it's available.

 

[Batou]

I learned my lesson with the Shock Force pre-order, disappointing initial release and three weeks later the game was selling for a third of the per-order price. I don't know if it's the demo missions or the game itself, at this point I'm just not sure of CM:BN,

 

[thewood]

I realized why CMBN doesn't seem like a big deal to me. If you play a lot of red on red in CMSF with older equipment, there really isn't much difference with CMBN.

 

[ng cavscout]

I like CMBN quite a bit more than CMSF. I believe this is due to the varied terrain, the on board indirect support, and the generally equivalient forces (without doing red on red or blue on blue).

 

[Elvis]

I realized why CMBN doesn't seem like a big deal to me. If you play a lot of red on red in CMSF with older equipment, there really isn't much difference with CMBN.

This might be of some help. I went through the feature list for CMBN and selected things that CMSF doesn't have. I'm pretty sure I didn't include any things that CMSF as. I did not include obvious things like "Norman style buildings" and such. Hopefully you'll find it helpful.

New hierarchical interface to visually select specific vehicles, equipment, and other options for your scenarios

Improved Scenario briefing format, including a new Designer Notes subsection

"Reduced headcount" option to simulate previously depleted formations

Redesigned Quick Battle Generator that includes the ability to "purchase" and "cherry pick" individual units (similar interface as in Editor)

Unique new optional Rarity system which allows players to include rare units without degrading their ability to have a viable combat force

Players can now preview maps before playing

The map can either be manually or randomly selected

Conduct combat operations in lush rural landscapes, dense urban settings, or anything in between

Many new terrain types including heavy forest ground, crops, railroads, water, and fords
A wide range of bridge types classified to include/exclude certain types of units by weight

Detailed simulation of Normandy's infamous hedgerows ("bocage"), including the explicit simulation of breaching with Rhino tank attachments and engineers

Normandy specific Flavor Objects such as gravestones, haystacks, sheds, wood piles, milestones, propaganda posters and (much) more.

Graphical display of secondary weapons, such as a shouldered rifle or Panzerfaust

Many new soldier animations, stances and positions, including kneeling and sitting positions for crew served weapons, pistol firing animations, hand grenades throwing, crew functions, first aid, and more...

Soldiers can surrender and possibly "rescued" by friendly units

Automatic and manual ammo sharing between nearby soldiers as well as vehicles

Ability of passengers to fire out of open topped vehicles (including but not limited to hatches)

Rhino attachments fully simulated and visually depicted for Bocage breaching

Randomly individualized vehicle models including external equipment like sandbags or ammo boxes, damaged fenders, missing or bent armor skirts and more

On-map mortars (hooked up realistically within the command structure)

On-map assets such as mortars and Infantry Guns are able to fire in both direct and indirect modes, using their own spotters or separate forward observers

Player-placeable Target Reference Points (TRPs) allow simulating prepared support strikes and ambushes

New Scout Team Command sections off 2 men, favoring automatic weapons, to act as scouts

New Driver Team Command allows large passenger units to leave behind one or two Soldiers to drive and/or man the weapon of a transport vehicle (such as a halftrack)

Wide range of weather types and environmental effects, including rain, fog, heavy winds (with ballistic effects), different types of ground conditions, animated water effects, and more...

Combat Victories for individual units showing how many and what types of units the soldier or vehicle has eliminated in the mission (totals tracked for campaigns)


This is just a starter list. I'm sure there is much more I missed.

 

[thewood]

So why the hell doesn't BFC put that list together. The demo really doen't highlight most of that.

I also assume none of this stuff will end up in CMSF.

 

[Elvis]

So why the hell doesn't BFC put that list together. The demo really doen't highlight most of that.

They did put that list together:

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=278&Itemid=461

I edited out the things that CMSF already has when I made my list.

 

[thewood]

I didn't look at that list as a "what's new over CMSF". That looks to me like a generic marketing list of what's in a game.

 

[Elvis]

I didn't look at that list as a "what's new over CMSF". That looks to me like a generic marketing list of what's in a game.

It does answer the question of "why the hell doesn't BFC put that list together." There may be other things you have missed by assuming that the information being released didn't contain anything worth reading. I do this with things all the time and completely understand it. Another source of information about differences would be the manual..... And reading manuals is another thing I don't do as much as I should.

 

[thewood]

I have learned to have evry little faith in the manual. There is a lot of stuff in CMSF not in the manual, through addition to the game and omission in the documentation.

Same with the marketing list. I read that when it came out and really felt it did not do a side by side comparison of CMSF to CMBN.

 

[Elvis]

Same with the marketing list. I read that when it came out and really felt it did not do a side by side comparison of CMSF to CMBN.

I'm not sure why you would expect it to be a side by side comparison. It was released as a list of CMBN features. Someone familiar with CMSF would/should be able able to see what differences there were with CMSF. Someone who never touched CMSF wouldn't care about the differences and only care about what CMBN does.

 

[CMantics]

I'm not sure why you would expect it to be a side by side comparison. It was released as a list of CMBN features. Someone familiar with CMSF would/should be able able to see what differences there were with CMSF. Someone who never touched CMSF wouldn't care about the differences and only care about what CMBN does.

Aint that the truth:

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=96411

There are a lot of folks coming back to this who have never touched CMSF and for whom a comparison is not only meaningless but irritating as well.

 

[thewood]

From the BFC forum...

"FYI, Company commanders now help with the C2 for individual squads who are not within the command radius of their platoon leader. The company commander will now command wayward squads directly thus preserving C2 for squads who have had their platoon leader killed or are out of their platoon leaders command radius. Yep - a 'new' feature."

This is the kind of stuff I am talking about. I would think they would be more than happy to let their loyal customers who actually suffered through the first year of CMSF get to see what changed.

Instead, these things ebd up scattered around the forum.

btw, there are at least a dozen of these things that popped up in the forum in the last week, but aren't on any marketing list.

 

[thewood]

btw, those people who never paid BFC a dime in the last four years don't have to read the list.

 

[Elvis]

btw, those people who never paid BFC a dime in the last four years don't have to read the list.

If you are talking to me then youve lost me. If you arent then tht explains why youve lost me.a

 

[BlitzCanuck]

Hello Matt,

sorry, you are not eligible for a cancellation without fees. Nothing has changed for Canadian customers since Battlefront.com was started in 1999. The policy change only applies to EU residents.

You can of course still cancel your pre-order if you like (we do not enforce our no-refund policy for pre-orders), but it will come with a $4 cancellation fee.

Please confirm if you would like to cancel or not.

Martin


I don't recall seeing any notice that i would be charged for cancelling my order when i was making the purchase. I verified this by placing another copy in the 'cart'. I can get all the way up to the screen where you enter your credit card info and there is still no sign of any cancellation fee notice. I know it's only $4 but it annoys me when companies claim sh*t after the fact.
I'm going to respond and tell them that my policy of not paying cancellation fees pre-dates their policies and therefore negates their cancellation fees. After all, if they don't need to give any notice than i shouldn't have to either.