How does CM-2 and Modules work?

[Michael Dorosh]

Exactly right except Afghanistan is much much more an Infantry fight. Thats where I think Bf are missing the boat. Just give us some stuff thats relevant to other theatres instead of just more stuff to beat up the Syrians with. Just take the leap into any units or equipment that will make Red forces more interesting, even down to including Russian forces deploying.

Good points; I agree.

 

[Geordie]

The question, though, was about what's taken the modules so long. You can make a case for patching taking attention away from Marines, but I find the very long timespan for British to be curious. The only other obvious factor is that apparently it isn't being handled in-house. But it has to be more than content for it to take such a long time, unless we're into CMC territory and people are working on it part time, which again would defeat the point of quick turn around modules.

Just before Xmas 2008 Steve made an announcement that they were hoping to get the Brit module out before Xmas, but he went on to say that this wasnt possible due to the holidays etc. He then said it would be out in Jan 09.

It seems strange that were now getting into April and have yet to see something that seemed ready to go 3 months ago. It just makes me wonder what hurdles this one has hit to cause such a delay. I can only think of the campaign here, maybe its being fully tested again for some reason? Whatever is going on its blowing the Module timetable out of the water and also if every module needs this much attention from their one coder, then its probably also blowing their CMN timetable.

Of course, this is all pure speculation based on various snippets from different places.

 

[thewood]

The part that isn't speculation is how long its taken between modules. Marines had the excuse of them getting their CMSF act together. Brits shouldn't have that excuse. As I said before, we have less content, just as long (if not longer) between games, more money on our part, less quality on release, key functions removed, etc. But the key speculation is what has this done to BFC's cash flow. The module concept overall should generate much greater cash flow than CM1. But if its taking as long, with as much BFC effort, there is no benefit to the module concept. In fact, they may have been better off just cleaning up and updating CM1.

 

[Redwolf]

BTW, these "clean code and then we have easy modules" plans never work out anyway, game or no game. If the module is supposed to be any cool it usually requires major coding that resembles the coding in a messy code base anyway.

I also speculate that artists and designers on BFC's team might be staffed lower than planned now. The plan might have been to hire more sometime in the CMx2:modern timeframe and the plans might have been canceled due to the economy.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

The part that isn't speculation is how long its taken between modules. Marines had the excuse of them getting their CMSF act together. Brits shouldn't have that excuse.

Sure it would. Have they ever debugged the MARINES campaign? Aren't there still two battles in it no one can unlock? I still haven't seen a public message saying they've fixed that problem, but I admit I haven't been scouring the boards for a message to that effect.

 

[Geordie]

Sure it would. Have they ever debugged the MARINES campaign? Aren't there still two battles in it no one can unlock? I still haven't seen a public message saying they've fixed that problem, but I admit I haven't been scouring the boards for a message to that effect.

I dont know. I played through the Campaign Once it was fixed and havent been back. Ive been playing against humans ever since.

 

[thewood]

I thought a hotfix was out a week or so after the Marines release. I have never played the campaign.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

It's not even conceptualized yet. Steve was on the forum this weekend asking the fans about stuff like "how should we do bocage". I don't think it's even in the planning stage.

They may have one of their "surprise" projects in the hopper first. Remember how CM:AK got announced without anyone having a clue what was going on?

Well, this is what I mean by "surprise" - someone at BFC today floated the idea of a "Red Force" module. The response?

Moon: We do have a nice surprise up our sleeve regarding CMSF modules, you just wait and see.

But then:

Steve: Context is slightly askew. Martin said "surprise", but he didn't say it was a Red surprise. I want to nip that in the bud because there's definitely no "Red Module" in the works, or any major additions for Red for either British or NATO Modules.

CM:SF 2, on the other hand, will be full blown, broad spectrum temperate environment conventional warfare. The plan is to start working on that as soon as CM: Normandy is nearly complete. Our strategy is to continue to have the modern and WWII stuff going in parallel with each other.

 

[Redwolf]

Interesting, Michael.

So what's it gonna be?

Israel 2011? That would allow them to live with the red forces they have today and some Israeli gear is still American (I assume M113s make it into NATO anyway).

Peru-columbian border wars?

 

[Michael Dorosh]

What he's not saying is Shock Force will be dead in the water. They get the temperate environment from the ETO title to put modern forces in, and the "new" QB system etc. which they have not guaranteed they will retrofit into Syria. As for who will be in the "modern temperate" environment, it's anybody's guess right now, isn't it. They have the research done for US vs. older Russian stuff.

 

[dalem]

What he's not saying is Shock Force will be dead in the water. They get the temperature environment from the ETO title to put modern forces in, and the "new" QB system etc. which they have not guaranteed they will retrofit into Syria. As for who will be in the "modern temperate" environment, it's anybody's guess right now, isn't it. They have the research done for US vs. older Russian stuff.

Told ya.

-dale

 

[Mustang2.0]

They have the research done for US vs. older Russian stuff.

Heck, he can go back to around 1986 and use what is in CM:SF now, plus/minus a few things.

 

[Geordie]

I was under the impression that the 'surprise' was in the Brit module. Which lead me to think that it will be a unit or patch.

Mind you it cant be anything too big as that would spoil pBEM etc for the guys who dont buy the game, add-on, module!

 

[Sirocco]

Broad spectrum

An interesting phrase. It implies something of greater scope than CMSF plus modules. Unless it's either a broad spectrum of nationalities with shallow coverage or taking it literally a broad spectrum of temperate environments.