Considering starting a WW2 campaign

@Rico that's awesome buddy, thanks very much! Well how about that - Hexdraw still works, even on Windows 10. It's a great program for this stuff.

@DoubleD @Nathangun Yeah that's a problem to consider. Nathangun, was the procedure to paint setup zones on a map, save it, and then use it in a quick battle?
The unit limitations will help keep things on track - both rarity restrictions and artillery restrictions.

I'll probably need a refresher course on how to password a game for hand-over to players too.

Once we decide on theater (CMRT is in the lead on the poll at the moment), I'm going to take the time to go through every map I can get my hands on.
Anything that is close to 1km square or larger will be considered. Larger maps that look good I will chop up.
I'll then make a list of what we have and present it to Rico for inclusion.
 
Bulletpoint said:
My point was that the players would agree between them what map to play, so if the map is really unbalanced or poorly made, just choose another..
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Yep, sorry, I knew that agreement was what you meant ... I didin't mean to sound too critical (nor make a big thing of it), but what I was trying to get at was that (possibly) agreement may sometimes be difficult to reach, with one player thinking a map was OK whilst the other didn't ... and it could represent another area of input / arbitration required from the organiser, and so possibly be (another) drag on smooth progress.

But Concord's plans make it seem like a non-issue anyway, as maps will be pre-selected.
 
Concord said:
@Rico that's awesome buddy, thanks very much! Well how about that - Hexdraw still works, even on Windows 10. It's a great program for this stuff.

@DoubleD @Nathangun Yeah that's a problem to consider. Nathangun, was the procedure to paint setup zones on a map, save it, and then use it in a quick battle?
The unit limitations will help keep things on track - both rarity restrictions and artillery restrictions.

I'll probably need a refresher course on how to password a game for hand-over to players too.

Once we decide on theater (CMRT is in the lead on the poll at the moment), I'm going to take the time to go through every map I can get my hands on.
Anything that is close to 1km square or larger will be considered. Larger maps that look good I will chop up.
I'll then make a list of what we have and present it to Rico for inclusion.
Click to expand...

Hexdraw is a bit crude visually speaking and importing graphic textures is very very clunky -- that's why I switched to making maps in Photoshop -- just make the Hexgrid with the Hexnumbers overlay in Hexdraw and export the image as a basis for the photoshop map.

If you go with CMRT, I can do the counters based on the look of the Rikonovo campaign idea.

@Bootie at one point mooted creating a standardised FGM campaign rule set and counters etc and use them to build campaigns on.

The CM maps are tricky ... I toyed with idea of assigning dedicated maps to zones (like in the Rikonovo map) -- but they then need to work in all directions -- be attackable and defensible and ME battle compatible (too high a hurdle indeed)
 
@Rico sounds great, thank you very much for the invaluable assistance.
I've really enjoyed the western theater campaigns I've been involved with...but admit I'm leaning towards CMRT.
 
Concord said:
@Rico sounds great, thank you very much for the invaluable assistance.
I've really enjoyed the western theater campaigns I've been involved with...but admit I'm leaning towards CMRT.
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Tricky thing in East Front for Russians I find, is their confusing units ... mix of Tank/Mech Corps and Infantry Divisions... Brigades, Regiments and a plethora of independent stuff like assault guns, artillery ... tried to streamline it in Rikonovo and had to cheat a bit...LOL
 
PhilM said:
Yep, sorry, I knew that agreement was what you meant ... I didin't mean to sound too critical
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No worries, critical thinking is how everything improves. I find most people I play with are quite mature and easy to reach an agreement with, but of course sometimes there might be disagreement. In that case, I think I'd just report back to the campaign organiser that it has not been possible to agree on the map, so he could step in and make the decision. Advantage still being that he would rarely have to spend time doing that.
 
DoubleD said:
One watch out on the Bulge method for the player purchasing units, choosing based upon points. It's possible to over purchase and not follow the points and also to purchase units which are historically unrealistic. I over purchased myself, by mistake, and it's impossible for the GM or opponent to police. It's just a watch out, I'm sure no one would do it intentionally
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That's why I suggested that players would always play with standard regular +0+0 companies as they come in the game. Would streamline the process, keep things realistic (most units were after all standard) and make sure nobody overspent.

I don't think it would be boring, as it's the tactics that are the main show anyway. I had many very interesting PBEM games with completely standard forces.

...but darn it... I wish Battlefront would just produce some 'open campaign tools' to make it easier to run such campaigns. They tried and failed to do an operational layer for the game, but just giving us some options to export results of a game to a file and then import it would make stuff so much easier.
 
Bulletpoint said:
...but darn it... I wish Battlefront would just produce some 'open campaign tools' to make it easier to run such campaigns. They tried and failed to do an operational layer for the game, but just giving us some options to export results of a game to a file and then import it would make stuff so much easier.
Click to expand...

