Upgrade your war! 3.0 Engine Upgrades released (for PC)!

Nelson1812

Nelson1812

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Upgrade your war! 3.0 Engine Upgrades released (for PC)!

Upgrade your war! 3.0 Engine Upgrades released (for PC)!
Combat Mission Battle for Normandy - News
Sunday, 10 August 2014

Gentlemen, upgrade your war! The 3.0 Upgrades for Combat Mission Battle for Normandy and Combat Mission Fortress Italy are finally here! The Upgrades convert and upgrade your existing games (and any installed modules) automagically to include most of the advanced new CMx2 v3.00 game features! (This includes features you may already know and enjoy in Combat Mission: Red Thunder and makes them available for Normandy and Italy!)

* Upgrades must be purchased separately for each title. Currently, the Upgrade is available for PC platforms only. The Mac Upgrade is in the works and undergoing some additional compatibility testing for the latest version of OS X)

[ Click here to buy and download the Upgrade for CMBN (PC only) now! ]

[ Click here to buy and download the Upgrade for CMFI (PC only) now! ]

GraphicsHit impacts to vehicles and bunkers now shown graphically ("hit decals")Water animates for fording unitsImproved shaders
GameplayGround units are now able to fire at attacking aircraftAmmo Dumps allow platoons to have reserve ammo stored separately on map (automatically distributed for certain Skill Levels)WeGo TCP/IP with the ability to save but not the ability to replay combat actionSpotters restricted to directing only one Mission at a time. Assets can now be group fired.More realistic/varied RoF of automatic weapons.Improved load time for scenarios, especially larger ones with complex terrain
User InterfaceThree different sets of camera controls; Standard (traditional), First Person Shooter, and Real Time StrategyOptional graphical Command and Control link tracingKIAs are shown in the Soldier/Crew Panels to track soldiers lost during the gameOption to disable music separate from other game sounds
EditorAbility to create AI Triggers that execute actions based on other units or interaction with Objectives (existing battles do not have this, but it can be added by authors if they wish)Maximum map size increasedImproved responsiveness of 2D editing, especially for large mapsImproved load time for 3D Preview, especially large mapsCustomized "Mod Tags" for most graphics. This allows for multiple mods for the same item without the need to move items in/out of Data folderAbility to specify specific mods be used for a specific Scenario. If CM fails to find the specified mod it will use the default
 
If you have on going games or play mac users you can dual install.

Copy CMBN or CMFI folder rename and apply v3.0 upgrade.
 
You know what has perturbed me about these 'upgrades' is the lack of actual new content. I mean performance increases and hit decals for ten dollars seems like a lot when most of us were expecting flamethrower units and tank riders. I understand they take a lot of work, but when looking at the cost/features of Red Thunder and the fact that loading screens in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy show tank riders, it almost seems like they are overdo, let alone negated in patch that was marketed to bring CMBN/FI to Red Thunder level of content. Just my thoughts. Wouldn't dare post this on the Battlefront forums.
 
It is a niche product. The time it takes to develop and program may require a small fee.
 
Boomkow said:
You know what has perturbed me about these 'upgrades' is the lack of actual new content. I mean performance increases and hit decals for ten dollars seems like a lot when most of us were expecting flamethrower units and tank riders. I understand they take a lot of work, but when looking at the cost/features of Red Thunder and the fact that loading screens in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy show tank riders, it almost seems like they are overdo, let alone negated in patch that was marketed to bring CMBN/FI to Red Thunder level of content. Just my thoughts. Wouldn't dare post this on the Battlefront forums.
Click to expand...
I did (and many others) and we got clobbered ... LOL!!! :D :D :D
 
It is a niche product. The time it takes to develop and program may require a small fee.
Click to expand...

The problem is how you are asking the money, 10$ for every game for something that should be a patch (given that is not completed like RT) is not fair.
I won't buy the upgrade because for me is not a good trade.

Much better would be the case if the BF waits until the upgrade is completed (if possible of course) and then asks the money, of course all IMHO :)
 
I know what you mean. The game could end up costing a 100 dollars or more with upgrades.
 
Boomkow said:
You know what has perturbed me about these 'upgrades' is the lack of actual new content. I mean performance increases and hit decals for ten dollars seems like a lot when most of us were expecting flamethrower units and tank riders. I understand they take a lot of work, but when looking at the cost/features of Red Thunder and the fact that loading screens in Combat Mission Battle for Normandy show tank riders, it almost seems like they are overdo, let alone negated in patch that was marketed to bring CMBN/FI to Red Thunder level of content. Just my thoughts. Wouldn't dare post this on the Battlefront forums.
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I am still baffled by what the hell they are calling a 'patch' vs an 'upgrade'?? I was browsing the BF sight and looked at some of the old 'Patches' that were offered for free. Look at the content added in the old CMSF "PATCH"! Compared to what we are paying for (yes, I know it is ONLY $10.00) it is not even comparable.

