New screen shots

[Elvis]

Some new official screen shots went up the other day:

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1866&Itemid=458

They seem to have been taken at different times as some have newer hedgerow graphics and some don't.......

 

[junk2drive]

Seems to be a ghost town here after everyone preordered.

 

[Geordie]

One thing that strikes me right away. Fields of yellow corn in June!

I did a quick search for June Normandy and this forum came up. A quick look at some of the photos readily shows no yellow fields.

http://http://triggertimeforum.yuku.com/reply/33224/Re-Normandy-June-2010-my-photos-

It's not anything like a game breaking point, just shows how a minor detail has been missed.

I'm liking a lot of the terrain features though. Would be interesting to know if tall grass blocks LOS too.

 

[Sgt_Kelly]

I have to say they have exceeded my expectations, it looks really good. I hope the gameplay will be up to the same standard.

 

[Elvis]

One thing that strikes me right away. Fields of yellow corn in June!

I did a quick search for June Normandy and this forum came up. A quick look at some of the photos readily shows no yellow fields.

http://http://triggertimeforum.yuku.com/reply/33224/Re-Normandy-June-2010-my-photos-

It's not anything like a game breaking point, just shows how a minor detail has been missed.

I'm pretty sure there are no corn fields in the game. The screen shots look like wheat.

Totally unreleated....The year I went to France I went in June. The drive from Paris to Epernay I saw almost nothing but yellow fields. These were different because they were surreal looking almost day-glo yellow. I was told it was rapeseed, used to make oil. Intense yellow as far as the eye could see.

http://www.reggie.net/photography_blog/2006/05/09/rapeseed-fields/

I'm liking a lot of the terrain features though. Would be interesting to know if tall grass blocks LOS too.

Yes. A decent example is from my AAR/DAR. I was moving through the tall grass on my right flank to Hill 144. I moved through almost untouched. When I drove a truck full of engineers through the field because of the height of the truck they were easily seen. Lots of dead engineers and a lesson that trucks are taller than people for me.

This is the section where I pay the price:

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1226177&postcount=388

 

[junk2drive]

I have heard that canola oil is rapeseed oil. A Canadian company invented the name.

 

[peterk1]

I've been working on a little ASL D-Day project and have been staring at a large part of Normandy in Google from the air and from the ground for 6 months. There's tons of bright yellow fields inland even this time of year. Good concealment. Bad cover. The CM terrain looks very convincing.

Heck...take a look at my blog....

http://forums.gamesquad.com/entry.php?1094-101st-Airborne-SASL-Campaign-Strategic-Moves-Example

that's what was in back of Utah beach 6 months ago. Lots of yellow fields. A lot of them probably weren't there in 1944 due to intentional flooding by the Germans, but still it gives you an idea.

The pictures in the album up above look like they all come from fairly small areas close to Gold and Omaha beaches and this isn't really typical of what you see 1 km inland.

Anyone know what the CM campaigns will be? Anything on the 101st Airborne?

 

[Geordie]

I'm pretty sure there are no corn fields in the game. The screen shots look like wheat.

Totally unreleated....The year I went to France I went in June. The drive from Paris to Epernay I saw almost nothing but yellow fields. These were different because they were surreal looking almost day-glo yellow. I was told it was rapeseed, used to make oil. Intense yellow as far as the eye could see.

http://www.reggie.net/photography_blog/2006/05/09/rapeseed-fields/





Yes. A decent example is from my AAR/DAR. I was moving through the tall grass on my right flank to Hill 144. I moved through almost untouched. When I drove a truck full of engineers through the field because of the height of the truck they were easily seen. Lots of dead engineers and a lesson that trucks are taller than people for me.

This is the section where I pay the price:

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1226177&postcount=388

Sorry, My Corn is your Wheat! A Corn Field over here is a wheat field to you. Rapeseed is a modern thing, I cant remember it here before the 80's, maybe even later.