LOL -- the holy grail of Combat Mission...
 
Rico said:
LOL -- the holy grail of Combat Mission...
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Well, the True Grail would be a fully fledged operational mode, complete with permanent map damage etc. :)

But just an import/export function would be nice. And it seems within the reasonable limits of what a human programmer could make a computer do.
 
Hmmm. Already a snag haha.

I've decided on a career change. Graphic design isn't lighting my fires any more.
I'm determined to try something different, which means lots of study, whatever it is.

I've started the process for becoming an ambulance paramedic.
It is hard to get accepted (only 40 applicants accepted last year out of 900 applicants).
But if successful, it will be 3 years of study in paramedicine, and weekly shifts working on the road as well.

Just to prepare for the application process, I'm going to have to do a lot of things during this year.
One of which, is to get super fit. I'll need to do first aid courses. I'll need to do some preliminary study, and practice aptitude tests.

I may still be able to do the campaign, but it is looking much less likely at this stage.
As much as I wanted to get it going quickly, my new direction in life is highly prioritized.

I really enjoy games, but I will be mustering all my real-world strength and courage to open this new chapter in my life.
Exciting, but a bit scary too. :)
 
Congrats @Concord!

Brave man- I see the crap the Ambos have to take here on the streets of Melbourne, coupled with the shift work, and wonder how and why they do it... Especially the growing abuse and violence from ice-addicts (had a female para assaulted just 2 days ago in the back of her ambulance)
 
Thanks guys, much appreciated. I may not get in, but I've decided not to let the competition for spots stop me from trying.

@Gnarly yeah I saw that one. And many more. Fairly high risk job. Not to mention the emotional/psychological stress. Blood and gore. Big responsibility. Deaths of people. Even kids.
My main motivation is that I want to do something that is worthwhile and has impact.
And I can't stand the idea of working at a desk anymore, or doing a job that I don't really care about.
 
Concord said:
Thanks guys, much appreciated. I may not get in, but I've decided not to let the competition for spots stop me from trying.

@Gnarly yeah I saw that one. And many more. Fairly high risk job. Not to mention the emotional/psychological stress. Blood and gore. Big responsibility. Deaths of people. Even kids.
My main motivation is that I want to do something that is worthwhile and has impact.
And I can't stand the idea of working at a desk anymore, or doing a job that I don't really care about.
Click to expand...

Best of luck ... not that you'll need it, of course :cool: ...

It will make a LOT of difference, to many people: an admirable choice. Hope to hear of your success.
 
@Concord Great decision! Your entry exudes passion in this career decision. Go forth and do great things. You will change your life and have a direct impact on others.

Your campaign will only get better because it will now get to stew in your subconscious.

Good preparation and studying in pursuit of your new career.

Doug
 
@Concord , good luck on the new career! I work in a fairly large trauma center, so I see firsthand the kind of situations the paramedics deal with. They are out on the front lines, and often make a big difference whether the patient lives or dies. It's a very honorable profession, as well as difficult, and often with long and strange hours. You're right though, it will definitely be more interesting than driving a desk in some cubicle. :)
 
Hey guys. You know, there is one big, single task that needs to be done to get this project off the ground, if there is still interest.
It is time consuming, but could be done over several weeks.

@Panzer_Kraut might be able to help with this?

It is organizing a list of all existing usable maps that could be used for the campaign.
The sources for maps are: in-game quick battle and scenario maps, plus all user made ones on the battlefront website, green as jade, the scenario depot and the likes.

Here is what I was planning to do...
I was going to find as many user-made maps as I could and download them all to a temporary folder.
Create another folder for storing copies of maps we could use. Perhaps create sub-folders in there, with categories such as open woods rural town city etc.

Then I was going to go through all the stock maps within CMRT and all the downloaded ones, one by one, in the scenario editor.
If they were smaller than 1km x 1km, then they are probably of no use. If big enough, I would examine them briefly in the 3D preview in the scenario editor, to see if they looked good enough.
For any that looked good, I'd save a copy to an appropriate sub-folder as mentioned above.
Once all that was done, I'd open any really big ones, and create copies, cut down to about 1km x 1km. For big maps, it might be possible to make 3 or 4 maps out of them by clipping and saving copies.

Once that was done, I was considering categorizing them within their sub-folders by renaming the files.
Several ways to do it. Could just be a very brief text description of the terrain (eg. "mostly open rural with farm houses" or "medium sized town and woods and plains").

Then I would create a list of all the maps we have. Could be just a text list, or even be in a spreadsheet with a little thumbnail.

Then we could see if we have enough maps or need some more.
If we have quite a few, we could post the results to the forum to help Rico create a strategy hex map for the campaign.

What do you think? Is this task something that anyone has the time and willpower to do?
This is the biggest hurdle of the entire venture, and if completed, would open the door to moving forward.
 
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