Combat Mission Shock Force v1.10 Patch
Important Patch Install Notes
This patch is all inclusive and includes all the fixes from the earlier v1.02-v1.08 patches.
INSTALL NOTE:
If you have already installed the Marines Module then you DO NOT need to install this patch. The Marines Module already updates the core CMSF game to this version (1.10).
PREVIOUS SAVE GAME COMPATIBILITY NOTE:
Save games created with earlier versions of the game are NOT compatible with v1.10. Please finish your in-progress games before applying this patch.
COMPATIBILITY WITH MODS:
Due to the potential of conflicts with pre v1.10 game Mods, we advise uninstalling any mods prior to installing the v1.10 game patch. Mod authors will need to updated their mods using the v1.10 strings.txt embedded into the new "Version 110.brz" file.
CMSF v1.10 FEATURES
INTERFACE
* Movement Destination Highlights: When placing a waypoint over ground terrain, the destination "action spot" is highlighted in yellow. Teams B and C (if any) also have their adjacent destinations highlighted when plotting moves and when giving facing orders attached to a final waypoint. Note that final facing is important for positioning "wing man" teams, so you should attach facing orders to final waypoints as needed.
* New Color for KIA: The colored "highlight disc" for dead soldiers is brown, to distinguish them from seriously wounded soldiers whose disc remains red. "Buddy aid" can still be given to dead soldiers, but all it does is reclaim their ammo and weapons if possible. "Aid" to dead soldiers is pretty quick.
* Target Arc and Facing orders may be given with mouse clicks that go "off map".
* When placing a target arc, the distance in meters is displayed.
* Disembarking troops may attach Face, Deploy, and Pop Smoke orders to waypoints.
* "Target" command is available in the editor to check LOS (no targeting orders are saved).
ARTILLERY AND AIR SUPPORT
* New sound effects for incoming rounds, jets, helicopters, cannon fire, bombs, spotters, controllers.
* Computer player uses artillery and air support dynamically throughout the game, not just pre-planned strikes.
* Smoke artillery missions (and computer-player AI Support Plans may use it)
* Aircraft no longer drop unguided ("dumb") bombs to reflect recent/current loadout standards for tactical combat air support. All bombs are laser- or GPS-guided.
* F-15, F-16, and FA-18 no longer expend cannon rounds on ground targets. Pilots have informed us that in a high-threat environment it would be rare for cannon to be used against ground targets.
* Respond faster to "cease fire" orders.
* Missions cannot be "adjusted" while they are still being "received".
* "Emergency" missions are not available for pre-planned artillery strikes because they are not necessary.
* Hydra-70 rockets are slightly more accurate.
INFANTRY MOVEMENT
* Fire on the Move: Moving soldiers will sometimes stop and take a quick shot at nearby/exposed enemy troops, then resume moving.
- Soldiers are more likely to stop and shoot at enemies in front of them, less to the sides and rear.
- Accuracy is modestly reduced.
- Pause to fire most often: SLOW and MOVE (and HUNT stops the whole unit to engage).
- Pause to fire least often: FAST, and the moving soldiers in ASSAULT.
- If moving FAST or ASSAULT the soldier will not stop to reload. He will keep on moving.
* Moving Under Fire: Moving troops that come under heavy fire will only switch to Slow (i.e. crawling) if they are so tired that they could otherwise only use walking speed (i.e. not even Quick). Otherwise they try to move faster. And sometimes they cancel their move altogether and seek nearby cover.
* Moving infantry does a better job of spotting enemies.
* Soldiers do a better job finding ridgeline positions even when "heavy" cover like trees is also present.
* Soldiers position themselves better at corners of buildings and walls.
* Soldiers move faster with Fast move, even when carrying heavy loads.
* When soldiers using HUNT get too tired, they stop and pause for 90 seconds instead of changing to MOVE.
* Soldiers move along trench lines better.
* Sound effects for footsteps.
* Squads and teams are a little less likely to "stay pinned" if they have a very short move ordered to better cover than they are in.
* Soldiers who move Slow (i.e. crawl) will tend to keep their heads down for a little while after reaching the destination even if there is no incoming fire and no enemies are spotted.
* Soldiers won't move out of good protection into poor protection just to gain a line of fire.
* Faster dismount movement.
* Individuals soldiers will act upon facing orders at the new waypoint without waiting for their teammates to arrive first.
* Waypoints to vehicles are drawn with a slight elevation to make it clear that it's an "embark".
VEHICLES
* New vehicles:
- M1A1SA TUSK Abrams tank
- M1A2 SEP TUSK Abrams tank
- M2A3 IFV Bradley with explosive reactive armor (ERA)
- M3A3 CFV Bradley with explosive reactive armor (ERA)
- M7A3 BFIST Bradley with explosive reactive armor (ERA)
- M1114 HMMV armed with Mk.19 grenade launcher