So, in Jun, everything should be mostly green I imagine? Unless Northern Europe has changed or the French have always grown Rapeseed in Normandy.

As I said, very minor point that can easily be solved by a wee Mod.

Apart from this the terrain looks very good.

And all the better if Tall grass hides things. Do you still hear things without seeing them?

 

[British Tommy]

Is it me because no one has mentioned this yet (I don't think). In the screenshots, are those hedges suppose to be Bocage?? They look more like the hedge you find at the bottom of my garden
Maybe I got it wrong and it's just normal hedges. In that case, please point out to me the screenshot showing the build up soil and stone base, topped off with tall (taller than a man) bushy hedge. Even better, have some infantry standing next to it.
Thank you

 

[British Tommy]

Totally unreleated....The year I went to France I went in June. The drive from Paris to Epernay I saw almost nothing but yellow fields. These were different because they were surreal looking almost day-glo yellow. I was told it was rapeseed, used to make oil. Intense yellow as far as the eye could see.

Yep, rapeseed. Dayglow flowers and apparently I read somewhere the honey collected from nearby bee hives taste very nice. They have been growing the stuff in my neck of the woods for years now. I prefer them to fields of plastic sheeting.

 

[peterk1]

Is it me because no one has mentioned this yet (I don't think). In the screenshots, are those hedges suppose to be Bocage?? They look more like the hedge you find at the bottom of my garden
Maybe I got it wrong and it's just normal hedges. In that case, please point out to me the screenshot showing the build up soil and stone base, topped off with tall (taller than a man) bushy hedge. Even better, have some infantry standing next to it.
Thank you

I think ecausse 2.jpg shows their bocage. It's not really clear in most of the other shots to me.
There should be a mix with just as many normal hedges like you would have in your garden as full fledged bocage. The terrain is quite deceptive. In Google, from the air every road looks like it has bocage running next to it, but then you drop down to ground level and you find that at least 50% of it is just little hedges/bushes 2 feet or so high.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Sorry, My Corn is your Wheat! A Corn Field over here is a wheat field to you. Rapeseed is a modern thing, I cant remember it here before the 80's, maybe even later.

So, in Jun, everything should be mostly green I imagine? Unless Northern Europe has changed or the French have always grown Rapeseed in Normandy.

As I said, very minor point that can easily be solved by a wee Mod.

Apart from this the terrain looks very good.

You're simply wrong about the colour. Like Elvis, I have been to Normandy during the month of June.

I would have thought anyone knows what wheat looks like. Seems to me wheat/grain fields were in CM:BO as well. I don't recall anyone criticizing them. Or any of the historical ASL, ATS, Combat! and other game maps that have been printing yellow coloured grainfields in Normandy for the last 40 years or so.

Google any stock image of "wheat field" and this is what you get:

I can't believe we are seriously having this conversation.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

And yes, they had wheat in 1944.

It's not a modern invention by any means.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I like the outhouse.

A third campaign they say.

Montebourg is on the Cotentin Peninsula; it's one of the largest towns on the edge of the 82d's assault area, to the north of the UTAH Beach and airborne invasion zones, up on high ground just past the 4th Infantry Division's D-Day objective line. The 4th Division was still fighting on the lower slopes below the town two weeks after D-Day.

After mopping up forts on the coast, the 12th Infantry (one of the component regiments of the 4th Division) was tasked to take Montebourg, if it could do it without getting held up in house-to-house fighting. The Germans had 25 French tanks and a battalion of infantry there, so they bypassed it, and took the Quinéville ridge - the D-Day objective - instead.

Lots of interesting tactical actions, particularly towards the beach, but I have a feeling some of the more interesting fieldworks won't be modelled yet.

Also still haven't seen complex urban terrain like we've seen in CM:SF - correct me if I'm wrong - mostly just rural - farms and hamlets. So larger places like Carentan, Montebourg seem to be iffy right now, and I'm thinking the large centres like Cherbourg are right out of the question.

