CM Afghanistan

[Geordie]

They've said a few times that the expected release order is currently slated to be
NATO
Afghanistan
Normandy

I cant find the posts but the original order around Xmas or a wee bit before said CMA, NATO then CMN. This may have been revised when they ran into problems with CMA and so NATO seems to be the next bet.

Honestly though, who but a few die hards will get that Mod? I cant think of one solid thing it will bring to CMSF (and Im a fan of the Marines and Brit Modules too). Another 3 nations to trounce the Syrians.

Surely its not being sold from the 'new' campaign perspective? The campaigns are mind numbingly boringly unconnected, while perversely, some of the campaign scenarios are individually quite excellent.

What Im saying is, tell me BFC, why I need to get a Nederlands module. What will it do that the US Army/Marines/UK wont.

Then we get onto their next game release - CMSF rehashed or Afghanistan as we need to call it. A game so niche BF didnt even want to admit they had licensed the code. Aparantley from what I gather from inferences on the BF forum, a game that BF may just have had to come to the rescue on. Snowball were supposed to be able to handle all the code etc themselves, seems like they cant. Who will be buying this one in their droves, and if they do, who gets the money? Surely Snowball will take a big cut of that revenue?

So this leaves us CMN? Not even a title, 3 years since CMSF now and no other CM-2 game with water and hidden defences really on the horizon. The longer BF leaves everyone in the dark, the more I think Dale's long term prediction may be right, or at least maybe another year off.

The question is, how long can BF go on with the revenue it gets in right now as they complained that the old model didnt generate enough and they actually managed to get the games out faster than this new system.

Have BF bitten off more than they can code?

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Then we get onto their next game release - CMSF rehashed or Afghanistan as we need to call it. A game so niche BF didnt even want to admit they had licensed the code. Aparantley from what I gather from inferences on the BF forum, a game that BF may just have had to come to the rescue on. Snowball were supposed to be able to handle all the code etc themselves, seems like they cant. Who will be buying this one in their droves, and if they do, who gets the money? Surely Snowball will take a big cut of that revenue?

I wonder if they aren't grooming Snowball so that they can pick up some of the slack with the Eastern Front modules - otherwise, how will they ever do all of the Second World War?

Snowball can merrilly do Finland, Leningrad, Moscow while BFC plugs away at Arnhem, Normandy, Bastogne - at least, in theory.

No?

 

[Redwolf]

I wonder if they aren't grooming Snowball so that they can pick up some of the slack with the Eastern Front modules - otherwise, how will they ever do all of the Second World War?

Snowball can merrilly do Finland, Leningrad, Moscow while BFC plugs away at Arnhem, Normandy, Bastogne - at least, in theory.

No?

To me it looks the other way round, that they can't do anything (to completion).

I honestly only care about Normandy.

 

[vulture]

I think the plan for Afghanistan may have changed mid-stream. I recall that originally it was just the CMSF code with suitable TO&E changes for the Afghan war, plus some minor terrain changes, and that this could almost all be done by Snowball with some minor coding by Charles to accomodate the changes.

Since then though they seem to have added water and some new functionality into the engine for some of the weapons, which seems rather beyond the scope of what was originally announced. Whether that is feature creep or a re-evaluation (with Snowball) of what they want to do with Afghanistan I don't know.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I think the plan for Afghanistan may have changed mid-stream. I recall that originally it was just the CMSF code with suitable TO&E changes for the Afghan war, plus some minor terrain changes, and that this could almost all be done by Snowball with some minor coding by Charles to accomodate the changes.

Since then though they seem to have added water and some new functionality into the engine for some of the weapons, which seems rather beyond the scope of what was originally announced. Whether that is feature creep or a re-evaluation (with Snowball) of what they want to do with Afghanistan I don't know.

Or a re-eval of what they want to do with Snowball...

 

[Geordie]

I suspect they've bought a "lemon" in Snowball. Maybe they should just ditch them and CNMA?

 

[KG_Jag]

They may use CMA to test some key "new" features for CMN.

 

[Quellist]

I suspect they've bought a "lemon" in Snowball. Maybe they should just ditch them and CNMA?

Or maybe it is the other way around?
http://www.snowball.ru/?action=english

Either way I think this is another symptom of only having one programmer, if you are going to sell a game engine you need to spend a fair amount of time on documentation and support even if you produce excellent and clear code. If you are one, overworked, programmer that has been in crunch mode for several years, things might not be as clear as you hoped and even more support/documentation would be required.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Or maybe it is the other way around?
http://www.snowball.ru/?action=english

Either way I think this is another symptom of only having one programmer, if you are going to sell a game engine you need to spend a fair amount of time on documentation and support even if you produce excellent and clear code. If you are one, overworked, programmer that has been in crunch mode for several years, things might not be as clear as you hoped and even more support/documentation would be required.

Especially if that programmer gets sidetracked for pet projects like CM:C, CM:A etc. I have no idea if that is the case, incidentally, just spitballing with the rest. But I got the impression from the public comments about CM:C that Charles' time was required in order to fashion an interface between CM:BB and CM:C and that his time is limited. How much was required for that interface and whether or not any was actually expended, I have no idea.

Same applies to CM:A - no idea if he has spent a single second on it.

 

[Geordie]

Or maybe it is the other way around?
http://www.snowball.ru/?action=english

Either way I think this is another symptom of only having one programmer, if you are going to sell a game engine you need to spend a fair amount of time on documentation and support even if you produce excellent and clear code. If you are one, overworked, programmer that has been in crunch mode for several years, things might not be as clear as you hoped and even more support/documentation would be required.

Actually, I never realized that Snowball was involved in so many games and indeed a lot bigger than BF. Thanks for that. It may be that it's Snowball dictating to BF and not the other way. Definitely something to think about there.

 

[Geordie]

Especially if that programmer gets sidetracked for pet projects like CM:C, CM:A etc. I have no idea if that is the case, incidentally, just spitballing with the rest. But I got the impression from the public comments about CM:C that Charles' time was required in order to fashion an interface between CM:BB and CM:C and that his time is limited. How much was required for that interface and whether or not any was actually expended, I have no idea.

Same applies to CM:A - no idea if he has spent a single second on it.

If Charles gets hit by a truck tomorrow, then that's the end of BF I suppose?

 

[Redwolf]

How much was required for that interface and whether or not any was actually expended, I have no idea.

What is in the source code is a lousy, naive binary structure driven data exchange and a primitive trigger (aka none except commandline). Looks like a one-day effort to me. Coding. Add randomization from the project.

 

[dalem]

So this leaves us CMN? Not even a title, 3 years since CMSF now and no other CM-2 game with water and hidden defences really on the horizon. The longer BF leaves everyone in the dark, the more I think Dale's long term prediction may be right, or at least maybe another year off.

Come to the Dark Side!

-dale

 

[Michael Dorosh]

What is in the source code is a lousy, naive binary structure driven data exchange and a primitive trigger (aka none except commandline). Looks like a one-day effort to me. Coding. Add randomization from the project.

Was it a place-filler, do you think? Or the final code?

 

[Redwolf]

Was it a place-filler, do you think? Or the final code?

These interfaces always develop all the while while the project using them is developing. I have never seen an exception.

BFC might not have intended it, maybe the agreement was "one interface and that's it", but that would be hopelessly unrealistic. There's always one more bug in what you already got and one piece of data that's not in the set you can currently get.

This is why I was always skeptical about CMC. For me the question of Charles' spare cycles were always a critical question.