* Improved damage algorithms for external systems on armored vehicles (e.g. optics, smoke generators, lasers, missile launchers).
* Secondary explosions for burning vehicles as ammunition "cooks off".
* Dust and smoke from heavy rounds impacting on a vehicle will not hide that vehicle from its attackers.
* Improved vehicle navigation in narrow urban spaces.
* Hiding vehicles that are struck by a projectile, or that spot an enemy vehicle targeting them will automatically un-hide.
* Humvees upgraded with "Frag-5" armor, carry more ammo, and all have radios.
* Vehicle-mounted automatic weapons tend to fire slightly longer bursts, especially at other vehicles. Exception: the BMP-2 cannon can't fire long bursts without needing aim adjustments.
* Tank gunners are quicker at adjusting turret rotation to counterbalance if the hull starts rotating.
* ATGM-armed vehicles will fire missiles at ground area targets if ordered to do so.
* Light vehicles (like Humvees) start the game "opened up" by default.
* VIED detonation AI improved so it does a better job destroying enemy AFVs.
* Big knock-out hits are more likely to cause vehicles to burn and sometimes blast out a crater beneath the vehicle.
GRAPHICS
* Big explosions near the camera "flash" the viewscreen briefly.
* Improved airburst graphics.
* Improved highway graphics.
* Collapsed buildings kick up more dust.
* Frame rate improvement for maps with large numbers of roads, highways, grass, brush, or small rocks.
MISCELLANEOUS
* 35 New Quick Battle Maps
* Internet Play: improved speed and reliability.
* "Elite" mode changed so that friendly troops are always displayed, even when not spotted by the current unit. A new mode called "Iron" behaves like the old Elite mode.
* Explosions: the simulation of blast and shrapnel effects has been improved. The main thing you'll likely notice is that huge weapons like airplane bombs are a bit less able to cause casualties at long range.
* Bunkers
- Handled better by computer player
- Protect correctly versus artillery fire
- Correctly simulate top hits from Javelins
* Soldiers' carrying capacity reduced to a more realistic weight limit.
* Spotting info is "passed along" to friendly units that are immediately adjacent (roughly within 25m or so) much like it already works with passing it along the chain of command.
* Soldiers in sniper and javelin and forward observer teams (and similar) are less likely to use their weapons aggressively except in self-defense (not including the "main weapon" soldier, e.g. the sniper or javelin gunner).
* Improved selection and organization of soldiers when splitting into teams, and also when later rejoining.
* Improved damage model for trees.
* Machineguns may "deploy" inside buildings, though assembly time is 2+ minutes.
* Seriously-wounded (red disc) soldiers who have not received "buddy aid" (i.e. disappeared) by the end of the game have a 25% chance of becoming KIA in the final tally.
* M4 rifles observe the built-in burst limit of 3 rounds.
* Smarter AI for switching weapons (if a soldier has two) for area fire.
* If a soldier becomes a casualty while in the act of throwing a grenade, the grenade will fall to the side (not too far away) and explode, generally with bad consequences for friendly troops.
* Syrian 30mm ammo used by BMP series vehicles is HE-incendiary.
* Aim time for Javelin is longer (roughly 20 seconds depending on the soldier).
* Guided missiles use flatter flight paths.
* On Veteran and Elite levels, you will not hear voices of unspotted enemies.
* Sound effects for weapon reloading.
* New background sounds for day and night.
* RPG-29 rate of fire reduced.
* Added a "special equipment icon" for night vision gear.
* Display is slightly brighter during overcast night conditions (no change to simulation).
BUG FIXES
* Splitting squads into teams works properly in PBEM.
* Blast moves won't blast an already-destroyed wall, and Blast moves through walls that are "fused" to buildings work properly.
* Spies and other "stealthy" enemies (who are not yet discovered) never appear as generic "?" spot contacts.
* Grenades will never explode by hitting the building from which they were thrown.
* Corrected a problem that sometimes caused Teams to ignore waypoints and move back to an old location to which they had previously Assault-moved.
* Fixed a bug that caused skirt and slat armor to be too powerful against HEAT rounds.
* Trenches don't give so much cover to high-angle incoming shots.
* ATGMs whose gunners are unable to guide the missile (e.g. because they were killed) lose guidance.
* Casualty icons do not appear for unspotted enemies in turn-based games.
* Fixed a "floating ceiling" graphical bug in buildings with their top floors destroyed.
* Fixed a "nuclear explosion" bug.
* Corrected a problem that showed mission briefing text improperly inside the editor.
* Formations with very long names fit better into the game interface.
* Corrected a pathfinding bug with waypoints placed too close to marshes.
* Fixed some issues with fire-support vehicles not reducing artillery delay times.
 