 

[Rule_303]

Is the wheat a shot out your window (in summer), Michael, or would we see hundreds of those big oil pumps?

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Is the wheat a shot out your window (in summer), Michael, or would we see hundreds of those big oil pumps?

The beef cattle tend to mow the wheat down a bit, but you have an excellent idea of the lay of the land.

:laugh:

 

[Elvis]

Sorry, My Corn is your Wheat! A Corn Field over here is a wheat field to you. Rapeseed is a modern thing, I cant remember it here before the 80's, maybe even later.

So, in Jun, everything should be mostly green I imagine? Unless Northern Europe has changed or the French have always grown Rapeseed in Normandy.

As I said, very minor point that can easily be solved by a wee Mod.

Apart from this the terrain looks very good.

And all the better if Tall grass hides things. Do you still hear things without seeing them?

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I didn't meant o say rapeseed was in Normandy. Just relaying a tale from when I was in France and some yellow I saw while there. Nothing in CMBN is close to as bright as rapeseed was.

Is it me because no one has mentioned this yet (I don't think). In the screenshots, are those hedges suppose to be Bocage?? They look more like the hedge you find at the bottom of my garden
Maybe I got it wrong and it's just normal hedges. In that case, please point out to me the screenshot showing the build up soil and stone base, topped off with tall (taller than a man) bushy hedge. Even better, have some infantry standing next to it.
Thank you

There are serveral and because I have seen it so much it must be easier for me. I guess when you get to zoom around the terrain you'll notice it more than the screen shots.

But to answer your question...

In the most recent batch you can see the dirt base in is shots 2,3 and 4.

In 10 and 11 you can get a nice view of the height. And 11 you can see the base in the hedgerows on the left part of the screen. Ditto 13.

14 and 15 you can also see the bases pretty good altough the foliage is not the current foliage.

17 has a TON of different foliage in the screen shot but the squad is lined up along bocage and looking through it. I am pretty sure that is alo the most recent foliage build.

Hope that helps.



I

 

[Michael Dorosh]

More on the Montebourg campaign:

http://www.battlefront.com/community/announcement.php?f=124&a=394

Why is this being marketed as a "surprise"?

The game hasn't been released yet, so the only one it is a surprise to would be BFC. Given their reputation for disorganized releases, I don't see the wisdom in using that word. Maybe someone can explain this to me. Personally, it just looks like an amateurish attempt at marketing - and they have been doing really, really well so far with the AARs, the pre-order deal, the public preview get together, the preview with RPS, etc.

I can understand the concern about calling it a "last minute addition" and the negative connotations that go with that - especially after the CM:SF release was rushed - just tell us there are three campaigns and leave it at that. This smells of hucksterism. It's not like CM is a game you go hunting for easter eggs in.

 

[wengart]

The game hasn't been released yet, so the only one it is a surprise to would be BFC.

People were expecting two campaigns to be released with the main game and finding out there will be a 3rd one this close to a release qualifies as a surprise for me. I mean I was actually surprised, not like SURPRISED! but I was like oh cool I didn't expect that and got on with my day.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

People were expecting two campaigns to be released with the main game and finding out there will be a 3rd one this close to a release qualifies as a surprise for me. I mean I was actually surprised, not like SURPRISED! but I was like oh cool I didn't expect that and got on with my day.

But it's not a surprise if they tell us about it, if you know what I mean.

Fair point I guess in that they announced two and now there are three, but it still feels like hucksterism. They could have just kept quiet, and then on release day said "surprise, there are THREE campaigns, not two" and it would have felt like a bonus.

This just makes them look like bumblers, in my eyes. Which is too bad, given the high marks I give them for the public AARs, the preview event, the preview articles, and the preorder specials.

Like you say - time to get on with my day I guess.

Oh, one other thing:

That's the flag of the province I live in.

The yellow stuff at the bottom?

It's wheat.

Just in case anyone is still confused.