Wow, good find eniced. That would probably be a $30 "upgrade" today. Pretty glaring proof BFC has turned into a mini EA.

I won't be buying 3.0 right now. Not enough in it to make it worth my while, and some of it should have been in a patch, e.g. tweaked machine guns and better performance. Why should I pay for standard patch items like that? I don't appreciate being nickle and dimed to death, especially now when upgrades will not carry over certain features from one title to another. Totally opposite with what was touted when BFC announced their upgrade system. Not sure if I'll buy any more games from BFC, as it will become a considerable financial drain to keep all of the titles up to date as the CM families expand. If you have five titles in the future (CMBN, CMFI, CMBS, CMRT, CMBulge), you're looking at dropping $50 on the same upgrades for each title alone. That's the price of a brand new full-featured game. No thanks.
 
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The shaders and shadows are broken too. I just loaded up a scenario to confirm this and if these options are turned on, destroyed tanks and vehicles have a weird shade cast over them.
 
That would probably be a $30 "upgrade" today
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No no, it would be a new game :p

Seriously, the big change in the game industry has been the DLC strategy, now only bugs fix are not a DLC.
BF don't call it in this way but upgrade, anyhow the outcome is the same.

Not sure if I'll buy any more games from BFC, as it will become a considerable financial drain to keep all of the titles up to date as the CM families expand.
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I don't like their policy about games release at all, you already know when a new title will come up that will be necessary to buy another two to complete the series and every "big" upgrade will be another fee. If you look the overall cost it quickly became rather pricey.

I don't think this is the only way to survive, I guess they are riding the wave, in the last years they have released a lot of stuff and speaking with veteran players the quality has not been always top notch, or better not so tested before the release.
I don't buy they are forced to raise money for the upgrade to still alive, but of course that's me.

The shaders and shadows are broken too. I just loaded up a scenario to confirm this and if these options are turned on, destroyed tanks and vehicles have a weird shade cast over them.
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This thing confirm my feeling.

In fact they don't have competition and is easy take money by fans, I guess few people don't have buy RT by now waiting until the bundle release instead.
In the future we will pay more money for the next CM upgrade and so on...no choice if you want to play the last feature.

They are very good, no doubt about that, I'm happy to play their games...this is the problem :D
 
Bought and installed v3.0 (or v2.20 / v1.20 in reality) while keeping old installs of CMBN / CMFI for currently running PBEMs.

So far no problems, except a scary moment after activating CMBN v3.0 - when I started CMBN for the first time, it didn't show the MG module and all battles were greyed out. If this happens to you, just exit CMBN and start it again, which solved the problem for me.

In the options menu, I noticed an "Advanced" subsection, where now the Shader can be toggled On/Off and also "Tree Detail" can be set to High/Low.
I have no idea what the Tree Detail setting does (except for the obvious), since as usual, it is not documented anywhere (like mod tags). Strangely, the same "Advanced" setting subsection is not in CMRT - my guess is that this has been another oversight and it accidently remained disabled in CMRT. And how could we tell anyway, since it has not been mentioned anywhere. :rolleyes:
This would actually be my biggest complaint, that stuff gets thrown out without any effort of properly explaining / introducing it. Instead, the community (and often beta testers) are stepping up to do this - which, most of the time, is suboptimal, since we are often only guessing as to what is going on in the game or how features should be interpreted.

As a side note, I guess Mac users will get the upgrade in versions (2.21 / 1.21), since already some bugs / inconsistencies have been identified. For PC this should then be free patches. Hopefully, this would be done at about the same time.
 
Don't we already have an Alt command to turn shaders on-off during game in CMBN? When you set the tree detail to Low does it do what the mod out there does? Or does it just dumb down the graphics like we can do with the Shift command now? Personally I turn shadows off (mine look horrendous) and also Shaders. I see the difference when Shaders are on and off but I play at the highest setting and honestly think turning Shaders on makes the game (especially my hedgerows) look awful.

I would appreciate if you could run by me (PM or something) how to do the dual install correctly so I do not mess it up. I bought the update but still have a few PBEM's going right now.
 
eniced73 said:
I would appreciate if you could run by me (PM or something) how to do the dual install correctly so I do not mess it up. I bought the update but still have a few PBEM's going right now.
Click to expand...

I will reply in this thread, somebody else might also find this useful.

Dual installs are quite easy, actually. I'm assuming you're on a PC and currently have installed CMBN v2.12 in a directory which I will call <CMBN Dir>.

1. First, make a new directory <CMBN v2.12> which shall contain the old v2.12 install.

2. Now, goto <CMBN Dir>, copy its complete contents and paste it into directory <CMBN v2.12> (this will take a couple of minutes since its some gigabytes in size, also depending on the amount of mods installed).

3. After copying has finished, go into directory <CMBN v2.12> and create a new shortcut on your desktop for <CM Normandy.exe>. Call the shortcut something like <CMBN v2.12>. Note that you should now have two shortcuts on your desktop, one called <CM Normandy> (that's what it's called on my computer anyway) and one called <CMBN v2.12>.

4. Try running CMBN via the <CMBN v2.12> shortcut, to verify CMBN comes up correctly. So far no difference is noticeable between the two installs, since both are still at v2.12.

5. Install CMBN v3.0 upgrade, make sure it updates the game in your <CMBN Dir> directory.

6. Activate the upgrade, start the game. CMBN should come up showing v2.20 (successful install of the v3.0 upgrade). Check that all module icons show in the main screen, i.e. the "Main Game Icon", "Commonwealth Icon" and "Market Garden Icon". If something is missing, first try to close CMBN and open it again (this fixes some activation problems which might occur if you start the game right from the activation dialogue, after you have successfully activated the upgrade).

You now have two installs, CMBN v2.12 in directory <CMBN v2.12> (accessible via the shortcut of the same name as the directory) and CMBN v2.20 in directory <CMBN Dir> (accessible via shortcut <CM Normandy>). Try both shortcuts to verify that both games start correctly, complete (with all modules active) and with the correct version numbers showing in the main screen.

The same procedure as above should be carried out for CMFI, both are easily doable in about half an hour max.

Now, at this point, you should have two installs each of CMBN and CMFI. The only thing remaining to do is tweaking of CM Helper, which can be a bit tricky.
The problem is in the way PBEM files are stored differently for CMBN and CMFI.

For CMBN, PBEM files are stored under the main game directory, in our case <CMBN Dir\Game Files\Incoming (Outgoing) EMail> and <CMBN v2.12\Game Files\Incoming (Outgoing) EMail>. At this point (since you copied everything from <CMBN Dir> into <CMBN v2.12>), you will have all the files twice, one time in each of the two directories. The way I set up my CM Helper was to add another CMBN install in CM Helper, to represent the <CMBN v2.12> install. You can do this in CM Helper under "Your CM Installations" -> Menu "Installs" -> "Add Install". Call the Install "CMBN v2.12" and provide the correct "Installation Root Directory" (<CMBN v2.12> directory) and executable. what should now happen is that suddenly you see all the games duplicated, since CM Helper has picked up the "new" games for the install you have just added. For every duplicate CMBN game entry, you can now check under which install it is registered in CM Helper (Right Click on the game entry -> "Edit Game" -> "Application Name"). So now, you have to delete the one game of the duplicate pair which you won't be playing (via Right Click on the game entry -> "End Game" (Check option "Clear Incoming/Outgoing EMail Files", DO NOT delete the dropbox folder). After you've done that, just check every game entry if the dropbox folder entries are correct (this sometimes gets lost during the process) and redefine them if necessary. Then everything should work as usual.

For CMFI, the above process is not needed, since all the PBEM files are kept under <My Documents\Battlefront\Comabt Mission\Fortress Italy>. Both installs will see and use this one directory tree, so you don't have to add another install for CMFI v1.12 in CM Helper, since the install stays the same. Just make sure you know which file to play with which version (starting the version manually via the desktop shortcut). All the files should show up in CMFI v1.20 8since it is the higher version), but newer v1.20 games will not show up in CMFI v1.12 in the "Saved Game" menu of the main screen, since the version number is too low to recognise the PBEM file.

Hope this helps, ask away if anything is still unclear.
 
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